Rainimator One Shots

Watch Your Back

"Stella!" Rain cried as he rushed towards his girlfriend. The enchantress was lying on the floor unconscious from over-exhausting herself by using an end crystal to take down a warden. Luckily she had managed to blow a hole right through the warden thus killing it, however it had now caused her to pass out. "Is she ok?" Rain asked Nostra who was kneeling beside Stella and was already examining her.

"She'll be fine after a few hours of rest. She overdid it by using that much power so quickly. Let's just go before anything else comes and attacks us." exclaimed Nostra. Rain nodded in approval and bent down to lift Stella up before Nostra stopped him. "Don't think I didn't notice that your arm's broken. I'll carry Stella and you can take the crystal. Just keep guard and make sure nothing sneaks up on us." said Nostra. Although Rain wasn't too happy with this decision, he knew they didn't have much choice. He picked the crystal off the ground and waited until Nostra was ready with Stella. With Stella in Nostra's arms they quickly but carefully scrambled their way through the lush caves.

Once they were out of the lush caves they took a short break so that Nostra could study the map of the cave systems again in order to pinpoint their location. Fortunately they hadn't strayed too far from the initial route they had used to get down here. As soon as Nostra described how they would get out to Rain, since Stella was still unconscious, the pair continued climbing their way out of the cave systems. "Good, we're back on track now." Nostra exclaimed as they reached the edge of the old mine shaft they had gone through earlier. Rain hadn't heard a word as his mind was distracted about thoughts about the end crystal in his hands, his newly discovered powers, his unconscious girlfriend and the aggravating pain from his broken arm only worsened his focus.

Suddenly something dropped down behind Rain and the next thing he knew was that there was a sharp stabbing pain coming from the back of his leg. He screamed in agony. Turning around he saw the teeth of a spider digging into his leg. In panic he began shaking his leg to try and free himself from the spider. Nostra, who was ahead of Rain, looked back as soon as he screamed. Seeing Rain flapping in alarm, Nostra carefully placed Stella on the ground and ran to Rain's aid. Nostra panicked when they realised that this was no ordinary spider but was in fact a cave spider which were well known for their deadly poison. Knowing that by Rain moving his leg around the poison would only spread faster and so Nostra shouted at him to stay still while they pulled out their knife sliced at the spider several times before it laid down dead on the floor.

Now that he was free from the spider, Rain found himself collapsing to the ground. He clutched his leg and felt that the pain was somehow creeping up his leg. He turned to Nostra with a confused and worried look on his face. "That spider was a poisonous cave spider and because you didn't keep still that poison has spread much faster than it normally would had you stayed still like I told you to!" explained Nostra. "That's easy to say when you don't have a spider painfully biting you!" Rain snapped. "Never mind. Just hold still while I try to treat the wound. If things go well then you'll live and hopefully be able to keep your leg." Nostra replied. Rain was about to say something but Nostra stopped him. "Now be quiet whilst I attempt to treat this." ordered Nostra as they began to take out a couple of bottles to pour on the wound.

Sometime later after Nostra had finished clearing out the poison, they began to bandage Rain's leg. "That's the best I can do for now. You're lucky that it was just about treatable, although you won't be able to move your leg for a few days." exclaimed Nostra as they tied the ends of the bandage together. "Great. Now how are we supposed to be able to leave this place if Stella's still unconscious and I can't walk?" Rain huffed frustratedly. "I'll have to take one of you back to our base camp up on the surface first and then come back down again." Nostra said. "Take Stella first. I can still just about defend myself down here while I wait for you to return." replied Rain. "Whoever I'm to leave is going to be at risk wherever I leave them. Stella is still going to be a risk above ground since you mustn't forget about the Nether Horde prowling the Overworld on the surface." Nostra pointed out.

Rain sighed as he thought for a moment. Both options were risky but he wanted to pick the slightly safer one. "Hmm if the Nether Horde does stumble across Stella before you go back to our camp with me, then it's possible that they won't harm her as it's likely they'll assume she's one of them. She'll probably stand a better chance against them than down here with these spiders, undead, wardens or some other horrible creature lurking around here in the dark." Rain said. "Ok I'll take her first and I'll be as quick as I can so you won't be left here too long." Nostra agreed. Rain watched Nostra walk away with Stella and the lantern, leaving him to wait anxiously in the darkness.

While he was on his own, Rain tried to distract himself from the feverish feeling he was developing as a side effect of the poison. Although Nostra reassured him that he'd be alright, he couldn't stop himself from fearing the worst. Finally after what seemed like hours he saw the faint light of a lantern starting to illuminate the cave he was in. He then spotted Nostra and as they approached him, he felt a wave of relief flood over him. Once Nostra was standing next to him, they lifted him off the floor and explained that they had managed to safely leave Stella at the campsite just a short distance from the cave mouth. Rain relaxed a little after hearing this and waited calmly for Nostra to finish carrying him out of the caves. Upon reaching the cave mouth, Rain took a deep breath of fresh air. The air felt nice and fresh as opposed to the clammy air underground.

"Stella will have to ride up with me." Nostra exclaimed once they got to their camp. Rain was rather reluctant by the idea and was about to protest because he wanted to be the one to look after Stella during the journey. Instead Nostra interrupted him. "You can barely ride yourself with a broken arm and an essentially paralysed leg. Besides it'll be you needing someone to keep you on that horse! Look, as soon as Stella wakes up she can ride with you again since you'll be needing her help." exclaimed Nostra. Rain nodded upon understanding his own limitations. With the arrangements settled Nostra helped Rain up onto his horse. He then realised just how much he wanted to rest but he knew they didn't have a choice with most of them out of action unable to defend themselves let alone the priceless object of an end crystal the safest option was to go on the move fast and as quickly as possible make their way back to Dreadfort.

Before Nostra went to get Stella onto their horse, they adjusted Rain's bad leg so that it was placed just in front of the saddle and Nostra tied up the used stirrup to prevent the loose stirrup from becoming entangled with anything. Then Nostra lifted Stella up onto their horse. "Let's go before anything else goes wrong." Nostra shouted over at Rain. "Yeah, let's hope that everyone else has had better luck than we have." Rain answered as he made his horse go forward. Little did they know that everyone else was having far worse luck than them since they were the only group who had actually completed their objective despite a few setbacks.