>>5336141"Since Padishar was the size of Rue!" The girl points to herself. "Padishar's family and friends didn't like fighting, so they dug a hiding spot to live in! We've been living and hiding from bad visitors since then! Good visitors can only stay for 1 day, if they refuse, they live with our team and dig with us! But only if entire the group like visitor, and if he agrees not to leave" Rue explains how the rules of her small group are.
"And why do you keep digging in that direction?"
"Sometimes, big shakes and roars come out of other side of mountain. Padishar believes that a savior can end scary battles, so we dig to find savior! Do you also dig to find him?" Rue asks, still smiling to Barnham and the moles.
The only sounds strong enough to reach this place, along with tremors from the earth would be the continuous attacks Barnham has redirected onto that direction.
Feeling like he would be thanked for as viewed as a savior, Barnham saw potential in the primitive people, even if only one of them could serve as magicians or fighters, every ally could be useful when they had so many pishacas.
"The other end of that tunnel can lead you to your savior. Give me a day and I can help you get out of this place and move you all to Ilos." Barnham explained, wanting to make sure his tunnel was safe for regular humans to travel, and since they likely wouldn't accept to eat each other until they reached their destination, he decided he would come back with supplies.
"End of day? No! Good visitor can't go!" The girl was scared, feeling that she might lose her outsider friend forever if he left.
Barnham didn't have the ability to read minds like Vlad, and lacted any social tact to see anything more than Rue's emotions on her sleeve: She didn't want Barnham to leave because the arbitrary rule said he wasn't allowed to return.
"Some jurisdictions can be broken for good causes." Is all he answered, as he left the girl confused from the advanced vocabulary and went back to fix his side of the tunnel with his moles.
Despite remaking of the tunnels taking a considerable amount of time, Barnham noticed his moles starting to slow down when they dug downwards. Despite being immune to any toxins, he could understand when some chemical reaction was happening to others, especially due to the smell... It all indicated that they dug so deep that some sort of gas was leaking through.
Could that be the reason for why they told him to stay until tomorrow?
Telling his moles to go away not to die of intoxication, he rushed back to the hiding spot, only to find the entire group asleep, and with no light sources to illuminate the place.
Rue, her parents, and all the others who lived in the cave were put into a deep sleep, the gas leak apparently had that effect on both animals and humans, and looking for the place where Padishar was, Barnham finally found an answer to what was truly happening.
