(ah shit sorry for not responding, my schedule for notebook is really limited during the weekdays)
Amato was lying half in the water still, eyes shut and barely breathing. He looked half dead, to put it lightly, his dark hair in a small, disastrous mop across his face and rings glinting dully in the light. His blindfold had been cut off when he had run into the rock that had knocked him out, unnaturally dark blood still trickling ever so slowly from the gash close to his hairline, almost deep enough to add to the scar already there across his eye. His pendant was miraculously still around his neck, and it floated gently with the current of the water he was still submerged up to his chest in
"Hello?!" He called again, louder and more hoarse then before. His voice echoed down the cavern, accompanied by the sound of water rushing around his ankles. Wincing from pain, Dylan pulled himself out of the underground riverbank and flopped down onto stone floor.
Kagiso groaned and heaved herself forwards, gingerly crawling out of the water.
"Hello?" Someone called.
"Hello!" she called back. "Who's there?" She wasn't exactly sure if it was a good idea to reveal herself, but there wasn't really a choice.
Dylan shot uprght, then cursed loudly as his scrapes and wounds protested. Glancing around, he noted the girl crawling up out of the bank. She didn't appear to be fairing much better than he was. With the little effort he could safely give without pain, he began crawling towards her, taking care not to drag himself to much.
"Are you doing alright? Were you in that crash?"
Kagiso coughed and lay down on the cold stone floor when she was out of the water. Everything hurt, everywhere. She was just in pain.
"What… what? I remember nothing." she slurred, hoping her speech made sense. Why was her memory so fuzzy?
Dylan knelt next to the girl and chuckled slightly.
"You don't? Be thankful. I wouldn't want to remember either." He sighed and sat down, checking himself over twice, then looking over her to get a sense of how bad her damages were.
"Did you take a hit to the head? You've got a little blood back here…." He indicated with light taps.
Avery finally slipped the blindfold off and stared up at the sky, breathing heavily. At the sound of voices, she struggled to push herself up and glance around. As soon as she did, though, she coughed up water from the river they were nearby.
“Hello? Who else is here?” she called, her voice hoarse.
"Over here! We need a hand!" Dylan pressed his hand on the side of the girl's head, ignoring his own pain. He waved a hand in front of her face, "Hey, just stay awake, now. What's your name?"
Amato let out a soft groan as he began to gain consciousness as well, moving almost painfully slowly as he sat up. "Gods…" he muttered slowly, lightly dabbing at where he felt blood and wincing at the sting that he got from just touching the wound. He didn't get up yet, just stayed sitting up like he was in the water as he did his best to try and shake off the slowness from being knocked out
"My name?" she murmured. Why was concentrating on words so hard? Why was seeing so hard? Everything was murky like she was still underwater.
But then with a jolt, she heard something. It was loud, and yet it was quiet like a faded memory. A young boys voice, crying out into the unknown.
"Kagi!"
"Kagi?" she said. "My name is Kagi."
(That was her brother's nickname for her.)
Good, she's talking. Not dead, probably not crazy.
Dylan tried to put on a convincing smile, "Right, well, Kagi. You alright? Can you move? Walk?"
Glancing over his shoulder, he shouted again, "I could use a hand, please?"
Amato winced as he heard nearby yelling, and he slowly got to his feet as he began to stumble in the direction of the shouting. He was ready to just accidentally fall off a cliff at this point his head hurt so much, but he ignored it as he squinted through the blood that would occasionally try and slowly drip into his eye. "H…Hello?" he called out
"No no, no need for that. I'm okay," she mumbled. "I just hit my head."
Feebly, she stood up and took a few steps. Dizziness threated to overtake her, but she refused to let it. At the sound of Amato's voice, she stepped in his direction and called out.
"Who's there? Are you alright?"
(Hey, guys, sorry I was gone for a while. Hectic week last week, and then I was out of town over the weekend with slow cell service. I’ll try to reply faster now.)
Avery pushed herself to her feet, planting them on either side of herself so that she wouldn’t fall over. She was a little dizzy, probably from a combination of being spun around in the river and all the water she had swallowed. After coughing a little, she looked around before heading toward the sounds of voices. Whoever was there sounded like they needed help. Maybe they had been washed up in the wreck, too.
Amato could barely hear anything from the hit to his head, his ears still ringing as he walked. “Hello?” he tried again, this time louder as he stumbled, keeping himself braced on the cave wall as he went. He blinked a few more times, growling lowly to himself as he wiped blood off his face as best he could
Dylan started out towards the new voices, slowly though due to his wounds. He beckoned Kagi to follow, then winced as his arm brushed a wall, irritating his scrapes. He tread more carefully, and called out, "Hang in there, we're coming."
Avery started toward the voices, pressing a hand to her forehead to fight off the splitting headache that was erupting. She groaned a little at the pain but otherwise said nothing. If she did, she feared it would only worsen the pain. At least she could still hear the others well enough to make her way over.
"I see someone!" Kagiso exclaimed, rushing over to Amato. "Are you alright?" she asked when she arrived at his side.
( I would like a chance for Dylan and Avery to get a nice introduction. ship ship ship )
“Who are you? What the hell happened? Why are we in a cave?” Amato immediately began to question, only to hiss when he bumped the cut on his face, flinching just a little
"Agh." Kagiso snapped. "Calm down. We're all out of sorts here." Softly, she pushed a bit of hair away from his face and examined his wound "Firstly, I am Kagi. Secondly, I do not now. And thirdly, yes we are in a cave." There was a decent amount of blood oozing from his wound, so she quickly ripped off a small piece from the bottom of her shirt and pressed it to the wound. "You should probably let me wrap that."
Dylan glanced around while Kagi tended to the guy. Off in the distance, he noticed another figure slowly approaching them, a hand held to their head.
"Kagi, there's another one over here. I'll see to them, ok?" Not waiting for an answer, Dylan started towards them. "Hey, you okay?" he shouted, waving a hand as he approached.
A figure started toward her, and Avery began to walk faster. He spoke up, and she barely heard his words, so it took her a moment to realize what he had said.
“I’m all right, I suppose. Not dead, so that’s at least comforting. I have a splitting headache, though, and my throat is sore. Any idea of where we are and what’s going on?” she rasped, lifting a hand to her throat and the other in a greeting to the man.
Dylan shrugged in response. "Not a clue," he answered, "I can't really say if anything's going on, either. We're all just… hurting. Speaking of, you look like hell."
Now that he was closer he could make out the girl's features. Strawberry-blond, freckles, and eyes like blazing blue fire, a stark contrast from his quiet sky-blue. She was shorter than him, too. She didn't look as bad as he felt, but she did seem unsteady on her feet. Compared to his screams of scraped away skin, she looked as though her assailant had been a 10 ton hammer straight to the skull.
"I met up with a few others back there," He motioned behind him, "Some girl named Kagi and a guy I don't know yet. You need a hand there?"
Avery shook her head but immediately coughed up a bit more water. She bit back a pained groan at the feeling in her throat, the pain in her head.
“As long as I don’t move too quickly, I should be fine,” she rasped. “I took in a lot of water… Where are we, do you know?”
Dylan still stayed close to the girl, just in case.
Where are we now? Good question. "A cave of some kind, I think. We caught the flow of the water and pretty much got shoved down here. That crash must have been rough."
Avery hummed, nodding slowly in acknowledgment and agreement. “That would make sense… So there are only four of us? No one has spotted anyone else?”
"Yeah. Hell if I know where the guards are." He turned to her and offered a small smirk, "Not like we wanted to stick around with those guys in the first place. Speaking of us, my name's…"
The cave began to rumble. Lightly, but noticeably enough. Dylan looked around wildly, then shouted down to Kagi, "You guys feeling that?
Avery stiffened at the feeling. Whatever it was… it didn’t sound good.
“I felt it, too… Any idea what it is?” she murmured, her eyes sweeping the dark cave.
Dylan backed slowly towards Kagi, eyes scanning the cave around him, "Ya know, if I had all these answers, I'd be gone by now…."
In truth, Dylan was horrified. Regardless of what it was, what were 4 kids gonna do about it? If it could cause an entire cave to shake?
"My recommendation: we start running. If this gets any worse and the cave comes down we're done for."
(Remeber, they don't remember anything from before waking up!)
Kagi gripped the new stranger's arm and pulled him towards the others, trying to follow the man who'd helped her.
"I will follow you!" she called.
