Noon was rapidly approaching, the sun reaching its zenith, although its light had largely been obscured by clouds by late morning. Eldred had started to notice that they were avoiding any and all signs of civilisation. The previous day, for the short period of time that he had been awake and conscious, he saw the farmhouses they’d passed, and read the signs pointing toward villages that they had moved past. They’d even gone through a hamlet, Ardghal’s hooves ringing out on the cobbled main road.

Today, however, Eldred hadn’t seen a single house up close. Each time he’d spotted a village or town off in the distance, Ness had taken them on a winding route around it, often leaving and then rejoining a path that would have taken them straight through.

“Why don’t we go through the town?” he asked, as they passed another village. This time, he’d been able to see small figures working in the fields they’d passed, a few of them stopping their work briefly to watch them pass. Ness hadn’t slowed or returned any greetings they had received, pressing on and, at times, encouraging Ardghal to go just a little faster.

“It is best that we minimise our contact with people around here,” she said.

This baffled him, and he made this known to her.

“The people from where we are going- where I come from- are not well liked around here. We try to stay out of their way where we can.”

His confusion only grew. “Why don’t they like them?”

She didn’t say anything at first, although she allowed the horse to slow as they moved onto flatter ground. “Because my people are different from them, and that scares them. Because they are scared, they chase us out and try to drive us from the area.”

A spark of empathy ignited within him- the story was a familiar one. “I don’t like people who do that,” he decided, patting Ardghal’s side absently.

“Nor do I,” she agreed, and they fell silent again.

A short ways from that final village, they started to ascend a small hill, the road moving almost parallel to the summit. Upon reaching the top, Eldred realised it was instead one side of a deep valley, with the ground beneath them dropping fast and deeper than the side they had just climbed up. At the bottom, where the ground started to flatten out again, a great forest sprung up. He caught sight of flashes of water from a river. The valley widened as it got further away from them, spreading out into a wide expanse of trees.

“Is that the forest?” he asked as they paused. Ness seemed to be surveying their surroundings, holding Ardghal’s reins still.

“It is.” She said, and a moment later they started their descent. They left the road there, taking a barely visible path that zig-zagged down the slope while the main path remained up on the ridge. Ardghal travelled the path with familiarity, Ness barely touching the reins as the horse took them down and deeper into the valley. Trees started to sprout, at first small and insignificant, thin and spindly trunks bent almost double against imagined wind, but slowly growing wider and taller as they went. By the time they reached the bottom of the valley, the trees made a thick canopy above them, obscuring most of the sunlight and leaving the small party in what felt like an early twilight.

The path quickly transitioned from a dirt track cut into the side of the hill to a narrow, almost imperceptible at times path that cut through layers of bracken and thorns. It looked to Eldred more like a deer path than one meant for humans or horses. Regardless, Ardghal navigated it with practised ease, weaving with the path as it moved around trees and intertwined with the stream that ran through the centre of the valley.

The boy took in his surroundings eagerly, staring up at the high branches above him and the odd wildlife that made them their home. The forest was alive around them, with birdcalls ringing out from all sides. The sound of wings was a near constant as the creatures flitted between trees and underbrush, dipping down to the water and twisting around tree trunks mid-flight. He even thought he caught sight of a rabbit, darting across the path ahead, the undergrowth swaying with the sudden movement. It smelt damp and earthy down here, the valley capturing moisture and rain. Drops of water hung on leaves all around them, only disturbed by their passage.

They had been walking for a while, their entrance obscured by the distance and trees behind them, when Eldred saw something that looked out of place up above them. He frowned at the sight, squinting and leaning forward in an attempt to resolve the shape into something that made more sense.

They rounded a bend in the path, and he had a clear view. Ahead of them was what looked like a large mound, set in a small clearing of trees. The side they approached seemed flat and sharp, with edges and smooth surfaces, with the back half sloping back down into the ground at a gentle angle. He stared, and the flat wall resolved into a set of huge doors, framed by moss and vines that climbed around its frame, spilling from the summit of the hill and reaching for the ground below. His frown deepened, and he looked back to Ness to see if she had noticed the strange structure.

As ever, the horseman’s expression was hidden behind the blank metal of her helmet, and she seemed fixed on the path ahead.

“Are those doors…?” he asked with uncertainty, wondering if he was misinterpreting the structure even as they got closer to it.

Ness didn’t answer, but the path’s gentle turn toward the mound said enough for him to go quiet.

Ardghal slowed as they neared, and Eldred only became more certain that what he was seeing, deep in the forest, was a pair of wooden doors. Details started to become more apparent- each door was tall enough to admit Ness atop her horse with room to spare- no easy feat, with both heights together- with intricately carved details depicting fairy folk in revelry on one door, dancing and cavorting in circles and groups, with the other showing scenes of a great hunt on the other, figures chasing one another with claws and teeth and weapons. Each individual was different in form and appearance, some sporting horns, wings, antlers, cloven hooves, tree-like limbs, grotesque faces, and any number of other strange features. Eldred stared as they got closer, fully taken in by the fantastical images. He reached toward them, wanting to verify that what he saw was actually there, but Ness put a gentle but firm hand on his arm to stop him. He looked back toward her, baffled, as she dismounted.

They had stopped in front of the doors, Ardghal coming to a halt on his own and waiting patiently as his rider approached the doors. Eldred watched in fascinated anticipation as Ness herself reached toward them, placing gloved hands on either side of the opening seal and seeming to give only a light push.

There was a loud click followed by a series of quieter clatters and snaps, and after a brief delay the doors started to open. They scraped along the ground inwards, their etched stone frame cutting the grass and moss of the forest floor short, revealing a dark passageway behind. Eldred noted with unease that it seemed to go down, rough steps carved into the solid stone of the ground inside. There was a gust of cold, stale air as the doors opened, and Eldred shivered with its intensity. Ness seemed unaffected, and stood, waiting for the doors to open fully.

The grinding stopped, accented by a final clunk as the doors seemed to drop into place, and the forest returned to its usual level of background noise.

Eldred was seriously starting to doubt Ness, the sudden appearance of the dark tunnel down into the depths of the earth, set deep into a forest was ringing alarm bells of all kinds in his mind. He tore his gaze away from the dark pit to stare at the armoured figure as it stood, motionless, and wondered if he could run and hide somewhere in this forest.

As he was psyching himself up, Ness turned back to them, putting a reassuring hand on her horse’s head, and reaching for the reins.

“I don’t want to go down,” Eldred blurted out suddenly, shuffling back in the saddle to put some distance between himself and Ness and the tunnel.

She didn’t slow her movements as she started to lead the horse forward, turning away from Eldred. “The doctor is through this way,” she said calmly, “Don’t be scared.”

“I don’t want to-” he started, faltering as the walls just inside the tunnel suddenly sparked into light, a pair of flaming torches igniting with a whoosh. Before he could gather himself to protest again, the roof of the mound was passing over his head, the doors now beside him, and Ardghal had stepped into the tunnel. The torches illuminated the way ahead, showing the first steps of many in the long way down. Ness was already starting to step down, her footsteps ringing out loud and echoing in the space.

Eldred was shaking his head, turning to look back at the relative brightness they were starting to leave behind, fear starting to grow in his chest.

A second whoosh drew his attention back in front of him, as the next set of torches flared to life. He flinched at the sound of the doors scraping again, whipping back around to stare as the doors started to move, the arch of light starting to narrow. “I want to go home,” he said quietly as the way back closed further. Ness didn’t answer, the figure continuing her silent march down the passage.

As the doors came to a shut the first of the torches extinguished, plunging the entrance into darkness. There was not even a sliver of light entering through the central seam. Eldred stared for a few moments longer as the way back moved further and further away.

The sounds of the forest had been sealed off with the closing of the doors, leaving him with only the steady rhythm of Ardghal’s hooves on the worked stone, accented by the clink of Ness’s steps and the occasional flare of the torches igniting, and the hiss of them extinguishing behind them. The sounds echoed in the space, bouncing from stone walls and the arched ceiling. He wondered how deep it went- the tunnel ahead was as dark as ever, steps lost in the consuming gloom before them- and then started to wonder how such a place was even made. The walls around them were smooth and flat, man-made and most certainly not natural. It took him a while before he looked at them long enough to start to notice the drawings that covered the sides of the tunnel- continuing in theme from the carvings on the door. One side was filled with figures in a feast, and the other with similar figures participating in a hunt. The colours, muted somewhat by the orange glow of the fire that illuminated the space, were many, with each painted person wearing a different selection of coloured clothing. He stared, in awe at the sight, and wondered how long it would have taken to paint the length of the passage. They had been walking for about ten minutes now, Eldred reckoned, their continued descent not letting up, with the only reassurance that they were actually making progress being the changing murals on the walls.

They moved in a bubble of light, the way behind and ahead of them shrouded in darkness too complete for Eldred to see through. He hadn’t been underground before, and the depth of the black around him was disconcerting to say the least. He was used to at least being able to make out vague shapes, picking out edges and changes in direction through ambient light. This was not the case here. Beyond the edges of torchlight it was inky black that engulfed all features, leaving nothing discernible behind.

His fear had waned from the initial spike of terror to a low-level feeling that stuck with him, although it had been somewhat tempered by the continual distractions of the tunnel’s features.

A while later, Eldred started to notice the murky forms of the steps in front of them. He frowned, squinting through the darkness as he started to make out the shape of the next torch, blinking as it suddenly sprung to life, leaving his vision spotty with the bright light. Were they coming to its end?

The air, which had been still and dank, stale and musty with age, started to carry a slight breeze that brought with it the smell of fresh air in wisps. He wondered if the tunnel would open into a huge cavern with tall ceilings and wide, open spaces, if there would be great shafts of light that opened to the surface. He’d heard of caves before, although they had none in the local area, but every story he had heard had been of the cramped, dark spaces where one was likely to get wedged and trapped inside. He kept his eyes fixed on the growing light of the tunnel, starting to make out a point of light ahead that was slowly growing bigger. It wasn’t as bright as daylight, but he could see where the long shallow steps of the passage levelled out into flat ground, and he found himself tense with anticipation as it started to edge closer.

He opened his mouth, about to ask what was ahead, when Ness hushed him, holding a hand up. He shut his mouth again, confused, but too uncertain not to follow directions.

The torches continued to ignite and extinguish around them, even as they neared the flat ground ahead. It was bright, now, and Eldred was able to see easily around him. He could see clearly the pictures on the wall, the endless stream of hunting, chasing figures on the right, and the playful and at times lustful figures on the left. As they reached the bottom, more of the path beyond revealed as they started to come up level with the ground beyond, Eldred could see brighter and brighter light. He frowned as near-daylight shone in to the passage.

They reached the bottom, and Eldred stared in awe at the arch that marked the end of the tunnel, fear momentarily forgotten with the sight that he beheld.