Chapter Five:

For the second time that day he woke to Magnus voice. He tried to open his eyes but they just refused to budge so he tuned out Magnus voice and tried to roll away from her. It was then he realised he was most definitely not in bed. He could feel dirt beneath him and he could taste something metallic in his mouth… Blood…?

"Will, oh thank God. Will… you need to remain still." He tried again to open his eyes turning to where he could hear Magnus voice. He felt panic rise as his eyes refused to open once more.

"What the hell…" At least his voice was working. But being blind was not something he was ready to cope with.

"Just stay still," he had begun to sit up but Magnus hand on his shoulder gently pushed him back down. He heard tearing fabric and then the sound of a water bottle being opened. "You have blood coating your eyes. I'm going to wash it off," she told him.

"Could have told me sooner," he felt the panic subside and he finally did as she said and stayed still. The cool water felt good as she squeezed it over his face and scrubbed at the blood encrusted over his eyes. "We fell…" he muttered. His memories began returning and Magnus mumbled something under her breath about the Kaldis being tricky little buggers but continued washing his face.

"Alright you can open your eyes," he slowly opened his eyes relieved to find this time they actually worked, his vision wasn't perfect but he could see. He took in Magnus first and was concerned to see she had a large gash beneath one of her eyes that was still oozing blood; it had obviously bled a lot as there was dried blood spread across that side of her face and down her neck.

"Oh Magnus," he sat up, but it was too fast and his vision blurred further.

"Will, I'm fine. Just… slowly…" She took his shoulder and helped him ease up into a sitting position. He took in his surroundings this time. They were in a hole and when he looked up he felt rather ill. They were a long way down. How the hell would they get out of here?

"Definitely not a natural formation…" Her voice cracked and he turned back to her in concern. She was hunched over hugging her ribs.

"Let me…" he shuffled over to her in the dirt and this time she didn't say anything. The bottom of her shirt had been torn as she had used a strip of it to clean his face but he lifted up what remained and found the upper side of her left ribcage was already beginning to bruise. He gently touched them with his fingers and she hissed in pain. "I don't think they are broken," there was certainly no ominous crunching which pleased him as when he broke his ribs a year or so ago she had done the very same thing and he had passed out from pain.

He checked her face next and took the fabric she had used to wash his face and wet it again cleaning her wound. She stayed remarkably still and silent as he tenderly scrubbed her face and neck until there was no blood. "How long was I out anyway?" He hoped she would answer, her silence concerned him – not that he would admit that to her.

"I'm not sure I was unconscious too. You should let me check your head," he ignored her and rummaged through his pack until he found a first aid kit. Her words were a little slurred so he guessed she had a concussion but then he supposed they both probably did it was a hell of a fall – they were lucky they weren't more injured than they were.

"I'll tend to you first," he told her firmly. He used paper stitches to close her wound and placed a bandage over it using paper tape to hold it in place. He then knelt in front of her and let his fingers run through her hair and over her scalp until he found her lump, it was egg-sized and she closed her eyes in pain when he touched it but at least she hadn't broken the skin it was already bad enough that her face was bleeding – head injuries always bled so much more than anywhere else. "Do you hurt anywhere else?"

"No," she answered. He searched her eyes knowing she would just say that anyway whether she was further injured or not. He couldn't read her expression though. "Now you," she gently pushed him back into a sitting position. He allowed her to bandage his own head wound which seemed to be on his hairline at the top of his forehead.

"Any other injuries Will…?" She was feeling his scalp for a lump but the only one seemed to be beneath his forehead wound so it was probably the reason he passed out when he fell. He wasn't about to tell her that he ached all over. There wasn't much they could do down here anyway.

"No," he told her. She ruffled his hair and smiled.

"Well," she looked up and around them. "We could try digging some foot and hand holds," she moved to the wall of their prison and tried digging with her hands but the soil just fell apart in her hands.

"Oh man," he sighed. "Why do you and I seem to always get ourselves into such hopeless situations?" They both looked up at the blue sky above them.

"I'm not sure Will," she sat next to him and pulled his pack over to them. It looked as though her pack was still up above them on the track she hadn't had time to grab it.

"Do you think that noise – was it a trick to get us down here?" She pulled out a bag of trail mix and took out a handful before handing the open bag to Will.

"Potentially," was all she said.

"Is it the Kaldis?"

"I don't know,"

"You must have some idea Magnus," he was getting frustrated with her non-answers.

"They are clever," oh brilliant, that's helpful.

"Come on Magnus," he growled throwing the trail mix back at her. She winced as it hit her ribs and he immediately felt guilty. "Sorry," he grabbed her hand and squeezed. "Sorry," he repeated searching her face for a sign of forgiveness. She shrugged and put the trail mix back into the bag taking out a fresh water bottle with her free hand as she still hadn't let go of his. She opened the cap with her teeth, took a swig and then handed the bottle to him. He drank and they sat in silence for a while - both lost in their thoughts.

"I'm not answering because I don't know yet Will," she sighed heavily. "I'm still trying to figure things out myself."

"Okay,"

"I think we are going to have to wait for them to come back. They will come back… If they wanted to kill us they would have by now."

"Kill – kill us!" He gasped. "I thought they were harmless!"

"They are," she assured him. "Something else is going on here." He agreed. There was definitely something strange going on here.

TBC.