As Kass fell she had enough time to recognise that she was falling back first, and that from 30 metres up this probably wasn’t going to end well.

Her view fixed on the ceiling above her and she thrust her hands up and mentally pulled herself up. In her panic, and as was the usual Kass fashion, she miscalculated the force. For a moment she was flying fast towards the rock. Then the entire ceiling gave way, and once more she found herself hurtling towards the dark pool below, loose chunks of rock tumbling down with her.

She had just enough time to worry about the incoming impact before she realised she was surrounded by a shimmering bubble. That recognition lasted a second before the bubble was engulfed in darkness as Kass plummeted into the water. Only she didn’t feel the water or any force from the impact. The water surrounded the bubble which protected Kass. She watched from within, as the bubble rose, bringing the blue lights closer. Then it broke the surface and the bubble burst.

Liquid hit Kass directly in the face and she found herself in deep swirling water. Luckily at that point she’d had enough time to recover that the first thing she did was swim downstream toward where she remembered the edge of the river being located.

Once again, she was surprised at the swiftness of the water, given it had looked so calm from up above. She reached the beach further downriver than she had expected.

She grabbed a rock, one that wasn’t illuminated by the blue glow. The fungi seemed to prefer growing further back away from the water. The first rock she grabbed was slippery and it took her a couple tries before she managed to pull herself up onto the beach.

Once she did she lay there gasping for a moment before calling Indi’s name out once more. She was sure she had recognised that bubble, Indi’s shield.

There was no response for long enough that Kass started to wonder if she’d imagined the bubble or if perhaps there had been some other explanation. And she cursed herself for standing so close to the top of a waterfall. But then at last a voice spoke out of the darkness.

“Kass is that you?”

“Indi?” Kass called back.

The voice replied again, speaking fast and without pauses. “Wait how are you even... maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. How do I know you’re the real Kass. Tell me something only you would know.”

Kass breathed a sigh of relief. It was Indi’s voice for sure. “Like what?“ She called back finding herself more breathless than she’d expected. “It has to be something you’d know too.”

“Right, well something about me then. What’s my favorite colour?”

Kass nearly laughed. “Indigo, half the town knows that one Indi.”

A dark figure appeared further up the beach. Definitely Indi. She had the height, and Kass could just make out glasses perched on her face, plus the neatly cut bob of hair.

“Right. Well, that’s probably what the real Kass would say, but even if it is just my mind I’m glad to have the company. So, how did you get down here, and where are the others?”

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As the figure got closer Kass could make out more features. Indi was climbing over the rocks and she was moving as if she was fine. Good. No injuries then. None on herself either. Indi’s shield had been a lifesaver. Kass pulled herself into a sitting position.

The cave was huge, cavern would be a better word to describe it. Large and small boulders took up most of the floor of the room with the river curving around one corner. Kass tried to see where it went but she couldn’t pick out a distinct exit point. It just seemed to disappear beneath the rocks.

“They’re back up there. How did you get down here?” Kass figured she already had a good guess but she wanted to hear it from Indi anyway.

Indi sat down next to Kass. She seemed to be studying her closely as if she might disappear at any moment. Kass could understand it. She felt very much the same way. A part of her hadn’t expected to find Indi alive and uninjured, and only now that she had did the gravity of everything hit her. She felt weak.

“Well, I’ll tell you but first are you alright?” Indi asked.

Kass nodded. “Thanks to your shield, that was you right?”

Indi nodded and a smile crept up her face. “I almost didn’t catch you in time, if you hadn’t yelled out...”

“Thank you. Uh what happened to the ceiling? I think I pulled it down.”

Indi nodded and gave a soft laugh. “It hit the water where you did, the shield protected you I think or it just happened to miss you. It was mostly in lots of smaller pieces and one or two larger ones. So, the others are okay? Amanda was hurt...”

Kass nodded and Indi trailed off so Kass took her chance to ask her own questions. “So what happened to you?”

Indi bit her lip sheepishly. “Pretty much the same thing as you, only without the ceiling collapsing.” Indi laughed nervously at that and Kass gave a soft smile in return.

Indi continued. “I uh, well, wait where did you get here from? You found Amanda right?”

Kass nodded “We found Amanda and there’s that tunnel, the one that the water was flowing through.”

“Yeah,” Indi sighed. “I bet Amanda’s mad.”

“She was more worried than anything,” Kass replied.

“Well at least we can get back up now.”

“Uh...” Kass gave her a confused look.

“I mean you pull yourself up with your powers.”

Kass gritted her teeth and glanced apprehensively back over at the missing chunk of ceiling. “Err, Indi...”

“Well, we can just find a more solid section, or you could push up?”

Kass shook her head. “I’m really not very good at that.”

“Mmm, maybe... maybe if you just did it slowly, and I could catch you with my shield if you fall.”

Kass decided to change the subject. “So you went through that tunnel and you found the beach..?”

“The beach?”

“After the tunnel.”

“Oh, no, well the current was quite swift. It looked so calm, I thought I’d just take a quick look at it, to see if it went anywhere. But I slipped and then next thing I know everything was dark. I shielded, kind of instinctively I guess. I don’t really know, um, I couldn’t see anything. And then I could see the blue lights and I was in the river down here. My shield turned off I think just after the waterfall. I can’t hold it for very long. And I just swam towards the lights and grabbed a rock. I’ve been trying to find a way out of here since then but...”

“There’s nothing?”

Indi shook her head, then shrugged and glanced over her right shoulder. “Well there was a section over there that seems to go up. It’s quite steep though and I can’t see the top. It may just end.”

Kass nodded and followed Indi’s glance. From where she was she couldn’t see much though. “Show me in a sec.” Kass didn’t quite feel like moving yet. She thought of Cat back up the top with her bullet wound, and Amanda with her leg, and she knew she had no right to complain. Every second she wasted was risking their lives. And what would they do if she was gone too long? She was starting to rethink not sending Cat back out for help. “Maybe you should keep one eye on the waterfall,” Kass told Indi.

Indi looked up, eyes wide. “You don’t think they’d follow?”

Kass shook her head but it was more of an ‘I don’t know’ shake than a ‘no’. “I...” ‘fucking hope not,’ Kass finished her sentence in her head. What with Cat’s fear of the water and Amanda’s leg Kass didn’t think they would but something in her gut worried her nonetheless. It would be just like Cat to surprise her. Kass stared at the waterfall apprehensively.

Finally she turned back to Indi. “Alright show me that section.”