Slivers of light poured in from the crack above. There was little chance for the sisters to even catch their breath as a massive shadow passed over and claws dug after them and sent tiny fragments of stone raining down. Groping in the dark to escape, Ferris felt Castellar grab her by the wrist to pull her toward him—herself still pulling Ciara along in-turn.
"Just what are you trying to do?! Castellar!" an angry, guttural voice called after them.
The crack in the earth may have been wide enough to swallow three youths. The giant avian, however, was another matter. If he somehow squeezed his way through, it wouldn't be without harm to his wings. Nevertheless, the skeleton guided the two sisters further out of his sight.
"Villain! Viper! How dare you take their side! Give them to me! Give me those girls!"
Waiting for her eyes to adjust, Ferris allowed the hand pressed to her back to lead her further into the shadows—all while trying to ignore the fearsome screams behind them. The path ahead grew less certain as the crack sealed off, forcing them deeper and deeper into an underground passage.
Only after the shouts faded away and her adrenaline waned did she realize just how bad the landing had affected her. Her arm flared and she began to limp as pain shot up from her ankle. The skeleton was quick to pick up on her slowing, uneven pace. He stopped, the trio waiting in silence to confirm that they weren't somehow followed. The only sound surrounding them was the dull, echoed drone of the caves.
He pressed his hands against her shoulders, urging her to sit down. Also having sensed her sister's injury in the dark, Ciara helped Ferris by bracing her between the wall and herself. The weight eased off her wound, Ferris took a relieved breath through her teeth. Her sleeve was already a little damp, but she nevertheless pulled it up to inspect the damage to her forearm. Although the fabric hadn't torn, the skin beneath it had. She flinched as the buckle-sized scrape met open air.
Castellar was less interested it as he was her other wound. He knelt down to inspect it, his pure white pupils vivid in the dark. The bow also shimmered with magical energy, acting as a small light source. He passed it off for Ciara to hold, ordering Ferris, "Take off your boot."
She did as instructed, albeit not without discomfort. She could already tell it was her ankle: Besides the pain, there was a small swell and some early signs of bruising around it. He took it gingerly in his hands.
"Is something broken?" She hated how small her voice came out when she asked that. If it was, then she was no better off than a lame horse. Getting seriously injured was always, always worse than getting killed. If she tried to walk it off, she'd usually just suffer while out of commission and end up forcing a jump back through time anyway.
In the moment's panic, she'd nearly forgotten that Castellar needed her to stay alive. "It's not that extreme," he explained in an exasperated tone, "I think you only twisted it—nothing a couple day's rest won't fix."
The real trouble was that they didn't have days to spare. They couldn't wait around for the avian to eventually either find a way in or send someone else after them. In the very least, they had to clear that immediate area as soon as possible, put as much distance apart from the bird as they could…
The close call made her restless. She would've forced herself to stand back up, but the skeleton still held onto her foot. Before she could tell him that she'd just walk it off, a bright green glow manifested in his grip and around the injury. An immediate ease, like cool water poured over a light burn, seeped through her flesh.
Her jaw went slack. Healing magic. Even as she saw it radiate from his fingertips and noticed the HP she hadn't known she'd lost recover, Ferris found it hard to believe. Not because it was a particularly rare magic—though it wasn't the most common either—but because Castellar was capable of using it. Maybe she shouldn't have been surprised, since shield warriors also made up the green magic type. Still, she wouldn't have guessed that anyone who killed without blinking and spoke so casually about their LVL would be capable of healing anyone.
"This isn't an immediate fix, but it'll help speed things along," he said.
It took a moment for Ferris to realize what he meant. Some of the swelling had gone down, and the pain significantly so, but trying to use her wounded ankle made her wince. The scrape on her arm was also still trickling with blood. Even though her HP was full again, it really meant more that she was stable rather than in absolutely perfect health. She would have to let time take care of the rest.
Meaning they still had the same problem. Brows furrowed, a half-smirk tugged at her lips.
Castellar tugged something from one of the pouches at his belt—a simplistic handkerchief with his initial stitched in the corner—and wrapped it around the cut. Ferris could've laughed at the absurdity of his care, and it must've shown on her face, because he glowered, "There's no use in healing you if you're just going to get an infection."
"Yeah, yeah: I'm a handful, I get it…" With Ciara still timidly bracing her side, Ferris began to focus her weight onto her good leg and use the rocks behind her to stand. Castellar backed toward her and crouched. She paused, blanking at him.
A few awkward seconds passed before he grumbled at her, looking sharply over his shoulder, "Get on."
"You're joking…"
"You think you can walk on that?"
She tensed. There was still a step between Castellar and herself. She inched forward, her ankle flaring in protest. She'd endured worse, but she didn't know how long she could move before it became an issue again. She bit the inside of her lip.
Looking away, Ferris reluctantly leaned against Castellar's back. She picked up her bad foot, then the other as his hands looped under her knees. Uncomfortable, she hung onto him near the collarbone with the same recoiling cringe she might've felt if someone had forced her to pick up a large beetle by its writhing legs. Only after the skeleton complained about her digging her fingers near his neck did she relent and slip her arms around him fully.
He began to walk at a brisk pace immediately after. Ciara's light footfalls tailed right behind them and the light of the bow swung across the rocks in tune with her steps. Ferris sighed through her nose, unwilling to look anywhere beyond the grey wall that continued to run adjacent to them.
Despite her best attempts to draw her mind to a blank, Ferris' curiosity made her all too aware of the frame she was braced against. Naturally, as a skeleton, Castellar's entire figure was hard and boney. However, there wasn't as much gap as she might've expected where muscle would've been had he been human. Although she could feel the individual shape of his bones, they were thicker, as if to make up for the lack of tissue. His ribs seemed to take up just a little more of his abdomen and were fashioned a little closer together. His shoulder blades seemed a little wider, a little smoother. His hands in-particular didn't feel much different from a human's save for their lack of warmth—the thick gloves were also partly to thank, leather acting in-place of skin.
She could feel him breathing too. She didn't know how, considering he didn't have lungs, but she could feel the steady, subtle rise and fall of his torso against her own. It left her to wonder how—magic aside—his body even worked. Could he really keep going like this? How was he strong enough to carry her on his own without any muscle? Did he weigh less because he didn't have any? If so, would she have just as easy a time carrying him if their roles were reversed?
It was a silly series of questions that kept running through her mind, aided by the fatigue that settled over her as her own body healed itself and the need for a distraction from the stressful situation. It felt like they were moving deeper underground and the path stayed fairly direct. They had nowhere to go but further down.
There had to be another way out, she knew that. Only a very small, uncertain voice in her head was worried that there wouldn't be one. There were vast caves all over the Two Kingdoms with all kinds of pathways connecting them. Nevertheless, she wasn't used to exploring them since her and Ciara's hometown had so few near it. It left her a mess of intrigue and nerves.
Meanwhile, Castellar marched on without hesitance. Whether it was because he was used to travelling through Ebott's caves himself or because he had no choice except to keep confident was hard to say. Either way, if he was bothered by their forced course, he didn't let it show.
Over twenty minutes passed before Ferris lost her sense of time. No one felt like speaking. She might've hummed something to herself if she thought the skeleton wouldn't snap at her for it. As fun as it was to annoy him, she was feeling too drowsy even for that. So, the sounds of the cave and their own footfalls stayed their only company for a long while, and Ferris started to lightly nod off.
Her eyes fluttered open and shut in brief intervals between her resting and double-checking to see if there was any change in their surroundings. They wouldn't keep open until a gradual light seeped through her eyelids. When she looked around, instead of spotting the exit they wished for, Ferris found a long ceiling of glowing flora suspended over them. The long strings of blue and lavender blooms weren't like anything that she'd seen before, and from them hung similarly long pistils that dangled like strings of crystals or frozen dewdrops over their heads.
Both sisters marveled at the bioluminescent flowers. Seeing a plant they didn't know was alluring enough, but their sheer beauty was another thing entirely. Ciara couldn't resist. The moment she found a strand low enough for her to reach, she tugged it down. Only half snapped into her grip, petals fluttering at her feet. For a moment, the child frowned at the ruined blossoms, then cradled the rest tenderly in her arms.
The trio also soon heard the sound of rushing water drown out the cave's usual, vacant drone. Nearing it, they found a small creek connected to the bottom half of a waterfall. Ideally, they would've used it in hopes of finding a path out. However, the adjacent cliffs were too steep and the opening too narrow. Besides that, it was impossible for them to see how tall the falls were as shadows engulfed them after several meters. It was too much of a gamble.
Eventually, the path ahead of them began to split. They kept to the widest tunnels, where past waterways had carved out plenty of room and the flowers bloomed the most. With any luck, they would find a way out of the underground garden before something else found them first.