Caved in

#Chapter2 Caved in

I exhaled whiping the sweat over my forehead as we were still riding through the forest. My grip tight on the linings of the horse kept my vision focused on the way ahead of us.

I could feel kyungsoo leaning against my back as he hugged me to hold himself sitting behind me on the horse and I could hear the steps of the other horse carrying jongdae and chanyeol behind us.

It has been too silent between all of us the tension was too high specially between kyungsoo and chanyeol. The knight kept his eyes on him whatever he did. He didn't trust him but I wasn't in the mindset to start another discussion as long as he didnt touch him he can overthink as much as he wants to.

Jongdae usually was the one who tried to open up little conversations that no one would really join in without starting another fight.

It was tiring and I couldnt imagen doing a journey this way with this tension between all of us. Not to mention did I grow sick after the death of my father. I didn't really tell anyone cause I didnt want them to think I was stuck mourning. I needed my time yes but I do realize that my father would have wanted for me to be strong and find a way to get back our kingdom and in order to do that we have to find the warlock called baekhyun like he told me to.

He will tell me what's going on

It pained me to know the same happened to my home on the other island. My mother hidden away somewhere in a simple village without knowing what happened to my father.

I closed my eyes not wanting to feel the pain of loss anymore. It was like a hole in my chest and a sickening thought poisoning my mind that I would never be able to see him again unless I stared at a drawn painting of him.

I hated that he was gone. If he was here he couldve helped our situation too he couldve told me what to do, he couldve told us all to get ourselves together with a motivational speech.

'' we dont even know where we're going /" Chanyeol complained and I felt kyungsoo move his head away from leaning against my back probably to wake up more as chanyeol made his horse ride faster to be besides us.

'' hes around here somewhere I swear I recognize this place /"

Jongdae answered while I kept my eyes focused on the way.

I've been feeling a bit dizzy ever since I stepped onto the horse. I've slept longer than anyone here probably yet it seemed like I was the most tired out of all.

Unconsciously i moved my hand to my stomach feeling the sudden pressure of being stabbed again while they continued to talk when kyungsoo interfered aswell.

'' he is a warlock.. he probably figured we would cause a ruckus and disappeard to not be found as easily anymore. We just need to keep looking /"

'' keep looking /" chanyeol shock his head '' we've been circling these woods for days we're just wasting time /"

'' what else are we suppose to do ? He is the only one who knows what is going on, jongins father died before he could explain more about whatever important journey he meant-/" he cut himself off and I frowned pulling on the linings of the horse myself when we spotted the wolf standing far away on our path to be staring at us while sitting attentively.

'' it's the same as on that day /" I mumbled curiously.

'' t-that day ?/" Jongdaes voice was a bit shaky as he frowned at me and the rest of us. But the wolf only titled his head innocently.

I felt kyungsoo do the same behind me and the wolf ended up turning his head to look another way.

'' I think it wants us to follow it /" kyungsoo suggested looking at where the wolf was staring at. Before at me.

'' its probably a trap their pack must only be waiting for us /" chanyeol warned stopping with his horse close besides me again.

But when I looked at it it didnt look so dangerous. Something about it how it kept calm and slowly stepped onto its paws to keep switching looks between us and the direction it probably wanted us to follow it.

'' I dont think its a great idea to follow a strange wolf in the middle of a huge forest without any guards /" jongdae admitted aswell but i still wasnt convinced.

'' exactly let's kill it before it kills us-/"

'' if it wanted us dead it would have killed your obnoxious self that day but it spared you. Why would it set us up we have nothing left we are no threat to anyone /"

I could tell kyungsoo was angry by the tone in his voice and I could feel his gripp around me tighten a little as he couldnt really punch chanyeol from where they both were.

'' I dont think it has Ill intentions either /" I admitted '' like you said chanyeol we've been circling the woods. Maybe it knows a better way/"

He was quiet, both of them were I could tell they werent happy with my statement but we didnt have time now to discuss this until it was gone again so instead I ignored their disapprove and started riding slowly forward.

The wolf turned as I did confirming that it did want us to follow and so we did end up following its tail with a good distance between us through the woods.

riding deeper into it where the trees becale bisher more Broadway and stood more closely to each other. it appeard a little more darker. I looked behind myself to the other 2 riding close to us before at kyungsoo who sent me an expression that asked if we made the right choice.

I still thought we did.

And it wasnt like we had the luxury of choosing between options. We were wasting days riding around without a clue

Where ever the wolf would be guiding us it would at least be somewhere other than the same circle we've been following.

My horse suddenly stopped to Flinch slightly Back and kyungsoo let go of me as I felt him move before his bow appeard beides me when he pulled the string Back to shoot an arrow at something I hadn't even seen coming.

The arrow hit a tree root that was swinging our way and it splintered into many wooden pieces over us, causing my horse to arch back with me barely able to hold myself on by grabbing onto the linings tightly with one Hand while the other shielded my eyes.

But Kyungsoo fell off backwards with me unable to hold him as I was busy trying to keep the horse still, my eyes searched him on the ground as the horse turned around in panic itself. Neiging out as did the other horse.

Finally I spotted him crawling backwards adjusting his bow around himself head lifted to star in shock and my eyes switched to the moving tree he had been staring at aswell as its roots emerged out of the ground like arms being risen, ripping the earth apart and causing dirt to fall around.

Wide eyed I turned back to kyungsoo who seemed just as shocked as me when the wood cracked revealing 2 black holes seeming like eyes which it used to stare at us while it turned causing the ground to fall into itself on various spots.

My hand reached down

'' kyungsoo !/"

He flinched turning to me as I was riding toward him and he reached his hand out ready to get up just as the ground beneath his feet broke.

In panic I jumped off the horse to fall forward with my hand stretched out to grabb his before he could fall.

He gasped breathing hard aswell as I wtared at him with a grunt when he looked up at me from where he was hanging over the edge only holding onto my hand.

But I looked up at the tree staring at us. Glaring at us as it moved one of its branches to swing at us in anger.

Yet chanyeol had arrived at that raising his sword to cut it before it could come close to us. Again pieces of wood splintered over us at the impact while jongdae was now by my side helping me pull kyungsoo back up.

One of the horses had ran off and I looked at kai being unsettled and conflicted about running or staying.

'' come on-/" I tried to order but as soon as I spoke the ground besides chanyeol started tearing up as another root emerged from it and our eyes landed on the other trees that started moving.

He stumbled back and I steadied him as we all were in shock not knowing what to do but back away.

'' jongin !?/" Kyungsoo questionably called me as he was already backing away further with jongdae. Probably thinking I knew what to do or what was going on but I didnt.

'' get on the horse ! We need to ge-/" yet again the ground between me and kyungsoo ripped apart by a root rising up leaving him with jongdae on the other side as he pulled my servant closer away from he crackling edge of their grounds.

While I stayed with chanyeol on our own grounds.

'' jongin!/" He called through the sounds of the grounds breaking apart almost everywhere.

I didnt know what to say I wanted to order him to move and run but before i even could I watched them both stumble and fall when more roots broke through the grounds around them making it impossible.

Kai was gone, I didnt see my horse anymore through all the mess and I figured it must've been too much. I hoped he had run, there was no chance of us reaching him now anyway.

'' kyungsoo! /" I called him back when I could barely see him through the emerging roots and dirt in the air. I could hear the grounds breaking further and I could see more and more of theirs falling apart before I ended up stumbling aside too.

Chanyeol swung his sword protecting us from roots and branches coming our way and I heard kyungsoos arrow being shot as i pulled my own sword wanting to cut through the roots to reach him again.

But they still moved and as they did the ground beneath chanyeol and me was merely a platform falling apart.

I looked at him, putting my sword back when I realized we should prepare for a fall as I pulled him along one side of the platform watching it break in the middle before finally title as it fell apart.

We ended up sliding down in the dirt, in between roots, stones and broken branches. It didnt seem like we would stop any soon so i pulled a dagger stabbing it into the ground but it was too lose. Only making it worse and causing me to lose it in the end when we ended up free falling for a moment before crushing into the ground harshly and rolling the rest of the way down onto what looked like stone ground now.

We both coughed as stones and dirt followed our fall creating a big dust cloud and it wasnt over by that, we could feel the ground vribrate and shake, dirt falling still after us with every root that was moving above us.

We had no time to waste.

'' are you hurt ?/" I asked through coughs helping chanyeol up who had lost his sword in the fall aswell.

He nodded coughing into his arm before wiping over his dirty face, we both flinched when a few stones fell from the ceiling dirt cradling over us at the vibrations.

It looked like we ended up falling into some sort of cave and as I looked before us there was a wall with little space left to squeeze through. The only way forward. I concluded when I looked back onto the way we came from.. we fell down from visibly telling me its impossible to climb back up /"c-come on/"

I ordered nudging him to follow me as I moved to the space he exhaled disbelieving and obviously in discomfort as he watched me starting to squeeze myself through the space sideways without knowing if it would actually lead to somewhere. Without knowing if it could end up squeezing us both to death by the next time a root emerged from a ground.

The thoughts only causing more adrenaline to rush through my veins as I felt myself sweating from using all the strength I had to move as fast as I could through this space while keeping an eye on chanyeol being as close behind or rather besides me as possible seeming to experience the same panic I did.

finally after nightmarish panic of somehow ending up being stick of squeezed by it all collapsing together I could see it leading to an end not far but instead of leading up. It was leading further down.

It didnt matter though cause all i wanted was to get us both out and forward, quieckly I got out only to pull chanyeol the rest of the way aswell causing us both to fall over into a much bigger cave, panting at our racing hearts when we wouldnt get up to our feet instandly but rather breath through.

It wasnt as dark as it should be and if I wasnt so caught up in the danger of the situation i would wonder where the light came from as I looked up from where I had been on the ground.

It somehow felt like a deja vulnerable falling all the way down in a cave lit up on its inside again.

I grunted getting to my feet unsteadily when I had to hold my head as everything was spinning for a moment and I felt like throwing up at the pressure on my stomach.

Images of the day I had been stabbed. The day i should've died flashed in front of my eyes.

'' jongin /" chanyeols fierce voice pulled me back to focus on reality as he steadied me with a frown.

I removed his hands swallowing

'' I'm ok.. /"

The ground vibrated again and I looked behind us to see the space we squeezed ourselves through collapse into itself making us step away further at the sudden.

'' theres no way back now/"

We looked at each other only briefly

'' there wasnt a way back to begin with ../" I muttered starting to step ahead to follow the way further into the cave, my hand reaching down to the sword I was still carrying to make sure I would have a weapon to grabb in any case of danger.

Chanyeol followed me, not really agreeing to just blindly be moving forward but we didnt have another choice.

'' kyungsoo ! Jongdae !/" I yelled through the caves hoping they wouldve somehow landed here somewhere aswell and we'd be lucky enough to find back to each other.

'' dont yell around we dont want those tree things to find us or whatever else could be down here /" chanyeol held me back from walking as he was still breathing through but I only frowned at him.

Partening my lips I was going to speak when a a distant yell reached my ear and I turned my head to the direction it came from the moment I recognized it.

'' jongin /"

He followed me as I started rushing further into the cave in a hurry, desperately following the yelling

'' kyungsoo!/" I called again realizing it was his voice I was hearing and getting closer to '' kyungsoo!/"

Finally the walls shock again as little stones fell from the ceiling and I stopped by a wall almost falling agaisnt it with chanyeol close behind me. My hands over them as I listened to him somewhere on the other side of it '' kyungsoo!/"

'' jongin! /"

He almost instandly called back.

I turned my head to chanyeol in relief that I found him and he seemed to be ok but I still felt in a hurry, only wanting to get to him now aswell

'' look around for a way in /"

He hesitated before finally nodding following my command without really wanting to I guessed. Yet it wasnt what was important at the moment. For now what we needed to focus on was getting out of here alive .. all of us.

'' is jongdae with you!? Are you hurt !?/" I yelled through the wall and it took a moment until he replied.

'' yes and no ! jongdaes foot is stuck !/"

'' how bad !?/"

I questioned growing a little worried since I wasnt hearing him yell back aswell. It was only kyungsoo.

'' I can not move him !/"

'' hold on we're going to find a way in ok !/"

With that I moved away following chanyeol in searching around the wall for weak spots or holes to work out way inside.

Everything was unstable especially with it still shaking from the movements of the trees. It almost seemed like it would all collapse into us at any moment. So attempting to break the wall down would be suicide. But waiting and wasting more time was suicide aswell.

It seemed useless.

Hopeless and chanyeol probably knew that before me , that's why he eventually backed away from looking around.

I looked at him disappointed and ready to yell out that he wasnt giving his all once I realized he ended up just standing there to look at me like he was ready to suggest something we both knew I would never agree to in a millions years.

Yet before I could open my mouth again my eyes spotted the wolf again at the other end of the cave,

looking at me closely.