𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

─ 𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝

𝐂𝐀𝐕𝐄

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

IT WAS ESTABLISHED that Azalea wasn't very fond of mornings, but given the circumstances, she'd have to suck it up. The early morning breeze had begun to pick up and some of the birds had awoken and were flying around. Colors of light orange and red merged together in the sky as the sun began rising from the horizon. All the colors painting the sky like a painting, how the warm colors mixed into the still night like the sky. From one side it was the rising morning sun and on the opposite side, the moon was setting. It wasn't yet bright out but it wasn't as dark as before, it was dawn.

In front of her, Techno was trekking the path towards the trees. For the past hour or so he had kept silent and focused on navigating towards the refuge. Ever since the events prior Azalea had kept her guard slightly higher than usual.

Soon enough the two had come to the entrance to the trees and not far ahead there was the side of the mountain. The trees weren't very tall and the leaves weren't very thick so lots of light was shining through. Along the grounds were various amounts of flowers and plants all varying in size. Techno glanced towards her, to which she only looked back at him awaiting his first move. After all, he was the one who knew where to go.

He began walking into the woods, trampling many of the flowers. She followed close behind and looked ahead the whole time. The side of the mountain was coming closer into view and many of the birds in the woods were flying around or singing so it wasn't silent. Techno came to a halt when they approached the mountain side, Azalea stopping a few feet behind him. There were many rocks and the majority of the side was covered in moss, but there were a few bigger sized boulders scattered around at the ground edges. Confusion spread over her face, it was a mountain side nothing special about it.

Techno walked up to one of the boulders and pushed it aside rather easily. A dark hole in the mountain side became visible from behind the boulder. Once it was visible enough Techno stopped pushing the boulder and motioned for her to go inside first.

"Ladies first," he joked, "don't fall down the steps too much"

Azalea smiled sarcastically and walked in, the temperature change hitting her almost instantly. The hole in the wall had led to a small room filled with a few chests and a makeshift bed in the very corner. There were a few torches that were lit up and adding some light to the room. Water stains and moss were marked all over the wall and ground, the temperature decreasing noticeable as she got farther into the room. In the very back was a carved out staircase that led down into the ground, torches lighting the way down. Faint voices could be heard arguing below, mainly yelling at each other.

Azalea looked back to see where Techno was and saw he was moving the boulder back into place. She faced back down the stairs and headed downwards, making sure to stay cautious of her step. The stone was very wet and mossy so one small moss step and she could go sliding down the stairs and break something in her body.

The further she got the more loud the voices got and the more familiar they were. The stairs felt like they went on forever and soon enough she figured out they didn't. Azalea stepped down for the last time and came face to face with another stone wall, but this time it was in what looked like a cavern. Torches littered the walls but all very neatly placed. Posters of people and information were glued to some walls. One of the more notable features of the cavern was the amount of holes that led to rooms and bridges built in. There was no way a person could do this in the span of four days. Techno came down behind her, his sword clanging against his side and his boots stomping down the stone stairs.