The Pits

Astoria-

Astoria grabbed the rope and tied it cautiously around her waist, making sure it secure.

“You’re actually going to do that?” Tadhg asked, watching her inch toward the sand.

“I guess.” One of her feet dropped through the sand, and she nearly fell.

“Careful,” Azeal warned, “Hold your breath when you go under, don’t let any get into your mouth, or eyes.”
Astoria nodded, and then let her other foot slide in. On the surface the sand felt just like sand. Smooth and soft, but a few inches under and it turned to sticky, wet cement like muck.

“Move your feet, you’ll sink faster.”

She did as Azeal said, sliding her legs back and forth, like she was swimming. Tadhg watched worriedly, she thought he looked like he was holding his breath. Azeal looked calm, feeding the rope to her as she sunk even more.

The sand was almost up to her neck now, and she could feel it sticking to every part of her body. As it inched closed to her face, Astoria took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let the sand consume her.

[Farleigh]

She ran to the seperate passageway and stepped in. It was covered in darkness on the inside, the only thing that kept some light inside was the gems. The light from the outside was reflecting from each jewel.

"You could get lost, we should probably just get out of this cave." warned Raiden.

Farleigh turned around and looked back at the two. "I've never been in here so I should go in to see if there's anything that I could use." she started to go into the passageway again.

Korr and Raiden reluctantly followed her, each with worried looks on their faces. When they reached another passage in the cave it led them to a huge opening. A small stream was in the middle of it. Farleigh was the first one to start running for it, but then she stopped.

How couldn't she see it before? There was a steep cliff they had to get past to get to the stream. Farleigh turned to see Raiden and Korr, and with a smile she fell backwards off the cliff.

(Korr)

"What the--" I said. "What did she do that for?"

"I don't know!" Raiden called.

I started running before I even heard the answer, and looked over the edge.

What was she trying to do, kill me? Because I would've quite easily jumped after her... if she hadn't caught herself... did she know something that I didn't? I carefully inched over, just to make sure before I jumped... for her.

Curse love... it's going to get me killed.

[Raiden]

"What are you...?!" Raiden shouted as Korr jumped right off after her. Sighing, he walked to the cliff's edge, saw where they had landed, and propelled himself into space.

He landed on his stomach in the river... and immediately wished he was dead. The pain bit through his skin and numbed him, he sank slightly.

Korr pulled him out, "Are you okay?"

Raiden looked at him, his vision hazy, and then turned around and promptly vomited, "I wouldn't recommend belly-flopping; bad idea."

Azael

"Have you lowered anyone down this way before? How do you know that it's safe?" Tadgh demanded as the last strand of Astoria's hair was swallowed by golden sand and all was still. All was calm.

"Companions come and go," Azael said by way of answer as he leaned back slightly, tightening his grip on the rope.

"How can you be so cold?" Tadgh asked, his eyes fixed on the sand still burning with the last glimpse of her face.

"You trusted me with your life. Trust me with hers." A brief silence extended between the two and then Azael spoke again - "She's through the sand." He fed more rope into the whole, extending his stance against the stronger pull of gravity. Soon the rope went loose and both men waited. One calm, the other increasingly anxious. And then the rope twitched.

"Your turn," Azael said as he pulled the rope up.

Tadhg-

"Right. I am going to trust you." I said, as Azael pulled the rope up. "I'll go down. But how're you going to follow?"

He shrugged."I have my ways."

"You're not just going to leave are you?"

"Because I came all the way here to lead the two of you to your deaths. Obviously."

"Right," I said. "You better be right about this."

I fastened the rope round my middle, took a deep breath and disappeared underneath the surface.

Astoria-

Tadhg’s feet began to appear in the ceiling, sprouting from the same place that Astoria had fallen from. Soon he was on the ground near her, wiping the sand from his face, then untying the rope from his waist.

“Have a lovely drop?” She asked him, still trying to comb all of the sand from her hair with her fingers.

He smiled “Yes, are you alright?”

“Fine, except for a bit of mud down my shirt…and pants…and in my shoes.”

“At least your alive.” He said, picking bits of muck from his fingernails.

“How is Azeal going to get through?”

“I not sure,”

They sat waiting, Astoria braiding her hair and Tadhg emptying his shoes of sand, both keeping an eye on the ceiling of sand.

"I'll tell you something," I said to Astoria. "When we get back up to the surface, this mud is not going to help in the cooling process."

"I know." she said with a groan. "And it's all in my hair."

I grinned. "Need help?"

"I'm alright," she said softly, continuing to plait it. She looked nice when she concentrated. "Besides," she said slowly. "Do you even know how to plait?"

"I'll have you know I won the regional plaiting competition in my area."

"You're not serious," she said rolling her eyes.

"Fine then, let's not make pleasant conversation," I said. "Okay, maybe I didn't." I paused. "I'm rambling aren't I?"

"Yes." she said plainly.

"Now I'm really curious as to how he's getting down. D'you reckon he's just going to jump?"

(Korr)

I looked around, trying to find Farleigh. Somehow, she was upstream. Immediately I started swimming towards her, but it got me nowhere. There were vines on the side of the cliff, so I used them to pull myself up. When I got there I asked, "What are we doing?"

Raiden took a little longer to get there.

[Farleigh]

They had finally caught up to what they thought was Farleigh, but it was just a chunk of wood. The two of them swam to the edge and got out of the river. With the two of them shivering, dazed, and confused...then they saw it. A small blue butterfly was flying low over the water. Anger began to boil in them.

It stopped at the edge of the water on the opposite side of Raiden and Korr. They watched it...and after a few seconds it flew over to them and transformed back into Farleigh.

"Have more trust in what I do, I wasn't commiting sucide or anything." she laughed a bit. "If you just watched you would have saw that I was going to turn into butterfly form so I could get down there. I've always found it fun to jump backwards like that."

Raiden shot up. "What did you think you were doing? What kind of idiot would jump off a cliff like that?"

"Yeah! Why'd you jump?" added Korr. "You couldn've gotten hurt!...We could've gotten hurt!"

Instead of happiness a pained expression was on her face. "I didn't ask you come to rescue me! I-" she didn't know what else she could say.

(Korr)

"You didn't ask us to! What'd you think we'd do? Or at least, I'd do!" I cried, almost blushing. "See, here's the problem, Farleigh... I..." My voice trailed off. "I would follow you anywhere," I continued, quieter now. "I love you."

[Raiden]

Raiden's eyes were bugging out of his head, he felt terribly intrusive and awkward. Stumbling backwards, he shot Korr an encouraging smile and sprinted towards the forest to give them a "chance", so to speak.

He found a small, twisting tree and climbed to the top. Which wasn't all that far from the bottom. He had a hidden view of Korr and Farleigh, though he couldn't hear them. He watched to see what they would do next.

*XD For some reason, that sounded really funny...*

Azael

Azael drew the rope in slowly and coiled it into his pack before shouldering the burden. Calmly he moved to the side and, pressing his body firmly against the rock wall, he edged to the corner of the patch of quicksand where the ground was still reasonably solid. From there, he took a measured step forward, taking a deep breath and twisting his body carefully for maximum speed with the least change of direction. Two inches to the right and he'd land in the lagoon.

Azael found his descent through the sand uncomfortable, as always, and hoped that the other two had the sense to move away from the water. He had to hope they did. As his feet and legs found their way to the air, Azael held them straighter and concentrated on moving only his waist and the arms that he held close to his sides. Twisting back and forth, he slipped further and further until he could feel the air against his chest and then the pull of gravity dragged him down.

Azael kept his body stream-lined, bending his knees slightly for more control as he landed. Two inches from the lagoon. The shock rang through his legs and for a moment he did not move. Then he straightened and looked across to Astoria and Tadgh.

"You're both alright?" he asked, stepping away from the water.

"Covered in sand," Astoria grumbled.

"The spring's this way," Azael replied, causing two sets of eyes to light with hope.

"A spring?" Tadgh asked.

"The water isn't good for drinking but it doesn't damage your skin and a wash wouldn't hurt either of you."

"How did you learn about this place?" Tadgh asked curiously. "Are there easier entrances? Did you stumble across it?"

"No," Azael said. "Many exits but a single entrance. A guard told me. They sometimes store food and drink here. Let's hope that is one of these times."

"How can there be more exits than entrances?" Astoria asked.

"Sorcery," Azael said, his voice harsher than before. "There are doors that only open from the inside."

He broke off at the mention of sorcery. I exchanged a quick worried glance with Astoria, then said

"So, you have to get even dirtier before you get a decent wash?"

He nearly smiled. "That's the idea."

We continued on our way.

*all I got*