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Uughhhhhh sorry this isn’t quite Niarok-ish. I haven’t written his POV in WAY too long and I’ve kinda slipped out of his head…

Also what I threatened to do in my last post is going to take a bit longer than I thought because #development lol. Also @irishcelticredflowercrown Niarok basically ended up butting into Daire’s entire life like the dad that he is…

Niarok

Niarok glanced down into the hole. Yila appeared beside him, her eyes steely. Yila didn’t like heights.

Niarok squeezed her shoulder. “You need to jump,” he whispered.

Yila glared at him. “I can’t.”

Niarok shut his eyes momentarily. The ground was breaking up. They both needed to jump, and they needed to jump now, or they were going to fall through the cracks and end up who-knew-where.

Yila glanced behind her, saw the cracks forming in the floor of the cavern, and bit her lip. The weakness glimmered in her eyes for a brief moment before Evie came bounding up, leaping between cracks with agility that surprised Niarok.

She handed Yila her pack, which she seemed to have forgotten in the scramble to reach the edge.

Yila glared daggers at Evie, but Evie didn’t shrink. She just stared back for a moment, almost challenging Yila, before lightly leaping into the hole and landing with a roll at the bottom.

Niarok raised an eyebrow. He had definitely underestimated Evie.

Yila grabbed Niarok’s arm, her hands trembling.

“I can’t. I really, really can’t,” she choked out. Sweat beaded on her forehead.

Niarok had seen that look far too many times.

He pulled Yila to his side, trying to calm her by sheer force of will. She panted, on the verge of a panic attack.

“Yila,” Niarok whispered. His sister stared at him with panicked eyes. “Yila, I know you can’t, but you have to.”

“I know,” she whimpered. Tears formed in her icy eyes as she trembled. Yila was never this weak, and it almost scared Niarok. He felt helpless.

“Please,” he whispered. Tears started in his own eyes. If they didn’t jump right now they would die. And Yila’s death would be his fault.

Yila dug her nails into Niarok’s arm, squeezing her eyes shut. Her mouth flattened into a thin line. “Do it with me,” she hissed.

Niarok smiled. “Always.”

She jumped.

Niarok jumped too.

His feet hit the ground and he rolled. As he stood up, he saw Yila hugging the floor, panting hard.

The floor.

The surface of the new tunnel was smooth, like it was deliberately carved to impress.

Dread filled Niarok’s heart.

Klein stepped forward down the hallway, and the group of people followed. Niarok hung back, waiting for Yila to get up.

She just laid there panting.

A smile tugged at his lips. Few things could make Yila quite so vulnerable as a cliff.

“You coming?” he asked.

“I’m going to throw up,” she groaned.

“Then don’t do it on me,” Niarok replied, holding out a hand for his sister to take.

Yila gave him an indignant smile and let him help her up. “Thanks,” she whispered, and Niarok nodded.

They followed after the others.

Rot. Dead rot. Niarok’s nose wrinkled at the stench, and Yila tensed, her hand going to her knife. There was the body. Short, squat. Dwarfish. Niarok winced and stepped around it, and Yila followed, taught and catlike.

Klein was looking down into a pit of some sort in which there laid a sleeping creature. A dragon.

Niarok sighed. He really was done with all of this, and his supplies were starting to get somewhere below comfortable levels. If he ran out of herbs, his skills were basically useless.

Then all of a sudden, something very hard and very… body-ish slammed into Niarok. He stumbled to the side, catching a man with ginger hair before he tumbled too much further.

The man stumbled away, grabbing a bag he’d dropped. He looked around in a panic, searching through his bag, and then yelled something about pancakes. His accent reminded Niarok acutely of Lorcan, just way more energetic and happy.

Klein placed a hand over the man’s mouth, snapping at him. Niarok sighed and offered the man a hand, shooting Klein a subtle look. Klein slowly released his grip on the man’s mouth.

“I’m Niarok. And Klein’s right, we should probably be quiet,” he said as he helped the man to his feet. “There seems to be some variety of creature down there.”