Retvik paced up and down in front of the cave mouth, occasionally pausing to glance at one of two things. Outside the cave were the smouldering remains of a Corruptiid that had attacked Retvik. They had caught each other unaware, but Retvik had swiftly killed the monster. It had struck first, but Retvik had swiftly beaten the creature to the ground and stabbed it until it died. Admittedly, the main reason Retvik had defeated the Corruptiid was because it had drawn blood, and Retvik’s blood proceeded to dissolve the creature’s hand and give Retvik a massive advantage.
Since then though, Retvik had mostly been glancing at the pool of water inside the cave. His friends had dived into it, looking for a nest of monsters. They were supposed to have only been gone for a short while. They said they were going to come back. But the sun was starting to get too low for Retvik’s comfort, and he hadn’t heard from any of them.
They were in trouble. Retvik knew it. He was getting anxious, nervous, restless. He needed to go and save them. And normally, Retvik would have instantly charged in to save his friends. But there was a major problem. His friends had gone through that pool of water. They had swam through a small tunnel. Retvik was not a good swimmer. Sure, he had practised, he had done a whole course on swimming safety. But that tunnel was small. And Retvik was quite large.
Retvik paced some more. Maybe they weren’t in trouble. Maybe they were preoccupied with something. Maybe it was just a very deep cave and they were still exploring. Maybe…
With a shake of his head, Retvik turned back to the pool of water. He couldn’t convince himself that they didn’t need his help. Retvik needed to save his friends. And that meant that Retvik would have to just suck it up and climb into the water and swim through the damn tunnel.
Retvik grunted to himself, then took the rucksack off his back. He rummaged through it until he found two specific items. One was a small, emergency underwater breathing kit, a mask that went around Retvik’s mouth, that could give him up to 2 minutes of oxygen should he get into trouble. The other was a plastic, waterproof bag. One designed to hold all of Retvik’s belongings. Although the armour Retvik was wearing was specially made for travelling through water, Retvik didn’t want his fabric tummy wrap and loin cloth getting wet, and he needed to keep his hands free while he swam through the tunnel.
Trying to keep the fear from building up, Retvik placed his fabric clothing into his backpack, then collapsed the staff part of his gun-staff and put that in the backpack too. He connected the sharp blade to his belt, then wrapped the backpack up in the waterproof bag and threw it over one shoulder. After that, he put the breathing mask on and tied it securely around his jaws. Only somewhat satisfied, Retvik turned his attention back to the pool of water.
That fear was still there, but Retvik pushed it back down. He was a Rethavok. Sure, Rethavok were not known to be good at swimming, but that didn’t matter. He was a guardian, a protector, a defender of the weak. On top of that, Retvik wasn’t just any Rethavok. He was a Rethianos. The best there was. His friends needed him. Retvik needed to save them.
The water was cold, but not as cold as Retvik expected. He lowered himself in gently, running his hands along the walls of the tunnel. It wasn’t as narrow as he expected either. Taking as deep a breath as he could, Retvik submerged himself, then began to pull himself through the tunnel. Swimming was a little bit tricky, but he found he could grab onto rocky crevices and almost crawl along. Kicking his legs and tail provided a small amount of propulsion, but he had to be careful, as the underwater cave walls were somewhat sharp, and several times Retvik had scratched his tail on jagged edges.
Thankfully, Retvik managed to get through quite quickly, but he was definitely starting to panic up until he saw some sort of exit. Of course, Retvik gasped for air as he surfaced inside a dark cave, but he had made it. Just about. Retvik’s lungs were quite angry at him.
Still gasping, Retvik pulled himself out of the water and panted for a bit, but he didn’t remain motionless for long. The panic had subsided, Retvik had survived. So far. Getting back would be tricky, especially if the sun set before he had saved his friends, but that was a problem for later.
Something screeched in the darkness. A weird, pained echo. Something far away, but shrill enough to have made it to Retvik’s ear holes. Retvik immediately leaped to his feet, removed the emergency mask from his mouth then swiftly grabbed his stuff and put his gun-staff back together. He then snapped his fingers and summoned several motes of light.
The tunnel seemed to disappear into the gloom, but Retvik’s light motes provided ample light, enough for Retvik to avoid multiple small holes and dips in the terrain. He did struggle a little as the cave suddenly sloped downwards, but Retvik no longer cared. He could hear those shrill screeches. Someone was calling for help, in a way that only Retvik could hear them. They were telling Retvik where to go, but discreetly. Retvik assumed that they were trying to avoid detection.
Eventually, the tunnel opened out into a large, slimy cave. A cave full of Corruptiids. Retvik didn’t know how many there were, but there were enough for Retvik to be worried. What bothered Retvik more though was what was hanging in the centre of the room. Hanging over a large pit of black goo were four sacks containing Retvik’s friends. Kayel and Tenuk seemed to both be unconscious, but Nyssi and Ilga were both struggling, trying to claw their way out of their gooey cages. Strangely, it was Ilga who was making the high pitched distress calls, but Nyssi spotted Retvik before Ilga or any of the Corruptiids did.
Suddenly, Nyssi changed her actions. She stopped trying to break out and began to shift from side to side, making her sac swing wildly. She kept on doing this until her sac collided with the sac next to hers. This caused its occupant, Tenuk, to wake up. It also caused the Corruptiids to stop glaring at the brightly lit Rethavok standing in the entrance to their nest.
Tenuk glanced at Nyssi, then looked straight at Retvik.
“I’m going to do something really stupid…” Tenuk whispered to Nyssi.
“Like… like what?”
“He can’t fight all of them. Not as he is. And I can’t shapeshift into anything big to help him.”
Nyssi didn’t understand at first, but as she worked out what Tenuk was thinking, she quickly whispered to Ilga.
“Alright, girl, Tenuk’s going to do something really stupid. But Retvik doesn’t know you that well, so you need to make yourself as small and cute and innocent as possible. Got it?”
“What?”
“Just do as I say, so Retvik doesn’t accidentally hurt you.”
Ilga frowned, then curled up into a ball, wrapping her arms around herself. Now that Nyssi knew Ilga was somewhat secure, she turned back to Tenuk and nodded, before suddenly flailing around and shouting at the Corruptiids.
“HEY, YOU CUNTS! OVER HERE!”
The Corrupiids all turned back to Nyssi, who swung her sac into Tenuk’s. As she did so, Tenuk used the last of his strength to shapeshift into a familiar form.
Retvik wasn’t really sure what happened after that. He just knew that he had to PROTECT THE FLUFFY KITTY.