~{Dwelling’s}~ chapter 6

“The light at the end of my tunnel?”

Nova walked towards the light, closer and closer, she realized it looked like a doorway, she wondered where it leads she was almost there.. just a few more steps.. “Nova?…” a voice whispered, “Nova wake up…” it grew louder, “Nova!”

She jolted upright, panting. “Nova! Are you ok?” Destiny asked as she looked around frantically, she was in a tree stump, then she looked at her tail, it was bandaged in leaf being held together by a knot of stems. “my tail!” She gasped, “it’s-it’s gone!”

“The uh- creature got it, remember? You sounded like you were having a bad night vision, but maybe I shouldn’t have woken you.” She tried to answer, but her mouth felt dry after remembering the vision.

“have some water, this stream is connected to the lake here.” She turned and saw a shallow stream running trough the tree, and bent down to take a drink. “Thanks Destiny, I….. wait, Wait! Where’s the artifact?” She remembered the artifact she was holding before the creature came, ‘i have to get it back!’ She thought. “you dropped it when the creature bit off your tail, I couldn’t take you and the artifact, and I wasn’t about to leave you to save some stupid rock.” Nova ignored Destiny and started to crawl out trough the hole. “Hey wait! You can’t go out there! It dangerous, that creature could come back, or it’s waiting right outside!” Nova crawled out and stood up. “That’s ridiculous, it probably has better things to do other then wait outside for two scrawny jerboa. I’m going to see if the artifact is still there, are you coming?” Without waiting she turned around, started walking, and stopped. ‘I have no idea where I am.’ She thought before turning back around to Destiny, “uh.. how do I get there?” She asked sheepishly.

“Oh, I guess I’ll take you then, but if I get eaten I’m blaming you, and I’ll haunt you forever.” ‘Fine.’ She thought waiting for him to crawl out, things have been weird with them ever since she found the artifact, one second they would be angry, the next Destiny’s making jokes.

They walked in the fern’s for awhile, nova wasn’t sure where they were going, because she was unconscious when she came. She just hoped Destiny was taking them to the right place, it would be just like him to lead her somewhere but purposefully take her the wrong direction because he thought it wasn’t safe where she was trying to go.

- [ ] Then she saw the den in the distance, with the ceiling gone it looked more like a hole in the ground then a den. She went ahead of Destiny and sped up until she was at the tunnel. “Hurry up Destiny! If I go in without you I might die!” She joked before crawling in without him, she immediately saw the artifact on the ground, covered in dirt so that it was barely visible, but she knew the den well and when something was out of place she saw it quickly. “There it is! I knew it would still be here.” She picked it up and brushed off the dirt before sticking in her pouch. “Did you find it?“ Destiny said from outside. “Ye-Oh uh… no it’s not here.” She realized that if he didn’t know she had it, he might be convinced to go look for it, and since it’s actually with her they might find the other artifacts instead, all she had to do was recommend a place that she thought they might be. “Are you sure? I’m coming in.” Destiny crawled in trough the tunnel and looked around the den. “Your right, it’s not here, I’m sorry nova.” Nova felt a little bad for lying to him ‘If I tell him, he’ll say that we can go back to that stump since I found it already.’ “Well.. I’m going to try to find it, it can’t be far.” She crawled back out and looked around, where would she start? Then she remembered that In all the story’s and legend’s, the artifacts were always in caves, she remembered that coming here they passed a huge cave not far from the den. “Maybe it’s in that cave? It wasn’t too far from here, maybe whatever took it went there to hide.” She started walking in the direction of the cave before Destiny grabbed her “What? Why would they go in there? You just want to find a different artifact! They’re always in caves in the story’s.” She turned around to look at him, he was looking a little betrayed. “I said I would look for the artifacts before that creature came didn’t i? Well, I’m going to to find them! You can come too if you want, or have you changed your mind? I’m going if you come or not.” She spat before whipping around and stalking off in the direction of the cave, “Wait, I’m coming.” Destiny ran up to her side and fell into step next to her.

They got to the mouth of the cave just before dark, it had vines hanging down the entrance and pointed rocks on the ceiling of the cave throughout it, she could see a faint light coming from deeper in the cave. “This has to be it.” She said mostly to herself, they walked into the cave, she flinched as she set her foot on the hard rock, it was as cold as ice, and they walked down into the darkness