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Avatre watched her mother push down the tree into the water and then get in herself to act as a kind of dam. She was so nice to do that, the filly thought happily, it had to be cold in the water. It was still early enough in the season that the water rise could have been caused by snow runoff rather than just storm buildup. Itarilde went first, warning her about a soft spot on the trunk as she went. "Ok, I'll watch out!" Avatre grinned, walking up to the exposed roots herself. It sure looked like a mess there, but the roots almost formed some stairs. Carefully she placed her front hooves on the tree. For a moment, she feared continuing - she knew her front leg, the place she'd twisted before her mother found her, was always more sensitive about these things - then she shook her head and pulled herself up. One back leg sank in, making her gasp. She pulled it out quickly, noting the bit of blood but deciding it wasn't enough to worry about. She kept going across and jumped off next to her friend. "I wasn't careful enough, but I'm okay." She called out to Nailiah, "We're across, Mom! And the cave is up there!"

It was, too. Set high enough back so they wouldn't have to worry about being flooded out, unless it was fed underground by the same stream they'd just crossed. She walked a bit closer and sniffed the area experimentally. It didn't smell like any unwelcome creatures were here. So it was probably safe.

((Dropped the coding. For some reason it kept getting cut off, no matter how many times I corrected/previewed. Dx ))

Itarilde looked at the log behind them as Nailiah got out of the water. If it wasn’t there when they got out of the cave what would they do? Snorting and shaking her head she watched as the mare took care of Avatre. When Nailiah spoke to them both Itarilde couldn’t help but jump a bit. It seemed strange to her having someone tell her what to do. Still she did understand the reason behind it. The cave looked scary to her. The filly liked forests and fi.. trees. Going into the cave and out of the forest made her skin itch. Though the other option of staying out in the rain and getting cold and wet was less appealing. “Alright. I’ll stay close.” Moving behind the white mare next to Avatre she tried to keep her voice quite so that Nailiah could still hear if trouble came. “Avatre are you alright? What did she mean accident prone? You get hurt a lot? And who is Dark?” Her tail flicked behind her as she asked the sunset filly her barrage of questions both to learn and keep of her own feelings of unease. There was some natural light as they entered the cave, but Itarilde was glad that Avatre’s mother was white. It made following her so much easier. She wasn’t sure she would stand out so much in low light. Being distracted by her own thoughts Itarilde wasn’t paying attention to where she was placing her hooves and tripped over a rock. She tried to steady herself and ended up stepping on loose stones which caused her to trip further and land down hard with the clattering of little stones all around her. It echoed in the too quite cave. The noise scared her so instinctively the unicorn did what she always did when scared. She curled up and froze remaining still. At this moment she missed her blanket more than ever.

Nailiah let the girls chat on as they strode through the cave. The mare had yet to sense anything dangerous come about and the cave seemed more full of plants than anything remotely a threat. Her tail flicked behind her gently as she listened for anything that might be coming in front of her behind them. Their gentle footfalls filled the cavern and pretty soon Nailiah could see the light ahead. Had her little Avatre found something?

It was when she heard a sudden thump and rocks clattering that she instinctively turned around to see Itarilde curled up on the floor with Avatre beside her. The mare turned carefully so not to knock anything over or snag her hair and gently walked toward the small unicorn babe. The white mare nudged her daughter affectionately before lowering her head down to nuzzle Itarilde on the back and head in affection and comfort. "Itarilde...little Ita...do not fret. No one is here to harm you. I will protect you little Ita." Nailiah gently whispered in a sing song way before she began to hum gently, the noise starting to bounce off the cave expanding the noise. Her silver eyes were passionate and gentle as they gazed down at the foal as her song attempted to coax her from her curled up state. Nailiah went and stood over her and in front of Avatre protectively in case the noise alerted anything in the cave to her presence. These foals would not be harmed on her watch.

Avatre nuzzled her friend fondly, not minding at all that Itarilde was so close. "Sometimes I miss my blanket too, but it's much easier to see the world without it." She wished the filly wasn't so afraid. Clearly, she had been alone for far too long. If only she could come home with them... but no, her mother probably wouldn't go for it. But Avatre was ever the dreamer and the wisher, so she knew she'd ask before they went home. She had to. She couldn't leave Itarilde to be alone and afraid...

To help distract herself from her dark thoughts and Ita from her fear, Avatre bravely lead the other filly to the wall of the cave, where she'd seen the abnormal growths. Getting closer, she realized it was the exposed roots from trees above, leading down into the cave. "See this, Ita? They're roots! The trees above here reach down all the way down, looking for water. And this weird flat greenish stuff around it, that's called moss, it grows in damp areas, and if you wash it with clean water it can work as padding for dressing wounds." She looked around, smiling. "And if there's moss and tree roots, that means there's probably an underground water source in here, like a spring. And that'll mean more plants! Maybe some mushrooms! Mushrooms are good, but you gotta be careful because sometimes those are poisonous."

Drawing warmth and comfort from Avatre, Ita couldn’t help but feel so foolish for how she had frozen before. It was also so strange to have others around when she was afraid. There was still a large part of her that was scared but somehow even though her blanket wasn’t there she still felt a measure of safety. Was this what it was like for Avatre and Nailiah all the time? That thought made her a bit sad. Once the pair left Ita would be alone again. Maybe they would let her come and visit? That small hope made Ita smile a bit in the darkness. She moved to follow Avatre after being nudged by Nailiah. She looked closely at the roots. She had known trees went into the ground but she had never known that they went into the ground so deeply. It was amazing! “Do you ever had to put moss on wounds? How far would the water be?” Leaning down Ita gently tugged a small bit of moss away from its resting place to try and nibble on it to see what it tasted like. It was like dirt and was very soft and spongy. Ita didn’t really like it all that well, but she supposed it would be eatable if she had nothing else.

She heard what Nailiah said and couldn’t really belive it. Nailiah was big and looked strong even though she was really nice. How could she be scared of anything? She had to admit the way Nailiah seemed to glow in the low light of the cave certainly would be enough to be enough that she would stay away worried she might interrupt a ghost. Unlike trees ghosts where something she knew lots of names for even though she didn’t what they looked like. Sometimes things came into the forest and spoke of ghosts or spirits around fires. They weren’t Azrein, but Ita had never been brave enough to venture out from under her blanket hidden in the shadows when they came. Could Dark that gave out sugar to her friend be like those things that told scary stories just to hear others scream? Ita hoped not. She whispered to Avatre. “Your mother is very nice and brave, is Dark like that too?” She had leaned her head close to Avatre so she could speak quietly and ended up bumping her nose into the other filly’s neck.