Chapter Text
The cave was quiet, except for the occasional clatter of a loose stone skidding across the ground and the soft tap of boots against uneven rock. A damp, stagnant smell clung to the air. Joel rambled cheerfully about his next megabase idea, his words bouncing off the cavern walls, while Etho kept his eyes trained on the shadows, searching for diamonds or anything waiting to attack them.
Then it happened.
Without warning, Joel’s foot caught on a jagged bit of stone. He lurched forward, arms flailing wildly for balance. Etho barely had time to shout before Joel pitched over the edge of a dark, gaping hole neither of them had noticed in the weak, flickering torchlight. A startled yelp echoed, and then Joel was gone.
“JOEL!” Etho’s voice tore from his throat, his heart slamming against his ribs.
His chest tightened, breath catching. For a second he froze, then he shoved every thought of his own safety aside. He sprinted toward the edge and leapt without hesitation.
Air roared past him as he plummeted, the world reduced to rushing wind and swirling dust. Pebbles tumbled beside him, catching brief flashes of torchlight as they fell. His stomach lurched; his pulse thundered in his ears. He braced for impact-
And hit.
The landing slammed through his body, knocking the breath from his lungs. Dust puffed up around him in a gritty cloud, stinging his eyes. Etho scrambled upright, snatching up the dropped torch and whipping it toward the darkness.
“Joel!” His voice cracked, raw with fear. “Joel, where are you?”
The torchlight flickered weakly, its glow swallowed by the cavern’s vast darkness. The air down here felt colder-older-like it hadn’t been disturbed in ages. Etho’s breath echoed back at him in small, uneven gasps.
A groan answered him.
Etho’s head snapped toward the sound. “Joel?” His voice was softer this time, careful, as if afraid the cave itself might cave in.
“...ow.”
It was faint, strained, but unmistakably Joel.
Relief crashed over Etho so fast his legs nearly buckled. He hurried toward the noise, boots crunching over loose gravel. The light finally brushed across a slump of movement on the ground-Joel, curled on his side, one hand pressed against his ribs, the other reaching blindly for something to grip.
Etho dropped to his knees beside him. “Joel-hey, hey, I’ve got you.” He reached out, steadying Joel’s shoulder. “Are you hurt? What happened?”
Joel blinked up at him, dazed. “What happened is the ground betrayed me,” he muttered, voice thick with pain. “Pretty sure it tried to eat me.”
Despite everything, a breathless laugh escaped Etho. “Yeah, well, you gave it a good snack-sized scream.”
Joel rolled his eyes-then winced. “Okay-laughing hurts. Everything hurts, actually.”
Etho swept the torch around, checking for mobs lurking in the shadows. Nothing moved. Still, the hair on the back of his neck prickled. “We need to get you up,” he said quietly. “This place isn’t safe.”
Joel swallowed, trying to shift. “I think I can stand,” he said. “Just… maybe don’t let go this time?”
Etho slipped an arm under Joel’s shoulders. “Not planning to.”
Joel wobbled as Etho hauled him up, leaning heavily into the support like a drunk toddler learning to walk.
“Okay,” Joel mumbled, blinking hard as if trying to focus the cave into behaving. “But if anything else jumps at me, bites me, or tries to absorb me into the crust of the earth, I’m suing.”
“You can’t sue the ground,” Etho said, adjusting his grip. “That’s not how gravity works.”
“Watch me,” Joel said, then immediately hissed in pain. “Ow. Okay, gravity wins THIS time.”
Etho bit back another laugh. “Let’s just get you out of here before you try to throw hands with a stalactite.”
Joel perked up a little. “I could take a stalactite.”
“You couldn’t take stairs.”
“That was ONE time-”
“And then you fell in a hole,” Etho added helpfully.
Joel looked personally offended. “The hole attacked me first.”
“It was stationary.”
“ITS INTENTIONS WERE NOT PURE.”
Etho snorted, but before he could retort, something skittered across the stone behind them.
Both men froze.
The torch flickered. The sound echoed again-tiny, quick, like someone tap-dancing with extra legs.
Joel’s posture straightened instantly. “Eefo,” he whispered, “is that…?”
Etho leaned forward, squinting into the darkness. “Spider.”
“Big spider?”
“Dunno.”
The skittering grew louder.
Joel, very softly, said, “I take back everything I ever said about wanting more cave content.”
Etho tightened his grip around Joel’s waist. “Run?”
“Please. Before it decides I’m more cave content.”
Etho didn’t need more convincing. He hoisted Joel upright, and together they stagger-sprinted through the cavern-Joel hobbling dramatically like someone doing a bad reenactment of being wounded in a war movie, Etho dragging him like an annoyed parent rushing through the grocery store.
Behind them, something clicked loudly in the darkness.
“Nope!” Joel yelped. “NOPE. NO THANK YOU.”
“You can stop screaming anytime,” Etho said, breathless.
“I WILL NOT.”
The skittering picked up speed.
Joel clung to Etho’s shoulders. “Eefo, if I die down here, please build, like, a tasteful statue of me.”
“You want a statue?”
“With abs.”
“You don’t have abs.”
Joel gasped, wounded. “HOW DARE YOU-”
The cavern floor tilted upward sharply, and Etho dragged them both up the incline toward what looked like a faint glow of daylight-or lava, which honestly wasn’t great but still probably better than spiders.
“Almost there,” Etho panted.
Joel risked a glance back. The spider-massive, leggy, and entirely too enthusiastic-skittered into the torchlight and let out a hiss.
Joel screamed again.
Etho groaned. “Seriously, Joel, I am begging you to stop yelling in my ear.”
“WE ARE BEING CHASED BY EIGHT LEGS OF PURE MURDER, EEFO, YOU DO NOT GET TO CRITIQUE MY VOLUME RIGHT NOW-”
Etho made one last desperate lunge toward the sliver of light ahead, practically launching Joel up the final stretch of stone. They burst out of the tunnel and stumbled straight into a tiny alcove illuminated by a single, sputtering lava pool. It wasn’t ideal, but lava had one undeniable perk: spiders hated it. Or, more accurately, they had the good sense not to swan-dive into molten rock.
The giant spider skidded to a halt at the edge of the tunnel, hissing like it had been personally offended by their cleverness. Joel, clinging to Etho’s shoulder and panting dramatically, stuck out his tongue at it.
“Yeah, that’s right! Stay in your creepy leg zone!”
The spider hissed louder.
Etho nudged Joel. “Please stop provoking the wildlife.”
“I’m asserting dominance,” Joel whispered back.
“You’re asserting stupidity.”
Joel ignored that. Straightening as much as his sore ribs allowed, he raised an eyebrow at the glaring arachnid.
“That’s what I thought. Now scram.”
The spider, clearly done with them and their shenanigans, retreated into the shadows with an offended click of its mandibles.
Joel sagged against Etho in relief. “I can’t believe we survived that.”
Etho gave him a dry look. “I can’t believe you managed to start a fight with gravity, a hole, and a spider all in one day.”
Joel smiled weakly. “Yeah, well… bonus points?”
“Negative bonus points.”
But even as he said it, Etho tightened his arm around Joel’s shoulders and guided him toward the path back up to the surface-careful, steady, and just a little gentler than before.