Chapter 43: Bad Call
Whilst Darren and Karl were busy scamming the miners the rest of the group entered the Mine. They went to the oustskirts of the town where they saw a cave that Xenai pointed out as being the Mine. "I sure hope Karl and Darren are in here somewhere." Lua spoke with a threatening undertone to her voice. Mill suddenly had a thought and stopped just before the group entered the Mine.
"It would probably be for the best if Xenai stayed back at the house." Mill recommended to the group. "She's just a civilian and the Mine looks way too narrow for us to be able to watch her and fight if we have to." Lua turned to Mill. "What the hell are you talking about? It would be way more dangerous for her to be all alone with those shapeshifting creatures running around." Mill couldn't disagree with Lua's point but he stood his ground. "I know that. Maybe one of us could stay back with her to prevent that from happening. It just doesn't feel right to bring someone like her into this place. She led us to the Mine so this should be as far as she goes."
Lua was quite shocked. She had never seen Mill this serious about something. "I get what your saying but that house is just too far away Mill. If she got into trouble there's no way that we would be able to help her." Mill thought about it for a second more. "Then what if we leave her here in front of the cave for a few minutes and scout out the inside and if it seems safe enough we'll come back and bring her in with us." Lua still felt uncomfortable about leaving the civilian all alone so she turned to Myst for guidance but she immediately regret it. "I'm simply here to chaperone. Y'all are still the ones that are gonna have to make the choice."
Mill and Lua both rolled their eyes. "Why is he even here if he isn't even going to try to help us!" Lua exclaimed. "I guess we'll just go with Mill's plan then. Happy!" Lua stomped into the mine angrily with Myst close behind her. Mill crouched down next to Xenai to reassure her. " We'll be right back. If any trouble comes just shout and we'll be right on our way as fast as a lightning bolt." Xenai nodded and gave Mill a hug before Mill also entered the Mine.
Mill caught up to Myst and Lua who seemed to have waited for him. "Now let's do some spelunking shall we." Mill said with a smirk on his face. Lua chuckled, "You sound like those other two idiots. Maybe hitting you will quench my thirst for their blood." Mill knew that Lua was joking but her words still made him nervous. "L-Let's move." The group started to walk through the mine while subtly examining their surroundings for anything suspicious.
As the group got deeper into the cave it started to become increasingly dark which was strange to Myst. "They should have lights lining the walls so that they can see but it's pitch black in here. Mill would you be able to bring some light to this place?" Mill shrugged in response. He was already in the process of doing it as he thought about some mildly infuriating things so that he could conjure a small fire that lit the cave up.
The group continued to move deeper into the mine with Mill and the light in the front when the sound of someone stepping in water could be heard. Mill stepped in something liquid which brought forth confusion for him. "Why is there water in the mine?" Mill looked down at his foot when he noticed that the liquid that he stepped in wasn't water. There was a slight red tint to the liquid as the light hit it which immediately let Mill know that this was blood. "Oh no."
"What is it? Why'd you stop?" Lua walked forward to see what Mill was looking at the ground so she looked and also noticed the blood. "Is that really blood?" After hearing Lua's question Myst moved to the front to examine the the liquid closer. He gently touched his fingers to the liquid rubbed them together to test the consistency. Myst looked up to Mill and Lua nodding.
"It's definitely blood. But it must be pretty fresh for it to not have dried in the climate. I'd guess around 2 or 4 hours at best." Myst stood up from the ground when he noticed that the light that Mill was making started to burn brighter. Myst still didn't have a full grasp on what Mill's ability was but he could tell that the boy was losing control and so he made a decision. "Let's head back out of the Mine for now." Everyone looked to Myst. "Despite the blood everything here seems relatively safe so we should go grab Xenai now, right?" When Myst said Xenai's name Mill calmed down slightly and regained control of the fire.
"You're right let's go ge-" Suddenly an intense rumbling shook the entire Mine and it wasn't too long afterwards that the group heard a young voice scream, "MILL HELP ME!" Mill immediately took off as fast as he could or he knew that the voice belonged to Xenai. He tried to activate his ability but couldn't keep his emotions calm enough in this situation for him to be able to control them. Mill Kept running ahead of the others as he was still quite a bit faster than them when he suddenly ran straight into a wall of stones.
Mill was flabbergasted. He never expect for the entrance to be blocked. Mill felt the rage returning to him as he quickly stood from the ground and started to pound at the wall of rubble. "XENAI!!" Every hit Mill landed on the wall of stone caused the Mine to shake but Mill didn't care. He was pissed. He was the one that chose to leave Xenai outside of the Mine for her own safety but that was what ended up causing this situation. Lua and Myst eventually caught up to Mill and saw him violently attacking the wall to try to get out. Myst noticed some stone coming loose from above and quickly realized what was happening he screamed.
"GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE MILL!" Mill, however, didn't hear his voice and continued to to punch the wall when suddenly the cave started collapse again but this time on Mill. Myst quickly ran forward at a speed that he hadn't been using before and through Mill back dodged out of the way himself so that no one got hurt. Mill realized that Myst had just saved his life and started to calm down now. He closed his eyes and punched the ground next to him hard.
"This was all my fault Xenai" Lua kneeled next to Mill. "You alright Mill?" Mill nodded. "I'm fine but Xenai she..." Mill gritted his teeth and punched the ground even harder this time. "DAMNIT!" Mill stood up quickly. "We need to find another way out quickly. I don't know if those things actually have her but all we can do his plan for the worst. So we can't waste anymore time." Myst and Lua nodded to Mill who then waved for them to follow him as he dashed back through the Mine.
'I can't believe I made such a bad call again.' Mill continued to berate himself but tried his best to push it to the back of his mind. 'Not now. Xenai's safety comes first. No time to beat the shit out of yourself.' The group frantically ran through the Mine with their thoughts moving a million miles a minute.
Myst, however, was finding the situation increasingly more complex. 'Why the hell did they take Xenai and close the cave?"