The bitterness with which Naerys spoke about her father made Alysanne sad, and she wondered when she had missed the chance to help the young girl’s opinion of her father. He had chosen to leave the Edge, to leave them but surely it had been because of Alysanne that he had chosen to do so? She drove away her dear friend with lies that, in the end, had been utterly pointless. But, then, how could she truly regret her actions when Naerys - beautiful, strong Naerys - was the result?

Alysanne came to a stop, ready to reach out to Naerys, to talk to her like she should have a long time ago, but just as she was opening her mouth (wasn’t that just the worst luck?) the walls around them started to rumble and shake. Her eyes widened in surprise and fear as rocks began to crumble off of the walls around them. A few hoof-sized rocks land heavily on her back, but the welts that they were going to leave were far from the biggest problem.

Hemlock came streaking back from the caves, screeching as he barreled towards Alysanne and Naerys. Like Petyr, he ducked and weaved around the falling rubble making his way over to Alysanne. He was already trying to usher them back towards the opening of the caves.

The scratching that followed the bellow was somehow worse because it was all around them - it wasn’t something coming from deep within the caves. And though the silence made Alysanne uneasy, her focus turned away from the walls and the caves and turned to her daughter as she reached out with a cautious muzzle to check her reached out to touch her daughter - making sure that she was okay an uninjured.

But their peace didn’t last long. The walls began to shift and move - and it took Alysanne a moment to realize what was going on.

Spiders. An unnatural amount of them crawling out of the cracks caused by the quake - and not just any spider either, these ones had glowing bright eyes.

And they were everywhere.

Hemlock’s wings in Alysanne’s face were what finally got her out of her shock and her green eyes flashed to Naerys - who also seemed to be rooted to the spot. Alysanne’s head reached out again to her daughter, trying to bump against her daughter’s shoulder a little roughly. This wasn’t the time for gentle nudges. She didn't want to wait around and find out if these spiders were the type to bite and she had enough of critters crawling all over her after those ants.

“Naerys!” She shouted, attempting to nudge her daughter backward towards the entrance. “Naerys, run!”

alysanne

the devoted