An Unusual Herd

[Djute]

Djute breathed a sigh of relief as the shaman turned to face him. He was unharmed, for the time being at least, if not extremely winded. His relief was cut short, however, as his friend pointed out Garrett's absence. Had Zach not immediately suggested they move on, he probably would have deposited Hester there and gone back to find the cleric. Zach was right though. There was no time to go back and look. The bonewalkers were getting closer and more seemed to be appearing behind them. Even worse, the older members were quickly becoming overwhelmed and more and more skeletal warriors were slipping past them. As Zach slowly rose to his feet, Djute nervously glanced around. The approaching skeletons were enough to put him on edge, but even the air seemed to be off. The mage seemed to feel it too, but before he could reply to his friend, a wave of force unlike anything he had ever felt slammed into him. Light, color, and sound erupted through the forest as he was thrown off of his feet. As he flew through the air, he barely maintained his grasp on Hester's limp body. He crashed down on top of Zach, wincing in the hope that he had not crushed his friend. Luckily, the young mage seemed to be fine as he rolled out from beneath him, grabbing Hester as he went. Djute rose shakily to his feet, and it was only once he was standing again that his senses returned to him. And with his senses came him an overwhelming oppressive heat.

Djute's eyes grew wide as he stared at the forest around him. Whatever it had been that had knocked him off of his feet had apparently also involved fire, as the trees around him were alight with it. He scanned the forest in a panic, but he saw nothing that could have caused a fire of such magnitude. In addition, the skeletons were drawing ever closer. He turned back to his friend and gestured in a vague direction opposite of the approaching skeletons. Hoping that the shaman understood, Djute took of running. As he ran, he tried to glance around him and look for any of the expedition members, but with the quickly spreading fire and the resulting smoke, it was near impossible to see anything. He turned his head back to face forward, but as he did, the world suddenly darkened as the ground seemed to give out beneath him. His legs kicked helplessly as he fell through the air and came crashing down helplessly onto the hard stone ground.

[Zacharia]

Hester managed to blink her eyes open for a moment while Zacharia ran through the searing smoke, and quickly shut them again. The woman could somewhat tell the person carrying her had changed, but her thought processes weren't exactly focused on that. Her stomach was twisted in knots and she doubted she could stand, but Hester was nevertheless grateful to Gaea that she was still alive.

Clutching Hester like a huge ragdoll, he continued on through the smoke and flame. Following after Djute who was running faster than him now that he had to watch where he was stepping and carry Hester simultaneously. More and more explosions rang in his ear, and if he saw a proper picture of the forest from above he would've been amazed at how much the fire had spread in minutes.

Djute's silhouette seemed to shrink into the ground and then altogether disappear for an unknown reason. Before he had time to register why his friend was gone he was falling as well, clinging to Hester for dear life. It was by no means a long fall; before he knew it he landed with the pathfinder on top of him with a splash into a shallow river. He couldn't see anything except red hair and the black spots that were dancing around his eyes. Looking up it would've taken a miracle for all of them to survive. Unfortunately their original way up was completely block by burning logs despite there being dozens of sinkholes. As Zacharia gingerly rolled the red head off of him and on to dry land, his arms limped back down and he stared up at the ceiling completely oblivious to Djute laying right next to him. The muffled explosions were still rocking the forest above, and sinkholes were appearing in even greater numbers.

He hoped the crew was alright.

[Garrett]

Djute came to his side as he healed Hestia. He scooped her up in and instant and Garrett told him; "Be careful, she's still injured." Unsure if Djute even managed to catch what he said, or if he was too mortified by the situation they were in, Garrett did not know. All he knew was what he could see with his own eyes, Dj and Zach taking off as quickly as their feet could carry. They were fast, and off in an instant. Garrett stood to follow but crumpled as pain shot through his entire body, he squeaked in agony but bit his lip and ignored it. His leg wasn't hurting much before but that's because he was being careful, but he just put all his weight on it without thinking. He forgot he was hurt, he forgot he was weak for a moment after what he done, foolish Garrett. He reminded real quick of the truth of things. He squinted a bit through the pain but refused to let it stop him as he moved, his leg was still aching from the mistake so he did his best to put all the strain on his other side. It ended up making him do a sort of hobbling walk that might have been funny to watch if it wasn't a dash for his life.

This was getting to be a distressingly regular scene for the young cleric. He thought an exploration guild would be more about exploring and less about near death experiences. Maybe he wasn't cut out for this, maybe once he gets back to town he should just quit and join a nice, safe merchants guild. He'll get to travel still, maybe, and hopefully there'd be less of his body letting him down. That was assuming he lived through this, which he wasn't so sure. It would be just perfect that after he was saved that he'd be killed. It wasn't a good day.

Only mere moments after he started moving did Zach and Djute vanish from view, they were so fast in comparison to him there was no way he could dream of keeping up. He could hear the sounds of battle almost directly behind him, he needed to move faster. Please just a bit faster. He hated this, he hated everything to do with this. He hated his damn leg, he hated this frail body, he hated how big a burden he was, and most of all he hated how much he hated it. He was tired of being self-loathing, but every time he tries to come to peace with it, he's reminded just how much he hates it.

There was an explosion in the distance and bright flash but he couldn't make out what it was, it was simply too far away, what he could tell was the smell of burning wood and the dancing flicker of flame in the distance. Fire? Fire! This was a heavily wooded area, it would take no time at all for the fire to spread! He covered his mouth with the fabric of his robe as he pushed forward. The fire may be death, but to stop moving was certain death. So he entered into the quickly spreading flames. He wasn't entirely away of when he cross the threshold, but before he could actually process his surroundings the flames began to lick all around him. Their heat making him sweat as it threatened to cook him alive, the smoke overwhelming and making his eyes water and breaking into coughs. He squinted through eyes stinging with pain hoping to see... anything. All he could see was blinding reds and oranges that caused pain to even look into. His body grew heavy and tired, but he kept moving the best he could, only his best got worse and worse as time wore on. Go from a hobbled run, to a limped jog, and now it was nothing more then a slumped walk through the burning woods.

[Djute]

It took Djute several moments before he felt like getting off of the ground. He hadn't fallen far, but the ground had been rather hard all the same and had risen up rather quickly to meet him. Still, nothing was broken and he found no struggle in standing. He began to gather his bearings as he glanced around and realized that he had fallen in to some sort of cave. It seemed to stretch off in both directions, with the only noticeable exit being several feet above him and covered by fire. It was clear that he wasn't getting out that way. He turned to face the other direction and was a little surprised to notice that Zach had fallen in with him, bringing Hester along for the ride. The mage appeared unharmed, to which Djute let out a sigh of relief. While he himself might be able to take a beating, he wasn't sure if his friend shared the same fortitude.

"Looks like we're stuck down here," he said, breaking the silence, "Let's hope there's a way out down one of these paths," he added with a chuckle, trying to hide the concern in his voice. As brave as he tried to be most of the time, their current situation had done a number of Djute's nerves. Pretty much everyone he knew in the world could be dead right now and there was little he could do to help. Not to mention the forest was now ablaze for unknown reasons and literal walking skeletons prowled above them, unfazed by the torrent of flames. Yet, he had to keep his wits about him. One wrong move and they would be dead. He pushed his fears to the back of his mind and steeled himself for what lay ahead. Right now, they needed to find a way out of the cave and they needed to get Hester to safety. He just hoped there weren't Bonewalkers down here as well.

[Zacharia]

As Zach stood up from his stupor--terrible idea, by the way--his knees turned to spaghetti and it took the most intense concentration to keep hisself from flopping forward on Hester with a splash. Though she was just fine apart from her former arrow to the gut, she had crushed down on his ribs in quite some force when they fell. He wasn't a doctor, but as far as he knew nothing was broken. Maybe some of his ribs were cracked? He'd have to get Garrett to--Garrett "GARRETT--HGplEUG" he wheezed as loud as he could to the holes above. The acrid stench of burning wood had really started to get to him, he noted, as he started retching up breakfast in the river he landed in. Smoke, mud, and vomit. The ultimate combination of unholy stench.

Nearly falling backwards into his own spew, he wobbled over to Djute and steadied himself with a hand on the apprentice cartographer's armor. "We should follow the water.." he maintained an even tone while he wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Maybe it'll lead us out of here. There's a ton of halls, and I can already tell half of them don't go farther than a stone's throw." It wasn't much of a river, more of a stream. But you could tell it'd been there for many a year; the dip in the floor that allowed for it was huge and took up the entire room. And that was saying something since the column-filled room could give a dining hall a run for its money. It also helped that the door-gates it trickled out of were huge and covered in lichen, they were most likely very important door-gates.

Zacharia tottered off towards Hester like he was drunk, and he steeled himself to gingerly lift her up to his chest. Now she started feeling like lead to his limp arms, the sudden shock of hitting the ground not quite worn off yet. "But..." he grimaced as the pathfinder lay against his chest. "You're the master at this map stuff Djute, you should lead the way." He really needed to get a pocket or satchel or something because he didn't quite trust the girl's limp form to hold on to his book for him. At least he had Djute to stave off any unwanted guests. With an awkward snap of his fingers from underneath Hester's knees, soft blue light sprung to life and danced across the tips---and immediately died. What? That was new. "You don't happen to have a torch, do you?"

[Garrett]

He kept his face covered as he slogged through the heat and flames. His entire body felt so tired, so sluggish, like he was sleep walking while still wide awake. He was scared for his life and it was nothing but liquid adrenaline the pulsed through his veins, pushing him far beyond the point of acquittal. He was indignant at this sleight of fate, his stubborn will pushing through above all else. Still stubbornness and tenacity can only get you so far, and eventually even the hardiest stones crumble. He coughed, he sputtered, and fell to his knees. His breathing rough and haggard as he clawed at the ground. Leaning against a unburnt tree, sitting there while fires blazed around him. He would die there most likely, the heat the smoke the everything it was too much.

As the world gave way, it felt as the earth was vanishing from underneath him. His mind obviously playing tricks on him in its delirious state. It wasn't until he felt the air rushing past him and saw the see he had been leaning on crumble into the earth that he realize that it was in fact something actually happening and oh crap he needed to be more alert. He tried to brace himself, and while it wasn't a long drop it was a hard one. He crashed into the hard stone and was knocked unconscious, the last thing he could hear was the sound of rushing water.

[Djute]

As the mage turned to face him, it was clear that Zach was not quite as well as Djute had originally thought. It was to be expected, he supposed. While Djute had his armor to absorb some of the blow, Zach had little more than the clothes on his back and those would have done him little good during the fall. Still, his friend was alive and that was all that really mattered at the moment. He waited patiently for the mage to recover, and listened intently at his suggestion. "I agree," Djute replied, "The water has to empty out somewhere. At least, it should empty out somewhere. It doesn't look like it was part of the original building or... whatever this is. It could be pouring in from somewhere, too. There's no real way to tell from here. We'll just have to pick a hallway and follow it. If we were above ground, this would be a lot easier, but..." Djute's voice trailed off into a sigh. In all honesty, he had very little idea how they were going to get out of this place. It was true that he knew a lot about mapping, but all of his experience was with the outdoors and he knew very little about the layout of buildings. Even if he did, something seemed different about the place they had fallen into. It felt as if no one had set foot here in a long time. Still, he didn't let his uncertainty show. Zach and Hester were counting on him and he wouldn't let them down.

"No, I don't have any torches. There wasn't any room for them in the bag. If I remember correctly, the merc had..." Djute's sentence was cut off by a loud thud as another body dropped from the hole above. He wheeled around to the origin of the sound, drawing his sword as he did. The bonewalkers were still up there, after all, and he didn't know if any of them had found the gaping hole in the ground. His fears were relieved, however, when he found that the body lying limp on the ground belonged to their companion, Garrett. Letting out the breath he had sucked in, Djute sheathed his sword crossed over to the cleric, kneeling next to him. "He's out cold," Djute called back to Zach, "But he seems okay, otherwise. He probably didn't see us fall in and didn't see the hole either."

[Zacharia]

Now it was Zacharia's turn to breathe a sigh of relief; which hurt like the dickens. Gravity was and is a harsh mistress. "Well, I guess there's nothing to do but follow the water to where it comes from, we have no light and we're all too encumbered to fight." Encumbered was a word right? He'd only read it in a book once and ever since he'd been meaning to use it somewhere. "We'll be fine, I'm sure of it." he said with a pained grin as he looked to Djute heaving Garrett over his shoulder like a blown up sackdoll. They would have to be fine, for Arcadia's Eyes' sake. As far as they knew the four trapped in the cave were the only ones left(he could see the ragged rise and fall of Garrett's chest, anyway). "Nothing to do now but keep going." he murmured, which echoed all around the cave like the spirits of seasons passed were mocking them. Which might not be too far from the truth all things considered.

With a secure grasp on Hester he made his way toward the edge of the river and felt the wall. It was cold, duh, and mossy, duh, but it felt kinda man-made with how smooth it was. No doubt the weathering of the water next to him had something to do with that over the years but you could easily see the way it was originallly carved out rather than chipped away. Which was good, that meant there would be a way out. As long as it wasn't blocked off.

[Djute]

As he bent down and slid his arms under the unconscious cleric, Djute was surprised to feel just how light his friend was. He had always known that Garrett was of slender frame and a little undernourished, but he lifted the boy from the ground, it felt as though he were lifting a bag of flour. Though it might have just been due to his sickly nature, he had a sinking feeling that the boy didn't eat as much as he should. He would have to have Cook make him a large hearty meal when they returned to Arcadia. As he pondered this, a bit of debris from the burning forest above fell through the cracks and hit him on the shoulder, pulling him from his thoughts. Djute shook his head, trying to clear his mind and bring himself to the present. He didn't have time to think about such things. They were still in danger, and if he couldn't lead his friends out of their predicament, they would have a lot more to worry about than how much food they were getting. His friends needed him, and they needed him in the present moment.

Djute adjusted Garrett in his arms, moving him into a position that would create less strain. He had no idea how long he would have to carry the cleric, but if he could make it easier on himself, it would be one less nagging thought distracting him in the back of his mind. With Garrett secured, he turned back to Zach and nodded his head towards one of the halls through which the water was flowing. "We should get moving. We're not going to find a way out of this place just standin' around and I'd prefer to get out of the room with smoking cracks in the ceiling." With that said, he turned back to the opening of the hallway, swallowed his doubts and fears, and moved deeper into darkness that laid ahead. As he trudged ahead, his only thought was if this ride would ever end.