Dewdrops At Dawn (Prompto)

Chapter 3 - "This Is A Rescue"

"I'm ready for whatever secrets this cave is about to reveal. How exciting!" Elea said, her lack of fear somewhat refreshing, and reminded me to take in a deep breath before we went in.

"We're going in." I told the other two who followed in right behind me.

"Don't slack off now, or I'll find the captain before you two." Yura said, holding his weapon over his shoulder at the ready.

"You wish, just try to keep up with me." Elea said, joining in on the playful banter.

"This isn't a competition you two, this is a rescue. This is no time for jokes." I said, trying to remind them why we were here.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like that. Just trying to lighten the mood." Yura said apologetically.

"She gets so serious when it has to do with the captain." Elea tried to whisper to Yura.

Turning my head over to Elea, I narrowed my eyes in slight annoyance at that comment.

"I heard that." I said.

"Would you look at that! What a nice, er, rock!" Elea tried to point out on the ground to change the topic.

"Rocks?" I said looking down, pointing the flashlight attached to my shirt towards it.

Stopping in my tracks, I bent down in order to pick up some of the crushed rocks in the palm of my hand.

"What do you see?" Yura asked, standing over me, looking at the debris on the ground.

"I didn't know you were such a petrologist." Elea said, bending down next to me to pick up some rocks in her own palm to see what had interested me.

"I'm not." I answered, taking a closer look at the handful of rocks in my hand. "This wasn't like this before, something happened. We're close. There was a battle here, but he must've moved deeper in the cave for some reason rather than follow the rest of the Hunters out."

"How did you get all that just from those rocks?" Elea asked in wonder.

"These edges right here. See how they're cut straight? It's as if something slashed it." I explained, holding up one of the bigger rocks at eye level for her to see.

"By the looks of it, doesn't seem like the captain's hurt. I don't see any blood around here." Yura said, checking around the area with his light.

Standing up after dropping all of the rocks back on the ground, he was right. It calmed me down somewhat to realize Prompto seemed to be alright so far.

"He's gonna get an earful from me when I find him, making us worry about him like this." I said with a roll of my eyes, increasingly feeling hopeful and able to make light of the situation somewhat.

"I'd say you're the most worried one of all, you can't hide it from us." Elea said with a wink.

Hearing such a comment from her again, I turned to face her with a hand on my hip.

"I'd say he's not going to be the only one getting an earful from me at this rate." I said with an eyebrow raised.

"Hey, hey. I'm just kidding." Elea said with both of her hands raised. "Half kidding at least."

Turning around to walk further into the cave without saying anything else, we followed where the damage on the walls were leading us. The light attached to my shirt began to dim.

"Geez, not now!" I groaned in frustration, taking it off to hold in my hand to shake it a few times in a futile attempt to make it last longer.

"What happened? Your light? Do you have a replacement with you?" Yura asked me.