I worked on a previous chapter and edited it. Even though the word count is higher, I am going with 2,000 extra words I added

Johanna looked around. “It is so dark, our lanterns are not casting enough light for us to walk easily in.”
“That is why we did not notice the ochre jelly lurking over our heads,” Britt said.
“I think I may be able to help,” Balon said. “Give me a minute.”
He closed his eyes and his body became rigid.
“What is happening to him?” Bard whispered to Johanna, startled.
“He is meditating, trying to bring one of his spells to the surface.”
Balon breathed deeply, slowly exhaling and inhaling with each breath. A flicker, just for a moment expelled from his body. Then it was gone. However, he continued with his breathing rhymth. The flicker came again and this time it did not disappear. His entire body soon had a faint yellow line outlining his body. Once the outline was completed, the line expanded from his body until the magic-user was consumed by a globe of light that expanded sixty feet across.
“Wow,” whispered Bard, surprised. The light emitted from Balon’s body, bounced off the walls around them. They were not finished and smooth like the rooms in the upper level; they were unfinished and irregular. From where they were standing, the passageways were about ten feet wide.
“No wonder it is had to read the map for the lower level,” George said. He looked to the ground, whch was covered by rock and debris. “We would have tripped on something, if we only relied on our lanterns for a source of light.”
“Remember,” said Britt, “there probably are not any doors down here. IF we are looking for a cavern, we may have to look for areas where rock has fallen and blocked a passage.”
Soon Balon started breathing normally and he opened his eyes. He looked around.
“It worked,” he said smiling.
“You are a seer,” said Johanna.
“I thought you were a medium,” said Balon.
“As I use more magic, I build my experience. It is like you Bard, you build your experience by fighting. Even though you are just a veteran fighter, I see in the near future that you will become a swordmaster.”
“How do you know when you can use a spell?”
“My own self tells me when I am ready. I meditate and learn all spells. If I try to perform a spell and I do not have the experience to do it yet, my self warns me.”
“What happens if you still try to perform a spell after you have been warned.”
“The spell could possible work. However, my body may not be ready to perform the spell and I can die doing it.”
With the steady globe of light coming from the magic-users, the group were able to walk down the passageway without stumbling into each other. They keft the chamber where Bard almost met his end and followed a passageway that winded first to the south then went to the northwest.
“We can either go down this one,” George said, “or continue up the one we are on.” They had reached an area of the passage way where it continued to go north. It also branched back to the east.
“Let’s go down this one,” Britt said, indicating the one that branched to the east. “If there is nothing down there, we will come back to the main one.”
They traveled a short distance and an open cavern stood to their left. “I would not be surprised if we are close to the entrance back to the upper level,” Balon said.
George glanced down at his map. “You are right, Balon. All we would have to do is dig through the wall and we will be back right where we started. Since we found a room, we can explore.”

They were standing in an ante-chamber that was empty except for a large piece of green rock that was glowing.
“Be careful,” Balon warned, as Britt reached out to touch it.
“It is only mica,” the dwarf replied. “Still I wonder what is making it glow.”
“Let me see,” George said and picked up a piece that had peel off from the main foundation.
“From what you taught me, I think you are right, Britt. Yet, there is one way to find out.” He put the piece in his mouth and bit down.
“George! What do you think you are…”
Bard reached out and grabbed George’s arm.
The two disappeared into thin air.
“doing!” finished Britt.
“What happened?” Johanna asked.
“They teleported to another part of the Caverns,” Balon said.
“George is alone!” Britt yelled. “He will not be able to defend himself! We have to find him!”
“Bard went with him,” Massacharamar said. “He will protect him.”

George looked around. “This definitely mica,” he said. “Mica with magical properties.” He bit down on the stone again. However, nothing happened.
“Where are we,” George said drawing his sword.
Bard held his lantern up and looked around. “This look like a cave. What is this stuff?” Bard asked pulling sticky stuff from his hair.
“It looks like web.”
“How do we get out of here?”
“It looks like an entrance over there. It is all covered with web. We have to cut our way out…”
A scurrying noise cut off George’s sentence.
“Be quiet,” Bard whispered. “I think there might be sp…”
In the next instance Bard was covered with a web.
“I cannot move!” he yelled. “Get out of here, now!”
A large spider approached Bard, unaware of George standing a few feet awaw.
George, with his knife in his hand, sprung on its back and sank it into the spider’s back. The creature fell to the ground, dead.
He ran over to Bard and started cutting the robe like-web from the warrior. “At least he did not have a tail to grab me.” Finally, Bard was freed. George looked at him and shaked his head. “How do you get yourself into these situations.”
Bard did not say anything but drew his sword. “We have to cut through this web to get out of here. There may be more spiders, so be careful.”
“Bard, we may be expecting parents.” George pointed to a section of the cave. Ten giant eggs, laying in the web, looked like they were starting to crack.
“Help me over here. Then we will take care of those.”
They finally cleared an entrance to get them back into the corridor.
“Hold my lantern,” Bard said. He started to feel around in his backpack
“What are you doing?”
“I am looking for my tinderbox. If those eggs hatch, we are going to have problems.”
“No. Please do not do that,” George pleaded. “They will not hurt us. Once they are hatched, they will go outdoors. The one spider was just looking for food.”
“You call me just food?” Bard laughed.
“Probably bad tasting as it is.”
Bard pretended to punch him.
“Spiders are not evil and I do not think it would be right to kill them, especially since they are babies. Let’s save the killing for the evil ones.”
“Let’s go and find the others,” Bard said, putting his tinderbox back in his bag.



“Shouldn’t we try to find George?” Britt asked. “If we bite down on another piece of stone, we should be teleported to the same place.”
“I would not do that,” Balon warned. “This type of stone is unpredictable.”
“What do you mean?”
“This stone does things at random. You may bite down on it and nothing happens. Sometimes the stone will help you. For example, it may heal you or make you wiser. However, it can also curse you. One person, I remember, went into a deep sleep for several days until the curse wore off.”
“So it is better just to look for George?” Massacharamar asked.
“Yes.”
“What if he tries the stone to teleport back to us?”
“The stone is useless now. Once it is used, the magical properties are gone.”
“What do we do, wait for them or look for them?” Johanna asked.
“I say that we look for them,” Britt said. “Who knows what trouble George got himself into.”
The left the chamber and started walking south.
There is a cavern up ahead.
“Be careful,” Balon said. “There are only four of us.” When he saw Britt’s face became pale, he added, “that is until George and Britt join us again.”
He hoped that he was right.

George and Bard walked a short distance and came upon another cavern. However, there was nothing in it. “I wonder how far we are from the others,” the thief wondered.
“We are still in the lower level.” He knew this just by looking around the walls. They were irregual, rough and unfinished.
“I do not think Stephan and Joban ever got around to getting this fortress of theirs finished.”
“I see what you mean, said George. “The upper level, from what I can see is complete. Even though, all the rooms are full of dust, they can be lived in. However, on this level, only the museum and are finished. I wonder what their plans were for the rest of the lower level.”
“That may be a mystery to us, forever. Still, if the elders are planning to make this a tourist attraction, they may want to consider sealing off a majority of the lower level. It can be dangerous.” Just as he said this, Bard tripped on a piece of uneven floor and fell to the ground.
“Are you okay, Bard?” George asked him. For once, there was no laughter in his voice and even had a hint of fear.
“Yes,” he said getting up. “How about you?”
“To be honest, this is the first time I have been underground like this. When went on missions, when we were underground, we were always near the entrance. This is different; it feels like the walls are closing in on me.”
Bard understood. Even when he had ventured into the catacombs, he was not this far underground. If he did not get out of here soon, he could go mad.
“I wish Britt and the others were here.”
“Just keep going, George. Things will be fine.” He took one of his knives out and laid it on the floor of the cavern, with the blade pointing to the west.
“What are you doing?”
I am hoping to leave a sign for them to see. It shows the others which direction we went.
“Good thinking, Bard.”

“This one is empty,” Britt said, disappointedly looking around.
“They can be anywhere,” Balon said. “We will just continue as we have been before. Knowing how George is, he can be around a corner ready to pull a practical joke on us.”
“True,” said Britt, unconvinced.
“He has the best sense of direction,” Massacharamar said. “He probably will make it back to the library. I bet when we get back up there, he will be sitting in that divan, reading from one of the books.”
“When I get a hold of him,” said Britt, “I am going to knock some sense into the boy. Then I will buy him all the books he wants out of my own cash.”
“I think we will all do that,” said Johanna.
After coming to antoher empty cavern, Balon said, “Let’s get back to the main passageway, and continue traveling north.”


Bard looked at the pile of stones in front of him. It looked like some had fallen away, leaving a hole. “I think there may be a cavern. Stand back and watch my back.”
Within minutes enough rocks were cleared away and they were able to crawl into a small cavern.
Bard shone his lantern and the light reflected off the sunken eye sockets of a corpse.
“George, be careful,” Bard warned as the thief approached the body. “You remember wheat had happened in the throne room with the ghouls.”
George found a pole laying near the body and prodded it with it. However, the body, sitting propped against the wall of the room, fell over to its side.
“No, it was somebody unlucky enough to not survive the caverns.”
Bard approached George and cast more light on the body.
“This happened a long time ago.” The body only contained bones and the tattered remains of leather armor. All the flesh had decayed away.
“A thief,” George said. “I wonder if he was belonged to the party that the beserkers killed?
“No this happened before that,” Bard answered. “It must have been at least a year.”
George suddenly wanted to get out of the the room, out of the caverns and as far away as possible. “I wondered what happened to him.”
Bard looked closely at the neck bones and saw two marks. “It looks like he was bitten by a giant spider. They are very poisonous and he probably did not have a healing potion with him. It appears that he just crawled in here to die.”
George caught a glitter on the remains of the thief’s cloak. He bent down and removed decorated silver stud that was used to fasten it.
“I wonder how many times the caverns have been explored.”
“I believe that he just came in by himself,” George was looking through a purse that was lying near the remains. Some thieves will go through extremes to get extra money. They do not have any regard for their own safety.” He removed eight gold and eight silver pieces and handed them and the silver stud to Bard. “I personally would rather leave these. It is one thing when you find treasures that monsters are guarding. However, when if comes to a fellow comrade, even one I do not personally know, it is different.”
“I understand,” Bard said. He looked at the skeletal hands of the body of the thief. It was still grasping a crossbow. “This is still in excellent shape,” he said picking it up and looking at it. “We may need this.”
“Here is a quiver of arrows,” George said.
Bard fitted an arrow into the crossbow and handed it to George.
“This will be better that your knife. Have you ever used one before?”
“Massacharmar taught me. But I have only used it while we hunted. It has been a while and I might be a little rusty.”
“Just make sure that I am not in the way.”

“There is another side passage just ahead,” Massacharamar said. Thanks to the light coming from Balon, she was able to make it out easily.
Britt did not see any thing, but made a silent plea, “Help me find George. And also Bard, I keep forgetting about him.”
The corridor sloped downhill and at the bottom was a cavern. The walls were went with water, which glictened like diamonds and the light reflected off the droplets.
“A sunken cavern,” said Britt.
While the small cavern next to it was empty, the one across from these two was considerably larger. The floor were even and level. However, when they approached the center, the floor sloped downwards. The middle of the carven was about twenty feet lower than the even surface of the floor.
“Look at the slope,” said Balon. He sat down. “I believe these are seats that have been carved from the rocks.”
Balon and the other sat next to him.
“I wonder if this was some sort of arena,” Johanna said.
“I think it is,” said Massacharamar. “However, was it an arean for men to train in. Or was it just for entertainment?”
“Are you thinking that Stephan and Balon put some innocent human down there and watched in enjoyment as he was torn apart by some vicious beasts?”
“Hopefully,” said Balon, “we will never find out.”
“I agree,” said Britt. “If we ever did find that was the use for this cavern, I would totally lose respect for both of these men.”
“That also goes for me,” said Balon.
When they left the arena, Johanna asked, “What is that glow?”
“It is coming from Balon,” said Britt.
“No, there is something glowing from over there,” she said pointing to the left.
“I see it too,” said Massacharamar.
Sure enough, there was, coming from another cavern, a soft purple phosphorescent glow. They walked to the cavern and all the walls were illuminated. Balon did not have to use his own light source in this cavern, there was enough light. n However, where was it coming from?
Massacharamar walked over to the wall. “There is a purplish mold on the walls.” She looked up. “It is even on the ceiling. The light is coming from the mold.”
“We better leave,” said Britt, remembering the mold in the garden room. “It could be dangerous.”
“This one is harmless,” said the elf. “We have this in my homeland. I just cannot remember its name.”
After making sure the room was secure, Britt said, “While I want to continue on and look for George and Bard, and believe me I would if I was alone, I think we will do better if we eat and rest for a while. I think we will do better if we have a clear and fresh start.”


After they left the hidden cavern where they found the skeletal remains of the thief, Bard and Geroge traveled up the northern passageway.
“They can be anywhere,” said George. “Who will take care of Britt, if we can not find him!”
“The others are with him,” said Bard. “Do not worry, we will find them.”
George halted. “What’s wrong?” asked Bard.
The thief held up his hand and waved for Bard to be quiet. Tilting his head, he listened.
“I hear running water, like a stream. It is just ahead. Come on! What are you waiting for?”
Keeping his sword ready, Bard followed George. Just ahead of them was a large pull of water. It was twenty feet across and approximately eight feet wide. A nearby stream was feeding it.
“I wonder if this was the pool that Johanna almost feel into,” Bard said, remembering the trap she had stumbled across on the upper level.
George looked up towards the ceiling but could not see anything through the darkness above their heads. “I can not tell…” All of a sudden he saw a figure sneak out from the shadows. “Bard! Look out!”
Even as George yelled his warning, he felt something leap onto his back. Whatever, it was, it was small and light. It was striking at his back with a weapon like a rock or a small knife. However, whatever weapon it was using, it was not doing any harm.
Reaching back with his arm, he tried to grab at the creature. However, he could not grab it effectively. Hopefully, George would not try to use the crossbow on the creature. With his luck, he would miss his target and impale him instead.
However, George only stared at the attacker in shock. Why was he not doing anything to help him?