Kye continued. "Holes, they are really hard to find, but essential if you want to keep from dying or breaking something. To figure out if there is a hole or cliff near you, feel the air. The closer to a hole, the lighter the air will feel. And you might be able to feel the wind moving downwards. The heavier the air feels the tighter of a space it is. If you are in a cave in you need to first assess if you have any injuries or if anyone you or anyone you might have been traveling with has any injuries. Then you'll want to start finding you're way back to the surface immediately. Because the dust caused by the cave in can be damaging to your lungs and you need to get above ground to clean them out. And one cave in can cause another. Plus if anyone, yourself included, is injured you would want to get them attention as soon as possible."
A steady pounding had wrapped around Kida's skull and settled in until every thought felt like it was wading through molasses. His entire body ached with every step and his vision had adopted a permanent blurry quality to it. He knew Kye was still rambling on behind him, but Kida had stopped listening long ago. Only his training kept him on his feet now.
Dull as his senses were, they were still sharp enough to pick up on the muffled scuffing of deliberately quiet footsteps. Adrenaline cleared his mind and he looked back at Kye briefly. Instead of slowing down he continued at the same pace. Taking a few turns at random intervals to give the appropriate idea of following a hidden path. The steps continued.
Kye went quiet for a moment to catch his breath. And heard the quiet foot steps. To avoid an immediate attack he continued talking.
Subtly Kida forced his pace to gradually pick up though his body protested it. Careful to do so without setting their pursuers off, he started steering them toward a more open area. If he could find a large enough break in the trees then they could either force them into the open or force them to give ground long enough for him to shake them. He sighed. He was far to tired for this and he didn't even know why they followed or who they were.
Kye rested his hand on his satchel, which hung on his side. In it was his dagger. In case he would need it. "There is an entrance to a cave to the left of us. And two behind us. One entrance is big and the other is small," he was trying to let Kida know that there were two people following.
The sudden switch in what Kye was talking about threw Kida. He almost missed it by not paying enough attention. Unfortunately he had no idea why Kye had changed tactics he figured it was to bother him more. He had no idea if Kye was even aware they had a tail or how to clue him in." That's nice."
Kye went silent now. He was trying to figure out where their tail was, and just how many there were. Without giving away that he was doing that. Hopefully Kida had been clued in enough that he knew there were at least two people following them.
The sudden switch to silence was equally refreshing and alarming. Kida glanced backwards to make sure nothing had happened, Kye looked vaguely distracted but seemed fine otherwise. Feeling a ridiculous amount of relief about the confirmation of his annoying companions wellbeing, Kida decided to chalk it up to a combination of stress over their mysterious stalkers and lack of sleep.
Kye noticed Kida turn back to look at him, and had to suppress a smile. He does care, he said to himself. Then he made a final count of how many were following them. Two on their left, four behind, and either one or two on their right side. He wasn't positive about the right side. He was positive that they were trying to box them in, and he didn't want to find out what would happen if they did.
The quiet sounds of pursuit were much more pronounced with the new silence that draped itself over them. Kida listened carefully for any sudden changes in direction or speed to keep track of their movements and if Kye and himself would need to pick up their own.
His feet felt like lead weights were attached to each causing each step to seem a thousand times harder than normal. He really hoped that a clearing existed in this forest because so far it didn't seem like one did.
Kye was thinking of a way to get away from their tail. Then he thought of a cave nearby. That might work.
Finding a clearing didn't look like it was gonna work out. The trees were just as dense as always. That hope seemed to have died off.
Kida tried not to think about his legs. A steady throbbing set itself into his skull that no amount of adrenaline was going to clear and a pulse-like darkness circled the edges of his vision. If he slowed down, or heaven-forbid sat down, he likely would just flat out pass out for a solid few days. All of his concentration centered around not doing exactly that and not limping despite how much his legs ached,he couldn't show potential enemies weakness. He had abandoned all thoughts toward shaking their mysterious followers and no idea what he would do if they turned out to be hostile, he probably couldn't even punch something now, let alone fight.
Kye spotted his target and waited until they were right next to it before making his move. Though it could possibly get him hurt by doing something like this he did it anyway. He grabbed Kida from behind and dragged him sideways into the cave, letting the cold and darkness envelope them. Then he dragged Kida backwards a ways planting them behind a large rock, holding his hand over Kida's mouth so he didn't make any sounds. They were in complete darkness now.
If Kida had been any less exhausted or in any less pain, he would have snapped Kye's neck for just touching him unexpectedly let alone grabbing him and pulling him backwards. The sudden change in scenery caused a second adrenaline spike, this one exasperating his headache instead of clearing it. Jerkily he twisted out of Kye's grasp, keeping quiet through pure survival instinct combined with a lifetime of training. The movement sent his vision into a lazy spin around the room, almost dumping him on the ground before he caught himself, briefly grateful for the darkness. Then he turned and leveled a glare at Kye, settling for later maiming when he didn't feel like collapsing from a stiff breeze and they weren't being ominously followed.
Kye put a finger to his lips and signaled for Kida to get down again. He could hear the shuffling of feet as their tail debated coming into the cave or not. Kye leaned close to Kida. "Stay here, stay down, don't make a sound," he whispered before disappearing into the shadows.
Kida rolled his eyes as Kye disappeared. If he got any closer to the ground he wouldn't leave it. He settled for ducking back farther in the cave letting the shadows embrace him. Kye was likely doing something stupid and Kida really hoped he wouldn't need rescuing or any sort of help because physical exertion of any kind was likely going to be the last thing he did for awhile.
Kye had moved to a different part of the cave. He was a lot closer to the entrance, here. As in, he could hear the people, that had been following them, talking. Then he did the smartest thing in the world, and lit his torch, standing right in the open, where they could all see him. "Hi!" he said cheerfully. "What are you doing here?"
"Hi! What are you doing here?"
The words drifted back to Kida. His heart skipped a beat. Kye was completely stupid. And going to die. If not from the other people then Kida would definitely kill him after. He stumbled over his feet trying to move forward. Silently he made his way to the mouth of the cave, carefully staying out of sight. Assessing the situation before making a move. Unlike some people.
The people didn't seem to like Kye, as he had expected, so he started executing his plan. It started with one of them asking who he was and where the young man he'd been with went. "Oh, me? I'm no one. Just a stupid kid that gets himself wrapped up into stupid situations like this," Kye started backing up slowly. "As for where that kid went, I'll show ya, followed me." He walked backwards deeper into the cave until they seemed to be completely lost in the maze that it was. Then he put out his torch. His laugh echoing around the cave as he made his own way back out without any problems. If they did make it out it wouldn't be for a long while. Plus there was another tunnel they could go down to avoid leaving a trail on the surface.
They walked past close enough to touch. Their proximity made his heart jackknife in his chest, freezing in place to stay invisible. His blue green eyes still bright despite the dark haze growing around his vision, tracking them as Kye walked them right past, continuing on deeper into the cave. Minutes passed. Nearly half an hour later he heard the echoes of laughter bouncing off the walls.
Kye made his way easily back to the entrance cave. He flipped his torch around and lit it. "Yo, what up?"
The sudden, unfamiliar, exclamation startled Kida back to full awareness. Shaking his head slightly and blinking, he attempted to reorient himself. He didn't even remember dosing off. Then he focused back on Kye the strange wording coming back to him." What?" His voice was empty of any inflections, blank and tired like the rest of him.
"I said, yo what up?" Kye smiled walking past him. "They'll be lost for a while, none of them have realized yet that I stuck a torch in one of their hands. That deals with our tail for the moment. So, where to next?"
Briefly, he wondered what Kye was talking about. The realization that he had been attempting to get through the forest prior to the distraction of being chased threw him for a split second. "Um yeah… I
do need to get going."
