"Ugh, is everyone alright?" Shiro called out, holding her head with one hand feeling like her head was about to burst open.
"Hey, you're finally awake." The voice of the pale-skinned mage rang painfully in the cat's skull before she felt a wave of comforting energy wash over her body. "Feel better?" Shiro lifted her head and saw Kia standing over her, massaging her right arm which appeared to be smoking causing Shiro to rub her eyes.
"Thanks," The older woman felt weird with talking to the mage standing all alone so with dizzy movements she rose onto her two feet. "Did it hurt to heal me?"
The undead's body jumped upwards as her large colourful eyes filled with surprise. The girl clearly didn't expect the magically inept beast woman to notice anything.
"No." The girl responded.
"You're horrible at lying," Shiro tugged on Kia's cheeks causing the girl to glare at her while filling her cheeks with air. "I'm starting to understand why Iris is so protective of you," The cat couldn't stop herself from teasing the defenceless undead further, feasting on the adorable faces Kia made. "Tell me the truth." The nekos stepped back as the pouting girl began to make a deep purring growl.
"A little," Kia checked behind herself before answering and continuing to massage her wrist. "I could have snapped your bone back into place but Iris told me I should cast a proper healing spell on you." The old warrior gulped as the preciously innocent girl didn't even blink at the motion of snapping her bones while looking so innocent as she did.
"...Thanks I guess. By the way, where are Iris and Nakatei?"
"Behind us," Kia responded as she swivelled around on one foot before leading the nekos through the darkness.
Shiro's crimson eyes witnessed the elf sitting on a rock with the young shaman sitting on the ground covering her chest with a rag. Nakatei was murmuring something under her nose with her face stained with tears, if she didn't know better she would assume that Iris had done something unspeakable to the poor fox.
"My uniform." *Sniff*
"What happened here?" Shiro asked the elf as she turned around from the fox.
"Same thing that happened to you," Iris tapped her hands on her knees before raising her arm and tapping herself on the back. "We slid down on the walls instead of falling to our doom."
The nekos looked down and noticed that her pants were heavily worn out with the fabric over her knees glistening because of the friction polishing the grey cloth. Her finger mirrored the elf further as she raised it behind her back. She quickly unbuckled the straps holding her armour together and saw that it was all scratched up with the back plate having returned to its metallic sheen as all the paint was scrapped off. Her shirt underneath was in much better shape with the exception of her elbows which had seen much better days.
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"I see your equipment is in perfect condition." Shiro commented as she poked her finger through the hole in her left elbow.
"I have Kia to thank for that."
"You can also patch up clothes? Didn't know that mages could do such things."
"Ehhh, they can't. I mean it's in the theoretical realm of the possibility of fixing your clothes but I would have to spend some time trying to work with manipulating mana to take the permanent shape and properties of the thing that these are made from. But that's so annoying to work with something without mana infused inside and-"
"I think she is trying to say because our clothes are enchanted she can fix them."
"Noooo, that's not how it works." Kia let out a whine. "Our clothes have Mending enchantment on them that's why pouring a little bit of mana into them will jump-start and fuel a self-repair protocol restoring them to the state when they were enchanted."
"I understood absolutely everything she had just said. Why couldn't you see how wrong you were." Shiro waggled her finger at the elf, like a teacher scrutinising a pupil.
"Really?!" Both Iris and Shiro looked at each other as they could swear an actual spark appeared inside Kia's eyes, even the fox who had fallen silent and listened closely to the conversation happening beside her.
"No, sorry Kia that was a joke."
"Oh." Kia's brightly glowing eyes dimmed back to their normal as she dropped her head like a beaten-up puppy.
With an awkward silence falling on top of the playful duo they walked over their wards. Shiro quickly fished out spare clothes for Nakatei from her backpack. She knew how proud of these shaman's clothes the young fox was. Likely the entire tribe had put effort into purchasing or making the outfit for Nakatei. It was not only a great honour for the individual who had been gifted with the ability to become a shaman but also for the entire tribe. The members of Nakatei's tribe would most surely boast about having produced a shaman for every single tribe around them. She had heard that the pride of some tribes had driven out their neighbours who were so tired of listening to their boasting that they chose to pack up and leave.
"Shiro?"
"What happened, Tei?"
"H-here," Shiro looked up and saw dangling from the fox's hand was her Hunter's necklace. "I don't want to lose this too."
"I can't take this away from you."
"Shiro, I almost lost my sakura axe too today. I don't want to arrive in Nishimine with nothing my tribe had made for me," The fox tugged on her shirt which was slightly oversized for her slim frame. "Take it Shiro."
"Tei put that necklace back on your neck, you are just a child without it and there is no way I'm taking orders from a child," Shiro's cold voice sent shivers down Nakatei's spine but she didn't retract her outstretched hand. "Akane Nakatei if you are offering this to me and I take it, you had lost your head already. If you put it back on your neck you would have to loose your head first to loose this and I will not allow to anything happen to you."
"S-Shiro..." Nakatei's lips began to tremble again.
"Think what will they say about the White Death if I get my most important client ever killed, mmm?" The cat wrapped her hands around Nakatei's clenched fist and pushed it towards her head. "Come on we have to stand up and get out of here. I have to deliver you to Nishimine as you are now." Shiro's unrelenting smile somehow made the fox certain of her words as she obediently stood up.
The two demi-humans walked toward the undead who had walked a few dozen steps away from them. They headed blindly forward with Iris being a step in front of everyone.
In the darkness, they passed the two corpses of the Thing and Megalisk who were lying on top of each other. Their blood poured out of every orifice as their inners were turned into red mush after such a fall.
Eventually, the adventuring four found a small tunnel leading somewhere. The tunnel forced the four to form into a single line. The tunnel seemed to have no end as it went on and on and on without an end in sight before suddenly opening up after a sharp turn to the right.
"Oh, I know where this is." Shiro muttered as she exited the tunnel last as she stared at the shabby shacks stacked one on top of each other haphazardly creating towers that looked to be able to fall at any moment if not for massive chains wrapped around the stone pillars holding up the cave's ceiling.