Trapped

Drip, Drip, Drip-

Grey awoke to the sound of dripping water, yet he saw nothing that could be attributed to the sound.

'Strange.' He thought. 'Fallen Star, did anything happen?'

Again, whilst Fallen Star could only see what Grey saw, it could sense Mana, and impeccably so. If something came near them, there was no doubt that it would have woken them up.

'...' Grey waited, yet no response came. 'Fallen Star?'

A thought appeared in his head, one that was disturbing, so he immediately looked over at Aurora. She was still there.

'Good... But, where's Fallen Star?' Fallen Star had never gone silent like this, It was always a constant in Grey's head. 'I can't even dive into my soul to see if he's there, because I don't know how.'

Drip, Drip, Drip-

'And that sound? What is it? Water? But there's none?' Grey looked around once more, finding the cave to be completely dry.

In the end, he moved to Aurora, waking her up. It was best they left as soon as possible.

He nudged her, waiting a second, but she didn't wake up, so he shook her instead. She stirred, sleep in her eyes and voice, and spoke.

"I'm up, I'm up. Just give me a second."

Grey backed away as she asked, giving her space to get up. He then patted himself down, making sure that there was nothing on him that was not there the night before.

He then thought about what had happened since they woke up, and why Fallen Star was not responding. He decided to go check on the Manticore corpse. Whilst it didn't matter if it rotted, keeping the body itself in one piece was a good idea.

Through the winding tunnel he went, emerging in the same chamber with the Manticore. The corpse was there, smelly, but still in one piece.

'Good,' Grey thought as he sent a ball of Light around the body to double-check. 'It's still fine.'

He went back through the tunnel, finding a fully awake Aurora.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked.

"Yeah, I've got nothing to double-check for, so I'm good." She replied. "Let's go."

Grey nodded, leading them out of the cave with a ball of Light.

Once they exited the cavern, they came across the same forest as before.

Drip, Drip, Drip-

'What the? How can I hear it outside the cave?'

"Aurora, do you hear a dripping sound?" He questioned. 'Am I going insane?'

"Hear what?"

"Never mind." He shrugged it off. 'I really am.'

"Okay." Aurora agreed in an instant, running ahead.

Suddenly, she stopped randomly in front of a tree, sniffing it. She turned to him, wide-eyed.

"Grey! I can smell the trees! I can see some ants, and I can hear birds!" She exclaimed.

"Really?" Grey asked, crouching to try and spot an ant.

Yesterday, they had been incapable of finding a single living being in the forest, yet now. he saw a line of ants marching in the grass. He closed, his eyes, taking a deep breath in through his nose, and... he could smell the grass!

He stood up swiftly, confused, and moved to Aurora. He placed a finger on her lips, stopping her from saying anything, and looked shiftily left and right.

Chirp!

A bird called from the left, and his head turned instantaneously. His eyes darted across the picturesque scene, trying to spot the bird, and there he saw it.

In a nest, on a tree branch, not 20 meters from them, was a bird and 3 eggs.

Seeing him so close, his finger on her lips, Aurora blushed, but made no move to stop him. Clearly, something was wrong, and he was trying to figure it out.

Grey made a motion with his eyes and then frowned.

"Can you open your hologram?" He asked quietly.

She immediately attempted to but found she couldn't. Shaking her head, she gave him all the info he needed. He backed away, pacing in a line.

'I can't hear Fallen Star, I can hear a dripping sound, and we both can't access our holograms. Also, the forest that was very dead is now brimming with life. Something is very, very wrong.'

He looked at Aurora, finding her stood there, dumbfounded.

He grabbed her hand, running back into the cave with her.

Again, she became flustered for some 'unknown' reason, but Grey didn't see it.

Once they were back in the cave, Grey hid them both behind the corpse.

"What's wrong?" Aurora asked when he settled down.

"As you can guess, something is very wrong. We can't access our holograms, the dead forest is alive, and I can hear something you can't."

Drip, Drip, Drip!

"There it is again. But you didn't hear it. Anyway, I think we're in some kind of Spell. Maybe an Illusion. The only problem is I don't know how to break it."

"I see, but then why did we have to hide behind the Manticore? If we're in an Illusion, shouldn't we be safe?"

"Maybe, but I thought that we might not be the only ones in here. If we're here with our bodies, I have no interest in seeing what happens when we get hurt, and if it's our minds, there may be some backlash. Either way, it's not a good idea to get hurt here." He explained.

"I see, that makes total sense. The only question I have is, how do you know that Illusion is a thing? I mean, I know I have Ice, and you have Poison, but there's no guarantee that Illusion is a thing, is there?" Aurora nodded but was visibly confused.

'Damn, she's right. I have no plausible reason to think that. We only know of External Elements from Mana Dungeons and people, and if Illusion was recorded, it was kept hidden.'

"I uh... don't. I'm just making an educated guess. See, we can't be the only ones to exist and use Mana in the universe, as is proven here, so why must we assume that there are 6 Elements and a few extra? We have no idea, do we?" He said the first lie that came to him. Well, it wasn't entirely a lie, as there was mainly truth in it.

"Your reasoning does make sense, I guess. So, what next? You don't know how to break it, if it is an illusion, which means we're stuck, right?" She asked.

"I had hoped that recognizing it was an Illusion would work, but it's clear that that is not the trigger, so we might as well search for something out of place." Grey suggested.

"In that case, let's start at the bottom of the cave. In books, when illusions happen, the trigger is hidden where you started, or it's recognizing you're in an illusion. Since the latter didn't work, the former might work."

Grey agreed, so they descended to the second floor of the cave. They stood at the edge of the tunnel, scanning the chamber for something that could be out of place. However, nothing stood out from the red marble.

Drip, Drip, Drip-

"I know I said 'out of place', but we're screwed if it's not. There's no way to find something that blends in with the surroundings in a place like this." Grey sighed.

"Well then, we just have to hope that whatever trapped us is dumb." Aurora mocked.

Grey took a step into the room and began to search the wall to his left. It was going to be a long while.

---

"Anything?"

"Nothing. You?"

"Nothing."

Grey and Aurora sat in the middle of the cave floor, sighing. They had just spent the past 4 hours intensely searching for anything inside the room and had yet to find something.

"It's not here." Grey groaned. "It's probably in the forest, hidden in the ground. Who knows, it might be a grass particle."

"Hey, don't get down. I'm sure we'll find it." Aurora attempted to cheer him up.

"Oh, I know we will. I'm just complaining because someone I know could have made this so much easier." Grey thought, picturing a certain black-haired, black-eyed individual.

'He definitely knows how to get out of here.'

"Well, let's rest for a bit. I think I hurt my eyes." Aurora spoke up again.

"Sure, I'll join you." Grey replied. Since Fallen Star wasn't in the Illusion with them, they'd have to stay alert. However, that didn't mean they should stop resting, or take it in turns. Only sleep would need to be taken in turns. It was too dangerous otherwise.

They both sat against a wall, doing their own thing. Aurora shut her eyes, using her other senses to stay alert, and Grey racked his mind, thinking about a way out. He too kept his senses keen, ready to spot a disturbance.

'If recognition isn't the trigger, the only things I can think of are either a hidden button or some kind of switch we need to flip. Maybe we have to kill something?' He contemplated.

In the end, Grey chose to just wait for Aurora, since he had nothing else to do. 

Grey suddenly yawned, finding himself to be extra tired.

'Damn, why am I so...' His thoughts trailed off, and he slumped to the side.