Blood Queen Reborn

In a different part of the dark cave system, Peter and Cia were sliding through the strange substance together. Due to the fact that they were both swallowed at the same time, their bodies were more closely pressed together.

Cia and Peter felt their feet wiggle in the air, and they came to the same conclusion that they were about to fall down into some sort of pit.

"PETER! GRAB YOUR STAFF!" Cia shouted through the membrane, which came out muffled to Peter’s ears.

"My SHAFT?!" Peter blurted out, a little frazzled.

"NO YOU IDIOT, YOUR SSTAAAAFFFFF," Cia pronounced harder.

"My WHA—!?" Peter was in the middle of repeating.

That was when two fell out of the thick substance, and were falling through the air. Thankfully, Peter had managed to keep his grip on the staff.

Grabbing onto Peter’s back mid air, Cia shouted again, "EXTEND YOUR STAFF!"

Peter did as told and controlled the staff to elongate, which had caught onto the sides of the walls, thereby slowing down their fall. It wedged between some rocks, and Peter held the staff tight with both arms, but he knew he couldn’t hold on for long with Cia also hanging onto him.

Summoning a glowing spirit spear, Cia threw it downwards.

"What— Are you doing—?" Peter strained, his grip loosening by the second.

The spirit spear disappeared not too long after she threw it. She watched to see when it would land onto the ground to get a sense of how much farther down they had. Before she could tell Peter that it was a safe height to fall from, his fingers slipped, and the two crashed onto one another.

"Ow..." They both groaned in unison. If they made it out of this cave, they were going to wake up tomorrow with bruises.

Forming another spirit spear, Cia used it as a light source to illuminate the room. Although it glowed in the dark, the most it could illuminate was a foot away from her, which was better than pitch black.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked, grabbing hold of her hand.

"Yeah, just really unfortunate we keep ending up in these situations," Cia commented, "At least our legs didn’t break this time," then pointed her spear in different directions.

It appeared that there were several holes and paths to go down. There wasn’t anything immediately obvious to tell which way would lead back to the surface, no light sources, no sounds, no gusts of wind. They must’ve fallen deep within the cave network.

"Hmm..." Cia hummed, then tapped her heel on the boot that held the fruit. It was still there.

’There’s no one else down these caves, unless someone else managed to survive the fall,’ Cia wondered, ’If there’s any time to use the fruit, it would be now.’

Despite it being the perfect conditions, she hesitated. Doing so would mean that she could figure out what happened with Layla, and report back. They were in the dark, Peter wouldn’t even see it coming, and she could easily leave him behind once she was done. All it would take was an explanation that they were attacked by a beast.

It would be so easy, and yet...

"Let’s go in this direction," Peter suggested, pointing at a tunnel that was wider than the others.

"Alright!" Cia replied, and the two went on ahead.

’...I’ll wait until we’re somewhere more safer,’ she told herself.

—

Over in Fex’s perspective, he was falling down another massive pit too fast to attach his strings to anything.

’I wish someone would catch me,’ Fex thought as he slammed face first onto the ground.

He immediately stood up to his feet, and dusted off his face. Despite the height, Fex wasn’t particularly injured, maybe a little sore, but the sensation was wearing off already. Being a vampire definitely had its perks.

Getting a sense of his surroundings, it seemed that he was in a cave with massive holes and tunnels leading in and out. Walking up to each tunnel, he couldn’t hear anyone he knew.

Placing his hands over his mouth, Fex called out, "Quinn? Layla! ...Vorden?!"

The sound echoed off the walls, and he was starting to realize the flaw in his earlier plan.

When he had allowed himself to get eaten by one of the beasts, he had done so away from where the others fell. Assuming that it pooped him out right below itself, it meant that he would need to go down one of the pathways to find his friends. They were likely very far away from where he fell.

"Right, so they must’ve gone that way!" Fex pointed in a direction where he last saw Quinn, but then realized that there was no guarantee that he wasn’t spun around inside of the beast.

"... Okay this might be a problem."

He stood there, racking his brain for ideas, when one popped up.

Attaching a string into the ground, Fex started walking in a random tunnel. This was a trick he learned once from a very old human legend, it was ancient even by vampire standards.

Fex chuckled to himself, ’Heh, and my dad always told me those human stories wouldn’t help me with anything.’

Although it wasn’t tied at the entrance of this maze-like cave, it would ensure that he wouldn’t get lost going down the same path he already went through. Even potentially, if one of his friends found the string, they could follow it and reunite.

"I’m such a genius!" Fex grinned, then patted himself on the back.

Suddenly, footsteps echoed throughout the tunnel walls, and Fex stopped, listening closely.

’That’s definitely a living being, but which direction is it coming from?’

He looked around, turning left and right, then sniffed the air. It didn’t smell human, and the sounds were rather metallic. Although the chances of it were slim, it wasn’t impossible that it could be a beast. The sound was getting closer, and he could tell it was already around the corner.

A bright light flashed over his eyes, and Fex squinted, blinded by it. Holding his hands up, he peeked through his fingers to find a short metal figure standing there. The helmet on the figure retracted, revealing green hair, and massive eyebags.

"Hello there, Fex," Logan calmly spoke, looking up at the person in question, "It’s a coincidence that we see each other again so soon, wouldn’t you think?"

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