When Jim first entered the Deep, he was determined to stay as close to the fallen cage as possible— perhaps Claire could shadow staff in, contrary to their beliefs that it was impossible…? Or perhaps… another solution. Jim could admit that the reasoning was not his finest, but in his defence the boy was also pretty desperate to get out of the foreboding cave.
Oh, he had tried. An hour worth of tries, and all he had to show for it was scuffed armor and a more panicked outlook on the situation.
Try as he might, the wall was simply too tall to climb up and out, painful falls awaiting him each time. If he wasn't careful, an unlucky tumble could be the end of the Trollhunter.
It wasn't like he didn't want out; the air was oppressing, reminding him of the darklands. He could almost hear another deadly wyrm slithering, and—
He shook his head, ridding himself of that bad path, instead focussed on running his hands along the cage. The horrible scraping sound brought Jim back to the present.
Oddly enough, nothing had happened yet asides from the miraculously survived falls— Jim felt he should question that considering Fate's apparent hatred of him but ultimately decided to not look a gift horse in its creepy and cavernous mouth, and to simply count his blessings and wait.
This lasted for maybe ten minutes.
There was not a perfectly logical explanation for any of "it" (as was typical in Jim's life).
It started as a faint tingle on the edges of Jim's senses about five minutes into waiting, while Jim was entertaining the thought of a flying Warhammer lifting himself and Toby out of the gloom. Nothing miraculous, just the faint feeling of eyes on his back that interrupted the pleasant daydream.
This feeling lasted about a minute, setting him on edge, and then it intensified suddenly— it was as though Jim could feel the waves of cruel intent rolling off the creature, and he reached for his sword, vision flickering. There was the vague outline of the cart and someone sitting there in between moments, before he snapped back to his own view. He blinked rapidly, bobbing the sword threatening.
A low laugh echoed through the caverns, causing Jim to jump noisily to his feet, Daylight shining with intensity that betrayed uneasiness.
A shadow slunk out of a stalactite, as though it had been one with it and was separating. Jim readied his sword, flashing it up in the thing's direction, only for the creature to bounce down and out if site once more.
Each time he swung his sword in the direction of movement in the hope of a glimpse, the thing would only bound away again and once again become a flicker at the edge of his vision with a gravelly cackle.
And then, he hopped off the cage and leapt after it, thus ending his ten minutes of waiting in vain for an escape.
—-
Maybe it's leading me to an exit, Jim considered hopefully. Of course, he wasn't that stupid; he knew the creature likely planned to attack him at some point, hence why he followed it— better to be on the offensive than sitting on a cage and desperately flailing his sword around.
He leapt gracefully over another stalagmite, watching as the shadow sprung ahead on deer legs twice as fast.
It looked vaguely like a troll, though not one of the huge buff ones; something graceful and deer like, and more flighty. Of course, it was hard to tell in the shadow; perhaps the beast was a shadow, with the only defining feature being those luminous eyes—
Wait a second—
Jim nearly tripped over a rock when he realized that the creature had slowed to run the the side of him, staring playfully and cruelly with its huge eyes. The left shone a bright blue, and had a creepy cat slit, but the other was worse. It held nothing, only pale white, and it shone like a flashlight. Jim could feel the piercing gaze worm its way into his very soul.
The beast laughed at his shock, snapped its fangs, and scampered ahead before daylight could bite into it.
Jim continued running after it, tracking his every turn and praying that he would not wind up lost.
—-
To the surprise of no one, Jim wound up lost.
He tried to look on the bright side of things; maybe he could find an alternate exit of some sort, since the climb clearly was not working. He would figure it out. He always did.
Unfortunately that sounded a bit desperate, even to his own ears, and the creature seemed to sense his sudden and quiet panic.
It abruptly whipped around, eyes staring like spotlights on him. There was flash of smoky red light, and a brief glimpse of flesh and terrible black stone meeting in jagged lines— and suddenly—
That can't be right, Jim thought stupidly, staring at the grinning shadow who was now garbed in his eclipse armor.
"That's mine," he informed the creature in an uncomprehending manner. It drew its sword, and Jim stated, "that is also mine."
And then he started running when the shadow swung it in a deadly arc, leaving red vapor in its wake.