Of Calm Calamities

Of Calm Calamities (3)

Tired blue eyes opened long after the sun had set behind enormous mountains, and it took Childe a few seconds to remember everything. When he did, he immediately jolted up, regretting the choice to do so just moments later. His whole body ached, screaming at him for pushing himself too hard, but it wasn't like he had a choice about that. Deafening screeches of metal rubbing on metal pierced through the air and made Childe wonder how he'd manage to stay unconscious for so long with all of the ruckus going on, but he'd worry about that later. He needed to take it slow, to take care of one thing at a time.

First, he flexed his fingers in an attempt to get the blood flowing properly before squeezing both hands into tight fists, hardening his grip until his knuckles turned white. So at least his hands still worked properly. Good. It wasn't uncommon for him to get repercussions on his body after overworking himself with his delusion, though it only happened a few times when his vision was all he used. If at least his fingers worked as normal, then he probably would be fine. Childe proceeded to flex his arms next and stretch his back, wincing at the pull of the muscle that brought him unexpected pain. He could deal with that, though. There were worse things than just feeling sore. 

Gritting his teeth so hard that he thought he heard a crack, Childe made a ragged attempt to get to his feet, which was followed by him biting down a scream. Sweet Tsaritsa, just how bad was it? He stood on shaky legs, taking small, measured steps to the entrance of the cave so that Childe could at least see how bad the situation was with the ruin guards. The sight before him made him stumble into the side of the cavern for support. The entire clearing beneath the mountain was flooded with machines, easily fifty ruin guards huddled together in a writhing mess of clashing metal all waiting for a chance to strike at Childe, waiting for the correct moment to launch their never-ending attacks. Childe thanked whatever god was in charge of distributing luck for the fact that the cavern was high enough in the mountain for the attempts of sending missiles at Childe to be useless.

He felt his back slide downwards along the cool surface of the cave's walls, his knees buckling under his own weight. Childe swallowed down the bile that kept rising, partly from the knowledge that he would be facing certain death if he chose to leave the cavern, partly because of how light-headed he felt from the simple effort of dragging his sorry body closer to the cave's ridge that left him nauseous and seeing stars. His head automatically turned away from the usually-beautiful scenery of Liyue that was ruined by the impossibly large group of ruin guards, and he instead focused his attention on the inside of the cavern.

There wasn't anything special about it. The walls and ceiling were worn down with age and water, cracks and crevices blooming in every direction, forming a spiderweb in the rocks that never seemed to end. The floor formed a steep decline  from the entrance at the side of the mountain into the lower depths of it, the air cool and damp as it slowly rose from the bottom to where Childe sat. Small crops of precious stones and minerals shone in the otherwise- dark shade of the rocks, casting blue and orange tones onto the rest of the cave. His gaze turned to the small spot where he'd passed out before - it was stained, and although it was hard to tell in the growing darkness, there was no question that the liquid was blood.

The panicking feeling that had been just a small sliver before escalated to the point that Childe feared it would explode if he didn't do something about it. He reached a tentative hand to touch where the puddle was. His gloved fingers came back wet and sticky with still-fresh blood, the warmth of it being almost sickening. The blood still hadn't dried, and Childe had been laying there for at least a few hours, if not more. Almost too scared to look, he peeled the now-drenched glove off and tossed it to some corner of the cave before gently running his fingers over his skin to find where the blood had come from. The touch was gentle, and yet, it still made him seethe quietly with a sharp inhale that sent pain shooting through his spine and down to his abdomen before forming into a tight, horrible ball that rested just beneath the surface of his skin.