cascade | kotlc

24. Falling Out

tw: bl/od, death 

Linh floated her up to the destroyed gates. June couldn't talk, not at all. She was settling into shock.

Ogres had attacked her family.

Flori found them, shivering and huddling on the base of a hill, staring at the wreckage below.

"Your sister's here," she told her quietly. "I'll bring you there."

"Please do," Linh whispered.

She sang an entrance into the ground, and Sandor and Sophie followed her into the earth. The tunnel was damp and dark and pleasantly warm as Flori tangled their feet in the roots. June still couldn't do anything. Her hand was held halfway midair, her body trembling like there was an earthquake.

"Brace yourselves," Flori warned, shifting the cadence of her melody.

The roots obeyed her command, carrying them faster, faster, faster, far away. Into the tight darkness, so tight it seemed to swallow her with every move. June's chest heaved, clenched by the burying shadows.

"It's going to be okay," Linh murmured, gently stroking an arm over her chest. "Your parents are alive. The goblin... wasn't so lucky."

June's heartbeat echoed through the tunnel, covering Flori's songs.

They emerged in a small hollow surrounded by towering red-barked trees. Grady and Edaline were there, dirty and bloody, but strong enough to carry June over to where Sophie was standing, panicked and shaking.

Her parents and sister threw themselves over her, their tears soaking her already mutilated tunic. She wanted to hug them back, to tell them everything would be okay, but she couldn't. She just couldn't.

Ogres had attacked Havenfield.

What's next?

A dozen gnomes were crouched around two more bodies, Biana standing behind them, her ring glowing bright green, perspiration running down her brows. Small threads of green were connecting Cadoc and Lady Cadence to the roots around them, a gentle pulsing running down the veins. Flori was busy working with them, smearing their wounds with crushed Panakes petals.

"They're going to be okay," Edaline whispered, holding her tighter as she studied their unconscious, blood-streaked faces. "Lur and Mitya got Biana, and she's been helping a lot. They're heading for Elwin right now."

"Did you sedate them?" Sandor asked, crouching next to Cadoc and checking the pulse point at the goblin's bruised throat.

"That's from the shock and the blood loss," Edaline told him. "Their breathing is strong, and their hearts are holding steady. They just need medicine, and lots of rest."

Biana wiped her forehead, breathing tiredly as she made her way over to Sophie and June, offering them a tight smile. She pressed her ring to June's neck, muttering something as green wires wrapped around her.

"This might be a little weird," she told her. "But it's necessary. You're in... a lot of shock right now. Hold steady, I'll get Sophie later."

Twenty heartbeats passed before Biana pressed a kiss to her ring, and June felt a tickling sensation around her neck, where the strands of life were. Soft throbs shook her as she wobbled, holding onto Linh and recovering her breath.

Calla's voice filled her mind, whispering something she didn't understand. Scents of a new spring swirled around her, honeysuckle, jasmine, plumeria.

You're home.

June breathed out, letting out her worries and pain and fear and panic as she calmed, her heartbeat slowing. Linh hurried to catch her as she almost toppled, propping her up against a tree trunk.