Delita's party seemed to be going downhill, very steeply downhill. With the exception of Alma's bright stone, it was very dark down there. Delita took a good two steps ahead of Alma and almost slipped.
"Lookout! There are holes down here! One wrong step and we could lose you!" Alma warned.
"Everybody stick close to Alma that way you don't fall victim to the pits..." Delita said, but just then his foot slipped on a slope and started to skid away into the darkness. "Oooof!!!!" luckily he collided with stalagmite.
"It's okay, I'm alright...I'm lucky to have a bump on my head than being lost in the dark with a broken leg or worse."
Alma and the party followed to where Delita's voice trailed, and found him clinging to a stalagmite which was just near the edge of a deep abyss.
"I sincerely doubt lucky is the word to describe you...Sir Delita!" she said scoldingly, "Stay in the light so we can see you!!"
"Hey....I'm just trying to be a good leader here! Cut me some slack huh!"
Alma looked about and all she could see were a series of large pits, and a wall.
"........Dead-end...." she sighed.
"Not necessarily," Reis said, "--point your stone up by that large rock above us by where Delita landed."
Alma did so, and what she saw seemed like a large platform that led into one of the other two passages. She looked dismayed, "But there's no way for us to climb up there--it's a straight shot up above us, we could never swing a grapnel at this angle!"
"Maybe not, but I can jump up there! And I'll use my spear and the grapnel rope and drive the spear into the rock platform above us and tie the rope to the spear so you three can climb up there."
"Okay, let's do this..." Delita said as he handed her the rope.
Reis gauged the height of her jump and got a firm grasp on her spear with the rope tied firmly on the end of it.
Reis bent her knees in what she realized would be her highest jump thus far in her lifetime, and then with a quick smile she glanced at Beowulf, saying, "Don't worry, we'll get out of here..." With that, she jumped, only slightly lower than she calculated, causing her to grasp at the edge of the platform.
"No worries" she thought as she swung herself over onto the platform.
During all of this the three below her became very nervous as she was barely hanging onto the edge of the platform bridge, but when she pulled herself up, they sighed in relief.
The first part of this was over; the next part was a little more difficult. Reis drove her spear lengthwise into a cluster of firmly planted rocks and tugged on the rope, which was swung over the edge.
Alma was first due to the fact that she wore a white mage's robe and it might be a difficult climb for her. Delita came next to support her from underneath, then came Beowulf.
Beowulf wasn't exactly thrilled with heights or climbing considering his weight and gets nervous in such situations.
Beowulf got nervous and his arms tensed, which at this point kept his arms locked in position.
This whole process was slowed considerably due to his weight, but they were able to hoist him up enough so that he could reach the ledge and they could pull him over. One problem though, his arms were locked in place, and because of the strain on the ropes, the binding was weakening and going to snap.
"Come on, Beowulf, grab the ledge!" Delita said.
"The rope's weakening, you don't have much time!" Alma shouted.
"My arms---can't move them--" Beowulf struggled.
Reis blurted out, "Do it for me, Beowulf--I love you!"
Just then the rope snapped, and for a split second Beowulf hung on the rope, but just an instant he reached out for Reis....
The party grabbed Reis as she lifted him over the ledge, both exhausted...
"Yes.....huff....I do mean it, I--Love you Beowulf,....huff....and I'll do anything to keep you with me...."
"As I....would you Reis..."
Alma said jokingly to Reis, "Remind me never to bring Beowulf on a rock climb ever again." They all laughed.
After a brief rest Beowulf pulled out the Zodiac stone Ramza had given him, and was surprised to see it glowing, "Looks like we're on the right track...."
Ramza and company were the first to find out that they had encountered a well-lit greenish cave. Ramza looked about and said, "Glowing phosphorus, hmm...that's funny, phosphorus only glows when it's exposed to light, regular solar light, not magic light. So...."
Zidane was following his idea, "Either there's an opening to this cave, or something with a lantern came this way..." ,br>
Agrias didn't like the sound of that, "The only creatures I know that carry lanterns are....Tonberrys..."
"Ulp...!!" Zidane gulped.
Ramza tried to calm them down, "Well then, let's hope we don't run into any alright?"
Cloud's party was very quiet, and actually getting tired of all the walking. Glancing around, Cloud noticed that a path near theirs had just merged. Sephiroth and Aeris noticed that both their stones had a feint glow, compared to the total blackness they had seen before.
"I think one of the parties is ahead of us, and one is behind us, because whenever I point my stone back where we came from, it always seems to glow brighter."
"You might be right," Cloud said, "but maybe we should focus on finding a way out first.."
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!" Aeris screamed as a giant two headed Schizo-Dragon grasped her in one of its giant maws and was prepared to fire Icy-breath at Sephiroth and Cloud if any dared follow.
Aeris fainted as the creature tramped off with her. So there was no way for them to chase her screams.
"Why that dirty rotten--!!" Cloud was prepared to drow his sword.
"Don't panic, Cloud, from the looks of this path, I'd say it's pretty straight, we're bound to catch up to the monster!" Sephiroth grabbed Cloud's shoulder.
"You'd better be right, Sephiroth...I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm going to trust your judgement this time."
The two ran off in the darkness after the beast, Cloud's stone lighting up it's tracks. Along the way they encountered a large cave opening with some odd greenish glow to it, but they were too concentrated on catching up to the dragon to notice.
"Hmm...." said Reis, "Aeris's stone is getting really dim and fast."
Alma thought for a moment, "Something must have happened, they must have lost track of her or something...."
Delita was worried, "I hope they find her....if anything, Cloud is looking for her right this very minute."
Alma after choosing a plan of action, said, "Then we try and catch up as fast as we can!!!"
Beowulf nodded, "I think I may know what's got Aeris," he said, as he pointed at the large limestone tracks. "And I think I can pin-point it's location based on where our parties are," he stated looking at Ramza's very dim stone.
Beowulf continued, "From what I can tell here, Ramza's party is further than ours or Cloud's but they're moving at a slow pace, that's why the dimness is consistent. This combined with these regular foot tracks tell me we're not too far behind Cloud's party...."
Delita commented, "Ramza's party must not have encountered the monster yet, otherwise their stones would be fluctuating as well, right?"
Beowulf said quickly running ahead, "then we should be able to track them easily, and see if Aeris is in danger. Come on, follow me!"
