Chapter Sixty Six: Earthen Explosion

                                    

                                          
The rumbling in the caves resounded louder and louder. Footsteps drummed on the stone floor. Someone was shouting.
                          
"Get out! Get your belongings and run!"
                          
Alastar was back, sprinting towards us. He looked more ruffled than I'd ever seen him and his eyes were wide in panic.
                          
We all stood dumbstruck for a moment. Then in the next second, we burst into action. I sheathed my weapons and dashed towards my room. In a few moments, I turned the knob and bundled up my items to sort through later.
                          
Jinx and Ash were already out with Sora dashing out of the doorway next. We looked to Jinx to show the way out.
                          
The noise was almost deafening now, the roar of the falling rocks choking out any other noise. Dust and soil flooded through, forcing us to shift to regain some semblance of vision. Sora and I ran while Jinx hitched a ride with Ash.
                          
Particles filled my lungs and made it difficult to breathe. Crashes rounded off the walls and boomed in my ears. I could barely see my paws in front of me, much less the others.
                          
This reminded me suddenly of rescuing the Lupine in the midst of a blizzard. I had been with Dakota, and he'd saved me when I'd been trapped under ice.
                          
I shook those memories from my mind.
                          
Jinx erected wall after all to stop the flow of rocks but they only tore through. Panic welled in me as the walls closed in, closed in with suffocating precision, closed in with unearthly claws of shadow.
                          
I was a wolf under pressure. I was a wolf down under. Wolves weren't meant to live in tunnels. Wolves weren't meant to choke on stale air. Wolves were meant to die buried like this.
                          
With new vigor, we tore through the caverns, desperate to reach the surface.
                          
Run, run, run. 
                          
We chanted this mantra in our heads, weaving through twisting tunnels and hurdling past underground rivers.
                          
Multiple tunnels were blocked and we skid to a halt.
                          
"Jinx can you do something?!" Sora screamed.
                          
"I can't!" His cry came back. "Something's blocking my ability! Nothing's working!"
                          
Ash's strained voice floated through the murk. "I'm trying to get the clouds away but I can't do anything either."
                          
There was a newfound panic that ensued. Our ragged breaths echoed off of the walls. The rumbling dropped into silence. For a few moments, we stood still, not knowing what to do. Then Jinx turned his head to the direction that we had come from. His eyes widened.
                          
"Go," he whispered.
                          
Trusting his word, we bolted.
                          
A few rushed scrambles down various caves later, we burst through into opened air -- and kept running.
                          
Tons of rock and dust exploded behind us, launching through the forest and sweeping us through the air. Sora tumbled head over heels and Jinx slipped from Ash's claws. Ash then attempted to shift to his semi-form but was only flung farther, his wings flapping wildly.
                          
Ash shouted something that was lost to the wind.
                          
"What?!" I yelled back but received no response. I was too busy trying to anchor myself behind a rock and avoid flying debris. I shifted back into my semi-form, hoping the worst of it would go over my head.
                          
I saw a huddled form slither up and scrabbled to reach Jinx. We huddled together, waiting for the dust to settle. I squinted but all I saw was a foggy haze. The rumbling continued from deep within, now and then the world trembled under our feet. A stray chunk of rock pelted me in my forehead and I felt blood begin to trickle down the side of my face.