A/N: And here is the next chapter! I hope you all enjoy it! Thanks for all of your reviews last chapter :D and a special thank you once again to FierceDeityMask for editing my sometimes-broken-mess that I call writing. xD
The pre-dawn sky was a soft grey and mist filled the clearing when Anna woke the next morning. She sat up with a quiet yawn, her blanket falling down to rest on her lap. The archer stretched her arms over her head, and looked around the campsite blinking tiredly at her still sleeping companions. Natalie was still curled up in a ball under her blanket with her mouth slightly open and a few strands of her fiery hair falling across her face. Matt was on his stomach and had flipped himself completely around, his feet resting on the pack his head had been on the night before while his head was pillowed in his crossed arms and his blanket lay crookedly across his prone form. Lance slept on his side facing the dead campfire, his gunblade laid within easy reach next to him and he had a peaceful expression on his face.
Stifling another yawn, Anna stood up letting her blanket fall to the ground in a heap. She made her way to the nearby stream quietly and knelt down to splash some cold water on her face before filling her canteen and taking a small drink. Standing up straight, she made her way back to where the others were still sleeping and pulled a small comb out of her pack which she tugged through her hair. Stuffing the comb back away and tying her hair up again, she snagged her bow from where it lay near her blanket. Anna then turned and slipped silently away into the trees to find something for breakfast.
Stepping lightly to avoid making noise, Anna made her way through the peaceful forest searching for fresh tracks or edible plants. The ranger hadn't gone very far when she spotted a tree heavily laden with fruit. "Jackpot," Anna murmured with a grin. She paused next to the tree and took a quick look around for any nearby monsters. Spotting nothing, she slipped her Sky Feather over her shoulder and pulled herself into the tree and plucked several plump fruits which were then tucked into a small cloth sack. Anna jumped down landing with a small thump and headed back to the campsite.
The sky was beginning to turn a pale pink and a few songbirds were just beginning to chirp when Anna returned. The first thing she noted, slightly to her dismay, was that Lance was up folding his blanket while the other two were still sleeping. Letting out a silent breath, Anna made her way over to the gunner, purposely stepping on a twig to let him know she was there.
The small cracking sound still caused Lance to spin around with a glare, his gunblade half raised, before he spotted her and lowered it again. He gave her a mildly annoyed look before turning back to stuff the folded blanket back into his pack. Anna rolled her eyes and set the bag of fruit down near him before she turned to her own blanket. She stared in surprise at seeing it already neatly folded and sitting on top of her own pack before shifting her surprised stare to Lance who was sitting on a rock, pointedly avoiding her gaze, munching on one of the fruits. Anna shook herself and stuffed the blanket away before she grabbed a fruit of her own. She plopped down near the gunner and gave him a small smile of thanks before biting into her breakfast.
A few minutes passed with the only sounds being the birds and their chewing before Anna spoke up, keeping her voice low to avoid waking the other two, "When should we wake them?"
Lance swallowed his last mouthful of fruit and threw the core into some nearby bushes before leaning back on his hands and answering just as softly, "Natalie will probably wake up on her own in a little while, but Matt will need some encouragement. Generally, we throw something at him since his first response is to swing a sword at whatever woke him. Shouting works too, but I don't think that's a good idea in the wild."
Anna laughed quietly, "Well, while a blackbird on his face would be an effective wake-up call, I agree that throwing something at him is probably the better solution." Lance let out an amused, breathy snort before they were distracted by Natalie shifting.
The mage sat up with a yawn, her red hair was sticking up where it had been pressed against her own pack and she was looking around blearily. Seeing that Lance and Anna were no longer lying down, she twisted around to spot them sitting next to each other watching her. She gave them a sleepy smile and mumbled "'morning," before yawning again. She stood up and stretched before stumbling over to the stream to splash her face, the cold water finished the job of waking her up. She walked back to her blanket, swiftly folded it, brushed her hair, and then stuffed her brush and blanket away. When she turned to the two sitting on the rocks, Anna motioned with her half-eaten fruit at the sack lying nearby to indicate breakfast. Natalie then joined them with her own piece and the three sat in silence.
Anna finished her fruit and tossed the core to join Lance's in the bush. She then leaned back and tilted her head to stare at the sky, unknowingly copying Lance's posture. Natalie watched the two and finished her own food before speaking up.
"I'm surprised to see you two not griping at each other," Natalie mused with a small smile. The two shrugged in unison, causing the mage's smile to grow a bit wider.
"It's going to be a fairly long journey to Whitefall Town and the Crystal Caverns can be dangerous. Keeping grudges would be stupid, we might as well get along," Anna said.
"Speak for yourself, I'm still going to get you back for that stomp last night," Lance muttered, causing Anna to roll her eyes and elbow him lightly in the side.
Natalie laughed as Lance sat up straight with a scowl at Anna before she stood up and dusted her red dress off. "Time to get our resident meat-shield up, I suppose. Should I do it, or do you want to, Lance?"
Lance picked up a small rock with a smirk, "I've got this." He then flung the rock so that it hit Matt right in the middle of the back of his head.
The blond swordsman shot up into a standing position and was swinging his Heaven's Gate around wildly before realizing what had happened. He shot a sour look at the three standing nearby with varying looks of amusement on their faces before he sheathed his sword and proceeded to get ready for the day. Ten minutes later, Matt had packed up and eaten his breakfast.
"So, about how long will it take us to get through the caves?" Natalie asked.
Anna looked up from where she was retying her boots, "Less than a day, if we don't get lost. We'll need to use magic to light the way, at least until we reach the crystals further in. Well, that or make torches."
Lance squinted into the dark cave entrance, "Isn't there supposed to be some magical light-source or something in here somewhere? It hadn't been found, last I heard."
Anna shrugged, "Supposedly, but wherever it is—if it exists at all—it isn't on the way to Whitefall Town; at least, not that anyone going through has seen."
"There's a magical treasure in there that hasn't been found yet?! We've gotta nab it!" Matt exclaimed, his blue eyes gleaming at the prospect of loot.
Natalie sighed, "I don't want to spend all week in a dark cave where bats could swoop down at any time looking for a magic item that may or may not be there."
"But Natz: treasure. How can you not want to find treasure?" Matt whined with a pout. Natalie ignored him in favor of tying her hair back with her red ribbon.
Lance pulled out his walkie-talkie, "Well, just in case we get lost or something I'm going to radio in for some ration bars to take with us." He spoke his command into the hand-held radio and several minutes later a few parachutes drifted down. He pulled open the small bags and distributed the bars to the group before standing up again.
"You're just going to leave those things sitting there for some poor animal to choke on?" Anna asked, puffing up to give a speech on the effects of littering.
Lance glance down at the parachutes, "They're bio-degradable and the strings break very easily, but if it bugs your tree-huggyness that much, Nature Girl, I'll call a few 'bots to pick them up."
Anna glared at him, green eyes flashing once again, "You can leave them, and would you please start using my name," she hissed before shouldering past him to wait just inside the cave.
"Why do you insist on making her mad, Lance?" Natalie sighed.
The gunner shrugged, "It's fun, I guess. You guys don't get worked up at me so much anymore, and even when you guys do get upset it's always way tamer than her responses have been. I've kind of missed it."
Matt snorted while Natalie rolled her eyes and muttered something about masochists. The three then made their way to join Anna who had calmed down slightly, though her eyes still held some annoyance. The group then started down the smooth stone slope into the Crystal Caverns. They trekked in silence for a while; the only sound being their echoed footsteps bouncing off the walls. Holes in the cave ceiling that led to the outside kept the lighting decent so there was no need for magic, yet.
Suddenly, a group of three Rock Sprites sprang up from where they had been camouflaged as a cluster of fallen stones, and attacked the surprised party. Anna immediately snapped off an arrow but the added wind damage her Sky Feather provided was ineffective against the monsters and the arrow merely splintered upon impact with the stony creature's head. The archer cursed and stepped back to attempt some spells instead. Meanwhile, Matt unleashed a Quick Slash on the Rock Sprite nearest to him and sliced off the monster's arm. The swordsman took advantage of the creature's surprise to hack at it a few more times until it collapsed on the ground. Lance leveled his Gunblade at the Rock Sprite in the back, but before he could fire the creature seemed to meld into the cave floor. The gunner was sent flying backwards when the creature reappeared, bursting out of the floor beneath his feet. A burst of frigid magic from Natalie froze the Sprite that had hit Lance. Ice expanded in the cracks of the monster and the creature burst into several chunks of rock.
Anna cast Ivy on the Sprite she had fired at. The virulent green vines burst out of the ground under the creature and wrapped around it. The constricting tendrils holding the monster in place caused minor fractures to appear on its stone body from pressure. Lance took the opportunity to pull the large gun off his back and channeled some dark magic into it. The resulting Dark Shot blasted the Rock Sprite into shards, ending the fight.
Propping his gun on the ground, Lance rubbed arm to relieve the ache caused by landing on it and watched Matt shift through the small rocks left behind by the monsters to retrieve a few gold pieces. "This is going to be a bigger pain than we thought if all the monsters here are disguised as stray rocks," the gunner grumbled.
Natalie shook her head, "They were a different color from the cave walls and floor. Now that we know what to look for, they won't be able to surprise us as easily. Well, assuming they're all the same color as those three were."
Their party set off again, this time keeping a close eye out for anything unusual that might be dangerous.
The holes leading to the surface became fewer and further between but it wasn't until Matt tripped headfirst into a stalagmite that they realized how dark their surroundings had gotten. Natalie shut her eyes in concentration and a small fireball appeared floating in the air, illuminating the immediate area with a soft, flickering, orange glow. The flame revealed Matt getting up and shaking his head to dispel the dizziness from his unintentional meeting with the rock.
"Handy," Anna commented, "how long can you keep it going for?"
Natalie pursed her lips in thought, "Well, it takes a lot more control to hold a ball of fire in place than it does to just fling a blast at a target; plus, I'm out of practice. I'll probably be okay for a couple of hours; not sure I'll be able to maintain it in combat, though."
Lance frowned, "Are you sure? It'll be a huge drain on your mana to keep a fire ball going the entire time we're down here and I don't have enough control over my mana to help."
Natalie hesitated, "I should be fine. Besides, didn't you mention something about crystals, Anna?"
"Yeah, there are some large crystals that start about halfway through the cave that glow. If you can light the way until then we'll be able to use them for light instead." Anna assured her.
"'Doesn't solve our problem for fighting, though," Matt reminded her. He turned to Lance, "'Got any flares we could use?"
"Good idea, Matt. I think I still have a few, let me check," the gunner started digging through the many pockets on his jacket. "No, not there… Maybe this one…? Nope… Oh, that's where that Bottled Darkness ended up! Sweet, now I can finish upgrading my gun! ...Oo, bad place to leave a bomb…"
Matt, Anna, and Natalie shifted backwards slightly when Lance pulled the errant explosive out of a pocket on the inside of the jacket near his chest and slid it into an ammo pouch at his waist. They exchanged a few glances but before anything could be said, Lance gave an: ah, ha, and held up a handful of flares.
"Dude, you need to empty those pockets more frequently. You have way too much stuff in them," Matt said with a shake of his head.
"Never mind how much stuff is in them, I'm pretty sure I saw a vial of Bio Virus get moved out of the same pocket he had the bomb in. Are you trying to get us all killed?" Natalie said with wide eyes.
"I'm confused as to how the heck some of that stuff fit in there without showing…" Anna muttered.
Lance rolled his eyes with a huff, "Whatever. I found the flares so let's get moving before Natz gets tired."
Matt shrugged and led the way down the tunnel with Natalie and Anna behind him and Lance bringing up the rear. The only monsters that dared to attack them over the next hour or so were a couple of bats that had been disturbed by the travelers' passing. A few well-placed shots from Anna and Lance took them down quickly with no need for Natalie to drop her fire-light.
A few minutes had passed after the brief battle when Matt glanced back to see how Natalie was holding up only to frown at the slight sheen of sweat that glistened on her forehead in the flickering light. Her eyes were gazing forward blankly, oblivious to the concerned look she was receiving. The swordsman stopped abruptly causing Anna and Lance to stop as well. Natalie didn't seem to notice the halt and kept trudging until Matt caught her shoulder. The mage blinked out of her stupor and stared in confusion at Matt with eyes dulled from exhaustion. The blonde's frown deepened.
"We're going to have to take a quick break, Natz is tired," Matt announced.
Lance peered at Natalie's face for a moment taking in the pinched look, sweat, and dark circles forming under her eyes, and nodded, "Yeah, she's used too much mana, might take a while for her to get back enough to make it to those crystals. She should have spoken up sooner, but I suppose it doesn't surprise me that she didn't." He then turned to survey the section of cave they stood in, "I'm not really comfortable stopping here—especially with no light—but we don't have much choice."
Anna uncapped her canteen and handed it over for Natalie to drink. She watched in concern as Natalie simply stared blankly at the offered drink for several seconds before finally accepting the canteen. The archer then faced the two men in their group, "We're almost to the crystals, we could try just making our way in the dark. I'm pretty sure the path stays straight for the rest of the way."
Lance looked skeptical but Matt nodded, "Might as well. Natz, you can stop the fire-light now."
Once again, Natalie just blinked at him so Matt repeated the order and finally the ball of fire flickered out. Matt reached out and groped in the dark for a few seconds before he managed to grab the dazed mage's hand. Setting his free hand on the cave wall, Matt continued walking down the tunnel, leading Natalie. He heard the echoing sound of the footsteps of the other two following behind them. It was quiet until a muffled gasp was heard followed by a smacking sound that echoed loudly through the tunnel. Matt stopped to listen, paying no mind to Natalie bumping into him, already having a fair idea of what had happened.
"Pervert!" Anna hissed furiously.
"Hey, you were in the way of the wall! What was I supposed to do? And how did you manage to hit my face in this gloom, anyway?" Lance defended himself. It would have been believable if he hadn't adopted an overly-innocent tone. Another slap echoed down the tunnel.
"Yup, thought so," Matt thought in amusement. He could just see Anna puffing up, ready to blow and, as amusing as that would have been, he had to stop it. "Now isn't the time for this, you two. Lance, keep your hands to yourself; Anna, wait until we're out before blowing up any further."
An angry snort from Anna and a muttered 'I thought we were friends' from Lance were their responses. The next few minutes were uncomfortably silent, broken only by muttered curses when someone tripped as they continued trekking through the darkness. Natalie had recovered enough to walk on her own without being guided, but kept quiet as she enjoyed holding hands with Matt.
Gradually, a dim glow began to light the tunnel. It was such a faint increase in light that, at first, the travelers didn't notice any change to the blackness surrounding them. Finally, Anna spoke up, mentioning that she thought she could see now. The other three blinked a few times and realized the archer was right. A pale glow was coming from around the corner and the dim light made it possible to see the shadowy shapes of stalactites and stalagmites jutting out of the ceiling and floor respectively. Eager to be out of the darkness, the four picked up their pace and rounded the corner to stare in awe at the sight before them, lingering irritation and exhaustion forgotten.
Crystals of all shapes and sizes sprung up from the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cavern they had entered. Every single one of them glowed gently in all sorts of colors. There were pink and purple, blue and green, red and yellow, white and orange. Some crystals stretched almost to the ceiling that soared high above their heads while others could fit in the palms of their hands. The cavern was very bright and the four simply stood there in the entrance to it for a few moments, blinking to adjust their eyes to the change in lighting.
"It's beautiful!" Natalie gasped in awe, staring starry-eyed at the sight before them.
Anna nodded in wide-eyed agreement, "I don't think beautiful quite covers it, but it's a good start."
Lance eyed an arch covered in small red crystals in fascination, "I wonder what they're made of and how they glow like this?"
Matt walked over to a large yellow crystal and laid a hand on its smooth surface, "Hey they're warm too! Kinda makes my hand feel tingly, too."
Natalie walked over to stand next to him and touched the crystal, "Sure enough. They must have high concentrations of mana in them; I can practically feel the mana in there."
"I guess breaking a few pieces off to take with us is out of the question, then," Lance sighed in disappointment, "If they're chocked full of magic, they're probably volatile."
Anna knelt next to a cluster of small green crystals, "Maybe we could chip around the stones at the base of one and take it with us? If nothing else, it would be a good source of light."
"It wouldn't last very long," a new voice spoke up from behind the party.
All four of them whirled around to face the stranger watching them. It was an older man with greying blond hair and gray-green eyes. He had a pickax tucked into his belt next to a short sword and a small pack slung over his shoulder. He smiled at the startled looks on their faces, "I don't see too many people come through here anymore. The name's Shawn. Why don't you four join me at my camp? I can whip up something for you all to eat and we'll chat awhile; I can explain about these here crystals." Seeing the looks of wary hesitation the four young travelers were sharing at his offer, he pushed a little harder. "No need for those looks, now; besides, the young lady with the staff is looking rather tired, a warm meal would do her good."
Shawn watched with keen eyes as the young blond swordsman immediately turned to look at the red-haired girl before nodding in agreement. The young man in the camo exchanged a glance with the green haired archer before shrugging. Seeing that they were all in agreement, Shawn turned and motioned for them to follow. They walked between the glowing crystals for a little while, quiet awe-filled comments still popping up from the four younger people as they stared around them here and there.
They arrived at a small tent with a small camp stove set up in front of it. "Here we are; camp sweet camp! Pull up a rock and I'll heat up the stew I made this morning," Shawn waved them towards the stove as he dug in the tent for a moment before pulling out the container that held the aforementioned stew. He then tossed a few pieces of glowing crystal into the stove. Three of his four guests settled themselves on the ground to watch, the man in the camo stayed standing watching him carefully with sharp red eyes.
"What's the crystal supposed to do?" the archer asked, her green eyes shining in curiosity.
The man chuckled, "I've found that if you use a few small crystals and then toss a match on 'em they'll heat the stove just as well as wood or coal but without the smoke."
"Wow, that saves you a lot of trouble hauling wood down here," she mused thoughtfully.
Shawn laughed, "And keeps the smoke from filling the cave!" He poured the stew into a pot which he then set on top of the stove. He settled back to wait for it to heat up and then turned to face his young guests. The red haired mage was dozing against the blond swordsman's shoulder. The archer was sitting cross-legged with her chin propped on her hands, while the ever-vigilant gunner simply leaned back against a large red crystal. "Now then, I've been studying these crystals for the past few years so let me tell you what I've found. First off, they are indeed filled with mana but they're very hard so I wouldn't worry too much about breaking them accidentally; though they will explode if they do shatter. Second, they seem to feed off the mana running through the cave so if you cut them off from the source they run dry and stop glowing; it'll take anywhere from a few hours to a few days depending on the size of the crystal. They're still fairly valuable when drained, but mining them is dangerous and this cavern is pretty far removed from society so no one wants to try profiting from them." He chuckled at the slightly put out looks on the two men's faces before continuing, "Finally, and this'll probably be the one that you need to know the most, the mana they exude tends to attract monsters so be careful running around here."
The group had relaxed enough to introduce themselves by the time he had finished explaining and they chatted for a while as they waited for the stew to finish heating. Shawn was surprised to discover that he had come across the heroes who had defeated Akron, although he didn't recognize Anna's name at all. Finally, the stew was warmed and Shawn pulled out a few cups and bowls and dolloped some stew into each of them and passed them around. He watched in amusement as the four inhaled the food, "Hungry, are you? Well, help yourself to more; I always make too much, anyway."
Matt immediately served himself another helping and promptly began inhaling that one too, "This is really good! What's the meat in it?" He asked with a mouthful of stew.
Shawn chuckled slightly nervously, unsure as to how they would handle this piece of news, "Would you be disturbed if I said the bats that fly around the caverns?"
To his surprise and relief, the four merely shook their heads and Matt said: "Good use for the flying rodents."
The old man nodded towards Natalie, "Glad to see some color back in your face, Miss Natalie. Used too much magic on your way here, did you?"
Natalie blushed slightly at having been called out, "Yeah, we didn't bring any sort of light source so I was in charge of holding some fire steady to light the way."
Shawn let out a low whistle, "That's some impressive mana control. I have an idea that might help, though, if you want to try it." He paused until he saw the mage nod eagerly, "Why don't you try channeling some mana into one of these crystals? It won't take nearly as much fine control or mana to manage, if it works. It'll be helpful for my research, too, since I can't use magic to save my life."
Natalie gave a big grin and scrambled up, "Let's try it!"
The rest of the group stood up as well and the old man pulled out his pickax. They made their way over to a patch of small orange crystals and Shawn carefully dug one out of the ground. There was an immediate change in brightness; it was still glowing but much dimmer than when it had been stuck in the ground. He passed the crystal to Natalie who held it in both hands. There was a brief pause and suddenly, the crystal flared up to full brightness again. Natalie tried feeding it varying levels of mana; too much mana made the crystal shine brighter, but it heated up as well. Decreasing the mana flow made the light dim down again.
"This is kinda fun, not to mention cool," Natalie giggled. "And you're right, Shawn: it isn't nearly as draining as the fire ball I was doing earlier."
"Lemme try, lemme try!" Anna begged. Natalie passed it over and they found Anna could make it brighten, but not nearly as much as Natalie. Matt tried it next but could only make it glow dimly while Lance did about as well as Natalie.
Shawn stood back and watched as the four goofed around with the glowing crystal, "Well, why don't I dig up one for each of you to take with you?" He then added with a chuckle, "Maybe one day you'll look back and remember me."
Anna twisted to look at him with a bright smile, "Would you really? That would be great!"
"Sure," Shawn said with a smile, "and you can even pick the color you want." He then led the way to another patch of crystals.
The digging ended with a small green crystal for Anna, a small blue one for Matt, Lance got a small red one, while Natalie kept her orange one. The mage girl tried to give Shawn some of the gold they had gathered to pay for the crystals, but he waved it off with a smile stating they had been great company and that the minor digging for the few small crystals was hardly a job requiring payment.
The four thanked him and then, with a final wave and a request to be careful from Shawn, they continued through the caverns to Whitefall Town.
They had only been walking for twenty minutes when they reached a series of old wooden bridges that spanned a dark chasm. Lance bent down and picked up a small rock which he then tossed into the pit. A few seconds passed without them hearing the rock hit the bottom.
"Better not fall down there; I don't think even Matt would survive the landing." Natalie nervously joked.
They set out across the first bridge single-file, without incident. The second bridge went the same way; though, Matt jokingly decided to stress test the bridge by jumping on it—while they were all standing on it—which earned him whap on the back of the head from Natalie.
The third bridge was where everything went wrong. They got onto the bridge with no problem, but just as Matt and Natalie made it to the end—far ahead of Anna and Lance, as Natalie did not want to stay on the bridge for any longer than necessary—a stone golem rose up from a pile of boulders. The construct began lumbering towards the bridge. Lance glanced back towards where they had just come from when he felt the bridge vibrate violently. His red eyes widened in shock at the sight of the Golem stepping on the bridge resulting in the splintering sound of breaking wood. Spinning around, Lance snagged Anna by the upper arm and began running towards where Natalie and Matt were waiting, staring towards another group of glowing crystals. Anna let out a surprised shout when Lance grabbed and dragged her forward, causing Matt and Natalie to turn towards them and their jaws to drop in horrified shock.
"Don't come onto the bridge!" Lance shouted at them when he saw Matt take a step forward.
Anna glanced backwards to see what had Lance so panicked. Her heart skipped a beat when she spotted the Stone Golem before sinking in despair when she realized they would never make it to safety before the immense weight of the monster broke the bridge. They were four feet away from the end of the bridge when a loud crack split the air and the bridge's support beams gave out beneath the Golem sending it plummeting into the darkness of the chasm. Anna's heart rose to her throat, cutting off her scream before it could form as she and Lance stayed suspended for a brief moment before they plunged down. Matt's and Natalie's shrieks of their names echoed down after the falling pair as they vanished from sight.
A/N: Oh, no! The party has been split by a falling bridge! Ah, I love clichés... ^u^
I kinda half made up Shawn. There is a character in-game standing next to a tent in the crystal caverns but he doesn't do any of this, have the same name, or even look like I described. :P Anyway, next chapter is already in the works and will probably be up soon! Leave me what you think of this one in a review *hint-hint* and I'll see you all next time!