// won't you breathe with me? //
"Always."
Feeling safer by far with Liam at her back, the ancient took the lead and headed off into the darkness. Wide enough for two to walk abreast at first, as the ground began to slope downward the walls began to close in on them. Trying to gague what they might find by the structure of the rock, she grew more optimistic as she saw no signs of lava flow. That meant bedrock, and bedrock held the possibility of water.
Better yet, the deeper they went, the damper the walls became. Strange critters scuttled away from the firelight, pale and eyeless as sight would be useless in a world without sun. Only lichen could survive in the darkness, mosses and peculiar fungi that broke apart into slime under their feet and made the going treacherous. Her breath sounded loud in her ears, as did the scrape of Liam's boots behind her back. She wanted to wind her tail around his wrist, to make sure he couldn't possibly get turned around and leave her alone with so much earth pressing down over her head - but just when she was about to cave and reach for him, just when the path seemed too narrow to squeeze through, it opened up again.
A sound of dripping water broke the pressing silence. Turning sideways so she could squeeze through into the space beyond, Maea's eyes widened at the sight; firelight caught on clusters, columns, rosettes of clear crystal, so clear they might have been ice. A small pool of water had etched a basin into the cave floor, dribbling in a tiny waterfall from a crack in the wall.
"It's beautiful," she breathed, stunned to find such a site on pure accident. Not only was it wide enough to fit them comfortably, but with so many crystals to refract light, a simple lamp or torch would be more than enough. They'd have to remember this place; Maea already knew she would like to return.
Feeling safer by far with Liam at her back, the ancient took the lead and headed off into the darkness. Wide enough for two to walk abreast at first, as the ground began to slope downward the walls began to close in on them. Trying to gague what they might find by the structure of the rock, she grew more optimistic as she saw no signs of lava flow. That meant bedrock, and bedrock held the possibility of water.
Better yet, the deeper they went, the damper the walls became. Strange critters scuttled away from the firelight, pale and eyeless as sight would be useless in a world without sun. Only lichen could survive in the darkness, mosses and peculiar fungi that broke apart into slime under their feet and made the going treacherous. Her breath sounded loud in her ears, as did the scrape of Liam's boots behind her back. She wanted to wind her tail around his wrist, to make sure he couldn't possibly get turned around and leave her alone with so much earth pressing down over her head - but just when she was about to cave and reach for him, just when the path seemed too narrow to squeeze through, it opened up again.
A sound of dripping water broke the pressing silence. Turning sideways so she could squeeze through into the space beyond, Maea's eyes widened at the sight; firelight caught on clusters, columns, rosettes of clear crystal, so clear they might have been ice. A small pool of water had etched a basin into the cave floor, dribbling in a tiny waterfall from a crack in the wall.
"It's beautiful," she breathed, stunned to find such a site on pure accident. Not only was it wide enough to fit them comfortably, but with so many crystals to refract light, a simple lamp or torch would be more than enough. They'd have to remember this place; Maea already knew she would like to return.
Maea
// won't you take me to your heart? //
