2.37 Troubles of Others
1239 Words
Luca reached for a step knife prepared to use it as a climbing stake. When he suddenly felt a step under his right foot. Not second guessing that Luca pushed off and stretched out reaching out to grasp the edge of the tunnel. Luca hung there for a moment as he mentally relaxed. Inhaling Luca hauled himself up into the tunnel. Sitting on the edge look huffed out a breath and then looked down to see what he’d stepped on. As a result he was met with the sight of a smug face on a red puffball. Luca hadn’t though that smug was a facial expression that a bird could or should be able to pull off, but there was no other description that applied to the way the red bird looked.
“Chirp cheep chirp, chirp. Cheep.” Yeah, smug was definitely correct. Luca gave into a small smile and reached out to have the bird grasped and pulled on his lap. With careful hands he stroked and rubbed the feathery down while the bird twittered in contentment. Clearly the petting reached its approval. This continued till Lil’ Miss arrived and nocked the red bird away to take the spot-on Luca’s lap her head raised as she offered the metal handle back.
Luca blanked for a second before excepting the handle and giving Lil; Miss her own set of pats. Then the red bird shoved back onto his lap and Luca compromised by giving them both pats for a few minutes. “Alright time to keep going, I need to get back to the others.” Luca gave them a final pat as he spoke before he shifted them off his lap and scooted back so that he could stand. Dusting himself off Luca turned and trudged up the tunnel. It was a very long tunnel.
After a couple of hours though Luca felt a slight breeze. Hoping it wasn’t just some other weirdness of this cavern system Luca picked up the pace a bit. Lil’ Miss and the red bird who Luca had taken to calling Blue kept flying ahead and then circling back. It became Blue when the bird continued to give its emotions away, because they weirdly reminded him of a Scottish man he’d met while he’d been waiting for a contest to start. He’d been a red head called Blue was very helpful but seemed to wear his emotions on his face.
As the breeze grew stronger Luca head the distinct sound of rain before a whiff of wet dirt smacked him in the face. That seemed very promising. With another half an hour look found the exit. It was indeed raining. The Elemental’s were once again out running wild. Luca stopped several metres back from the entrance. He felt it was a lucky thing that he wasn’t being sensitive to temperature otherwise he’d be worried about freezing overnight.
Rather than disturb the others late in the nigh Luca checked them on the map, it looked like they should have entered Gnome territory. Luca would then have a hard climb through the rest of the Harpy Mountains then. Still it should theoretically mean that they at least be safe. Or as safe as anything seemed to get in this place. Since they’d just staged a rescue of some Gnomes Luca hoped that they could foster some amicable relationship.
Sitting on the hard floor Luca allowed himself a moment to daydream about a soft bed and pillows. After this little adventure Luca might actually be tempted to create a pillow hoard. Just to reassure himself about sleep comfort of course. Once Luca sat down Lil’ Miss and Blue rushed back from where they had stopped at the exit to cuddle against Luca’s sides. He petted them slowly as he let his mind wind down. This was actually the closest he was getting to a restful time since they’d arrived, he’d slept to light and restlessly before as the continued upsets had made it hard for his mind to settle and relax.
Luca felt that if there was anything in the cave system that could and wanted to eat him, he should have encountered it by then. Since he’d seen nothing but the Blue in the system, he could only assume that he was safe enough. Beside he felt strangely certain that if something tried to approach him with Blue and Lil’ Miss by his sides they would not wait quietly. They were starting to give off that possessive feel that Luca suspected boded ill for future interactions with others. As he drifted off to sleep Luca’s mind finally thought to ask what a bird was doing inside a cave in the first place.
Luca came awake slowly. It was strange situation where there was nothing prodding him to wakefulness, so his mind woke up at its own pace. When he did finally wake all the way up he wished he hadn’t slept at all. The almost wall of messages that appeared as the contacts re-activated was not what he’d expected. He definitely wasn’t expecting positive news with that many messages. When Luca noticed that all the messages where individual direct messages and not just a group chat he worries deepened. He started flicking through the messages by order of arrival.
[Rӓv: We’ve reached the Gnome city. When you’re out we’ll circle back for you.]
[Tails: The Gnomes seem nice, but something feels a little off. Even Ghost agrees. Though they seem really excited with Rӓv for some reason.]
[Holly: Tails says there is something off, but things seem normal to me.]
[Tails: The Gnomes have led Rӓv away somewhere and they won’t take us to her. She says she’d fine, but I don’t like this.]
[Rӓv: Don’t listen to the others worrying over nothing. They’ve found something that we can use as a translator. I’ll get the full details on the cube from them.]
[Holly: I’m beginning to see what Tails meant. Some of the Gnomes are acting shady and just avoiding us.]
[Tails: I’ve had Ghost move; he’s gone ghost to figure out what is happening.]
[Rӓv: It seems that the keys are just that they can be used to open the door, the more keys used the wider the opening. That means that whoever has Declan can get people through by now.] Luca liked not one word of everything he was reading. It was painting a picture that was not that of amicable cooperation. Not even with the information Rӓv was getting did Luca feel secure about them being there anymore.
[Tails: Shade has vanished, and Ghost isn’t responding. Declan seems to be preoccupied with something. Help was with Holly but has since been lost I have no earthly idea how you managed to keep track of everyone.] Luca closed his eyes he doubted it was a matter of Tails lacking skill he suspected instead that it was deliberate interference. After all while Rӓv was learning things, Luca expected that so where the teachers.
[Tails: I figured out what the deal was. The gnomes made a bargain with the vampires. They had over any foreigners and the vampires will help their enslaved kin. Can’t say I blame them for picking a known power over us. I’ve been captured with Holly and Lady’s group, don’t know about anyone else. I haven’t been getting any messages from the general chat.] Luca couldn’t argue his reasoning
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