Chapter Text
The stick they were using to prop the hatch open snapped. Of course it did.
Rihanna barely had time to let out a scream before Axel went tumbling into the cavern. Both of her siblings were now inside.
The heavy bronze lid was slowing down, but the gap was shrinking. Rihanna made her decision. She threw herself forward, sliding down into the remaining crack.
Just in time.
The lid shut itself with a resounding clang. They were left inside, with only the faint beam of Marina's flashlight lighting up their surroundings.
Rihanna sighed. "I told you it would end this way."
"Um, Sis?" came Axel's voice. He sounded like he was in pain. "My leg kind of hurts."
Rihanna felt like her heart had stopped. A centaur with a broken leg was one that would soon die. "Marina! Flashlight. Now," she barked.
Once the device was pressed into her hand, she aimed it at Axel's leg, feeling along the bone just like Mom had taught her to. She let out a sigh of relief when she didn't feel any jagged edges or unnatural swelling that would indicate a break.
"You've probably just sprained it," she muttered. "Now let's move. We have to get out of here soon if we want to be in time for dinner."
She shined the flashlight at the walls. The beam illuminated strange metal panels. It looked weirdly like an old lab. One from before the Grand … whatever it was called. Rihanna always slept through her History of the Fall classes. But it couldn't be one. They had all been found centuries ago, she remembered that much.
"Isn't this so exciting?" Marina clapped her hands together, making the bracelets jingle. "A real adventure."
"Could you shut up?" Axel grumbled from the shadows behind her. His hooves dragged with a heavy, uneven clack-scrape against the metal floor as he limped forward. "I can't see where I'm stepping, and my leg is killing me."
"Stop whining," Marina retorted. "And stop stopping so suddenly. I just bumped my nose into your flank."
"I'm not doing it on purpose!" Axel shot back, his tail swishing irritably. "It's pitch black back here because Rihanna is too busy looking at the ceiling!"
"Enough," Rihanna whispered sharply over her shoulder. "Both of you. We're not here to argue."
Grumbling, Axel and Marina fell silent, though Marina made a point of sighing loudly as they navigated the dark, winding corridor. The hallway was wide, like it was made for at least 5 adult centaurs walking side by side. Dust coated everything, swirling up in thick clouds around their hooves.
As Rihanna swept the beam over a rusted metal counter, something caught the light. She paused, brushing a thick layer of grime off the object. It was a long, heavy rod made of black material she didn't recognize, ending in two blunt metal prongs. It had a grip meant for a hand and a faded red button on the side.
A weapon? she wondered, turning it over. It looked like some kind of weird club, like one of the props they used for the school plays. She didn't know what it was meant to do, but it had a good weight to it. Maybe she could use it to pry the lid open? She tucked the rod into one of the pockets of her green coat. They walked deeper in, the only sounds the hollow clopping of their hooves and the heavy, rhythmic sound of their breathing. The air down here was incredibly stale, smelling of rusted metal, something sharp, and dead earth.
"Rihanna?" Marina’s voice was much smaller now, stripped of all her usual bright curiosity. "Are we gonna be okay?"
Rihanna stopped and looked back at her younger siblings. The flashlight beam caught the whites of Marina's widened eyes and Axel's slumped, pain-tightened shoulders.
A cold spike of dread hit Rihanna’s stomach. She suddenly remembered something from her biology lessons. Centaurs weren't supposed to stay in enclosed, underground spaces for long. With their two pairs of lungs, a single centaur consumed a massive amount of oxygen. Three of them, trapped in a sealed metal bunker with no ventilation, would burn through the breathable air fast. If they didn't find a way out, they would suffocate.
She swallowed hard, pushing the thought down. She couldn't tell them that. Panic would only make them breathe faster.
"We're gonna be okay," Rihanna said, forcing a confident tone she didn't feel. "We just need to find another hatch or lid, or I'll pry the top open. Don't worry. Come on."
Finally, the hallway opened up.
Rihanna swept the flashlight beam around. They were standing in a perfectly square room. Unlike the dirt cavern above, the floor and walls here were completely smooth, though they too were covered in a thick layer of ancient, undisturbed dust.
Across the floor were large, heavy metallic boxes, like the lockers in her school. They had a mess of tubes connected to their bases.
"What are those?" Axel asked, leaning his weight off his bad leg.
"Storage or something? I don't know," Rihanna said, stepping closer to inspect the nearest one. Its lid was thrown back, the hinges rusted in place. Inside, it was completely empty. In fact, as she panned the light around the room, she realized almost all the boxes were wide open, the bottoms pressed down strangely like something heavy had once been inside
"There's something in that one," Marina pointed out.
Sitting in the far corner was a single, closed locker. It looked different from the rest, less rusted, with a dull, silver-gray sheen visible beneath the grime. There was a faint hum coming from it's back.
Marina trotted over. She could never resist a good mystery.
"Marina, don't mess with it," Rihanna warned, as she moved to follow her, handing the flashlight over to Axel.
"I just want to see what's inside," Marina said. She wedged her fingers under the edge of the lid and pulled. "Ugh. It's stuck." She pulled harder, but her hands slipped off the smooth metal. Frustrated, she slapped the side of the box with the heel of her hand. "Stupid piece of junk—"
Click.
Marina froze. The sound was sharp and mechanical, echoing loudly in the square room.
Rihanna immediately stepped forward, pushing her siblings away, her weapon pointed at the box.
Beneath the thick layer of dust, a panel on the side of the box suddenly lit up with a faint, pulsing light. A second later, a loud, pressurized hiss broke the silence. Trapped air shot out from the seams, sending a cloud of centuries-old dust swirling around them as the lid slowly began to rise.