A murky rhythm consisting of the tugs and pulls of complex mechanisms filled the air. The car chugged along with passengers at the ready, while various dim colors lit up the normally dark caverns. There were stones abound, all shining, all watching.
All viewing three humans boarding the mobile, one similar to a rover. Two were wearing mining hats, and one had chose to wear nothing but a labored expression. The miners were hunched down, beleaguered with the exhaustion that came with the job. The fancier woman was tired as well, judging by the frown on her face and the slouch on her posture.
"Oh boss…why are coming this far? Ain't this where them Guides are born…?" A gruff voice made its opinion known, as the form of one of the hunched miners suddenly leaned back on its seat. The woman's brows furrowed a bit at that.
"Yeah, this is that so called Grasping Hands layer…right? They don't even let advanced Messengers come here…so why are we so under-equipped? It's like they want us to die here-"
"I have had ENOUGH of your whining. Orders are orders, and we are just cannon fodder anyways. Hopefully, we can just fulfill the contract and leave…" The woman erupted into a pained rage, her forehead creasing while her foot stamped along the metallic surface underneath her. The two miners fell silent, their worries in turn falling on deaf ears.
As they pulled their mining hats closet to their head in unison, it happened.
CRASH!
"Ahahaha….it broke! I'm free…? Oh, what's that?"
The three turned to see a kid with pale sky blue skin, a straight black bob with lemon yellow undertones, and a garish expression judging by its upraised eyebrows and grinning purple lips. The topaz crescents scanned the three intently, while their carrier made movements to the head of the car. As it laid its hand on the hood of the rover, the more cowardly of the two miners cried out in anguish.
"It's here, it's here! I told you it was a bad idea…I told you! It'll kill us all, that's not a human and it never will be!!" He scurried to the corner of the open platform, shaking all the while.
"Shut up, you dolt. If it is a Guide, there is no guarantee it will harm us…their rules bind them rather tightly. If you agitate it, it will probably be able to murder you just as you fear…besides…this one is a child."
After attempting to address the fears of the skittish miner, she turned her gaze to the kid in front of her. The kid stared back. As the liquid of the world dripped into crystalline puddles, they stood their with their eyes trained on each other.
It was silent. Until it wasn't.
"What's your name miss? You aren't supposed to be here, you know?" A beguiling tone danced along the ears of all present. While it was meant to be inquisitive, to the miners it was more interrogative than anything. That purple smile…the unnatural beauty the kid seemed to hold. As if a perfect human stood in front of them, it was too uncanny. Too…frightening.
The woman was unsettled as well, but unlike her associates she put on a brave face. As she combed her hands through her auburn hair, she started to come off cool and indifferent. She then clenched her insides and stood tall, erasing the vague sense of fear the child could sense from her.
"Do you even know who's supposed to be here? You couldn't be very old, little Guide."
Upon hearing this, the child broke into a peal of laughter. It's chest heaved against its clothing, which had put off the woman even further. Upon closer inspection…she realized that the child had not even shown a semblance of breathing until now.
The laughter subsided as the child held its abdomen tight. Five seconds later, it had unfettered itself from its own binding and slammed its hand across the hood of the rover. It's expression was mischievous the whole time, the lips on its face twitching in what appeared to be anticipation.
"You're right…I don't know much of anything yet. But…you seem like you do, miss! I have an inkling of where I'm supposed to go…could you tell me? Please?"
The child pushed the hood down with even more force as it meandered its way through the conversation. The exhausted humans lurched forward due to the sudden misbalance the child had inflicted on the terrain supporting their weight. The miners' screams juxtaposed the leisurely expression the child had greatly, and it was then that the woman knew.
They really had been sent to death…if they couldn't play their cards right that is.
"I don't know anything, really. We were told to come down here to excavate some bodies…there seems to be a foolish Post that came down to the Grasping Hands"
The child appeared puzzled, tapping its free hand against its cheek with the same intonation of a heartbeat. Before long, the child was confused no longer and appeared to be fretting for a bit. Impatiently kicking against the underside of the rover, it made its thoughts known.
"Go ahead and enter the big open thingy behind me, you might find something. But…do you really not know anything?"
The youth's dreary tone was infectious, and the woman could not help but feel bad for it. Judging that the opening was a bit too small for the rover to fit through, she descended the vehicle and walked to the child. Pointing further down the cavern, she stopped for a moment and hesitated before briskly making her way through.
The child smiled at this and skipped towards the way the humans had come from. Time passed as the fluorescent gleaming puddles showed off their numerous shades. Time passed as the texture of the rock became illusory, interchanging from tough to soft and back again in a matter of seconds.
Time passed until time could no longer be measured by the child, as the dripping that it had been using to count the seconds suddenly stopped. A vast darkness, unlit by any piffling brightness stretched before it. The child stretched out its foot…
And fell into an abyss.
——
Not too far off from the site where the child has fallen, there was a young adult crouched in the darkness. By the light of the magic wand in front of him, lavender hair and bright mint eyes could be perceived. With pursed lips and a sharp nose, the normally carefree young man has an uncharacteristically pensive expression. As he fiddled with the steel bands that dotted his leftmost ear, he waved the wand around.
"Oh child of the dark…how long will this take already?! I don't remember my exodus being nearly this long!"
The man tapped the bunny hairpin that was attached to the rightmost fringe of his hair, contemplative.