Atop a headless statue, three girls sat in silence, doing absolutely nothing. The heavy tranquility around them was only interrupted by occasional gusts of wind that clashed against the hard stone of the knight.
However, silence wasn't the only monotone thing in their surroundings—the motion around them was just as still as the sounds were. The lack of movement, only broken by an occasional flinch or shift in stance of one of the girls, made everything appear even more boring and lifeless.
A whole lot of time of doing absolutely nothing passed.
What made things even worse, at least for Nephis and Rain, was the arrival of night. The disappearance of their ability to see threw them into jet-black darkness, leaving them with only their thoughts and absolutely nothing to look at. However, the return of night also brought the reappearance of the ocean, which at least made things more bearable through sounds of the gentle waves.
And just like that, around a day had passed. The Carapace Centurions, already long gone, allowed the three girls to finally proceed with their trip to the west—and so they did.
Using the familiar golden rope, the same one they used to climb up the headless statue, they steadily descended the monument. Nephis went first, and after reaching a point of twenty meters or so below them, she found purchase and waited. Rain, waiting above, patiently helped the blind girl descend, trying her best to not make any mistakes. Thankfully, descending the stature was easier than ascending it.
As their feet touched the ground, the thick mud clung to their boots and bare feet, pulling them down. The small cohort was now encompassed in crimson coral, while the grey sky of the forgotten shore loomed over them.
Each step was an exhausting effort for the small group, an effort that quickly drained their energy. That said, they at least had something to do now, rather than enduring the monotone activity of doing nothing.
Like last time, Rain worked as the navigator of their small cohort, walking in front and leading them through the labyrinth. However, there was one problem. She had lost her connection to Cupcake, which meant that she had also lost her ability to navigate them through the crimson blades.
Cupcake hadn't died—Rain simply lost her connection to the crab because she had been too emotional when thinking about her past.
Nephis and Cassie followed her blindly, unaware of her slip up.
They were in a bad situation, but it wasn't as dire as it might've seen to an outsider. Rain had been in the western parts of the labyrinth before, so she knew that cliffs , on which they could spend the next night, weren't far away.
However, they first needed to reach those cliffs, which would now be a lot more difficult without the navigation ability.
Thankfully, the pale girl wasn't stupid. Weeks ago, because the western side was inhabited by the most Carapace scavengers, she had ordered her pets to highlight tunnels and paths that lead into loops or dead ends, so she wouldn't get lost in situations like these.
The trio steadily continued walking forward, their ankles sliding into the mud with each step, as the thick grime clung to their feet.
Minutes ticked by peacefully, but after a while, the first words were finally spoken.
"Rain, you said that you can't leave the Dream Realm. Do you miss home?" Cassie asked, holding the golden rope tightly.
Rain stopped for just a fraction of a second, but she quickly forced herself to continue walking. The blind girl's question had caught her off guard, and she didn't know how to answer it. She of course missed home, whatever home meant in her situation, but she also knew that her life wouldn't be any better there.
The only thing she longed for right now was to survive, nothing else.
"I... I don't know." Rain staggered, before quickly catching herself. "There's nothing I miss in particular. I'm an outskirts kid, you know?"
Cassie seemed to have been surprised by Rain's answer, her eyes widening, while Nephis' expression stayed the same as ever.
"Really? don't you miss your family?"
Rain sighed.
"I don't have a family. Well… I guess I have a younger brother somewhere. But I haven't seen him in many years."
"Oh."
The blind girl fell silent. Several seconds later, she said quietly:
"I miss my family the most."
There was longing and sadness in her voice. Rain pitied the blind girl. In her eyes, Cassie was just a frail lamb wandering in hell. That was the reason why Rain was determined to protect Cassie by all means.
"You'll see them again one day, okay? Well uhh, not see, but you know what I mean."
The blonde-haired girl suddenly started to giggle, because of the way Rain stumbled over her own words, before it transformed into an all out laugh. The melodic sound of her laughter made Rain feel much better—she had not heard anything like that since entering the Dream Realm a month ago—well, actually even long before then.
Rain couldn't contain her smile.
"You seem to care a lot about your family."
The laughter coming out of Cassie's mouth slowly died down, but the smile remained, as she thought about her parents. After a moment, Cassie said:
"Of course. They took care of me my entire life."
Rain stared at the grey sky, rays of sunshine smiling back at her.
'Maybe I miss Sunny more than I thought. I wonder what that kid has been up to.'
***
The cohort, which consisted of three people, continued walking through the crimson labyrinth—their goal being the cliffs in the distance. The three girls had broken off early in the morning, so they still had a lot of time to reach their destination. And to their delight, it had been really peaceful till now.
The reason for the peacefulness was, of course, that there weren't a lot of Carapace Scavengers to get attacked by. In three hours of walking, the cohort had only encountered two hostile Scavengers, Nephis having done quick work with both of them.
On top of that, the markings that Rain had ordered her tamed beasts to leave on the crimson corals, allowed her to traverse through the labyrinth with ease.
The markings were crude and rough, nothing more than bold crosses left by the large pincers of her tamed Scavengers.
Peace was a rare occurrence on the Forgotten Shore, not a rule and certainly not the norm.
At some point, Rain noticed that the wind had picked up a bit. Almost simultaneously, Cassie stopped walking.
Nephis looked at the blind girl with a deep frown. She too felt something bad approaching.
And yet, before the blonde or silver-haired girl could react, the black-haired girl acted.With a panicked expression, Rain lifted Cassie into the air, setting her comfortably onto her back.
The blind girl squirmed, but instinctively held on tightly.
"NEPHIS, WE NEED TO MOVE FASTER! A STORM IS APPROACHING!"
Before Nephis could even think about what Rain had just said, she felt a drop of water fall onto her face. She raised her head and looked at the sky.
High above them, dark stormy clouds gathered with unnatural speed. Her eyes darkened as the clouds covered the sky. And without saying anything, she complied, quickly running after Rain and Cassie.
Changing star quickly caught up with them, and glanced at Rain. Her voice was heavy, as she eventually spoke.
"Rain, what's going on?" Nephis asked, the slight quiver in her voice betraying her calmness.
Rain continued running, quickly navigating through the crimson blades. Thankfully, they were already close to the cliffs—they were already visible from their position—but they still had a good distance to traverse.
She didn't look back—she just ran, feeling the amount of water droplets landing on her face increase with every second.
"A storm is coming. The water will rise back up, faster than you can imagine. I almost died when that happened the last time."
Nephis nodded. That was everything she needed to know for now. They couldn't waste any time with more questions now.
And so, they continued running.
As Rain and Nephis darted forward, Cassie sitting securely on the black-haired girl's back, the drops of rain started to grow heavier. Brutal winds howled through the crimson walls of the labyrinth, creating havoc between the coral blades. The light dimmed, as the dark clouds steadily covered more and more of the grey sky.
Rain was weaving through the crimson blades with all her might, her life depended on it, after all. She was an agile girl, but not the strongest physically, so running with the blind girl on her back came out as harder than she expected.
However, there was no world in which she would stop pushing forward.
As Rain turned around a corner, Nephis following closely behind her, she suddenly ran into a hard carapace, feeling herself stumble backwards. The girl on her back held on tighter, confused at the sudden halt. Rain's heart dropped as a gruesome Scavenger stood in front of her.
'Why now?'
Although the Carapace Scavenger loomed over her with bloodlusts in its eyes, Rain didn't feel any threat coming from the beast.
Nephis moved quickly, aiming her thin sword at the large Nightmare being. But, in the last second, Rain yelled out to Nephis' name, stopping her at the last moment.
"Nephis, that's one of mine!"
Nephis halted mid swing, missing the crab by a hair's breadth.
The Carapace Scavenger released a low screech as Rain lifted the blind girl onto its large back, not wasting any moment
"What are you doing?" Nephis asked.
Rain quickly finished putting Cassie onto her tamed beast's back, before tilting her head.
"Running around with someone on your back is a lot harder than I thought, so making my pet do the hard work will be a lot more efficient."
The answer to her question was so obvious that it left her flustered. Thankfully, her reddened cheeks, that came from embarrassment, weren't visible to the girl in front of her.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning thundered through the labyrinth, pulling Nephis out of her embarrassment. The winds grew in strength and the amount of water under her feet started to rise to their shins.
Things were slowly turning dangerous.
Nephis' body instinctively started to move, as she saw Rain and the Carapace Scavenger already continuing towards the cliffs in the distance.
Each minute, the winds grew stronger, the thunder turned more vicious and the water started to rise. Soon, it was up to her knees, then up to her waist, making running almost impossible. Their speed slowed down considerably.
It was when another lighting strike howled through the labyrinth, that they saw a dark mass of stone ahead.
They had reached the cliffs.
Simultaneously, a terrible rumble sound came from the depths of the labyrinth. Turning around, Rain noticed the seemingly infinite expanse of dark water moving towards them with incredible speed.
'Damnation.'
"NEPHIS, GET ONTO THE SCAVENGER!"
She complied.
Rain had done a lot of experiments since arriving in the crimson labyrinth—and one of those involved the climbing ability of Carapace Scavengers. And what she found out was that they were masters.
As Rain jumped onto the cramped back of the Carapace Scavengers, feeling the bodies of the other two girls squish against her, she didn't waste any time on ordering her pet to climb up the cliff.
"HOLD ON TIGHTLY."
The Scavenger moved instantly, jumping into the air with incredible might. Just when it started to lose speed and drop, it plunged its pincers into the stone walls, latching onto them. And then, it steadily started climbing upwards.
The dark sea under them crashed against the stone wall, the rumble almost making them fall down into their doom. However, they had already been long gone. The cohort—and the scavenger—had already reached the top of the mountain.