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Sasha slips away down the tunnels to search for an exit, leaving Zolf with a near catatonic Hamid. He wipes the grime from his face trying not to think about the walls of dirt closing in around him or the insistent ache of his mangled leg. He tries not to think about how he’ll manage to walk out of here, or if there even is an “out of here.” He tries not to think much at all.
Instead, he focuses on Hamid. Hamid, who sits shivering, eyes unfocused and blinking too rapidly, lips moving without sound. “Hamid? Hamid. Hamid!”
He remains unresponsive, and Zolf tries not to think about the last time he saw someone in this state.
He staggers away from the mine, coughs wracking his frame as he attempts to wipe the dirt and blood from his eyes. A cacophonous buzzing fills his ears and he shakes his head frantically, trying to bring the world back into focus. He hears a muffled shout and sees his parents rushing towards him.
His mother grasps his arm and presses a cloth against his head to stem the flow of blood now mixed with dirt and tears. Hirald stares at the mine entrance behind him, eyes wide with desperate hope. His lips form a single word and it rings in Zolf’s mind like a funeral knell.
“Feryn?”
He tries to speak and uselessly shakes his head, unable to form the words. His father reads the truth upon his face and surges toward the mine with a desperate cry.
They dig. A hopeless frenzy of motion, fingernails torn and breaking, blisters forming, bursting, bleeding, they dig and dig and then they stop. Everything stops.
Feryn’s body lies crushed beneath dirt and wood. No motion. No breath. Nothing. Zolf prays the falling beams stole Feryn’s consciousness before he drowned beneath the endless wave of dirt.
His father sinks to his knees and Zolf steps toward him as his mother crumples to the ground with a broken sob. She wraps her arms around Feryn, wiping the dirt from his face and begging him to hear her, to wake up. Silent tears run down Hirald’s face and tremors run through his frame as he reaches out to place a hand on Feryn’s chest, mouth forming words he cannot speak.
Zolf watches helplessly. What should he do? What can he say? He stumbles away, turning toward the entrance of the mine. None of it feels real. It can’t be real. This is a dream, a nightmare. Daylight pierces his eyes as he exits and his stomach roils. He vomits, then drops to the ground, curling in on himself. He should go back to his parents. He should do something.
Feryn...Feryn would know what to do.
Feryn always knew. Words came easily to him. He knew what to say to ease the hurt, knew what to do to calm and soothe. He knew how to bring a smile even in the darkest times. Zolf wishes for the thousandth time that Feryn was here instead. He’d have handled all of this far better.
But Feryn is gone and Zolf is here. Hamid needs him. So he starts speaking softly in a steady stream of nonsense as they wait for Sasha to return, and Hamid slowly refocuses on the world. He stares in confusion at the twisting scar curling up his limp arm and huddles closer to Zolf, still shivering.
Zolf reaches out, hand hovering above his shoulder in uncertainty. “Just breathe, Hamid, alright? You’re going to be fine. We’ll get you right out of here and fix up that arm properly, and you’ll be fine.”
He pushes every ounce of false assuredness he can muster into his words, trying to copy the calm confidence of a voice from his past.
Zolf’s eyes well with tears as he clutches his skinned knee and he bites his lip trying to keep them from spilling over, trying to be strong. Feryn gently wipes dirt away from the scrape with a damp cloth and begins to wrap it with a bandage.
“You’re alright, Zolf. It barely bled at all. Give it a few minutes more and it’ll probably stop stinging.” He carefully tucks the bandage around Zolf’s knee and neatly ties the loose ends together. “There, all done.”
He wraps an arm around Zolf’s shoulders, tucking his little brother against his side and rubbing his knuckles against his head. “You’re very brave, Zolf. Here, hop up on my shoulders, I’ll carry you home.”
Zolf eyes the shivering halfling and makes a decision. “Alright, Hamid, come here a minute.” Zolf pulls him close, sharing his own warmth, and slowly rubs his shoulders and back in a steady circular motion. The shivers begin to ease and Hamid leans closer, clinging onto Zolf’s coat. “We’ll be out of here before you know it.”
Sasha comes and goes again and Hamid’s renewed awareness is accompanied by a rising fear as the situation sinks in. He tries to keep a brave face, but Zolf can see the panic in his eyes and struggles to keep him talking. Their conversation dies and Zolf casts about desperately for another form of distraction.
“Play I-Spy?” He’s unsure where the idea came from but Hamid latches onto it.
“Okay, you can go f-first.”
Zolf nods. “Alright, I spy with my little eye, something beginning with D.”
Hamid begins looking around the half-collapsed tunnel and Zolf finds himself lost in a decades old memory.
“Feryn, we’re lost! I told you I didn’t want to come here and you wouldn’t listen, you never listen to me.”
Feryn smiles down at him confidently. “We’re not lost. I know which direction we came from and once we get a little further down this path I’ll know exactly where to go. We’ll be home before you know it, Zolf. And even if we were lost, you know everyone would be out looking for us. It’s going to be fine. Now, come on, look! I spy with my little eye, something beginning with D.”
Zolf scuffs his feet across the ground. “Dirt.”
Laughter warms Feryn’s voice as he gently tousles Zolf’s hair. “No, silly. Guess again.”
“Dog?”
“Dog? No. Wait...is that--”
“Dog! Feryn, it’s Canary! He found us!”
Zolf dashes forward toward the barking collie, throwing his arms around the dog’s neck. Canary licks his face as Feryn crouches beside him and reaches to scratch the collie’s neck.
“See, I told you it would be alright!” He clasps Zolf’s hand and straightens up. “Good boy, Canary! Come on, let’s go home.”
Hamid startles as unidentifiable sounds filter down the corridor toward them and Zolf reaches out, burying his own panic as he firmly grips the halfling’s shoulder.
“Just the dirt settling a bit. Sasha, she’s finding a way out, alright? She’ll be back here before you know it. We’re alright, yeah? Now come on, you haven’t guessed what I spy.”
The fear slowly recedes from Hamid’s eyes as he looks up into Zolf’s face. “S-something that starts with D?”
“Yeah.” He shifts his hand to Hamid’s back, rubbing it gently as the halfling’s breathing slowly evens into a steady rhythm.
“D-dirt?”
Zolf twists his lips into a smile that fails to reach his eyes and he hopes that it’s enough. “Yeah...yeah, alright it was dirt. Your turn.”
“I...I spy with m-my little eye, something beginning with…”
The game continues and Zolf feels the weight of responsibility settle heavily on his shoulders. He will get Hamid and Sasha out of here even if it’s the last thing he ever does.
“Thanks for taking me with you, Feryn. It was fun even if we got lost.”
“I told you, we weren’t lost! We just took the scenic route home.”
“We were lost.”
“Aw shut up and go to sleep.”
“Love you, Feryn.”
“I love you too, now go to sleep.”