If Trust fears the dark, he doesn’t show it. You hold the gaiting rhythm and he snorts loudly before diving into the abyss. Your pupils expand and every darting look gives no return. Still, you do not slow the pace. You keep Trust trotting forward as Quinn clutches anxiously to your waist. The path winds to the right, descending gradually. As expected, the footing feels smooth. Your eyes are getting used to the dark. You see shadows and shapes now, sharp outcroppings and distant turns. The deeper you ride, the brighter the surroundings appear. You sense Quinn’s question before she asks it. Her curiosity has you smiling.

“Sunscape. It gathers the sunlight and releases it from within the phoenix.”

Trust’s coat glows now. The thousands of white specks suffuse the tunnel with a brilliant sheen, casting thin beams of light in every direction. It makes Trust look like a puppet, strung to cave walls by thousands of bright threads.

“I still don’t understand how we’re moving so fast,” Quinn says. “It’s like you’ve been down here before. Almost as if you know the way.”

You smile at that. “It helps that I memorized the route.”

“The whole thing?”

“Every single turn. I am my mother’s daughter.”

“Brilliant,” Quinn says. “That’s brilliant.”

“It was easier than you’d think. This is a mating tunnel.”

Trust nickers before rounding another curve. The path leads slightly uphill before cornering and diving deeper again. Quinn asks, “What do you mean, a mating tunnel?”

“See how smooth the walls are? Not exactly a natural passage.”

“Meaning what?”

“Sun wraiths,” you answer. “They’re an interesting breed. Big, obviously. And their mating patterns are really cute. When a female finds a male, they run away. The male just sits there, shut off from the world. Sort of like a game of hide-and-peek. He doesn’t move until the female calls for him. Then he goes to her. No matter what’s in the way.”

Quinn glances over your shoulder. “A creature made this….”

“Actually, a creature ate this. It burns and devours its way through mountains or hills…even buildings, occasionally. The Meridian Towers collapsed because of a mating tunnel in 731. Most of the legislation about sun wraith breeding grounds came from that little accident.

“But here’s where it gets cute. The female goes to him, too. She matches his movements by reading the heat signatures. So there’s this perfect, mirrored path that cuts through the ground. They meet in the middle of whatever they’re going through and burrow.”

“So…,” Quinn says, thinking, “we’re going to ride through their breeding grounds.”

“Ideally, no. We’ll ride to their breeding grounds and tiptoe our way around the burrow. Trust me, it’s safe. Sun wraiths bury themselves pretty deep, and they’re usually a little distracted. Unless there’s a jilted lover down here, we’re fine.”