Faizah and Emilia get wrapped up in something a bit more serious than they’re used to.
Characters: Faizah, Emilia, Leslie (NPC)
Warnings: N/A
Wordcount: 1,023
Vibe: scary cave times
emilia is like a metronome that swings between insufferable and genuine. faizah is probably thinking about how she should have just grabbed the crystals back at town and sold them all
a more emilia centric chapter this time! yahoo
“Geez.” Emilia huffed.
“There’s a hell of a lotta caverns, dude. How are we gonna find this thing?!”
As crass as she was, Emilia… had a point.
While the trail of shattered rock and crystal left by the guzzlord was still evident, it was more spread out – as well, the large open chamber had dozens of connecting caverns.
It was impossible to know which way to go.
“Well…” Leslie started.
“I figure if we keep following this stream, we should reach a backroute of tunnels I used to explore when I was a child. It’s going to be a long haul, but I know it’ll get us to the city… eventually.”
“Eventually? That’s not good enough.” Faizah snapped.
“For how massive this… thing is, you’d think it’d carve something a lot more noticeable. We need to keep looking.”
“I’m… just worried, what if we take too much time?” Emilia mumbled.
Faizah turned around while walking to hush her partner’s worry, but while doing so, stumbled and fell into a cavern the group was passing by.
Leslie quickly reacted and caught her before she could fall further – to call what Faizah had accidentally stumbled into ‘steep’ would be a grave understatement.
“Speak of the devil, why don’t you?” Leslie said with a light chuckle as he pulled Faizah to her feet.
“This has gotta be it.”
—
While Faizah initially tried to brave the steep descent into the abyss herself, one too many close calls and near slips finally got her to admit defeat.
Thankfully, the large and stocky build of a lupanthera was more than capable of carrying her weight – and though Emilia didn’t particularly mind her boss using her as a mount, Faizah thought it was embarrassing.
The lupanthera, through many generations, had become accustomed to these caves. Their thick pawpads and large claws did wonders in helping navigate the massive caverns, even generations after the practical need for such exploration faded.
So, while Faizah gripped Emilia’s collar tightly to hang on, Emilia took the lead into descending.
“Wait. Stop.” Leslie said, sharply and suddenly.
“Huh? What’s… up?” Emilia asked, cocking her head.
But Emilia wouldn’t have time to respond – as Faizah shifted her weight a bit and Emilia re-adjusted her footing, a chunk of rock and crystal collapsed beneath her.
Just as quickly as he helped Faizah, Leslie’s reaction time was quick enough for him to get a firm grip on Emilia’s collar before she fell.
It was definitely impressive, even if Emilia was on the smaller side for a lupanthera – the way Leslie pulled the duo to safety was effortless.
“Sorry.” Leslie huffed.
“I should have called it out sooner. I’ve slowly been feeling the footing around here get less stable… but you were scaling it all so confidently, I was unsure if I was imagining it.”
“No, it’s… ok.” Emilia said in between catching her breath.
“I sort of… don’t think things through a lot, is all.”
“Well, be more careful, at least for right now.” Leslie sighed.
“I can’t catch you every time.”
—
The deeper the group went, the stranger the tunnel became.
While initially a guzzlord-typical borehole in one direction, the tunnel’s path began to spiral and jump… which made navigating down it even more treacherous.
There were a few moments where Emilia slipped a bit, but Leslie was always quick to catch her. The two had been communicating a lot more to ensure a safe descent, as Faizah buried her silence in Emilia’s mane.
Suddenly, a pause from Faizah, as Emilia noticed her grip on her collar tighten while she was idling.
“Eh, everything good, boss?” Emilia asked, noticing Faizah had frozen up.
“Do you hear that?” Faizah said stiffly – an unnerving change of tone.
“Hear… what?” Emilia responded.
But suddenly, Emilia heard it too. Rather, she felt it.
The cavern began rumbling, and the rocks and crystals beneath her feet felt more and more unstable…
“There’s a pocket to the side there, quickly!” Leslie shouted – it seemed that the gravity of what was happening didn’t need additional words to explain, only a cry for action.
Quickly, Emilia dashed to the pocket with Faizah – Leslie followed, but caught his foot on a crystal that was loose and tumbled down.
The collapse was severe, and he was barely able to grip the side of the pocket cavern to prevent falling into the abyss below.
Emilia yelped, and went to grab Leslie’s collar and try and help him up – but the odds of gravity weren’t in Emilia’s favor, and she was struggling…
But, in the safety of the side cavern, Faizah dismounted Emilia and gave her pull too – finally providing enough force to lift Leslie up into the safety of the pocket, as the borehole collapsed.
—
With the force Leslie was pulled up with, he ended up tumbling over and on top of Emilia. As the group got their bearings, Leslie was the first to speak again.
“That was pretty slick. To think you kept me a knifepoint only hours ago…” he said with a chuckle.
Quickly, Emilia pushed Leslie off and shook herself off.
“Since when did you have a sense of humor?!” Emilia huffed.
“You nearly died! Of course I had to grab you.”
“Maybe.” Leslie said with a nod.
“There’s a difference between treasure pilferers and true adventurers. A pilferer tends to be liberal with what baggage they drop at moments notice… I didn’t know what I was dealing with, so I had to keep my guard up.”
There was a pause.
“Whatever, man.” Emilia sighed.
“I guess we gotta find a new way down.”
—
The trip through the side-cavern thankfully wasn’t much of a detour – the group quickly found themselves back on track, as the smaller cavern ran parallel to the larger one that had collapsed.
The deeper they went, the less darkness obscured what was below. Leslie has taken the lead, and Emilia was following close behind with Faizah mounted on top.
Suddenly, Leslie stopped.
Emilia could see that the path ended sharply, and that Leslie was staring down into it.
“You two should come get a look of this.”
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