Nénuphar - 5

One winter day Nénuphar and Yetta were sitting alone beside the hibernating bears. They were talking about Yetta’s people, and how they could help them get to the surface. They figured the best way to do that was to bring them up the way that Yetta had come. The problem they were puzzling over was that many of her people could not cast spells, and certainly most would be unable to cast spells strong enough to reach the surface.

Yetta had taught Nénuphar the spell to move through earth, and they had both become quite proficient with it, but that would still not help her people.

“Do you think” said Nénuphar, “that it would be possible to cast the spell on someone else?”

“I don’t know.” replied Yetta, “I suppose it might be possible. Lets give it a try.”

So Yetta tried casting the spell on Nénuphar, and Nénuphar tried casting it on Yetta. After a couple tries and a few mild shunting they got it to work just fine.

“So that might work.” said Yetta.

“Maybe, but still we would only be able to bring a couple people at a time to the surface.” said Nénuphar. “It would take years to get them all up here.”

She paused for a minute and then spoke again, “I wonder if it would be possible to cast it on more than one person at a time?”

“Yah.” said Yetta. “Lets try it.”

They both paused and looked around realizing that they were the only two people around.

“hmm.” said Yetta, sounding a bit disappointed.

“The bears?” asked Nénuphar.

“Why not.” came the reply.

So they took turns trying to cast the spell on several bears at a time, and found some success, but to their surprise they found that when they both cast the spell they could affect a much greater area and more of the bears. They would cast the spell and then gently push on each of the bears to see if it would sink into the stone floor. A couple times they sank into the floor deep enough that it took both of them to pull the bear back up.

They continued to practice, and one night they were able to cast the spell on all the bears, nine in total, in addition to both of them and Little Paws. When they finally achieved a complete success they actually cheered causing the bears to stir a bit.

They hushed their celebrations, but in their dancing around Nénuphar tripped, landing on one of the bear cubs. Rather than bouncing off the bear as she had feared, the bear was simply pushed deep into the ground where they could not reach him. The both began to panic knowing that if the spell wore off, the bear would be shunted out of the stone and probably killed.

So, they held hands, Nénuphar carrying Griffe in her other arm, and descended into the stone floor. The experience of passing through the stone was much like swimming. Some of it was smooth, and other areas were rough more difficult to pass through.

A combination of movement, much like swimming, would propel them through the stone. They found that air pockets in the stone made it more difficult to move as their movement was hampered in the air. They were completely blind inside the stone, and any sound the made came out like a moaning vibrating sound, and was quickly dampened by the stone. Nénuphar found it much easier if Griffe were wrapped around her neck so that she could use one of her hands to propel herself through the stone; her other hand firmly locked in Yetta’s.

They felt their way down into the stone expecting at any moment to bump into the bear cub, but after several feet, they still felt nothing. They moved around in a circle thinking that the bear may not have moved in a straight line, still nothing. Eventually Yetta gently tugged Nénuphar’s hand in a downward direction, and they began to descend at a more rapid pace.

Nénuphar felt something bump into her leg, and she pulled Yetta back to examine it. As she reached out to it with her hand it moved away. They pursued it, and found that it continued to move. They again caught up with it, and they each grabbed hold with their free hand.

It was indeed a bear cub, but it seemed to be propelling itself through the stone just as they were. It continued to drag the forward as they tried to drag it back up to the surface. They began to panic, realizing that both of the were being dragged by the bear rather the opposite. They tried harder and harder, but movement was exhausting them very quickly.

Suddenly the bear jerked forward, and accelerated downward. They held on trying to slow the bears movement, but suddenly found the bear and themselves falling through air. They both screamed and thrashed around trying to grab the last bits of rock, but they only passed through them like a hand slapping a pool of water.

The fall completely broke their concentration, and the earth movement spell was completely gone by the time they collided with the bottom of the chasm. The place where they landed was sloped, but still knocked the wind out of their lungs. Nénuphar felt her head impact the ground, and head exploded in pain. They tumbled down the slope faster and faster, until once again they were free falling. This time the ground was solid. They landed in a heap, but the fall knocked both of the girls unconscious.

Nénuphar did not know how long she had been unconscious, but she couldn’t see anything, and Griffe was licking her face. It felt like he had slobbered all over her. She tried to move, but the movement was so painful that she screamed, and thought she would loose consciousness again. Her head spun, and her left should had so much pain that screamed over and over again.

Eventually she was able to control here screams, and tried to focus her mind on a healing spell. Several times she tried to cast it, but the movement brought the pain back redoubled, and she was forced to lay back to avoid loosing consciousness again.

As she ground her teeth trying not to scream, she hear Griffe meow beside her, and purred as he rubbed up against her. She waited until he turned and began to rub against her again when she forced every synapse in her brain to focus on casting the spell. She saw her hands light up, and the light began to pass into her shoulder before she screamed and lost consciousness again.

The next time she woke up, she found Griffe curled up in a ball against her cheek. She opened her eyes, but it seemed to get even darker with her eyes open, so she shut them again and concentrated on feeling. She tried moving each part of her body, and found that her left should did not hurt any more, but she could feel painful abrasions on much of her body and head.

She was about to try another healing spell when she remembered Yetta. She desperately called out for her, but got no response. She called louder, and still nothing. She became desperate, and began feeling along the floor for a stone that she could cast a light spell on, but the floor was perfectly hard and smooth. There was some dust, but nothing larger than a grain of sand. She began to feel through her pouches, and came across her stone knife.

She whipped it out and quickly cast the spell. It only gave off the light of a candle, but in the light she could see the bear cub and and Yetta laying a short distance away near the edge of another drop. Neither of them were moving, and Yetta was lying in a very awkward position wither her face looking away from Nénuphar.

She scrambled over to Yetta’s and laid her head on her back to lister for her heart. She did not hear anything at first, and a wave of fear and nausea swept over her, but before she was overcome, she did hear a faint fluttering.

She quickly rolled Yetta onto her back, and the sight again threatened to overwhelm her. Yetta had been bleeding from both of her ears, her nose and her mouth. She was clearly hurt very badly.

Griffe licked Yetta’s cheek a couple times and then returned to Nénuphar. He meowed once and licked her arm. The sensation brought her back to full awareness, and she immediately cast her spell, and placed her hands on Yetta’s cheeks. The light passed into her face illuminating and healing as it passed into her head. To Nénuphar’s horror she saw the bones in Yetta’s face had been shattered, but the spell quickly fixed much of the damage before fading.

She again cast the spell, and the light passed deeper into her head. Again and again she cast the spell, and eventually the light began to pass into the rest of her body bringing tears to her eyes as it revealed the extent of the damages to her body. As she cast the last spell she could must, the light revealed that her pelvis had been broken in several places, and light faded away before it could do more than correct the blood flow to her legs.

Nénuphar collapsed into tears, laying her head on Yetta’s shoulder. She was surprised when Yetta raised her hand, and placed it on top of Nénuphar’s head.

She snapped her head up as said, “You’re awake. I thought for sure you were going to die. I cast my healing on you and…”

Before Nénuphar could finish, Yetta’s eyes opened wide in terror and pain, and she let out a scream that was terrible to hear. The scream faded into a whimper and finally into silence as Yetta mercifully passed back into unconsciousness.

Through her tears and the dim light, Nénuphar examined the rest of Yetta’s body as well as she could without moving her. Her entire body looked like it had been dragged through gravel pit by wild horses, but she did not seem to be bleeding any more. Her right legs was still thrown over her left, and her broken pelvis was twisted in a wicked angle. Nénuphar laid her body out as flat as she could, but knew there was little she could do without her magic.

She sat back and tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, but found they stung her cheeks and her hands as well. She took a minute to examine her own body, and found it to be much the same as Yetta’s. She cried in pain and despair for several minutes. Griffe tried to comfort her, but the fear, and pain swept across her in waves that refused to subside. Eventually, she pulled Griffe into her arms, and began to sing softly to him. The sound seemed to sooth him, and before long they both fell asleep beside Yetta.