Page 155 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Hina

Stumbling around in the dark was not my idea of a fun hike, but at least we weren’t running for our lives this time, being chased by some unknown thing in the dark.

Fierce had adjusted his pace to mine as much as he could, but I still couldn’t see shit in these cave tunnels.

I kind of wished he’d let us improvise a torch of some kind, but I suspected the main reason he’d let the fire die was that he wanted to minimize the risk of being found.

If even Fierce was worried about whatever was skulking around these tunnels, I’d better be extra worried about it.

At least he’d nobly kept me warm through the night with his delicious body.

I should have gotten up and sat on my own when I woke up, but I had enjoyed being that close to him far too much.

Then there was that face-rubbing thing he’d done, followed by a not-quite kiss.

I was still tingling from that; it was one of the sexiest things that had ever happened to me.

That was probably saying more about my pathetic sex life than I’d care to admit.

Things had been a little stale. Okay, I was so dusty down there by now that I couldn’t even recall the last time I had a moment for sex.

Maybe that was why I was responding so strongly to him and his big, muscled body.

When he growled “safe” at me with a heavy accent… I had practically melted for him.

The tunnels all looked the same to me, but Fierce seemed confident each time he picked a direction. At some point, we’d left that stream of water, and I worried that we’d end up without water at the end of the day. That would be a serious problem—more serious than going without food.

Fierce never paused either, just steadily kept us walking or climbing through these tunnels.

When I felt like my legs were about to fall off from the strain, we had been on some type of incline most of the day, Fierce finally halted.

I could hear rushing water now, much more of it than before.

Maybe that’s what he’d been looking for.

In any case, I was just immensely relieved that I could take a breather for a moment.

He was talking in low tones, not to me, but to the big hound at his feet.

I could see the glowing coals that were the hound’s eyes shimmering in the dark.

I’d suspected that it was a creature far more intelligent than the average animal, but the more I saw how Fierce interacted with it, the more obvious it became to me that it actually understood what Fierce was saying.

Fierce would pause, too, before he spoke again, like in a normal conversation.

Leading me to think that the animal was somehow talking back to him.

“Come,” Fierce said, his hand coming back to fold around mine and urge me along with him. My legs screamed in protest as I was forced to walk again, but I didn’t complain. At least I was wearing my good shoes, which meant I hadn’t gotten any blisters from all this walking.

The tunnel widened into a much bigger cavern.

I could hear the way our footsteps echoed in the chamber.

Mostly, though, every sound was drowned out by the roar of rushing water.

I couldn’t see it, but it sounded like rapids.

Trusting Fierce to safely guide me past those, I followed him in, my fingers tightening around his hand.

I was going to hang onto him for dear life.

We followed the rushing water for some time, my flagging energy slowing the pace more than before.

I was grateful that Fierce didn’t comment on it—and that he also didn’t throw me over his shoulder again like I was a sack of potatoes, even if that had been warmer than walking around with bare arms. The rushing of what was surely a river on my left side was so loud and close that water sprayed against me, misting across my skin.

I tried to force my tired body to pick up the pace to stay warmer, but it was definitely a struggle.

Suddenly, Fierce froze in front of me. His entire body went rigid, and what followed was definitely a stream of curse words, even if I couldn’t understand them.

What was going on? Had we run into a dead end?

No. When I peered around his shoulder, I noticed a glow of light approaching—firelight flickering against the cave walls. Someone was heading our way.

I was hopeful that it was someone who could help us, someone good.

Maybe one of Fierce’s friends, but then, he’d have no reason to curse like this.

Fierce was backing us up, and I could see how his big hound was puffing himself up between us and this newcomer.

Then I finally heard it: over the sound of the rushing water was the sound of beating drums and the hiss of something sinister.

This was not good news at all. I turned, fighting to keep my footing and hurry back the way we’d come, even if I couldn’t see a thing.

When Fierce picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, I didn’t protest; my blind pace in this near dark was never going to be fast enough to outrun whoever that was.

His pace was fast and sure over the rocky terrain.

With the approaching torchlight, I could now better see what we were dealing with: a huge river to our right, thundering past the narrow ledge we’d been walking along.

I had the sinking feeling that the ledge was far too precise and straight for it to be natural.

I could see what was approaching us too: glittering red scales and mouths full of blackened teeth.

Long, undulating bodies slithered along the ground at a rapid pace.

Impossibly, the upper bodies of these snake creatures were shaped much like a human’s, with a muscled torso and two arms. Their heads were crowned with primitive helmets, spiky ornamentation, and wild arrays of red to black hair.

“Naga,” I murmured, shocked to discover that such a creature could really exist. They looked anything but friendly as they hissed and snarled, raising spears with black glass tips.

No, they definitely intended to kill us from the looks of things.

This was not good news, because even with Fierce flat-out running with me over his shoulder, they were slowly gaining on us.

That painstaking progress I’d made at the side of this river was undone in only a few minutes of Fierce’s flat-out sprinting.

Were we going to manage to lose these hostile creatures in the warren of tunnels?

It seemed to me that they knew them far better than we did, that they’d even made some of these tunnels.

With another spat of cursing from Fierce and a deep, rumbling growl from the hound, I turned my head to notice that more light was spilling from the tunnel diverging from this river.

Oh, shit. Our exit was blocked. I knew there was only one way out now, my eyes flickering with apprehension to the rapidly rushing water broken up by rocks.

We had to go in, it was our only chance.

Fierce set me on my feet in front of him, my body sliding against his.

He kept one arm tightly around my waist, allowing no space between us.

His yellow eyes glowed at me, filled with concern.

I gave him a nod, trying to tell him I was okay with this.

I was definitely not okay with becoming snake food.

With a few deft motions, Fierce more tightly secured his bag against his body, pulled Fluffy free from it, and set her on his shoulder.

He said a word that I could only surmise meant, “Ready?” “Yes, see you on the other side,” I told him.

Then, before I could change my mind, I went up on my toes and pressed my mouth to his.

My heart thumped wildly in fear and in exhilaration.

His mouth was softer than it looked, his startled breath gratifying— as was the deep growl that rumbled from his chest, followed by a hand digging into my hair and yanking me close.

He didn’t just kiss me; he devoured me, staking a claim so fiercely that I briefly went weak in the knees.

Not the best state to be in for a swim in the dark through rapidly flowing water.

Fierce had me under one arm and was leaping off the ledge before I could fully prepare myself.

The water rushing up around me was icy cold, hitting my body so hard that all my nerves went numb.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t draw breath. If not for Fierce’s arm holding onto me, I would have sunk and drowned in that first moment.

Then the rapids had hold of us, ripping me from his grip and sending me under.

I tried to follow my training, though I’d never had to put theory into practice.

I forced my body to move along with the water, finding moments for air whenever I could.

It was hard to subdue my instinct to fight against the currents, but we needed not just to survive these rapids, but also for them to carry us far enough away from the snakes to be safe.

The cold was mind-numbing; it sapped all the strength from my already flagging body.

I wanted to give in and just let the blackness claim me, but I wanted to survive and kiss Fierce again even more.

It was crazy that my sole motivation for survival right now was that—but I hardly cared.

It was the one thought I held onto while I battled to stay conscious, to stay afloat.

I took far too many hits from unseen rocks that my body managed to find, but the cold had numbed me enough that I barely noticed.