Chapter 3:
Goodbye my beloved home: the story of a legendary cave!
After finishing their first quest, they finally have permission to leave the Sand Village and can travel wherever they please. Their first stop, the Snow village, and it was also the nearest village they can get to. The Geography of the world were three massive land forms, the Southern Continent where the Sand, Swamp and Snow village lies, the Northern Continent, where the Jungle, Forest, Volcano, and Tower village lies, and the Eastern Supercontinent, not much known by hunters, as it was separated by a large ocean.
The Snow village was to the southeast of the Sand Village, at the mountainous regions of the Southern Continent. The desert was the coldest and largest in the world, as it was near a snowy region. What divided the village was the large tunnel carved under the large mountain range dominating the central Southern Continent
They packed their things, food, cold drinks, a map, and torches. Noa noticed something wrong with his gunlance. A gunlance is required to have a safety, to prevent the trigger from igniting the strong shells it chambered.
"The safety's broken…"
The gunlance's safety broke when Noa and the others fought the Gendrome. He said
"I don't have time to fix it here." He withdrew his weapon and decided to fix it some other time, but, he had to be careful.
"I'll just have to fix it when we get to the Snow village…"
The group went go to the gates, to make their final preparations for their first journey outside the village, only to see Kaori once again…
"Hi guys! Are yah planning to leave the village today?" she asked
"Yes Kaori-chan… but we will be gone for a while." said Yuko
"Oh… You guys gonna travel?"
"Yeah… we'll be back here by a month or so, okay?" said Noa. It takes a month's worth of travelling to explore one-half of the Southern Continent, especially that the group will have to cross the desert only to reach the snowy forest leading to the Snow village.
"Ah… Well come back safe!" she said
"Sure." said Marina
Kaori went to the platform and activated the switch. The gates opened, and the group saw the desert with the sun in full rise. They walked outside the gates to start their journey into the Snow village.
The gate of the Sand Village was facing west, so they had to turn around the village to get to their destination. They walked for miles, only to see dunes, dunes, and more dunes. Despite the desert being the coldest in the world, it was still a desert, meaning the sun has nothing to block its light and heat from the group. The group started to feel the heat, and sweltered inside their clothing.
"Argh! Why is it so hot!?" said Noa
"We're in the desert, stupid…" said Marina
"I want a roll, right now!" said Ken
Three more hours worth of walking, they have started hallucinating from the searing heat and have begun dehydrating. They started walking upright and then ended up slouching from the heat.
"I can't walk… anymore…" panted Marina
"Marina, hold on." said Yuko.
They have been exposed to too much heat that they have started hallucinating and acting strange. Marina on one had started to see sparkles in her background and started acting all dramatic. She and Yuko started acting different, as if Yuko was sad to leave Marina die in the heat, while Marina acts all heroic and tells them to go on without her.
"I can't anymore, go on without me…" went Marina as she fell to her knees
"No! Marina…" went Yuko who grabbed her before she fell to the sand, they looked at each other with slight tears coming out from their eyes
"Yuko…" went Marina
"Marina…" went Yuko
"Yuko…" went Marina
"Marina, we're near the tunnels." then, Noa said as he saw a nearby cave. And with excitement, Marina stood up and ran with haste, leaving the confused Yuko in her dust, or sand. Marina was so overjoyed to finally get into some shade, only to not notice she was running towards a rock near the entrance.
"Oof!" she went as she collided with the rock.
"Your fault for running, do that and you'll go blind again…" jested Ken
"Oh shut up!" she said
"Hey, you need a hand there?" asked Noa
"Sure, thanks…" she said
Noa gave Marina a hand, and helped her back on her feet. They continued walking inside the cave, then Yuko started explaining
"People barely use this place to get to The Snow village, but it's the fastest way to get to there. They say that this was a legendary cave… I wonder why?" said XioaYuko.
They looked further inside and lit a torch to illuminate the pitch black cave. As they walked deeper inside, they saw multiple stalactites, and stalagmites that formed like a dragon's teeth. Bats were seen flying from one rock formation to another. Then Ken jested about getting lost inside a dark cave
"Noa, you and Marina should hold hands so you won't get lost… hehehehe-"
"SHUT UP!" they shouted loudly
The shout was so loud that the large colonies of sleeping bats awoke, and were provoked by them. They started flying away in such a large group.
"Hyah!" Yuko reacted
The bats were too many, that Noa accidentally fell on his back. He was knocked back so hard that his safety-lacking gunlance's trigger ignited a shell, and made a large bang that echoed loudly throughout the cave. Then, the cave suddenly rumbled as the weakened rocks started falling down on top on them. They ran away quickly to avoid getting hit by the rocks, but unknowingly separating from each other.
Marina and Noa were separated from Yuko and Ken.
"Ken!? Yuko!?" Noa yelled
He tried removing the rocks but more just kept tumbling down
"Damn it, we're stuck!" said Noa.
"No duh, Noa! What the heck happened to you gunlance!?"
"Its safety broke after that fight with the Gendrome. I was thinking of fixing it in the Snow village, but I didn't expect this to happen."
"You should have fixed it while we were still in the Sand Village! We could wait y'know!" Marina yelled, she was just so angry about the moment, but started calming down, and sighed to relieve herself.
"Yeah, you're right, my bad" said Noa. They sat down on the ground and lit another torch.
"No use arguing about it…" said Noa.
Then Marina felt something painful on her leg
"Ouch" she went
"Huh? What happened-" said Noa
He noticed a big cut on Marina's right leg, which was caused by one of the sharp stalactites that fell down on them. He checks to see how bad it was. It appeared as a deep cut with blood dripping out of it. Noa reacted to it immediately, thinking he was the one at fault for her wound.
"Marina wait! Hold on, okay?" said Noa. He used a portion of cloth from his armour and used it to wrap the wound. Then he took one of his special herbs from his satchel. He bought the herb before they left. It is said to heal wounds as bad as Marina's. Before wrapping the wound, he grounded the herb with a makeshift mortar and placed it there, then wrapped it tightly. The herb was also an anaesthetic, making Marina's leg numb.
"How's that?" said Noa.
"Uh... yeah I can't feel my leg, but it's better than letting it bleed, thanks…" said Marina.
Noa assisted Marina in walking. Her right arm was wrapped on Noa's shoulder while Noa supported her like a crutch. They walked around the cave to see if they could find an exit. As they kept walking, Marina noticed that she was becoming too heavy for Noa, she looked at him to make sure if he was okay.
"Hey Noa, am I getting to heavy for you?"
"Nah, I'm okay." But he was slowly getting tired. Marina was looking slightly worried that she was becoming a burden to him.
"I think I could walk on my own now." She said
Noa disagreed, and said "Nah, the herb take hours to lose effect. I'll just… have to carry you around… while that's the case… phew…" obviously he was already tired. But they just kept walking, and then, they finally saw light.
"Hey that must be an exit!" he said
"Isn't it a little too near though? Anyway, let's go!" Marina replied
When they kept walking towards what they thought was an exit, they were surprised with what they saw.
"What the-" went Marina.
"A-A…" said the surprised Noa
"A GIGANTIC SWORD…" they both said
It was a giant monolith, a gigantic, fifty feet tall slab of limestone craved into a great sword that had a statue of a woman lifting her arms towards the crystal stalactites. This was the only part of the cave that was illuminated. Also, it was the middle part of the cave that they have to cross. From outside the cave, this part was the largest and tallest of the mountain range. The tip of the mountain was a large machalite crystal that reached down to the part Marina and Noa were. Sunlight reflected the machalite crystal and illuminated the cave in blue.
They looked at the monolith, only to see a message carved next to it.
"The crystals that watches over you would guide you to the right path towards your destiny, yet they will guide you, only if, you show them the greater purpose of your leave… Be wary of false leads, if you show false purposes…" Marina read
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Noa
"I don't know." Marina shrugged
Then Noa started feeling a tingling feeling in his nose, and sneezed
"Achoo!"
His sneezed just startled more bats sleeping near the stalactites. The wave of bats started flying away, unfortunately to Noa and Marina's direction. The two were startled as well and out-of-impulse embraced each other.
"Gah!" they shouted
"Are-Are they gone!?" asked Marina, only blinking her eyes slightly in case more fly towards them.
"Yeah, I think so" said Noa
They noticed that they were too close to each other, and started blushing in embarrassment. The two looked away from each other, still having red faces, until Noa felt a rumble in his stomach. They have not eaten anything yet.
"I'm starving. Let's eat?" he suggested
"Good plan." Marina replied
He laid his gunlance on the floor and grabbed two pieces of raw meat from his satchel. He placed Marina on top of a small rock platform. The meats were marinated in preservatives before they left, to prevent it from rotting on the way. Noa prepares the barbeque spit, and sets the fire with wood, and lit with their torch.
When the meat was finally cooked, they started eating, and while they ate, Marina asked Noa a question.
"Hey Noa? What…what would happen… if we were not to get out of here?"
"Don't say that." Noa said, as he chewed on the cooked meat. As he was munching, Noa reminded Marina that they still had something to do, and it does not involve dying on their first journey.
He placed the meat back on the spit, and said
"We had a promise to be great hunters of the Sand Village. And I'm not going to let some measly cave-in finish it."
"Noa…" Marina whispered.
"If we get stuck here, I'll claw my way out! I'm not going to die here, and that's final! You won't either! We're going to be great hunters, remember that Marina!"
Noa's words filled Marina with encouragement. Marina felt confident, and her worries left her immediately. Remembering that they have a sworn to do achieve their goal, which was to be great hunters of the Sand Village. She smiled, and nodded
"You're right! We shouldn't let a cave-in get in our way—whoa!" she stood up from the rock she was sitting on, but with her still-unconscious leg, she lost balance just before standing upright
"Whoa!"
"M-Marina!?" Noa went
Luckily, Noa caught Marina in time, but then things got awkward. Noa was pushed down by the fallen Marina. Marina was on top of him, Noa felt her soft chest pressed against his. Their faces were so close together, and it turned so red that it looked like the colours reflected from each other's face.
"N-Noa…"
Their lips were so close from each other. They were breathing deeply from the shock, sharing each other's warm breath. They were sweating from the nervousness, and their eyes dilated. Then, just as the moment started getting much awkward…
The machalite crystal stalactites started lighting up the tunnel, which will lead them to an exit.
"Eh?" they went, and looked at the crystals lit. Marina tried getting off of Noa by rolling to his left, and sat on the ground, with her leg still unable to move.
"Hey, another exit!" said Marina…
"Maybe Ken and Yuko are already outside!" Noa said
Then Noa packed his stuff, his weapon, and took Marina. They started walking, but felt uncomfortable after what happened. Noa told Marina to keep what happened as secret.
"Hey, Marina, let's keep that little accident a while ago between us, okay?"
"I don't wanna remember that moment ever, Noa. So shut up…" Marina replied
They kept walking, until they saw real light at the end of the tunnel. Then, when they exited the tunnel, they saw Ken and Yuko unhurt. Ken and Yuko have been waiting for them since they managed to exit first. They got out first because they carved their way through the weakened rocks with their weapons, and led them to a route which no longer went to the giant monolith.
"Marina, Noa! Are you okay!?" asked Yuko
"Yuko, Ken! How'd you get out so fast?" they asked
"Noa's little accident caused the rocks to weaken! We just carved our way outs. We practically made a new way out!" Ken laughed
"How'd you guys get out?" Yuko asked
Noa replied with a figurative answer which caused the other two to get confused
"Uh… the power of determination?"
Yuko and Ken did not understand what Noa meant, and simply replied
"Okay?"
About a day after what happened, they walked from a barren dessert, to a lush forest filled with pine trees. Then they noticed that the road they trekking slowly got steeper. That meant that they were getting closer to the Snowy Mountains, although, the cave-in got them delayed by one day.
"Argh! We got a day delayed!" said Ken
"SORRY ALREADY!" Noa yelled
Yuko can't help but ask Noa and Marina "Oh yeah, what happened while we got separated?"
That caused Noa and Marina to turn red, remembering one thing they hoped to forget in their journey.
"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" they yelled
Ken, who loved to jest, joked about Noa and Marina doing nasty things inside the cave. He said it with a malicious tone.
"Kissing, or maybe… something else…" he snickered. And then, he was smacked on the head by the angered Marina.
"You idiot, don't be such a perv!" yelled Noa
"Look who's talking, you were the one who peeked on them during their bath time!"
The surprised Marina covered her body with her arms, and shouted
"N-Noa!? You're a perv like anyone else!"
"Noa you perv…" Yuko looked down and blushed, thinking Noa has seen her bare before
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" yelled Noa
Just as they kept walking up the hill, they started seeing snow fall from the sky, and then, they saw the Snow Mountains rising up from the horizon as they climbed up the hill.
"Hey! It's the Snowy Mountains!" shouted Yuko
"Yeah, it is!" said Marina
"We're near the Snow village!" said Noa
"But that doesn't change the fact that you're a pervert!" shouted Marina pouted and stared away.
"Oh come on!" he shouted
And then, they ran towards the Snow village.