"Will do..." Swift sighed as she took a seat in a chair next to the couch, resting her head in her hand. She pulled out her phone and checked the time. It was a little after 9:30 PM. She contemplated texting someone the information she had received, maybe even pulling up the internet to pass the time, but her phone's battery was already halfway drained. It was probably best not to waste power down there, where reception was almost nonexistent. Better to save it in case she
desperately needed to get ahold of someone.
As such, Swift put her phone away again and stared at the entrance to the cavernous workshop, biding her time in silence. She hadn't even been sitting there for a minute and already the wait was agonizing. How was it that even when Rainflower was ignoring her, the fairy managed to tick her off? Useless little twerp...
Well... whatever had their attention couldn't take
too long, could it? Surely Rainflower of all people understood the weight of Evan's condition. They'd be back to resolve it soon, right?
Right?Swift rubbed her temple and narrowed her gaze. Rainflower said that phobiosis was only curable for a short amount of time. How much longer did they have to cure Evan? If this distraction made them too late, she was going to serve that stupid fairy a bowl of their own ground-up wings.
Hopefully they had until tomorrow at the very least. Hopefully Swift would have the cure by then. And hopefully Evan was already asleep, dreaming his cares away on Prospit, free of the pain and suffering his waking body was undergoing, ready to awaken to sweet relief.
Hopefully this wouldn't last much longer...
----------
"Zzzzzzzz... Ngh... Wha...?" Swift jolted awake, sitting up straight in the chair, wiping away the drool dripping from her lips. She looked towards the cave entrance, still seeing no sign of Rainflower. She looked around the room, finding that nothing had changed. The potions were still sitting on the counter exactly where she and Van had left them.
Must've dozed off for a bit in her boredom. How long had she been out?
She pulled out her phone...
3:15 AM?!Swift's mouth was agape in disbelief. It had been almost
six hours and Rainflower
STILL hadn't come back?! What was taking that nutcase so freaking long?!
With a soft growl, she put her phone back in her pocket and turned to Van. He was still sound asleep, and for his sake, she figured she'd let him stay that way. He needed his rest more than she needed his help.
Quickly growing antsy, Swift stood up and marched over to the counter. The potions were right there, practically beckoning to her, but without any context, they might as well have been useless. How she wished she could just take all of them and guess which one was the cure herself with no ill consequences, but knowing Rainflower, at best, drinking the wrong potion could turn Evan's skin orange, and at worst, it could accelerate his transformation and turn him into an actual spider.
Still... maybe she could at least
try to guess.
Slowly and with great caution, Swift picked up one of the vials of orange liquid, pulled out the stopper and gave it a sniff. It surprisingly had almost no scent to it. It was like smelling water. With just a subtle hint of lavender.
Her eyes trailed over to a pen and pad sitting nearby on the counter. Almost immediately, Swift grabbed them and wrote down her description of the potion, then put the cork back in the bottle and placed it on top of the note. Then she grabbed another bottle and repeated the process for the three remaining potions.
The second potion had distinct, layered scents of basil and peppermint. An odd combination in her opinion, but not an especially unpleasant one. It definitely smelled medicinal in nature.
As soon as she removed the stopper on the third potion, Swift gagged and recoiled in disgust, nose burning and eyes tearing up. It had a potent, burnt smell, like a diesel truck had caught on fire in a forest full of sage and mustard. And fennel. So much fennel. Swift HATED the smell of fennel! She couldn't help but label that potion with nothing but a
face.
Much to her relief, the last potion was infinitely more palatable to her nostrils. Upon taking a whiff, she was greeted with the fresh, soothing aroma of peaches and cream. She could almost taste it, it was so potent, and it was making her salivate. She almost felt bad putting the cork back in that one.
So... she had all four vials labelled by scent now. And this told her... nothing. How was she supposed to judge these potions by scent alone? She still had no idea what was actually in them! She wanted to assume that the basil and peppermint one had the best chance of being the cure, given that it smelled the most like natural medicines, but making any kind of assumption when it came to Rainflower's potions was just asking for trouble.
Disappointed to know that she had accomplished nothing with that experiment, Swift turned around and once again stared out into the cavern beyond. Somewhere out there, Rainflower was up to God knows what. She still felt uncomfortable approaching the matter. Sure, it was rather quiet now, but that grotesque noise she had heard earlier, that unholy sound that had drawn Rainflower away from their pressing matters... whatever it was, it was wholly unwelcoming, even in silence.
She felt like she should go investigate. Whatever was keeping Rainflower busy could only be sped up with help, right?
But Swift... really... didn't...
want to...Eh, she'd give them fifteen more minutes.
----------
An hour passed.
Swift was lying on the floor in the middle of the room by that point, staring at the ceiling and studying the intricate network of crystals like she was watching the stars. Well... maybe not watching the stars. That would've been a relaxing endeavor, and Swift's expression was anything but relaxed. She was tired, anxious and terrified, which together made her look like she was on the verge of losing her mind.
She had to wonder what Evan would look like the next time she saw him,
whenever that was. After all, his extra arms had sprouted in his sleep the other night. At that rate, by morning he could be climbing on walls, shooting webs out of his butt, and eating his food by vomiting on it and drinking the resulting mush... assuming his body hadn't made those adaptions already.
She was even starting to worry about Rainflower, believe it or not. What was going on that was keeping them away from such a serious matter that they knew this to be? Were they hurt? Were they lost? Why did they feel so inclined to deal with this issue before curing Evan? The mere fact that Swift was even contemplating these things were enough to make her question what the heck was wrong with her. Since when did she care about
Rainflower's problems?!
She covered her face with her hands and let out a long, frustrated groan. WHAT WAS TAKING SO LONG?!!
Eventually, sick and tired of waiting for the answers to come to her, Swift sprung to her feet and sprinted into the cavern, nose to the air as she followed the scent of sugarcane through the winding tunnels.
They had to be out there somewhere. She'd find them. She'd put an end to this madness soon enough.
The freshest trail of Rainflower's scent led her down the same path she and Van had followed before. Deep down, Swift had a feeling that this would lead her to discover the source of that horrid noise all too soon, but she cared significantly less about that by then. She was at wit's end. All she cared about was finding Rainflower and fixing Evan. Nuts to whatever weird beasts she ran into. She'd rip them all limb from limb if it meant getting the cure to Evan sooner.
A sharp left turn. Then a right. Then straight on ahead through the seemingly infinite expanse of the cave. She hardly noticed it at first, but Rainflower's scent, while consistent, never grew stronger the further she traveled. They had clearly traveled this way, but it never felt like she was getting any closer to the source. But still she pressed on, sniffing, searching for the fairy.
She rounded another corner...
Then she locked up and muffled a yelp.
In a snug corner of the cave was an animal. A very
large animal. It was hard to tell, given that it was lying down and sound asleep, but it almost looked bigger than an elephant. The creature was jet black with swirled and spotted patterns of blue and green, which seemed to possess a neon luminescence like a black light painting. Its body was distinctly lizard-like, with a thick, scaly hide, a long tail, and a back covered in spines like a stegosaurus. Its legs were long and gangly with exaggerated pointed elbows, and though they were wrapped up against its body, its front hands seemed to possess opposable thumbs. As it breathed in deep, raspy snores, its head seemed to flop about as if, like a lamprey, it lacked a jaw. Atop said lamprey-like head was a pair of long, twitching antennae, and surrounding it was a long, lion-like mane. A mane that, upon closer inspection, seemed to be made of dozens of tentacles.
".................."
Nope nope nope nope nope nope...Stealthily, stiffly, almost robotically, Swift tip-toed past the creature and continued along the path. She quickly took back what she said about fighting anything she came across. She wanted
none of that.
Once she was absolutely certain she was far enough and it wasn't going to wake up, Swift leaped right back into a full sprint in pursuit of Rainflower's scent. Couldn't be much longer now.
----------
It was difficult to resist the temptation to pull out her phone every couple of minutes, but Swift managed it. She didn't need to check the time to know that this was taking FOREVER.
Hours had passed, and still she was running around in circles trying to track down Rainflower. The lingering trails of their scent had led her down one dead end after another, even bringing her face-to-slumbering-face with that Lovecraftian horror a few more times. It was getting monotonous. No, screw that; it had gotten monotonous an hour ago. This was just infuriating. Where the heck
WERE THEY?!!
"
RAINFLOWER!!!"
Swift stopped running and slapped a hand over her mouth. That was a dumb move. Several animals in the distance were screeching in response to her outburst. She
really hoped that...
thing hadn't woken up because of it.
But what else could she do? She had scoured just about every inch of the caverns and not seen hide, head or wing of that crazy fairy.
Fury gave way to concern. Concern gave way to hopelessness. This was probably the only chance she had to get Evan a cure. The
one lead that assured that he could be turned back to normal. So close... and yet so far.
Swift sighed and finally checked her phone again.
It was almost seven AM. The sun was undoubtedly rising on the surface by now. An entire night wasted waiting on Rainflower and she was still no closer to her solution.
Well... that wasn't true.
She took a deep breath. No more beating around the bush. If Rainflower wasn't coming back, she would just have to take matters into her own hands.
Swift promptly started marching ahead, back-tracking the paths she had long since memorized. Ten minutes later, she had arrived back at Rainflower's workshop. It was clear that Rainflower had not been back there since her departure, which only further cemented the urgency of Swift's last resort.
She looked down at the mage still sleeping on the couch. "Pat. Get up. We're leaving."
face.