The close-by sound of coughing rang like alarm bells in my head. Then there was the shifting of rubble, stone and steel, and I knew someone was coming.
'My lord Skargar, are you alright?' a distant voice asked.
I kept my face down, hoping that the others would do the same. It wouldn't do for the enemy to learn that it was us down here and not their leader.
'I see movement,' Someone else yelled, then soon after, hurried footsteps seemed to run towards the narrow gap above me. Torches shone brilliantly, illuminating every inch of the crevasse, but fortunately, they couldn't see our faces through the thick dust. After a few minutes of miraculous silence on our part, the guards moved on, and their widely scoped torches went with them.
I felt someone pull on my leg, and fearing the worst; I kicked out.
'Dammit.' Molly complained.
As soon as I heard her voice, I shuffled, turning to face her as best I could. 'Have you seen anyone else? Baltar, where is he?'
'He was right behind us when it all came crashing down... can only see Alistair and Nooke from where I'm sat though.' Molly coughed; the lack of oxygen threatening to overwhelm her. 'The Elf is wounded.'
I bit my lip; there was only one way out of here, and it would likely involve being captured again.
'What was that?' Alistair jumped, causing the surrounding rubble to move with him.
'Be careful!' Molly snapped, but the giant flinched again anyway.
'This whole place is ready to collapse. One wrong move and we're all dead, big guy.'
I strained my eyes, trying my best to see through the haze, but I couldn't tell what Alistair was up to; hopefully, nothing stupid.
Turning towards the sound of Sameth's heavy breathing, I tried to see his face, but couldn't. 'How bad are you hurt, Nooke?'
'Been better... looks like there's a piece of rebar poking through my leg, and my left arm's pinned, other than that... perfect.' He groaned again.
'Just don't touch it and you'll be fine,' I suggest. 'We're getting out of here.'
I heard Molly curse. 'I'd rather die than go back to those cells, Jake.'
'I'm open to suggestions.'
'Use your magic!' She said, speaking as though the solution was obvious.
She wasn't wrong, but we'd have to make a choice. 'Do I help us, or keep after Skargar? I don't know how to do both.'
'Get us out of here! killing that bastard won't make a difference if we die here and now.'
'You make a good point. Hold tight, everyone. Things are about to get interesting!'
As I closed my eyes, concentrating, I noticed that Rex's rampage was over, and the resulting silence was deafening.
I knew what I wanted to conjure, but I also knew we'd need more than one person to perform the heavy lifting. It didn't take long for them to get to work, and the speed in which they were sifting through the debris was almost unbelievable.
'What the hell is that?' Molly asked.
In answer to her question, four tall silvery coloured creatures peered into the hole, their small Otter-like faces, appearing to have similarly long whiskers and oval eyes. They were searching for me, and as soon as they spotted my wave, they dashed down, hopping across Alistair's chest and making him squirm some more.
The little majestic beasts jumped on me next, before proceeding to pull me out by my trousers. 'Okay, thank you, I'll take it from here.' I said, petting them before they vanished.
'You couldn't have gotten them to dig the rest of us out?' Molly demanded, jerking her head to the side. Her right leg was still buried.
I pursed my lips. 'Something tells me I'll need all of my energy later.'
She nodded reluctantly.
There was more grunting up ahead, but I still couldn't see a thing. 'Who is that? Sameth, that you again?'
'Not me.' The Elf replied bluntly.
I watched as Molly brushed away the smaller chunks of debris around us, enough that she could free up more space for Alistair. The gentle giant was still pinned, being too big to budge without crushing the rest of us in the process.
'There can't just be the four of us left, any sign of the Bobcats?'
Molly was patting the larger stones that were resting above us, though why she was doing that, I had no idea. 'Honestly, Jake, I think we got lucky.'
'I could have told you that.'
Molly sighed loud enough for me to hear. 'What I'm saying is, Alistair seems to be holding everything in place. If he moves...'
'We should get help,' She suggested after a moment of calculation. 'We can come back and-'
'No!' I yell, not letting her finish. If we were to leave Alistair and Sameth now, we might never make it back.
'We can't stay here, dammit! And it's like you pointed out, you need to conserve your energy.'
'All the energy in the world won't help me if I have to go out there alone, Molly, and you know it!'
I kicked at the ground in anger.
'Well, that didn't help.' Molly noted sarcastically, spitting out a mouth full of dust.
'I need your help, all of you. Think, we can't call for help because we have no allies out there. Nor can any of you use your magic yet. I need to summon something that can get us out safely. Thoughts?'
'Get those little monsters back here?' Alistair suggested.
'I don't think they'll be able to lift you... no offence.'
The giant didn't reply. I was starting to realise just how sensitive he was.
'How about a shovel-pony?' Molly asked next.
If she could have seen my face, she'd have also seen how confused I was. 'I don't think that'll work.'
'I have an idea, Jake!' Sameth announced, already starting to wriggle around.'
'Just tell me, you'll only make things worse if you keep doing that.' The Elf was still moving, though, struggling to reach out for something.
'Molly, hand me that will you?'
'A book. You want to read a book right now?' She asked, her voice reflecting disbelief.
'No. I want to show Jake something,' He explained as she picked it up. 'Last page.'
Molly gasped, Sameth laughed, and Alistair tried to roll away.
I just stared at the Elf, aghast. This idea of his must have been the worst one I'd ever heard.