weapon held perpendicularly to it, back over and across her head, and her other arm out before her like some targeting instrument. She was up on one foot - on one toe, actually - with her other leg looped about the supporting limb, lending to her perfect balance.
No goblins approached; no goblins, save those on the ground about her, were to be seen.
"We must move from this place," Juraviel said. ?To tighter tunnels where goblins cannot throw spears at us from the shadows!"
"Some are wounded," Brynn remarked, but if that meant anything to the two elves, they did not reveal it.
"Away! Away!" Juraviel demanded, and on the trio ran, past the tower-ing mushrooms and out of the wide chamber, rushing down one narrow corridor.
Around the first bend, Juraviel, in the lead, came face-to-face with yet an-other goblin, its sickly eyes wide with surprise.
A fine sword slid into its belly; a club came past Juraviel's shoulder to smash it in the face.
The three ran over it as it fell back, stomping it flat to the stone.
They heard the loud flapping of wide goblin feet in pursuit sometime later.
Brynn handed her lamp to Juraviel, then strung her bow as they ran, and when the sound closed in at their backs, she turned suddenly and let fly, her arrow disappearing into the darkness. She knew not if she hit anything, or if her arrow skipped harmlessly across the stones, but the sound of pursuit stopped for a bit, and the three ran on.
They crossed a large chamber, keeping near to the wall, then turned into the first opening, only to hear goblins, many goblins!
They passed that, and the second opening and the third, as well. Then, using nothing more than a simple guess, they charged down the next. In the dim light of her glowing lamp, Cazzira in the lead nearly stumbled over the edge of a precipice. She fell to her knees, watching in horror as a few loose stones fell before her, dropping out of sight.
Seconds later, the three heard the echoes of the stones bouncing along the deeper rocks.
"Back!" Juraviel yelled. ?Quickly, before the goblins cut us off!"
"They already have!" cried Brynn.
"There is a way!" said Cazzira, pointing to the right, past the precipice.
Peering into the gloom, just at the edge of the lights, Brynn noted a rocky ding trail that seemed full of loose stones. She was about to point out ' h rious danger there, but Juraviel and Cazzira weren't waiting, with the far leaping out and beginning her controlled slide, and Juraviel hop-it behind her, his wings flapping furiously so that he put as little Sit on the unstable slope as possible.
Brvnn turned and let fly another couple of arrows, wanting the other two be far below before she tried the slope with her greater mass. Then she went out gingerly, and lay out on her side, using her bow like a guiding oar she slid down, down, into the deeper blackness.
She caught up to Juraviel and Cazzira at an apparent dead end: a lip overlooking a deep, deep drop.
The two were working furiously - to set up some defense, Brynn figured at first, but she looked on curiously as they unpacked the fine silken rope, Cazzira taking one end and handing the bulk of it to Juraviel.
With a shared nod, the Touel'alfar leaped out into the blackness, wings beating furiously. He disappeared from sight, but the fact that the rope didn't seem to be tugging at all gave Brynn hope that his descent was controlled, at least.
"He has found footing," Cazzira told Brynn a few seconds later.
Brynn glanced back to see Cazzira tying off the rope around the stub of a stalagmite with one of her patented slipknots. Holding the rope in both hands, the Doc'alfar set her feet against the mound and pulled with all her strength, tightening the slack as much as possible.
"Use your belt," she said to Brynn, then she looped her own belt over the rope and swung out, sliding away into the darkness.
Leaving Brynn, who had given her lamp to Juraviel, in absolute darkness, and with the sounds of goblins approaching.
The woman worked furiously, pulling off her belt and falling down to her knees, groping her way to the stalagmite mound and the taut rope. She had no time to pause and consider what she was about to do, no time to yell out and make sure that Cazzira was clear and she could come on, no time even to shout