| 5th of Teryusin — Year 362 of the Cycle of Synthesis, Grand Cycle ??? |
There was a point in Raoul’s life when he believed he wouldn’t ever get sick of the sensations the earth evoked. He loved the fresh air, the packed dampness of the countryside soil, the rustling of the leaves on trees… even the oftentimes-frigid coldness of rivers at all times of day. He was reminded almost immediately of his clear disdain for large bodies of water. It was an acquired hatred, one that came about when he mistakenly fell off a speeding boat while his family was on vacation to the Shelyn Islands. Those thirty minutes were just about the longest and bleakest moments in his life. And the latter was a high bar to break.
Looking back, it was the length of time that made it terrifying, not the fear of the deep end itself.
The first was the pain. His occiput had struck a sizable piece of stone and knocked him clean unconscious, but fortunately a bruise was all that it left. Compared to the explosion he was at the very site of a few days ago, being knocked out almost seemed like a tickle.
Second was the coughing. His throat seized, his lungs vigorously straining to expel the rush of water that had forced itself inside in his consciousness’ absence. Following it was what he could only describe as a series of hacks and sputters as Raoul hunched over in an attempt to flush everything out. Cold and metallic in equal amounts, the taste of underground cave water was at that point no different from poison.
When he had finally cleared himself, he sat up and removed his shirt, wringing it tightly. An entire cascade of splats and splatters rained onto the ground. The graze on right shoulder had begun to close itself by then, so he made no effort beyond tying his handkerchief to it to fashion a makeshift bandage as first aid. Only then did he raise his head to scan his surroundings.
It was still unbelievably dark, but not to the point he couldn’t see outright. A single fluid motion from his left hand to cast Conjure Flame was all he needed to supplement his natural vision. The cantrip flared into a gentle golden glow in his fingers, and he held it upright before bending back his ring and pointer fingers. Releasing it, the flame held stationary midair.
Behind him, the edge of the flowing river slipped off into a steep waterfall below, the rushing of the water masking the rest of audible sound. The crevasse he had fallen into was nowhere to be seen. Everywhere else was open stone, while Raoul proper had mysteriously made his way onto the right bank, free from the turbulent waves.
Set on the surface of a carved slab of stone a stone’s throw away was the dead body of the Satherian that had struck him. Squinting his eyes just enough, Raoul spotted a clear wound on the throat of the wolf.
Huh. I thought there wouldn’t be any more throat cutting. I must’ve flowed for a while. He huffed, still gathering his breath. The water’s far too strong for me to have simply washed ashore. She must’ve dragged me out.
His assumption was right. And as it turned out, the source of his current dilemma—both the cause of the problem and the solution of it—was a few ways in the distance, her back turned. Craning his head sideway, Raoul could just about piece together the faint sobs of a girl on her last legs emotionally. It didn’t take a genius to realize Idri was most likely blaming herself for it all.
A sigh left his lips—not of exasperation, but pity. Quickly, he snuck off into a near-silent sequence, making extra sure to time his steps just as the rivers’ larger waves made their descent below. His shoes, both of which were just as drenched as he was, creased heavily under every step, but he nonetheless managed to land right behind the slumped girl.
Sniffles and sobs of varying degrees. She had never been the kind to cry at all, but when she did, it was almost always for someone in their friend group. And even then, it was very contained.
“You’re gonna cry yourself to death if you keep doing that,” he muttered off just loud enough for her to hear. “I’m fine. It wasn't too bad a fall.”
A gasp of surprise. She pushed herself up in an instant and reversed, running straight before wrapping her arms around him in a death-grip hug. “Ah…! Raoul, you’re… okay…”
He frantically tapped on her arm, signaling to lessen the tightness of her grip. “Timeout, timeout. You’re crushing me.”
As she finally did, he returned the hug.
Her tears were flowing even more than when they first reunited and much more flowy than the river behind him. “I’m… I’m so sorry! If I had just stayed beside you, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
“I’m fine, Idri,” repeated Raoul, another attempt to reassure her. “It was a long fall, but I honestly passed out the moment I broke the surface. My head’s a bit fuzzy too, but that’ll probably go away in a bit. More importantly, I want to know what happened after that.”
“You’re sure…? Okay. After you… fell, I followed behind you. The Satherian was still alive, so I killed it the moment I could.”
Idri trailed off, waving a weak hand to the shore they were on. “I couldn’t get you out of the river because of how strong the waves were, so I swam ahead and caught you as you passed by. Again, I’m so, so sorry.”
He gave her another understanding nod. “The past is the past. In the meantime, I wanna know how the hunting went. You only killed three, right?”
“Mhm. I… Well, while you were asleep, I decided to send out Kranstor to scout the area and kill any others that came by, while I stayed here waiting for you to wake up.”
Thirty minutes had passed. Thankfully, his phone hadn’t been destroyed in the dive, and was functioning relatively well, if a bit slow. In fact, his attention was more focused on her last sentence. “You sent it out? So it moves autonomously. I thought you said you couldn’t get rid of it.”
“I’ve long figured out that it goes off intent. It can read my thoughts, so if I even think about wanting to throw it away, it’ll always come back. But if I just want it to accomplish something for me, it’ll listen and do as I say.”
“Huh… I see. Did it find anything?”
“No… Actually, it did find one, but it’s not a creature.”
Raoul couldn’t help but tilt his head in confusion. “Sorry?”
“It’s easier if I show you,” said Idri, finally letting go of the hug. Carefully, she began walking southward, and Raoul followed almost instantly out of curiosity. “This way.”
The both of them continued on, following the river they had just gone down upstream. Every once in a while, Idri would shift her gaze back, as if terrified her friend would get into another accident without her there. To soothe her piping worries, Raoul made sure to keep pace with her steps as a small measure of his being fine. She made sure to avoid even the smallest of gaps in the stone, purposely leading him on detours that effectively doubled their travel time.
Before Raoul could say something to shut down her fears entirely, she stopped and pointed. There, on the opposite side of the bank and dug into the side of the stone wall he could clearly make out blocks of stone sticking further out than the rest of the chunks around it. Narrowing his eyes even further, a small cut layer towards the bottom half revealed itself—an airway similar to the gap beneath a door.
“I heard a loud click a few seconds after you fell into the water and noticed the wall move. I didn’t check it back then, but I made sure to tell Kranstor to look for it on its way back.”
“I wonder what it is. Why don’t we check?”
Idri frantically shook her head. “No-no. The gap’s too big for you to jump.”
She was lying, as evident from the quivering in her lips and eyes. The gap was large, but it was definitely much smaller than the crevasse they had crossed earlier. He knew that a longer running start was all that he needed to cross the distance easily.
“I can jump the gap, Idri.”
She swiftly stood in his way and spread her arms out, blocking the edge from him with her body. In comparison to him, she wasn’t actually blocking anything visually.
“No you can’t, and I don’t want you to. You… you might fall off again and hurt yourself.”
What to do, he wondered.