Ashsib and the Cat Beast

Chapter Eleven

The view of the fog was no different, though the light should have shifted after their hours of rest. It was abysmal to stare out at it beyond the hall doors and just know more misery waited. No one could even tell what direction they had come from the night before. It dampened moods as much as it ruined the small amount of drying they'd done in the theater.

"I really don't want to wade back into that stuff." Bretta's face creased.

"We're all together now, it'll be okay!" Quinn promised with no sort of basis whatsoever to back it.

"It's too easy to get separated in it." Challah stuck close to the door, wary of more flying projectiles.

Quinn held out his arm, "We'll hold hands, we'll stay together, Challah. Forever."

"Captain..." Challah whispered.

Bretta slapped Quinn's hand down, "Save your stupid play-acting for later, please! And Challah, stop encouraging it!" She scolded, "We need a real plan."

"I was being serious." Quinn responded, his tone proving he definitely had not been. "If we had rope, we could lash ourselves together."

"Yeah, but where are we going to go? Do you have any idea where we are relative to where the Mermaid landed? Or if the ship is even still there if you do? Don't you have a sense of danger? I didn't think you were that stupid before. Is the fog making you stupider?" Bretta began ranting.

"Whoa, whoa, Bret. Calm down and take a breather." Calder turned her away from the Captain. "I still think Smile used a back door."

"Fine, we'll waste more time inside." Quinn huffed, stomping back through the theater doors.

"Made a decision, Captain?" Elian asked as they entered the hall, stepping out of the projector's booth.

"Looking for fairy doors in here first." Quinn rolled his eyes.

"There is one."

"It's over there." Both Namere and Ashsib said over top of one another as they came out of the booth, too.

"You guys found one?" Quinn gaped.

Namere waved Ashsib to talk and began retrieving the scattered first aid items. Elian helped her, since he couldn't get her to stop.

"I don't know about finding it," Ashsib grew nervous under his Captain's scrutiny, "I mean, I saw it being used, I didn't really find it. Finding it means-"

"Ash, you're rambling." Quinn cut in.

"Sorry, uh, what I mean is, I saw Smile use it to escape." Ashsib explained, "When you guys pulled me off him. He shoved a wall in the front and slipped inside."

"None of us saw that." Vel appeared, his eyes narrowing.

"He did it quickly." Ashsib wasn't sure what else to say. It was the truth, he'd seen it.

"Which part?" Quinn asked.

Ashsib limped towards the huge blank screen and pointed to the wall beside it where Smile had gone through. The Captain began knocking on the wood paneling, listening intently.

"It's definitely hollow here." He declared.

"But how does it open?" Calder joined in on Quinn's search.

"I got it." Vel muscled in and swung his stolen blade.

"Yipe! Watch it, idiot!" Calder smacked Vel across the back of the head.

"Don't touch me!" Vel elbowed the other man away.

This quickly turned into a slap fight, but meanwhile, freed from it's frame, the lower half of the concealed door fell inwards to reveal a passage.