Dark Fangs: Forbidden Fugitives

Chapter Thirty

Maybe I can't get the bridle down, Jae thought, but even if I could, she can't even stand. Jae's tearful eyes were fixed desperately on Midnight Moon's shuddering body. Her own body ached, but it was a dull numb throb compared to Midnight Moon's agony.

     Or so Jae thought.

     She didn't and couldn't care right now, about her state, when all of her attention was focused solely on poor Midnight Moon. She wouldn't care. Jae wouldn't even let her glassy green gaze slip towards the slumbering Indoraptor. Jae was completely committed to her horse now. She could wait, she reasoned with herself. Midnight Moon could not.

     So, with a pounding headache that she ardently ignored, intensely aching muscles that she too, disregarded, and bleeding wounds, she wandered around the cave, staying within at least fifty feet of Midnight Moon, to search for rocks--more specifically, flint or quartz--and dead foliage she could possibly salvage. The sunlight gave her greater freedom to look more closely at things and travel further into the depths of the massive cavern, but she only strayed far away enough to where she could quickly return to Midnight Moon, should she need anything...until she could find what she was eventually looking for.

     This might light...but I think the rain soaked it too deeply. Jae crouched by a pile of dead palm fronds, dappled with drops which the rain or the cave's moisture could have created. She narrowed her eyes at them and plucked one from the pile, and the frond received a splash of blood that dripped from Jae's forearm. Jae took no notice of it, and lifted the rest of the fronds in her bloodied arms. 

     Now I still need a stone that can light these....Jae scanned the underground gorge area, but her eyes caught nothing. No loose stone that could be flint, and no white crystal which could be quartz. 

     That's what I was afraid of. Jae sighed, ambling carefully back to Midnight Moon. Now I'll have to go deeper without any light at all. 

     A grumbling growl from above made Jae instinctively glance up. A sharp, gold-striped, scaly spine was twisting away from the fissure, and a thorny obsidian head rounded to take its place. Jae halted, locking eyes with the hybrid raptor. He stared back at her with concerned hues, yet equanimity pooled in those red optics. He rumbled something again to Jae, and she exhaled sharply. Fright's presence had become part of her life here now. She could always sense him--which she loathed, since it only made her recall the painful fight she'd had with Drake over the 'Bonding' between her and him--but it was a calm and strong energy they were both linked to. 

     "Don't look at me like that." She hissed at him half-heartedly. Fright croaked what sounded like a laugh, and Jae found it actually difficult to repress a smile of amusement.

     He's growing on me. 

     I'm not into that. 

     Jae turned her attention quickly back to Midnight Moon, leaving Fright to claw longingly at the ravine cleft and groan in a dissatisfied resonance. Jae dismissed his heedless griping with a gruff sigh. Midnight Moon was her only focus, she reminded herself. The mare needed to be her only focus.  

      Fright can wait until he dies, she thought coldly. He's probably immortal anyway. 

     Jae spent the next ten minutes scouring the cave near Midnight Moon for quartz or flint, but found nothing she could use or identify. She did finally find an eight-inch half of a long rebar stake, and realized she could try with that, so she spent the next twenty minutes there trying desperately to light the palm fronds. Only once did a spark fly, and Jae had a little more hope after that. She kept striking the stone on the cave floor at the base of the frond pile, until soon, an ember did catch and flames exploded along the fibrous kindling. 

     "Finally!" Jae exclaimed with a long, heavy sigh. She sank against the floor at the fire's side, panting. Finally...her mind echoed. The flames looked so gloriously welcoming, just for the work Jae'd put into them, and the light they cast made Jae beam with relief and ecstasy. The blaze reflected and danced in Jae's eyes like a swirling pool of lava. She sighed again and closed her optics, allowing herself to rest for only a moment.

     Her mistake.

     There was a single, sudden warning growl, booming from Fright's throat, and that was all it took to get Jae's aching frame standing straight and stiff. Her eyes widened, and before she could react, Midnight Moon brayed shrilly, and one of her blood-soaked hind legs came rocketing at Jae's stomach as she kicked out.

     Jae felt just the tip of the frightened mare's hoof graze her side, and it slashed a rugged, uneven gash in her dark grey sweater. Jae gasped, staggering back, her hands braced over the gash. 

     No blood. Just a bruise...she told herself, eyes scanning the area she'd been struck. Midnight Moon went still again, but her eyes were white-rimmed with fear. She snorted, trying to lift her head, and Jae immediately stumbled forward to steady her. 

     "Shhhhh! It's all right..." Jae grabbed the saddle blanket she'd torn the padding out of and eased it under Midnight Moon's cranium, caressing the equine's face as she attempted to pacify her.

     Midnight Moon returned to a serene state after a few more minutes of coaxing. When she was allayed, Jae shot Fright a killing look. You scared her, you stupid reptile! Just because you wanted to roar! There's nothing to roar at! 

     Something dark flickered at the corner of Jae's vision. She froze. 

     Maybe it wasn't a false alarm.

     What was that!? Jae twisted her head around to catch sight of it, but there was nothing. Her heart accelerated, and a sense of dread set heavily over her mind.

     What's living down here with me that I'm not even aware of? The thought was so direct, it scared her dangerously. What's been down here that Fright knows is here?

     Allegedly catching onto her thoughts, Fright warbled another, quieter snarl, as if in complete agreement. He knew there was something. If only she would listen, and if only he could get down there.

     The Thing had been there forever. Fright knew it. He knew what it was, but he couldn't explain it to Jae.

     It was down there, and it was preying on her. It only needed the right moment, though Fright was sure it wouldn't show its face if he were there.

     That's why he'd never leave the opening split. He'd left once, to let the Indominus free, and that hadn't ended well. She had rused him, agreeing to go with him to help get to Jae, and then she'd left, with all of Fright's hope of getting to Jae.  

     He'd figure out something. He'd have to.