Reverse World ~ Rockfall Cavern

[Chibi Pika]

Fucking unbelievable. Starr turned around sharply, unable to look at the Shinx right then.

"Show's what you know," she muttered. "We're not fucking doing that, end of." God, it was so transparent, wasn't it? She'd lost her touch. Hiding her thoughts and fears used to come so easy. But she'd spent a year forcibly killing those instincts. Now she wanted them back.

 

[Namohysip]

Something... trembled. With their weakened forms and their shaking bodies, subtle or otherwise, it was hard to tell--but something definitely trembled. And then little stones fell and knocked against the walls and the ground... Their attempts at escape had no effect on the wall. But it appeared to have an effect on the ceiling.

Once gentle and quick, the rocks that fell became larger, the impacts deeper and more resounding. A flurry of sound filled their ears all at once, a rockfall as those final supporting pieces came loose. Dust came before and after, heavy boulders impacting the ground in seemingly random areas, but mostly at the far corner of their cramped quarters. Several smaller ones nicked and pelted Starr and Brisa, the sound getting louder and louder--and then, just as abruptly, silence. The occasional ticking of tiny pebbles rolling down the pile was all that accompanied them, as well as a slightly louder bubbling of flowing water.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

They... weren't dead.

They survived.

"Looks like we aren't doin' any mercy killin'," said Brisa, with considerable relief.

She stared at the new terrain presenting itself to her. It was rougher than it had been, more 'steep' than 'sheer.' What had been an unscaleable edifice was now a rugged vertical path. At least, if you had a climbing partner to pull you up after them.

"Fuck starvin' to death. I wanna live," she snarled, wiping blood from her cheek where a rock had glanced against her face. "Starr. We're gettin' the fuck outta here. Right now. Give me a boost, I'll help you up."

Starr complied, giving her crooked grin again, and Brisa got to work ascending to the cave's distant exit. Her fur lit up as she clambered up each boulder and crag, and reached over to give Starr a paw to leap for, and heave her up, and give Starr a platform of her shoulders to jump from, and be hauled up in turn. Her pelt dazzled. They were going to make it.

But gods, she was tired.

Salt and sand and spit, she'd told Starr she'd been hungry for longer than this, before now. It had been true. But that time, she hadn't needed to perform a feat of athleticism afterwards. She braced herself for an inevitable personal hell of aching muscles and screaming belly when the climb was over.

She heard Starr say something and didn't really register what. The exit was near. One paw slipped on a flint-edged crag and was slippery from then on.

She kept climbing.

Another boulder. Another rock pile. Another overhang.

And at last.

"...we're here."

Brisa looked about in a state of disarray. Where was the next foothold? The next obstacle? There was only a vast midnight-blue sky, where there ought to be another rock to climb. Was it over?

The wind screamed, and she heard the roar of water that flowed like a river but sprayed like a waterfall besides them.

Starr was saying something about Radiance.

Use their Radiance?

Okay.

Brisa's pelt surged as she called on Radiant Arrest, placing glowing bars around them both just as she'd done once before.

Everything hurt. Every part of her was shattering. She looked around for Starr and saw her glowing with Radiance too. From any distance, the two of them would be a beacon.

It occurred to Brisa as she passed out, that beacons could be seen by both friend and foe.

 

[Namohysip]

The world was a strange void of blues all around them. The sky seemed like it was above and below and to the left and right; all directions had nothing but an endless expanse of dark blue skies. The rocks were no different than inside; dark, purple, sometimes brown... The soil was dusty and indigo.

There was a river nearby. That was the source of the water. But, curiously, it appeared to be flowing downward, the way a waterfall would. High above was another floating island. The water was oriented like a waterfall, but flowed like a calm river...

Above them, a Salamence was flying over, a curious look in his eyes. Despite coming from directly above, he was upside-down and flying as if the ground was behind them, rather than below.

But then it all faded to darkness...

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