Headaches and Caves

"…en! Ben!"

Captain Finn stirred, recognising his name, though not entirely sure why someone was looking for him. Was it one of the men? No, he'd left them all in Bowerstone. But where did that leave him? It wasn't Mourningwood. Too hot for a place like that… It definitely wasn't the rebel base, it didn't smell bad enough for that. The ship!

His eyes flew open, but he immediately regretted the action, the blinding midday sunlight damaging his vision temporarily, forcing him to cover them with his hands. As he remained in a rather undignified position he let his mind wander back to what he last remembered; the ship, the guns, sinking, swimming…

"Ben!"

The voice drew him back to the present. He knew that voice…

"Walter?" Slowly drawing his hand away, he took in his surroundings.

He was in the entrance of a cave; a very open and wide cave, but a cave none the less. He was lying on what appeared to be the remains of a table, which was surprisingly comfortable, and he could feel his wet clothes clinging to his body. Instinctively he reached up over his shoulder and down to his side to make sure his rifle and pistol were still there, and he sighed in relief when his fingers touched the smooth wooden butts of his weapons, though it didn't change the fact that they were probably useless. The slight pull on the rifle confirmed that his cutlass was also firmly attached.

As he opened his pocket bag, he removed some soggy paper sachets. Wet powder; the bane of all riflemen. He wasn't going to be using his Steel Flintlocks anytime soon.

Slowly, he pulled himself into a slightly wobbly standing position, leaning on a nearby rock as he found his legs again. How long had he been out?

"Ben!" came Walter's familiar voice as he came around the corner. It made his head ring as if he'd gotten pissed with his men in some tavern or another.

"Keep your voice down old man!" he cried, putting a hand to his head, "You trying to wake up…" he felt something wet and sticky tangled in his hair. Silently, he hoped it wasn't what he thought it was. When he pulled his fingers away from his skull, he saw they were covered in the red liquid he knew to be his blood. "Ah shit…"

At least that explained why he felt like he had one hell of a hangover.

The old knight noticed this and his smiling features grew dark. "That doesn't look too good."

Ben hissed when he found the source; a deep, thick gash hidden in his once golden locks. "You're telling me." Wiping his hand on his trousers, he began to make his way over to the water's edge. As he dove his head into one of the rock pools he supressed a cry of pain as the salt water entered his wound, but he knew it had to be done.

"I think it might need stitches." Walter said, his voice a lot closer than the captain had anticipated, making him jump.

"For Avo's sake! Don't do that!" he snapped, standing to face his superior officer, "I'm surprised the princess…" realisation dawned on him. "Milena…" Where was she? Had she survived the attack? Did she drown?

The grey haired man smiled at him. "Don't worry, she'd down the beach a bit. Thought I'd let her rest a bit longer before we headed off."

"And you didn't think I needed my rest?" he asked, indicating his head.

Walter laughed, "Shut up Ben, you've been through worse." And with that, he began to make his way down the beach, the red clad officer in tow, grumbling all the way.

Milena woke to the sound of waves, her cheek resting on what felt like sand, meaning she was on a beach somewhere. What beach and where it was located were two things she didn't know, but the fact that she was alive comforted her a bit. She screwed her eyes tighter as the sunlight tried to impose its presence to her, groaning softly. Tyson barked somewhere nearby, and the sound of footsteps came ever closer. She only dared to hope…

Pushing herself up onto her elbows, she allowed herself to open her eyes.

"Are you alright?" asked a gruff and familiar voice.

Dragging herself to her feet, the young woman turned to face the two men who had approached her, her always-energetic loyal companion already running circles around them in his excitement, his soggy hair almost completely covering eyes.

"Yes," she smiled, "it's good to see you both made it."

"And the same to you princess," the captain replied, giving her one of his smug grins, "though that hardly surprises me. You are a hero after all." As he finished, he tilted his head to the side, causing him to wince. "Damn…"

"You're hurt?"

Ben's lip curled up slightly. "I've had worse." He lifted his hand to the back of his head. "But then again…" his eyes lit up when he faced her again, "you wouldn't happen to know any spells to fix this up would you?"

She grinned at him. "I don't think so."

The blond haired man feigned disappointment. "Ah well," he looked at Walter, "looks like it's stitches then."

Walter smirked, "I didn't say it would be any different! Anyway," he turned back towards the way they'd come from, "the only way forward seems to be… through a rather ominous cave."

As she followed, Milena couldn't help but think about the story he'd told her about when he'd gotten trapped in one with two others in one of his battles. It had left him with a fear of the things, though it was nothing in comparison to his frenzied fear of the dark; not the night dark, but pitch blackness where you couldn't see more than a foot in front of your face. From the way Ben was looking at the older man, it was clear he knew about this too.

As they began to walk into the deep cave, Walter paused for a moment. "Before we go any further, I'd just like to say one thing." The two younger members of their group frowned at him as he took a deep breath. "Balls!" His voice reverberated throughout the… tunnel… sending it into every crevice, every crack.

"Well," Ben said after a sizable pause, "that's one way to say 'hello' to Aurora."

Milena let herself giggle quietly, easing out some of the tension that had accumulated since she'd regained consciousness.

"I expected it to be less… cavey." Came the reply as they began to move on again, following Tyson as he dashed ahead, barking at a colony of bats as they flew towards the entrance. "Wonder what's got them spooked."

"Probably your terrible singing Wally." Ben grinned, earning him a punch in the arm. "Hey! Injured man here!"

"Shut up Ben!"

They walked in relative silence for a few minutes, taking one step at a time, the dry sand giving way under their feet as they stepped deeper into the cave. Ben wondered what could be going through the old man's mind, being in one of the worst situations the knight could be in, and yet still he led them on.

Unfortunately, his head was still throbbing, and his vision was blurring slightly, so it was only a matter of time before he'd have to…

"What the hopping hobbes is that?"

Blinking the fuzz away from his vision, Ben caught up to the awe struck pair who were looking over what appeared to be a banister. Following their gaze, he felt his jaw drop.

They were standing at the entrance to a large hall, the ceiling at least a hundred feet above them, carved pillars and staircases, most of which had collapsed, surrounding the centre of their attention. In the middle of the paved floor was what looked like a glowing pool of water, it's violet light giving off an uninviting air.

"It must be protecting something…" Walter continued, sidling towards the only intact way down, "like the way out most likely."

As he began to follow, he could feel himself beginning to sway slightly and moved towards one of the pillars to steady himself and let the spots clear from his vision. He must have lost more blood than he realised. By the time his sight had returned to normal, the others were already at the top of the stairs.

"Well I'll tell you one thing…" Walter said, to no on in particular, as Ben struggled to catch up, "we haven't got this far, this many people behind us, to end up dying in some forsaken, far-off hole in the ground."

Ben smirked. "Doesn't really inspire confidence, old man." He continued down a few more steps before having to rest for a moment, putting pressure on the back of his head, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to make the world stop spinning.

"Are you alright?" he heard Milena ask, a soft hand resting on his arm, pulling it away from his wound. She hissed. "We have to sew that up."

He shook his head. "It's not that bad! I'll get over it soon anyway."

"It's still bleeding."

Ben frowned. How could it still be bleeding? The blood should have clotted by now… unless it was deeper than he thought. "Can you see anything white?" he asked, silently praying to Avo the answer was…

"Yes."

Shit. "Walter! I'm gonna need those stitches now!" he cried, eyes now wide open, staring at the knight, all his humour gone. "It's deeper than I thought."

When Walter arrived he examined the cut properly, moving the princess out of the way. "Balls. Right down to the skull… You got any thread?" Reaching into his bag, Ben pulled out the hooked needle every soldier had to carry, but the thread had been lost with the tide, but, for whatever reason, Milena had some. "You'd better sit down for this."

Once he was sat on one of the boulders, he tensed, ready for the necessary pain awaiting him.

Milena couldn't watch as the needle first pierced the captain's skin. It looked painful, and she was grateful that her Will prevented wounds such as those from remaining open for too long, meaning she never needed stitches. Instead of waiting for the process to be over, she continued down the stairs and began to search for a way past the glowing lake.

Upon closer inspection, she realised how thin it was, but it could somehow hold both her and Tyson's weight. She couldn't help but wonder at the powerful magic that had been hidden in this cave.

She must have spent longer than she thought looking at it, because when she looked up again, Ben was standing up and slowly making his way further down the steps, Walter already searching one of the piles of bones that were lying around the edges.

"Looks like these poor sods got stuck here." He toed some of the ribs, only to have them crumble at the contact. "Perhaps they have something useful on them." He knelt down, groaning slightly as his knee popped. "Why don't you have a look over there."

The rebel princess walked over to one of the other corpses and pushed it over with her foot, revealing a piece of paper. As she picked it up, the layers of sand and dust covering it slipped off, revealing faint, spidery lettering. "I've found something…" She read the first line. "'It speaks to us still. Darkness incarnate. We know now we can never escape it.'"

"Well…" Walter said after a few moments, "that doesn't sound good."

"Has there been anything good since we've arrived here?" Ben asked sarcastically as he began to rummage around in a bag he found.

"Hey, I've found something too!" her teacher exclaimed, ignoring the pessimistic comment, holding up a book. "Looks like a journal. Or what's left of one anyway, and most of it looks like gobbledygook anyway." He walked over to the barrier. "I mean listen to this nonsense. 'Luminous spirits of the sands, impart daybreak and gleam under a quiet moon'." He laughed. "What's that supposed to…"

Suddenly, the letters flew from the page, and the 'lake' rippled, disintegrating from the centre.

Ben jumped to his feet, hand falling to his pistol. "Bleedin' heck!" Milena had to agree, letting her gaze fall on her cheerful mentor.

"Look at that!" He smiled. "Can you believe I did that?" he laughed, though it wasn't as joyful as it was before. Now he could see how dark it really was. "Uh… it does look somewhat dark though." He took a tentative step away from the edge. "Maybe going down isn't such a good idea."

Milena came over to him and held his hand, making him look at her. She smiled. "We'll be right here with you, every step of the way."

"Yeah," Ben's hand fell onto his opposite shoulder, "All the way."

The knight nodded at them both but didn't say a word, and they began to make their descent into the darkness, the entrance resealing once they'd gone down several feet.

There was no going back now.

AN - Well, this is my first chapter for my first Game fanfiction. I hope you guys liked it, and for those who follow my other stories, yes, I know I said I wouldn't start any more, but I couldn't help it! The temptation was too great!

The two perspective thing's a new one for me, so I hope you guys liked it. I have no idea when the next chapter for this or any of my stories will be up, but I hope it won't be too long...

And for those of you who don't know, there's a book called 'Fable: Blood Ties' coming out soon based entirely around Ben Finn, so if you like him, then I'd suggest you read it!

Until next time!

Headaches and Caves