Page 34 of Joy Guardian

The trickle of the centipedes scurrying after us steadily grew into a wide black hissing stream of them.

“Run!”

We dashed down the corridor, past the opening in the ceiling that we’d fallen in through. Sand was still pouring in through it with the day storm at full force up there now. The opening was way too high for us to reach, with no hope of getting back to thesurface through it. If we lingered, we’d either be buried under the sand or sliced and eaten by the centipedes.

“This way.” I took Ciana down the only way still open to us—a dark tunnel stretching in the opposite direction from the cave with the centipedes’ nest.

The ceiling here got lower the farther we ran. Eventually, we both had to bend our heads down or risk hitting them on the ceiling.

As the tunnel kept getting narrower, with its walls and ceiling closing in on us, it slowed us down.

“Oh God.” Ciana glanced back at the centipedes catching up to us.

If we were attacked, I hardly had any space to fight in here.

“Faster, Kurai.” With a spurt of energy, she pulled me after her.

The ground sloped downwards, forcing us to run faster and faster. As the slope grew steeper, Ciana tripped and I lost my footing too. We rolled down the slope, over a hard edge, and into an abyss.

“Aaaaaaa,” Ciana screamed.

The echo caught her voice and amplified it tenfold in an open cavern as we plummeted down.

I lashed out with my tendrils, trying to find and catch her in the air, but felt only emptiness.

“Ciana!”

I crashed hard on an uneven surface. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs, leaving me momentarily speechless. My hip throbbed and a sharp pain lanced through my shoulder as I tried to move.

In the complete darkness, something fell on me from above. It hissed, its sharp legs scraping against the fabric that covered my head and shoulders.

A baby centipede.

I grabbed it from me and twisted it, breaking it in half. Another one fell on the rocks nearby with a thud, then another. Ittook a few long moments for my vision to adjust to the darkness. The centipedes looked like dark shadows on the black rock, hard to spot.

Using both my sight and my hearing to find them, I caught them, then stabbed them or cut their heads off. Only a few seemed to have followed us in our fall down here. The rest either abandoned the chase or had enough brains to stop in time when they saw us falling.

Either way, I heard no more hissing.

In fact, I realized with worry, I heard nothing at all.

“Ciana?” I looked around. “Where are you?”

No answer came. I heard no movement or even breathing.

“Ciana!” I called, trying to get up again.

My leg gave out when I put my weight on it, sending me back to the floor with a sharp shot of agony through my body.

I must’ve broken a bone either in my hip or my leg when I crashed. To heal it, I’d need to rest for a while. Only I had no time to rest. I had to find Ciana.

“Where are you, my sweet precious girl?” I coaxed, as if she wouldn’t have come to me already if she were able.

Regardless of whether I planned it or not, regardless of what the world thought about us, Ciana had become my sweet, precious girl. And now I couldn’t rest, I couldn’t heal unless I found her.

A flash of her beige clothing caught my eye. I crawled over a ridge of rocks to find her lying on the other side—motionless.

“Ciana?” I whispered, brushing away her braids from her face.

---