The Village Idiot [Tsarashi]

Fletcher spent a few minutes searching in silence...Then he realized it was too silent. He spun around in a panic, looking for another beam of light, and not finding one. "Heron?!" He yelled. Then quieted when he had a far off voice calling his name. He ran towards it.

Fletcher memorized the turns he took, as he took them so they would be able to find their way out. People may think he was stupid, but that didn't mean he was. "Heron?" He called. He rounded one last corner, and saw a beam of light, way down the end of the shaft. He breathed a sigh of relief. But then he realized what part of the mine this was, and he choked on his breath in panic.

"Heron!" He called softly. "Don't move!" He hissed, making his way cautiously towards Heron. This was a highly unstable part of the mine, liable to collapse at any time. Someone, somewhere missed up, digging too many tunnels, making this part of the mine highly unstable. The end of the shaft had already collapsed.

He was a few yard away from Heron when his foot got caught on the track. The hard hit, sent a terrible jolt of pain through his side. He yelped and jumped, slamming his shoulder into one of the wooden support beams. Fletcher fell flat on his face, gasping in pain as his side hit the hard compact dirt. He lay there stunned, and afraid. At first nothing happened, and he almost relaxed, but then dust started to fall from the ceiling above him, and a crack appeared in the rock. Fletcher forgot about his side, and lunged forward. He reached Heron, and with out slowing down, grabbed his arm and yanked him down the tunnel.

The crack widened, the rock crumbled, and the ceiling gave way. Fletcher stayed ahead of it, pulling Heron along. He turned down another tunnel, and kept running. The entrance they just passed through, disappeared in a black cloud of rubble and coal. Fletcher tripped again, skidding a few feet before stopping, dragging Heron down with him. He coughed, coal dust invading his lungs and eyes.

He sat up, and looked around. The air was thick with coal dust that the cave in had stirred up. He was breathing heavily from his run, sucking more dust into his lungs, making him cough violently. "Are you alright?" He wheezed. "Come on, we have to get to clearer air." He got to his feet, and pulled Heron up again. He limped down the mine shaft, away from the clogged air.

OOC: I wanted to do this from the start! Do you mind? Also, Fletcher has a nasty ass burn scar all across his back, so Heron would see that...

Fletcher wasn't surprised at the other boy's fear, he had been that way when he first started. It never occurred to him that there were other reasons for his fear. "Don't worry." He smiled reassuringly, managing to be genuine even in this situation. He pulled Heron to his side, shook off his iron grip, and put his arm around his shoulder instead, leaning some of his weight on Heron. It helped that they were about the same height, Fletch being just and inch or two taller.

Now that that adrenaline was fading in his veins, he could feel the cuts from falling. He winced as sweat seeped into the superficial cuts, burning them. "I think I'll take you up on your offer." He grunted. He reached down with his other hand, and felt the shirt tied around his torso. It was warm and sticky. He didn't need to hold his hand up to the feeble light to know that it was blood. But he did, staring at his stained hand. "Well....that sucks." He sighed.

The falling and running for his life, had ripped open the scabs and skin that had healed. Now it would have to heal all over again. "Don't worry." He repeated, for both of them this time. He pictured the mine in his head, trying to figure out were they were. When he did, he felt his spirits raise. "Hey, I think we are in one of the shafts that slope back towards the surface." He laughed. Sure enough, the shaft started to tilt upward. "Rumor has it, that one of these shaft's roof collapsed, opening to the forest beyond the District. Some of the men supposedly use it to go hunting...we can find it and get out!" He squeezed Heron's shoulder, and grinned over at him, ever the optimist.

"It's quite a walk I hear." He said, less upbeat and more worried. He had worked a full 12 hour shift, walk and run the length of the mines, took some hard falls, and ripped open his side. Fletch could only take so much. "In the meantime...let's get to know each other to pass the time. I live with my mom and my twelve year old brother. My brother has the same...condition I have, except with him he sees words, and numbers, and sounds. Like in front of him, hanging in the air, in different colors...what about you?" Fletcher was very open about himself, and figured that other people were like that too. Words like 'privacy' and 'personal space' meant little to him.