Rayne Drops (FFXV)

XVIII) Ice Cave

            The second my feet touch solid ground, goblin decide to pay us a visit, dropping from the ceiling or rising from the loose dirt on the ground. Noctis huffs, summoning his sword to his hand. "You things love deep pits."

"Of course they do," I huff, grabbing my own blade and slashing at the daemons that bounce around me, diving back and forcing. Noct hisses as one of them pricks him with their wands. Nope, not goblins. Imps. Just great. These things find it particularly fun to poison people.

The others join us one by one. Ignis by far is the most graceful, landing easily on his feet and diving right into battle. The other two, however, not so much. Prompto comes tumbling down the slide and right onto me, knocking me face first onto the frozen ground. Gritting my teeth, I try to get up only to have Gladio fall right on top of us.

"Stop messing around," Noctis calls, flashing a false frown at us. In his dark eyes, I can see his amusement.

"Gladio!" I shout, raising my gunblade to shoot oncoming daemons.

"I'm up," he grumbles, jerking me and Prompto to our feet at the same time.

"Thanks big guy," Prompto grins, taking off to help Noctis.

The imps are easily taken care of. Ignis hands an antidote to Noctis, sighing. "We should have stocked up on these before coming here."

"No way for us to know," Noctis shrugs, using the curative before looking around the dark cave. "I guess we head this way."

"Oh man," Prompto groans. "I got an ice cream headache... Without the ice cream!"

"So... a brain freeze?" I raise an eyebrow, shivering. Gods this is miserable.

"Y-yeah," he replies, shuddering. "Forgot what it was called."

"I wish we had some ice cream," Noctis mutters, tugging at the short sleeves of his jacket. I look at him incredulously.

"It's freezing in here. How could you be in the mood for ice cream?" I demand. Gladio shrugs.

"Sounds good to me."

"No one was asking you," I snap.

"Oh, I'm offended now," Gladio scoffs. Ignis glowers at us.

"Could you two avoid arguing for the time being?"

"Give me five minutes, I'll kick his butt back to Hammerhead," I mutter, crossing my arms tightly and shuffling behind Ignis to wherever it is we're headed. I grit my teeth as we start climbing up a steep slope, willing my boots not to slip. Prompto falls behind me, caught at the last second by one of Gladio's massive hands.

"Watch it," he mutters. Prompto offers a weak apology before continuing on. We pass enormous chunks of ice on our way up, watching the reflections of our lights bounce off the slick, frozen water.

"I really hope we didn't come here for nothing," Prompto whimpers, his shivers remaining as a constant trembling. Huffing, I untie my damp leather jacket from my waist and toss it to him. "Is this even gonna fit?"

"Too big for me," I shrug, continuing on without looking back.

"I'm sure there's something if we look," Gladio replies, dropping down to the next level witht eh rest of us.

"It's, uh, a little tight on the arms," he says after a few moments. I glance at him, containing a grin at his stiffly held appendages.

"You're fine. Better than freezing."