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It had taken days verging onto weeks to get to the top of the cave system up from their home settlement. After all, Rogue had been injured from the start of the journey up, and beyond that ze had no idea of the path out beyond the fact that up was out.
When they emerged into the dark stillness of a forest at night the only way Rogue had known that ze had made it to the top were the pinpricks of white light that littered the sky, stars, they knew that much from zir mother's old stories. Stories so old in zir mind that they seemed an ancient and impossible view.
Above their head lay stars now, and if zir mother's tales were true soon enough Rogue would see the sun. That would make their trek up the caves worth it. Ze didn't care what happened past that, all they needed to do was survive the night and zir goal would be complete.
Beyond that goal it was anyone's guess what could come to pass. Rather they supposed as ze were alone now, their own guess.
The forest around them was covered in a thin cold frost, which they had never seen reach zir home settlement deep below, it made them shiver and adjust the scarf they had tied tightly around zir neck before they left home.
What the rot and the desolation their own people's hands had exacted on them hadn't taken from them cold often had.
The sounds of the forest were so foreign to Rogue, they seemed so deadened in comparison to the echoing noises of the caves. That would have to be enough excuse for the time it took them to notice the noise of something approaching through the underbrush.
By the time ze had noticed the cracking of branches and rustling of leaves all the time ze'd had to react was taken up by turning to face the shiver that was coming towards them like an arrow, and then in backpedaling to run in the other direction.
Running was something they were good at, and in that moment that may very well have been zir only saving grace. They crashed through trees and ducked through leaves and under branches as quickly as ze could. Zir breath coming out in cold clouds of mist in front of zir face only to be left in zir wake as quickly as they'd formed.
The trunks of all manner of trees passed by them as they moved, not daring to look over zir shoulder. They didn't need to. They could still hear the beast behind them.
If ze had a weapon ze might have turned and fought, but in the same breath they knew that would end in their death. They were not a fighter, not one of the blackguard, nor was ze even a hunter or malefactor.
However, Rogue was a stubborn individual, skilled combatant or not ze would not die that easily. They were too close to meeting their goal to die now. They needed to last until the night's end, no matter how far away that was. Ze would not die to a rot stricken mechanical.
It wasn't long before drops of water began falling on their head, first only one or two here and there and then fairly quickly an utter deluge was falling on their head.
The ground was slick beneath zir feet, and as they moved to attempt to jump across a gap in the wet earth ze felt their foot slide. Zir head hit the ground, reawakening the aching feeling that their somewhat healed head wound had finally abandoned only days ago, and before they could try to save zirself they slipped through mud towards a floor of stone, the shiver following them down as ze landed at the foot of a masked stranger with bright blue plumage that had flared with alarm before Rogue's head had a chance to stop spinning.
There was no time for any confusion about their identity as the shiver came at them both. Rogue struggled to get up from the ground while the feathered stranger surged towards the creature attacking them, taking it down with one swing of their falx blade before whirling on Rogue.
"Who are you?" The masked stranger asked their blade out in front of them as Rogue found zirself backed up next to a hole in the cave floor leading back underground.
Before they had any time to respond the echoing of spindly legs scrambling up from the floor and as ze moved to shout "Move!" The Shiver leapt into the stranger sending all three of them careening into the cave system below.
The way down felt longer than it should have, every single millisecond stretching into seeming oblivion. The crash took all the air out of their lungs, understandable seeing as despite how disturbingly light the strange seraph was there was still an entire seraph landing on Rogue, not to mention the Shiver that landed on top of them both as well, though that was only momentary as the other kicked the damned rot beast away from the pair.
Once air flooded back into Rogues lungs the pain registered in zir brain, piercing and strong it thrummed in zir blood and hammered at them where their shoulder was dislocated from its socket. Zir fingers tingled with a beginning numbness that still seemed to sting.
The masked stranger was standing over the dead body of the shiver when Rogue finally looked up, having heard the creature's death wail even through the pain. Contempt flared in zir mind as they stared the damned thing down.
Ze hissed a low "Blasted damn rot beast." before having to lean and put their good hand against the floor to keep from puking.
"Well," The feathered stranger's voice was oddly melodic, "That wasn't fun." When Rogue looked up again it was to the sight of the other staggering as they walked towards zir. The hand not holding their blade was holding their side. Great, neither of them got out of that fall unscathed.
"No fucking Shit." Rogue did their best to straighten up and look at least somewhat like ze were functional despite the pain racking through them. Ze brought the zir eyes to look at the holes in the malefactor's mask, "Will you be alright?"
The other's wings flicked, concern or annoyance Rogue wasn't sure, but they were grateful the other's wings hadn't smashed too bad in the fall, that would have been a pain to try to heal ze were sure. "I'll be fine."
The other's mask made it hard to read their tone, though Rogue considered that might be one of its uses. There was a tense moment before Rogue broke it with the best approximation of a teasing tone as ze could muster, "Well in any case, Nice going Feathers."
"Well, I didn't see you doing anything about it!" Came the other's somewhat indignant response, though they reached into their cloak and pulled out two grass wrapped parcels, inspecting them before turning to push one into Rogue's hand, a warm little parcel that smelled of real food, Rogue felt their tongue wet their lips behind zir threadbare scarf, "Other than leading it right too me."
"I had it under control." A complete lie, but the other didn't need to know that, they helped to cover their awkward wince by turning away to unwind zir scarf "If you hadn't crashed into me-" Rogue briefly paused for a bite of the fish that lay under the grass, it was delicious, even if it was just roasted over a fire with no flare for the preparation, "I would've been fine."
The other scoffed disbelievingly, "I'm sorry, who led a shiver to the edge of a hole?" Gesturing between the two of them before turning their back to Rogue to move their mask to the side to eat, "Also if you hadn't noticed, I killed the thing, what did you do, run?"
Rogue felt indignation swell in zir chest, but did their best to brush it off there was no use in making enemies underground, after all this time ze at least knew that rule by heart, "It's called tactical evasion, If I had a blade like that I'd've killed it myself."
"Sure." The seraph's wings flared in what was almost surely annoyance so powerful it could have fueled a boiler on its own, before wiping off their face and turning back towards Rogue, "I'd love to see you try to use one of these things."
Rogue bit down the growl building in zir throat and re-wrapped their scarf around zir neck and face before standing to their full height to face the other, "Well hand it over Feathers, I'll show you exactly how good I can be with a sword." Ze had in all reality only rarely held a sword while crafting them, but they were hoping that their height might aid in the illusion of confidence they were trying to put forth, despite zir still throbbing arm. They were much taller than the other with the tiny malefactor reaching to about their chin height.
The conversation paused as they both heard the echoing scrape of rot beasts through the caves, the other's wings flicking to signal something that Rogue did not have enough experience with feathered varieties of seraphs, nor indeed the current brain power, to interpret correctly.
Rogue listened closer to the approaching sounds with an ear fine tuned to life within a cave, the creatures were probably no more than a hundred yards down the tunnel that branched up and out ahead.
Which was the tunnel most likely to be their way out. Even if there was a hole above them it was far too steep and tall to climb. To stay here and rest would leave them sitting ducks for when the sound hungry things finally heard them and came running.
Before Rogue could utter a word of any of this though Feathers commanded "Follow me." keeping their voice soft and low but stern, and in their hands beginning to fashion a crude but effective torch.
The previous indignation swelled in zir chest again, "And why would I do that?", They winced as zir dislocated shoulder tried to move to cross with its set on their chest, which proved to be an aborted movement as it made their head spin.
"Because if you don't you'll die down here." Feathers responded in a clipped tone, shrugging the shoulder that held aloft their torch, and again drawing their sword to their opposite hand, "Up to you!"
The comment did not help Rogue's prior annoyance, "I'm not that helpless Feathers."
The other's wings flared in fairly obvious annoyance and the little petty thing that lived in zir chest sang as they followed the other.
"I have a name you know. It's Bard. And you could've asked before going with Feathers." Bard stated in a moody tone.
The name suited the other well, but Rogue wasn't about to admit that to their new feathered 'friend'. "How was I supposed to know that, we weren't exactly in a talking situation even before we got down here," Rogue smirked as they came along side the other seraph, giving enough space to hopefully not crowd the other too much, "Besides 'Bard'?, I think I might stick with Feathers."
Bard's wings twitched in annoyance again in a way that made Rogue want to laugh. Ze didn't want to provoke Bard too much though so ze stifled that urge before it left their lungs. They tipped their head to the side before remembering that they'd not given zir name yet, "I'm Rogue by the way."
Bard's masked head cocked to the side to look a bit more towards them. "And why should I use your name if you refuse to use mine?"
"Eh, I'm not that attached to my name use it or don't knowledge can be helpful." Ze shrugged zir uninjured shoulder, "For instance, We're headed straight towards our noisy tunnel mates so you'll want to be ready for them, but-" They held their hand up in the air to feel for currents in the tunnel, the air was moving further down the tunnel, ze also looked to Bard's torch, whose flame also drifted in that direction lightly, "This does seem to be a way out."
"Beasts tend to stay closer to the surface so yeah of course they are." Bard replied taking the information in stride, "At least the surface varieties do, I don't know about the deep ones, and I'd rather not know."
Rogue considered the dark creatures ze'd seen closer to the depths, where a direct fight meant death and running was barely less likely to get you killed, "That you don't"
"Here," Bard held the torch out to Rogue's good hand, "You'll at least have something to hit them with."
Rogue took the torch with a nod, it was smart enough a call, before focusing on the tunnel ahead, the noises from before were closer now, but with a single so far unbranching tunnel still heading upwards ahead it was safe to say that they would both have little concrete knowledge until the creatures were upon them.
But up was out, and Rogue no longer wished to be down there with zir father, with the man who had made them into this, so up they would go. Away from the dark, and into the sun. It would be a good change.
"Try not to set me on fire with that thing." Bard teased lightly as they walked.
Rogue rolled zir eyes with a snort, "No promises Feathers." They were better with fire than that, more careful than that, but ze wasn't going to say that. Ze doubted Bard would trust zir word after the earlier fiasco that was their meeting.
Rogue fell back just behind the other, not far enough that the torch light was too dim ahead, but just enough to keep them both out of each other's 'weapon' ranges.
Luckily with Bard's knowledge of swords they were able to mostly focus on watching the other's back as the pair came up the tunnel. Though at one point a bowthorn almost got the drop on them both but was luckily enough right on the edge of a drop for Rogue to kick it off of.
They worked together decently well as a pair, with Rogue able to point out where branching tunnels were going to eventually lead up and out even when Bard didn't know, and the both of them watching each other's backs.
When they finally made it to the surface again the sky was a bright shade of orange, which Rogue assumed likely meant that the night was fading, and soon the sun would rise. It was dazzling.
"Want me to fix your arm?" Bard asked, their tone not unkind.
Rogue fought back the panic at the mention of something verging on medical care, it was necessary though, "Oh take your time Feathers." Ze tried to draw out a small piece of leather to place between their teeth with their good hand but came up empty, "If we could've fixed it earlier that would have been nice."
"I didn't want you to draw in monsters by screaming!" Rogue let zirself push an annoyed breath through their nose, ze wasn't a child, they could be quiet, "If you'd rather deal with it yourself that's fine but-" the singsong tone to their voice at the end of the statement reminded Rogue of zir father, back before he'd lost their mother, "Bite this, you'll thank me." Rogue was tempted to bite a sarcastic remark about knowing well enough to bite something when a bone was being set into place, but when an oiled hide was held out to them ze still took it.
Rogue settled in, placing a part of the hide between their teeth and settling zir mind for the pain coming to them. They noticed that Bard was waiting for them to signal ze was ready, which was, shockingly sweet of them, if unnecessary. Still, they nodded zir assent.
Rogue was good at dealing with pain, used to it these days, after years of dealing with joints and bones ill suited to the violent changes they'd gone through in their youth. It didn't mean that ze was dead to pain though. Pushing a dislocated bone back into socket was very painful, which was why even with Rogue's very cultivated ability to cope with pain they still gasped from it and bit down hard on the hide.
Once it was done Rogue spit out the hide, and in doing so saw where their canines had bitten right through the thing. Rogue closed their eyes and took a deep breath before fully straightening up. It took a moment for zir head to stop spinning but after that they turned to Bard, "Thank you, it would have been hard to set that on my own." Rogue would have done it mind you, but it would have taken much more effort.
"Been there," Bard muttered, and Rogue's eyes caught on them prodding at their own injuries before turning skyward to give the other what little privacy ze could manage.
The other had still been unsteady on their feet on the way up, and Rogue made a note to try and get Bard to accept something to brace against before they parted. If they indeed were going to part from each other.
The sun was rising, and as Rogue realized this ze let out a breath ze didn't even know they were holding. the orange was quickly mingling with all forms of pinks and reds, vibrant and even more impossible than the stars had been.
It was marvelous in a way that made them feel tears prick at the edges of zir eyes. This was a sight worth seeing more than once. Ze needed to see this more than just once.
"So," Bard began speaking again, breaking their silent awe, "What's your plan now?"
They moved up to stand beside Rogue and ze angled toward the other, mind thick with thoughts of what little they knew about surviving topside, "Survive to tomorrow. I've gotta see this again." Their eyes looked over to meet where Bard's eyes most likely were behind the mask, "And you?"
In the beginning light of day Bard's blue plumage was, despite zir distaste for the color blue, stunning. It was nothing like the blue that haunted Rogue's sleep. They liked it.
After a moment Bard's response came, "Fix my sword," They gestured to the rather badly damaged flax on their belt. Before their mask tilted back up towards Rogue, "It'd be easier with someone to watch my back" Taking a moment before finishing the sentiment, "If you're interested."
Rogue smiled behind their scarf, "Yeah, can't hurt to stick around someone else up here." Looking around them ze hummed, "So do we just pick a direction at random or?"
"I've been trying to head further south," Before Rogue could ask how they knew where south was Bard turned towards a direction, "Helps to keep a bit warmer at night, and more food too. Oh, we could go hunting!" The enthusiasm in their voice was nice to hear, "Boar, or perhaps even Rams! Red meat!"
Rogue felt the urge to laugh but just followed as the other began to lead the way. There was a new pep in the other's step, and it felt utterly infectious.