Jominac, Chapter 2—The Tunnel

Written by Dronin Gammerson

After finding the upturned dirt the soldiers began digging it up to find out where it lead. Rodrick and I left to their quarters to do our own work until the soldiers found something or nothing.
Once at my house I found that the first metal message from Dronin had come in. I held it next to a strong magnet to get the flecks of metal off that were obscuring the message. There was always a letter with it as well to get rid of suspicion saying something like “Here is the iron you requested” or something like that. This one said “Happy Birthday! I hope you enjoy this iron for your forge.”
“Dronin, always one to make the note interesting,” I said smiling. I began reading the metal message.
Jominac I have bought my own clothes from a village that seem to fit with the inhabitants up here on the surface. Looking for something to do in my learning process I heard about this camp that was created for this old guy named Donindor who is looking for people to get back his magical stuff. This intrigued me so I checked out this camp. I am currently there with a group of people who came here for various reasons, but mostly for the money offered. We are about to help the old guy to find one of the objects that was assigned to a ranger who has disappeared. We keep hearing these strange noises from the forest and I heard someone got shot at by an unknown archer from the darkness. It seems... unnatural. Signing off: Dronin
“Well,” I said under his breath, “ If this were anyone else I would be concerned for their well-being, but Dronin knows how to look after himself.”
Jominac heard a knock on the door, “Come in.”
A messenger popped his head in the doorway, “Commander Kilimor requests your presence,” he said and then made a quick escape. “I'll be right there,” I said to the closed door. I quickly stuffed the metal message in a box under my desk and jumped out of the door. Once out I began a casual walk to the warehouse where I knew Kilimor would be as head of this investigation.
I got there without taking too much time. “You asked for me Kilimor?” I said
“Yes, we dug up the upturned ground you found and sure enough the thieves used it. Because there was loose dirt for a long way. We found the other side of the tunnel outside of the castle near the northwestern side next to the bungle berry fields.” Kilimor said.
“Were you able to find anything near there or something else?” I asked.
“No there was nothing but an old hermit,” He said a little downcast, “What we need to know is how they made this tunnel. It is a little under a quarter of a mile long, and that is no small distance when there is a likely chance of being seen. I need you to find out how they did this.”
“Okay take me to the tunnel.” I said and he led me away to the tunnel entrance we had discovered that morning. It looked very different as a hole. I crawled inside It smelled of sweat and dirt. They had recently dug it out and it still smelled of their work. I felt the wall and found that the dirt was softer than it should have been.
I frowned, “Kilimor, feel this dirt and tell me, does it feel as easy to move as the rest of the dirt around?”
He broke a piece off, frowned and then started to break more and more until finally he stopped. “It is no longer easy to break, but why was it so easy in the first place?”
“I don't know, their tunnel could not have been this long when they dug it that is unreasonable, this is over five feet long where most hastily made tunnels are two and a half to three.” I looked at the walls with new interest, “Check the other places for something like this.”
“Yeah I will.” Kilimor said still looking at where he had torn open the dirt. I left to Rodrick's house where I could bounce ideas and get new ones. I got there when Rodrick was drinking his midday tea.
“Hey Rodrick, we have work to do.” I hollered from his window. He quickly came out of his house and asked me what we were doing.
“Well remember the upturned dirt we found?” I asked
“Yeah this morning.” Responded Rodrick
“Yes, well the tunnel they dug out was five feet long.”
“What! Why? It only needs to be three feet.”
“Yes but that is how we found it, and we need to find out why,” I said,  “Kilimor is checking the other sites to see if that is consistent with each of them.”
“So we need to find out why they made a five foot tunnel?”
“Yes, and we might as well guess that the others are five foot as well.”
“Okay so any ideas?” Rodrick said.
I thought for a moment, “Well maybe the tunnels were already there and the thieves just dug the already dug out tunnels.”
“Hmmm possible but if so how long ago were they dug.” Said Rodrick
“Well it probably was not dug illegally, because that probably would have been found out. So we should check in the Kingdom history for answers. Assuming all of the tunnels are five feet.”
We waited discussing various possibilities for a few more minutes. We  were than interrupted by a messenger.
The messenger said, “The tunnels are indeed five feet wide.”