Reinos

Upon reaching the bottom of the ladder, he landed in a shallow pool of murky water. At the sound of the splash, rats scurried out of a small hole in the wall behind him. “This is going to be a long night,” Reinos muttered. He let out a sigh, and began the long walk through the dark, muddy tunnel, singing a song to keep himself awake, as he began to tire. After walking for what seemed like hours, Reinos came to a dead end in the tunnel. Exhausted from his long journey through the murky tunnel, he sighed and leaned against the wall, only to hear a hollow “thump.” He jumped up, and began to examine the wall. There was a strange rock jutting out from the mostly flat wall. He pushed it, and it slid into the wall with a grinding noise. As it did, a part of the wall slid open beside him, followed by hundreds of screeching bats. Reinos immediately dropped to the floor and muttered to himself, “Why me?”
When the flurry of bats had gone, Reinos cautiously stood up, expecting more bats to come flying out at him. Satisfied that there were no more of the foul smelling creatures, he walked into the newly opened room. Only when he reached the centre of the room did he hear someone crying.
“Who’s there?” a weak and afraid voice asked. “Please don’t hurt me.”
“Don’t worry,” replied Reinos, curious as to who spoke. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, but don’t come any closer!” Replied Ariena, as she came out from behind a rock. “Reinos! You’ve come down here? How did you find me here?”
“I’ve come to get you,” Reinos replied, as he reached into his pocket, and retrieved the key. “Your uncle told me to take care of the sword, and protect you, just before he died,” he said, regretting to be the one having to tell her.
“But… why would they kill him?” Said Ariena, as she began to cry. “He did nothing wrong.” Reinos reached out to comfort her, but she pushed his hand away. “I’ll be fine,” she said, turning away from him and drying her tears. “Let’s go, I’ve been down here long enough.” As she got up to leave, Reinos stopped her and showed her the ring. “He said you could tell me what to do with this and the sword the sword.”
“Alright, but we should get out of town as soon as possible. Let’s go now,” She said, and they began walking down the long tunnel. “Is that my staff?” She asked, as she tried to pull it from Reinos’ grip.
“So it belongs to you?” He asked, deciding to let go of it. “I found it leaning against the wall in the back room of the inn.
“It was a gift from my grandpa. He gave it to me when I was a little girl.” She said, as she stared at the dimly glowing emerald on its tip.
Reinos and Ariena made the rest of the long walk through the tunnel in silence.
Upon reaching the ladder at the end, Reinos and Ariena stopped, and prepared to go up, returning to the surface. Not forgetting his encounter with the wolf, Reinos offered, “I’ll go first, that wolf might have come back to finish me off.”
He began the ascent, and when he was halfway up, the ladder burst into flames. Reinos screamed in pain and let go of the ladder, and began to fall to the ground. While he was falling, he heard Ariena yell out to him right before he hit the ground. He hit the ground and let out a scream of pain that echoed through the tunnel. He lay there, too stunned to get up. He looked at his hands, finding them burnt from the fire, and tried to stand. As soon as he started to push himself up, he fainted.
Ariena carefully leaned him up against the wall and sat beside him for a while, until she drifted off to sleep as well.