The trek into the deep unknown was not without its reservations – the monks were completely out of their element. Tore and Kai could see 'pretty' good - not perfect, but they could easily see with their Heavenly imbued temporary eyesight. Tore got the feeling, not that it mattered, these tunnels were lava tubes from millennia ago. There were no tool marks or any indication that someone, or something, had dug these tunnels out, they were smooth, nearly fluid. Lava tubes could be notoriously hard to navigate if there were no tracks or trails to follow, good thing he was being led by the Almighty. Even being the great-grandson of the Almighty did not mean things were going to be easy. Tore and Kai stayed far enough in front of Sifu that the monks could use torches to navigate the darkness and not give away their presence.

  Tore used his supernatural hearing as a way to 'peer' down the tunnel. The nature of sound underground would give him plenty of warning if something was approaching. His troupe moved forward on the silent feet of monks, bereft of all sound except for the occasional pop of a burning torch. Time seemed to creep by like a glacier and the tension would have been paralyzing to normal folk. Tore could read Kai's face; the tension was taking a toll. Being under ground and purposely looking for demons, not your everyday spelunking adventure. Being in the bowels of the earth was not new to Tore, he was somewhat used to it. The worst part of any spelunking were the times you had to crawl on your belly, or force your way through an opening, in which you had to force out all of your breath, so you would fit through the space...sometimes running out of breath – terrifying – they had not run into that yet, hopefully not at all. Tore's ears perked up, he thought he could hear one, or maybe two, small voices squeaking out through the tunnel. He stopped and let Kai catch up, he asked, "Can you hear anything?" Kai closed his eyes and focused, listening just a bit harder, "No...what is it?" Tore focused harder, "I'm not sure. I can hear one, maybe two voices, sounds like they are saying 'help' over and over." Tore's brows scrunched together, "Let's keep going, we're gonna get some kids back", and he headed off again.

  Thirty or so minutes later as the tiny voices Tore could hear were getting louder, he spied a cavern at the end of the lava tube. He had Kai head back to Sifu to have the torch bearers snuff their lights, so they did not give their presence away. Tore focused his hearing and quietly crept his way to the edge of the cavern, drawing his hammer with his left hand, sneaking into the cavern as silently as he could...there were no Xiao – there were children though, they were there in several cages, all alive and safe, relatively. In addition to the children, there were many small fae, there had to be at least twice as many pixies and brownies as children. On the other side of the cave were ten cages, each cage held a Chinese mythological creature...but scaled down and ethereal, like small wispy lap creatures. There were qilin, dragons, nine tailed foxes, turtle bears and some others Tore did not recognize...maybe Kai did, but it does not matter now. There was one cage tucked behind some dragons, next to a tunnel leading further into the mount, it held the biggest Xioa Tore had seen to date...which to date, was not too long ago. This Xiao was different, definitely not as mindless as the others, Tore could see the eyes and the body language, evaluating the situation. Tore had to ignore it for now, he wanted to find the source of the voices, not to mention there were children and fae to rescue.

  Tore whispered loudly as he approached the inlet tunnel, "Come on Kai, get Sifu and do what you can to quietly get the children out – quietly" with an emphasis on quiet, "Do what you can, I know the kids are scared, but – you know what I mean." Tore knew he was preaching to the proverbial choir. "I will personally deal with anything that has terrorized the kids...just do what you can." Kai moved and the monks began moving the children out of the cave. Each monk grabbing one or two and quickly but quietly moving back out. The children were weak and dehydrated, needless to say, they did not make that much noise - this part of the rescue was going smoothly.

  Tore moved to the nearest tiny cage full of fae, it housed at least ten pixies. All of the fae citizens, brownies and pixies, appeared bleak and exhausted. The pixies did not have room to fly...they just scootched back in the cage, away from Tore, scared. "High friends" Tore whispered in Gaelic. The demeanor of the fae changed immediately, one pixie in the cage piped up, "You know of us, you know our language?" Tore smiled, attempting to ease the small innocent beings, "I know Tatiana, she and I have had tea. I am going to set you free – you don't belong here." Tore began to force the lock open on the cage...they were not dwarf built, it easily pulled open.

  As Tore began breaking open the fae cages, he noticed all of the children were out. Sifu, Kai, and some other masters were still with him. "Help me break these cages open, I want to talk to someone and see if I can figure out what the hell is going on." The other monks used weapons to pry open cages and encourage the fae captives to leave. Some of the small creatures were in bad shape and needed the assistance of friends. Sifu helped one brownie, sharing water, tipping his small head back, "Here friend, drink" and he slowly poured water across the little guy's lips. Sifu turned and garnered help from a more hale brownie, "Let's get you guys up to the surface, we will share what we have and see if we can't get you back on your feet." The brownie had no idea what Sifu said, but the peace and sincerity is his words did enough; the strong helped the weak and they began to file out. The monks that were left assisted or carried the weakest of the refugees back to the surface.

  Tore found the pixie he had talked to; she was helping others. Tore waited until she was done and grabbed her attention, "Hi, my name is Tore, what is yours?" He put his hand out, letting her rest on his palm, all 4 or 5 inches of her, "My name is Sara, thank you for helping us. I will tell Tatiana of your great deed here. Many of us here were traveling to the summer court when we were kidnapped from under her protection – she will be grateful, I am sure." That little tidbit made Tore wonder, what in THEE hell had happened. Who has the guts, or stupidity, and the skills to kidnap from under Tatiana's nose...? "Sara, can you tell me what is going on here, why you and the children are with creatures of myth down here?" Sara began her tale with pixie-like gusto, Tore was actually glad she was exhausted, otherwise he may not be able to follow the story, as they normally talk three times the speed of people, "I can't tell you who actually pixie napped us, they were fast and stuffed us into burlap sacks, it was very smelly and not roomy at all. They unceremoniously then dumped us into the cages you see. What little we saw of them, they were too short for humans, but they wore dark clothes and masks...but they did smell like the Unseelie, bad." She took a breath and started in again, "The mythos creatures were already here, and the big monkey in the back, she was here too" Tore put another piece of the puzzle on the board...a female Xiao, "then after some time, the little monkeys brought the children, and then some brownies and more pixies came too. We've been so tired; we still did not see who stole my fae family." Sara's demeanor changed dramatically for the worse, "There were more of, but a very ugly monster came out of the other tunnel, his eyes were pure evil, and he grinned as he looked at all of us in the cages – he went to one and put his hand into it, like it was a sack of grain, and literally ate a handful of pixies...it was disgusting...and evil...and..." Sara began to sob, Tore consoling her, "Sara, it's okay. You don't have to say any more, it doesn't matter why you are here, I am going to end whatever vile creature brought you here." He knelt on one knee and set her down with some of her friends that had stayed behind, "Please take her to the surface, you will be safe there. Sifu and the monks will help you with whatever you need. I am going to kill something, or things." The pixies looked into Tore's eyes, nodded in approval, and moved off.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The angry Viking stood and walked past the mythos creatures, still not finding the small voices calling out for help, to the big Xiao stopping just short of her being able to reach out and grab him through the bars...just in case. She was sitting down in the back of the cage, her hands folded in her lap, head down, looking at her own hands.

  The Xioa spoke quietly, with a very human and very female voice, "I see you Tiānshǐ", and that made Tore do a double take..."Kai" Tore whisper yelled, "Kai, get over here" Tore turned away from the large Xiao to meet Kai, "This Xiao speaks, perfect Mandarin..." Kai's brows scrunched up and he took a few seconds to process what Tore just said, and he stepped around him to the cage, "What is your name Xioa?" The Xiao looked up solemnly, "My name is Xiao, there is only one of me and I know you to Kai – and I know Tiānshǐ, the angel ."

  Tore and Kai looked at each other, stunned, and she continued, "I am Xiao, so my name is Xiao, and I am one of low magic." She began to explain, "I am not powerful in magic, but I have many children. Normally we maintain nature...help it to grow or adapt, we are peaceful – it is not on our hearts to hurt humans, but we were captured, and my children forced to work for the Taotie, a gluttony demon. My children can work without stopping and will do whatever I tell them to do...even if I don't mean it. When some were forced to kidnap children, others were further down the caverns moving rock and dirt. Now, for many days, hundreds and hundreds of my children have been moving dirt. I am not sure what for, but I did notice who kidnapped the fae, they are dark gnomes, heartless creatures who work for gold and pixie dust." Tore put his hands on the bars of the metal cage, close to the lock – and pulled it open. Kai was stunned, "Tore, what are you doing? You can't trust a demon..." Tore looked Kai in the eye and lightly shook his head 'no', "She is telling the truth Kai, she is not evil, someone is using her." Tore could feel the truth in her, she was not lying. "Xiao, do you know why the mythos creatures are here?" She pulled herself up from the floor, she was large for a Xiao, but still only four feet tall, "I don't know what is planned for them, I can tell you that these", Xiao gestured to the spirits in cages, "are not full demons. These are the spirits of something past. Their magic is so weak, you can barely see them." She hobbled over to the nearest cage with a nine tailed fox, reached through the bars and ran her hand through the mist that was the creature. "Thank you, Tore. I will go attempt to save my children, I do not think I will succeed, but I would rather be dead than forced to serve the evil of the Taotie." And she turned to head down the deeper tunnel.

  Tore reached out and stopped her, putting his hand on her shoulder, "I will save your children – this is what I do. If you know me as you say you do, then you know that I am the balance to that which is wrong." She turned back, her soft brown eyes meeting his forest green, "Thank you Tore, and thank you Kai – and you Bao, I see you too." Sifu had tucked himself away behind some empty cages. He stepped out of the shadow and waved to her, an uncertain smile on his face. Tore waved Sifu to him, "get your guys, we are going to put the hurt on a glutton demon...and some dark gnomes it would seem."

  "Hold on, Tore" Sifu whispered, "you need to come and look at this before we go. I think there are some more mythical animals here...just not with those others, these are more – solid" Sifu stepped away from the cage behind him to allow Tore room to get closer. As Tore moved that way...the small voices he heard changed, "Yes, yes, yes..." they whispered. "Guys" Tore questioned, "can you not hear that?" Tore stopped and surveyed the room; the occupants all shook their heads 'no.' Tore scowled and moved to the cage next to Sifu and kneeled down.

  There were two large fluffy looking 'balls' inside the cage; Tore could not make out what type of creature they were. One was a bronze color, and the other was a silvery gray. The voices changed, "hi, hi, hi...." Tore slowly reached his hand to the bronze one that was closest, and gently pushed his fingers into its luscious thick fur, and slowly pet the small creature. A head rose from the fluff ball, from the side furthest away, and as it turned to look, a head arose from the gray ball, next to the head of the bronze...a pair of something had been cuddling head-to-head. As Tore got a good look at them, he could not tell what he was looking at. Each had a mane, like a lion. The snout and jaws were short, like a bulldog or a boxer, and as they fully rose to their feet on short legs, their bodies were compact like a cross between a leopard and bulldog. "Help, help, help..." Tore could hear them, now he knew the voices were in his head. He grabbed the cage door next to the lock and snapped it open. The two small – ish critters barreled out of the cage into Tore and began licking his face. "Mine, mine, mine..." the words in his head changed again and he was not sure what he should do next. He did defend himself as well as he could without hurting them.

  Sifu was stunned, "Tore" he asked incredulously, "do you know what these are?"

  "No" Tore gasped in between licks, "please help me up so I can take a look."

  Sifu and Kai swooped in on either side and helped Tore into a sitting position while the grateful animals were still tongue lashing the poor Nephilim.

  Sifu kneeled down with Tore and began petting the animals, "For the love of heaven, Tore, these are foo dogs, guardian lions, any other number of names. I should have known, they are as mythical or more so than Xioa...I guess we found the Xiao, so why not foo dogs?"

  Tore pulled himself out of the tongues of death and was petting each dog in turn. "Okay, you two need to stay here – we are going to go kill something bad, and I don't want you getting hurt." The duo voices in his head replied with a simple "Help." Tore was now more confused than ever, the pups could clearly communicate, just in his head, and they wanted to go snuff a demon – this was something he would have to work out later, he did not want them to get hurt though. "I think you guys understand me, so how about you stay with Xiao and get out when she gets here children. I don't know if you understand me, but I gotta go – you stay with Xiao" with that, as Tore backed away from the foo dogs, they did not move.

  Tore turned to Sifu and asked, "This is not my thing, do you think they will be okay?" Sifu replied, "Foo dogs, guardian lions – whatever, are mythical, but in the mythos, they are smart, loyal, and protective. I am really not sure – but I don't think you can do or say anything that will convince them to do anything except what they want. I would say, since you're the only one that can hear them talk, there is a better chance they may do as you ask, but we will have to see."

  Tore nodded his head and turned to the tunnel that led deeper into the mountain; as he moved forward, he turned to look at the foo dogs, they had moved to be with Xiao. "Xiao, you follow us down, stay back and call your children away as soon as it's safe, and we will do the rest of the work." Xiao nodded and the would-be rescuers made their way down the tunnel.