Light flickered in and out of focus, my body felt extremely heavy as if it was pinned by an insufferable amount of gravity. My breathing was rough and heavy which caused me to gasp for air.
My eyes finally focused. The jagged stone ceiling in the direct view of my eyesight, but it looked oddly different to the ceiling of the room we were fighting the monster in. Slowly, my head twisted to the right side, where my broken arm should have been. The surprising thing was, my arm wasn't broken. It was still bruised and beaten up, but I could move it and twist it about, even clench my fist.
How much time had passed?
I carefully began pushing my hands against the floor to lift myself up.
"Tch!" I clicked my tongue in pain. Though my arm wasn't broken, it was still thoroughly beaten up and exhausted. It would have been strange if I didn't feel any pain. But how did my arm recover, from my bones being shattered and broken to being now intact and just bruised?
"Oh, you're awake kid?" A tired voice reached out to me. It was our leader. He sat on the floor next to me, slumped, using the wall of the cave as support.
My eyes were immediately directed to the rest of the party next to him, who were either huddled round, or collapsed on the ground.
"Where are we, leader?" I replied to his question with a nod and asked a question of my own.
"We are currently past the gate that the monster came out from. After you dealt the finishing blow to the monster, the door room we was in slowly began crumbling and massive rocks fell from the ceiling. Every one of us who could still walk, dragged you and Drake out of there when you two collapsed."
"I see." I looked over to the others again, this time my eyes honed in on trying to locate Drake to assess his situation. He was still out cold. It doesn't look like he was heavily damaged, but I heard them talking about some drawback to that move he used. For the person he was, I still hated him. But I didn't want his condition to deteriorate, after all, on his day he was the strongest here. We certainly needed his strength to get through the rest of this cave.
"So how was long was I out for?"
"I can't be certain, but most likely for an hour or so."
"Ok, and about my arm. How did it heal so much to this extent?"
"Well that would be thanks to our last remaining magician, apart from you of course. She healed your wounds and then proceeded to heal Drake's wounds and now she's resting." He looked over to Widow, who was curled up asleep, and smiled.
"Oh, thank you."
"Don't thank me kid. Thank her once she wakes up. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for saving us back there. We are indebted to you."
"Oh no, it's fine, truly. I'm glad that we all made it out of there. And it seems like were approaching the end."
"Yeah, it seems like it. Anyway, that's enough talking for now. Eat up and after you've done that take two other members with you and go further explore the cave past this point." He chucks me two legs of chicken and some water in a canister. I waist no time in opening it and satisfying my thirst.
It seems like I proved myself. Their attitude towards me seemed to have improved substantially, and they're indebted to me. I think I've secured their cooperation as well as a ticket to get out of here along with them. I should be safe now!
I took them up on the rations they had given me and devoured the food. But I wasn't as focused on the food as I thought I'd be. Instead, my mind was already thinking about the step that came after it, which was delving down further into the dungeon. I was told I could pick two members, but I didn't know who I would choose.
Hmmmm. So I should most likely exclude all pacemakers since I haven't talked to them at all and they seem rather negative towards me, even after my actions. To be honest, the ideal two members would have been our leader and Drake to go along with me. I knew them the best and I knew that after what I had done they wouldn't betray me. Unfortunately, Drake is out of commission and our leader will most likely have to stay and keep tabs on everyone so he's out of the question.
The next people that came to mind would be Sora and widow, but of course Sora got himself... killed. I hated the guy, don't get me wrong, but I at least knew him enough along with his capabilities. Then we have widow, but she's out as well. She has to hang back and heal everyone that needs to be healed and apart from that, she needs her own rest if she's going to be useful for this party.
This left me with the last two people. Red Wolf and Crafty. Probably our next two strongest combatants available after Drake and our leader, and even though I haven't talked to them much, they seem to be honest enough people.
So it was decided that I would bring along Crafty and Red Wolf. I had swiftly informed our leader about my decision, momentarily after I had finished eating.
"Are you ready, Red Wolf, Crafty?" I asked timidly, making sure to remain in a polite tone of manner. The two smiled at me and picked up their weapons, storing it on them after they had taken it of when they were resting. Soon they began strolling behind me before overtaking me in a matter of moments, their hair swinging in the rhythm of their pace and how firmly they placed their feet on the ground.
Speaking of feet, my feet had grown almost black, from all the filth and blood that had garnered on it. They have also progressively started getting more frequent cuts which worried me due to the possibility of infection. Fortunately, Widow said she can help me once she's rested so I just have to keep a close eye on my foot to make sure it doesn't wind up in any worse condition.
The rest of the cave past the area we came from, looked almost identical to the parts of the cave previously, the only really difference that I noticed was water started leaking in, in various parts of the cave. This most likely meant that we were deep enough that the cave was submerged under the sea. But that's not the only thing that it meant. It also meant that there's less and less of the cave to explore, which means we are that much closer to finding the nest of the Giant Earthworms. From all the information our party had told me, it was certain that we'd find their nest once we see leaks of water.
For some reason, Giant Earthworms love to hold their nests underground, but where they also have an access to a massive water source that can implement light in that way. I assume it's for the off chance, that the light in the cave were to disappear, they could access light by diving into the water and basking in the light from underneath the bed of water.
It was rather clever and practical. For mindless monsters, they seemed to possess incredible survival instincts.
"Oi! Blank, get over here!"
"Ok!" I replied to them, turning my head away from the small pools in the cave and from my fleeting thoughts that were sweeping away at the land like the ocean to the sand. I gently jogged over to their spot, seeing their eyes fixed to one spot. A small ray of light leaking in. It seems after all the effort we put in, we had managed to find it.
"So this is it huh? I don't see it." My voice came out in goofy confused tone, as I scratched my head looking for some sort of door that would indicate their lair was here. But nothing in all directions. Just this light source that glimmered from the top and shone down effortlessly on us.
Crafty slapped me on the back of the head lightly and clicked her tongue. "Of course this isn't it. But... it means we're very, very, very close to finding it. There's only one way to go forward, so let's keep moving."
"But wouldn't it be best to inform our leader and bring the rest of them over?"
"Why would we do that?" Red Wolf answered for Crafty, finally engaging in this dispute by speaking on her teammates behalf. "We'll inform them once we find it. We don't know how long it will take us to find it, so why would we take away this chance for them to rest and be in better condition just because we found a clue. For all we know, there lair could be hidden and it could take us another three hours of looking to find it. Do you know how stupid we would look?"
"Hahaha. I guess I didn't think about that. Sorry." I said awkwardly patting my stomach which seemed to be tied in a steel knot.
"Don't worry about it. You're young after all. You are bound to make mistakes and bad calls."
I smiled at her words and continued following them as they progressed moving forward. It really did seem like they were accepting me and looking at me as one of their party members. It felt nice. Almost as if I wasn't alone again.
But how could I not be alone. Though these people are here with me, none of them are truly here with me. They are all together in the same room with me, but we are two different realties that can't understand each over. Two realities that collided and acknowledged each over, but not the others problems. It's a sad fact, but even with my brother... I felt so alone. Detached from reality, from a world I only observed.
But I truly felt like I broke that barrier down once. When I dealt that finishing blow. It seemed like the puzzle piece that didn't fit before, magically slotted itself into the puzzle for a split second. A second where I became a part of their reality. Everyone's reality.
Our group travelled for another couple of minutes before we finally reach, what seemed to be, the Giant Earthworm lair.
"Is this it?" My eyes gazing at a looming wall that soared abnormally high. Almost like it broke the rules of physics.
"Looks like it."
"Hell, if it isn't, I ain't fucking doing this anymore!" Red Wolf declared her intentions at the possibility of this being another room that led to multiple other doors.
"No, this is definitely it."
"How are you so sure, Crafty?" I asked peering at her stoic look.
"Well the massive bulging veins around the ceiling that swirl downwards past the gate, the multiple holes that are letting in water and the writing on that door. It's ancient wind spirit language. I studied a bit on the language due to my family being heavily tied to their ancestors. Though I'd never thought I'd use it. What a lucky coincidence!"
"So what does it say?"
"Oh yeah, forgot about that part. It says Heavenly Water Sanctum. In ancient history of wind spirits, they would have multiple sanctums, that all led underground to their scared temples. These were all placed at the very deepest place in each of the designated locations, therefore, this is the only place those giant bastards can be in."
"Wow. Your knowledge is rather versed. And here I thought you were just a barbaric woman." My joke didn't land and instead wound up with me being glared at.
"I'm really sorry for my poor attempt at humour."
"You should be because that was awful."
"Yes I know understand that and shall never do it again."
"Ok, I think now would be a good time to go to the leader and inform them of our discovery. We need their help to open this door anyway."
"Lets go then!"