Chapter 13: Hope Fades
Wisps of hope faded as the hours passed walking down the long corridors of the cave, which only lead to more corridors, making it seem like the path was endless. Like the cave had no place to lead the duo too, that it was only a maze that had yet to become complete. Having no sense of direction and having no idea if they are going in circles of not, the hope they once possessed that they would get out of this cave safe and sound, faded like a light bulb dimming.
A heavy breath was released by Misty's dry lips, not having the proper amount of water causing her to feel woozy and a sense of dehydration, her stomach caused pain indicating that she needed some food, small portions of food was all the duo had, not much of it could be wasted to simple hunger and thirst. Ash's condition seemed no better, face lowered down, eyes staring at the floor, legs seemed like large boulders making it difficult to walk, arms seemed to be heavy dragging him down making his back curve down like he was a hunchback.
"I think we should stop." The young female said to the boy. A simple nod was his response. Immediately the two collapsed on the ground, their eyes starring up at the dark ceiling. Both of their heads turned over looking at each other, seeing that they were not alone in this, a simple smile appeared on their faces. Soon they both sat down leaning against the wall, throwing their backpacks upon their lap and their lantern was placed in front of them, giving them very little vision and heat.
"Walking around aimlessly is not helping, there must be something we can do." Ash said looking in his backpack and pulling out a small loaf of bread. He pulled a piece apart from the long loaf and handed it over to his female companion, who only smiled in a response, he then chomped down the rest of it.
"Hopefully Brock is not doing this bad. He is all alone and somewhere in this maze as well. I don't want him to die just because of this incident." Misty said burying her hands through her bag trying to find something that could of more use.
"Nothing will happen to him, he is a strong person. He would not give up without a fight so easily. But we cannot worry about his well being, as we have to think about what we're going to do." Seeing the concern in Misty's eyes, Ash wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her small thin frame to him. She then rested his head upon his shoulder, still burying her hands through her bag. His hand ran and up and down her arm, trying to provide comfort.
"I'm glad I'm here with you, I would not know what I would do if I was alone stuck in this kind of situation." Stuttering while saying these words, Misty practically had to spit them out.
"Same here. Don't worry I won't leave you while we're like this." Her head got off of his shoulder and looked into his deep chestnut like ees where she just murmured a thanks, but it seemed that she was holding herself back from tears and doing something else. Not able to stand the intense stare of concern back at her, Misty automatically diverted her attention back towards her bag.
A smile of joy appeared on Misty's face finally as an idea popped into her head. Throwing out her many pairs of clothes onto the ground she looked through the other items she possessed. Finally she pulled out a small little while box, which her fingers immediately wrapped around and got a tight grip. Ash, who just seemed to be in an intense stare looking over at the girl, had no idea what she was doing. A brow was raised out of curiosity, "What are you thinking?"
With a flick of her thumb, the top lip snapped open, revealing white string that was coiled up within the box and a small silver thing at the top to cut the thing apart. A small of mint filled the stale air of the cavern. The confusion that Ash had felt filled him up even more, having no idea what the woman was doing.
"Floss? You're going to take care of your teeth now?" Ash mustered up, not wanting it to sound like he thought Misty has gone over the edge and become psychotic. A soft laugh escaped from her lips as she shook her head back and forth indicating that he was wrong.
"No silly. Why would I do such a stupid thing now when my life is in risk? Floss is string, if we have string we can make a track of where we are going, that being said if we go in circles we'll find out." Explaining her plan, Ash realized how that made sense and a smile grew upon his face, as he only nodded.
"But what would happen if you run out of floss? We have no idea where in this place we are and how far we have to go. I mean we can be going in one large circle." Realizing the cons of this plan, Ash immediately brought him up, hoping that Misty had a way to answer it.
"Well I have more than one box. I have two. And we can always tear up our clothes and use the fabric as a way to indicate that we have been here, with how much we packed I think that will be enough. We need to do something to show that we are either going forward ad not backwards, we'd die if we don't."
With a moment of excitement within the boy, arms wrapped around the angelic figure and held her close to him. His warm breath able to be felt down her spine, which gave her a chill of warmness. Her head rested on his shoulder as she found it comforting that Ash would suddenly have her in an embrace. Her arms wrapped around his neck returning the compassion back.
"See, Misty, I would not know what to do if you weren't here."
"As long you're here we'll be fine." Misty responded back in almost a whisper, not wanting the embrace to ever end.
(Authors Note: Sorry that the chapter is so short, but I found it a really good place to stop and I like to torture you all secretly… Sorry that I posted the chapter late, but fanfiction.net collapsed and I went to the country for the weekend and had no computer to write. Please review with what you think, as I am grateful for it, and I'll read your fiction if you want me too. So PLEASE REVIEW. Thanks for reading.)
