"We saw a large dust cloud. How much of the dirt did you find in the area? If everything was thrown out it has to be somewhere around."
"To ask the dark elf might get you some information. If you find them again. But it also might lead to hostilities if you try to find them. That's a dangerous path!"
"Ask some bird." Clara suggests the - to her - obvious.
Jewel glances at Clara, then whistles for Chirp to come to her. "I could. But very few birds have any real intelligence like Chirp here. So what would I ask them?"
She thinks again about the huge dust cloud and the dirt piled around the hole, all over the plants. "I don't know. There was dirt all over the place all over the plants and everywhere.... But, I don't know if the dirt was enough for the size of the hole. That was a really big hole. If there was a collapse, could the collapse have caused some of the dirt to blast the area above?"
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After a moment of intense reflection, Tarjun finally reaches a conclusion:
"If it was a cave-in, the dirt would have fallen in the hole... No wait, that doesn't make any sense... If I drop a ball from the window, it's still gonna raise some dust when it hits the ground... So, er... Dust goes up? So if a roo or the ceiling of a cave falls, it's gonna make dust go up!!" The boy's face lights up. " So it can be a natural thing! But why would there be a cave-in in the first place? And how? That's what we need to find out, right?"
"Finding stuff out is at least interesting. This talk is boring."
"I'll come along." Will states.
Jewel starts to move when Tarjun mentions exploring, but pauses when their dad says he is coming. "But Dad, then who's going to warn the people of the town? They'll listen to you, and then if that Drider woman shows up they'll be ready. We're not going to be fighting anything, just exploring to see what needs to be done."
"You're not talking me out of this. Let's go." Will grabs his coat and is on his way.
"If you come, then I'll get my mum too!" Clara states and off she goes. If we're going to have adults around I at least want one that is cool!
"Mum! You have to come!" she calls as she gets close to the house.
"Your mum is in the woods looking what's going on." Randolf calls back.
And so the kids go with Will to check again on the hole in the ground.
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Tarjun babbles all the way to the hole, talking his father's ears off with useless details about the dark elf that he, Jewel and Clara have caught of glimpse of. Nonetheless, he's not entirely distracted by his own tendency to chatter, and keeps his eyes peeled for any creature that might suddenly spawn into existence.
When they finally reach the hole, Tarjun immediately bombards his father with questions:
"See? You think it was a cave-in? You think it was supernatural? Or maybe it was a tunnel dug by the elves?"
"I can't say if it was done on purpose, but it was not dug. And either way, the dirt went mostly into the hole. Look at the size - that would make quite the hill if it was lying around here."
"Could you provide some light to throw in?" Will asks.
Clara cast light on a stone and throws it into the hole as requested.
The stone falls down close to the wall. Ar first with little effect compared to the daylight. But as deeper it falls the more it lights up part of the hole as a spot of light speeding down the wall. But suddenly it is only the small beacon, and no reflection on the wall anymore for a short moment, before the light comes to a halt on the ground. It is too deep down to distinguish details though.
While Jewel is worried about her father joining, she doesn't try to change his mind beyond what had already been done.
When they get back to the hole Jewel tries to stay calm. This was huge, and she had missed the obvious that all the dirt having come up would have created a huge mound.... As the lit-up pebble drops past a large open area she hears Tarjun's question about detecting magic. "I don't have Detect Magic prepared. Clara usually does so I selected different spells. It only has a 60 foot range though, not to the bottom of this hole!"
"Clara? Can you cast Detect Magic and see if there is any residual magic around here?"
Looking down in the hole at the now tiny pebble and the light around it Jewel swallows hard. "Climbing DOWN a rope to the bottom of this would be hard.... But I don't think I could climb back up! It's so far down there!"
"We could jump." Clara suggests.
Will grabs the arm of Clara. "No crazy stuff when I'm with you. No matter what your mother would say!" will objects.
"I would, but I can't." Clara replies, pointing to the iron grip on her arm.
The climb is probably not too hard for some experienced climber. But it is a long climb and there might be loose elements and all in all it would be a sure way to fall down without a rope.
Gertrud approaches for out of the wood and stands next to the others. "Hi there."
Looking into the hole and then straight into Will's eyes, so there are no misunderstandings she says with a smile. "Let her jump."
Will is shocked. He stands there with a gaping mouth. Wanna get rid of that one and make a new one? runs through his mind. He has a thousand things to say about that, but he knows better. Never argue with crazy.
He lets go of Clara.
"Are you crazy? Why would I jump down?" Clara instinctively steps back from the hole. "No one would come with me. What should I do down there alone?"
Gertrud still looks at Will and a wide grin spreads on her face. You can almost read the That's how it's done. on her face.
Turning to Clara she replies "Act unsuspicious, look around and come back to tell us what is at the bottom of the hole?"
"At least we need rope to get me back up. I'm not sure I can come back from that depth on my own."
"But I could disguise myself to hide along the wall of the the hole."
"I brought two rings of rope." Gertrud offers.
Clara is exited. She turns to Jewel. "You need to soak me in water!" Once that is done she rolls in the dirt to get covered with hole colored dust. Once that is done there stands a beige figure around. At least the front.
Then she puts the rope on, and jumps into the hole like a someone would do a cannon ball into a lake. To the surprise of some, Clara floats down like a feather instead of plummeting like a rock. It takes her half a minute to come near the bottom.
She is hard to make out against the wall of the hole. Some lights appear down in the hole and move around a bit. One light flies like it's thrown.
After a short while Clara starts moving against gravity and after long two minutes she arrives at the surface again. Standing on air like Wiley Coyote. "Would you pull me over please? I can't walk on air." she requests.
Once on solid ground again, she tells "There is a whole world hidden down there!"
Clara continues to describe, that at the bottom of the hole is a huge cave, much bigger than the hole and that a large pile of dirt lies there, forming a hill in the vast cave. But besides that she hasn't seen much, as the light from above blinded her towards the relative darkness in the cave beyond the newly formed hill.
The idea of the size of the cave she only got from some fluorescent plants that grow down there in several spots in all directions. If there are creatures living down there she can't tell.
"No!" Will objects loud and quick, staring daggers at Gertrud.
"Tarjun, We can't jump like that any more than we can breathe underwater. Clara is using magic. We have to do it the hard way...."
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"Oh," Tarjun sighs, obviously disappointed. "Well. Anyone's got any rope?"
To make climbing down a little easier, he makes knots in the rope, that can act as grips for his feet. If there is more than one rope, he'll secure one around his waist so Will can hold him suspended in the air if he loses his footing.
"I'll go first, Jewie," he tells his sister, in a tone of voice that makes it pretty explicit that it's non-negotiable.
"No, you're not climbing down into this hole!" Will objects in a tone that is even less negotiable.
"I agree that you shouldn't climb down there just out of curiosity." Gertrud states. "It is one thing to take a quick glance around. But exploring this place might prove difficult."
"Let me tell you, life isn't fair at all."
"But your idea would actually be a great solution, if it was possible." Gertrud replies. "But where to find enough material to fill this, or the workers needed."
Remembering their previous time here, Jewel points to where the Drider had been. "The drider that we saw, that turned invisible, it was right over there." She moves carefully over to the area, searching the ground for track or anything out of the ordinary. "Her lower body was like a spider but really big. As heavy as she must have been those legs probably left some kind of marks. If the rain didn't wash it all away...."
Jewel find the spot where the drider stood. Eight small holes form a circle in the dust covered grass.
Jewel searches around the area for any other prints, coming or going.
She points to the circle or prints, "See, there are 8 in a circle. But I don't see any others, from when she moved here or left. I'm not really much of a tracker!"
Clara steps on one of the eight holes and looks around also finding nothing. "No clue where it went to."
Will comes over and stares at the ground. He can identify the obvious signs of the usual suspects trampling through his crops. But this tells him nothing.
"Interesting." Gertrud comments and starts wandering off into the woods following the tracks.