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Falin was entranced.
Sure, she has seen the sea, like she had always wanted, and counted everything about it, from the bright sand and glimmering waves of summer to the grey stillness and moodiness of winter, as her favourite things. But the underground lake of the Island Dungeon’s fourth floor was an unexpected wonder.
So when the littlest member of their party suddenly pulled up short in front of her, she didn’t think much of it. Everyone was ambling in awe, staring at the buildings far below or the schools of fish swimming in wide ribbons. Falin herself was marvelling at how the colour of the water seemed to glitter and pulse.
It was when Chilchuck suddenly veered off to the left that she lifted her eyes to rest lightly on him.
He wasn’t taking his usual precise steps. Instead, his feet seemed to stick to the surface of the water, his gait suddenly awkward and sluggish.
Falin stepped closer to him, dropping a hand to his shoulder. She expected him to scowl back up at her, but he easily shrugged her off, not even sparing her a glance.
“Chilchuck?” she asked quietly.
He didn’t respond, only continued to stumble further away. Falin followed, trying not to draw the attention of the group yet, and stepped in front of him.
Chilchuck’s eyes were unfocused and his face was slack, and he bumped into her as if he didn’t see her.
“Are you alright?” Falin asked, concerned. Chilchuck pushed past her, but she grabbed him by the elbow. He tried to shrug her off again, but she held fast. He grimaced, rolling his shoulder again to pull away.
“Hey,” she called softly, waving a hand in front of his face. “Chilchuck?”
Chilchuck was now earnestly trying to wriggle from her grasp, and Falin could tell that they had caught the attention of the group. Laios, at the front of their slow procession across the water, turned back and caught her eyes with a question.
In the universal language of siblings, a silent conversation took place. Laios’ brows twitched. Falin looked unnerved.
In a matter of moments, the procession turned into a semicircle, with Falin trying to maintain her grip on their increasingly slippery picklock.
“What’s going on?” Namari demanded.
“Mermaids,” muttered Rhys.
“Oh,” the Touden siblings chorused.
Chilchuck was starting to make small sounds of desperation in his attempts to escape Falin, and Laios leaned in to help his sister. Falin had a strong grip on Chilchuck’s elbow and had snaked an arm across his torso to strengthen her hold.
“What do we do?” she asked her brother.
Laios crouched in front of Chilchuck, his brow creased with concern at the now-panicked look on the half-foot’s face. Trying to catch his eyes, Laios put a hand on Chilchuck’s jaw, but his gaze remained unseeing. He then grasped Chilchuck by the shoulders and gave him a gentle shake.
Chilchuck continued to squirm and scrabble at Falin’s hands.
“How do we snap him out of it?” Laios mused, almost to himself.
Namari threw her hands in the air in frustration, and the mage next to her scoffed.
“You’re the monster expert here,” Rhys snarked.
“Let’s just get him out of range.” Laios ignored the caustic remark and looked up at Falin, then behind him, where Chilchuck was raring to go. It was just a vast part of the lake, the edge too far to see or hear anything. “We’ll head in the opposite direction.”
Laios dropped to one knee and opened his arms as if he was going in for a hug. Falin loosened her grip a little so Laios could take over, but Chilchuck wrenched free, managing two swaying steps before Laios caught him around the middle and effortlessly heaved him up onto his shoulder like a sack of vegetables. The half-foot slackened for a few beats, the air knocked out of him. Then he started to struggle in earnest, hands grappling and slipping on Laios’ back and knees and feet kicking at the front of his cuirass, but Laios held him tightly in place with a hand on the small of his back.
Falin met her brother’s eyes, and they shared an unhappy look before setting off again across the lake.
This time, the mood was dour. When they had oohed and aah’d before, pointing things out to each other, now there was only the strange wobbling sound of their feet on their lake’s surface and the soft, panicked noises coming from Chilchuck.
From her position at the back of their line, Falin could see over Namari’s head and past their recently-acquired mage at Chilchuck continuing to flail over Laios’ shoulder.
Falin considered this worse than Chilchuck’s actual temper fits - at least then, he was clear in his communication and mostly, if they listened to him, he stopped. This quiet, dazed distress was more upsetting to everyone, especially when he lifted his head to stare unseeingly into the distance. She tried to bring herself to look away from Chilchuck’s obvious misery, but her eyes kept finding him.
And it was as she watched disquietly that the fight abandoned him, and Chilchuck suddenly slumped bodily against Laios’ back, arms dangling and legs stilling.
Laios paused, glancing down, as Falin tripped closer.
“Chilchuck?” he asked. “You with us?”
There was no sound from the picklock, but Laios carefully lifted him off his shoulder, grasping him tightly under the ribs to set him back on his feet. Laios loosened his grip, testing Chilchuck’s stance, but the half-foot teetered dangerously, and Laios kept his hands on the small torso to steady him.
“Hey,” Falin said, squeezing his shoulder warmly and smiling down at Chilchuck’s face. The panic was wiped away and replaced by a blank daze. Falin waved a hand in front of his face, to no reaction.
XXX
Rhys sighed irritably and folded his arms. Then he turned to Namari, gesturing at the pathetic scene in front of him.
“This is the type of thing that throws your team?”
“Relax,” Namari rolled her eyes, then spoke out of the side of her mouth, quietly, at the mage. “It’s their first time on this floor. They’re just cautious.”
“We could have been on the other side by now,” Rhys muttered, watching as the siblings gently tried to rouse the half-foot from his daze with soft pats to the cheek and rubs to his back, to no avail.
XXX
“What do we do, big brother?” Falin said, her hand still on Chilchuck’s back. Laios sighed and hummed low in his chest.
“Do you think he’ll walk?” He asked. Chilchuck was now standing unassisted, but Laios’ strong hands hovered close in case he faltered.
Falin took Chilchuck’s hand, folding it easily in her much bigger hand, and took a step forward, seeing if he would follow. When he simply stood, their joined arms taut, she tugged him gently forward. He took a stumbling step and nearly lost his balance, but Laios carefully righted him.
“His fingers are so cold,” Falin crouched to take both of Chilchuck’s hands in hers, rubbing them gently to warm.
“It is cold on the water, and if he isn’t going to move on his own, he’s going to get cold,” Laios agreed.
“I’ll carry him so he doesn't get cold,” she said, bending down to scoop Chilchuck up onto her hip like a toddler and arranging his arms around her shoulders. “He won’t feel your body heat through your armour, but I can keep him a little warm at least.”
Laios nodded and looked back at the rest of the party. Namari shrugged, telegraphing her lack of knowledge on the situation, and Rhys rolled his eyes. Falin adjusted her grip on Chilchuck, cradling him close to support his weight against her torso. His chin was tucked over her shoulder, and if it wasn’t for his eerily open eyes, he could be mistaken for a sleeping child.
“We’ll get going again, then,” Laios said, and the party of five headed across the lake once again.
Incredibly, the team made it with no monster attacks to a stone cloister that seemed to lead into the fifth floor, where Laios said they would rest a bit and see if Chilchuck would finally wake up from his daze.
Falin found a good spot against the wall and directed Laios to lay their gear there as a makeshift seat. Namari sank down on a ledge and the new mage disappeared into a dark corner.
Bending at the knees, Falin carefully deposited her charge, sitting him up on a bedroll and placing his back against the wall. His eyes were still lifeless, his breathing deep and even. She leaned forward to brush her fingers through his hair and pat his cheek again. There was still no change in Chilchuck’s dazed expression.
She was getting more and more concerned. What if they couldn’t snap him out of it?
She turned to Laios, who stood nearby, his brow knitted together. He met her eyes, and they had another silent conversation.
Then there was a guttural groan from the dark corner of the cloister.
“Oh my god,” Rhys raised his skinny hands as if begging for a sign from a celestial body. “Just rouse him already!”
He took a big step forward to where Falin had settled down next to Chilchuck, then clapped twice, loudly, in front of the half-foot’s face, simultaneously shouting “Wake up!”
Falin reached forward protectively, aghast, but then Chilchuck gasped and blinked, fright dancing on his face.
“That’s how you do it,” Rhys said with a mock bow and swept back to his corner.
“Chilchuck?” Falin leaned forward. The half-foot looked up at her, suddenly breathing hard, then looked around, confused. Relief flooded her features, and it took all of her energy not to drown Chilchuck in an embrace.
“How did I get here?” Chilchuck demanded, stumbling to his feet. “How long was I out of it?”
Falin looked toward her brother.
“Thirty? Forty minutes?” Laios guessed.
“That long?” Horror dawned on Chilchuck’s face. “Why didn’t you wake me up on the lake? Did you-” his breath hitched “-carry me?”
The siblings shared another glance.
“A little bit,” Falin admitted.
XXX
“That was pretty mean,” Namari said, sidling up to Rhys as Chilchuck continued to berate the siblings. “There are twenty ways you could have handled that better.”
“I’m not the boss here,” Rhys quipped, snapping shut his journal. “It’s not my job.”
Namari huffed, her eyes on the irate lockpick.
“They did try, Chilchuck,” she inserted when he paused mid-rant to breathe.
“Not hard enough!” Chilchuck wheeled around, the fury in his eyes so bright it was a wonder Namari didn’t catch fire. “So you just allowed them to carry me around like an infant?”
“Hey brat,” Rhys sniped. “You can be lucky they didn’t just let you wander right into those mermaid arms and hoofed it the other way. I would have dropped you the first time you started running your mouth.”
“I’m not a brat,” Chilchuck growled, “and you’re one to talk, Mr Sarcastic. Butt out!”
“Hmm,” Rhys pondered, giving Chilchuck a considering once-over. “Looks like a brat. Acts like a brat. Probably is a brat.”
Rhys caught Namari’s eyeroll as she shuffled her way out of the conflict. So much for having his back in this new party. Guess he wasn’t sticking around after all.
XXX
“I was worried, but I’m glad he’s okay,” Falin murmured to Laios, not voicing that she was also glad that Chilchuck’s attention had shifted away from them and was now firmly on his new favourite pastime: arguing with the mage.
“I guess we should have shouted or something. Seems like we were too careful with him,” Laios gave her a wry smile and scratched his neck. Falin smiled and hummed in agreement.
The two siblings watched as Namari finally stepped in to mediate the conflict between the picklock and the mage before it escalated to blows.
“We might need to look out for a new mage,” Laios said quietly. Falin looked up at her brother’s face, which he was carefully trying to keep neutral, but she could tell by the disapproving line of his lips that he wasn’t happy that Rhys had kept information from them.
The mage was now seething in silence at Chilchuck as the picklock angrily ran through his equipment to make sure nothing was amiss, throwing vicious scowls at anyone who dared to make eye contact. He’d cool down, Falin knew - the pink flush on his cheeks was more embarrassment and bluster than real anger.
The mage, on the other hand… Falin shifted her gaze to the corner of the cloister, where the dark-haired spell-caster was muttering something under his breath as he stuffed books into his pack.
Falin wasn’t sure whether he fit in so well with their team. He may be happier in a different party.
Actually, she was sure of it.