A Red Sun Rises

The armour pieces and components rattled in their makeshift bundle as Embargo and Deerlegs raced away from the treasury. If the green flecks of light and few blue-tinted glowing quills along Embargo’s spine weren’t a dead giveaway of their retreat, the sounds of the armour pieces clanking together would be.

Deerlegs glanced over her shoulder, Embargo still following just behind her, to see Mischief standing in the loading dock that they’d jumped from. Good riddance. All of the Atlanteans were liars and murderers.

Every other ragged step sent a jolt of pain along her spine and into her hip, but it had become so constant and there was so much adrenaline in her system yet again that it had almost turned into a background sensation. White noise that she could drown out and focus on running.

She could hear voices calling out behind them, over the droning sound of her heart beat pounding in her ears. Some she recognised and others she didn’t. All Atlantean, all killers.

Her breath, already rough from the effort of their escape, started to grow uneven. They could outrun the Atlanteans, but the weight of what had happened to them was starting to bear down on her. So many dead. They had almost joined them.

Embargo’s muzzle, and the heavy bundle of armour pieces, bumped into her undamaged hip and startled her from her thoughts. Keep looking ahead. She had been slowing down, and even though Embargo couldn’t get a good look at her from this angle or in the dark, he had a very good understanding of what she was starting to realise. Deerleg’s uneven pace quickened again, leading them across the bridge that would take them out of the Court’s boundaries and into the unforgiving jungle.

They were fortunate. No one else would be following, not tonight.

With the Queen’s knighting ceremony having taken place, there were still a number of islanders within the city. Alarms could only be raised so much without making the topsiders freshly sworn to the Queen suspicious of all the activity, and they didn’t want to jeopardise the fragile, budding alliance. Anyone that slipped away into the jungle was a lost cause - the carnivorous plants would take care of the topsiders that thought that they got away, anyway.

The pair only slowed down because they had to. Deerlegs’s energy was rapidly failing her again, Embargo was slowed by his own lack of sleep and additional burden of carrying their stolen goods, and the undergrowth of the jungle itself made a formidable obstacle.

Deerlegs paused, flanks heaving as she took in their surroundings and eyes wide. Her pupils were blown out, scanning their surroundings in a near-frantic state. She didn’t know where they were, just that they had been running away from the Court to the best of her understanding. The foliage was thickening the further they ran, which surely indicated that this was a place less traveled by the courtiers, who surely stuck closer to the Court because it would be easier to traverse than the dense jungle - right?

Embargo had even less of an idea of where exactly they were. He remembered very little of their prior excursion into the jungle, having been sick with a fever that clouded his mind. He turned his muzzle, hoping for something that looked familiar - only to catch a glint of green light reflecting off of something unnatural that should not have been among the trees and broad leaves of the jungle undergrowth.

He grunted in surprise, a wordless sound of alert to get Deerlegs’s attention as he flinched back. His quills raised reflexively, defensively. It wasn’t a courtier that stood amongst the plants, but a cryo holding a lantern, the handle hanging from her jaws. It creaked quietly as she lifted her muzzle, swinging gently with the subtle movement. Ghostlight stared ahead, yet seemed to see into them at the same time.

Deerlegs felt something then that felt a startling amount like despair. They had escaped the Court, only to end up in the jaws of a sightless carnivore? It wasn’t fair!

“Are you here to finish us off then?” she snapped. Her words came out as a desperate gasp more than the demanding question she meant it to be. “Where’s your partner? Is he coming up from behind to cut off our route away from here? I know how you think!”

Ghostlight’s expression was unreadable as she stood silently before them. Tobias... Tobias would not be joining them.

She lowered her muzzle slightly, and turned to point to her left. The lantern swayed and creaked quietly, which was the only sound between them for a moment before Ghostlight spoke quietly. “I will help you on your journey.”

“Help us?” Deerlegs snarled. Her exhausted protest was full of acid and bile. “What help can you possibly be? Will you lead us to our deaths? Like you and that other cryo did at the banquet? I saw you speaking to the courtiers!”

Ghostlight’s head lowered slightly. The way Embargo’s light glinted off the cloudy glass of her lantern almost made it appear that the lantern was alive again, a haunting flame flickering inside.

“Tobias will not be joining us.”

She still had to guide him back again.

“The moss will help,” she continued coolly.

Deerlegs’s brow furrowed slightly. This wasn’t the first time that Ghostlight had said those words to her. She looked towards where Ghostlight’s muzzle was pointed. She could… faintly hear the river, in the far distance, accompanied by the gentle roar of a waterfall. She glanced back at Embargo, who looked similarly thoughtful and serious. He gave a slight nod. He didn’t trust the cryo either, and never fully would, but… if she would help them to the waterfall, that would be at least part of their journey through the jungle out of the way, and they could use the moss to tend to their injuries before they turned sour as the holes in his hide had.

“Fine,” Deerlegs conceded. “But if you try anything, I’ll shatter your ribs.”

Ghostlight could have almost laughed, if not for the circumstances of their union. As strong as Deerlegs tried to make her voice, Ghostlight could hear the waver of fatigue laced through her words and smell the blood that hung in the air. The pachy could barely manage to stay on her feet, let alone charge down a perfectly healthy cryolophosaurus.

Still, Ghostlight tilted her head slightly. She would make no rash actions against them and only serve as their guide, as was her calling.

She lead her charges effortlessly through the jungle, staying just beyond the edge of the treeline as to avoid being sighted by anyone searching the riverbank for stragglers that had escaped the clutches of the courtiers. Their pace was slow, but steady. Privately, the pachys wondered just how Ghostlight managed to navigate through the tangled undergrowth so easily. It was as though she knew exactly the path to take, which only heightened their suspicion that she and Tobias had prior connections to the Court.

The roar of the waterfall gradually grew louder, and it wasn’t long that they were met by the steep slope that would lead them down the drop where the hidden cave awaited rediscovery. Embargo helped Deerlegs down as carefully as he could in the dark while keeping a firm grip on the bundle of armour pieces, though it was awkward with so much bulk between them. It wasn’t lost on Deerlegs that their positions were now reversed from the first time they had been here, when they were coming in search of medicine for Embargo’s injuries, but she had grown more tired and quiet as they walked and didn’t have the energy to comment on it. Maybe she never would.

The mist that came off the waterfall as it tumbled over the cliff edge was cool and refreshing, but lasted only a short time before they and Ghostlight passed behind it and into the tunnel.

The pachy’s eyes had long ago adjusted to the dark, and the bioluminescent glow of the moss and algae inside the tunnel were more immediately evident this time. They walked a ways into the tunnel, Ghostlight almost silent as she guided them save for the quiet creak of her lantern which swung gently with every step she took. It was… unusually quiet inside the waterfall cave as well, come to think of it. Like the roar of the falls had been muffled, somehow. Perhaps it was just that their fatigue had become so great that it was even less noticeable than it had been on their first excursion here.

They journeyed some distance inside, further than before out of fear that any Atlanteans in the area might notice them if they stayed too close to the mouth of the cave. Finally, though, Deerlegs decided that they’d gone far enough (while really, she just didn’t have the energy to go any further) and Embargo agreed. He set the parcel of armour components on the cool stone floor and hurried to help Deerlegs lay down - she looked like she only had a few moments left in her before she fell down instead.

Although Embargo wasn’t nearly as badly wounded, he too was exhausted. The night had been long, and he was barely on the road to recovery from the sickness that took hold of him while they were imprisoned. He would rest… soon. There was still work to be done, and he wanted to get some of the medical plants here to tend to her wounds before he could let himself sleep. He could hold on for a while longer, though it was starting to feel as though his body was moving without him.

“Remember, moss for wounds - the fungi are better for digestion,” came Ghostlight’s soft voice. The cryo was standing with her lantern sat on the ground near one of her feet as she gazed sightlessly in the direction of the entrance.

Embargo snorted quietly. He remembered. He’d used some of the moss previously to tend to the wound on Deerlegs’s dome, after she had squared off against one of the euoplos to get them here in the first place. Cruel. Sadistic. Twisted. The true intent of the Atlanteans should have been obvious, given their treatment of the islanders. ... What was done, was done, and now they could only pick up the pieces.

He peeled some of the moss off the damp walls of the tunnel and set to work tending to Deerlegs’s wounds, cleaning them as carefully as he could. Between the water that trickled along the floor from the mouth of the waterfall, the faint glow of his bioluminescence and that of the plants, and the healing properties of the moss, he was content to work as carefully and for as long as he needed to in order to make sure that Deerlegs would be well again.

Ghostlight was silent and stood still, almost a statue as she gazed unblinking into the dimly lit tunnel. While she couldn’t see, she still had a perfect view of the world around them. The quiet song of the frogs and crickets and other night creatures, the crawl and slither of insects and amphibians that dwelled within the cave and kept the moss and fungus from growing too wild and unruly. There was a faint breeze that drifted through the cave, fed by the constantly churning water but also something… more. The tunnel went far deeper into Atlantis than any of the courtiers would openly admit to any topsider.

Deerlegs hissed, gritting her teeth as Embargo pulled free a little more of the makeshift packing material to clean it and better tend it. Embargo apologised quietly, but continued to work. Almost done.

Ghostlight gently picked up her lantern in her jaws and took a few, slow steps forwards, giving the pachys a bit more breathing room.

There was a faintly salty taste to the air, Ghostlight noticed, even with the clean scent of the fresh water pouring over the cliff and the dank taste of wet stone. More water trickled through the outer walls and into the dome every day, rendering the soil which it saturated into a barren waste where no life would grow, not even the hardy plants which had been cultivated here in this artificial, underwater oasis. It was only a matter of time before the dome collapsed and was swallowed by the sea. This place was never meant to be here in the first place. Eventually, the ocean would reclaim it.

Yet because of the humans, something beautiful had come to be. Something incredible. A place of chaos and order; history remade.

Ghostlight closed her eyes, bathing in the soft light of the fungi and mushrooms, focusing on the feeling, drawing it within herself and hoping that it would yet coalesce into something tangible.

Quiet. Embargo was done, his muzzle and hands stained with Deerlegs’s blood and bits of glowing debris from the moss which he had packed into her wounds. He carefully washed himself in the stream, all the while trying to keep an eye on both Deerlegs and Ghostlight. He still didn’t trust the cryo, not by a long shot, but she seemed… surprisingly harmless, for a carnivore. She’d made no move on them, at least, and they were definitely in a vulnerable state. They would make perfect prey. Maybe it was simply the case that she’d gotten enough to eat at the banquet and just didn’t feel like expending the effort of killing them off.

Deerlegs’s eyes were closed, her sides rising and falling so slowly that Embargo thought she’d already fallen back asleep. He settled down beside her, fatigue dragging him down as well now that they were in less of a rush to escape. They weren’t safe here, and wouldn’t be safe so long as they were still inside the dome, but this felt like a better shelter than what they had found inside the treasury.

“Embargo?” Deerlegs’s voice was distant. Not asleep, but very nearly there. Embargo snorted quietly, a wordless acknowledgement.

Deerlegs opened an eye to look up at him, just a sliver of green which shone even brighter as it reflected the glow of his eyes and the flora which grew on the walls around them.

“The oviraptor outside the banquet hall… I was ready to kill him.” Her eye opened a little wider, a whirl of emotion reflected in it. Grief swam with pain and confusion in a rare show of vulnerability, even if it was only because she was exhausted to her limits. “I’ve never felt that before,” she whispered.

Embargo’s jaw tightened as he gritted his teeth. What she was experiencing for the first time here was something he had been living through from almost the moment that he hatched inside the Alpha lab. Perhaps… that was why she was confessing her feelings to him, now. Maybe it was that she already knew that, or had at least guessed. Maybe she wanted the assurance that she wasn’t alone.

Hesitantly, Embargo touched his muzzle to Deerlegs’s shoulder.

“... I was prepared to do the same, if it meant our survival,” he murmured.

There was a flicker of something in Deerlegs’s eyes, but Embargo couldn’t tell if it was relief or acceptance or something else entirely. The answer he gave seemed to be suitable though, or otherwise she was just too tired to keep talking. Her eye closed again, and her breathing rapidly became deep and even as sleep claimed her.

“You should rest as well.”

Embargo flinched, his quills raising slightly from their resting position. Ghostlight had been so quiet, he’d forgotten that she was still there with them.

She turned her sightless gaze towards them, her lantern swinging and creaking quietly. “I will keep watch.”

The pachy grunted quietly. A likely story. He leaned against Deerlegs, keeping an eye on the cryo and an ear out for trouble. The quiet peace of the softly glowing cave was comforting, though, and the constant droning of the churning waterfall was a gentle lullaby. It wasn’t long before Embargo’s eyes started to slip closed as well, his aching body finally giving up after spending almost the entire restless night fighting, running, and caring for the pachy he traveled with.

Ghostlight, ever true to her word, would stay awake. There wasn’t much time before the artificial sun would begin to rise, bringing with it a new dawn and spilling light on the bloody events of the night. Ghostlight sighed quietly, feeling the cycle begin anew already.

Come back to me, love.