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"I'm going to the right now," Netepa's voice echoed and rebounded down the radio set. "Wo-o-oah. This is aw-aw-so-o-ome."
"Is there any sign of water, though?" Aradia asked, frowning as she poured over her terrain map.
At least there was plenty of light, even if it was too hard and hurting her eyes as it bounced off the white to orange striation of the canyon walls. She was getting better at keeping her eyes on the shaded parts of her current headquarters, with some thought spared for the fact that there might be deadly fauna wandering the vast water carved network of canyon walls. Welcome to daybreak. Luckily, Kanaya had given her encouraging hints about daylight survival without being burned to a crisp before Aradia set out on this adventure. Aradia may not have wanted to brave the sunlight, but she was prepared, and finding Nepeta would be worth it.
You aren't going to win today, FLARP. Not today, she told herself. Team Charge was on the case! Well, more like Team "So a kitty troll and a sheepy troll walk into a bar together, and this isn't the set up for a joke, it's the set up for a horrible weeks long adventure involving catacombs and Vriska's horrifying lusus" as Karkat put it. Only he put it in all caps, in the middle of a public rant to Vriska, which had blown the whole plot open and apparently caused a lot of destruction to Vriska's hive. Tavros was still trying to help get the rubble moved, and coincidentally keep Vriska busy enough that she didn't go after her lusus. That was what teammates were for.
Aradia was still trying to work out what exactly had happened, because Karkat's rants rarely got anything accomplished. However, now a certain spidermom was now fleeing for her life, and possibly missing some limbs, if Nepeta's whispered descriptions were anything to go by. Surely there was a Trollian timeline of events memo that she could go through at her leisure, but Aradia had been without anything more than the HAM radio in the canyon for the last week.
"No water, my Sunlit Savior," Nepeta confirmed. "But so many glowing crystals, and SKELLETONS. You wouldn't believe the skeletons. It's like a cool jewelry city down here. The brave purrincess Is going to shower you in jeweled bones when you rescue me. Any idea where I am yet?"
Um. Well, it was a large cavern, Aradia frowned over the map. With crystaline variations. She was an archeologist extraordinaire! She should be able to figure this out in an inst—
Something scuttled above her in the cool shade of the canyon. Aradia grabbed the radio, her grappling hook, and jumped. A massive white and still too many legged shape whisled past Aradia's right horn, giving her the impression of cerulean sea spatters, but she was already flying in a series of confusing zig-zagging leaps from mesa to pocket canyon to mesa.
Swinging out her line Aradia yelled in excitement, grabbing onto a rocky lip as it hurtled past with the rope and cutting her psionics to let the momentum swing her onto the ledge. This ledge opened into a dim cave, but Aradia had to lean against the wall for a second, trying to get her breath back. Carefully she hitched her radio equipment onto her backpack again, and reached for the speaker phone.
"Wooo! So I know where Spidermom is, and she's not near you," Aradia told Nepeta at the other end of the radio.
She stared out over the sunlit canyons. Despite the green tinge to everything and the burning glow that suggested she would be bubbling and peeling for weeks, the high barren rock formations looked very beautiful. Still, it was long after her normal respite time, and she needed a place to hole up. Thank goodness for convenient caves in the rockface, she told Nepeta.
"Wait! the brave explorer yells in tail lashing excitement!" Nepeta's voice had taken on an odd echo. "Say that again! I think I hear you in two places!"
"This cave might run into your cave network, then?"
"Yes yes! The mighty huntress will keep talking, okay? And when I stop talking you should start talking and then we'll find each other!"
"That is a plan, and one I approve of," Aradia agreed, walking into the cool shadows. "Now you say something."
"I'm just so glad to hear your voice. I mean fur real your voice. Not just the radio. It's been ages and ages and I was so worried. I've nefur been so deep in the caves that Pounce couldn't find me. Oh. I hope someone is feeding her and taking her for walks, but—no one lives near me. Maybe Terezi could, but she's super far furm everything," the double echo trailed off.
Aradia walked deeper, keeping an eye on the stalactites. A person could get their horns bonked on those if they weren't careful. "Sollux could probably fly out there. But it would be the same problem as him visiting me. He hates anything that hasn't had concrete poured on top of it. His allergies are really bad. Also, he is a bit of a wuss."
"Hah. He's such a silly pants. Well, and I think Pounce might try to eat him. She must be furantic by now. Heehee," the nervous giggle sounded wet. Aradia wondered if crying made you lose more water.
"It'll be okay! You'll be home by moonsrise, now," Aradia promised, and then added. "Unless the echoes lead us wrong, but I do not think that will happen. You've got the best hearing of anyone I know."
"The tired kitty is really pleased by the purraise and headbuts your hand hoping for a pat and pawssibly more?"
"Certainly. The peerless archeologist always has time for her kitty furiend, who is the bravest kitty she knows. Brave enough to live on her own in the middle of a jungle full of fauna. Brave enough to lead a hungry lusus off Terezi's trail and smart enough to order her home so she could get me and Tavros to help you, even though it meant canyon dodging with a spider who obviously knows this place better than we do. And you're not trying to do any of this alone, with is the most amazing thing I can think of. You know if it was either me or Terezi we would be trying to tough it out and we would play right into Vriska's hands, but you've kept your head and gotten your priorities straight, and I'm so glad that you," Aradia took a deep breath, "I'm glad you're you. Because you know who you are and who the rest of us are, you've made the best decisions."
"Aw," Nepeta sounded really close.
Aradia stopped walking, and began poking at the floor gingerly, in case there was a concealed opening. She could certainly lift her self out of a fall, but why fall in the first place?
"Speak again," Aradia ordered. "I think I'm right on top of you."
"Um, I think I would notice that. But sure! You're a really great friend, Aradia. I'm sorry I got you into this. I didn't want any trolls who couldn't easily get away from Furiska's lusus to try and help. I didn't realize it, but I actually think we make a really great team. I've had tons of fun with you and even Tavros, that psychic fauna bully, over the sweeps, and I was thinking, maybe we could team up again. Maybe not for FLARPing. I just don't think I've got much of a taste for it fur a while, anyway, but like, expurrloring! I mean this place is so purrty, and I know you'd have fun archeologisting here once we get the canyons de-spiderfied and—"
Yes! Aradia found a massive sinkhole, where Nepeta's voice rebounded and re-echoed. She hooked her grappnel around a stalagmite, and jumped. Why bother having a grapnel hook and rope set, after all, if you weren't going to use it.
And there, about 500 meters down, surrounded by cool stone and gently lit by a faint blue glow, she saw Nepeta, hands outstretched and groping forward.
"Remember when I said I was on top of you?" Aradia called out, and Nepeta's head snapped upward so fast that her radio mike flipped off her lapel, and sent angry screeching clatters through Aradia's receiver. "Boo!"
And Aradia let go of the rope to fall into her friend's waiting arms.