"GODS ABOVE, STOP DROPPING CAVES ON US!" I roar with all I have at the mess of a world we now find ourselves in. It's not a frequent occurrence, but, this is twice now over the past month or so this has happened.
"WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME!?" Hrurim demands to know and I snap around to face him. Arms up in the air as my masked-up eyes try their damndest to burn a pair of holes into his miserable backside.
"ME!?" I bark and he nods, throwing his own hands up as a lighter and stick come up. He's quick to burn the end to a fine ash crisp, and it goes to his lips. A hefty sigh fills the tunnel with echoes as much as still crumbling rocks do.
"Bugger me..." he goes, the initial fright leaving his system as the pair of us calm down and waddle about aimlessly. Our minds stay blank and then we snap our focus together.
"HEIYA!" we go in unison, heading back to the van as a pile of rubble tries to stop us.
"Heiya!? Heiya!?" Hrurim calls again and again, his effort almost deceptive with how little risk he's putting the cigarette in. I try to knock it away with a cheaply placed swat, but he avoids me, going around to the van's crushed end.
I follow the still-human and meet him at the crushed backdoor. I look on in, the light of his cigarette enough to get a shimmer off of Heiya's spines. She looks our way, eyes still full of the usual misery and a certain disappointment... She won't do it herself, but if the world will do it for her, she will welcome her death.
"Come on, then! You're the witch! Put that super strength to use!" Hrurim demands, shoving and flicking away at me as inaction takes me over.
"I've barely been surviving as is no thanks to you lot..." I complain, throwing out some relieving jabs about the fact he and the other two, now one, kept me in a cage. He offers a quick sneer and I make my way around to the side door. I tug on the handle, feeling resistance, and I keep ongoing. Something cracks and I stop, looking back the way of the still-human.
"Hope you've got enough strength in you to help get this boulder off." Hrurim threatens, a source of leverage quickly appearing in his arms. He stabs it between the van's hide and the boulder. The scrape of metal and rock following along the vanishing form of his stick. The fiery stub lingers between his lips and I lodge myself by it.
"On three... One... Two... Three!" I say, heaving with as much strength as I can while he tries to bend into the motion I'm making. The boulder creaks up and away, steadily moving and crashing down. I fall ahead, landing on the still-human as his swears and barks fill the cavern air.
"GET OFF!" he groans, spitting his leftover cigarette up at me. I force my way up, ready to come to blows and-
A just unlocked van door clicks open.
We both turn and look at Heiya as she idly strolls out into the open, no worse for wear. She doesn't even offer us a glance and gets moving down the ruined tunnel road. We keep following her with our eyes and stop. Going back between us.
"Quiet now." I tell him and he nods as we take the moment to pick out what supplies we do have that haven't broken apart. My claws go across my cloak, brandishing my mucky bandages so I can free some of the dust and shrapnel off. Things enter my palms and I step back, there not really being much else to salvage from this mess of a motor vehicle.
"Guess that's it, then. Time to wear off another pair of boots." Hrurim grumbles, slamming the broken door. My closest claw catches it and I let it fall apart some more.
"Hold on, Heiya!" I call out, the chitters no doubt causing enough problems in the long expanse of this tunnel. I give the rocky sky another look over, unable to see any actual break-ins of real sky.
"Gods above indeed." Hrurim muses, his shoulder rolling with renewed effort as it least some bags managed about intact. Guess we're all the luckier for it, really. Most of the debris fell behind the van while we were looking about. Only that one boulder came even close to crushing Heiya and she's none the worse for wear... Well, almost.
Any feelings she's had as of late all funnel down the same pipe. Grief for her dead father. I don't know how long it's been since then, but it's not been enough. Not at all.
"Still, what was all that about earlier?" I ask myself, looking to my right palm as I eye the now lightless scar. The cut Waionr put into my palm while I was a soul years ago. It was glowing for some reason. A first at all... In all my time being alive since I was at Rose's flower. A long time of nothing.
Then something.
I shake my head free of the confusion and reassure what luggage I've managed to salvage. My long legs let me catch up quickly, but an invisible hook keeps me in line with Hrurim. Heiya's in sight again, at the very least. Short and squat, yet very fast.
"Please, please tell me you are familiar with this route." I ask of Hrurim as he was the driver. Our map reader. Our everything. Beyond being a source of muscle and easy distractions for the sake of looting... I'm useless down here. I know nothing about this subterranean land and the only other who does is always upset.
"I know this route should lead us to a settlement. If it's even there anymore." Hrurim huffs, his hands surprisingly not patting around for his beloved stress relief.
"Great... I love aimless wandering." I complain, months of experience throughout my life coming to me. It's all fine and dandy to know where you're headed and having it be a long walk, but this is something else entirely.
"I love it more than the last time the roof of the underground decided to inexplicitly fall. Whatever's going on upstairs, I swear if we get to try out the backhanded side of Third Time's the Charm..." Hrurim grumbles, the weary criminal's features quite bright even in the ruined cave light.
"Least this is a proper road, too." I say, shrugging my shoulders over the fact the lights are still very much intact.
"Mmm, quite the looked after one for a lone bit, too." he goes and I look down at him, recalling his lies from before.
"You know what it's for? You did make your lie quite a bit about the fact you're a human underground." I point out and he shrugs.
"I do know, but ever bothering about it is pointless. No one's getting inside that place at all. Top of the line security expected of the 'wind-people' as all the in' and abhumans like to put it," he explains, though his details are so very vague and lacking for me to understand.
"I see." I lie, not really seeing it at all.
"Still, so long as we're careful, we should find someone willing to give us help. The security on this place is double-ended. I don't know a thing on the insides but I know how it works on the outside," he explains and I nod along, running a claw on some nearby rock as a light flickers about. Seemingly unable to decide if it wants to keep working or just fail then and there.
"You know too much." I comment, not really sure what else to say.
"You just hate the fact I know more about the world than you do, Witch." he mutters, his voice quite scornful over the fact I am just that. A witch, a magic user. A spellcaster. A power-flinging superman.
And he's some back-alley criminal who needs guns!
"What, jealous?" I ask him, and he nods, scoffing into a gentle laugh.
"Boy, if I had the power you had with none of the effort I would live the dream," he goes, once again missing the point of all the information he's probed me for over the weeks.
"How many times do I have to tell you I didn't just get strong?" I go and he only laughs harder.
"I survived Sudden Induction- Hurdur! Hurdur!" he cracks up, making my clicks turn quite nasty as he continues to drive a full cash crop of easy humour from me. There's certainly plenty of land for him to harvest, too. So, I'm probably best off walling him off...
"Fair enough..." I roll my eyes to, knowing full well it's not entirely worth it to try and clarify what he's intentionally misremembering. Pride is a foul thing to taste.
"But in all seriousness, I think we should make it that far, at the very least," he says, our luck just there enough as he shows off a little watch.
"Ah, night time above or coming to." I go, not paying enough attention for a precise remark. Though, my eyes are more than willing to pay attention to the distant spot he's point towards. Some kind of station of some kind. It's hard to say what it is specifically. It's a roof, however.
And with how above is right now... Some roof is better than none. Any other time and I could cross that distance in a blink. Overshoot it by some metres and leave a scar in the road. But with how little magic is actually down here in the underground, it's not really a great idea. Much as my senses constantly tease me about a potent source coming from somewhere.
There's no more quake, so, unless a dead witch off immeasurable power is bleeding out around here... Then I don't know. The last quake I know the source of, it was me and Atarifuge. I was familiar with that as familiar can be. This, however, is a complete mystery to me and I doubt Will'endoor is somehow responsible here either.
"Say, what part of the world did you say we're under?" I ask, knowing full well he's had something to say about it.
"Old Theocracy borders. Union's been a bit hush hush for the past few decades though they've let up. Rumour has it, even, they blew all the tunnels into the Theocracy." he goes and that's a might bit confusing.
"The invading army blew up their ways to invade a country?" I ask, Vapooliar so quickly crossing my mind. Though, I've not a clue what she's been up to these past few years. She disappeared from Thrurstradtur-Suhurlodst a good while ago. But, who knows which way she flew from there.
"Don't ask me. I'm a smuggler. Just passing on what few rumours I got working for that old, nasty creature of a woman," he tells me, his prior employment status washing my mind clear of focus.
"Still, coming across some soldiers would be nice. They'd have the most to offer us out of anyone." I say, and Hrurim's teeth rattle about thoughtfully.
"Depends, depends. Get on the right terms and you can milk them for something. Union troops are a waste of time with how those shadow-faces of their refuse to budge. Never seen a Theocrat, though. They vanished a long time ago, really." Hrurim explains as Heiya finds herself a high rock to perch on.
"Careful, there!" I call out to her, cupping my mouth with a claw as she teeters dangerously close to the edge. Hrurim's arm comes up, lowering my raised one as he shakes his head.
"She's fine. If she wanted to end her life, she knows the best way to. Besides, she might not show it. But she's her father's daughter. She's on that same path he was. It's all the starting phase. The seeds in the soil waiting for the rain." Hrurim muses, as his expression remains grim and at a loss.
"Inappropriate as my feelings are to the mood. I feel at a loss between you two. I never knew Ivahstar like you guys did. He was just the man who tried to sell me twice." I say, and Hrurim takes the moment to at least try and get something positive out into the world. His hand secures a grip on my shoulder and ruffles it.
"Makes it all the funnier," he goes, his smile just not quite matching his eyes. He gets on moving down the road and I linger at the top. My arms stay at my side until one comes up. I stare down at my palm, once again wondering why it's been glowing.
"There are others I know, though..." I remind myself, however pointless it might feel to do so. I've got a goal to work towards, just like these two do. And I intend to get it done. They need me... Much as I need them. All of the people I left on the surface. The people waiting for me.