The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

Cooking Out in a Cavern (HotFQ 2)

II.

"We're pretty high up already. Although..." Audrey sighed, tapping the snow that caved them in. It was hard as ice and their breath fogged it like glass. "This guy..."

She withdrew Ares from her bag. There was something peculiar about it. Its eye was shaking and strained. It was if it was searching for something. More oddly and strangely like Ares, a white glow surrounded the statuette's form. Has this been guiding her the whole time?

"It's glowing?"

"Yeah," Audrey said. "It hasn't stopped glowing and shaking for a couple of hours now. Which means... we're probably coming up on something."

Audrey shivered. Madoka only had light armor on under her cloak but she felt the flames burning within her. Still, Madoka moved to take her cloak off and offered it to her friend. When she did, she realized the scar above her heart still ruined her skin. Audrey made a noise in protest.

"N-No need. S-Sorry for worrying you," she mustered, pulling a layer out from her portal. She was all bundled up like a babe. Madoka wanted to hold her but kept that to herself. "How are you not cold with only those garbs on? Damn, the fighter job class is overpowered..."

Madoka shrugged.

"So I take it we stay here for the night?" Madoka stretched. They've been walking for awhile since the bloody hills. Audrey looked further in the crevice.

"I guess," She said. "You don't hear any spooky things in here, do you?"

Madoka shook her head and it was decided. There was a deeper cave further within. The crevice was icy and ancient with no signs of anything entering it recently. Audrey could slip in easily but Madoka got stuck going first. Audrey started giggling.

"Step-sis?" Audrey asked in a strange joking manner at Madoka's compromised position. "What are you doing, step-sis?"

Madoka was too preoccupied with her current predicament to worry about the meaning behind the joke.

"A-Audrey!" Madoka whined. "D-Don't look! Or help me!"

Why must she be too big? Madoka never felt so embarrassed about herself. Her frame was not like the younger noble ladies who were lithe and graceful. Her frame was earned by training and strength. When she thinks about herself, she finds the person staring back at her in the mirror as someone she is proud of and ashamed of at the same time.

With this body alone, Madoka has weathered those awful nights with nobles, shook both rain and sand off, trained with a brutal Lord and a militant Head Maid. She was not like the plump and rich noble women, she was powerful and tempered by the forge of life.

So why in this moment with her friend's laughter did she feel like this way? She would rather be a shell from the sense of shame. Her silence was noticed by Audrey. She could not see Audrey's face but at the moment Madoka did not want to.

"S-Sorry," Audrey said. "I'll help you through. Might be a bit uncomfortable, though."

"Whatever," Madoka grumbled, swallowing her insecurities. There were more dangerous things to worry about. "Get me through or help me out."

"Okay! Three! Two! One!"

"W-Wait, Audrey!" Madoka hesitated after what she saw but it was too late.

At the final count, Madoka felt the full force of Audrey's arms on her bum. The maid squeezed through and slid further down the hollow's ice laden incline. She screamed as she careened down into darkness.

"Madoka!" Audrey's concerned voice echoed above her. The volume grew quieter and drowned out as she slid.

Ice shards sprayed Madoka's face as she descended rapidly. Perhaps she should have told Audrey to pull her from the crack above instead of pushing her in. She tried to dig her hands into the ice to stop her fall but to no avail. The pain was meaningless to her but she realized she was fast approaching the edge of the slope. A small gap above a pitch black depth was between her and a solid wall made of ice.