The Fickle Winds of Autumn

48. A Burial

Kira's body shuddered and ached as she forced her reluctant eyes to open. Cold, wet rocks surrounded her and seemed determined to poke and prod at every uncomfortable place and angle in her tender frame they could find - back, ribs and legs - it didn't seem to matter to them how sore or bruised she was.

Her woozy head didn't seem to be properly attached to the rest of her fragile body, and a damp, musty smell of mould forced itself into her unwilling nostrils; its old sourness even lingered on her numbed lips.

An all enfolding bleak darkness slowly gave way to a faint purple glow as her eyes accustomed themselves to her surroundings and began to focus. She tried to sit up, but her body refused to obey her; her legs kicked out and must have dislodged several loose stones, which clattered away from her with a dry rippling echo. The bracing sound bounced around the cave and broke through the dull rushing, roaring noise which filled her ears.

"Oh! You're awake!"

She recognised Ellis's voice but couldn't lift her head to see him.

"Good! You've been out for quite a while - I was getting worried - I mean we both were - I mean Aldwyn and me."

The friendly sound of his concern almost coaxed a smile from her sore face, but the throbbing pain across her jaws prevented it.

Clearly, he had survived the ordeal of the poison and the perilous flight into the cave. Her breathing relaxed and came a little easier with the knowledge he was safe.

She rubbed her head to check it was still in its rightful place and, encouraged by her findings, tried again to sit up, with more success than previously.

The shifting pebbles rattled and reverberated away from her as she propped herself up and looked around.

Through the dim eerie glow, the low, tight hollow of the cave revealed itself. She was positioned amidst a bed of rubble and debris which sprayed out and covered almost the entire floor. Behind her, a huge mound of boulders had piled up and blocked off what she guessed must have been the entrance under the waterfall, leaving no obvious way out and blocking any clear source of light into the rocky chamber - and yet, across the gloomy, squat interior, her keen eyes were still able to pick out the shadowy outlines of her companions.

"What's this strange purple stuff?" she asked, her voice bounced back at her in a sharp, shallow echo.

"It appears to be some form of bio-luminescent algae," Aldwyn informed her. "Perhaps of the genus scintinllen," he suggested. "The spray from the waterfall must have provided enough moisture for it to thrive in here - there are very few places in the world where Nature will not inhabit and bloom if it is only given the chance."

It was pleasant to hear Aldwyn's exacting tones too, above the muffled thunder of the angry water outside. If he had already studied and analysed the natural environment around him, there was clearly nothing wrong with him either.

"So we all made it to the cave, then? Is anyone hurt?" she asked into the eerie purple glow.

"Well, I feel like I've been run over by old master Pilton's heaviest wagon," said Ellis, "but I'll survive."

"Yes, your shoulders were cut from being carried, and you were infected by some sort of poison, but you'll be fine." Aldwyn assured him. "And how are you, young Kira?" he continued. "Is your ankle functioning properly?"

"It seems fine - still a little tender. I hardly remember how it happened. I just remember being thrown into the cave through the waterfall - I think I saw you Aldwyn, and then my leg..."

"Yes, it looked quite a nasty one," said Aldwyn. "It will be sore for a while, but it mended in a satisfactory manner."

"Oh, thank you. But did you see what happened to my friend, Harath? The one who carried us here to the cave?"