The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

#116 Dusty Feathers

"Apollo... Apollo... hey, are you hurt?" Teri gently shook Apollo's shoulders until he finally came to. Apollo blinked and sat up, suddenly wincing when he felt a sharp pain ring throughout his body.
"What happened? Did I black out?"
"I don't know. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Teri trailed off.
Apollo recognized the pain coming from his left wing and he carefully folded it behind his back.
"What happened?"
"I... accidentally fell on top of you when we landed. I was trying to catch you, but we got too close to the ground. I'm so sorry, is your wing okay?"
"I don't know, it hurts... it's not your fault. You were just trying to help." Apollo leaned against the rocky wall and winced as he let his damaged wing relax. His other wing however was perfectly fine.
"Can you try to carry me back to the surface?" Apollo asked.
"I don't think so... I'm not sure if I can hold you up long enough. It seems like we're a long way down." Teri looked up at the little circle of light that left only a spotlight for them on the ground below.
"Yeah. Don't worry about it. We can just sit here and wait until Sophia comes back."
"Yeah, okay. Hopefully they will be back soon."
And so they did nothing but sit and wait. In a pretty uncomfortable silence. Apollo observed his wings every now and then, hoping nothing was broken. But it still hurt pretty badly. He'd be lucky if it wasn't broken. Wing bones (or Apollo's bones in general) aren't the strongest. In fact, they're very light which helps during flight, but are very prone to breakage. But it wasn't the first time Apollo's had to deal with injuries like that. He thought about sending Sophie a text to tell them about their current situation, but wasn't surprised when it wouldn't go through. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and stared up at the light from above. Meanwhile, Teri stared at the dark tunnel ahead of her. She didn't like the way it was staring back at her. Something about it gave her a weird feeling.
"Hey Teri, if you want to go in and see if you can find Sophia, you can try."
"What?"
"I mean, there's a ledge that looks over the cavern. You can just go call out to them and see if they can hear you. I can't call them from here because my phone's not working."
"Is it safe?" Teri asked.
"I think so. You don't have to go all the way in. I'm just gonna sit here for a bit."
"Okay... if you think it's safe." Teri stood up and cautiously walked towards the dark tunnel. Keeping her eyes open for any sort of danger. As much as she worried about Sophia and the Twins being all the way down there, she couldn't help feeling that this place wasn't as it seemed. The further she walked in, the less light that was available to her. However, the lack of light wasn't really an issue for her. Her old home was surrounded by darkness, but the streets were always lit so everyone could see. Her eyes would adjust naturally, but she'd feel more comfortable when she returned to the light. She finally stopped suddenly at the ledge, gasping lightly in shock when she finally saw everything before her. The black holes in the rock on the other side, another tunnel to the left, and a seemingly bottomless pit that stretched even further into darkness. Sophia and the Twins were down here exploring somewhere and they promised they would be back before sundown.

"Sophie?! Fleetfoot! Flyboy! Are you down there? Can you hear me?!" Teri shouted. Her voice echoing heavily through the cavern. The reverberating sound made her even more nervous. Even her liquid wings vibrated at the sound of her voice.
She couldn't help but feel that there was something else down here. But she dared not take a step further, not without Apollo. She continued to call out to them as she forced herself to wait for her friends to return.