<~> CHAPTER 21

We had gathered the bat corpses that weren't covered in guano and went back to the previous hallway so that we could rest away from the stench of the bat-filled room. The idea of bats hanging out in a very man made looking structure rather than the more obvious cave of the floor beneath us struck me as odd but I just shrugged it off as yet another of the weird things that seemed to happen in this world.

Maxwell was working on salvaging the wings of the two bats I managed to kill without letting them touch the floor. Unfortunately, the ones that Luna had char-grilled weren't salvageable and all of us agreed not to bother with the other that had rolled on the ground. While he worked I just rested in my lupine form against the wall with my eyes shut.

After a few minutes, my ears started to ring. I instinctually shook my head but it didn't help. I reached up and covered my ears but that didn't seem to make any difference either. I stood up and shifted back to my human form but the ringing didn't go away. Feeling frustrated I pushed a finger into my ear to see if there was something stuck in there but no. Just a high-pitched ringing that wouldn't go away.

("Are you okay Helena? You're acting a little strange,") Luna cautiously asked me.

Thankfully the words she spoke to me through the rings didn't make the high-pitched ringing sound worse. I shook my head again before answering. ("My ears started ringing and they won't stop. It's really uncomfortable.")

("Ringing? Did my magic affect you in the fight? I know your hearing is sensitive but I hadn't thought it was bothering you.") Luna looked pensive and worried.

("No,") I answered. ("The ringing only just started while I was sitting he—")

"Ah!" Suddenly the ringing stopped and everything was so loud. I clenched my eyes shut and covered my ears but it felt like everything was booming around me. Every noise I heard was echoing off of every wall.

("Helena! Are you okay?") Luna crouched down next to me and gently laid a hand on my shoulder as I whimpered at all the noise. Even the noises that bounced off the walls hurt my ears. Damnit, why won't it stop?

Luna stepped away and walked over to the others, each of her normally quiet steps clopped and sent echoes all over the walls. She tapped onto Maxwell's shoulder and I could hear his whispered question as if he was standing right next to me. Piper stomped over with her pounding boots and practically yelled in my ears.

It was too much.

I stood up and leaned on the wall, taking some distance away from them. After only two steps I shifted back to my werewolf form so I wouldn't have to hear my own loud stomping too as I got away from them. Thankfully my rough paw pads didn't make much sound as I took some distance, only the sound of scratching on the stone floors.

("I need to get away from you three right now, everything is too loud. I have a splitting headache,") I managed to get out before walking down the hall.

I wasn't able to settle down until I had made my way back to the guano room. The smelly odor took some of the edge off of the intensity of my hearing, though I still felt overwhelmed by all of the sounds that continued to echo through the hallway and in my head. While it wasn't as painful from this distance, I could still hear Piper and Maxwell talking clearly as if I were sitting next to them.

I opened my eyes and took in a deep breath of the nearby scents. I sat down and did something I hadn't done in a while. I tried again to meditate. Everything was too much I needed to do something. I slumped back against the wall behind me and fixated on a single point in front of me. I wasn't truly looking at anything but the extra sensations made the noise easier to bear. I took a shuddering breath and tried to clear my mind, trying to focus on only my breath and shut everything else out.

Focus. In. Out.

It was difficult to stay fixated on my breath. I could still hear everything around me. I shook my head and fixated on the point in front of me again. If I couldn't shut everything out maybe I should do the opposite. Listen. Try to get used to the noise. I took another shuddering breath and just took everything in. I could hear footsteps a hallway away. Maxwell and Piper were still talking in worried half-whispers. Luna paced back and forth, I could hear the sound of her wringing her hands, the friction of her skin made sound as they rubbed against one another.

I could hear Luna's breathing. Rough, hoarse, and gravelly. This was what her breathing always sounded like from the scarred flesh around her throat. The noise was clear to me now though, I would be able to spot it from a mile away. As Luna paced back and forth echoes pooled off of her boots and bounced against the walls giving me an idea of the shape of the hallway and where Maxwell and Piper were standing purely based on how the sound bounced around.

Furrowing my brows and tilting my head I realized that it was almost as if I could see the shape of them. My hearing was now so acute that I could track the people in the other room as they moved around. I shook my head and closed my eyes, they had started to hurt from staring so long. When I closed my eyes the sounds became all the more clear as my sight no longer distracted me.

"This isn't helpful," I mumbled to myself.

I didn't need to practice hearing things at a distance, I needed to practice shutting things out that I didn't need. I took a deep breath and focused on that. Now that I was focusing on my body I could hear my own heartbeat, the blood rushing through my veins, the air filling my lungs.

In... Out...

In... Out...

I focused only on my own body in that moment. My hearing mixed with my proprioception, I could hear what I could feel. It was an odd sensation.

In... Out...

In... Out...

Another exhale... I could still hear other things, the echoes, the loud whispers, the pacing. Inhale. The sounds weren't as overwhelming anymore. Everything was still loud but it was... manageable. Exhale. The sounds of my own body were odd, it was strange to be able to hear everything so clearly but I was getting a handle on how to filter things and classify them.

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Taking one last deep breath, I stood up and walked back towards my group.

("Helena... are you feeling better?") Luna asked. I could hear worry in her heart's voice.

I nodded. ("Better now. My hearing... sharply improved for some reason. I can hear a lot better now but it was overwhelming.")

("Do you need to stop and rest?") she asked.

I shook my head. ("No, I'm okay to keep going. I think I need to keep moving if I want to get used to this. Sitting around and resting will only make things harder on me, I think.")

Luna didn't look convinced but she didn't argue with me. She walked over to the two others and sent a message to Piper from the look of things. Piper nodded and said something to Maxwell. They were talking about me and about continuing, but it was hard to get a clear understanding with the language barrier. Piper seemed to want to wait but Maxwell wanted to continue. He smelled tense, worried about our pace, perhaps the time we were wasting.

I came over and put a hand on Luna's shoulder. "Helena okay. Continue," I spoke aloud to them.

Piper smiled and put her hand on her chest. ".... okay. .... can continue."

I squinted my eyes before realizing what she was trying to teach me. "I'm okay. We can continue," I repeated.

Maxwell smiled and said something to his sister who shrugged back at him. "Fine .... let's go," she replied.

Luna gave me a concerned smile and placed her hand on top of mine. ("If you're really okay, then we can keep going.")

I nodded. Things were still a bit uncomfortably loud but I was starting to get the hang of things. Their boots still sounded like stomping, my own did too in my human form, but my increased hearing gave me another unexpected boon. Things sounded odd when traps were around. Tripwires, pressure plates, and hidden holes in the floor and walls, all of them made unique sounds that were easy for me to hear now. Our pace increased a lot just because I was able to regularly point out the traps we were coming across.

Eventually I started hearing another odd sound. ("I hear something up ahead, not bats but something moving.")

("Slimes?") she asked.

("I don't know, I've never seen slimes before so I don't know what they sound like,") I replied.

Luna stopped and signaled something to him. He nodded and said something to Piper about me and slimes. I guessed Luna was able to relay what I had said for the most part using only hand signals. We advanced forward with Maxwell taking the lead with his shield held up. I could probably detect any traps just as well from behind him and if there were slimes ahead it would be better for him to be in front with his shield. At least until I could see how difficult it was to fight them.

We progressed until we could see the room. Despite them being in eyesight, they hadn't detected us yet. It was unlikely they could see in the same way that we did. There were eight of them, four large ones about half the height of my companions and four smaller ones, half the size of that. Up close the noises they made were kind of gross, like farting noises you could make with something goopy. They didn't really smell like anything which was kind of a relief, even if bad smells didn't bother me as much it was nice to have a clean nose for once.

Maxwell ran forward and bashed one of the larger ones with his shield. All of the slimes started to circle him as a large glowing red circle appeared under his feet. My eyes widened in concern until I realized that it was Luna's magic that was creating the circle.

("Is it safe for me to go and help?") I asked Luna.

She just nodded, not using the rings to answer right now.

I dashed into the room from the other side of the monsters, hoping to keep them between the two of us but the moment I was nearby something unexpected happened. All of the slimes decided to attack me instead. All eight of them started ignoring Maxwell and his shield and instead launched themselves at me. My eyes widened and I dodged away which had the unfortunate timing of dragging the slimes out of Luna's magic just as it triggered. It only caught one of the bigger ones and two of the smaller ones.

The cores I was told about clacked to the floor like marbles on concrete as I continued to dodge the monsters.

"Helena! .... .... .... ...." Maxwell yelled something to me as I kept dodging but I had no idea what it was.

I decided to just risk the acid burns from the slimes, maybe they wouldn't be as bad as I was warned. The next time one of the smaller ones jumped at me I pointed my fingers and stabbed into it before grabbing the core and yanking it out.

Absolute agony.

I killed the slime but my arm halfway up my forearm was burning. I screamed as I shook off the slime that was clinging to me. It felt as if I stuck my arm into a pot of boiling water, the acid was eating at my fur and skin. I wasn't able to focus on evading the slimes anymore so when one of the larger ones slammed its weight against me I was sent stumbling, the only thing that kept me from falling was that the monster was a lot smaller than me. I couldn't keep hold of the core and it dropped to the ground.

For whatever reason Maxwell wasn't able to take the monster's attention off of me so I just kept on dodging as I cradled my painfully stinging arm. Unlike the other wounds I had taken it wasn't healing on its own, all of the smoky black fur had fallen out and all I could see was bright pink melted-looking skin. Finally, another gout of magic was released from a circle on the floor I hadn't even noticed and all of the slimes perished.

"Helena! Come .... now!" Piper yelled at me.

I sniffed and wiped the tears from my eyes with my good arm and shakily held out my painfully burned arm. Piper gripped my arm above the burn and held me steady as she poured clean water over the acid. It was incredibly painful but it had been the right move as the burning sensation finally went away. As soon as she was satisfied a warm light suffused my arm and the skin started healing. The magic healing felt itchy but soon my skin was perfectly intact again and fur started to regrow across it.

Piper panted and wiped the sweat from her brow as she turned my arm this way and that, looking over the wound. When she was satisfied she stepped away and leaned against the wall behind her. I ran my fingers through the shorter fur and let out a breath of relief. It felt okay again, the fur was weird in that spot now but everything felt back to normal. I slumped against the wall too and closed my eyes. Today had been a shit day.