Seeing in Shades of Heat

Chapter 4 (Eclipse Lake Part 2)

A/N

So I apparently forgot to post this part and only noticed it when I was coming to post chapter 5. So you all get two chapters in one day! Enjoy!

Eda didn't know what was really going on, the last few minutes had gone by in a blur. She remembered hitting one of the weird bulbous things and then she was falling. She heard King screaming, clinging to her arm. The gears in her brain whirled when she realized they were falling and the Owl Lady made a split-second decision to use Owlbert to save them. She flinched at the cry her palisman made, mentally making a note to make it up to him once they were home.

Then, just as she was pulling herself up on her staff, there was a shout from above. Eda looked up just in time to see a familiar cloaked boy ram knock her off the staff. Judging from the blood on the top of his head Hunter got hit in the head by something. And that same hit is probably the one that knocked him out.

Luckily there was a ledge she could grab onto to stop their fall. She let out a grunt as her back slammed into the cave walls. Though she took the brunt of the blow, the teen in the older woman's arms still let out a small whimper. There was a worried tweet and Eda looked up to see that the teen's palisman was doing circles around them.

"Eda!" Amity called down. Said woman looked up to see the youngest Blight helping King onto her staff.

"Get Owlbert! We can wait!"

She nodded and the two got to work carefully dislodging the owl. With them distracted, Eda evaluated the situation.

Hunter and Owlbert were knocked out, which meant that they would probably be too much Ghost to fly up all at once. The ledge she was holding onto seemed like it would stay firmly in place while that first trip went up so there was that. The rumbling had also stopped so hopefully that meant no more randomly falling rocks. And with Hunter out, his own palisman couldn't transform into stick form.

I can help.

Eda almost let go when she heard the voice. She looked around frantically to try to figure out where it came from. But there was no one around who could have said it and judging by the grunts she was still hearing above her King and Amity were still trying to dislodge Owlbert. Just as she was about to chalk it up to her imagination, the voice came again.

I'm not imaginary! It's me!

"... Owl beast?" A few rocks clattered down from above, causing Eda to flinch at the stinging sensation they left on her fingers.

Yes! I can help you out of this with Harpy Mode, but I want something in return.

"You want to make a deal?"

Yes, I want voles. A bigger rock clattered down and the impact caused her ledge to tremble. Inwardly grimacing, the woman carefully adjusted her grip on Hunter. With this new position, she would be able to shield him easier if they fell to the bottom of this crevice.

"You... you what?"

Mice will do, but I prefer voles.

Eda grimaced at the thought of having to eat voles. She knew that she ate weird things (Hell, there was that one time she coughed up a swing for Titan's sake!) but the idea of eating something living felt.... Wrong. "I-I don't know if I can get them with the portal door gone. Can't we agree on something else?"

No! Voles or no deal!

To her horror, the ledge started to crumble under her grip and the other two were still dislodging Owlbert. The palisman's concerned chirping grew louder with more urgency- probably to try to alert the others but they wouldn't be able to do much. When she tried to adjust her grip, Eda could see the cracks starting to snake their way along the rock. It grew before her eyes, causing the panic in her to skyrocket in an instant. Her brain flickered through the various options on how to get out of this but none of them seemed appealing.