The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

#120 Cutting the Void

[Teri]

"Hold on, I really can't see anything." Apollo stopped Teri before they went any further.
"You actually can't see anything down here? I mean, I don't blame you it is really dark down here..."
"Just hold on a second."
Apollo held up his hand in front of him, a tiny fire lightly burst from his palm and he held it cautiously in front of him.
"There we go, that's better."
"So, we just keep going through here until we find another tunnel in the wall?" Teri asked as they carefully stepped into the darkness.
"That's what the Twins said. It shouldn't be that hard to find."
Teri let Apollo walk in front of her so the light could reach further in, cautiously looking at their feet to make sure they wouldn't trip over everything. The quiet crackling of the fire in Apollo's palm was the only sound that echoed besides their footsteps.
"Sophie!... Sophie, are you in here?" Teri called out, the volume making Apollo flinch as it echoed for about three more seconds. But they heard no response. When they turned around a corner, they finally spotted something within the wall ahead of them. Teri rushed ahead and stepped through the hole, poking her head out and confirming that this was the hole the Twins spoke about. Apollo stepped through and illuminated what was left of the room. Strange scratches on the wall beside them were cut off by the wall of rocks and boulders.
"This must be where they got cut off." Teri said aloud. She stepped over the loose rocks and started pounding her fists and digging out as many rocks as she could pull away.
"Sophie! It's us, we're here! Can you here use? Are you okay?" Teri called out. Apollo stepped next to her and started helping, hoping his best friend was somewhere on the other side. Hoping that she turned back to wait for help.
"Sophie! Sophie, can you hear us? Are you there?" Apollo yelled through the wall. But when the echoes faded, they got no response from the other side. Not a sound to confirm that Sophia was present.
"They won't budge. I don't hear anything. Do you think she's okay?" Teri asked, looking at Apollo with concern.
"I think she is. I'm not sure if we can get rid of this without causing another cave-in." Apollo began to think to herself, until he glanced at the neatly folded liquid wings upon Teri's back. He finally got an idea.
"Teri, I think you might be able to cut through it."
"What, no. I can't do that."
"No, I mean the water. You can use it to drill a hole through the rocks, and then we can crawl through it."
"Okay... how does that work?"
"Erosion. Just... try to spin the water around as fast as possible and make it drill into the rock. It'll cut right through, I think you can do it." Apollo explained.
"Are you sure? I've never done something like this before."
"I think it'll work, just try it."
"Okay... if you say so."
Teri waved her arms around, bending the water from her back into a collective ball in front of her, aiming at the center of the wall and trying to focus. 
"Okay... let's see..."
Teri started waving her hands back and forth, the ball of water in front of her began to spin, pointing towards the wall and she slowly pushed it forwards. The more Teri concentrated, the faster the water began to spin until it looked like a floating whirlpool.
"So if I spin it fast enough, it'll cut through the rock without it collapsing?"
"Yeah, just make it big enough so I can crawl through it. Trust me, it'll work."
"Okay... here goes."
Teri gently pushed her hands towards the wall, the whirlpool touching the rock and a strange screeching echoed through the room. But surprisingly, it was actually starting to drill into the rock. A confident smirk beginning to grow on Teri's face as she continued to push it further in. Little bits of dust and debris flying in every direction. Apollo stood back as a bit of the debris started getting bigger and she did not want to be blinded twice. The drilling started getting louder, but Teri didn't break her focus for a second. Eventually, Apollo had to cover his ears because the screeching was becoming a little too much to bear. The way it echoed through the room was unpleasant to hear. But it took Teri a while to drill a hole big enough, while also being careful not to disturb anything that might trigger the ceiling to collapse again and make it even harder to reach Sophia.
When the sound finally stopped, Apollo opened his eyes and slowly uncovered his ears.
"I think I got it! Can you fit through that?" Teri asked as she bent the water away from the hole and fixed it around her back once again. Apollo looked up and reached his hand into the hole, the flame flickering from his fingers lighting up the other side and revealing the rest of the tunnel.
"Perfect. It doesn't look like she's here though..... I'm going in."
"Wait! Shouldn't we wait for the Twins to come back? I don't know if we should be splitting up like this."
"It's okay, I won't go too far. I just wanna make sure Sophia isn't here. Remember, she might still be crawling around so the Twins might find her. I'll make it quick, I promise."
"...Okay. Just be careful."
Apollo extended his burning arm through the hole and carefully crawled through and shuffled out to the other side.
"Sophie! Are you in here?" he began to call out. This tunnel was a little more narrow, but it wasn't too difficult to navigate. He really didn't want to spend all day down here in the darkness. Lack of sight was the only thing he didn't have time to worry about right now.