Word: aphotic

aphotic

\ ey-FOH-tik \  , adjective;

1. Lightless; dark.

       Don't think it's one of my best works, but hey fantasy story weeee!

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 Their footsteps echoed faintly in the pitch black hallway.

“Can’t you do something about this infernal darkness?” Lars asked.  

“You know I can’t.”  Grena said.  “I know it’s not pleasant, but we need the darkness.”

“Yes, yes, I know.  But why can’t you just make it brighter now, and when we see the beast, then we go black.”

“Because if we did that, it would be able to attack us at any time.  We’re much less likely to be caught off guard if it’s like this the entire time.”

    “Well, maybe just a little?  Like a tiny little glow.  You know, something?”  
    “Oh stop complaining,”  Carus said.  “It’s not like we came in unprepared you know.”
    It was true.  The three of them had spent nearly three months training in various ways to be able to function in total darkness.  They spent Lars just grumbled, knowing that there was nothing much he could say to get the spellslinger to make any kind of light.  It was thanks to that time that they weren’t stumbling around the old, winding stone passageways without running into the walls, or each other.  
    When they heard of the attacks, they had thought it was a joke.  A strange demonic creature attacking a town in broad daylight, when most of them choose to cause problems in the dead of night.  Carus had come up with the idea that the creature probably had eyesight similar to a humans, attuned to light instead of darkness.  That was the reason for the training, and why no sources of light--other than Grena’s magic--had been brought along.  
    Now the three of them were working their way slowly and as quietly as possible through the passageways.  Whoever build them must not have been a very good architect.  It twisted and turned in seemingly random ways, and narrowed and widened with no reason.  Carus and Lars had some problems with the narrower parts.  Lars’s twin swords would sometimes strike the walls as he tried to move.  Carus’s large frame and equally large warhammer proved a liability here, unlike on the surface, where both proved a great boon for intimidating those who might be problematic otherwise.  Grena had no problems in any of the tunnels, as she was a small woman, and had chosen the channel arcane power through a string of beads rather than the more conventional (and larger) staff.  She was very grateful for the moment of foresight that lead her to the choice of implement at times like these.  
    Despite Lars grumbling about the darkness and narrower areas for the better part of an hour, the trio made their way through the passages without any major incident.  There had been an encounter with a group of rats, in which the three had tripped over many of the small furry bodies, even with their skills in navigating the darkness, but little else came of it.  
    Suddenly, they heard a strange sound.  It sounded like a mix cats whining, a large wheel moving over sand, and a songbird that had a throat problem.   Even with the oddness of the slow, rythmic sound, it was hard to identify as anything other than..

“Snoring?”  Grena said, puzzled.  

“Seems like we found our beast.”  Carus said.

“Great, it’s asleep.  So now can we get some light.  You know, so we can see what we’re dealing with before we kill it?”  Said Lars, hopeful that he might finally see something.

“I say we kill it, then look at it.”  Carus said, the sound of his hammer being drawn accompanying the words.

“Right, I’m all for sneak attacks, but we can’t very well kill something if we can’t see where the vulnerable spots are.  I mean, we could be attacking its backside for all we know.”  This time, it was Carus’s turn to mutter to himself.  As loath as he was to admit it, Lars had a point this time.  It wouldn’t do much good to attack something that wasn’t vital after all.

    “Alright, fine.  But just for a second.”  Said Grena.  She took out her beads and began the slow, rhythmic breathing that was needed to gather magic to the casters item of choice.  A ball of light appeared in front of her, casting a faint glow around them.  The beast was not right in front of them, but they could see what appeared to be a tail from around the next corner.
    Lars walked slowly around the corner the see what kind of creature they were dealing with.  It wasn’t as large as he had thought it would be from the sound of its snoring.  It was barely larger than a large man, the tail was almost a full head longer than the body.  It didn’t seem to have any visible weapons, other than the nasty looking claws on the thin, spindly arms and legs.  However, that meant very little in the case of demons and other such creatures.  Lars found the small head facing away from him, and clearly fast asleep.  The light vanished suddenly, Lars was annoyed at the sudden darkness, but he went back to the others none the less.
    “You know, you didn’t have to turn the lights off so soon.  I could have gotten it before it woke up.”
    “I told you it would only be for a second.”  Said Grena.  “Now, what did you see?”  Lars told them as well as he could.
    “Ok then, as long as we avoid that tail, we should be able to get up to it without any problem.”  Carus said.  He started out first to where the creature was.  Lars followed him as closely as he dared.  The two of them stayed next to the wall, while Grena stayed behind, preparing a spell in case something went wrong.  

Lars stopped them where he knew the head would be, and readied his weapons, prepared to take it out before it woke up.  Carus was just a bit faster though, as there was a rush of wind followed by the tell tale crunch and splat of bone an brains being crushed by the large hammer.  Lars looked at where Carus was and scowled.

“Sorry.”  Carus said.  Even though they couldn’t see, Lars could feel Carus’s smug grin.  The two men went back to where Grena was.  Having the two of them back, she brought the light orb back on, as there was little left to fear.  

“Ok, so now that that’s done, what do we do now?” Lars asked.

“Now we have to find our way back out.”  Grena said smiling.  Lars sighed.  The three of them turned to go, when they heard a something coming from behind them.  The three of them turned around to see what was happening.  A huge number of rats were barreling down them.

“Oh jeeze.”  Lars said, holding his head in his hands.  “Why do things  like this always happen to us?”

“Such is the life of the traveling warrior.”  Said Grena  “Now suck it up and lets kill some rats.”  She said, smiling.