The pool they'd emerged from was situated at the bottom of a deep circular pit. The only way out was up the stairs carved into the curved pit walls, and so up these stairs the five girls now climbed. What light there was came from holes in the cavern roof, visible some distance above. To Alice and Maria, this was a clear indication that they were still in (or rather below) the same vast cavern they'd fallen into to begin with - though, given the distance they'd travelled and the time they'd spent walking, they were going to emerge into a part of it some distance from where they'd started.
Emily, Diana and Aggie had no way of knowing any of that, however, and seeing the harpy and human who looked like younger versions of her mothers leading the way as if they knew where they were going was making Emily feel increasingly out of the loop. The final straw came when "Alice" stopped to point out an interesting crystal formation to her partner, and they dawdled long enough that the other three girls caught up and found themselves unable to get past.
Emily stuck one wing between them and waved it until they turned in her direction. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourselves, but we're still in the dark. You obviously know what's going on here, so why don't you share?"
Seeing their blank expressions just made her more pissed off. "Where are we?" she asked pointedly, "and why are we here?"
Alice was the first to find her tongue. "We don't know, exactly. We fell down into this cavern while travelling through the desert with some friends of ours, and we've been trying to get out ever since. Between the magic and these stairs there's a lot of signs this place is artificial, though, so there's probably an exit somewhere."
"Wait, you didn't come here with the house?" Emily pointed out.
Alice and Maria shook their heads. "It sort of grew around us while we were in it," Alice explained.
Emily rubbed her chin with one wingjoint. "Aggie said she just suddenly found herself here without knowing why... Maybe this was something similar?"
Alice could only shrug.
Emily was about to ask another question - when suddenly there was a happy shout from above.
Looking down at them from the rim of the pit were two women, one in a black robe, and the other in a white dress...
Kara and Lily had talked late into the night. Somehow they'd had everything in the world to talk about. They'd recanted old lies. They'd reminisced and said things they'd thought at the time but never admitted before. They'd recalled old memories they'd made together and apart, and retold old private jokes and secret stories until they were both ready to drop.
In the end, Lily had fallen asleep first, and Kara given her a secret kiss as she slept. As usual, it didn't wake Lily up - but this time, Kara didn't feel guilty about it.
All of that was summed up in the gleeful shout Kara gave as she and Lily ran down the steps to meet Alice and Maria: "We're together now!"
Before she could elaborate, however - and before she and Lily had a chance to be introduced to Emily and Diana, and before Aggie had a chance to properly introduce herself to anyone...
Sun Jan 22 03:15:11 2017
3 comments Last updated: Sun Jan 29 04:28:01 2017