It was hard choosing amongst the three of them who was going to be the unfortunate fool that would brave the spray of the waterfall to see what was beyond it, and as such the most ancient and sacred of method was chosen by all three boys to decided who would go on with this venture...…rock, paper, scissors. And Yun Fao surprisingly lost, the guy had absolutely no luck, losing a best two out of three match against Louis and Alex without even winning a single one. Guess going with scissors every time was not the right way to go.Yun Fao was not one to dwell on things he couldn"t change, or grumble about life being unfair, however he couldn"t help the feeling that the game had been rigged. But none the less it was what it is, and he was the one that had to go beyond the waterfall. Just to be one the safe side, the boys had tied a spare rope they had around his waist, there was no guarantee, but this was the only way they could truly keep him safe, though Alex got the feeling he was forgetting something.
Yun Fao. Slowly approached the waterfall, the cool breeze from the crashing water, giving him a bit of a chill. The worst part about being underground was the fact that they couldn"t tell time, so they had no idea how long they"ve been underground, or how long it would take them to get back up to the surface.
Yun Fao gingerly thrust a hand through the curtain of water, the force of it on his hand seemed light, that is until he decided to suddenly push his full hand into it. There was no warning, no sign, not even Alex and Louis who were holding on to the other end of the rope were prepared for the force from the waterfall. Yun Fao was violently pulled out of the cave and Into the waterfall, his arm terribly bruised and his body experiencing the same fate in less than 3 seconds.
But he was not the only one about to regret taking this step as the same force pulled Louis and Alex, who had tied the rope around their waist for more force and protection. They were dragged into the waterfall just like their friend, the water crashing on top of their heads and bodies with the force of a thousand punches. The good news is, from where the cave was located, it was just about 4 meters to the river below, the bad news was, apart from being slammed on the ma.s.sive rock that was there, breaking bones and further increasing their bruises and Injuries, the boys could not go back the waterfall anymore, and they might not know it yet, but without the Sylph there, that cave, the tunnel and the subsequent cavern were the safest place in the entirety of this dimension.
The rock wasn"t large enough to hold all three of them, the wear of the water over it for who knows how long had reduced it to a size comfortable enough for one person to sit on. So all three of them were washed into the river and tossed around for a bit until they finally managed to drag themselves out of it. Saying they looked like death would be an understatement, their clothes were not just soaked, it was shredded. There were nasty cuts on their bodies from it being sc.r.a.ped by rocks, and really nasty welts and bruises from the hammering of the waterfall.
They all felt a weakness in their bones the likes of which they"ve never felt before, any attempt at gathering energy was futile as it was instead spread across their body, drawn to the place that hurts the most, slowly mending whatever was broken or torn. All three of them were helpless to their plight as they laid on the banks of the river, helpless, tired and very much defenseless. Which wasn"t such a good idea, but they had no choice but to endure until they were fully healed, and with how Injured they were, Alex reckoned it would take two days of healing for them to even move, they needed help to speed it along.
*Chiririri*
There was a flash of light as the very lively form of Khan showed up on his master"s chest. The Kamaitachi was surprised by Alex"s current state as it looked around, probably trying to find out what or who might have attacked his master, yet there was nothing, and his innocent baby mind couldn"t fathom it. But Alex had other things in mind as he gave a bunch of clear instructions to the young wind spirit.
Alex reckoned that Khan was still a baby, so even if they were connected there were a bunch of things the young spirit wouldn"t understand. But Khan was smarter than Alex gave it credit for, even though it didn"t live or exist in the mantle like Nezha and Ébié, he was able to move from the mantle to Alex"s upper Dantian, the conduit of energy responsible for harboring his spirit energy. His time in the mantle though very brief was helping it to mature a little bit faster than was normal, most especially mentally.
Khan made his way to Alex"s right hand where his storage ring was snugly wrapped around his index finger. His body turned illusory as he disappeared into the ring. Living things couldn"t survive in a storage ring, but Khan wasn"t exactly alive either. Either way the spirit showed up five seconds later with a bunch of still burning Sylph wings, Alex couldn"t help but furrow his eyebrows as he mentally asked.
{Khan what are you doing, that"s not what I asked you to get.}
*Chiririri*
{What do you mean you"re hungry, I can feel it if you are, which you"re not! Plus you"re a spirit, you don"t need food.}
*CHIIIRIIIII!*
{I don"t know that? Of course I know that! Come on Khan, go get me those balms, we need it.}
*Chiriri*
{Seriously? We have to wait until after you"re done? That"s just mean}
*Chiririri chi*(not my problem)
Alex cursed softly, Khan really wasn"t in the mood to serve as an errand boy, it wasn"t really fair if Alex had to be honest, but the spirit was a child, and at the moment food took more of a priority than any other thing for it, even if lives were on the line. And so Louis, Yun Fao and Alex had no choice but to watch the Kamaitachi slowly eat itself to a full and happy stomach, whilst they were left writhing in pain. It took Khan 30 whole minutes to finally bring out the balm Alex had previously made for injuries, and then what came next was even trickier.
None of them could move, as such only Khan could apply the balm on them, and for the most part he succeeded. His scythe claws had not yet grown out of his forelimbs, and the claws on his paws were still too small and fragile to cause any sort of damage. Now while the spirit was unable to fully apply it on all of the injured areas, it got enough that made Alex regret his decision of ever using the balm to speed up their healing.
When Yun Fao complained about it, Alex thought that he was only being a big baby, but it turns out that there was more to this balm than expected. The intense feeling of coldness and hotness was beyond unbearable, the worst part was that; it wasn"t cold to the point of freezing or hot to the point of burning.
But the combined feeling of those two extreme temperatures was so irritating and uncomfortable Alex made it a point to never, ever use the balm again.
But never the less it actually did it"s job and all three boys were back on their feet after half a day. Of course they were still in a lot of pain so movements of any sort wasn"t allowed. During that time however, Khan had busied himself going around and exploring where they had suddenly found themselves in.
It was another cavern, however this one was so high up that none of the boys were able to see the top, there were sparkles and tiny pinp.r.i.c.ks of light from the ceiling, making Yun Fao suspect that more of those diamond stalact.i.tes also grew from the cavern"s ceiling. Apart from the waterfall that was an astounding 200 meters long and fell from a ledge or rather from a cave in the cavern wall at that height, there was a small forest.
There was a patch of land shaped like a half moon In the cavern, however the river cut a path through it, flowing into a cave and very much into the Unknown. On both sides of the patch of land was a forest, however it wasn"t that large as The boys could run from one end of each patch to the other in ten minutes at their full speed. Much like the previous cavern, the only ways in and out turns out to be the river that flows into the cave, up the waterfall, and the cave behind the waterfall which quite frankly they"re unable to return to.
The cavern was shaped like a dome, and it"s walls were smoothed out, almost as if someone had used sandpaper over the years to completely remove any sort of creases, or smudges. It couldn"t be scaled, not without proper equipment, and that was equipment neither of the boys had, which means their only way forward was to sail down that river and into the unknown.
And that wasn"t a part of the plan at all, their hope was to return to the surface, however it seems their path keeps taking them deeper and deeper into this subterranean world. Louis turned to look at his friends as he said.
"Guess we"re stuck here for a while right?" Alex nodded, before Yun Fao added.
"At least until I build us a raft to sail on that river, but none the less do you guys notice the numerous amount of eyes staring at us from within the river?"
If Louis and Alex didn"t notice it before, they noticed it now. There were eyes there, hundreds upon hundreds of them, and it was terrifying.