Nel stood, staring down the blue haired boy in front of her.
He had dragged her off to the side of the group to propose the most preposterous idea that she had ever heard in her entire life time. And she figured that it was a good idea that he had pulled her away from the rest of the group to avoid causing a scene within the larger group, because a scene would have definitely been made.
She came to the conclusion that Fayt had completely lost his mind somewhere since they had gotten themselves completely lost within the labyrinth of the newly discovered Urssa Cave Temple.
She hadn't really enjoyed the thought of entering the cave in the first place, there was a peculiar energy radiating from everything around them, some form of strange magical energy. She didn't trust it one bit.
She shook her head at the thought; cowardice was not in her nature at all. She had accepted the fact that there was far too much for one person alone to comprehend in the world as of late anyway, so why not suck it up and deal with the ominous magical energy anyway? Was it not their duty as the "heroes of the universe" to not be nervous or hesitant about anything anymore?
Now that she thought about all that had happened as of late, beating the creator, Luther, getting hopelessly lost within the maze of the previously unexplored cave, nearly getting killed by all sorts of different things, and coming to the four-way fork in the cave wall in front of them, Nel was, more than anything else, annoyed.
"Nel," Fayt whispered to her, out of earshot from everyone else. "You are the only one who can keep him in check."
But what irked her the most was that she was being forced to explore one of the forks in the cave alone with Albel Nox, the one person that seemed to get on her last nerve without even so much as opening his mouth.
"Why can't you go with him?" she argued back.
"Because, I don't really want Adray alone with either Sophia or Maria," he said, and to exaggerate his point he pointed over to the large man who was absentmindedly staring at Mirage's behind with a smirk as she bent over her Klausian partner, Cliff, as she expertly healed a large gash on his shoulder, given to him courtesy of a rather feisty monster that they had just defeated.
Nel placed a hand to her temple, she was starting to get a headache. "What about Cliff?"
"I don't think that either Cliff or Albel would make it out of the tunnel alive," Fayt said, shaking his shaggy hair from his eyes. "Nel, please. I can trust you more than anyone else to be able to keep your temper under control in a situation like this."
Nel glared at him with her emerald eyes for what seemed like an eternity. She closed her eyes and heaved a great sigh that seemed to echo off of the walls around them, "Fine. But you owe me more than you can ever imagine."
Fayt smiled and lightly touched her shoulder in gratitude, "Thank you Nel."
"Woltar said that we can basically do what we please with him, so don't you think for a second that I won't hesitate to incapacitate him if the need arises," Nel said while following the younger boy back to the group.
Fayt turned around and gave her a crooked smile, "Don't get too carried away Nel."
He laughed to himself when Nel went into a fit of muttering and then faced the group to give orders. Since when he become the unspoken leader, he could never be too sure, but he accepted the responsibility without too much complaint.
"Okay everyone, here's what's going to happen: Maria and Sophia will take the left most fork. Cliff and Mirage will take the right most. Nel and Albel will take the second to left. And finally, Audrey and myself will take the second to right fork," he looked around at his companions, his eyes stopping upon Albel, and decided to add, "Any questions or comments?"
Albel's sneer of disapproval, although hidden in the shadows while he leaned against the cave wall, was highly visible to Fayt, being as he was expecting some form of stubborn retaliation from the tall warrior. He was lucky it was only a silent scowl rather than an extravagant display of his colorful vocabulary.
"Alright then," Fayt said after there were no interjections, "Let's get going. We'll meet back here in about three hours. Good luck everyone, and be careful."
With that said the assigned couples headed towards their designated tunnel. All except Nel and Albel that is.
"Are you going to stand there all day staring at the ground?" Albel said irritably to the magenta haired woman in front of him.
Nel looked up suddenly, she had been silently cursing under her breath and hadn't noticed that everyone had left. She gave Albel a glare and began to walk in the direction of the tunnel that was theirs.
"Let's go then," she said, disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel, trying her best to not lose her temper, "And you better not try anything funny."
She heard Albel give a disgusted snort, "Like I would ever have any desire for Aquarian trash like you."
Nel shot a glance at the Glyphian captain but decided to ignore the bait that he had set for her, he was trying to lure her into an argument.
"I'm not going to fight with you Albel Nox," she stated simply, turning to see his reaction.
He had a slight frown on his face, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. He then shrugged his shoulders and walked a few steps past Nel, into the entrance of the tunnel while fidgeting with the handle of his katana.
"Hmph."
Nel shook her head and followed her unfortunate companion into the darkness of the tunnel.
Great, she thought. Their exploration had barely been a few steps from the main cavern and they had already begun to annoy each other. She silently prayed that this wasn't a premonition of the future.
They had walked for what seemed like forever in the dark void of a tunnel, the only light source that they had was one small glow stone that hardly provided any light at all. They where lucky that they hadn't run into any monsters yet, Nel wasn't sure what they would do if they had an encounter with an unfriendly life form at this point. The tunnel was too narrow and the roof was too low, making fighting very difficult, if not impossible.
As for Albel, well, only the mental picture of her stabbing him in the side could sooth her mind about that topic. They had been slinging snide remarks, insults, arguments, and curses at each other ever since they had began their journey, leaving Albel slightly amazed that the conservative Aquarian knew some of the words that she was calling him.
Nel kept cursing Fayt in her mind for ever talking her into this. How he had actually managed to do such a thing with such little effort was still beyond her. She just assumed it had something to do with her gratitude for him helping her defend her country and even so far as to protect her planet.
But all the same, damn him for this.
She glared at the back of Albel's head. She really wanted nothing more than to knock him unconscious and finish the exploration by herself. She would be much better off that way anyhow.
Albel, realizing that the Aquarian was watching him through many years of trained practice due to people constantly staring at him when they thought he wasn't looking, turned around and faced her.
"What?" he growled at her.
Nel, startled by his sudden movement, made a quick move for her daggers. Calming down, she stood straight and stared at the Glyphian.
"What yourself," Nel said, snatching away the glow stone and walking past him, embarrassed that she had been caught simply staring at him… well, glaring at him. Of course she would never admit that however.
Albel was annoyed to his last nerve.
They had been walking for over five hours. They where supposed to meet back with the group two hours ago.
"I blame you for this."
Nel turned around and glared at the warrior, "I understood it the first time and I certainly understand it now, being the thirteenth time. So will you quit saying that!"
Albel watched the fuming woman; her face the same hue as her hair.
"I blame you for this."
He turned his back to her and peered down the tunnel. They had taken a wrong turn somewhere on their way back. They hadn't known that the tunnel branched off into more, separate tunnels, so when they came to a two way fork on their way back, they could only guess which tunnel to take, and since Nel had refused to hand over the glow stone, she chose which tunnel to take, unfortunately, she had selected wrong.
He spun around when he felt a small pang of pain on the back of his head. He saw a minute movement on the ground and noticed a small pebble settling itself on the ground. He glowered at Nel and rubbed the back of his head.
"What was that for!" he growled.
"Just shut up," she replied, "If we turn around we can try the other tunnel."
She started to backtrack and paused when she heard a slight rumble. Small rocks and debris started to fall from above her head. The rumbling grew louder and the ground began the shake beneath her. Larger rocks began to fall and the smaller ones came more quickly.
What was happening?
She felt a tug on her wrist and then felt her whole body jerk backwards with immense strength. She was horrified when a marble sized rock collided with her hand, knocking the glow stone from her grasp. Before it was completely buried she saw the entire roof of the tunnel in the one direction collapse, trapping them within with no light source.
Nel let her arm fall to her side when Albel let go of her wrist and stared in the direction of the cave in. She cringed when she heard "I blame you for this," from the darkness at her side.
"Now what do we do?" Nel asked, feeling her way to the rock pile.
There was only silence in response and she began to grow nervy. This was all her fault, she though to herself as she touched a large boulder. But maybe she could find a way out if she searched hard enough.
She placed her foot on the boulder and hauled herself up a little higher and felt for an opening. Maybe the cave in hadn't quite sealed the tunnel all the way.
She placed her hand on a boulder above her head and put her foot on a new rock. As she began to lift herself upwards she was alarmed when she felt her foot slip out from underneath her and felt herself falling backwards.
She was even more alarmed to feel herself land against something firm, yet soft.
Albel.
Her heart was beating from the shock of the fall, she wasn't that high up, so the impact would have only knocked the wind out of her and maybe bruised her bottom a little, but what had her so shaken was the fact that Albel had caught her.
"Are you trying to kill yourself?" Albel asked after righting the Aquarian and stepping away, "because I can assist you in that." That was the second time he had saved her from a painful fate within the last five minutes.
"I was looking for a way out," she defended herself.
"Your hopes are too high," Albel stated.
"Well, its better than doing nothing. What do you suggest we do?" Nel demanded, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
There was a little moment of silence and then, "We continue in the only direction that we can go."
"With what light? It's pitch black!" Nel argued, although knowing that they had no other choice but to continue on.
"Use your runology or something," Albel snorted at her.
Nel thought about it, that wasn't too bad of an idea, it was better than nothing anyway.
She focused on a fire spell and made a small flame in her hand. She knew it couldn't last forever, but for now it was a beautiful sight.
She looked at Albel and watched him make an over exaggerated, mocking bow, gesturing for her to lead the way.
Nel glared at him as she passed him and started down the tunnel, this time being more cautious about her surroundings.
