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Chapter Text

One moment you’re riding your mountain bike down an obscure trail, and the next you’re in Hell.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬.

You should’ve known you’d end up here.

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You also should’ve known that that trail was too sketchy to be good. Why’d it have to be a cliff though? You never remembered a cliff being in that brochure you read about the trail and routs to take and what not.

You remember the wind drying your skin out and making it crack. The breathlessness of falling too fast to breathe, the deafening sound of wind rushing past your ear as you hit terminal velocity. The ground coming closer and closer with each passing moment. The sickening crunch as you made contact with the ground, and then-

Nothing.

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You’re glad that you can’t remember if there was pain or not.

Well anyway, enough about you. You’re in Hell. What would your opinion matter to God when you’ve been cast down to the fiery pits of Satan’s Lands.

Why’s you end up here anyway? Aren’t people supposed to see the Pearly Gates before being cast down?

𝘎𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘱, 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵?

𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵?

You’ve decided to take a look around your new home, double checking the inexistence of a torture chamber, or chambers in general.

𝘠𝘦𝘱, 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦

Well, maybe not 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.

The first thing you notice is red. Red as far as the eye can see, and not the popping scarlet red like you were expecting. No, it was a deep maroon-y red, the kind of red that looks almost like drying blood. It creeps into your vision like a fog, unable to see further than a few hundred feet before the red takes over. Everything is red. The ground, the walls, the sky.

Wait, no, not sky. 𝘊𝘦𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨. It’s a ceiling, as in, underground like a cave, ceiling. A cave ceiling.

Also, the thing that really sold it, was the fire. Fire everywhere, in big and small patches. Burning infinitely against the dark red background.

𝘖𝘩 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭

You mourn your old life for a moment. All those good times with your friends and family, with your dog named ‘Fido’ and your fish ‘Jerry’.

You wish your dog were here.

On second thought, no, you’re 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘥 your dog isn’t here. Fido wouldn’t deserve this.

Ugh, and something was just in the center corner of your eye too. You ignore that for now as you look around, closer this time, and saw giant columns of lava falling from holes in the ceiling.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥, 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘭, 𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥’𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥.

It is at this moment that you realized that you weren’t standing, but instead sitting, propped up against one of the cave walls.

𝘏𝘶𝘩.

You look down at yourself, wondering if you looked like you did in life or if you took form as a demon, or something.

𝘋𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘺 ‘𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯’ 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦.

You looked down at your apparel.

You now donned a primitive looking tunic with nothing but a belt holding it in place.

𝘈𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘢 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵? 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨

You looked further down to your legs.

All you could say was pink. 𝘗𝘪𝘯𝘬!

𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘬‽

Were you perhaps a lesser version of the classic red demon that was so often depicted in media? Maybe you were a more evolved version, that would be cool. Or you could be a different species all together. You wouldn’t find out, without more investigation!

You observe your legs a little more and note the course looking hair, a slightly lighter pink than your skin. Moving on from the fleshy, but still pink, legs you look to your feet.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘵.

Hooves might be a better descriptor for what were once your feet. Big, black, and blocky.

You wondered if you’ll need some sort of special horseshoe to protect your new hooves from this Hellish landscape.

𝘌𝘩, 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳

Assessing the hooves closer you see that your hooves are different than that of a horse. Instead of one rounded end, they’re split, like a deer or goat.

𝘏𝘮𝘮𝘮

You squint your eyes.

It’s when you tilt your head that you feel an unusual weight to it.

You tilt your head again. The weight shifts.

Once more, you tilt your head. It shifts again.

Now for the final test!

You vigorously shake your head side to side.

The weight has no intention of dislodging, you realized.

They’re also soft, and fleshy, tapping you every time you jerked your head side to side.

𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴?

𝘛𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘴? 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘴.

It seemed like the most logical conclusion. New skin tone, clothes, hooves.

𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥?

They’re too soft to be horns, so there goes the demon theory. Maybe they’re your ears?

You do have cloven hooves. Maybe you're some type of deer, or goat, or cow, or something. An anthropomorphic thing.

𝘖𝘰𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘩𝘰𝘰, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸.

You grinned evilly to yourself.

𝘏𝘢! 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴! 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵, 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘴!

It might not be the greatest or even a good win, but it’s a win regardless. You really needed one right about now.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘱, 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘻𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥.

You look at the ground around you for a moment and find that your hands were also hooves, noting that once again, you have course but light hair on your arms.

𝘖𝘩 𝘤’𝘮𝘰𝘯! 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘴‽ 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘰

You try to wiggle the separate parts of your left hoof and find that you can move them to ‘grip’ something and that there’s limited side to side movement.

You pout, but then you see what looked to be a crossbow in your right “hand”.

𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨? 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴?

Where would you even get the arrows?

You decided that you don’t get paid enough for this shit and ignored it for now. You tried to set the crossbow down, but you couldn’t let go of it.

𝘞𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭.

You huff in frustration. The air got caught in the back of your throat, so it sounded more like grunt. You briefly wondered what that was about, but dismissed it almost immediately.

You flung your arm wildly, trying to dislodge it, but nothing worked.

Eventually you got so frustrated that you tried to will the crossbow away with your mind.

To your great surprise, it worked. The crossbow disappeared.

You’ve decided once again that you don’t get paid enough for this shit and chalked it up to being Hell logic, you guess.

Back to standing up.

You use your hoof-hands to push yourself up, using the wall as support. It was difficult, but with single-minded determination, you succeeded in standing on your own two feet.

𝘌𝘳, 𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴.

Seeing as slow and steady wins the race, you take a single step forward, and then a small step back, clinging to the wall for support.

𝘚𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦

You kept repeating this mantra in your head until you completed your goal.

Your goal of walking that is, not your goal of punching God in the face for this bullshit.

The second goal was decided two seconds ago.

As a joke, 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺.

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After much walking support and slow movements with small steps, you finally got the hang of walking.

Good for you!

Deciding that’s enough practice for today, you unstuck yourself from your good friend, the wall, and became interested in the environment around you instead.

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After observing your surroundings, and leaving no stone unturned, you realized that you are, in fact, fucked.

Apparently, ending up in Hell wasn’t enough. Noo, God had to kick you down here and Satan thought it’d be funny to throw you on a cliff. But not just any cliff. No, it couldn’t be just any cliff, it just had to be a cliff surrounded by lava. Well, less a cliff, and more like a ledge, there was no wall sloping downwards. There’s ground, then there’s not. It looks like there was nothing holding your platform up but the wall you were glued to.

𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘮𝘦.

You pause for a moment.

𝘖𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘮𝘢, 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘐’𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘏𝘮𝘮𝘮…

Ugh, your maybe-not-a-joke about punching God is becoming more solid by the minute

You huffed in frustration again, though this time all the air was let through. No grunting at this time.

𝘞𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺.

Far off in the distance, past much of the ocean magma and occasional bit of glowing stone on the ceiling, lied something different. You could barely see it. It was still red, but a beautiful and bright red instead of the dull one your eyes have gotten used to. You almost missed it, just a sliver of crimson amongst dark maroon.

It lied to the right of the wall where you woke up. To the left, there was nothing but never-ending plains of rock. Nothing of substance anyway- like a waste land with random groupings of fire endlessly burning. The crimson intrigued you, maybe you should head that way. It would be interesting, if nothing else.

You look around your ledge for anything that could be of use for your venture.

Just as you suspected, nothing. Not even something to eat, and man were you getting hungry. You felt your stomach clench at the thought of food.

You sighed.

As you were about to turn to try and find a safe way off this ledge, you heard a noise. And not just any noise you were slowly getting used to. *𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩, 𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘢 𝘣𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩*. It sounded like a high pitched ‘oink’, like that of a piglet.

You whipped your head around trying to identify where it was coming from.

There it was again.

More head whipping, this time moving your body to see more. New ears whacking you in the face as you did so.

Once more, this time louder.

There, to your left.

You stumble as you rush to the sound.

𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥‽

Chapter Text

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭‽

With a closer inspection, you see that the ‘child’ looks like a little pig person. Bi-pedal, stood upright, and had a cute little snout with baby tusks growing in.

𝘈𝘸𝘸𝘸𝘸. 𝘏𝘦’𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦

You squeal mentally.

Look at those little hooves and those adorable floppy ears.

You squeal out loud this time. Your squeal sounded loud and pig-like, almost ear grating.

The child backpedaled, either startled or from fear. You’re guessing the latter, as the kid seemed to cower away from you.

𝘖𝘩, 𝘰𝘩 𝘯𝘰𝘰.

You try to speak softly to calm the child down, but all that came out were soft grunts and chuffs.

𝘚𝘰 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘶𝘩

You sigh mentally.

Maybe humming would work. You try making the vibrations of humming in your throat. It takes a few tries but you’re able to test a few high and low notes out, lower notes seem easier.

𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴!

You gave a small smile to the pigkid and hum a soft and soothing tune.

The piglet stopped cowering.

You continue into a smoother, slightly faster, beat and giggle a little- it comes out as a chuff.

The child hesitantly smiled and took a step forward.

You held out your arms with clear intent to hug.

The piglet runs up and jumped into your arms.

𝘈𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦

You continue the soothing sounds as you rocked him back and forth.

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After what felt like hours, the little pig person calmed down. He looked up at you with those pupilless eyes and tilted his head cutely.

You almost die via cuteness heart attack.

𝘚𝘰 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭. 𝘚𝘰 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘭𝘦. 𝘚𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺. 𝘛𝘪𝘯𝘺…

You gather him back up into a hug and squeeze the piglet tightly.

You take a deep breath and try to calm down and think rationally.

𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭. 𝘚𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦. 𝘏𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘷𝘶𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦. 𝘐 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢-

You glance at the child’s height to estimate age.

-𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘪𝘹 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘭𝘥, 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘸𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘹 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴.

You sigh heavily and press a hand- hoof to your face and slightly shook your head side to side.

The child made happy little grunts and chuffs, putting his little hooves up to his mouth in joy.

𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮, 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.

You nodded stoically to yourself once, promise taking root in your mind.

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘱?

You stomp on frustration. Your foot digs a few inches into the rock. Looking down in surprise, an idea flashes through your mind.

𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵, 𝘐 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦...

You humm a soothing tune as you pull your tunic up through your belt to make room for the babe. With a bit of trial and error, you were able to secure the piglet by your breast. Feeling around, you figure it’s secure enough to try and climb to near by cave, towards the crimson in the distance.

𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘶𝘩?

You’ll worry about that later, for now you need to find a safe place for the both of you. And a safe way to get off this ledge. You'll start with the wall, and walk towards it.

You reach the wall and try to grip it. The red stuff the walls and ground are made of seem to have a bit of give to them- hopefully that’ll translate well to your impromptu extreme rock-climbing expedition. You push your hoof into the wall as far as it could go, a few inches at most, and try to grip it with your weird new appendages It’s texture odd, almost like clay and rubber. The gripping seemed to work well enough and you lean back a bit to try and put some weight on it to see if it’ll hold, and if you can hold your own body weight as well. It doesn’t budge, and neither do you.

𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘵.

At first you tried sticking your foot hooves into the wall like you did with your hand hooves, but it felt uncomfortable on your ankle joints. Second, you try to stick them in at a sharper angle, it felt better on your ankles, but wasn’t stable enough. Lastly, as this was your last idea, you kind of just… kicked the wall.

Surprisingly, it worked like a charm. You tested a few different kicks at different angles and forcefulness. You found that stomping down slightly while swinging your leg forwards brought about the most sturdy and comfortable foothold.

Now for the hard part.

Actually climbing.

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘺𝘮 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦? ‘𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵’ 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨

You heave yourself onto the wall, a bit away from the edge of the ledge to try and get the hang of this before you’re actually hanging over a fiery death.

𝘚𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥

You keep your feet and left hoof in the wall as you reach your right hand over and stab it back into it, creating another hand hold.

You dislodge your right hoof and kick it back into the wall. This continues one limb at a time, slowly making your way over the ledge.

𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴

You look down at the molten rock below.

You tense and whip your head back up, determidly staring at the wall in front of you.

A small squeak brings your attention to the baby demon attached to your front. He tilts his head cutely.

𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘺

You nod your head once and continue on.

𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘵- 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳~

You start humming softly to take your mind off the monotony and strain of rock-climbing in Hell.

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

You feel like you’ve been climbing for hours. Your biceps hurt from the strain of holding yourself up vertically added on to the awkward position you have to do to keep yourself from squishing the baby pig. Your hamstrings and ancles feel like they’re tearing in retaliation for this awful exercise. And your hand hooves and foot hooves have the most pain, from all the force it takes to make new hand and foot holds for yourself.

𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘴

Your breathing labored.

𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘪𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘵

The child fell asleep a while ago, comfortably sitting in the make-shift carrier.

You look around to distract yourself from the pain you’re in right now, having long since gotten desensitized to the height.

The bubbles of the magma below you don’t register anymore. That really tells you about how adaptive one’s mind can be huh?

Suddenly, a different noise is heard.

𝙃𝙪𝙪𝙝𝙚𝙝-

𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦‽

Noise was grating, like a cry from Hell- 𝘖𝘩 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵

𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴

You crane your neck to look behind you to find out what made that god awful sound.

You catch a glimpse of white out of the corner of your eye. You move your neck the other way, hopefully to get a glimpse.

Massive floating thing.

It’s like someone thought it’d be funny to smash tentacles on the bottom of a floating head. A floating bald head.

It was also white, like 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦.

𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘥?

𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺. 𝘐 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘐’𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘳

The spirit turned it’s -head?- face thing, away from you, before it let out an even worse scream and promptly shot a fire ball towards whatever pissed it off in the distance.

𝘖𝘩𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵

You shook with your strain now, about three quarters of the way to the closest ledge, the new ledge to be more specific. You start a slightly faster pace as you attempt to reach it.

𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦‽

𝘐𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰‽

Good Lord, you never wanted to piss one of those things off. You resolved to do your best to keep from being barbecued by one of the tentacle monsters in Hell.

The pigkid stirred slightly before settling down again.

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

The faster pace might have been a bit mistake.

As it turns out, when you’re extreme rock climbing, you probably shouldn’t go faster than turtle’s pace, because faster means more likely to make mistakes. As you have, unfortunately, figured out.

𝘖𝘩𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘩𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘩𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘩𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘩𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬-

You curse in your mind as you try to hold on with one hoof, legs dangling and trying to find purchase.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰

You really were ‘so close the ledge,’ only a few more footholds would have gotten you safely to the edge of it.

Now, you’re just left dangling, on the cusp of successfully getting to safety.

You could feel the strain on your left wrist joint as you struggled to hold yourself up.

𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺. 𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦?

Think, think! Our lives depend on this!

You look down at the still asleep piglet on your chest.

𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘢!

You start intentionally swinging left to right, trying to build momentum.

You swing until you can feel your hoof trying to dislodge from the wall. Then, you let go

-𝘈𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰-

You miscalculated.

On one hand, you reached the ledge. On the other hand, you’re now dangling from it.

𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵

You try to pull yourself up, but you’re too fatigued from the awesome rock climbing skills you have to be able to pull yourself up with your arms alone. The weight of the kid isn’t helping matters.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰

You frantically try to think of a solution to this now somewhat familiar situation.

Feeling your left hoof slipping, you try to think faster, and then it slipped, too weak from holding your entire body weight plus some before. You now dangle with one hand over the magma.

𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵

You look around furiously.

𝘕𝘰, 𝘯𝘰 𝘯𝘰 𝘯𝘰!

𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰?

But you refused to give up.

Feeling your right hoof trying to follow the path your left set out for it, you grab the piglet by the scruff and swing him.

You swung him a few times, actually.

Then you let go. . . Of him, that is.

Up, up, up and away from the edge he went.

You heard the sound of him hitting the rock above you and the surprised squeak of him waking up.

𝘖𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦. 𝘕𝘰𝘸, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘵𝘺.

Well, swinging bodies around seemed to have done you good this far. So that’s what you did.

You start swinging. Left to right, left to right.

You kept it up until eventually your leg hoof caught the edge of the ledge.

You struggle to pull yourself up the rest of the way but manage.

Barely.

Looking around for the kid you spot him. He’s a few yards away from you, looking around in a confused manner.

It takes a few moments before you can try and get up, in far too much pain to attempt it at this moment.

As you lay there, you stare up at the ceiling of Hell, contemplating the dangers faced so far and if you’re strong enough to not only survive them but also keep the kid safe.

You absentmindedly grunt to get the little one’s attention.

He comes running to you.

You see his little face pop into your field of vision.

His body language seems to indicate concern or confusion. He nudges the side of your head with his snout.

You hum tiredly at him.

He hums back.

You perk up, head coming off the ground to look at him better.

He perks up at your perk up, doing a little wiggle. He gets a running start, only to jump onto your stomach.

You make a wheezy groan, and flop right back onto the ground.

𝘖𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵

He climbs up to your chest and looks down at you. You let out another groan before deciding it’s time to get up.

The piglet oinks in outrage as you roll over to dislodge him.

You grunt once in amusement, then hum a questioning sound and tilting your head.

He hums back and grunts softly, tiny tail wagging back and forth as he looks up at you.

You chuff back before standing up.

𝘏𝘦𝘩, 𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦

You have a moment to think before you teeter slightly.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦?

You look down at your walking hooves.

They look slightly damaged. There are shallow cracks running up about halfway, some bits seem to be flaking off, and some small chunks fell off on the front tips.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘐’𝘮 𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺

𝘈𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵’𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺

You take a few steps around to get the hang of walking on uneven hooves. You take a look at your grabby hands to see if they’ve sustained any damage as well.

You grimace.

𝘖𝘶𝘤𝘩

They’ve sustained quite a bit of damage.

The cracks run deeper and further up than the ones on your feet. The flaking is worse and-

𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘯𝘰𝘸‽

Yep, you watched in 4k as a chunk the size of nickel fell off the tip of your right hoof hand.

You watch in abject horror.

𝘖𝘩𝘩, 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴.

They were almost unrecognizable with how damaged they are. The nice points now dulled down and weathered looking.

𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦

You take a moment to come to terms with the damage done. But you accept it as well, because that’s what it took to survive.

𝘜𝘨𝘩, 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴

You shake your hands a little to get a feel for how far you’ll be able to bend them for a while. Your right one seems okay with minimal pain, your left however is probably sprained and you’re going to have to not use it for a while.

The kid grunts a few times to get your attention.

You look over.

He’s pointing somewhere off in the distance. You see that the crimson you saw was more prominent. You could vaguely make out a few tall shapes and more red behind the original.

Seems like it’s time to go, you look down at the piglet.

𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥?

𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘮 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘬?

You tilt your head side to side in thought.

𝘈𝘩 𝘩𝘢𝘩

You gesture towards your makeshift carrier with a head tilt and questioning grunt.

The kid thinks for a moment before stomping his hoof on the ground.

𝘐’𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘴 ‘𝘯𝘰’

You shake your head in exasperation, and held out your hand for him to take.

He looked at your hooves and saw the damage, grabbing onto the underside to get a better look at it.

His ears seemed to droop slightly with his shoulders dropping as he squealed in alarm.

You rumbled, hoping it would comfort him, then you hummed and shrugged your shoulders in a what-can-you-do sort of way.

Instead of holding his hand as planned, you pointed near your side in hopes the pigkid would stay near you.

Wanting to get a better look at your surroundings now that you weren’t in immediate danger, you spot more wall where the ledge held and some spots that looked jumpable to get across part of the cavern.

There wasn’t anything notable to be seen, other than the splotch of crimson in this maroon scape.

You grunt at the kid and flicked your head towards the crimson to indicate that’s where you’re headed.

The kid grunted and nodded his head, ready for your next adventure.

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

After much traversing and yelling ‘𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘳’ in your head as you both navigated to get closer to the crimson, you made it.

Chapter Text

After much traversing and yelling ‘parkour’ in your head as you both navigated to get closer to the crimson, you made it.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵.

You glance down at your worn hooves- not helped by the long trek here. They look slightly more torn up than they were before, likely from the excessive walking and small jumps that it took to traverse the large ledges on the way over. Thankfully, you didn’t have to rock climb again. You walk forward a little more.

One moment it’s rock, the next the ground’s covered by a layer of bright red squishy stuff.

𝘏𝘮𝘮𝘮𝘮

You furrow your brow.

Now that you’re there, you can see the tall red structures seemed like very large mushrooms with 𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙡𝙮 thick stems and massive caps with long winding red vines hanging from them. Light shown under them. From what? You don’t know.

There are smaller mushrooms that permeate the ground, likely not fully grown versions of the large mushrooms or maybe a different species all together, with the rare greenish-blue one mixed in. There were small red growths that look vaguely root-like occasionally spotted around the ground.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵?

You look around a bit more and see something moving off in the distance. Though, it’s not quite as far as you thought you could see. You notice the red fog that blocked how far you could see, with large pinkish particles floating around.

𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦, 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦? 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘐 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯, 𝘐’𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵- 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥

They look quite large. You assume that whatever it is, it’s not friendly.

𝘌𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭.

Glancing around for a safe place to rest, you spot an indentation a ways away in the face of a protruding wall, a little clearing before the massive mushrooms start in front of it. It looked a little high, but nothing you couldn’t handle.

The kid tired out a while ago, you put him back in the make-shift tunic carry by your chest so he could rest while you continued onward as he slept.

And onward you went. Slowly walking towards the indentation and stumbling slightly every so often.

𝘏𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵’𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯.

You didn’t know what you’d do if it wasn’t. You can feel the strain the journey over here delt, your foot-hooves started hurting long before you made it to your destination and they continued to hurt now, your back ached from the weight of the youngling on your chest and you feel hunger.

A good rest may help with a great deal of your problems at the moment.

𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘊’𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘴, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵.

You kept your slow but steady mope.

Each time you put a hoof down pain shot upwards. They felt like lead, but you had to go on.

After many arduous steps, you made it to the indent. Now all you had to do was pull you and the tot up and into it.

You couldn’t climb up with the kid on your chest, you might crush him! So, you slowly shifted him to your back and pulled your front down through the belt to keep him more secure to prepare for what was to come.

𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘱

You eye the ledge, it was just a bit higher than your assumed height.

𝘚𝘰 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦, 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘶𝘱. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘮.

You took a deep breath and grit your teeth.

Standing parallel with the wall, you dug your hand hoof in and kicked out your warn foot hoof into the soft rock and started to climb.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦.

Your muscles strained. Your arms felt like lead and your legs felt like they were going to fall off, but you kept going.

It only took a few times of digging your hooves in and climbing before you finally hefted your chest over. You crawled into the indent that expanded slightly inside the entrance.

𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘎𝘰𝘥

You shift the kid back onto your chest and collapse on to your back, laying slightly left to the entrance.

It would be hard to spot you laying in there if they weren’t at the right angle to.

𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥? 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬. 𝘐𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦? 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬. 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺? 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬.

𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵! 𝘐’𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸

And pass out you did.

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

You woke up with hunger in your belly, aching limbs, a weight on your chest, and a forceful impact to the chin.

𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺

You groan in denial, not wanting to get up.

Your chin gets hit again.

𝘜𝘨𝘨𝘨𝘨𝘩𝘩𝘩𝘩𝘩

You open your eyes to face the music.

The child goes to headbutt your chin again, but you bring your arm up to soften the blow.

You sigh and sit up, the piglet falling to your lap with a grunt and tail wagging.

Raising an eyebrow and crossing your arm, you look down at him and make no noise.

He chuffs.

You sigh and “roll” your pupilless eyes.

His stomach grumbles.

Your stomach does the same.

You decide it might be time to get up and go get something to eat for you and the kid.

Sighing deeply, you close your eyes for a moment of peace before facing Hell again,

𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺

You gave a soft snort before fully sitting up.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦!

All at once, every single muscle in your body rebelled.

The pain was almost unbearable, almost.

𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘵, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘵. 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥’𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯.

Man, you really hated past you at the moment.

If you could go back in time and punch that guy, you would.

𝘌𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦

You shake your head a few times and take a deep breath.

Time to face Hell.

You hear a curious snort and turn your head.

The child was at the entrance of the indent, only a few feet away yet so exposed.

You squeal in alarm and yank them back by the tunic.

Who knows what might be out there, looking for a small and easily attainable meal in the form a pig child. Maybe one of the massive moving shapes from yesterday are back!?

𝘕𝘰𝘱𝘦, 𝘯𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦!

The kid- you really need to think of a name for him sometime- looks up at you in confusion, head cocked and ears tilted downward.

𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘶𝘨𝘩, 𝘴𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦

You clutch your chest, over your strongly beating heart.

His stomach grumbles.

𝘖𝘩, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵

You think for a moment.

Now how to get the kid to sit and wait here as I go out looking for something to eat...

You cock your head thoughtfully.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰

You tried pointing to the inner part of the rock shelter and made a ‘stay put’ gesture.

The kid stared at you blankly, or at least you thought he did. It was a little hard to tell without pupils, but you thought you were getting better at reading body language.

So you tried something different.

You picked him up by the waist and set him as far in as possible without being physically held against the wall. Whenever the kid took a step towards the entrance, you picked him back up and put him back.

This repeated for a while.

Eventually, he took the hint and stayed put.

You nodded once and pat him on the head for being good, humming brightly along the way.

Turning away to exit the small no-a-cave, you caught movement out of the corner of your eye.

The child moved to follow.

You huffed in exasperation and put him back, further into the rock shelter.

You went to the entrance slowly, wincing slightly as your legs protested greatly. Looking back every few steps to make sure the child stayed put- he did.

You peeked out to see if there’s any danger waiting outside in the clearing or near the massive mushrooms.

𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨

You sigh silently in relief.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥

Your eyes shift every which way as you take a step out onto the short ledge at the entrance of the indent.

You look back to make sure the child hasn’t moved and see that he’s shifted slightly but hasn’t outright made a break for the outside.

You huff and sternly look at him.

He stands his ground for a moment before letting out a defeated sigh and sits down.

You nod once and hop down from the shelf.

It jarred your legs as you landed, feet protesting this harsh treatment after their battering the day before.

You ignored it, there are more important things to worry about than a little pain. Like food for the kid and you. You started pacing.

𝘕𝘰𝘸, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭?

You wonder to yourself, thinking about what might be safe-ish to eat.

𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴?

You purse your lips, that seemed pretty risky- after all, only about two percent of mushroom species on Earth are edible. And with only two to three species you’ve seen so far... well, the odds aren’t looking very good.

Your foot caught on something and you tripped, squealing on your way down and landing on your right knee.

𝘖𝘩 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘮𝘦?

You roll over to clutch your knee.

𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵

You breathe deeply, trying to ignore the pain.

This certainly doesn’t help with your muscle pain.

You glare up to see what tripped you.

They looked thin, long, and slightly branching, sticking up and out of the ground like roots out of soil.

𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴?

You had no idea what it could be, but it seemed like a better option than the mushrooms- and you also don’t see anything else that might be considered edible anywhere around.

𝘈𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵... 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘐’𝘮 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴, 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴

You picked up a hand full, struggling slightly due to the strange way your “hoof” was structured.

Hesitantly, you broke one in half rubbed the liquid inside onto your skin to see if any rashes would form.

As you wait to see if it welts your skin, you decide maybe it’s time to explore your immediate surroundings a little more.

𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵...

You look to the entrance of your temporary dwelling, only to see the piglet peeking his head out.

You tut and motion him back inside.

He gives a little huff and returns further back.

Shaking your head in amusement you resolve to keep the indent in line of sight as you explore a little.

𝘏𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘸

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

After about an hour or so of looking at your surroundings and exploring slightly, you have concluded that the root-like plant you found isn’t irritating your skin.

You found a waterfall of magma –magmafall?- a ways away from the indent hiding behind a mushroom near large ledge, so that’s... interesting.

Other than that, nothing to note. Just mushrooms, mushrooms, and more mushrooms, with the occasional spot of fire or glowing stuff on the roof of the cave.

You decide now is a good time to try putting the “roots” in your mouth. You broke another one in half and put some of the liquid on your tongue and rubbed the stem into your cheek.

𝘕𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨.

It broke like a bean sprout, interestingly enough.

You start walking back to the indent. Picking up more of the “roots” along the way to hopefully eat later.

It took fifteen minutes by your guess to make it there, and with no numbness or pain in your mouth you decided it’s now time for the ultimate test- to eat some of the root things to see if they make you sick.

You brought a single root, as you now are just calling them that, to your mouth and, much more hesitantly than before, bit down and chewed on it a bit before swallowing.

𝘐𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘺... 𝘩𝘶𝘩

No pain or numbness, safe for now.

You did your little rock-climbing stint again to get into the indent, which was much easier this time now that you’re not completely exhausted.

You grunt allowed and hum in greeting when you see the child in the back of your rock shelter walking around in circles.

𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘥, 𝘩𝘢-𝘩𝘢

He looked up after your greeting and copied you.

You chuffed and pat him on the head.

He grinned up at you as his tail wagged.

𝘚𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦

You grinned.

After playing with him for a bit via making funny faces and doing little dances back and forth, you decide it’s nap time- and if you still feel fine and dandy afterwards, you’ll conclude the roots are safe to eat and give some to the kid.

You could tell he tired out faster due to hunger, and that made you sad.

You laid down in a somewhat comfortable position , as comfortable as rock could get anyway, and laid the kid on your chest so that he could sleep well.

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

Well you’re not dead, so that’s good.

No stomach ache, intestinal pains, or frothing at the mouth.

𝘐’𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘵

You breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that there’s safe food to eat in Hell. You collected around five handfuls of the roots, so hopefully that’d be enough to sustain you and the child for another day.

You pulled out three handfuls from your tunic and gave two to the child, munching on the third.

The child copied you and munched on the other two handfuls.

It wasn’t exactly filling, but you’d take what you could get.

|--_--_--_--_--_—_- 𝐀 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 -_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

After eating most of the roots and saving two handfuls for later, the child starts fidgeting.

You think he was getting antsy sitting inside all day long with nothing to do.

So, you thought it’d be a good idea to take him outside to forage for more roots and look for a larger place to live- because the tiny area of the rock shelter was not enough for a growing child, let alone an adult and a growing kid.

Picking the piglet up, you allow him to cling to your front with your arm as support. You take four steps and then exit your little hovel. You give a glance around for any danger, nothing.

The kid squeals in glee as you hop down, using the wall to support you after landing.

You set the child down, gosh you really really need to think of a name for the kid, and look around once more for anything dangerous, nothing again.

𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵!

Humming to catch the little one’s attention, you wave him closer to you. You crouch down and motion towards a bundle of roots sticking out of the ground with a tilt of your head.

You grab as much as you could with your weird not-a-hand-exactly and pull as much as you can hold, eating a few to show him that this is food.

He put his hands to his face, eyes widened and did a little happy trot.

You hum in amusement.

Motioning to the bundle of roots again, you point to him, then the roots, then to him again.

He got what you’re trying to say and goes to try and gather them in the same way you did.

The kid loses grip and falls back onto his behind.

You snort a laugh.

He huffs and tries again.

𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘵!

He pulls harder with a better grip and obtains a small handful for himself.

You clap in enjoyment.

𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯

The kid throws his hands up in celebration, you pat his head as a ‘good job’ and smile while humming softly.

He eats the roots and wanders around to find more near you, eating them along the way.

You shake your head and softly chuff.

𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘺𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘮

You walk for a small bit and gather the roots you find, the piglet keeping close to you even in his excitement.

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

After a while of collecting roots and storing them in your tunic via making a pocket with the belt, you think it’s about time to head back to the Indent and rest.

You hum to get the kid’s attention, who’s a few yards away looking at one of the massive mushrooms.

He doesn’t hear you.

You hum louder.

He still doesn’t hear you.

You huff and click your tongue a few times, annoyed.

The young one perks up at the sound and rushes back to you.

𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘯? 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵...

You jerk your head in the direction of The Indent and click your tongue on the side of your teeth once.

He nods and grabs your hand.

You both make your way back to the little place that, i̶s̶n̶’̶t̶q̶u̶i̶t̶e̶h̶o̶m̶e̶y̶e̶t̶, you’re staying in for the moment.

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

It’s been a few days of the same routine, go out and collect roots with the kid, play for a bit, go back to The Indent, sleep, repeat.

You’re getting frustrated with the lack of space and no progress made on finding a bigger place to stay. And you can’t go too far in fear of something getting to the kid or him leaving because he doesn’t see you. On the bright side, the days of much rest and food have healed your sore muscles and mostly healed your damaged hooves, so that’s nice.

The kid is asleep at the moment in The Indent, tired from your gathering adventures. You don’t think the roots are a long-term solution, they don’t seem very nutritious.

You’ve been slowly digging out the wall of soft-red-stone, but it’s slow going. So far, you’ve only made an inch or so more room on a meter of wall. It’s worn your hand-hooves down so much that you decided it’s not worth it to even try anymore lest you wear them down too much and they start to bleed.

You’re outside near one of the walls a few dozen yards away, as far as you can go without losing sight of it in the weird red fog and floating particles. You think they’re mushroom spores.

You’re so frustrated with the lack progress anywhere, and the paranoia that the large things you saw that first day would come back, that you punch the red rock wall beside you, wanting it to break so that you feel better.

You punched it once, twice, thrice, and a few more times just for good measure. There was the sound of crumbling, but you didn’t take note of it in your anger.

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘸, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥

You look down at your clenched hand hoof, a little startled at the uncharacteristic show of anger.

𝘕𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥... 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥

You sigh and look over to see the damage done to the wall.

You gasp in Suprise.

𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴‽

You think hysterically as a perfect one-meter cube of air is where part of the wall used to be.

𝘞𝘩𝘺, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘩𝘰𝘸‽‽

You have no idea how that happened. So you punch the space next to the one already made a few times as a test, nothing happens sans a fist sized indent created.

𝘈𝘮 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺‽

𝘖𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦... 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘸... 𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘣𝘰𝘸!

You think about wanting the crossbow in your hand again...

Nothing.

𝘊’𝘮𝘰𝘯, 𝘤’𝘮𝘰𝘯, 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬!

You think about how much you want the crossbow back, imagine how comfortable it would be to be holding one again...

...

...

*𝙋𝙤𝙥*

There the crossbow sat, right there in your right hand, just like before.

You try and will it away again, like you’ve done previously.

*𝙥𝙤𝙥*

𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯!

You feel giddy.

You willed it back into existence.

*𝙋𝙤𝙥*

𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦... 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘰𝘶𝘴!

You look at the wall that had a massive cube of stone missing from it.

𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬

You stand there and think for a moment.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘣𝘰𝘸 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦?

𝘖𝘩, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥

You think some more...

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯...

You can feel that you’re on to something. That the answer is right there, close to the surface...

𝘐𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵?

You squint your eyes at the wall for a moment.

Thinking about how much you want the wall broken, you punch it a few times.

Cracks formed and spread where your fist made contact.

A few seconds later, another meter of wall is gone.

A perfect cube like last time.

.

.

.

.

.

𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵... 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥’𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦??!?!?!!!

You growl in anger, one of the throatier sounds you can make, and stomp back to The Indent, intent on expanding it to more comfortable levels.

Chapter Text

After stomping back to The Indent, you take a few deep breaths to calm down.

𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯... 𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘵... 𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯... 𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘵

𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥

You take a few more moments... Just to be sure.

After climbing the small ledge to the entrance, you walk in and grunt lowly once with an equally low hum at the end in greeting.

The little one perks up and copies the makeshift hello, but this time with a higher pitched squeak at the end of the hum.

You’ve come to interpret that as a ‘𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦’ of sorts.

You’re not quite sure how it developed, but the both of you have made sort of a rudimentary communication system with simple gestures, sounds, and body language.

Anyway, you’re getting ahead of yourself.

You pat the child on the head-

𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦...

-and motioned to the entrance of The Indent with two tongue clicks from the top of your mouth and a stern look.

He, 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘭? 𝘕𝘰, 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘦, cocked his head in confusion but then nodded and stepped around you- to the entrance of the indent.

You stomped your left foot once and pointed down.

He huffed and crossed his arms, turning his head away.

You gave him an exasperated sigh and stomped your foot once more.

The little one complied and sat down with a ‘𝘯𝘰𝘸-𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵?’ look.

You smiled at him, 𝘈𝘫𝘢𝘹? 𝘔𝘮, 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘵, and motioned to the inner wall with both arms.

He’s confused, but didn’t move all the same.

You showed yourself grabbing small bits of wall and pulling, only getting tiny bits at a time.

He nodded, still confused, as you showed him the small pieces.

Then, you splayed your arms out like you’re excited.

He smiled up at you, head still cocked but more interested than before.

You close your eyes and envision the wall breaking, thinking about how much you want the wall gone.

𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮, 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦. 𝘊’𝘮𝘰𝘯!

You exhale slowly. . . and then start punching the wall in quick succession, focusing on how much you wanted it gone.

You continued punching with one hoof for a little under three seconds, the next thing you knew, a cubic meter of wall was gone.

Whipping around as you heard a high-pitched squeal, you look at the child, 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭? 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘺?.

His little tail was wagging as he did a little happy-trot-dance.

𝘖𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘐 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦

You breathed a sigh of relief, now seeing that you didn’t scare the kid like you originally thought.

The child, 𝘔𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘦-𝘛𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘺-𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘺-𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘦, ran up to the new hole. His little eyes peeking just above the lower chunk of wall.

You smile fondly at the little tyke, checking your hoof quickly just to make sure no damage was inflicted with the harsh punching.

𝘕𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥. 𝘕𝘪𝘤𝘦!

The kid, 𝘑𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘢𝘩-𝘈𝘹𝘭𝘦-𝘚𝘪𝘭𝘰, pulled on your tunic towards the wall you just broke excitedly.

Pointing to the entrance once more with two tongue clicks, you clapped your hooves-

𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥

-and get to work.

First you finish taking down the wall furthest from the entrance. It didn’t take long considering it was only three ‘blocks’ long and two ‘blocks’ tall.

Then you destroy the two by two at the inner part of The Indent to the left of the entrance.

Deciding that it’s safe for the child, 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦-𝘛𝘦𝘥𝘥𝘺-𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘺-𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘺, to come back in, and not be so vulnerable in the entrance, you motion him back inside.

Clicking your tongue twice, you motion for the kid, 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬-𝘌𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘵-𝘌𝘭𝘪-𝘌𝘥𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥, to sit in the corner furthest from the long wall opposite of the entrance.

He complies, sparkles in his eyes as he watches you attentively.

You chuff and get to work.

|--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--|

A few minutes later and you decide that there’s enough room for now.

The Indent is now four 'blocks’ deep and four ‘blocks’ wide, as apposed to the one 'block in and two 'blocks' to the left that it was before.

You think that each ‘block’ is about a yard in length, so now you’ve got about a small room’s worth of space.

Maybe in the future you’ll expand it or tunnel more rooms.

𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴?

The little one, 𝘒𝘺𝘭𝘦-𝘖’𝘒𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘺-𝘍𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘹-𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯, stands up slowly and walks up to you.

You look down at him, head cocked.

His squeals are high pitched and somewhat grating as he tries to tackle you to the ground. His, 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯-𝘉𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵-𝘟𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳-𝘖'𝘕𝘦𝘪𝘭, little arms wrapped tightly around the front of your legs.

Your mouth opens slightly as you ‘aww’ in your head.

𝘏𝘦’𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦!!!! 𝘐 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘺

You resolve to keep the kid, 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘺-𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘰-𝘎𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘵-𝘈𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴, as safe and happy as you can manage until he’s safely out of here.

You’re taking care of him less out of obligation to get the issue of a kid in Hell fixed, and more because now you really do care for him more than one does for one helping a kid find their parents.

𝘎𝘰𝘴𝘩, 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵...

You silently worry.

Your moment of contemplation is broken by the kid tearing from your legs to run around in the now expanded Indent.

As he, 𝘓𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘥-𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯-𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴-𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘮𝘺, grunts and squeals with joy, he runs and jumps around- making sure to stay away from the entrance.

You smile, glad to have made the kid happy.

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It’s been a few more sleeps since the Indent’s expansion.

You made a small pile of roots in the back corner of it, in case of emergency.

You can feel yourself getting weaker with the lack of nutrients (and vitamins?) that you need.

The kid is slowing down too, 𝘌𝘻𝘪𝘬𝘪𝘦𝘭-𝘎𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯-𝘌𝘭𝘪𝘫𝘢𝘩-𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘢𝘴, you could tell.

So, you’ve decided it’s time to find another food source.

Honestly, with the lack of anything substantial you’re debating on if you should try the mushrooms or not.

You’re still hesitant, their bright colors make you think ‘poisonous’ though they might have just evolved to bled into their surroundings.

𝘏𝘮𝘮. . . 𝘌𝘩, 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘵

And that's how you decided to try shrooms.

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The kid is asleep in the Indent at the moment, probably tired and trying to make up for the lack of nutrition.

You’re in the clearing outside of it, foraging for mushrooms.

𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘐 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦...

You sigh, knowing that this is necessary for the survival of the kid, 𝘌𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘵-𝘙𝘶𝘧𝘶𝘴-𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘰, and also for the survival of you.

You found a slightly spread-out grouping of red mushrooms with orange spots on their caps, and then pick them, storing the fungi in your pocket space.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘸

So you take your bunch of mushrooms back to the Indent after rubbing the outside of one on your left arm then breaking it apart and rubbing the inside onto your right arm.

𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦. . . 𝘦𝘳, 𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴? 𝘕𝘰, “𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥” 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦- 𝘢𝘨𝘩, 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳

You wave away the thought for now.

It took a few minutes, but you made it back.

After climbing up, you see the kid further in asleep on the floor.

You feel a little bad that he’s sleeping on the floor even though there’s nowhere else to sleep.

𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺. . . 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘰𝘯? 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘺.

You smile softly at the piglet, 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘯-𝘜𝘭𝘧-𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪-𝘈𝘳𝘯𝘦, as you lay down next to him, keeping your possibly contaminated arms away from the child.

You knock out almost immediately, the sound of fire and brimstone caresses your mind, whispering a name into your ear.

𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒊

Chapter Text

𝙎𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙧𝙞

Sparks ignite in your mind as you wake up. The name for your ward on your lips.

You attempt to say it, sadly, your vocal cords don’t work how you wish them to, and your tongue doesn’t cooperate.

You sigh lightly and look around groggily.

The kid, 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘪, is still sound asleep, using your upper arm as a pillow, your forearm resting on his shoulders. After a few weeks of this, it still makes your chest tighten with happiness.

You smile, eyes crinkling with the movement.

The memory of rubbing mushroom parts on your arms hits you like a brick thrown through a window, sudden and unexpected.

You lift your forearm slightly, moving slowly as to not disturb the child,𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘪-𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘪-𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘪, and rotate it slightly to check the underside for any blotches or pustules on the skin.

𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘮

You do the same with the other arm.

𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘮- 𝘯𝘰 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘸. . . 𝘐’𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦

You’ll run more tests today, just to make sure it’s safe.

Decision made, but still not quite ready to get up, you think really hard about wanting one of the red mushrooms you’d collected yesterday. A soft 𝙥𝙤𝙥 accompanies the action.

With the red mushroom now in your hand, you rub the cap and stem on your top lip, and graze the side of the cap and stem very carefully on one of your tusks ever so carefully, and then rub the liquid on to your bottom lip- careful to keep it from getting inside your mouth, and then storing the mushroom away until further notice.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘴 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵.

𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘶𝘴𝘬𝘴 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱- 𝘐 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯, 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥’𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘶𝘴𝘬𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵-

You lightly tap your head on the ground to clear it of any more thoughts.

Laying there motionless is allowing you to silently process some of the emotions you’ve been putting off.

You died.

You 𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙙.

You remember how much fun it was on that trail, the bumps, slopes, and little divots in it. All the exciting twists and turns. How nice it was to get a breath of fresh air after working so many hours.

Finally having time to yourself to do something enjoyable.

How surprised you felt when the trail was suddenly 𝕒𝕚𝕣.

One moment fine, the next

𝙁𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜

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You remember it all, clear as day. The sound of broken branches and shrubbery as you made your way down a steep slope.

The pain of broken ribs and gashed legs.

Your bike crushing your chest- 𝘖𝘩𝘮𝘺𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘐𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦

Piercing pain in your back and neck.

The fall when the slope abruptly steeped down into a rocky cliff and- 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣

Before the sudden stop of- 𝘗𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯

The 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 as your spine made contact with a large flat rock, bike pulverizing diaphragm-ribs-liver, head bouncing and cracking on stone.

You laid there for what felt like eternity before succumbing to your injuries, likely only seconds. Wheezing as air tried to enter collapsed lungs.

An eternity of 𝙖𝙜𝙤𝙣𝙮 before blissful nothingness.

And then you woke up. In Hell of all places.

𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵, 𝘸𝘩𝘺’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰𝘸?

You try to blink away the tears silently threatening to fall from your eyes, but they just kept coming.

𝘊’𝘮𝘰𝘯, 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳! 𝘉𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘵. 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘵.

You allow yourself to sniffle once or twice before doing a breathing exercise to calm down.

𝘐𝘯. 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳.
𝘖𝘶𝘵. 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳.

Looking down at Sindri, you’re glad to see he hadn’t woken up from your little breakdown.

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After what felt like forever, you finally calmed down enough to put the bad thoughts into that little box inside your brain.

𝘕𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸.

You take one more deep breath before deciding to wake the kid, Sindri, up from his slumber.

You wiggle the arm his head is resting on slightly.

He doesn’t stir.

You use your other hoof to gently shake him, hoping this’ll wake him.

It doesn’t. You sigh.

Pursing your lips, you take a moment before gently blowing on his face with a concentrated stream of air.

This time, he does wake up. His little face scrunching as he inhales deeply, bleary eyed.

He softly squeals with a chuff at the end- you interpret it as a ‘𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠.’

𝘊𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘥

You’ve decided that today you and he are going to go collect more of the weird vine-root-things.

Hopefully the red mushrooms are edible, Sindri looks like he needs more nutrients. You’re sure you do too.

You look down at your arm, it looks a little thinner than when you first woke up here.

𝘋𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮’𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳. 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘧, 𝘯𝘰 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳. . .

𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦𝘴

You motion towards the door.

Sindri huffs and shakes his head ‘no’- you’re pretty sure he learned that from you, and stomps his little hoof.

𝘚𝘰 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺? 𝘈𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵

You sigh and go to pinch your brow- too bad your hoof hands don’t allow that.

Shaking your head mournfully, you ‘roll’ your eye and throw your head back in exasperation.

Sindri knows he won, he goes to the far corner on the wall with the entrance- 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨- and lays down, knowing the drill.

𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘻’𝘴 𝘪𝘯

You chuff, and make your way towards the ‘door’, hoping to find more probably edible mushrooms.

Maybe you’ll collect some vines on the way back, as like a makeshift door or something.

𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘸

You decline from thinking too much about how you’re going to get God’s attention so that God can get Sindri out of Hell.

Afterall, you have too much on your plate at the moment, maybe you’ll think of a solution when you can be certain of Sindri’s safety and health.

𝘏𝘮𝘮, 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴

You look around.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦!

You jog over to the small mushroom patch you’ve spotted on the outskirts of the clearing.

Collecting them, because you need extras to plant- if said mushrooms are edible, you spot another patch nearby. Probably a hundred or so feet away.

You set a slow jog to that one too.

Repeating this a few times, and gathering a few of the blueish-green ones while you’re at it, you turn around to head home. It takes a moment to reorientate yourself and head in the Indent’s direction.

After walking for half an hour, you finally make it back. Sindri at the entrance, eagerly waiting for you.

You glance around the clearing, checking for any dangers- there are none- and notice that you’ve grabbed all the small mushrooms near the immediate vacancy.

𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰

You wince a little, knowing whatever ecosystem might have been going on here was now invaded, and in turn messed up, by you. Specifically.

You sigh and close your eyes for a moment, deciding that maybe replanting some of the mushrooms you took could restore and help more mushroom growth in the future. Which would be good for you and the kid, seeing as so far the red mushrooms might be the best food source for now.

𝘐𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮

You thought about how skinny Sindri is and knew that the red mushrooms were the best option so far- if they didn’t kill you, that is.

Sindi waves from the entrance excitedly, bouncing up and down every so often.

You smile and wave back.

Walking the last few yards to the shelf that Sindri stood, you made a leap and gripped the wall. Hoisting yourself up and over the little ledge.

The jump brought you up further than you would’ve thought had it been when you first claimed the Indent as your temporary home. Hoisting yourself up was also easier than it had been for the first week or so of your stay. You seem to have become stronger, and your endurance has increased as well- even taking into account how little nutrition you seem to be getting.

It’s a thing you’ve been noticing lately as you’ve mostly acclimated to your ‘new’ body, that some things have become easier to do. Or harder, depending on specifics.

Such as your ‘thumbs’ or more like the little nib that seems to try to be a thumb. It’s opposable, but not as flexible or as useful as your human thumb. You don’t have fingers, so everything you do no longer has the dexterity that it used to, it feels like trying to grab things with the knuckles from making a fist. Very hard and pointed knuckles, but virtually useless when trying to work delicately.

You sigh, tired from the mushroom gathering and subsequent jog.

Sindri barrels into you for a hug once you’re safely in the Indent’s walls. Hugging is something you taught him to do a week ago, maybe?

There doesn’t seem to be a day and night cycle here, most things in a constant dim glow, or searing depending on how close to the magma or glowing rocks that hang from the ceiling you are. The only reprieve being hidey holes or burrows made- you don’t know what made the caves you’ve seen but are too afraid to enter- and, of course, the Indent. The entrance is narrow enough not to let mass amounts of light through, which is useful for when you want to sleep, less useful for waking hours. But what can ya do?

Nothing at the moment, so you move on. You sleep when tired and eat when hungry, who knows how long it’s really been in Hell.

You stop that sort of thinking in it’s tracks. You don’t have the time to be existential. Not with Sindri literally climbing your form like a jungle gym.

You didn’t teach him the tackle method, he did that all on his own, but you did hug him to sleep a few times when the isolation from everything and anything you’ve ever known becomes too much. He, in turn, loves hugs and will take many a opportunity to give you affection as much as you will to him.

It’s super cute, and you wouldn’t change it for the world.
You take some of the viny-roots from your interdimensional pocket storage, or so you assume it’s interdimensional- could be wrong though, who knows?- and hand them to Sindri. You give him a few handfuls, you think it’s about three or four full groupings of them.

He eats them all eagerly and holds out his itty-bitty hooves for more. You chuff a laugh and hand more off.

He squeals in joy and wags his little tail.

You grin broadly and he returns it.

Sindri shakes his hoof in a rapid flicking motion, as if he were trying to shake something off.

You knew what this sign meant, he wanted to play. You eagerly obliged, happy to get your mind off stressful things and be in the moment with your kid.

He turns one of his hoof hands towards himself and then hits it against his other like one would when hitting a fist into their open palm to represent a smack down about to take place. He makes the ‘play’ gesture afterwards, and then repeats the palm strike.

It seems that Sindri would like to play fight this time around. You’ve taught him a few games to help keep him occupied both with and without you, and hopefully nourish his mind for proper growth.

This is just one of those games. It might be the one he enjoys most to be honest.

Not that you’re complaining. It’s always a joy to be around Sindri and his little huffy giggles and squeals of happiness.

You smile fondly as you nod your head and gesture towards the middle of the room with a sweep of your arm, deciding to eat later.

He hops up and down a few times before rushing towards the middle.

You follow after indulgently, only a few steps away.

Sindri bounces on his feet a few times as his excitement gets the better of him before play. You bend your knees slightly to get a good foundation, to not be bowled over immediately by a hyper child and bend your arms at the elbow, bringing your arms out slightly so that you could catch him if he tripped or in preparation to grapple with him.

Sindri is the first to move, moving his little legs to run up and around you. Trying to throw you off balance you assume.

You follow him with your head and eyes and tries to get behind you. Lunging at him with wide arms.

He dodges and jumps latches on to your outstretched arm.

𝘖𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵

Sindri laughs in glee as you try and shake him off.

You huff in amusement and go to grab his shirt to yank him off of you, but he’s faster.

He climbs up and onto your head, going for your sensitive ears and short fibrous hairs.

You grunt in pain as his pointy hoof hands dig into your left ear and hoof feet point downwards on your trapezius muscles.

Huffing, you pick him up by the armpits, being gentle with his fragile skin.

Sindri grunts in dismay as he wiggles, trying to get free.

Holding him steadfast, you wrestle him to the ground.

He laughs and begins pushing you.

It does nothing. You pretend that it does though.

Slowly rising with his little kicks, as if they’re stronger than what they are.

His delighted grunt brings a smile to your face as ‘pushes’ you off of him.

You go down with a thump, belly up.

Sindri takes this opportunity for what it’s worth and lunges onto your stomach.

You make a wheezy grunt as he knocks the air out of you.

He ‘pins’ your arms to your sides as you ‘try’ to wiggle free.

Laughing at your misery he stands atop your chest in victory, puffing with pride. Thinking he’s won the battle.

You laugh boisterously, sounding more animal than human, and swiftly grab him by his torso.

Swinging him up and over your head, you stand and pull him close to your chest. You start spinning in a circle, his cries of joy bouncing back at you from the walls of your home.

Sindri pats your arm, telling you he’s had enough.

You spin him once more and then set him down gently.

He’s still giggling breathlessly as he sits down for a moment.

Sindri yawns as he calms down from the exerting play. Worn out and not healthy enough for long bouts of exercise.

It makes you sad that he’s so worn down from such a short session, but then again so are you. You glance down at your form, all muscle and bone with little fat. Sometimes it felt like your skin rubbed your muscles raw with nothing to separate it from them. You got cold even though your surroundings were so warm all the time. You had to take many many breaks throughout the day to even keep going.

𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵. 𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵. . .

You pat him gently on the head and go to lay down.

As the acting bed, you have to lay down first.

It wouldn’t do for Sindri to sleep on the warm stone ground. Because although it’s warmer and slightly softer than regular rocks, it isn’t soft enough to be very comfortable for long periods of rest.

You would know, you do it all the time.

You make a short huff as you gesture Sindri over, eyes on the doorway that you can’t quite see out of. Though, if anything were to start moving near your one and only exit, you’re sure you’d be able to see or hear it with ample time to make a decision on whether or not you’re going to fight it or lead it away from the Indent and Sindri.

Sindri shuffles over to you, before plopping down onto your belly, you wheeze, and he gets comfortable there, little legs resting on either side of your thigh.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘴. But now isn’t the time to be thinking of that.

Sindri nods off to sleep fairly quickly.

You look at him and pull a red mushroom from your pocket space.

Hesitant to actually eat it because- what if it is poisonous and Sindri wakes up in the morning to find my rotting corps underneath him- you think it’s safe to eat, but what if it’s the type of poison you can’t detect?

You look down at Sindri, at his too thin arms and ribs poking through his tunic, and make a decision.

If it’s safe to eat, and you hesitate, Sindri will continue to suffer anyways. Besides, it’s not like you’ll die a second time.

𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵?

Hopefully.

You take one long and slow breath.

And then another.

And then another.

𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵!

You quickly bite the mushroom approximately in half.

Clenching your eyes, prepared for a bad taste.

You chew, your eyes become less tense.

You chew some more, you’re starting to taste the flavor.

Chewing some more and you’ve concluded that this might be the best damn mushroom you’ve ever tasted.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴‽

You look down at the other half in wonder. And then stuff it in your mouth. You couldn’t help yourself. It was that good

You could just, pull a few more out and eat them, right? After all, Sindri’s already asleep and he won’t miss a few mushrooms he doesn’t even know you picked, right?

Pausing mid chew, you look down on him again.

𝘕𝘰, 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

Swallowing the mushroom, propping your head up on an arm. Contemplating eating another one, before dismissing it entirely.

Better to wait and see if you get sick by morning.

And if you’re good by the time you wake up, then maybe Sindri would like something a little different for breakfast tomorrow.

Mind made up, you close your eyes and attempt to sleep.

Praying you’ll awake in the morn.

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𝙊𝙪𝙜𝙝