The Rising Stones (Ihale Book 1)

fresh breeze in a while."
"She's right, the smoke and heat would probably kill us faster than the spiders." Heln patted her arm. She glared at him and he stopped.
"Besides, there's no point of forging through here when we don't even know if it's actually the right way." Bel reminded her. "Cave spider nests can go for a really long time, and if there are spiders here then there are other living things, too, and I don't really want to find out what they are, thanks."
She withdrew her bubble when Rhyss finally grudgingly agreed with her, still rubbing her arms like the webbing was clinging to her. Bel ended up in front this time, with Rhyss silently taking the rear guard. She hoped that, if she ran into a spider web, Rhyss kept her head long enough to cut her loose instead of lighting the tunnel and the three of them on fire.
They found their last intersection. It must have been closer to the surface, as tree roots clustered like thick, hanging vines, moss and mushrooms that let out a soft radiance clinging to their surfaces. Even with the light from the plants, the bubbles created crazy shadows on the walls that made Bel feel uneasy. The floor was even, at least, just covered in patchy moss and lichen.
"Do you think we could dig our way out?" Rhyss looked up at the ceiling. "If there are tree roots it shouldn't be too far, right?"
"That's a bad idea. There are so many protection scripts I doubt we could make a dent, and if we did… cave in. Probably." Heln was looking up at the ceiling, too. "Besides, we don't know how far it is."
Rhyss shrugged. "Wasn't in love with the idea, anyway."
Bel jumped at a shadow and nearly ran her face right into the first sign of life that wasn't a monster or a spider. "Guys! Guys look at this!"
"If it isn't food or a way out I don't care." Rhyss warned her.
"Fine. Heln, look." Bel pointed at the root. A huge snail with a whorl of blue in a shell that was bigger than Bel's fist was sliming its way across. "It's a snail."
Rhyss looked like she was considering ripping a tree root from a wall and hitting her with it. Heln, at least, seemed to be interested, leaning in for a closer look when Bel moved over.
"Wow, it has magic." Heln touched the shell and the blue lit up. The snail didn't seem to notice, or care, but Bel wasn't exactly an expert on snail emoting. "It feels like one of your barriers, Bel. I mean obviously not as strong or with the intent behind it, but it's similar."
"Great, you found a magic powered snail." Rhyss had folded her arms and put all of her weight on one foot, tapping the other. "I'm sure that's absolutely fascinating. I want to get out of here, not study the flora and fauna, especially since it all seems to be bugs or monsters."
"First of all, spiders and snails aren't bugs," Bel said.
"Second of all?" She arched one teal eyebrow.
"I don't know, you're mean."
"What she means is maybe we should stop. It's a good place to set up a barrier, and there's plenty of moss around for her to carve into and for us to, uh, eat." Heln stepped in, smoothly, which was good because Rhyss looked like she might have really murder on her mind. Though it was hard to tell, her eyes were bloodshot and she always sort of thought she had potential murder in mind, but this seemed more potent. "We're all cold, tired, and hungry. We need rest and what if there's another monster?"
"Fine, but I'm not eating the snail." Rhyss unsheathed her knife and handed it to Bel.
"Don't you dare eat Orin, he never did anything to you." Bel accepted the knife. "Besides, they are part of a completely undiscovered species, as far as I'm aware. If I had a safe way to transport them home I would. You don't just discover a brand-new species and then eat it, we're not savages. Well, most of us aren't."
"Orin is in our class. I already said I wasn't eating it, get to work."
"He's slow. That was a joke." Clearly the wonder of their find was completely lost on Rhyss, but that wasn't surprising. Bel grumbled but carved the magic script. She was so tired that her hand nearly slipped a few times. It took all of her focus to finish it up and cast the barrier. She'd made the circle a little lopsided, but it was wide enough for all of them and that was what mattered. When she looked up it felt like static was enveloping his brain.
"There." Rhyss dumped a pile of moss inside of the barrier. "Dinner."
"What did you do?" Bel looked at Heln.
"Made sure she didn't leave us here." He shrugged a bit.
Rhyss made no comment, just sat down and grabbed a piece of moss. She made a face but put it in her mouth, anyway. Bel would have to actually tell her how brave she thought she was later, because there was no way she would have been the first to eat it. At least it stopped glowing when it was cut away. She probably wouldn't have starved to death rather than eat something that was currently glowing, but it would have been a close call.
Rhyss shuddered a bit as she chewed and swallowed. "It's not bad." Her voice actually cracked a little.
"You are a liar and not even a remotely convincing one."
To Bel's surprise, Heln took a piece, eating it without making much of a face. Once he'd swallowed his eyebrows drew together and he looked faintly ill. "She's right. It's not bad."
"You're both really bad at this, lying and reassuring, just absolutely dreadful." Bel took some, anyway. She was already dizzy and she was doing her absolute best to not show weakness in front of Rhyss or any other potential creatures that weren't snails