Chapter 20 #2
She stuck the flag in the stand. She saw two more nearby. They had to be for Stone and Lolita's challenges. And then she had a thought. She could stay here and wait for them to show up with their flags, or she could take off and help one of them.
She saw the Game Master appear and smile at her. "You won."
"Can I help Lolita with her challenge? It won't negate winning this flag, will it? If Xena or Silas come and find it in the flag stand?"
"Nope. It's all documented that you found it and returned it to its stand. In the meantime, you can rest here and wait for the others to show up, or you can help someone else with their challenge."
"Thanks!" Rune raced off in the direction that she smelled Lolita, Caspian, and Iris had gone. They had said they were going to help Rune and Stone and Lolita, so maybe she didn't need to aid Lolita.
But if they were only saying so and didn't mean it, Rune would be there to assist her. She wondered if the Game Master or someone else would tell Silas and Xena that Rune had won the game and they had lost so that Silas could release Xena and return to the flagpole area.
When she finally reached the cavern, it was quiet inside.
Nothing was there—just gradients of black folding into more blackness, the ceiling lost somewhere above where the wet stone was just as dark.
A thin trickle of water caught what little light existed, threading down the rock face in a narrow line.
Wet stone and something darker beneath it, the kind of damp that had been accumulating for centuries, heavy with the musk of the colony of bats roosting overhead.
The moss gave off a clean scent that cut through the deeper reek of guano.
Rune smelled Caspian, Lolita, and Iris's scent as she moved through the dark cave, though with her wolf sight, she could see.
A girl screamed. Rune’s heart skipped a beat. It had to have been Iris or Lolita.
Rune’s heart beat like crazy, her skin chilling with concern.
"Lolita!" Iris shouted, her voice filled with panic.
"Lolita!" Caspian's voice was just as rife with concern.
"What has happened?" Rune called out, her voice echoing off the walls. She feared Lolita had hurt herself badly.
Some areas were narrow, others were wider, and some opened into cavernous areas. The floor was rocky and slippery; the footing was difficult to maneuver. Rune shifted into her wolf and moved more sure-footed through the cave.
"Rune?" Caspian called out. "Lolita fell in a hole."
Rune shifted. "Go get something that we can use as a rope."
"Okay." Caspian's running footsteps headed toward Rune. It seemed like it took forever before he appeared as she continued to head in his direction.
When she saw him, his face white with worry, he said, "Lolita was trying to leap over a hole in the floor and fell into a chasm."
"Is she hurt?"
"No, she said she isn't. She's just mad at herself for falling in there."
"Maybe she should push her button and get pulled out."
"Iris and I suggested it, but she said no. That she would climb out of there on her own before she pushed the button."
Rune smiled, then lost the smile. "Okay, go get a vine or something to help us get her out."
"Yeah, on it!"
Iris shouted, "Rune!"
"I'm coming." Rune continued to make her way through the cavern, finding some of the areas so narrow that she had to go sideways.
"Lolita, are you sure you're not hurt?" Iris asked.
"No, I'm fine. Thanks for staying here with me," Lolita said. "Is that Rune I heard?" Lolita sounded like she was in the bowels of the earth.
"Yeah, she's coming to help you also," Iris said.
It took a long while before Rune was finally able to see Iris. There was a small walkway around a hole in the ground, but she could see it would be easy for Lolita to miss the jump over the hole and not make it, or slide in on the narrow walkway.
Iris gave Rune a hug. "I'm so glad you're here."
Rune hugged her back and peered into the hole. "Hey, Lolita, what are you doing down there?"
Lolita chuckled and smiled up at her. "I thought this was a faster way to get to the flag."
"Hey!" Caspian said, running in their direction. "Your sponsor gave me a rope for you, Rune."
She guessed that even though she thought they were alone on their missions, everything was being recorded and monitored.
"That's great!"
Water dripped from where she stood, landing with a resonance that suggested a pool below.
"Is there a pool of water down there?" Rune asked.
"Yeah, and there are tunnels down here. Maybe one would take me to the flag." Lolita sounded like her upbeat self.
Then Caspian arrived with a golden rope and began tying it to a column.
"Gold," Iris said. "That's a magician's way. It's probably lightweight, but able to hold a ton of weight."
"It is. I barely felt I was carrying it. It's like featherlight." Then Caspian tossed the rope into the hole.
"I'm coming down," Rune said, afraid Lolita wouldn't be able to climb up it on her own. Besides, she was curious about the pool of water and other tunnels.
She shimmied down the rope, and when she reached the bottom, Lolita hugged her. "Thanks for coming for me. Did you win your challenge?"
Rune smiled. "I did. I came to help you with yours."
Lolita smiled, then looked at the rope, but Rune looked at the two tunnels and the aqua, crystal-clear pond. She touched the water, and it was ice cold.
Rune studied the one tunnel where she swore a hint of light was peeking through. "I think there's light coming from that tunnel."
Lolita studied it.
Rune said to Iris and Caspian, "We might have found another way out. I see a light coming from one of the tunnels." She wondered if the tunnel would lead to a faster way out. Or take her farther away from the location they needed to be.
"I'm going to take this tunnel." Rune was going to help Lolita climb the rope.
"No, I'm going with you. That way, if you fall into a hole, I can go for help," Lolita said.
"What do the two of you want to do?" Rune asked Caspian and Iris.
"We'll leave the rope for you in case you need to return for it," Iris said. "Caspian and I can continue to navigate the cave and find the way out."
"That sounds good to me." Rune didn't care who won the challenge. She was just glad Caspian and Iris had stayed to help Lolita while she was all alone in the hole.
Then they heard Caspian and Iris move around the hole carefully so they didn't fall in, and Rune and Lolita took off toward the tunnel with the light at the end of it.
"So what happened with you?" Lolita asked.
"Silas and Xena were on the challenge with me. I was way ahead, but when Xena tried to knock me off the rope that I had to navigate across, Silas came up behind her and threw her onto the net way down below it."
"Omigod, yes!" Lolita said.
"Yeah, he fell onto the net too, and he wouldn't let Xena go. She was screaming bloody murder. She threatened to kill him."
Lolita laughed. "I would have loved to have seen that."
"But it shows Silas was telling the truth about helping us win the challenges. The bad part was that I had to climb that rope going back too, and so he was still keeping her from coming after me on the netting. I had hoped I would be going to a different location."
"Do you think he's still keeping her pinned down on the netting?" Lolita asked.
"Maybe, unless someone tells them I won."
"Was it okay for you to leave the flag and come to help me?" Lolita looked worried it might not have been.
"Yeah, I asked the Game Master, and she said yes."
Lolita was sweet. She hadn't wanted Rune to lose her win by coming to assist her.