Trigger warning: Blood.

A few days after that… things happened, and… time advanced without my consent. That's the best way to describe how it felt.

Oh, and I could've died. Was I supposed to say that first?

It was supposed to be an average quartz-gathering day. I was just supposed to fill my backpack with quartz, head back aboveground, and start popping what I'd found into the furnace.

Things started going off-schedule when I realized how deep I'd gotten. I only realized how deep I'd gotten when I realized I hadn't encountered this sort of cave before, a cave that seemed completely devoid of stray rocks and was coated with an uncharacteristic shade of green.

I turned around, back toward the ladder I'd just climbed down with, and took a closer look.

The green wasn't the wall itself. It was a different substance. A slimy substance, very reminiscent of that on the slimes I killed all the time.

…Slime? How did slime get on the walls? And in this quantity?

I only had a second to think about that, though, before I heard perhaps the most ominous collection of shrieks I'd heard in my life.

I didn't think they were human, and I had this thought confirmed when I turned around to see an utter cloud of bats flying toward me.

Not really seeing any way around it, I whipped my sword out and started slicing at the bats in front as soon as they approached me. They were dropping like flies, which gave me the assumption that this strategy was going to work.

Then, they started approaching quicker than I could slice through them. I tried my best to slice faster, but I quickly realized that if I fought too much faster, I was going to tire myself out.

Then, one of the bats bit the bridge of my nose pretty fucking hard. Another one bit my cheek, then another one bit my other cheek.

Then, another clamped down on my right eyebrow, to the point where within seconds, I had to close my right eye to prevent blood from getting into it.

At first, I was focused on the pain of my wounds, but another question quickly came to mind: Were these things going to kill me? They were biting pretty hard, but they weren't getting at my vital organs or anything.

They certainly left me unprepared for whatever it was that slammed into my side and sent me to the ground.

Before I knew it, something else was biting at me along with the bats, but whatever this thing was was ripping into the clothed parts of my body, which the bats couldn't quite get through to. I at first thought it was some kind of rabid dog. The bats were still getting at whatever they could, too, which made things astronomically more difficult.

At this point, not only was I in agonizing pain… I was starting to lose strength, in a way I knew wasn't good at all.

It was now or never, I inferenced. With what strength I had left, I put both hands on my sword and stabbed the bigger creature that was tearing away at me. Fortunately, it only took a few slices for it to let out a cry and leave me be.

The feeling I felt when I killed off the rest of the bats… I knew it was some kind of survival instinct. My strength increased for a bit, as if it had been renewed.

I was also extremely tired by the time I could see the cave around me again.

I finally got a look at the bigger creature. My heart stopped when I realized how human-like it was; it was very clearly built to stand on two legs. I was afraid I'd just slaughtered another person, before I wondered how a human could have ripped me apart like that.

Speaking of ripping apart, I didn't think I'd ever seen so much blood in real life. Not only was every single bat surrounded by a pool of its own blood. I surveyed myself to find my clothes stained in crimson, and when I put my hand on my side, a ripple of pain traveled throughout my body, and blood got onto my hand, as if my sweater was a cheap sponge.

My head started to hurt in a very subtle, but very ominous way. I also started to feel nauseous, and my vision was starting to become a meaningless mosaic of colors.

I didn't think I'd have the strength to make it back aboveground.

This was probably the point where I'd start preparing to die... but I didn't have the time. My eyes closed on their own.

And when I opened them, I was staring at the whitest light I'd ever seen. I winced at the brightness, but also noticed that I felt much better.

With some difficulty, I sat up from where I was laying.

I was definitely in some kind of hospital. I was in a hospital bed, the floor was a hospital tile, and I had hospital bandages all over me, and hospital tubes coming out of my arms. A machine next to the bed was also broadcasting my heartbeat with steady beeps.

Then, a comfortingly familiar voice said "Hey, she's awake!"

I'm surprised the beeps of my heartbeat didn't become frantic when I looked over to the left; there Sam and Sebastian were, sitting in chairs nearby, and it was Sam that had spoken.

"Hey, guys," was all I could think to say, very groggily.

"Typical," said Sebastian. "You nearly get killed, and the first thing you say when you wake up is 'Hey, guys.'"

"I'm glad to know I'm that predictable," I said with a weak laugh. "Now… I mean, I know what happened, but… what happened? Last I remember, I was on the floor in the cave."

"You're lucky I just so happened to be in the mines myself," said Sebastian. "I was coming up when I heard bats screeching like crazy, and the snarl of a Stone Golem."

"So that thing's called a Stone Golem?" I asked.

"Yes," he sighed. "And I eventually found you. Oh, and, uh, Sam just so happened to be waiting for me at my house, so he helped me get you here."

How easily I could have died struck me like a slap in the face. It was a sort of crushing feeling, fear of what could have been combined with gratitude for what did happen and guilt that I'd let any of this happen at all.

"Well… thank you," I said to Sebastian. "Thank you so much. Is there any way I can thank you?" I knew I came off as a bit frantic, but the man had saved my life.

"Just…" he replied. "If you ever think you're in trouble again, please just get out of there. Don't take on a fight you're gonna lose."

"Yeah," said Sam. "…Please."

I hadn't been able to see the exit through all those bats… but I then remembered I'd definitely thought I could take the swarm down, so I stayed and fought, rather than at least trying to get past them and find the exit.

"I'll do that," I said.

Then, I wondered how many people knew this had happened to me.

I was a little afraid to know the number because if word got to the wrong people, the mines could have been shut down. When I realized how much that thought scared me, I realized how much the mines were like a second home to me.

"I-I know I'm not really in the place to be asking favors, but…" I said. "Can I ask you guys not to tell anyone else this happened? I'm afraid they'll shut down the mines." I could feel tears coming to my eyes by the time I finished speaking.

Sam was the one to speak this time.

"Only Sebastian, Harvey, Maru, and I know anything happened," he said to me, in what I knew to be his comforting voice. "If you want, our lips are sealed."

"Thank you so much," I said with a sigh of relief. I wanted to give him a hug, but that would've proven difficult, what with the pain and the IVs in my arms and everything… and the doctor, Dr. Harvey, walking in.

"You're awake!" he said, looking at the machine I was hooked up to. "How do you feel?"

"I hurt, but aside from that, much better," I said with a smile. "Thank you so much for fixing me up."

"All in a day's work," he said.

I had barely seen this guy around town… but something about the fact I'd even seen him around town made him feel more familiar, as if I could trust him. I mean, I trusted most doctors, but I felt an elevated level of trust with Harvey. It was probably because we were fellow citizens of a tiny town.

Looking at what I inferred to be my charts, he then said "I want to have you stay overnight as a precaution, but after that, you can leave as soon as you think you are able. Will that be okay with you?"

"That'll be fine," I answered. I was pretty sure getting up would cause me too much pain right now.

"Good," he nodded. "Fortunately, none of your vital organs were harmed, and nothing appears to be broken. The biggest issue was your loss of blood, and the wounds you sustained."

"Ah," I nodded, a little more casually than the situation called for.

"I'll provide you with regular doses of pain medication while you're here," he continued. "When you leave, I'll also give you some to take home with you. Is there anything else you need?"

"Some water would be nice," I answered.

"Right away," he replied.

He then went to leave the room, but stopped right before the door. He spoke again, but his voice took on the most serious tone I'd ever heard from him… which wasn't saying much considering this was the most I'd ever spoken to him at once, but still, his voice was notably serious.

"I would also recommend against ever going into those mines again. It's way too dangerous down there."

He left, leaving an overly negative vibe in the room. It was going to be difficult to convince him not to tell anyone this had happened, it would seem. Just my luck, the entire town would know by sundown, and there would be boards over the mine's entrance before I could step foot outside this clinic.

The next thing Sam said, though, eased my worries a good bit.

"You're totally going down there again, aren't you?" he said, his voice laced with a bit of laughter.

"Oh, yeah," I nodded.

"Knew it," he said. "But in all seriousness… be careful."

"I will," I assured him. "Honestly, if it wasn't for that huge swarm of bats, I would've been fine."

"To be fair, I don't think I've seen a swarm like that in my life," Sebastian added. "They were everywhere."

"You can say that again," I sighed.

Finally, there was a lull in the conversation, and I was able to ask myself… Why was I so grateful that Sam was sitting there?

It wasn't any sort of "he'd been my knight in shining armor" thing. If anyone deserved that role, it was Sebastian, and I felt more guilt than anything that these two had gotten wrapped up in my situation.

It didn't seem like an "I'm all wounded, and he still wants to spend time with me" thing, either.

Was it… Was it just that he was here, by my side, when I was so vulnerable? When I was at a point in my life where I simply couldn't tackle things alone?

Whatever it was, it gave me a little bit of pain in my heart when he and Sebastian finally had to leave.

At the very least, I heard something encouraging on my way out. It started with Maru, who seemed to have stopped Sebastian on his way out. I could only hear it all through the door.

"Hey, Sebastian…" she said. "I'm… glad you're safe. You could have gotten seriously hurt down there yourself."

Then, a pause.

Then, Sebastian replied with a simple but genuine "Thanks."

Author's note: I'm not the best at serious scenarios. It may be because my writing style has become more comedic and, as someone else has put it, "ironic." Nevertheless, thank you so incredibly much for reading, especially if you've made it this far!