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Chapter 14
Part 1
Slowly arising from his slumber, Ifan wiped the sleep from his eyes as he peered around the dimly lit caves. To his left he could see Angharad and Rhian playing games of dice to pass the time. Ahead of him, Gustov was sat upright, slowly sharpening his axe with a whetstone.
“Finally up, little prince?”
Groaning, Ifan responded, his eyes still struggling to adjust to what little light was being cast around the caves by the propped-up torches, “How long were we out?”
“I woke up a little while ago, are we ready to continue now? I would rather not get stuck by high tide while having to deal with these water demons.” Gustov stood up, retrieving his torch and lighting it on Angharad’s.
“Just about.” Ifan stretched his arms up and felt his back crack, “Nothing like a cat nap on a cold damp cave floor to work out the knots in your muscles. How long were we asleep?” Ifan looked to Rhian and Angharad, who were packing up their dice into a small leather pouch.
“Torches are still going fairly strong, they last four hours total, so maybe an hour? Hour and a half?” Angharad stood and collected the torches against the wall, handing one each to Rhian and Ifan. “Looking handsome as ever, Ifan. Always good to get your beauty sleep.”
Ifan furrowed his eyebrows, looking to Rhian for elaboration.
“Your hair. It’s all over the place,” said Rhian.
“Ah. Nice.” Splashing his hand in the nearby body of water, Ifan smoothed his hair back down, and Rhian shook her head as the cow lick bounced back upright.
“Let’s not waste time on our hair now. We’re already down at least an hour.” Gustov walked up to the water’s edge watching its black reflective surface shimmering in the dim torch light. “Do we swim? Or erect a bridge of some kind? It looks to only be a few metres.”
“If we can deal with wet undergarments, swimming should be fine. I don’t think we have anything to make a bridge with.” Angharad began pulling off her leather gambeson, revealing a sleek white undershirt and loose hemp trousers. “I’ll carry clothes if someone else gets my torch.”
“No problem, Haz. I got it.” Rhian placed her torch alongside Angharad’s on the cave floor, before stripping off her own light chainmail armour. “Apologies for my armour, it’s the heaviest of the group’s.”
Gustov and Ifan soon joined in and took off their outer layers of clothes, until everyone was down to their underwear. Angharad’s dark skin caused her to blend into the cave’s darkness, hidden relative to the radiant paleness of Rhian and Ifan. Following Angharad’s lead, Gustov agreed to carry Rhian’s chain mail and some of the other more difficult to carry equipment in exchange for Ifan carrying his torch.
Finally ready, the group plunged into the inky black water, leaving their clothes and torches ready to be collected on the water’s edge.
“Fuck me this is freezing!” Angharad was the first to complain but was soon followed by everyone besides Gustov.
“Is it cold? I didn’t notice before.” Gustov reached over and collected his pile of armour, before kicking off the pool’s side and paddling to its other end.
Acclimatising to the frigid cold, the others eventually gathered their things and swam after Gustov, who was already lifting himself out of the water at the other side of the pool.
Ifan grabbed the two torches and kicked off the edge, paddling while keeping his neck and arms above water. A few seconds of strained swimming later, Ifan reached the other end of the pool. Placing the torches down, he began climbing up and out of the water before Gustov leaned down and collected him from the pool.
“Thanks, big man.”
“No problem, little prince.”
Ifan watched as Rhian and Angharad struggled out of the water themselves, rushing to help Rhian after Gustov made his way to pull Angharad up. Moving the torches away from the group, Ifan reached down, coiling his rough fingers around her forearms, and pulling her out of the water. Almost too conveniently, Rhian fell forward onto him, draping her hands over his muscular shoulders and savouring his warmth for a moment too long, before Ifan placed her away from him gently.
Red faced, Rhian looked at her feet before Angharad stepped beside her and placed her clothes in her arms.
“Be a little more subtle, Rhi,” whispered Angharad in Rhian’s ear.
Rhian became even more flustered at having been caught out and darted off behind a large rock to the groups right to get dressed. Angharad joined her after pulling on her own trousers, and the girls continued in silence as the warm orange glow of the torches provided a dim light for their task.
“Ready?” Ifan adjusted his armour straps and collected his torch, peering around the rock at the girls.
“Mind your prying eyes, prince. You’re lucky that we are, indeed, ready.” Angharad stepped back out from behind the rock, with Rhian close in tow. Shaking some of the water off of their weapons, the pair shared a knowing look before settling back into formation.
“That’s surely not the last of the water in this cave. We may need to be a little faster in future, and deal with waterlogged clothes. Depending on the threat level of course. Luckily it doesn’t seem like navigating the caves is a problem yet. Straight shot from here it seems. Keep your eyes and ears peeled everyone.” Ifan allowed Angharad and Gustov to take the lead, and the group set off further into the cave’s depths.