"Shit! I figured something like this would happen. Grab the blaster, Gord, and I’ll make him tell us."
Gord was tempted, for the huge barbarian just might be able to twist and pummel the information from Eneever Zig. Wisdom was there to prevent the action, however. "Wait, Chert! This isn't the time or place to squabble. What if Zig manages to attack us with magic? What if he won't tell us, no matter what we do to try to make him talk? Then we'll have an out-of-commission magic-user and still no means of escape. We're in a lose-lose situation."
Then, turning to the gaunt wizard, Gord said, "You have us, as well you know. But hear this, you sorry sorcerer. Although we have no choice but to go along now, we are no longer your allies." Eneever Zig stared at the young adventurers for a moment, seeing the truth of Gord's words written on the faces of both men. "Oh. don't worry, Zig." Gord continued. "We're smart enough to be concerned about our own skins, which means we'll protect you to the full. But the moment we discover a means of egress, you are on your own!"
"Unless I have the prize I seek, thief, you and your brawny comrade will desert me at risk! You agreed to serve for the duration of this quest," Eneever retorted, giving the barbarian a hefly shove and walking away from the two angry comrades.
"Not so, old dweomercraefter," Chert growled, reaching out and grabbing the wizard as he attempted to walk away. The furious hillman slammed Eneever Zig hard against the wall and pressed his face into that of his captive. "We agreed to share, not serve, and sharing goes for information as well as treasure. Your refusal to tell us what you know about leaving this hole breaks our agreement." He loosened his hold on the spell-caster and backed off a pace.
Zig smoothed the wrinkles out of his mussed-up robe and straightened his crooked hat. "Bah! Stop babbling and yawping about escape. I'll deal with you both if you try to back out, but that isn't likely to occur any time soon. If we stand here much longer, making such a racket, we are sure to bring unwanted and hungry visitors — and that's a certainty. Now proceed through that portal there."
Gord motioned for his comrade to wait, and the young thief slipped silently ahead, disappearing into the dark tunnel with a wave to indicate the two should follow him. By his action, Gord was about forty or fifty feet ahead of the barbarian and the wizard. The pale light of the lantern behind did not interfere with the magical vision that his sword bestowed upon him, so Gord was now able to see well ahead into the corridor.
It was a hewn passage about fifteen feet wide, vaulted above, with a smooth floor and downward slope. The young thief estimated that for every ten feet of its length, the tunnel slanted downward about a foot. Strange clumps of vegetable stuff grew here and there on the walls; his sight showed the growth in a pale, bluish radiation, light given off by the matter. Gord took care to avoid the strange growths as he stole ahead.
After a time he picked up the pace. The passage ran on ahead, without turn, without adit. Gord decided that scouting well ahead was better, and, after informing Chert and Eneever as to his intentions, he left his two companions far behind. He had gone perhaps a quarter of a mile when he saw a cavern ahead. By lying flat on the floor of the passageway, Gord could peer along its downslope and see the strange place, if only in glimpses.
First there was a sheet of reddish light playing throughout the place. Fire, he guessed. It winked out in an instant, only to be replaced by a deep green light that shimmered and wavered. What that was. he couldn't tell. That, too, was transformed momentarily, and billowing vapors of pearly gray took the place of the glowing green. Just as Gord was about to clamber up and go back to warn Chert and the wizard of what lay ahead, the opalescent whiteness vanished, and blackness seemed to cover the cavern. One last look, however, revealed that the blackness was striated by bands of gray, brown, and similar somber hues — ochre, umber, terra cotta, dun.
"Now what in the Nine Hells is all that?" Gord asked aloud as he stood and ran back up the passage. As he did so, the yellow glow of the lantern shined ahead. Chert and Zig were approaching.
"What brings you back at such a pace, thief?" the wizard asked, a worried frown playing across his face.
"Chert, be ready! There's something strange ahead. I think it is dangerous too, wizard."
At that the spell-worker immediately began digging into the front of his robe. He drew forth a small tube of parchment, unrolled it, and scanned the writing thereon for several seconds before he spoke. "This is the first of the challenges which we must overcome. I believe that it is a matter which I can handle well enough, but both of you be ready with your weapons just in case."
"What nature is this so-called challenge, Zig?"
Eneever Zig gave a harsh, chopped-short bark that might have been a laugh. "You are apt with your words, thief." Saying no more, the wizard brushed past the two adventurers and strode purposefully ahead, a crystal-tipped ivory wand in his left hand and his right hand thrust into a pouch attached to his girdle.
Chert took several long strides and was even with the wizard. Shortening his step then, the giant hillman kept level with Zig on his right while Gord paced along at his left. Like it or not, they had to ward this man, for he was their only means of eventually leaving this strange underworld. Holding his huge axe in one hand. Chert swung it back and forth to loosen his muscles and prepare for possible combat. Brool's curved head glittered, and a buzzing sound issued from the weapon as it cut through the air. The barbarian grinned at that, for the hum reassured him. Gord, too, was prepared to fight, his dagger now in his left hand to serve as main gauche to the short sword he plied.
That's what I like," Eneever Zig said without glancing aside at either of them. "Staunch henchmen ready to defend their master."
"Bite it, Zig!" Chert said with a growl.
Gord didn't bother to respond. Time enough later to settle accounts with this arrogant spellworker. There was a problem at hand that needed all of their attention. "Again, Zig, what lies ahead?"
Before the wizard got around to replying, if he ever intended to do so, the three were at the mouth of the cavern. The fiery sheet of stuff that filled the great space was replaced by the translucent emerald shimmer. Now Gord could see that it appeared to be water. How it was held within the cavern and did not come rushing along the tunnel they stood in, the young adventurer had no idea. The green-hued liquid remained for a minute. Then it was replaced by swirling clouds and streaks of empty, clear blue space. This, too, persisted for but moments, and then it gave way to the gloom of earth-toned bands, just as Gord had witnessed earlier.
Now the wizard spoke. "You see, you were aware of the challenge all along, thief. You asked and answered your own query, didn't you? The nature of this place is just that — the elements which combine to form Nature."
"Do we burn, drown, fall, or suffocate?" Chert asked angrily as the flames again sprang into being before them.
"Silence!" Eneever Zig watched the play of the fire, counting under his breath as he did so. As the burning wall of fire paled almost undetectably, the gaunt dweomercraefter acted. "Be subject to water!" he cried loudly. The deep green came into being instantly, "Be bound by air!" As the command rang out, the water disappeared and the cloudy, pearly hue replaced the green. "Be balanced by earth!" Now the darkly striated mass filled the cavern. Eneever Zig shouted more loudly still when the dark, earthlike stuff appeared. "Be combined with all!" he boomed.
Suddenly, instead of a cavern buried hundreds of feet underground, the two startled young men saw a sweeping vista before them. Green hills stretched away into the distance. In their folds were copses of trees, a winding brook, and a large pond. The vault of the sky above was dotted with fluffy, white clouds. A small cottage stood in the center of a meadow before them, its chimney issuing a thin plume of bluish smoke. Insects hummed, birds sang, and what appeared to be wild cattle, aurochs, grazed on a distant ridge.