Beneath Our Disguises

Woven Caverns (Dryder x Reader)

(Dryder x Reader)

"I can't believe you are doing this!" You yell at the top of your lungs down at your friend who had decided it would be a fantastic idea to explore the caverns at the edge of town, the very ones said to house a monster so horrible that no one who had encountered it had ever survived. 

"You're going to get killed down there!" You continue to scream, trying to get them to turn back so that you don't have to follow into the darkness below.

"Not if you come with meee!" They call back up, a grin clear in her voice

Groaning and grumbling under your breath as you begin to follow her down, carefully climbing across the rocks and scaling the dangerous drop into the unknown. 

The rocks are slippery and damp with something sticky clinging to a few, most likely some kind of moss or plant that you keep accidentally touching on your way down before wiping it off on the next rough rock hand hold. 

About half way down, your foot slips dangerously and one of your hands is cut sharply on the edge but you grab hold, hanging by the tips of your fingers you squeeze your eyes shut, not wanting to look at how far you had nearly managed to fall off of the cliff.

"Hey (y/n), look down" Giggled your friend, daring to take that peak down you see the single foot to the bottom of the cavern. Rolling your eyes you let yourself fall to the rock below, stepping on that same sticky stuff again and wincing slightly as you scrape it off on the rock beside the glob.

Your friend was stifling laughter as she pulled up the flashlight on her phone so that they could see as they explored, grumbling yet again as you do the same, wincing at the blood trail that was running down your hand with a slight sting from the roughness of it. 

"This is cool, I can't believe how we haven't gone in these caves before." She says, looking around in awe at the rocky cave walls, so short that the two of you had to bend your heads slightly and be careful of the edges around you.

The inside, thrown into relief by your phone, looks like the inside of a rockfall, rock upon rock stacked on top of each other centuries ago. Some parts were smoothed over by cave formations, a few smooth edges here and there that had clearly come from fallen rain making beautiful colors from the minerals that had created them. Every now and then there would be a small stalagmite or stalactite that were difficult to avoid in the darkness. You had to admit, despite the creepy darkness and steady drip of uneven water, it was quite beautiful down in the cave. 

Stepping on yet another pile of the nasty moss goop you look down with the flashlight, trying to find the source of it for once. It didn't quite look like moss, a pale off-white in color and oddly sticky, it seemed to be a strand of something, looking almost like rope but not quite. Figuring it was probably some type of animal droppings like bat guano, you wipe it off quickly with a wrinkling of your nose in disgust. 

Looking up you notice how far ahead your friend had gotten in the time that you had taken to wipe your shoe, calling out softly and hearing it echo everywhere in the cavern all too loud for how quiet you had said 'wait up'. Of course, she didn't listen as you hurriedly stumbled forward, trying not to hit your head on the steadily smaller tunnel space as you do.

"Ok, how long are we going to be down here? I did say I would be home for dinner you know." You ask, rather nervous as you see the first fork in the trail, one steadily sloping more downwards and the other with a slight up turn that hopefully went back to the surface.

"Oh come on, we're exploring! At least try to have some fun with it?" She asks, turning towards the one that went still deeper underground. Rolling your eyes but not wanting to be left alone in the dark, you follow quickly, feeling anxious at the sudden difference in look as you enter the new tunnel together.