Like dominoes the other supports quickly failed and with a thundering boom the ground shook and dirt exploded outwards throwing me off my feet, well that worked better than I expected. I scrambled up and went to check on Sangal who was still lying not too far away, I grabbed my torch that was placed on a holder on the wall and went over to the large man. I tried to shake him awake but he didn’t respond, hopefully, he didn’t get a concussion. I couldn’t just wait here patiently for him to wake up, so I grabbed my waterskin and dumped a good bit of its contents over his head. He awoke with a start and his hand instinctively went for the dagger on his belt but before he could draw it I grabbed his hand and shouted his name,

“Sangal it's me calm down,”

the man looked at me for a second in confusion before a look of recognition passed his eyes, “Ugh, what happened,” he grabbed his head and tried to get up only to have me force him back down.

“You need to be careful you took a pretty nasty fall there, do you remember your call sign or my name,” he looked at me incredulously at first before a look of horror appeared, “No, I don’t think I do.”

Damn, Sangal has had several bad head injuries and Sohan had warned him that it's just going to get worse if he had anymore. She had also addressed us on how to gauge the severity, but we didn’t have time for that right now.

“Do you think you can walk,” I hated doing this, but we need to get out of here now, head injuries only increase the effectiveness of mind magics. “Yeah, yeah I think I can.” He said with no small amount of uncertainty.

He tried to stand but stumbled a bit and almost came crashing back down but I was barely able to right him. I put the man’s arm over my shoulder and began slowly walking back. It didn’t help that Sangal was a huge individual that probably outweighed me by quite a bit, but we still were making good time. Soon we were halfway back but Sangal abruptly said something that made my heart stop,

“Do you hear a baby crying?”

I looked at him in horror and found that he was looking into the darkness behind us, I swallowed my saliva and started rushing even faster, I couldn’t help but keep glancing over my shoulder to see if I could see anything. Now we were making record time and we quickly arrived at the entrance. We were greeted by an anxious crowd of our waiting comrades, but instead of relieving their fears I immediately let go of Sangal and turned to close the large iron door leading to the hallway. I leaned my back against the door and slowly slumped down as Derek and Artorias grabbed Sangal as he lost his balance. Artorias quickly turned to me once Sangal was being securely supported by Derek, “Do I even want to know what happened.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I caught my breath and looked him in the eyes, “It was hopefully nothing but when we collapsed the tunnel leading to ape valley the cave-in was much more violent than what we thought. It knocked us both off our feet and I think Sangal was knocked out and got a bad concussion. But that’s not all, when we were hobbling back Sangal indicated that he was hearing a baby crying coming from behind us.”

Artorias looked at me confused for a second, “I think you also got knocked out because after we felt the collapse you guys had been gone for around thirty minutes. When we tried to pull you out the ropes wouldn’t budge,” now that he said something about it, I noticed that neither Sangal nor I had a rope attached to me.

“I must have taken them off in a haze when I was grabbing Sangal, they may have been trapped under all the dirt and rock.”

Artorias pinched the bridge of his nose before sending me to the medic bay along with Sangal to get a checkup from Sohan. We were accompanied by Derek who was still supporting Sangal and was probably there in case we started to act abnormally an understandable concern. Sangal was laid on a stiff wooden bed and I was seated on a chair not far away, soon Sohan walked through the door and immediately went to check on Sangal before relaying what she had found to me and Derek, “I’m afraid that it doesn’t look good,” she sighed and looked concerned, “This one may be the straw that broke the camel’s back, all the signs are pointing to massive brain trauma. His right eye is barely responsive to light and his left is completely unresponsive. He keeps trying to fall asleep and he can’t even swallow his own saliva, we have some of the needed herbs and medication, but we need a specialized healer quickly. I may be able to keep him stable for a few days but that’s the limit.”

Dammit Sangal, he just had to go and pull this, “What about me Mrs. Sohan.”

She bent down and began her inspection, first she checked my pulse and then shined a light in my eyes using some kind of flammable stick that shone a bright white, “Any aches, pains, or headaches john?”

Since I sat down and took some time to rest the pain that was suppressed by the excitement and fear started to creep through,

“Yeah, I have a mild headache and my back is killing me, but besides that my whole body is aching like I just ran a marathon.”

“That can be explained away by the force of the collapse. All in all, you look completely fine, no signs of brain trauma.”

Thank the gods, “If that’s the case I should get back to the team, we need all hands on deck.”