Dillyweed | Söl / Rial

They all woke up. They had memories of the abyss. Of the adventure they had had up to this point. But now they woke up in their camp as if nothing had happened at all from the start. Yet Söl could remember the cold feeling of the abyss. The feeling of falling through space and time at the same time. Could it have been just a dream? He had, after all, experienced this one time before. Something very, very similar. He sat himself up for a moment. Collecting himself before he rose onto all of his hooves. He felt refreshed. His body didn’t hurt. He wasn’t tired anymore. Could the abyss have been the makings of the gas? Had they just been confused and somehow made it back to camp? It felt weird.

Rial had woken up and as he did he laid still. Thinking about everything that had happened. He needed to process everything. There is no way everything he could remember happened? The memories flashed before him. Everything was so weird. There was no other way of describing it. Weird. The shadows, the gas, what happened inside the gas. And then lastly. The abyss. He could’ve sworn the abyss was real. He could still remember the way something inside of him shook when the abyss glared back at him. Could it have been his imagination? He didn’t know. He didn’t think so. But he didn’t know.

Eventually both of them had gotten up and walked into the middle of the camp. The typical meeting place. It was quiet as the four Coursers looked at each other. It wasn’t with hate or dislike. But there was a tiny bit of distrust between them as they all tried to figure out what had happened to them. Eventually Rial was the first to speak.
“Should we.. keep going?” He was curious what the others thought. Söl pinned his ears back for a moment before he nodded. “I feel fine. I feel better than fine.” Rial said and as if to demonstrate how well he felt he stretched his hindleg. Everyone looked at each other for a moment. It was clear that everyone was confused about what had happened, and a bit apprehensive if it could happen again. But they all felt fine. So how bad could it really be?

Eventually everyone agreed. They would keep going. They made sure to pack everything they needed. Söl went over their things multiple times. Making sure everything was immaculate. He was stalling a tiny bit. But he wanted to jump back into it. To prove to himself that he wasn’t afraid. That everything had been just a weird experience and that this time around it would be different. They took a different route this time. Just to be safe. Clearly something had messed with their heads and it would be stupid to walk the same route again in case it was the gas that caused all of this. It still didn’t explain the way they got back to camp. But in these caves sometimes it was easier to leave it all up to “it happened” rather than trying to figure it out.

The four Coursers came upon a corridor that was clearly meant to only fit one of them at a time.  Senbonzakura, as per usual, walked at the front of the lead while Rial followed him. Söl followed third behind and at the last point of the lead Stroheimer walked. They were all extra careful as they walked through the corridor. It got progressively tighter but they were used to tight caves by now, it wasn’t the first time they had walked through a tight corridor and as it slowly got tighter around them the group took it slowly and carefully. They knew how to breathe to get past the tightest of spaces. A quick breath out to compact their chest and then squeeze past. It worked like a charm. It started to feel like their adventure was back on track again. As if they could really forget the horrible experience they had had. Söl even collected a bug. It fell on his back and Bart the Bat quickly grabbed it and accidentally managed to throw it into one of his bags. Goosebert the Peckish honked as he sat on Rial’s back. It was too big a hassle to try and walk with him underneath him. Otherwise Goosebert preferred to have his feet on the ground and walk along rather than ride along. The cave wasn’t too long but they took it slowly. Eventually they could see the dim light of torches in the small opening ahead. The end of the corridor and hopefully the start of a much better adventure.

788 words

AberrantKapro | Strohmeier / Senbonzakura

For whatever unknown reason, the group woke up back in their camp. They felt well rested. Rejuvenated. As if nothing bad had physically happened to them at all. But their psychological terrors persisted. Snebpnzakura swallowed hard as he held back his tears, his breathing was shaky and one could clearly tell he was struggling and trying to hold something back. Kinka whined as she looked up at her beloved owner, she didn’t know what to d but to cuddle up to him, to maybe make him feel better.

Strohmeier was quick to notice Senbonzakura’s terrible state, so he swiftly made his way over and hugged him as tight as he could. He, too, was having a hard time holding back his tears, but he understood that whatever his partner had been through was way worse. He didn’t want to ask about it, out of respect, all he wanted to do was to make sure he felt better, as best as he could. Micke also snuggled up to Kinka to comfort her, as the distress she felt from Senbonzakura not feeling well was rather overwhelming for the young shiba.

Senbonzakura let out some silent crying as Strohmeier hugged him. He felt so overwhelmed by everything, he was so shaken up by the hallucinations from the gas. He knew it wasn’t real, the things he saw happened many years ago, but it felt real.

“Thank you..” he whispered quietly to Strohmeier, who in turn wiped away some of his tears with his muzzle.

Some recovery and discussion later, they evidently decided it was best to move on. They couldn’t stay here forever. Senbonzakura led the team as usual, and Strohmeier walked furthest back this time, he wanted to keep an eye on the others. He wasn’t sure why, but he just had a scratching feeling that something was wrong, so he wanted to be prepared to protect them.

They approached yet another narrow corridor, and before they walked in Strohmeier stripped off his barding so it wouldn’t get too scratched up. Senbonzakura had offered to carry it on his back along with some of their other things, so Strohmeier could have the responsibility of carrying Kinka and Micke for once. Neither of them complained, it was a nice change.

Senbonzakura led them through the narrow tunnels, with Rial and Söl squeezed in behind him, and Strohmeier in the far back. These tunnels had become routine at this point, they knew how to navigate them, almost too well.

415 words