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."
"And I have made the decision to join you," Kye put his free hand on his hip. His other still holding the torch.
Kida let out a soft sigh," Of course you did." He reluctantly pushed himself unsteadily off the wall of the cave that he'd started leaning against at some point, holding still when his vision darkened with the movement and his legs threatened to give out.
Kye studied him as he wobbled all over the place trying to stand. This kid could probably go for another mile, maybe, in his condition. "Yeah, you would die without me,"
Kida glared up at Kye at that." Mmhm,"he hummed darkly, "Sure." As if Kye had any idea of what Kida could do and for how long. He toyed with the idea of putting him on the ground as an example but ultimately decided to leave him be. Purely because he didn't think Kye could handle it. Not because it would be the last thing he did for a week. Absolutely not for that reason.
Kye noticed the glare and gave him a mom like stare. "Don't look at me like that, you are literally a zombie on their feet. You look like you just walked out of hell, after fighting Satan for three days straight. You could probably go for another mile, plus, I know my way around these parts, you clearly don't. And if I hadn't dragged you down here when I had you would be dead right now."
Putting Kye into the dirt was sounding incredibly tempting, exhaustion aside. He decided to conserve his energy and just keep going instead of gracing with a reply. If he hadn't been quite literally beaten out of any pride he might have had even the slightest chance of accumulating he probably would have been offended that Kye thought he saved him. However, he was long since trained out of such childish flaws and ignored Kye. Deciding it would be best to prove by example that he wouldn't keel over while walking.
Kye walked out of the cave with him then marched past Kida, over to the spot they had been when Kye first dragged them into the cave. It was littered with arrows, kuni, spears, and swords. "I assume you heard these coming at us from the trees above."
Though he debated lying, as Kye would much more likely believe that and it would bring less questions later, Kida decided to be honest. Whether Kye believed him or not." Yes."
Kye fell silent, this was a useless argument. This kid was to stubborn to reason with. "Let me at least take you through the caves where we won't leave a trail," he sighed after a moment.
The idea wasn't a bad one. But. Kye shouldn't have even been here and Kida was still trying to balance being polite and following his training which screamed that he needed to find some way to ditch his stubborn companion. He really wished Riley were here to talk him out of stupid decisions but she was part of the reason he was in this forest in the first place. Sometimes, he hated the ties he had developed with his friends, it was much easier when he was on his own and only had to worry about himself. Which only reminded him of his unwanted companion. He didn't know if letting himself be led into a cave was a good idea, he would be vulnerable and dependent on Kye. Both things his training told him never to be.