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“Well, it’s not here now,” he says.

Jiron moves to the dirt and stone blocking the hallway and feels it to see if it’s real. Finding that it is, he turns back to James with an odd look on his face.

James shrugs. “Could have been a trick of shadows,” he reasons.

“Maybe,” concedes Jiron.

Coming forward he pats him on the shoulder and says, “Come on. There’s another hallway leading from the other door.”

“Alright,” says Jiron as he follows James back to the room and then over to the other door. But it had seemed so real!

They enter the hallway and move down to the door James found before Jiron cried out. The hallway continues further on past the door and into darkness. With Jiron’s recent experience in mind, they both make ready for battle as Jiron opens the door.

Swinging open the door slowly, they brace for attack but only find a hard packed dirt wall on the other side. Shutting the door, Jiron turns and leads the way further down the hallway.

“There’s got to be another way to the surface somewhere,” he mutters as he moves away from the door. James nods behind him in silent agreement.

Further down they come across another door on their right. Only attached by one of its hinges, it sits askew in the middle of the hallway. Dirt that has completely filled the room beyond the door has spilled through and practically obstructs the hallway. Climbing over the mound of dirt, they discover the rest of the hallway is all but destroyed. The floor above had collapsed.

“Damn!” exclaims James from his position on the mound of dirt behind Jiron.

Holding aloft the orb, Jiron inspects the obstruction for a possible way through. “We’re in luck,” he says pointing to the top of the obstruction. “The cave-in opened a way up to the floor above.”

“Be careful,” advises James as Jiron begins working his way up the pile of stone and dirt. He starts to follow when Jiron’s foot dislodges a stone which falls and almost hits him in the head. Deciding to wait until he reaches the top, James holds his position.

When Jiron hollers down that he’s made it, James begins climbing up. The unstable rubble makes climbing difficult, the rocks shift under him and twice he starts sliding back down when they give way. Taking it slow, he finally makes it to the top and finds that they are in another room.

Jiron reaches down a hand and helps him the last bit until he’s standing in the room. The ceiling of the room has collapsed in two places, one of which has left an opening.

Broken stone lies strewn across the floor of the room. A single closed door appears to be the only way out other than the hole in the ceiling.

James considers the hole in the ceiling while Jiron moves to investigate the door. Holding his orb high, he sees there’s an open area beyond the hole in the ceiling. “If we can get up there it would bring us closer to the surface,” he observes.

Jiron pauses at the door and turns to face him. Glancing from the floor to the ceiling he says, “That’s a good twelve feet at least. How would we get up there?”

Shrugging, James replies, “Not sure.”

Turning back to the door, Jiron pulls it open to find what used to be a stairway leading down. But the stairwell has long since collapsed and the way is no longer passable. “This way is blocked,” he says as he turns back to where James is trying to figure a way up to the hole.

“Maybe we should take a short break while we work on how to continue,” suggests Jiron.

Glancing at him, James nods his head. “That might not be such a bad idea.”

Moving over to one side where the rubble isn’t nearly so thick, they clear a space and sit down against the wall. Jiron removes two pieces of dried beef from his belt pouch and hands one to James.

“Thanks,” he says. Taking the beef, he bites off a piece and gazes around the room. “You know, there’re some good sized pieces of stone here,” he states. “Might be possible to make a pile high enough for us to reach the edge of the opening.”

Jiron nods at the idea. “Would be better than backtracking to find another route,” he agrees. Then he asks, “How