Save It For The Fight

JP with Winteroak, Lucian, and Omni

The two of them ran. Ran deeper and deeper into the cave. No time to clear the spores from their faces and skin. Although now that they knew how it affected them, it was easier to ignore some of the hallucinations. Of course it also meant that they didn’t know what was real from what they could hear.

Tarmen took the lead as the experienced cave diver, leading them through twisted and forgotten tunnels, winding and narrow corridors, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and their pursuers.

They heard voices and shouts behind them as they pushed their pain and exhaustion down. But maybe this was it. Maybe they wouldn’t see the sky again, they couldn’t help but ponder.

They ran and ran, onward, upward and around. The pace was unsustainable and there was nowhere to hide. This was it. They had to make their last stand. Perhaps they would say goodbye Kupen’s big blue, the wind in the trees, and the sunshine on the daisies and kiss Zinheim goodnight.

But Voah wasn’t ready to be tucked into eternal sleep. They could never surrender. As they rounded a corner, Voah tapped on Tarmen’s shoulders and stopped, catching her breath.

The tunnels ahead were full dark, they couldn’t face a village in that inky blackness and those mould-folk would catch up very soon.

“I… can’t… I can’t…” she said in exhaustion. Her eyes pleaded with him. Then between heavy breaths, “We… have to save it… for the fight…”

She gestured to the abrupt turn behind them. “When the come… we get the drop… on as many as we can… it’s our only chance, Tarmen.”

Tarmen had been pushing through, just like he always did, pushing through the pain, the fatigue, the cries of Alexis. He was pushing through so much that little was left to thought except to run and survive.

Feeling the Arbiter’s signal for rest, he realized how out of it he had been. His legs immediately cried for rest and his lungs burned for fresh air, strangling him in their blind frustration.

The fog in his head left him unsteady, leaning against the wall as he processed Voah’s words, the mold twisting her resolve into the words of a coward unwilling to fight. He should leave her, save his own skin if she was so resolved to throw herself to those freaks.

Her pleading eyes broke through his paranoia, reminding him of what had once been a terrifying figure staring down the imp in a fevered rage. They cried out to him with a fear that he shared down here.
Taking a deep breath and bracing himself into a proud stand, he looked at the Arbiter with his most fetching, haggard smile.

“Beg to differ, Arbiter. We have every chance of makin’ it out of here. Just have to keep faith, eh?”

He held out a trembling hand to get them going, holding out hope that every step brought them closer to freedom.

Even in his state, Tarmen’s virility and faux confidence were enough not to disappoint the Arbiter, though his words sounded like he was mocking the Pillars due to her spore brain. She pushed through that to see the truth and returned a smile to him. They would fight for there lives now.

She remembered all of the hard training she had been through… and the fight on Sentinel Island. She knew if she hadn’t been through those rigors she never would have made it this far. She fought the fake voices of mockery in the back of her mind, telling her she would never make it, that’s he should give up… voices of her past coming back to haunt her. She clasped Tarmen’s hand and squeezed it. Then they readied for the fight.

As the first wave came around the corner, time slowed down and it was like they were in some sort of battle sync. They both dipped low.

Tarmen heaved one of the pursuant mould-warriors up and over his shoulder while Voah tripped the one on her side. That’s when things got real.