Reela stumbles through the dark, shivering, exhausted, and feeling pain beyond words. It's so dark that she isn't sure if this cave even leads anywhere. For all she knows she's just been going in circles but is just too dazed to tell. She feels like she's getting nowhere, but she hasn't stopped moving for more than mere moments to catch her breath.
But she guesses it's better for her to be down here than up on the surface. She can't quite remember exactly, but she thinks she recalls seeing storm clouds in the distance. She'd much rather not get caught in a fucking snowstorm amidst all the other bullshit she's had to deal with in the past Mazenya-knows how many hours.
She feels like all her shivering and walking has worked off at least four pounds of potato chips. Cree's always on her case about training and exercise, so happy-fucking-birthday to him.
She hopes he's having better luck on his search than she is. She's heard stories of the hell he and Regan had gone through for just the first few days they spent in Aramora before they even found her at that Latyr camp. They literally met her after Regan had been kidnapped. And here she thought she was the one with bad luck.
Maybe they passed it down to her.
As she walks with a wandering mind, she trips. As she hits the ground, her mind snaps back to the present with a weak gasp, but she can't bring herself to emit much more than that small sound.
She tries taking a breath. The stone floor tears her leggings and her knees, but at this point she can't say she notices the added pain on top of everything else.
The thought of wishing she could just go home has threatened to enter her mind a few times, but she's so far been successful at shoving it to the back of her mind with the rest of her accumulating problems. Whatever suffering she feels, she has to remember that this is nothing compared to what Regan and Cree had gone through for her all those years ago.
Like them – for them – she can endure.
Reela braces her hand back on the wall and tries to get a firm handhold before attempting to pull herself back onto her feet. Her legs tremble and her knees buckle, but she catches herself on a stalagmite before she could give herself the chance to fall again.
She takes another moment to catch her breath and tries to distract herself from the pain and cold by looking around the dark cave some more. As before, still nothing. Just a cave. It's just dark.
She looks down and takes one more deep breath in to steel herself before continuing, when she hears down the tunnel, a faint crackling. As her eyes adjust a bit, she sees that further down the cave is a flickering, lambent light of a fire. The dim glow bounces faint, but inviting shadows across the wall.
Her heart leaps at the sight and she tries to run towards it, forgetting in the moment that she's still one faceplant away from being borderline crippled.
She takes it slow, but hurriedly staggers towards the light. The thought of feeling the warmth of a fire overcomes her desire to save her strength. If she finds a fire, she might be able to rest for a bit without fear of freezing to death.
Her senses are too dulled to question what might be the source of the fire, even as her hands and shoulder still throb from the blisters left by Avinalyn. At this point, she doesn't care if it's them again. She just wants to rest and defrost.
She makes it to the corner and her eyes light up to see a small campfire at the back of the cave. Throwing caution to the wind, she lets go of the wall to tremblingly bound towards the light. She didn't exactly run as much as she threw herself across the floor in an ungraceful flop, but what the fuck does she care about elegance at a time like this?
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Afraid of the Dark
Fantasy(Imperium Saga continuation following ten years after the ending of Rift. It is essential that you read all six books of the main series before reading this or else you will get major spoilers.) (Dark Saga, Book 1) Waking up on her eighteenth birthd...
