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  His silence came as a way to state his presence, big and protective at the end of their line. Every so often, when a part of the tunnels was too narrow to traverse quickly, the Tora would spare a glance over his shoulder, finding only spindling fingers of darkness stretching behind them.

  Hayes cursed beneath his breath as the heat smoldered him beneath his heavy coat, panting slightly as they advanced through the underground. Reaching their destination was both cause of relief and concern within him, specially as he felt that same eeriness in the air as the Empress did. It felt wrong, and the bones he saw over the forms of his companions, scattered on the ground and shaped in ways he did not know, closed the icy grip of fear around his valiant heart.

  But he kept it to himself, swallowing once he had caught his breath again and once the gentle raft took some of his warmth away. He had remained lingering at the back of their party even once they had found enough space to spread out past their single file, accustomed to traversing rocky terrain and not afraid of any rocks slipping down at him. Plus, that way, if someone fell, he could stop them with his bulk. But now it was time to help and Hayes quickly faced the rubble, pawing and using his shoulder (but the one that didn’t hurt) to try and wedge some space between the rocks. They were hot at his touch, but his fur kept him insulated enough, even as his bones warmed and the feeling of suffocating came back, heart racing in his chest.

  “I do not envy whatever lived here before”, he mumbled, flattening his ears at the gentle echo that bounced back at him.

  As they continued down the tunnels, Chandra kept his head low just in case there was something jutting out from the roof the cave that he wouldn’t be able to sense before he ran into it. Everytime he came to space that was narrow and difficult to pass he would get low to the floor and squeeze the front of his body through before using his powerful paws to pull his back legs through. He was thankful that he was used to crawling through caves. He spent much of his time holed up in random burrows and caves all throughout the valley. It was a survival technique that he learnt was useful for staying away from predators as a loner.

  When Chandra came to the ledge, he nearly forgot it was there. He stumbled over his paws for a moment before catching himself and landing properly on all fours. He was glad that it was too dark for anyone to see his blunder.

     “Alright, Chandra?”

  Chandra nodded his head in response but quickly remembered that there was no way Reahla could see the gesture. He gently put the herbs down on the ground. “I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” He replied before picking the herb leaf back up and continuing down the the passage again. Chandra listened wordlessly as Reahla asked a question and Akuto-heika answered. He paid attention but he saw no reason to say anything in response. ‘It must have been frightening coming down here all by themself.’ Chandra thought of the Kage who he now viewed as quite brave for entering these dark tunnels alone for the sake of the pack.

  After a while of walking, Chandra felt the tunnels heat up dramatically, it was oppressive heat that he could feel drain away at his strength. He wanted to pant but he realized he couldn’t do so while holding the herbs in his mouth. He had no choice but to suffer in silence until they made it to the main passage.

  A hint of sulfur hit Chandra’s nose as soon as they arrived at the blocked passage. Though he couldn’t see it, he could sense the change in the size of the room and knew they had arrived. ‘Finally.’ he thought as he placed the herbs on the ground in a place he would remember them. But as he pulled his nose back up it hit one of the bones in the corridor. He let out a loud yelp at the shock of it. “Sorry about that… I just wasn’t expecting to run into the bones like that.” He apologized, his voice a little shaky as he realized that whatever it was died down here. When Akuto called them to get to work he moved over to the block passage and began pulling away at them. Since the rocks were hot, he had to work quickly to keep from burning his paw pads. He often took breaks to let them cool down but he was making slow, grueling progress.

  Only the word of one. Something about that made the Itachi’s fur stand on end, as she made a noise of affirmation and followed wordlessly after her Alpha after that. That was no reassurance whatsoever, and she wryly thought that she hoped that Kage’s word was reliable. Otherwise, this was about to become a venture ten times more dangerous than it already had been starting out.

  The darkness began to press in on Rey like a physical force, her ears going back against her skull. She had to frequently remind herself to keep them up and alert, for fear of missing something if she didn’t. Her ears and nose were just about the only senses that she had to go by down here, and if she didn’t keep those open and available… she didn’t like to think of the consequences. Especially if it was possible that her packmates’ lives were on the line.

  But then, there were hints of light creeping through the walls. Heat, as well as the darkness, began to seep past her fur, and Rey found herself beginning to pant every few moments as they carried onward. By the time they finally reached the blockage, she was almost constantly panting. She could hear as Akuto-heika moved forward, and the scraping of bones against the stone, and her fur shot right back up on end again. The Itachi gave the hard ground a sniff, and sneezed. Nothing but old dust and bones, too old to get any useful information out of them.

  Chandra’s surprised yelp drew a snarl out of her, as she immediately turned to face whatever it was- She chuffed at the Kawa’s admission. “Oh, good. I don’t think I’d be of much use to you in a fight down here if it was actually something to be worried about,” she mused, before turning back to the massive wall of boulders that seemed to block their path. Hints of light peeked through, and Rey couldn’t help but wonder what was on the other side.

  The lithe brown-hued she-wolf jumped up to join her packmates on the blockage, to find places where she might paw pebbles down. Eventually, she ended up winding her way over to Hayes, where she gave a mischievous grin and asked, “Need any help? Like old times?”

  Akuto listened to her packmates as they dug, and couldn’t help but laugh at Reahla’s comments. Though Akuto didn’t respond, she appreciated the humor...the mood in this place was oppressive, and frankly, she’d needed something to lighten it.

  Speaking of light…

  The barrier was stubborn, to say the least. She struggled to dislodge any pieces larger than her paw, and as time went on the sheer force required for it upset her. What if the barrier was supporting something else? Something far less stable…? The silver wolf paused, front paws placed on the blockage. Before she could come to a decision, however, a loose stone beneath her foot shifted and she slipped - blindly pulling a chunk of rubble with her. A blast of chalky air hit her nose from the gap and she choked.

  Coughing, Akuto turned back to the barrier. Though still not quite enough to climb through, a pale, sickly silver light shone through the hole from ahead, making visible a long, upward-reaching tunnel that seemed to turn somewhere far ahead. The draft’s coolness was placating, but offset by how...wrong it felt: practically bleeding gray ash and overwhelmingly stale, her spine prickled and she gagged violently, almost falling to the floor.

  Yuuzai had hung back when the party reached the blockage point. Several wolves had gone to try and dig out the stones, and he felt no need to crowd the excavation. Someone had to stay back to keep an eye on where they had come and make sure nothing surprised them from behind, after all. His focus shifting between the tunnel behind them and his packmates, Yuuzai started to get a bit lost in the noise, the scraping of stones and bones and claws. It was grating beyond measure but he would have to bear it.

  As time passed and his packmates struggled to unearth the blocked passage, Yuuzai ambled over towards the rockslide to join them. No sooner had he started walking over, Akuto broke through, allowing light and a foul smelling air to rush through the crack. "Heika!" he barked, rushing to his empress's side and letting her lean against his flank. He very nearly recoiled himself at the stale ashen breeze and unsettling glow. "Are you alright?" He asked, turning himself so that he was between the unblocked hole and Tentaka's Alpha. If it was making her ill, best not to expose her to it any further.

  Time had allowed his bruised ego to heal as well as his shoulder, but he still couldn’t keep the scoff that left his lips at Reahla’s snarky comment, looking at the smaller female through the corner of his eyes in the dark.
  “As much as I do appreciate your help, I would not like to repeat ‘old times’” the Tora replied. But he did move aside to allow her paws to push at the stones beside him, the slightest sliver of a smile coming to tug at his lip in silence.

  Yet his quiet demeanour and composure was soon broken by the sound of Akuto’s falling and coughing, turning his head to look at what had happened and quickly darting forward behind Yuuzai. The Kage’s words echoed his thought as Hayes peered over Akuto’s small form and down at the gap she had cleared.
  “Let me, please” he mumbled, gently brushing his Heika’s side as he got between her and the hole, paws tearing and shoulders pushing.
  He’d be damned if something happened to his Empress when he could’ve prevented it. Anguish had shone in his eyes at her fall, but he did not fear anymore because that had been the worst of the journey. Not even the ashen smell and the disgust that tore through him, making him gag as Akuto had done, was worse than the scare she’d given him. Them.

  Chandra continued to dig out the rubble to the best of his ability with his packmates. Not surprisingly, it was very time consuming work. As the unseen day went on and he carved his way deeper into the pile, it put stress on his paws. Several times he felt his paws painfully hit a crease at the wrong angle and heard a faint crack. He couldn’t recognize the source in the dark and feeling no pain, he assumed that it wasn’t anything too significant.

  It wasn’t until Chandra lost his pawhold for the fourth time that he realized what he was doing. He felt a sharp pain in the tip of his claws and though he couldn’t see it, he could feel wet liquid on his paws and could smell the irony tang of blood. He wasn’t sure how bad it was but he felt that at least three of his claws were broken. Not wanting to make a fuss over himself, he silently moved away from the rubble and limped over to where he placed the healing herbs. He treated the wounds as best he could with onion root and Yarrow, placing each carefully on his paws trying not to overuse it just in case someone did get hurt. It all felt much better once he was finished and just when he was ready to get back to work he heard the loud hacking of his Heika.

  She had accidently stumbled into something particularly old and irritating as a dim light broke through the room. Though Chandra couldn’t see what was happening he could hear the movement of his packmates and knew something was wrong with Akuto. He knew others had already moved to help her in one way or another but he didn’t want to sit by idly. ‘Coughing? Do I have anything for coughing?’ He though as he examined his herbs. He didn’t have anything, he had plants for everything else but that. ‘How foolish of you. You were going into the belly of a volcano you should have known there’d be ash down here!’ said an internal, self deprecating voice. Chandra hated that the voice was right; he knew all he needed to bring was some cedar but it eluded him. Still he had to do something.

  He lightly gripped the closest possible cure in his teeth and headed over to his alpha. He kept his head low and dropped the herb in front of her. “Akuto-Heika, I apologize that I don’t have an exact remedy for your cough… but this is elm if you chew it-it should at least help to settle your throat. If you wish to use it that is!” Chandra said stumbling over his words as his anxiety held a firm grip on him.

  Her packmates’ concern touched her deeply, bringing her some relief on its own. She accepted Chandra’s offer hastily, too distracted to thank him properly. While the gagging eventually subsided, she still looked haggard, and visibly shaken by the event. She looked up and out into the hole, staring sightlessly at the bleak feeble light. For a moment, the sound of digging and scraping claws faded to nonexistence to her, drowned out by the chill.

  The wolves’ efforts had paid off, however; the last bits of rubble crumbled away, no longer held together by pressure. The way was clear, and Akuto winced at the realization it was up to her to lead them. She cast her gaze down wordlessly, blinking twice. I am the head of this pack, she told herself, I’m supposed to be the divine leader. I have to.

  Closing her eyes, dreading it softly, she crept forward until she found a steady but slow stride. Akuto “looked” back over her shoulder as a signal, but knowing their merit, she doubted they needed one.

  As she slowly moved toward the tunnel’s end, a low, hollow sound reverberated off the circular walls, with the faint dusting of ash slowly thickening as they climbed. Akuto winced at the feeling - it was like walking through snow, but...deader somehow. Her heart beat uncomfortably fast.

  The ash grew deeper with the altitude, becoming a chalky blanket that almost covered her paws. Ahead, one could now clearly see that the tunnel turned to the left, the ashy draft at its strongest ever and mixed with frigid winter air. The hollow noise rang louder in her ears, now clearly discernible as an echo half-stifled by ash. The light seemed to bleach the tunnel walls a sickly gray.

  “It leads outside,” Akuto muttered inadvertently: it appeared the original Kage had been correct.

  Surprise hit him as his paws dug away at the rocks and dirt that Akuto had loosened already, using his weight to roll some bigger rocks down the tunnel and out of their way. But once the opening was big enough for him, being the largest in their group, Hayes moved aside, looking at his Heika for confirmation that she was alright and that they should continue.
Even though something inside him didn’t want to.

  Once she moved again, he didn’t wait for the rest of their party this time and instead went straight after her, afraid she might stumble again; after all, she was blind, and he had always wondered how she managed to move around so easily. He would never be able to rely solely on his other senses, not like she did.

That thought only hardened as his eyes began to widen in realization, looking past her smaller form at the end of the tunnel. He could see light filtering through, and the particles of dust and chunks of ash that floated around them became more apparent. But his stomach began to fall nonetheless, swallowing audibly at the uncertainty of what lay ahead.

  Uncertainty sitting like a rock in his belly, Yuuzai followed his packmates down the tunnel, the light hurting his eyes after spending so long in darkness. The air inside the tunnel was even more foul than he'd expected, and just breathing made him feel ill as he continued onward. It was almost fresh and stale at the same time, a horrid combination of air that had seen the outside but was fetid and rotten anyway. Akuto commented as much as they moved, her senses sharper in spite of her lack of vision. Not that visibility mattered when the tunnel was constantly misted in ashy fumes.

  Yuuzai wished he could have left his paws at the start of the tunnel with every step that sank into the soot on the floor. It made him feel dirty all the way down to his bones, and he could only imagine with disgust how much cleaning it would take to clear it off when they went back to the surface. The clinging powder made it feel like he'd never be clean again from his snout to his tail. As the rest of the party stopped moving, Yuuzai halted in his tracks as well, leaning forward to try and get a look at just what they'd found at the end of the ashen tunnel.

  The Itachi bared her teeth in silent laughter at Hayes’ response, her paws joining his as the pair of them tugged and dug at the rubble, until-

  Rey had whipped around at the sound of the rubble cracking, as their Empress began to cough and gag. Several of her packmates surrounded the lithe, blind alpha, and even Reahla herself skittered down the rubble a ways to make sure Akuto wasn’t actively dying. The heika had been the wolf to give her a chance, and a new home, and it most certainly wasn’t a favor that Rey was bound to forget any time soon.

  Which is why, as she helped Hayes clear away the rubble, she was determined to do what was asked of her, and why she followed wordlessly and without question when Akuto-heika gestured them forward. Regardless of the deep pit in her stomach, or how unnerved the ashen, deadened smell of the tunnel before them made her, she would do what was asked of her.

  That was what a packmate did.

  She wrinkled her nose at the feeling of the soot seeping into her fur, ears going back against her skull as every breath she took startled the dust and ash around them. Eventually, as the faint smells of the outdoors began to reach her nose, though, Rey seemed to pick up her pace, ears going forward. Whatever might be ahead of them, it might just be worth it to make it out into the fresh air again...

  Chandra smiled as Akuto accepted his aid. It was a little thing but he was glad he could help even that much. He jumped when the work from the others caused the rest of the rumble to come crumbling down. Ash blew in every which directly and he quickly shut his eyes and covered his nose to keep from breathing in too much of the powderly mess.

  He slowly looked up to the tunnel filled with gray, forbidding light. Chandra felt all of his confidence leave his body as he looked down the long hallway. ‘We have to go through there?’ He thought as fear stuck him in place like an ancient tree’s roots dug deep into the earth. This was without a doubt the scariest place he had ever been in and considering he was scared of most places that was saying something.

  As Akuto moved forward into the tunnel, Chandra swallowed hard before following. He paused halfway through the entrance to the tunnel and ran back to get the herbs he had brought before moving back into place. ‘Time to be brave.’ He though as he walked with the others.

  Chandra kept his eyes forward as they walked up the pathway, ash slowly accumulating on his paws and stinging his eyes as it was blown around them by an outside force. There was a deafening hum that seemed to want to drive him crazy as it was both louder than any other sound and somehow quieter as well. He tried his best to keep his mind set on a silent mantra of bravery as they came closer to the end of the tunnel.

Skin by SimplySilent | BG image by Nikkayla

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  His silence came as a way to state his presence, big and protective at the end of their line. Every so often, when a part of the tunnels was too narrow to traverse quickly, the Tora would spare a glance over his shoulder, finding only spindling fingers of darkness stretching behind them.

  Hayes cursed beneath his breath as the heat smoldered him beneath his heavy coat, panting slightly as they advanced through the underground. Reaching their destination was both cause of relief and concern within him, specially as he felt that same eeriness in the air as the Empress did. It felt wrong, and the bones he saw over the forms of his companions, scattered on the ground and shaped in ways he did not know, closed the icy grip of fear around his valiant heart.

  But he kept it to himself, swallowing once he had caught his breath again and once the gentle raft took some of his warmth away. He had remained lingering at the back of their party even once they had found enough space to spread out past their single file, accustomed to traversing rocky terrain and not afraid of any rocks slipping down at him. Plus, that way, if someone fell, he could stop them with his bulk. But now it was time to help and Hayes quickly faced the rubble, pawing and using his shoulder (but the one that didn’t hurt) to try and wedge some space between the rocks. They were hot at his touch, but his fur kept him insulated enough, even as his bones warmed and the feeling of suffocating came back, heart racing in his chest.

  “I do not envy whatever lived here before”, he mumbled, flattening his ears at the gentle echo that bounced back at him.

  As they continued down the tunnels, Chandra kept his head low just in case there was something jutting out from the roof the cave that he wouldn’t be able to sense before he ran into it. Everytime he came to space that was narrow and difficult to pass he would get low to the floor and squeeze the front of his body through before using his powerful paws to pull his back legs through. He was thankful that he was used to crawling through caves. He spent much of his time holed up in random burrows and caves all throughout the valley. It was a survival technique that he learnt was useful for staying away from predators as a loner.

  When Chandra came to the ledge, he nearly forgot it was there. He stumbled over his paws for a moment before catching himself and landing properly on all fours. He was glad that it was too dark for anyone to see his blunder.

     “Alright, Chandra?”

  Chandra nodded his head in response but quickly remembered that there was no way Reahla could see the gesture. He gently put the herbs down on the ground. “I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” He replied before picking the herb leaf back up and continuing down the the passage again. Chandra listened wordlessly as Reahla asked a question and Akuto-heika answered. He paid attention but he saw no reason to say anything in response. ‘It must have been frightening coming down here all by themself.’ Chandra thought of the Kage who he now viewed as quite brave for entering these dark tunnels alone for the sake of the pack.

  After a while of walking, Chandra felt the tunnels heat up dramatically, it was oppressive heat that he could feel drain away at his strength. He wanted to pant but he realized he couldn’t do so while holding the herbs in his mouth. He had no choice but to suffer in silence until they made it to the main passage.

  A hint of sulfur hit Chandra’s nose as soon as they arrived at the blocked passage. Though he couldn’t see it, he could sense the change in the size of the room and knew they had arrived. ‘Finally.’ he thought as he placed the herbs on the ground in a place he would remember them. But as he pulled his nose back up it hit one of the bones in the corridor. He let out a loud yelp at the shock of it. “Sorry about that… I just wasn’t expecting to run into the bones like that.” He apologized, his voice a little shaky as he realized that whatever it was died down here. When Akuto called them to get to work he moved over to the block passage and began pulling away at them. Since the rocks were hot, he had to work quickly to keep from burning his paw pads. He often took breaks to let them cool down but he was making slow, grueling progress.

  Only the word of one. Something about that made the Itachi’s fur stand on end, as she made a noise of affirmation and followed wordlessly after her Alpha after that. That was no reassurance whatsoever, and she wryly thought that she hoped that Kage’s word was reliable. Otherwise, this was about to become a venture ten times more dangerous than it already had been starting out.

  The darkness began to press in on Rey like a physical force, her ears going back against her skull. She had to frequently remind herself to keep them up and alert, for fear of missing something if she didn’t. Her ears and nose were just about the only senses that she had to go by down here, and if she didn’t keep those open and available… she didn’t like to think of the consequences. Especially if it was possible that her packmates’ lives were on the line.

  But then, there were hints of light creeping through the walls. Heat, as well as the darkness, began to seep past her fur, and Rey found herself beginning to pant every few moments as they carried onward. By the time they finally reached the blockage, she was almost constantly panting. She could hear as Akuto-heika moved forward, and the scraping of bones against the stone, and her fur shot right back up on end again. The Itachi gave the hard ground a sniff, and sneezed. Nothing but old dust and bones, too old to get any useful information out of them.

  Chandra’s surprised yelp drew a snarl out of her, as she immediately turned to face whatever it was- She chuffed at the Kawa’s admission. “Oh, good. I don’t think I’d be of much use to you in a fight down here if it was actually something to be worried about,” she mused, before turning back to the massive wall of boulders that seemed to block their path. Hints of light peeked through, and Rey couldn’t help but wonder what was on the other side.

  The lithe brown-hued she-wolf jumped up to join her packmates on the blockage, to find places where she might paw pebbles down. Eventually, she ended up winding her way over to Hayes, where she gave a mischievous grin and asked, “Need any help? Like old times?”

  Akuto listened to her packmates as they dug, and couldn’t help but laugh at Reahla’s comments. Though Akuto didn’t respond, she appreciated the humor...the mood in this place was oppressive, and frankly, she’d needed something to lighten it.

  Speaking of light…

  The barrier was stubborn, to say the least. She struggled to dislodge any pieces larger than her paw, and as time went on the sheer force required for it upset her. What if the barrier was supporting something else? Something far less stable…? The silver wolf paused, front paws placed on the blockage. Before she could come to a decision, however, a loose stone beneath her foot shifted and she slipped - blindly pulling a chunk of rubble with her. A blast of chalky air hit her nose from the gap and she choked.

  Coughing, Akuto turned back to the barrier. Though still not quite enough to climb through, a pale, sickly silver light shone through the hole from ahead, making visible a long, upward-reaching tunnel that seemed to turn somewhere far ahead. The draft’s coolness was placating, but offset by how...wrong it felt: practically bleeding gray ash and overwhelmingly stale, her spine prickled and she gagged violently, almost falling to the floor.

  Yuuzai had hung back when the party reached the blockage point. Several wolves had gone to try and dig out the stones, and he felt no need to crowd the excavation. Someone had to stay back to keep an eye on where they had come and make sure nothing surprised them from behind, after all. His focus shifting between the tunnel behind them and his packmates, Yuuzai started to get a bit lost in the noise, the scraping of stones and bones and claws. It was grating beyond measure but he would have to bear it.

  As time passed and his packmates struggled to unearth the blocked passage, Yuuzai ambled over towards the rockslide to join them. No sooner had he started walking over, Akuto broke through, allowing light and a foul smelling air to rush through the crack. "Heika!" he barked, rushing to his empress's side and letting her lean against his flank. He very nearly recoiled himself at the stale ashen breeze and unsettling glow. "Are you alright?" He asked, turning himself so that he was between the unblocked hole and Tentaka's Alpha. If it was making her ill, best not to expose her to it any further.

  Time had allowed his bruised ego to heal as well as his shoulder, but he still couldn’t keep the scoff that left his lips at Reahla’s snarky comment, looking at the smaller female through the corner of his eyes in the dark.
  “As much as I do appreciate your help, I would not like to repeat ‘old times’” the Tora replied. But he did move aside to allow her paws to push at the stones beside him, the slightest sliver of a smile coming to tug at his lip in silence.

  Yet his quiet demeanour and composure was soon broken by the sound of Akuto’s falling and coughing, turning his head to look at what had happened and quickly darting forward behind Yuuzai. The Kage’s words echoed his thought as Hayes peered over Akuto’s small form and down at the gap she had cleared.
  “Let me, please” he mumbled, gently brushing his Heika’s side as he got between her and the hole, paws tearing and shoulders pushing.
  He’d be damned if something happened to his Empress when he could’ve prevented it. Anguish had shone in his eyes at her fall, but he did not fear anymore because that had been the worst of the journey. Not even the ashen smell and the disgust that tore through him, making him gag as Akuto had done, was worse than the scare she’d given him. Them.

  Chandra continued to dig out the rubble to the best of his ability with his packmates. Not surprisingly, it was very time consuming work. As the unseen day went on and he carved his way deeper into the pile, it put stress on his paws. Several times he felt his paws painfully hit a crease at the wrong angle and heard a faint crack. He couldn’t recognize the source in the dark and feeling no pain, he assumed that it wasn’t anything too significant.

  It wasn’t until Chandra lost his pawhold for the fourth time that he realized what he was doing. He felt a sharp pain in the tip of his claws and though he couldn’t see it, he could feel wet liquid on his paws and could smell the irony tang of blood. He wasn’t sure how bad it was but he felt that at least three of his claws were broken. Not wanting to make a fuss over himself, he silently moved away from the rubble and limped over to where he placed the healing herbs. He treated the wounds as best he could with onion root and Yarrow, placing each carefully on his paws trying not to overuse it just in case someone did get hurt. It all felt much better once he was finished and just when he was ready to get back to work he heard the loud hacking of his Heika.

  She had accidently stumbled into something particularly old and irritating as a dim light broke through the room. Though Chandra couldn’t see what was happening he could hear the movement of his packmates and knew something was wrong with Akuto. He knew others had already moved to help her in one way or another but he didn’t want to sit by idly. ‘Coughing? Do I have anything for coughing?’ He though as he examined his herbs. He didn’t have anything, he had plants for everything else but that. ‘How foolish of you. You were going into the belly of a volcano you should have known there’d be ash down here!’ said an internal, self deprecating voice. Chandra hated that the voice was right; he knew all he needed to bring was some cedar but it eluded him. Still he had to do something.

  He lightly gripped the closest possible cure in his teeth and headed over to his alpha. He kept his head low and dropped the herb in front of her. “Akuto-Heika, I apologize that I don’t have an exact remedy for your cough… but this is elm if you chew it-it should at least help to settle your throat. If you wish to use it that is!” Chandra said stumbling over his words as his anxiety held a firm grip on him.

  Her packmates’ concern touched her deeply, bringing her some relief on its own. She accepted Chandra’s offer hastily, too distracted to thank him properly. While the gagging eventually subsided, she still looked haggard, and visibly shaken by the event. She looked up and out into the hole, staring sightlessly at the bleak feeble light. For a moment, the sound of digging and scraping claws faded to nonexistence to her, drowned out by the chill.

  The wolves’ efforts had paid off, however; the last bits of rubble crumbled away, no longer held together by pressure. The way was clear, and Akuto winced at the realization it was up to her to lead them. She cast her gaze down wordlessly, blinking twice. I am the head of this pack, she told herself, I’m supposed to be the divine leader. I have to.

  Closing her eyes, dreading it softly, she crept forward until she found a steady but slow stride. Akuto “looked” back over her shoulder as a signal, but knowing their merit, she doubted they needed one.

  As she slowly moved toward the tunnel’s end, a low, hollow sound reverberated off the circular walls, with the faint dusting of ash slowly thickening as they climbed. Akuto winced at the feeling - it was like walking through snow, but...deader somehow. Her heart beat uncomfortably fast.

  The ash grew deeper with the altitude, becoming a chalky blanket that almost covered her paws. Ahead, one could now clearly see that the tunnel turned to the left, the ashy draft at its strongest ever and mixed with frigid winter air. The hollow noise rang louder in her ears, now clearly discernible as an echo half-stifled by ash. The light seemed to bleach the tunnel walls a sickly gray.

  “It leads outside,” Akuto muttered inadvertently: it appeared the original Kage had been correct.

  Surprise hit him as his paws dug away at the rocks and dirt that Akuto had loosened already, using his weight to roll some bigger rocks down the tunnel and out of their way. But once the opening was big enough for him, being the largest in their group, Hayes moved aside, looking at his Heika for confirmation that she was alright and that they should continue.
Even though something inside him didn’t want to.

  Once she moved again, he didn’t wait for the rest of their party this time and instead went straight after her, afraid she might stumble again; after all, she was blind, and he had always wondered how she managed to move around so easily. He would never be able to rely solely on his other senses, not like she did.

That thought only hardened as his eyes began to widen in realization, looking past her smaller form at the end of the tunnel. He could see light filtering through, and the particles of dust and chunks of ash that floated around them became more apparent. But his stomach began to fall nonetheless, swallowing audibly at the uncertainty of what lay ahead.

  Uncertainty sitting like a rock in his belly, Yuuzai followed his packmates down the tunnel, the light hurting his eyes after spending so long in darkness. The air inside the tunnel was even more foul than he'd expected, and just breathing made him feel ill as he continued onward. It was almost fresh and stale at the same time, a horrid combination of air that had seen the outside but was fetid and rotten anyway. Akuto commented as much as they moved, her senses sharper in spite of her lack of vision. Not that visibility mattered when the tunnel was constantly misted in ashy fumes.

  Yuuzai wished he could have left his paws at the start of the tunnel with every step that sank into the soot on the floor. It made him feel dirty all the way down to his bones, and he could only imagine with disgust how much cleaning it would take to clear it off when they went back to the surface. The clinging powder made it feel like he'd never be clean again from his snout to his tail. As the rest of the party stopped moving, Yuuzai halted in his tracks as well, leaning forward to try and get a look at just what they'd found at the end of the ashen tunnel.

  The Itachi bared her teeth in silent laughter at Hayes’ response, her paws joining his as the pair of them tugged and dug at the rubble, until-

  Rey had whipped around at the sound of the rubble cracking, as their Empress began to cough and gag. Several of her packmates surrounded the lithe, blind alpha, and even Reahla herself skittered down the rubble a ways to make sure Akuto wasn’t actively dying. The heika had been the wolf to give her a chance, and a new home, and it most certainly wasn’t a favor that Rey was bound to forget any time soon.

  Which is why, as she helped Hayes clear away the rubble, she was determined to do what was asked of her, and why she followed wordlessly and without question when Akuto-heika gestured them forward. Regardless of the deep pit in her stomach, or how unnerved the ashen, deadened smell of the tunnel before them made her, she would do what was asked of her.

  That was what a packmate did.

  She wrinkled her nose at the feeling of the soot seeping into her fur, ears going back against her skull as every breath she took startled the dust and ash around them. Eventually, as the faint smells of the outdoors began to reach her nose, though, Rey seemed to pick up her pace, ears going forward. Whatever might be ahead of them, it might just be worth it to make it out into the fresh air again...

  Chandra smiled as Akuto accepted his aid. It was a little thing but he was glad he could help even that much. He jumped when the work from the others caused the rest of the rumble to come crumbling down. Ash blew in every which directly and he quickly shut his eyes and covered his nose to keep from breathing in too much of the powderly mess.

  He slowly looked up to the tunnel filled with gray, forbidding light. Chandra felt all of his confidence leave his body as he looked down the long hallway. ‘We have to go through there?’ He thought as fear stuck him in place like an ancient tree’s roots dug deep into the earth. This was without a doubt the scariest place he had ever been in and considering he was scared of most places that was saying something.

  As Akuto moved forward into the tunnel, Chandra swallowed hard before following. He paused halfway through the entrance to the tunnel and ran back to get the herbs he had brought before moving back into place. ‘Time to be brave.’ He though as he walked with the others.

  Chandra kept his eyes forward as they walked up the pathway, ash slowly accumulating on his paws and stinging his eyes as it was blown around them by an outside force. There was a deafening hum that seemed to want to drive him crazy as it was both louder than any other sound and somehow quieter as well. He tried his best to keep his mind set on a silent mantra of bravery as they came closer to the end of the tunnel.

Skin by SimplySilent | BG image by Nikkayla