Addie took a cautious step forward into the mouth of the cave, the howling wind from outside at her back. The silence within the cave seemed to amplify the crunch of her bare feet on the rocky ground. The stalactites above loomed over her like stone daggers. Despite its menacing appearance, the cave offered a glimmer of hope— shelter from the relentless cold. She glanced back at Nettal, who gave a shivering nod, and together they ventured deeper into the cave, the shadows swallowing them as they sought refuge from the freezing wilderness.
The further into the cave they went, the more it seemed to warm up. Though, still not nearly warm enough for the pajamas both girls wore. The small amount of freezing wind that made its way into the cave tore right through their thin clothes, and the hard rocky ground had patches of ice that Addie tried to avoid stepping on.
Tentatively, Nettal reached her hand out to Addie, who quickly grabbed onto the offered hand in a moment of solidarity. Nettal’s hand was warm.
Letting out a shivering breath, Addie looked behind them to the mouth of the cave. They made it just in time since the howling wind outside was rapidly turning into a blizzard.
“My cheeks are cold.” Nettal’s voice echoed down deeper into the cave.
“My whole body is cold,” Addie complained.
“Can we warm up some more in Realmspace?” Nettal asked.
Addie firmly agreed with that idea, and she had just begun to tug on her magic when Squishy spoke up through their bond.
“I do not believe that is a good plan.” He tugged on their magic, halting it.
Addie furrowed her brow at him.
“We should save our magic, and use it for night. We do not want to be freezing and tired at the same time. Best we use what magic we do have to sleep in Realmspace, at the time this area is coldest.”
Squishy was right. If they used their magic to warm up now, then they wouldn’t be able to warm up later.
“What?” Nettal looked between Addie and Squishy.
“He says we should save it for later.”
Nettal let go of Addie’s hand and wrapped her arms around herself. She shivered. “It won’t do us any good if we freeze to death right now.” She grumbled.
“Let’s go deeper into the cave,” Addie suggested.
“Why? It’s already so dark!”
“Because it’s warmer further down,” Addie explained.
“You’re just guessing that.”
“No, underground is warmer.”
“How do you know?”
Addie shook her head, “I just know! It’s warmer deeper in!”
“Fine,” Nettal’s teeth started chattering again, “Let’s go.”
Pulling on her soul bond, Addie cupped her left hand and allowed it to alight with soul flames. Addie could already see with her spatial sense, so the purple flames were mostly for helping Nettal.
“It goes on forever,” Nettal said.
“Yeah,” Addie agreed.
“Do you think this is a secret tunnel? Like, through the mountain, secret tunnel?” Nettal pointed ahead into the endless black.
“Maybe.” Addie agreed tentatively.
One thing was certain, the deeper they went into the cave the more it warmed up. Maybe they wouldn’t need Realmspace to stay warm at night. There were other problems, though, like food.
After about twenty minutes, without the cave walls changing in any significant way, Addie finally sat down right on the bare rock. It felt cool against her back, but not freezing like outside.
“What are you doing?” Nettal asked.
“My feet hurt. I’m tired. It’s dark in here.” Addie started to close her eyes.
Something roughly grabbed Addie’s shoulder and started shaking her.
“Stop it! You can’t go to sleep right now!” Nettal basically shouted right into Addie’s ear.
Addie groaned, “Let’s just sleep a little! We barely slept at all, and my body’s about to fall apart into a pile of sleepiness.”
Squishy walked up and curled onto Addie’s chest. His warm scales were infinitely better than any blanket.
Nettal huffed, “Fine!” She waved her hands up and then dropped them to her sides. After that, she sat down next to Addie, putting her face in her hands. “When we wake up, we have to make a plan.”
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“Ok,” Addie easily agreed. Between the magical exhaustion, her aching feet, the lack of sleep, and finally the adrenaline crash— Addie had no more energy to spare. Even if Nettal had wanted to keep going deeper into the cave, Addie would have just collapsed without being able to continue forward.
The fear and nervousness from the last couple of hours all faded into the background, blanketed in a sleepy fog. Suddenly, she didn’t care about the situation at all. Nothing mattered except for sleep. Even the thought of some kind of magical monster jumping out of the dark cave shadows didn’t perturb Addie in the slightest. She fell fast asleep.
Addie looked down at herself from above. Nettal was also sleeping next to Addie’s still body, and at some point, both girls had snuggled up together for warmth.
This was a dream. But it also wasn’t a dream. Addie looked down at the tether connecting her to her body, then followed it back up to inspect her floating astral form. Addie was a blue ghost! She wiggled her toes in the air as she floated near the ceiling of the cave.
But, she didn’t remember activating her magic on purpose.
The next thing she noticed was that she didn’t feel tired at all. Perhaps it was because her physical body was still sleeping down on the ground, but Addie felt energized and ready to do anything.
She thought about using this opportunity to ‘scout’ the area— just like Squishy said this power would be good for. She turned around ready to get out of the cave, but immediately came face to face with her book, floating right at her face. She had almost walked right into it!
The book also glowed blue, looking more like a floating soul than the physical version she had read before.
*I’ve pulled you into astral form with a warning.*
Words on the page lit up, a darker ethereal blue than the pages.
*If you continue further down this path, do not attempt to enter astral form.*
Addie sputtered, “Then why did you put us in it in the first place!”
*I meant if you go deeper into the cave. There are Ennulic ruins past this point, and entering astral form in those ruins would be disastrous.*
“Just say that from the start! I thought you were being mephatorical.”
*Metaphorical?*
“Yeah, that.”
Addie wasn’t sure how a book could possibly do so, but somehow the floating book managed to sigh and slump its pages.
Without further warning, the book slammed shut, sending ethereal sparks into the air. Then, it extruded itself into a long blue stream, and Addie’s soul sucked it up back into her soul shell.
Now, it was just Addie floating in the cave by herself. Well, there was only one thing to do now really. Time for bed.
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Her neck hurt, and her entire body shivered against the cold stone underneath her thin pajamas. The powerful sleep still sitting behind her eyes wasn’t enough to keep Addie from fully waking up. The cold along with her sore body made her restless, so she finally sat up. Squishy slid down her chest and landed in her lap, while Addie had to pry Nettal and Lotty off of her. They had all been dogpiled into one big sleeping mass, everyone trying to gain any bit of warmth from each other that they could.
Addie used her spatial sense to see up and through the top of the cave, to try and see if it was still daytime. But she quickly remembered her magic didn’t work like that. Her spatial sense wouldn’t be able to see the binary since it was too far away, so the only thing she saw above the cave was a whole lot of snow. To check the time, she would need to exit the cave.
Idly, she lit up some soul flames in her hand, waking Nettal up and making her blink blearily.
“Addie? What time is it?” Nettal said groggily.
Chuckling, since Nettal thought the same thing she had upon waking up, Addie said, “I don’t know either.”
“Ugg,” Nettal vocalized with a groan, “My head hurts.” Nettal started sitting up and rubbing at the back of her head. Then, she turned to Lotty who had his head in her lap. “Next time I’m using you as a pillow, mister.”
Lotty huffed, but Addie thought she saw amusement sparkling from his green eyes in the pale light of her flames.
“Should we go out and check the sky?” Nettal suggested.
“We could.” Addie said hesitantly, “Or we could walk deeper into the cave.”
“I’m hungry,” Nettal said.
“Me too.”
“I could perhaps go exploring outside in search of game.” Squishy offered.
“Squishy says if we leave the cave he can find us some food.”
“No, you two should stay here where it is warmer. I mean to suggest that I can go outside alone in the hunt for food.” Squishy clarified.
“Oh.”
“‘Oh’, what?” Nettal scrunched her face in confusion.
“Squishy meant to say that we can stay here while he finds some meat.” Addie clarified.
Addie didn’t love the idea of Squishy going out on his own, both because she would worry about him and because she didn’t want him to leave her side.
“Do you think there’s food further in the cave?” Addie asked, hoping to find a solution that wouldn’t send Squishy away.
“I dunno.” Nettal peered deep into the darkness. “Maybe I guess. But I think he’s more likely to find some meat outside, honestly.”
Both girls sat in contemplation for a little bit.
“If Squishy finds some meat, would you be able to try making a fire?” Nettal asked.
Addie frowned and looked down at the ground. “It might not be hot,” she said quietly.
“Just try,” Nettal said, a hint of frustration leaking through her tone.
Addie flinched, “I’m sorry.”
“I should have stayed at home.” Nettal’s words hammered into Addie. “I could have been working at the clinic right now.”
Before she could get another word in, Lotty nudged Nettal’s shoulder with his head, giving her a reprimanding glare.
“Sorry,” Nettal said contritely. Then, she walked a few steps away and sat down against the side of the cave
To Addie, she didn’t sound that sorry. She sounded upset, and a little bit angry.
Squishy ran off, with promises of bringing back food, but Addie barely paid him any attention. Nettal’s words kept bouncing around in Addie’s head. If Addie hadn’t asked Nettal to come with her, maybe she wouldn’t be here. The idea filled Addie with fright, in some ways she was glad her cousin could be with her for this. But Nettal’s words also ate away at Addie. She tried to tell herself that it was Nettal’s decision to follow Addie out into the forest last night. Maybe it wasn’t really Addie’s fault that Nettal got dragged into this.
“I just want to get home,” Addie said into the dark cave. “Will you help me?”
Nettal turned to face Addie, “Obviously,” she said shortly.
Her frustrated tone filled Addie with a moment of guilt, but she pushed back against it, a little bit of her own frustration coming to bear, “It’s not my fault you followed me into the forest. You could have stayed at camp.”
That must have been the wrong thing to say, and Addie regretted it immediately.
Nettal stood up briskly and stomped over to Addie’s area of the cave. “I didn’t even want to come! But it’s my responsibility to watch over you! I’m the oldest.”
Turning her body slightly away from Nettal, Addie replied, “Still not my fault.”
“You are such a kid!” Nettal shouted.
“Well, so are you!” Addie shouted right back. She heard her voice echo down the cave from the volume.
Nettal gathered herself up to shout something more, but then she stopped with wide eyes. Addie realized Nettal was staring at something behind Addie.
Addie glanced over her shoulder.