The cold, rushing water sends a shocking chill once the elves hit the river. The currents immediately carry them away, taking them to who knows where. One second they were hugging each other, and the next they were fighting for their lives. And Ian was already fighting for his life just as much.
Ian accidentally breathes in a smidge of water due to the shock, and he tries to swim to the surface along with Barley.
The younger elf breaks the surface first, and his brother follows soon after. Coughing up water and catching their breaths, they attempt to swim back next to each other in the rapids.
Both brothers were strong swimmers, but rapids like these were too advanced for them. Water keeps splashing in their faces, mouths, and up their noses. They were barely able to speak to each other.
Barley manages to slowly paddle towards Ian, grabbing onto him tightly.
"We've gotta find something to grab onto," he yells over the rapids.
"There's no way we can get out of this, it's taking us into a tunnel," Ian yells back. "And I can't do most spells very well when I'm not standing- WATCH OUT!"
The elves separate from one another when they come across a rock in the middle of the river.
They try swimming back to each other once they pass the rock, but a wave suddenly pulls them underwater. They struggle to head back up, kicking and flailing as hard as they could. The waves and currents keep pushing them down, and it only keeps getting worse the further they go.
Both of them were losing their breaths quickly, and they still haven't been able to swim back up.
Barley was even more nervous for Ian, as this is not even 24 hours after he had to save him from drowning.
He eventually gathers the strength, and he grabs Ian's collar and drags him up with him. The burly elf and his brother surface with a deep gasp, holding onto each other as the waves start to become even choppier.
Then it became more apparent that they were going to head down a waterfall. There was no sunlight in the distance; it was going to lead them into more darkness and get them even more lost in the caves.
"I love you, man..." Ian whispers to Barley as they approach the end of the river.
"I love you too, bro..." Barley tells him back.
The two brothers then make their descent down the waterfall, not knowing how long they'll fall or where they'll end up.
Thankfully, rather than falling onto sharp rocks, they land into deep waters...either a lake or a continuation of the river.
Water rushes up the noses of the brothers as they plunge below the waterfall. The deep water consumes them as they look towards the surface. Ian starts to swim upward, followed by Barley.
Both of them break the surface, gasping and panting. The elves were now treading water in the middle of a large lake, or at least that's what they thought it was as they could barely see anything.
Ian once again casts Lufia and shines the light around to see just where they were. They were, in fact, in a large lake, with nowhere to swim out.
"Well, if I'm gonna die here, at least it'll be somewhat peaceful," the younger elf says.
"No, no no no, there HAS to be a way out of here..." Barley says, sloshing around as he tries to look for a hole in the cave walls or a boulder they could possibly push. Ian couldn't possibly stand anywhere to perform a complex spell, and he personally felt his power was weakening as if he had to try harder to connect to his heart's fire...
"We can't just end it here," the older elf continues. "We have to look for an exit."
Barley then swims off, examining the cave walls. Instead of swimming over and helping him, Ian floats on his back.
"Is something wrong, Ian?" Barley asks in the distance.
"I just don't want that pain to start back up again," he answers. "Did I ever tell you about the pain I've had?"
"No, you didn't..." Barley grunts as he pulls at a boulder. "That's strange, that never showed up as a symptom in the book."
"Maybe I was just stressing myself out too much, or it had to do something with those signals I got..."
"Well, it could still be from the sickness."
Ian sighs as he stares at the cave ceiling.
"Barley...I just want you to know...I don't think I could've asked for a better big brother."
The burly elf stops pulling at the boulders for a second.
"All that you've done for me, the way you'd go to the ends of the realms to protect me," Ian continues, choking up. "...I appreciate it so much. For as long as I lived...you were there for me...and now that it's over...I just want to tell you that you meant so much to me."
"Woah, woah, don't give up, man," Barley says, now swimming back to Ian. "I don't want you to give up."
"There's no way out of here, Barley...no way on the surface...but we haven't looked underwater..."
Ian then floats off his back and takes a deep breath, getting ready to dive underwater. But before he dives, Barley quickly grabs his shoulder, telling him "Wait, don't, I'll go look".
"Don't worry, I'll be fine, it won't take me too long." "But I don't- I'm just...well, you remember what happened last night."
Ian's near-drowning already felt like it happened long ago. While he himself still feels a bit uneasy being in the water again, he's still determined to find a way out of these caves.
"But Barley, I still want to help us get out of here. And besides, if there's a way out down there, I'd still need to go underwater." "Well...then I'll go down and look with you."
Ian nods in agreement, and both of them take deep breaths and dive under.
They swim around, hoping to find at least a peek of sunlight. Barley watches Ian closely, making sure nothing happens to him.
And by sheer luck, they find a tunnel that could possibly lead them out of the caves...and a bright patch of sunlight could be seen emitting in the distance.
The brothers then surface to get more air before heading back down and through the tunnel.
As they swim further, they become greeted with precious sunlight, something they've been craving to see.
Eventually, they swim out of the tunnel and out of the caves, now ending up in a lake outside of them. The water is blue and crystal clear, the brothers could properly see themselves once again, and they could now get on their way to finding Corey.
Ian and Barley swim to the surface, finally breathing in the fresh air from outside. They share a laugh together, reveling in their joy from escaping the Hollow Caves.
Just as they catch their breaths, the brothers start swimming out of the lake. Barley swims diligently towards land, his brother slowly tagging along behind him.
But it doesn't take long for the pain to suddenly return to Ian's limbs. He splashes harder with his arm, and his legs stop kicking. Water splashes into his nose and mouth.
"Barley-" he struggles to get out as he gasps and coughs.
"Ian?" The older elf stops swimming and turns around. He immediately swims back towards him, then lowers his back.
"Grab on, I'll swim you there," he tells him. Ian follows his word and grabs on tightly to his back. Barley starts swimming again, with Ian holding onto him.
The elves trudge onto land, panting as water drops fall off their wet hair and clothes.
Ian shuts his eyes, grits his teeth, and falls onto the grass in even more pain.
"I...can do this..." he says through his teeth.
"Ian..." Barley says, kneeling down and putting his arm around him.
That's when the younger elf realizes he forgot something.
"My staff...my staff, it isn't here..."
"You probably dropped it somewhere in the tunnel and didn't realize it," the older elf says. "I'll go back in and get it."
Usually, Ian would protest, but the pain was too unbearable right now. He crawls near a boulder and sits against it.
Barley dives back into the lake and swims towards the middle where they surfaced. He tries to see if he could find it floating on the surface, to no avail.
He takes a large deep breath and dives under, swimming downward back into the tunnel once he sees his staff laying on a boulder. He might've accidentally dropped it when he was struggling in the water.
He swims towards it and reaches out his arm to grab it. Once it's in his hands, he turns back to return it to his brother.
But just as he starts swimming back, a strange blue light flashes from the staff.
He pauses and watches it closely, seeing if the blue light shows up again. But it doesn't.
Thinking it was just in his mind, he continues his swim to the surface.
Ian hears his brother gasping, and he turns his head to see him swimming to land with his staff in his hands. Barley then gets out of the water and holds the staff towards him.
"Here you go, dear brother," the burly elf says, panting.
The younger elf shakily reaches out his arm to retrieve it, still feeling sharp pains. Barley sits down on the grass next to Ian, holding him close.
"You know, you didn't have to do that," Ian croaks. "I could've just waited until the pain passed and went in to get it myself."
"Don't think you had to do it, bro," the burly elf says. "That would've just taken more time away from us getting you all fixed up."
The younger Lightfoot sighs and fiddles with a string on his flannel. He leans deeper beside his brother and closes his eyes. He didn't realize how tired he was becoming.
He yawns and leans his head on Barley's shoulder. Barley wraps his arm around his little brother and runs his fingers through Ian's damp hair using his other hand.
Ian starts to whimper as another wave of pain passes through, and his brother holds him even tighter. "It'll pass in no time Ian, we'll be back on our feet soon enough..."
The two elves huddle closer together and bring each other warmth as their cold, wet clothes stick to their skin.
They keep lying there together by the lake, the noises of the water bringing them comfort. They both shut their eyes, reveling in their coziness and satisfaction from just being together and helping each other as brothers.
In fact, they become so cozy that they don't realize they've fallen asleep...
A tall, blue elf later shows up, pointing his staff in the air with the direction spell activated. He stands there in awe to see the elf brothers fast asleep, sitting next to each other.
"Well look what we have here," he snickers.
He slowly approaches them both, trying not to wake them.
He swirls his staff over the two of them, casting a spell on them.
"Now this should keep you two asleep until you've arrived," he whispers.
He then casts a spell to keep them hovering in the air and floating next to him wherever he goes. He sets off with the two brothers, walking off into the fields...