Dark Blue
Four
Previous ChapterNext ChapterI did not sleep restfully.
I wake up, my eyes sore and blurry and barely able to see. The mix of nausea and hunger in my tummy makes both feelings hurt more, and to top it all off I feel like all my limbs are broken, though fortunately as I stand up I prove it is the same, lame rear leg.
On top of my worsening eyesight, my hearing has become dull, too. I can still hear the rushing waterfall in the larger cavern behind me, but I can hardly make out my own hoofsteps, nor the sound of the torch’s flame licking at the wall.
I also realise that if I am here, no more harmed than I was before, then last night’s attacker must have decided I was no longer worth it. I don’t acknowledge the grim alternative.
The need to eat eventually wins out, pushing that sick feeling down. I’m sure it will come back, but I ought to take advantage of its absence, so I turn around and step out of the door and into the corridor.
My throat seizes and my heart stops as again I spot a figure standing by the curtain of water. I can’t make out any details save for a dim light by their head.
I am not driven by panic this time, instead making the conscious effort to dart away toward the tunnel I explored yesterday. They shout something, their voice high and shrill, but I don’t make out the words. I can’t trust them, not after the others. I can’t.
I rush through the narrow passageway. I rush up the stairs, ignoring the pain flaring in my leg again. I rush through the tunnel at the top and then…
I slow down. I look around. There isn’t any light. I must have taken a wrong turn. Maybe I took the wrong passage and went through the one unexplored and now I can’t go back. These… these monsters know the place better than I do, and they will be waiting.
I whimper and swear, summoning every horrid little curse I know and uttering it to the cold blackness around me.
I know I’m not a fighter but I just up and ran and gave my one advantage away and now I am trapped in another set of tunnels I don’t know. I should have turned on that monster. I should have stood my ground. I should have just left the day before. I should have never approached that pit. I should never have come here alone. I should have I should have I should have—
I see a light. One light. It brings my frenetic thoughts to a stop and I stare at it and it grows brighter and nearer and stronger until I can make out the fact the dim, blue star belongs to somepony else.
The monster found me again, but I learned my lesson now. I can’t take a chance, I can’t let it get the upper hoof.
I charge at it, almost bringing all my legs to bear, we collide. Falling to the ground I pin it beneath my weight and in my lacking vision I swing a hoof at the only thing I can see. The light goes out, but I don’t stop, attempting to bring my hooves down again.
Two sharp hits smash into my chest, one right in the middle and forcing the wind out of me. I lurch backward, fighting my muscles to try and draw in breath again, while the monster scuffles back into the dark.
I can’t let it away now. With the last vestiges of strength in me I leap at where it was and then—
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