Brian Pratt - The unsuspecting mage

As they leave the room through the other door, James says, “I thought you ran out on me.”

Looking hurt, Miko replies “I didn’t realize you weren’t following me. When I did, I came back.”

Passing through the doorway, they enter a smaller room, dirty and smelling like an outhouse. James realizes with trepidation that there is neither a window nor a door except for the one they just come through.

“Over here,” Miko hollers at him. He begins moving garbage out of the way and opens a trap door that had been concealed by the garbage covering the floor. The smell that fills the room when the trap door opens leaves little doubt as to where it leads. Miko begins to descend the ladder down into the hole when he looks over at James, almost laughing at the expression on his face. “Do you want to stay up here?” he asks.

“No,” replies James, doing his best not to breathe through his nose as he moves closer to the opening. When Miko climbs to the bottom, James begins his descent into the dark opening of the sewers.

The odors emerging from the entrance to the sewer assaulted James’ senses. His eyes begin watering and could barely breathe. Only the threat of the boys trying to break in the door and possibly doing them bodily harm convinces him of the wisdom to climb down. He sets a foot on the uppermost rung of the ladder that descends into the sewers. His foot slips a little on the slime coating the rung, making it slippery and treacherous.

Using great caution, he slowly makes his way down to the floor of the sewer, his hands becoming slick as the slime from the rungs coating them. Upon reaching the bottom, he steps onto the sewer floor only to slip on a slick, slimy patch. Losing his balance he tumbles backward into the stinking, oozing muck slowly making its way through the sewer.

The fall into the stream of nastiness breaks his concentration, causing the spell holding the door closed to fail. The sound of breaking wood filters its way through the opening above as Miko helps him to his feet. They proceed quickly down the dark sewer tunnel putting distance between themselves and the entrance. Thoroughly nauseated, James tries to scrape as much of the filth off him as he can while hurrying down the tunnel.

They proceed along the stream of filth for a ways before taking a moment to turn and see if pursuit materializes. James watches the faint light coming through the trapdoor they so recently fled through. He is sure that by now the boys would have found the sewer entrance and should be descending after them. They remain quiet for several seconds but don’t see or hear anything other than the constant dripping of water coming out of several ducts in the wall, spilling into the main flow of the sewer.

“I don’t think they followed us down here,” he whispers to Miko.

“No, I didn’t think they would,” replies Miko in a low voice. “Not many come here who are not invited.”

“Invited?” questions James.

“Yeah, there’s a gang that claims the sewers as their own and anyone else who comes down here is fair game. Everyone knows not to come down here.”

“So why did we?” he asks with exasperation. He tries to scrape more of the sewer muck off but only ends up spreading it further. Giving it up as a lost cause, he stops trying.

“It seemed the better choice at the time,” replies Miko.

Grabbing Miko, James asks “And just who were we running from anyway?”

“They’re a bunch of petty thugs. They think I fingered them on a job they pulled last month,” Miko explains. “I didn’t but word got around that I was the one and they’ve had it in for me ever since.”

“I see,” he says. “Anyway, we need to find our way out of here.” He casts his light spell and the glowing orb appears, bringing a startled gasp from Miko. Using the orb to illuminate their way, he says, “Let’s go,” as he indicates Miko to lead them further down the sewer tunnel.

They come to a junction where a smaller branch of the main sewer enters from the left. James decides to continue following the main passage after pausing only a moment to look down the other. After another hundred feet they come to a ladder leading into the darkness above.

Grabbing Miko, he pulls him close to the rungs and says, “Look, these rungs are clean which means they must be used regularly. It could be a way out.” Gesturing toward the ladder he says, “Climb up there and see where it leads.”

“There’s only one group of people who would be using these rungs regularly,” Miko tells him, “and they don’t like unexpected guests.”

“Maybe. But we need to get out of here before they discover us,” he insists.

Nodding understandingly, but not too happy about it, Miko goes up the rungs. He returns shortly and says, “There’s a trapdoor but I can’t get it to open. It must be barred or locked from the other side.”

”Alright, let’s go down a little further and see if there’s another way out,” James says as he turns and continues making his way down the main sewer passage. They pass several lesser passages, but after giving each a cursory glance, continues following the main one.

Further down they come to where the water flowing through the sewer begins growing progressively deeper and soon has risen to their calves. They slosh their way through the water and other floating debris until they come to the blockage that’s obstructing the sewer and causing it to back up. As they draw near to the obstruction, James begins to realize just what it is that’s blocking the water’s flow.

It’s a body and by the looks of it, has been here for a while. The flesh is in an advanced state of decay with maggots crawling all over it. A couple of rats are having a meal on the corpse’s exposed thigh. They squeal and scamper away at their approach. Other debris has wedged itself around the dead body which has only added to the blockage.

Feeling like he’s about ready to throw up, James steps over the corpse and hurries down the tunnel. Once they’ve put some distance between them and the corpse, he begins to recover some of his composure, but still feels a little green.

“I hear you see a lot of that down here,” Miko tells him. “People come up missing and their bodies come out through the sewer’s outflow into the river.”

“Let’s hope the next ones won’t be ours,” states James.

Continuing down the passage, they pass two more offshoots, the smallest ones thus far. The second one is barely wide enough to squeeze through. Not much more than a wide crack in the wall. Looks like it may have been created during an earthquake or something similar.

They travel a short distance further past the small passages before discerning a light coming toward them from up ahead. James quickly cancels his light spell, plunging them into complete darkness. They start backing up the way they had come.

As they back up, James runs his hand along the wall until he encounters the smallest passage, the one that’s not more than a crack in the wall. He stops Miko and says, “I think we can squeeze through here and hide until they pass.”

Miko goes in first and then he follows, squeezing in until he’s a few feet from the tunnel. The approaching light steadily grows brighter as it draws nearer. It’s not long before they hear the approaching footsteps of several men.

As the men pass by the crack they’re hiding in, James discovers that the light is coming from a torch one of them is carrying.

“…saw something down here,” James hears one of them say.

“You’re seeing things, Dink,” another adds.

“Keep quiet and look sharp,” still another commands.

As the group passes by, James counts five men, the one in the lead carrying the torch. The men continue further down the sewer and soon the light fades until only darkness remains.