Chapter 162: Chapter 169: Fearless.

I could sense Keigan’s hand getting close to my head, looming over me as if to crush my skull. I tried to move back more, pushing into the wall, but I had no strength left. ‘Stay away…’ Suddenly his hand pulled back. The looming presence threatening to crush me faded as his heavy steps quietly moved away. “Fine then… Try it your way.” He growled.

“Siya.” I flinched when I heard him speak, but the pressure I felt before wasn’t following him. His voice was like the only constant I could rely on. The one thing that never changed. How carefree it sounded, and how even in moments like that it was hard to tell what he was thinking. It was never strained and never sad It was just… Calm.

‘Airsidh…’

It calmed me, if only for a moment, but the instant his hand brushed against my skin I jabbedbed him right in the face with my metal gauntlet.

His head snapped back, but he caught his balance with a single step, pinching his nose to stop it from bleeding. “Listen, I know you’re jealous of how pretty I am but that’s no reason to mess up my face.”

I heard his words, but they hardly registered, as if he was speaking a foreign language. Somehow though, they still told me I shouldn’t be afraid anymore.

He sat down in front of me with a long sigh, sinking back against the cavern wall and resting his arms on his knees as he stared off into the distance. “Listen, take your time if you have to, but it’s over now. See?” He pointed to his face as he smiled. “We won, you should be happy.”

I slowly relaxed my fist and lifted my head peeking through my arms. Honestly, I don't think it mattered what he said, it was the calmness of his voice that was finally bringing me back from the brink.

“Airsidh…” I said slowly, taking my time with every syllable.

“Right, it's me Airsidh.”

“F-for the record… Y-you really aren’t that pretty. If anything… Your handsome.” I tried to steady my voice, but even if my mind was finally starting to recover, my body wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Want me to help you up?” He nudged me, only for me to flinch again. With every passing moment though I became more at ease.

“Yeah, I figured as much. We can just stay here awhile. It’s a good enough place to set up camp anyway. If you ask me that’s a better idea than knocking you out and carrying you.”

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He waved to my father, who begrudgingly dropped his large pack and sat down. “Look we’ll, just camp here for now. I'll go get my–'' He stopped suddenly.

As he tried to stand up to leave, without even realizing it I had grabbed his sleeve. “Or… I'll just stay here… That's fine too I guess.” Turning his back to the wall, he sank back down. “You know… Keigan said I've been in this dungeon before… but he never said what happened while I was here.”

The shaking all stopped at once as I finally relaxed, my heavy head fell against his arm and all at once my body turned off, melting against the wall and his shoulder. “So… What happened?” I asked, already half asleep.

I could tell he smirked from the way he let out a small snort before he continued. “I cleared the first several floors with my party like it was nothing. It was so easy I got a big head. When I got down to the lower floors though… I was careless. I got put into a trance by a wraith… And it made me attack my own party. I felt so stupid when I came too. I was glad I didn't hurt anyone too badly. But also a little sad I wasn't good enough to cause them a little bit more of a problem.”

I gently hit his arm with my fist before it practically fell limp, falling around his and resting in his hand. “Only you would be upset about that.”

He chuckled. “You might be right about that. Anyway, after that it was just one failure after another. A zombie scratched me, before I knew it I was in so much pain I wanted them to cut my arm off. I ended up not being able to move it for 3 weeks. And then there was the icing on the cake. On floor 25 there was a wraith beast. A monstrous ghostlike creature that took the form of a Kotokan.”

“A what?” I asked, wondering if it wasn’t just something he came up with to see if I was still listening.

“A kotokan. It's like… Well, it's like a giant red cow with arms instead of front legs.”

I laughed softly. The image in my head looked absolutely ridiculous, rather than scary.

“You laugh now but that thing was terrifying. I threw a spear and it went right through the thing's head, it didn't even flinch! I turned tail and ran. I was the first one out of there.”

With every exaggerated movement, my eyes began to blink more slowly. “You ran away?”

“Yup… It's not as easy as you thought, is it… being fearless?”

I lowered my gaze, letting my body relax even more as my heart finally began to slow. “To be fair… I never thought it would be easy.”

He rustled my hair sending chills down my arms almost like it reset my whole nervous system. “You still have time. Don't worry about it, when you're older I'm sure you won't fear anything. I'll look up to you and say things like, “That's my sister, she used to be a scaredy cat like me, but look at her now! She’s so strong that everything she used to be afraid of began to fear her instead!”

I laughed at the thought as I saw the scene vividly play out in my mind, my eyes closing shut. Heavy footsteps stopped me from falling asleep though. “We need to get going. We need to get to the lower floors before nightfall so we can begin our ascent before the monsters grow stronger. The plans changed… Having a stowaway doesn’t help either.”

‘Stowaway?’

An unfamiliar voice echoed from the distance, speaking clearly yet sounding as a whisper. “Don’t worry about it.” A woman said, slowly stepping closer.

I don’t exactly remember what happened after that, my memory blanked. All I could remember was her white hair, and the darkness flowing from her clothes making half her armor stained with a grimy black while the other half sparkled like new. It was like the two girls I had seen before were standing together as one person.

I blinked and suddenly I was on I was being carried like a baby in one of my brother's arms. His massive pack was still on his back, and our father was just in front, having Zu clear out the monsters. When he noticed I was awake he set me down, and once I got my feet under me we started heading down another staircase like it was all just a bad dream. ‘I wonder what floor were on now?’