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Liar liar pants on fire.

But yes, we have bigger things to worry about for now. Indeed Misha let it slide, not even irritated over it.
The further they got, the more Misha wondered if being a snake right now wouldn't have been easier. The walls were really closing in on them now.

"... we're really close to wherever that odd signal's coming from." he said calmly, halting in the dark slowly. The tunnel still went on, but the shape suddenly changed to a very flat one. "I think it's about time to pretend you're one of those little flat roly-poly bugs. It's getting really pancake-y now."

Okay, now don't let that fear get to you.... He'd never before been stuck in a tight space like this, never been underground this deep, never in a space this perfectly dark. Undoubtedly Zia hadn't exactly experienced this before either.
Ready, set, go.

Flattening down all the way to his stomach, Misha kept the lead, forcing himself to take his time to cover each inch of advance calmly. he could feel they were getting closer to a wider space now, so in a worst-case scenario he could turn around there and help Zia through.

Hard not to appreciate such a gesture, really. It encouraged him quite a great deal to keep his act together and keep going. Never falter, never fear.

"I... really haven't the faintest. Usually I wouldn't doubt for a second, but something about it all is so weird. Like it's only half of a voice calling, somehow..." he trailed off into mutters, finding that sounded plenty paranoid. Inch inch inch, we'll get there. Wherever 'there' is.


At long last, the air became lighter again. Giving it a last urgent push, Misha finally made it out of the pancake-tunnel.
Maybe a little too fast though.

In the dark, he made a faint noise, hard to tell what exactly, but it didn't sound pleasant. The next moment a dull thud resounded from a foot or two below the opening. Beware the dropoff, kids. From the sounds, you could tell the messenger hurried to pick himself up again, and apparently he could stand up here. The floor surface was almost clear of rocks here, the ceiling was high up.

"W-watch yourself on the way out, there's some... really sharp rocks on the top there..." his voice sounded slightly uneven now, though not significantly more than earlier. Something dripped. "I think we made it..." trailing off into a whisper, he stepped away from the small exit a little to give Zia some room, and he stared up into the now vaguely, very vaguely lit cavern. Far away, up high, a trickle of sunlight streamed in through an opening.

"Up there..." Yes, that's the way out. A quick glance around was enough to make him forget about even trying to scale that height. Zia couldn't climb like this, and trying to speed-tackle this sort of wall would only result in bad things, he knew. While this grand hall was much more spacious than the first cavern had been, there wasn't even enough room to accelerate in anyway.

When Ziazan joined him, Misha gently providd it some support. Time for a breather... "Fly, hmm..." Let's put that thought on hold for now.

Looking around at the actual contents of the gorge, his eyes widened.
"I've... All this..." he cast around, looking at the walls all around them, up and everywhere. All over, there were strangely shaped and tinted rocks embedded in the mountain inner, like granate in a plagioclase.

"They look like... Essence Sparks, but..." Yes, no shimmery-floaty goop to be seen anywhere. "Would they really be..."

Well, the origin of that signal is hereby declared identified.
Something dripped again, and Misha drew in a shuddering breath. Hey, what was so warm and sticky now... Not that much was really visible, but as far as a glance could tell he hadn't impaled himself or something. He seemed to have no trouble standing or breathing.

"Nothing s-serious..." drip drip. "Ah well, it won't kill me anyway... it just... really hurts." ahahah. Nervous-forced giggle. He merely pushed his right ear further over his back, looking decidedly pained.

"... got snagged on those teeth... tore right though. 'snothing..." Trying to shake off the sting, that was beginning to radiate clear into his head as a heavy ache, he came over to Zia, tried to focus on the rocks instead. Ears can be so mind-bendingly sensitive, argh.

"They are very familiar... I remember I was a pretty insignificant one. Kinda small, too." He'd seen pictures of it. "But they aren't Sparks, even if they look like them so much. There's no essence on them... and they're heavier, too. he'd also picked one up to examine them.

"... as interesting as this is, we should try to get out of here before dark." Please, nightfall, wait just a moment longer? Looking up at the moving speckles of light, he slipped the rock into his bag.

"No, that'd be a bad idea... " he sighed, ignoring himself twitching from another sudden jolt of pain, and looked up, and around. No, he really couldn't think of anything better than...

"I... I don't know if I could do it yet, but..." he gave that some deep, very deep thought for a while. Then he walked over to Ziazan. "Cling on. I'll do what I can."

He'd have to give this all he had. Failure was not an option.

Misha took a tight hold of his sibling, and promised himself he wouldn't let it go, not for the world and everything in it.

"Sshhh....." no time for questions now. Leave it to me.

He closed his eyes then, and shut all of it out. Even the fact his ear was soaked in blood, almost torn into two strips, it faded away. Time for some heavy-duty magickery...

What DID I get myself into.
Shut up. Do it.

A while of complete silence later, it was as if a weight was lifted. Gravity fell away, and the two of them started to ascend slowly. It was clear that Misha wasn't steady with this at all, but he refused to give himself even the smallest bit of space to let his mind wander. The higher they went, completely unsupported, the quicker Misha's own signal began to decline.

Life-saver, the small reader was. However inefficient this sort of energy-push was, it gave Misha the help he needed to push through this.

A combination of that and a rather powerful survivor's instint, as well as some major raw effort on the messenger's part was what got them through. No matter if it felt like his head was splitting in two, no matter if it felt like he was literally burning himself out, with an uncharacteristically mighty roar, Misha summoned forth the last burst needed.

And then, they'd made it. All the way up there, Misha ejected them through the pitfall, then crashed down a little ways beside it. Add some more bumps to the list, who cares, we made it. We made it!

Rolling around to sit on his hands and knees, Misha tried to catch his breath, almost unable to get his heart to calm down enough to draw in a single gulp of air. The first wheeze was a liberation. Urgh, more blood... Disoriented from the energy drain, he wiped his upper lip with his tattered sleeve with a grumpy motion. Well, aren't we the picture of cleanliness right now... dusty and bloody, scratched and torn up...

But we're alive.

Misha at first pawed at him weakly, -awh giroff what what- still looking all grumpy-faced, then gave up and let him. Not that he believed it'd do much... Only when it came too close to touching his injured ear did he give it a half-arsed shove. Nu-uh. No poking on that. I'll bite. Seriously.
Snarl.

He took the time to give Zia a glanceover as well though, sighing deeply once he'd stopped panting quite so much. He really hoped it'd be alright, once he got it safely back to where it belonged. That being with family who didn't end up getting it stuck under tonnes of rock and debris.

"... I.. did it. I'd promised you... We should go home." yeah, go home before I throw a sobbing fit. I'd hate to do that en plein publique.
"Unless you want to stick around, I'll.. get us back now.." Looking down the slope they were on, they'd apparently ended up quite a ways from the original entrance, and a notch higher up as well. With another worn-out sigh, he stood up, reasonably steady, trying to get that buzz out of his head and almost ready to get back into the flow. His ear was still bleeding freely, but the cut on his temple'd dried up already. Everything else was pretty minor compared to that, even if it made them both look like they'd just been caught in a small-scale explosion of some sort.