“Are you okay?” I rushed to his side. “We really should stop.”
“Not yet,” he said, his breath a little labored. “Let's get to the first chamber.”
I nodded, knowing the first chamber was also the first fork with different caverns branching out, going in various directions. Even if the Deathless One followed us, he would have no idea where to go. Some of these tunnels went for miles, most of them dead ends.
We were lucky we never got stuck in here. That had been my fear for the first six months. That we would die trying to develop an escape route we may never need.
How ironic that would have been.
But Crispin never faltered.
Out of the thirteen elemental powers, I had been blessed with plant, and every time my feet entwined with the grass, energy coursed through my veins. He trusted I would sense the earth, feel where life began, and get us to the right area. It was hard to feel the roots underneath all this stone.
In here with all this stone, that warm feeling became a distant touch, and it made me yearn to run back outside.
The rocky incline opened into the main chamber. High ceilings flickered white and yellow, the lantern turning the area into a glowing crystal. Though there were very few life crystals in this place, the few that existed brightened like the sun.
From this chamber, there were five different paths. I held the map with both hands, even though I had it memorized, and followed the paths to our next turn.
“That one,” I said, pointing ahead to the tunnel second on the left. “Do you want to stop for a minute?”
Crispin shook his head. His cheeks were flushed red and tiny beads of sweat dotted his forehead. “No, we keep going.”
We moved toward the next opening, this one a little smallerthan the others. There were no sounds in the cave other than a few drops of water and Crispin’s labored breaths.
Being a light bearer would have been great in a situation like this. I could just call the light into being. That wasn't my power, wasn't even Crispin's power.
We were deep within the system now, navigating around the turns, ignoring the different tunnels that branched off and led into areas we knew went nowhere. This path would take us out toward a secluded mountain ridge, which would lead us to another safe spot, one where we had hidden enough supplies to get us farther away if needed.
“No.” Crispin held up the lantern and I stopped, realizing that I had been lost in my own thoughts.
“What's wrong?”
He didn’t need to reply… Once I looked ahead, I could see our doom clearly.
Crispin growled, pushing against the crumbled stone that had caved in. He put down the lantern. “Maybe I can move some of these rocks.”
A red hue surrounded him as the strength of a thousand men activated within him, his ability to wield force giving him unnatural power. He hauled stone after stone, attempting to clear the blocked path.
Even with his berserker strength, there was no removing this blockade.
“Crispin, stop,” I said, tugging on the back of his shirt.
“This can't be happening. This is our way out.” He punched one of the boulders, splitting it in half.
I moved beside him, doing my best not to let the panic show in my voice. “It must have happened when we collapsed the front entrance. We’ll get out another way.”
“Damn it!” He punched the rock again, and I flinched, not used to seeing Crispin so disheveled.
He had always been the stable one.
“Let's go back.” I picked up the lantern he had dropped. “This isn't the only way out.”
“But this was our best route.” He pressed his head against the rocks, breathing heavily. “All that time planning, and this happens!”
“I know.” I placed my hand on his back. “You had prepared us, right? We know of other ways out of the cavern system.”
“Yes, but we don’t have enough supplies to get us deeper into the forests.”
