Towards the sky

Jp with Lorem, Lucian, Omni and Bandorchu

Not caring how he looked, Tarmen pulled himself off the ground and gripped Alexis in a bear hug. To see her alive was joy enough, but that she was down here, regardless if she was here for them or not, brought silent tears to his face.
“Hoi’s panties, aren’t you sturdy blade!”
He held on for a moment more, to make sure it wasn’t a trick of the mold, then drying his face Tarmen looked to where Voah had yet to appear.
“Arbiter! Your gods finally delivered us from this hell.”

She stared in quiet disbelief, the daggers fell from her hands, clattering to the stone floor. Seeing Gonyual and Alexis here was no short of miraculous.

She wrapped her arms around the mud caked man, shaking. She herself must have looked like a nightmare, her clothes dark with filth and her arms still covered in dried blood in some areas.

Gonyaul called out in shock alongside Tar as their group was surprise attacked from the darkness. Tar had pushed backwards into Gonyaul, nearly knocking him over before he caught himself on the wall and regained his balance.

Moving Tar off of himself he came into enough view of the light that his mud-camouflage and partially bandage-wrapped body became visible to those up front. It was them. He instantly shed all the things he was carrying and simultaneously moved to Voah.

He knew they would find them if they didn’t give up. His eyes were starting to water as he embraced Voah. He ignored the discomfort of her grip putting pressure on the bruising and cuts he had sustained earlier. Elation and joy couldn’t even describe how he felt right now as he held her close. It was like the promised kiss of springtime that made the lonely winter feel long.

Features alight with amazed joy and relief, Alexis put away her blade to give Tarmen a hug of her own.

“Guess I was right. You WERE about to just walk out of this mess and wonder what was taking us so long.”

She chuckled, still in delighted disbelief.

Feeling like he had been lifted by a second wind, Tarmen’s mind went back to business. Questions and concerns came to him faster than he could speak, yet he tried.
“How did you get here? Did you find any mould people? There are mould people, they drove us crazy with spores. They have bread that keeps that down though!”
He gestured vaguely back down the tunnels as he spoke, before suddenly hushing himself at the remembered danger. He gripped Alexis’s shoulder reflexively tight, his eyes momentarily bugging out.
“Have you met the mould people? They live down here!”

With a trembling intake of breath, she glanced over to Tarmen and Alexis, then back at Gonyaul, to sort of confirm that what was happening was not some torturous illusion. She grabbed his face with two hands, thumbs running across the corners of his mouth and then wiping smearing tears across. She met his gaze and just began chuckling through tears in awe and disbelief of the bittersweet moment.

“We haven’t, though we heard more than enough about them. And I’ll count my blessings if we never do. Speaking of which, let us get out of here.”

Alexis said in a calming tone.
Looking at Tar, she gave him a wry half smile.

“Looks like you got the better end of the deal.”

Gonyaul’s smile was brighter than any torch as he gazed back at Voah. He was lost in her beautiful eyes and felt like time had slowed to a standstill.

He whispered, his voice hoarse and cracking. “You were lost, but now found.”

He cupped her face gently in his hands too. “I was lost, till you found.”

Tar regretted that he had to interject and potentially ruin this touching moment. He politely cleared his throat loud enough to be heard.

“Hate to steal from this moment. But there are worse things that lurk in the dark than just Neph-kin. I suggest we get back topside before today’s luck runs out?”

Her senses were still on edge and hearing a new voice in the group, Voah flashed her attention to Tar. Oh to be topside. One with people who dwell beneath the sun and stars.

She sighed and swallowed away the emotions for a second as she spoke up, nodding to the others, “He speaks true. We’ve seen so with our own eyes… and I would very much like to see the sky again.”

“Wholeheartedly agreed.”

Alexis stepped around Tarmen to take her spot at the rear and gave him a gentle push upwards the tunnel.

She drew her blade again. Not taking chances now.

“Let’s hustle.”

The unexpected meeting of friends, even those who looked like they had been through Zin’s Grasp, gave Voah a renewed hope and vigor to continue. She grabbed up the spear daggers and followed until she saw Witch Bane on Gonyaul’s back. She paused for a second before deciding to let it remain for the time being. It was a strange sight that only she knew the meaning of.

Gonyaul took longer as he was rehanging all the gear back on his person. But he too was making haste and was soon following Tar’s lead back up the ascending tunnel.

As the group started their ascend, Alexis stopped for a moment, the hair on the back of her neck standing up.

She turned around. At the edge of her vision, her torch’s light reflected in a few set of eyes.

Alexis’s eyes narrowed. She spoke lowly, so the others wouldn’t hear her. Her voice carried the cold of a winter solstice in the highlands.

“You lost. They won. They beat you. Accept it. Or so Zin help me, we’ll make you pay.”

They eyes vanished, pair by pair. Alexis hoped they got the message. Otherwise, their blades would do the talking.
She turned to catch up with the group.

Tar moved with an urgency now that they had claimed their lost treasures. He knew all too well the terrifying creatures that they could run into, or that would run into them if they lingered too long at these depths.

As they entered the large cavernous mausoleum, the torch light was less necessary. They moved about the crypts and tombs and then had to gingerly make their way around the debris littering the area due to the fight from earlier. They came across the dead Naylmo and he paused a second. He still couldn’t believe that tall woman and strange man took it down.