Quest Trapped!

[Caelum]

"You can have a chime," Loren grudgingly offered the Avora in his arms. "But no more. I don't like to see closed eyes on head injuries, eh?" For all of his gruff speech, however, the Endal held himself and, therefore, Azira remarkably still for a while. He listened to the rebounding cry for help carry itself over them, skittering past to splash into silence against the the new pile of stone. One eye squinted even as the world around them grew more still, and the line of his mouth twitched with the suppression of some emotion or the other. While he waited for Azira to regain her composure, he let his eyes readjust to the dim and cast out all of his acute senses in examination of their surroundings. There was the blocked off, narrow cavern to their right and the cry for help was coming from their left. It was, Loren judged, distant enough to be beyond the perpendicular passageway through which he had come to them. Beyond that, barring further disaster, should be their way out. He hoped. Ducking his chin, he peered back down at Azira. "Ready?" He prompted. When she acquiesced, he placed her carefully back on her feet and waited a few ticks to assure that she wasn't going to pitch right back over to the ground. Satisfied, he spun a circle to the left to head in the direction of the earlier cry for help. "Follow my steps," he told the Avora, dropping that instruction over his shoulder. Notably, he was purposefully going slow enough so as not to overly strain the injured girl. Once they passed the earlier passageway, Loren shifted to the right at a fork in the tunneling and found himself face to face with another wall of rock. "Hello!" He called again.

[Azira]

"Okay. Thanks," the huntress mumbled, narrowing her eyes to slits rather than closing them. The Endal had a point. Closing eyes on a head injury was bad so she wouldn't do it as much as she might want to.

The lack of movement helped a lot. The tunnel gradually stopped moving and the pain in her head felt a little better, more of a strong throb than a sharp stabbing. A call for help reverberated in the enclosed space, each shout echoing painfully in her head but thankfully whoever it was didn't shout for too long and the throbbing was able to settle into a more comfortable rhythm again. But the quiet and relaxation didn't last too much longer with the Endal asking if she was ready to go. He was obviously growing impatient with the lack of action so the teen nodded reluctantly.

Everything spun on the journey back to her feet but the Avora managed to stay upright, gripping the man's arm to steady herself before taking a hesitant step away from him. The man set off down a passage to the left and Azira followed him at a slow, careful speed. She fell behind him a little bit, even though he wasn't going fast but she felt safe in the knowledge that he wasn't out of sight and that she'd catch up to him in moments if he'd only stop.

His closely followed steps brought her to a stop as they reached a dead end. More of the tunnel had caved in here and she wondered if the calls had come from the other side somehow or if the one in need was just in another section of tunnel. After all they'd travelled down one side of a fork in the tunnel so why couldn't there be someone down the left tunnel, rather than the right.

"Maybe we should go back and try the other tunnel," she suggested but he was calling out again, seeking some response from the shouter. The young woman paused to listen as well.

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