Just a habit or something more?

Somewhere, in the middle of the green forest two young people were searching for an aged sorcerer's place with a hand drawn map. It was middle of the summer time and the sun was heating mercilessly, so they were very sweaty even among the trees.

„Lina, do you think, the old man was right? He sounded a little bit insane to me." Asked Gourry looking on his companion. „We are wandering here since breakfast. And soon it will rain." He added, waiting for a response from the girl.

„I'm close to solving the riddle with this freaking scribbles of his." She said not looking away from the piece of paper and Gourry knows better to stop disturbing her. After some time came a sudden thunderstorm with pouring rain as Gourry predicted. Both, soaked to the bone found a cave at the foot of the hill, but unfortunately it was occupied by a bandits and their treasure, so Lina and Gourry had to fight first. After the very short battle, when the thugs left without their loot, they set a small fire near the cave entrance to dry themselves. Out of habit Gourry started to check their surrounding. The interior wasn't large, but he saw a corridor in the far end of the cave. Nothing more unusual than that. Unexpectedly Lina stood so fast, that she almost fell into the campfire. Gourry was grateful for his quick reactions and managed to catch her before that.

„I think we're here!" Her voice was full of hope as she started to look around.

„Great..." Gourry muttered to himself. „She even didn't noticed she was in danger. I'm wondering how she managed to survive before I found her years ago." He thought.

„Oh, come on, Gourry! There has to be something!" Lina looked in the direction of the darkest part of the small cave. „Lightning!" She called and the bright ball of light formed above her palm and floated forward. It wasn't a long way, but it was muddy and ended with two different ways. Their map was useless after the entrance to the cave, so they needed to choose one way. The right corridor ended with the small pond. The sorcerer and the swordsman went back and took the left way, which lead them straight to the dead end. „I don't understand. There has to be an entrance or..." She didn't finish, because Gourry hushed her.

„I can feel moving fresh air above us." He pointed at the wall in front of them. Lina lifted the lightning ball to the ceiling and they noticed a small narrow space. The wall was too smooth to climb, and the entrance too high to reach, even for Gourry. Lina used a levitation spell to lift them up and they found themselves in a narrow corridor. There wasn't much space, so they need to move one by one with Lina in the front. After a few minutes of walking in the nearly dark space Lina stumbled on a small rock lying on the floor, so instinctively her hands went to the stone walls to stabilize herself. Almost immediately she felt something, which she was sure she didn't want to feel ever in her life. Lina made ball of light bigger and the view froze the blood in her veins. On both walls were stuck a dozens or even a hundreds of big, slimy and disgusting slugs. The sorcerer stopped in the middle of the step, which caused Gourry to bump into her. She felt goosebumps crawling all over her body and incoming nausea.

„I can't." She whispered and then added with hoarsed voice. „We need to go back." Gourry felt a weak push in the opposite direction and put his hands on her shoulders to stop her.

„Wait, Lina calm down. We already made more than half way actually. I can see end of the corridor already, so it's no point to turn back now." Gourry tried to tranquilize her. He knew about the slugs from the beginning and rembered about Lina's phobia, but he hoped that she could walk past the slugs without even noticing them. The swordsman realized, that she hold close onto him and his heart skipped a beat. Lina's face was buried into his chest so tight, that there was no more space between them. By instinct, he embraced the petite girl. „Hold it together, you idiot! She needs you." He reminded himself in his mind. „Hey, hey, Lina. Stay calm, you're safe." He used a soothing voice and pet her hair in a calming manner. After a few minutes the quiet, sobbing voice he heard went dead. „If you want I can go first and you can keep close to me. You can even close your eyes, I'll be there for you." Lina didn't trust her voice to say anything, so she just nodded in agreement. Gourry turned them around trying to keep her as far from the stone walls as possible. She embraced him from behind, shut her eyes and desperately tried to think about something more enjoyable, than that slimy nightmare on the walls. Lina wished she could savour that closeness with Gourry, she dreamed about, but with that terrifying situation she wasn't able to do so. The sorcerer was so focused on her thoughts, that she didn't noticed, that they stopped. Gourry took her hands off him just enough to turn around and let her to hug him once more time. He embraced her with one hand and gently stroked her hair with his second one. „You did it, Lina. You can open your eyes now." She took a deep breath and slowly lifted her damp eyelids. Lina blinked a few times to sharpen her eyesight and looked at him stepping away. She missed his warm body despite, the high temperature outside.