I'm sorry, but expect the next update within a couple of days after this because I'm on a bit of a writing streak at the moment (nearly just said writing steak, now THAT would be awesome.)

Rythian stood, calling for his sister repeatedly until he could shout no more. His throat and eyes burned and his fists were red and bruised from hitting the walls, trying to bring her back. The cracking had all but stopped now although he could swear he could see light, down into the depths of the crater; a light that flickered like a candle but no brighter than a firefly. It moved, and when it did there was a crack and a shout. Less than a shout, a whimper, a lost kitten without a mother, a dog beaten and bruised on the sidewalk, an orphaned baby, a whimper that seemed to grow stronger as he watched.

She cannot be dead

He tried to tell himself because he couldn't face the truth. He was tired, the shouting and punching had tired him. He saw the light. it seemed to pull him into a slumber, he felt like he was being told to sleep, his eyes were dropping but he willed himself to stay awake. The light grew brighter, he stared at it with hope, he felt his body getting heavier until the light diminished. He lay peacefully, sleeping on the stone cold floor.

He didn't know how long he'd slept, or where he had fallen asleep but as he slowly opened his eyes he knew it wasn't here. He was out in the open, lying on the ground and his back, throat and eyes hurt terrible. He tried to talk but he throat felt like sandpaper and he just groaned and fell back. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and saw a bundle of black feathers strewn on the floor. He got up instantly and crawled over to it, trying to turn it over. He moved one of the wings but was batted away and fell back. He tilted his head in confusion,

"Cynda?" He asked he knew it couldn't be her but he asked anyway.

The bundle moved again, he saw thatit was trying to stand but couldn't. He crawled back over and tried to turn it over again, this time he was met with no resistance and managed to see who it was.

"Cynda! Cynda!" He shouted, his voice was hoarse from saying exactly that but he called anyway.

"I'm ok. I'm-" She coughed, "I'm just tired." She said.

Chapter 7- Back to the beginning

Lewis finally stood up and patted Honeydew on the back, "I think we have enough now mate. You've been at it for hours, at least take a break." He said.

The dwarf put down his pickaxe and sat where Xephos had been not long ago, running a hand through his ginger hair. He looked over to where they had come from and squinted, he could've sworn he'd just heard Rythian but that was impossible, he was dead, he felt sure of it. He grimaced at the thought of having to tell Lewis since he had gotten them so far and shook his head, he wouldn't say anything unless he absolutely had too.

Lewis had already begun loading the black rocks into his bag ready to take them back to the ship, he looked up at Simon who was seemingly staring into space and shrugged, he had nothing to do with the Dwarf's thoughts. He heard footsteps in the distance and he looked to where they were coming from; it was coming from where they had come up after the explosion, he could see something fall to the floor in the distance but couldn't make out what it was. He stood up and started walking toward it to figure out what it was and then as his eyes adjusted again he realised it was Cynda carrying Rythian, he tilted his head in confusion and decided it was just his mind telling him things, there was no way Cynda was still alive, no chance.

By this time Honeydew had also come to stand next to him and was also in confusion about the situation. He looked at Xephos with confusion clearly written on his bearded face. Xephos looked back at him and shrugged, walking quickly toward the two now lying on the floor.

As they approached Rythian looked over his shoulder at them, since they had been walking he had crawled over to Cynda who still looked unconscious on the floor. Xephos shot him a look as if to say Is she ok? and worryingly Rythian responded with a clear shrug. They both ran over to him, Honeydew kneeled on the other side of Cynda whose wing, upon inspection, appeared broken. Her unbroken wing was matted with dirt and purple-blue blood but she was breathing fairly normally.

"What happened?" Honeydew demanded, he seemed quite bossy as he said it but everyone knew it was more out of worry than agitation.

"I have no idea, but I wasn't down here when I collapsed." Rythian replied. His dark eyes scanned Cynda for the tenth time as he tried to asses the most painful wounds.

"She needs a bandage or something, I can't heal her wing incase it heals in the wrong place and I can't see where exactly she has been cut." He said, he was biting back tears but didn't show it, he wasn't supposed to care for anyone but he did and he knew that eventually the others would see that.

"Rythian." Xephos put a hand on his shoulder and spoke quietly, "She hasn't cut herself, you have."

It took a couple of seconds to sink in, he couldn't feel pain for obvious reasons but he felt dizzy as he looked at himself, he had a large gash along his leg from when he had collapsed. It wasn't a deep cut but it was clearly dangerous as it was an open wound, it could get infected too easily; seeing he was about to faint Xephos put an arm around his chest for support.

"Rythian, stay with me, I don't want someone else to need to watch over." He said coaxingly.

He knelt leaning on Xephos for a few minutes before he could take his own weight again, during this time Honeydew was bandaging Cynda's wing to stop it from healing badly and attempting to get her to come round again. Everyone was safe and they were together which made everyone's hopes a lot higher but they did still have a problem. While Rythian was nearly fainting Xephos realised that the ground had become massively unstable after the explosion and would not hold the weight of the ship if it was taking off. They would either need to move it or find a way of stopping it from putting extra pressure on the ground for them to be able to take off. He explained all this to Honeydew and Rythian but neither had any idea of how to launch the ship.

"Well moving it is absolutely out of the question, that thing way at least 200 tons and none of us could move it, even if we were all working together." Rythian pointed out.

Xephos nodded, "I don't entirely know how magic works but do you think there is anyway of slightly levitating it to remove the pressure off the ground?" He asked.

"You could use a stabilisation ward." Honeydew pitched, looking at the ground aimlessly.

Both Rythian and Xephos looked at him in confusion.

"A what?" Rythian asked.

"A stabilisation ward, we use it to keep the tunnels from collapsing in on themselves without girders, I don't know if it would work on something as big as that but we could try." He replied casually.

Xephos patted him on the back, smiling,

"You're a genius." He said happily.

Honeydew just shook his head, "It's something we learn from a young age, incase we are going somewhere and the tunnels begin to weaken."

"Do you have to provide the energy yourself or is it sapped over time?" Rythian asked, if it were a spell that took the energy immediately then the weight of their ship would render the spell useless.

"The energy comes from the amount of pressure on the surrounding rock, the deeper the tunnel the stronger the ward." Honeydew replied, happy he was finally of some use despite it truly being him that had saved them in the first place. "There is one problem though." He said.

"What?" Xephos asked.

"Only dwarves can use the spell." He said, biting his lip.