[Chr24] [CHR24] Ice Caves

“So you ran away… from an avalanche?” The disbelieving note in Rookie’s voice is more than understandable, considering even Desotto and Ruvik themselves have a hard time believing their own story. Still, Bonnie shrugs his shoulders as if to say, “kids these days.” Rookie looks exasperated before his expressions smooths back out, continuing his thought now that his question has been semi-answered. “And you want to go back to the cave you hid in… because it “seems cool”? Is that right?” 

Desotto looks somewhat uncomfortable under the scrutiny of both Bonnie and Rookie, but Ruvik’s surprisingly steady presence helps him steady himself. “Uh- yeah. Pretty much. I don’t know how to explain it, but there was just this… feeling?” He shrugs his shoulders, averting his gaze from Rookie’s intense look. He knows the other man means well, he’s far from a bad person and holds no ill will for any of them, but Des can’t help but feel judged around him. Call it a difference of morality, or something. 
“It’s stupid, alright? I’m not saying it isn’t. But what I am saying is that I’m going back regardless of if you guys come along. I just thought I’d invite you. Family bonding or something, Gen would be thrilled.”

They all share a small laugh at that. Amestris’ husband is nothing if adamant that they’re all a family now, and while he doesn’t force them to use familial terms all the time he does try to encourage them to get along. It’s not as good as therapy, but most of them aren’t in any state to try that yet. Some of them also have criminal records, or don’t have any kind of legal identity even as a pet or otherwise.
Genya tries to help, though, and it’s nice. 

“And you’re bringing Tumnus?” Bonnie questions, pointing his finger to the creature snoozing on a cloud nearby. The gingerbread shoon had been a gift from Genya, a “rescue” he’d called it, and they had all ignored just who he had probably been rescuing it from. Desotto had reluctantly agreed to take care of the thing, and now he found himself hopelessly attached. When he’d named the shoon he’d thought it was a boy, thus the name Tumnus. Imagine his surprise when Ruvik had spent half an hour laughing at him after confirming it was actually a female shoon. 
Oh well. Tumnus didn’t need to know she’d been misgendered. She was just happy to have attention most days. 

“Yeah, I don’t see why not. Rat came up the mountain with us the first time, and we all know Rookie’s cat is probably going to follow us no matter how hard we try to keep it here.” Des shrugs, ignoring the way Bo seems a bit irritated. It’s not like Tumnus is his responsibility, nor is she as fragile as Bo’s little reetle. That thing would end up squished just stepping outside the house, much less going up the mountain. Tumnus was a little hardier, and her cloud usually provided some buoyancy that would mean she’d be fine if something happened on the journey up to the cave. As if to concur, Rookie’s cat let out a prolonged meow, tail flicking idly. Des knew that thing had been a stray once, and he also knew it had a mind all of its own.

“Alright, whatever you say, Des. I’ll come with, mostly to make sure you two idiots don’t bash your brains in somewhere.” Bonnie’s voice takes on a gentler, more teasing note as he reaches out both hands to ruffle Des and Roo’s hair. Ruvik swats playfully at him while Des swats with more genuine hostility, Rookie watching them with a sort of fond amusement. 

“I guess I’ll come too… as long as everyone promises to behave.” Rookie sighs, pushing off from the table he was leaning on. Ruvik beams at the idea of all four of them spending time together, Des just shrugs his shoulders despite the warm feeling that burrows into his chest. He’d never had family before, especially not like this. The idea that they want to spend this time with him means a lot, but he doesn’t plan to tell them that. Instead, he turns to grab his coat and steal Genya’s scarf.
“Well let’s go then– daylight only lasts so long.” Des calls over his shoulder, whistling afterwards for Tumnus to come along.

Desotto steps out onto the front porch as the rustling of his brothers getting ready behind him sounds out from inside. He takes in a deep breath of cold air, eyes flicking over the horizon and toward the mountainside they’ll soon be climbing. As his brothers file out and shut the front door, the four head out together with Tumnus in tow. Des finds himself enjoying the idle chatter they fill the air with as they go, Rookie telling a few stories of his work while his brothers make jokes at his expense. Roo takes the lead at some point with Des quietly tailing him, Rookie half a step behind. Bo remains at the back, hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket and eyes carefully rolling over their surroundings. He’s not quite on edge, but he’s not completely letting his guard down either. Des doesn’t blame him, given the avalanche story. 
Ruvik finally calls out that he sees the cave, waving his siblings forward with enthusiasm. He rushes in without waiting for them, ignoring Rookie and Bo’s calls to wait. To add further insult, Rookie’s cat appears and dashes ahead after Ruvik into the cave. Desotto just shrugs and picks his pace up to a jog to catch up with his brother, laughing at the annoyed sighs that follow. Not his fault they’re slowpokes, and far from his fault that Rookie’s feline has such a mind of its own. He makes a mental note to find out what the thing is even called, and its gender, so he can stop calling it “cat”. 

Inside, the cave is fairly dark even with the entrance cleared out. There are still a few signs of the original avalanche within it, disturbed debris and such skewed about. Desotto takes it in quietly as he pulls a flashlight from his pocket, flicking it on as Ruvik shuffles around nearby. 
“Hey! It totally goes deeper.” Roo calls, looking back at the other three. Rookie flicks his flashlight on, which is far brighter than anyone else’s, and squints at the opening Ruvik has found. He seems suspicious, even reluctant, but Ruvik is already crawling in. 
“Roo would you just wait a second-” Rookie tries, but once again he goes ignored. He throws a look to Bonnie who shrugs sympathetically before heading after Ruvik, mumbling something about golden children and getting themselves hurt. 

Rookie and Desotto both pause and deliberate a little longer before following after their brothers. The tunnel isn’t too narrow and eventually widens into a larger cave system, and Desotto can’t help but feel awestruck. For a moment, he almost thinks he sees something moving, but before he can check it out, Tumnus makes a soft sound nearby and Rookie’s cat lets out a soft hiss. Tumnus doesn’t sound quite distressed, but the noise she makes also isn’t one of her usual idle sounds either. The cat hissing is more of an alert, mostly because so far it’s had a pretty amiable personality. Just as he turns to check on what they’ve seen, the ground rumbles beneath them like it had before the avalanche. Des glances to his brothers in a panic, mouth opening to scream for them to run. 

The ground drops from beneath him, from all of them, and they are falling. 

Des gasps as he lands harshly into… a pile of feathers? Rookie’s voice calls out nearby, panicked and laced with more concern than Des has ever heard before. Bo’s calls out soon after, sounding rough with pain but just as worried. Ruvik bursts out laughing from near Desotto’s legs, apparently unable to deny the humor of a cave in onto a pile of feathers. Desotto groans, lifting himself up and puffing out a breath of air. He feels a flood of relief as Tumnus appears, braying softly to him as she makes her way over. Her cloud continues to quietly rain sweets, though it has slowed in her panic. 
Running a gentle hand over the shoon’s head, Desotto glances around to find his brothers. Rookie and Ruvik definitely landed in the feathers too, alongside the cat, but from how Bonnie is clutching one arm he has to assume the older man definitively did not get a softened landing. Crap. 

“Bo, y’alright?” He asks, unable to cut the way worry slips into his voice. Bonnie seems surprised, then snorts. 

“I’ve had worse. Just glad you knuckleheads are fine. Where the heck are we now?” Bonnie rumbles, glancing around as he asks. Desotto takes a moment to look around as well, fumbling with his flashlight. As it lights up, he finds icy stone walls covered in what looks like… giant claw marks. 

“This is a nest.” Rookie breathes, apparently seeing the same thing Desotto is. “And whatever it is, it’s definitely a predator. We need to leave. Now.” His voice is harder than it has been the whole day, and Desotto has to bite back a comment about his “cop voice.” Instead, he nods his agreement.

“Yeah, yeah I think I can agree to that.” He turns to find Ruvik wiping tears from his eyes, laughter having finally died down. The other man still looks a little too happy considering their circumstances, but Desotto has long since gotten used to Ruvik’s determination to be the optimist. Someone has to be, and it certainly isn’t going to be Rookie or Des. It might be Bonnie on a good day, but there’s a dark look in his eyes right now that makes Des think he’s probably not shooting for anything other than pessimism. 

“So we landed in a big old… bird nest?” Ruvik questions as they all begin looking for an exit tunnel. 
“Seems like it,” Rookie agrees. “I just don’t know what would be out here- I mean have Amestris and Genya ever-?”
“Nah. Never mentioned this- don’t think they’ve seen it either.” Bonnie cuts Rookie off, though the question had been mostly asked. Rookie hums and frowns, but returns to searching. 

There’s a silence that follows as they begin shuffling in the mostly-dark cave, though at one point Ruvik cries out in surprise. When his brothers turn to him, they find the man holding up a small bavee. It looks awful, fur dull and frame thin. The usually grumpy face looks near-heartbroken, and Desotto is reminded of commercials about “pets in need”. 

“Aw… poor little guy was probably gonna be dinner. Or his family was dinner… Well. You can come with us, how’s that sound?” Ruvik coos as if the thing in his hands isn’t a feral animal. It’s calm for now, probably out of exhaustion, and doesn’t quarrel with him as Ruvik tucks it under his arm.
The brothers return to searching, all quietly amused at the fact Ruvik had managed to find himself a pet in such a time. If anyone could manage, it would be him. Desotto wasn’t sure why he was even pretending to be surprised.

This time, Bonnie is the one to find the tunnel rather than Ruvik. He makes sure his brothers go first, Rookie in the lead, so he can take the back. “Just in case,” he shrugs as he shoves Desotto along. Des feels a bit bothered by it, if only because Bo knows they have a shared history of fighting. Knows that Desotto can take care of himself fine, and Bonnie’s hurt. It makes no sense, but he doesn’t argue. Now isn’t the time, and Tumnus seems to be getting nervous again. 
Just like the last time, the tunnel soon widens into a larger passageway of a cave. It’s still not quite as large as a full on cave as far as Desotto knows, but it’s bigger than any cramped hallway-esque space they’d been shuffling through before. 

As they continue trying to navigate through the darkness and stone walls, Des can’t help but notice an extra pair of steps. It’s not overly obvious or loud, nor is it consistent. But from time to time he can almost catch what sounds like claws on stone, the soft swoosh of fur or feathers. Bonnie seems to have noticed it as well, eyes flicking behind him repeatedly as they move, and the animals all seem to be on edge. They’re being stalked. 

Question is, do they tell the other two?

Ruvik seems wholly unaware and is currently chattering to Rookie, who listens faithfully while keeping his eyes ahead of him. Desotto would hate to worry either of them unnecessarily, but…
They only make it a little further before their stalker makes itself known, a sound that’s familiar but deeper and larger sounding out from above them. They all look up and find a shelf of rock they hadn’t noticed before, and atop it sits a twiwa. Except this one is massive– insanely so– and Desotto braces as the thing lunges down towards them. 

“Run!” Bonnie yells, just managing to dive away from the hungry talons of the angry beast. Ruvik yelps, Rookie curses, and Desotto freezes. It’s humiliating, someone like him should never freeze, but as he watches Bonnie wave his arms around to distract the twiwa, he can’t move. 

“Des!” His name is called from somewhere nearby but his eyes are still locked on the monster attacking his older brother, his heart is racing in his chest and he can’t seem to get a proper breath past his lips. What is he doing? He’s a fighter– he was raised for this! Why is he hesitating? Tumnus lets out a wailing bray next to him, and Desotto finds himself twitching to turn. Before he can make it anywhere, a pair of arms latch firmly around him and tear him away from where he had been standing. He gasps, as if freed from a spell, and looks down to find Rookie now carrying him piggyback out of the cave. His older brother runs without looking back, even as they leave Bonnie behind with that oversized beast screeching in his face. Desotto wants to scream back, wants to tell Rookie to stop, but he doesn’t. He can’t.

The three remaining brothers burst out of the cave at a part of the mountain Desotto can’t recognize, bones scattered about the entrance where they were likely removed from the creature’s main densite. Desotto wriggles out of Rookie’s arms, senses returning to him in full, and turns back to the cave. 

“Desotto what the-”
“We just left Bo! No- not we. You! You just- you left him!” Desotto can’t help the anger, never has been able to, especially not in times like this. Rookie’s face is annoyingly void of any emotions for him to attach to, so instead he keeps going. Keeps yelling. “We could have helped! Any one of us could have- we should have helped. You should have helped. What kind of a protector are you if you can’t even-”

“Desotto!” Ruvik’s voice cuts him off with surprising force, and he finds himself feeling cornered. “He did what he had to, okay? We couldn’t have fought that-”
“If we had just-”
“No, Des. No.” Ruvik sighs, moving forward carefully. The bavee is still cradled in one arm, but as he moves closer he begins to reach out slowly with the free one. Desotto hates being treated like some wild animal, so when Ruvik gets close enough he just shoves him away again. 

“I don’t care what would have happened,” he bites out. “It’s not- it isn’t right that we just left.” 

“You’re right.” Rookie says carefully after a while, crouched down and petting his cat without looking at them. Desotto blinks, surprised, and turns to look at Rookie. “I should have stayed. Ruvik could have carried you. You’re right, Des, and I’m sorry.” 
Desotto deflates at the apology, shaking his head and glaring into the depths of the cave. He can’t see anything, can’t hear anything either, but somehow it’s better than looking at his brothers right now. Tumnus presses against his leg and he rests a hand on her head, tries to steady his heartrate and his anger. 

“I’ll go back in.” He decides, ignoring the startled sounds from both of his brothers. “We have to try. I at least do. I can’t just… I can’t just leave. Knowing that-”
He’s cut off by a horrible screeching roar that sounds from deep within the caves they just escaped, shaking snow from above. Desotto steps back once, then again, as something rapidly approaches the cave mouth. He readies himself for a fight, braces for impact-

Bonnie appears, surprisingly in one piece. There’s a cut on his face, and deep gouges in both his arms, but he’s smiling. 
“There you guys are! Could’ve left a bread trail or something.” He jokes, and all three brothers are too stunned to speak. Bonnie frowns. 

“What? Something on my face?”

“You- how did you get away?” Ruvik is the one to ask it, voice a little hoarse and warbly. Bonnie blinks, then shrugs.
“I mean I was kinda made to do this. Fight bigger things.” And that’s it, like it’s so easy. Like Des hadn’t been made for the same thing and failed today. “Also, that thing was just hungry. I remembered I had some snacks on me and just chucked those then ran. I think it realized the bigger meal got away… oh well.” 
With the explanation on the table, the brothers all take a moment to just… breathe. Desotto clenches and unclenches his fists, breathing carefully in through the nose and out through the mouth. Bonnie idly wraps his arms with shreds of his t-shirt, Rookie overseeing the entire process with his cat acting like it knows anything about this process. Ruvik paces and coos at his newfound pet. It’s mostly quiet, but eventually they all know they need to head back home before it’s dark and they lose all sense of direction. 

They all agree not to tell their parents what happened in full, but they will warn them about the giant twiwa. That’s probably good information to have, after all.