The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the fact that were were approximately six eyes watching me intently. “Whoa!!” was the only sound I could make before I attempted an escape, however, as my plans as of late have a tendency to do, this failed. A large hand grabbed me, however, without even intending to do it, I slipped out of it’s grip, flew straight up into the air, only to be caught in the cloth of a shirt, stretched out like one of those portable blankets firemen use to catch people in.

Looking up, I got a sight of exactly who had caught me. A stoner. He looked just like a stoner. His hair was red and curly and his face was pale. He had a goofy smile that would be sure to burst out in idle laughter at any time, and tired, yet lively eyes. “Caught ‘im!” the stoner guy exclaimed drowsily.

“Hey, be careful with him!” the boy I had accidentally fallen asleep on shouted to the stoner guy. “Yeah, he doesn’t look too comfortable there,” a gorilla with long hair said.

“W-, who are you guys?...” I asked frantically, even though they probably wouldn’t be able to understand me. “I think he wants down,” the gorilla stated, clearly answering my question about the whole understanding thing.

Oh! The boy isn’t covered in stones anymore!

In fact, his legs had been all patched up and he was sitting up, looking at, well, me. Slowly, he stretched out his left hand towards me, beckoning for me to hop on it. “I don’t think he can understand that,” the gorilla, who I now recognized to probably be a girl, told the boy. “You’ll see,” the boy replied confidently. I hesitated. I was scared out of my non-existent boots, but I really wanted to prove that gorilla girl wrong. And so, putting trust in a human, I leaped through the air, only to be caught by… well, his hand.

Trembling like a leaf in the breeze, I clutched the boy’s ringfinger, really not wanting to fall. I know I could fly, and I know I probably would have been alright even if I did fall, but it was really spooky, okay?!

“Oh! I’ve forgotten to introduce us!” Paul suddenly said, his face lighting up in a grin. “You’re going to introduce us… to this weird looking salamander?” the stoner guy asked in all honesty.

Well, I want to know your names, after all, I can’t just call you “boy”, “stoner” and “gorilla”!

“Let him,” the gorilla sighed, entirely defeated. “Alright! This musclehead girl is Johanna, Joey for short, and that guy over there is Robert, Bob for short, and my name is Paul!” “Paulie for longer,” the man called Bob interrupted, laughing a real-life stoner-laugh(huehuehue)!

Paulie looked a little peeved at this, but seemed fine with it otherwise. They have surprisingly normal names for being in a fantasy world, I think. “Alright, that’s all well and good, but we should really get you out of here, Paulie,” Joey stated sternly. Both Paulie and Bob looked a bit sad at this, but nonetheless decided to try and get Paulie up on two legs. It would probably hurt a lot, but he needed to get out of here, even I knew that.

But suddenly, I remembered something, or rather, someone.

Clay!

Looking over to the hole I had dug to get us here, I noticed Clay standing idle in the very side of the hole, apparently not wanting to be seen. I’ll come along with these humans, yes, but I’m not leaving Clay behind!

“Hey!”

“Hm? What is it, little guy?” Paulie asked, noticing my desire for attention. I made another noise and pointed down to the hole. “What’s he pointin’ at?” Bob asked, following my arm with his gaze, quickly noticing the hole. “Whoa! Did he dig out all those holes?!” Bob asked excitedly, his face lighting up in a big smile. “No, wait, there’s something in there…” Joey commented, walking closer to the hole. Clay looked positively panicked, but stood his ground regardless of the sudden human approach.

“Oh right, this guy was riding on that crayfish when I found him,” Paul said absentmindedly. “...He rode a crayfish?... Cool!!” Bob returned. “Wait, hold on. Paulie, that little lizard doesn’t want us to bring the crayfish outside with us, does he? I mean, bringing the lizard was obvious, it’s a new species after all, but a crayfish?...” Joey asked in disbelief.

“Of course we’re bringing Clay!” I replied. “I think he says “yes”, Joey” Paulie said, vouching for me. I’m beginning to like this kid!

Joey sighed audibly at Paulie’s comment and moved closer to the hole. “Heere crayfishcrayfishcrayfish…” she cooed, attempting to make the little crustacean come closer, However, it had the opposite effect, and Clay decided to retreat out of her reach. That is, unless I intervened, which I did. Clay’s heavy body was slowly and unwilling dragged by my will towards Joey, who quickly grabbed him by the back. “Man, this guy has to be larger than a lobster!” she commented once she had the vividly struggling creature in her grasp. The only one who seemed to have noticed my involvement seemed to have been Paulie, who shot me a worried gaze.

Holding out my arms, I tried to motion for them to bring Clay over to me. He kept making all sorts of movements with his legs, and his right claw was snipping at the air. He really had to calm down. “He looks like a kid wanting his bear, huehue,” Bob said, bringing Joey and Paulie’s attention to me. “Maybe he wants the crayfish?...” Paulie asked Joey, who shrugged and brought Clay closer to me. Not within reach of his clay, but close enough.

Without any fear or hesitation, I stretched myself out, and petter Clay on the head. This seemed to calm him down somewhat, but he still looked pretty scared. I hope Joey will be gentle with him, he’s done no harm to nobody.

“Alright, enough of this, we really should get going. Put the lizard on your shoulder or something, you’ll need that arm,” Joey said, proving herself to be the unofficial leader of the group. Paulie and Bob nodded in response. Paulie brought his left hand to his right shoulder, urging me to switch places, which I did, since I’m a nice person who does what people ask.

“Alright, let’s get you up,” Joey said, using her right hand(which wasn’t holding Clay) to grab a hold of Paulie’s left hand, Bob grabbing the right one in response. The aim here wasn’t to get Paulie walking, but instead to drag him. This was easier said than done, as Paul had to be on his feet for just a moment before he could properly be supported by the two.

I tried my best to help him by supporting his knees with my will, but if I couldn’t lift a 35 kilo rock, I sure as heck couldn’t lift a 70 kilo man. Joey semed able to though, as within only a few moments of Paulie groaning through gritted teeth, they held him between eachother, feet barely touching the floor, ready to get out of here.

“Which way, Bob?” Joey asked as if Bob somehow knew the entire layout of the cave without any maps, and also exactly where they were. It’d take a miracle to be that lu-,

“Just out here and to the left, then straight ahead for about twenty minutes, after whi-,” “Alright, let’s get going,” Joey replied, interrupting Bob mid-sentence. Bob growled a few creative curses under his breath but was otherwise fine with it. Seems like this happens quite often.

And lo and behold, slowly and painstakingly, we made our way through the dark tunnels which were humongous by my standards but rather narrow to the others. Clay had calmed down significantly, only barely moving.

This is where we met trouble. Apparently, the first thing you had to do to get into this cave was crawl through a long, winding ankle-height tunnell a grown man could only barely fit into. This wouldn’t have been any problem for me or Joey or Bob, but Paulie was in no state to crawl, and this tunnel was as narrow as it was tall, aka, not very. And if what Bob said was anything to go by, it would last atleast a quarter of an hour, longer depending on Paulie.

And then, Bob had an idea. They kept a lot of emergency provisions and the such in their backpack, including a towel to be used as blanket or, well, towel. If they put Paulie on this, the one ahead of him could simply pull the towel along, Paulie laying on it, like that “mystery man” episode from the hulk way back when.

And that’s just what we did. It went pretty well for the most part, especially considering the fact that Paulie was bumping his head on pretty much everything. Me? I was standing on top of him, trying my best to keep the most damaged of his feet above the ground, which really was quite a feat if you ask me.

However, all good things must come to an end, and it wasn’t long until the towel Paulie had been dragged on was completely shredded by the rocks they had been dragging it on. It practically fell apart after about ten minutes, causing Joey to suddenly burst forward and facepalm the floor once the seams burst entirely. She couldn’t turn around due to the limited space, but she knew what had happened. Bob, who was last in the line if this exact case was to occur, was also stopped dead in his tracks.

“Wh-, what now?...” Joey squeaked, turning her head to look behind her, her hard-hat scraping against the raw stone. “I don’t know,” Bob replied honestly. “Maybe you could, well, put him on your back?...” Bob asked, attempting to shrug only to hit the wall with his elbows. It was so damn cramped one could barely do anything. Joey shook her head. “No, it’s too narrow in here, and I couldn’t get him on my back even if I wanted,” she admitted unwillingly.

Hm.

I have an idea.

I was no longer bloated and full, in fact, I felt rather hungry, so with a mighty leap off of Paulie’s chest, I borrowed my hands into the ceiling and started chewing. I could hear various gasps from below, but I continued eating. After only a few minutes, I had created a sizable cavity, not enough to stand up in, but enough to do, well, something.

Bob, unlikely as it seemed, got an idea first. Without saying a word, he ripped off his heavy-duty jacket, laid it on the ground and said “Joey, move him on top of the jacket.”

Joey seemed sceptical, but obliged him. I didn’t really understand it until now, but it was really quite cold. How did I come to understand this? Well, Bob was shivering like Nala wailing in the lion king, which suddenly made me just a twinge sad. If I was stronger, I could just make him float, hell, I might even have been able to carry him on my own!

“Bob, it’s not that cold, why are you shivering?” Joey asked, just as confused as I was. “The heebie-jeebies,” Bob answered bluntly, as if that was a good answer. Joey rolled her eyes and continued crawling and dragging Paulie, who wasn’t saying or doing much anymore, at a surprisingly quick and steady pace.

And, within mere minutes, I could see how the cave started growing brighter, my own light seeming weak and fleeting in comparison. The light grew brighter and brighter as we went along, and soon enough, I could even feel a little breeze of air, a welcome contrast to the damp stillness of the tunnels below.

“Almost there,” Joey grunted as she picked up her pace, most likely thinking that the faster she went, the sooner she would be out, which was a fair assumption, however, Bob couldn’t really keep up with the sudden speeds and was left behind for a second.

Joey was the first one to get out.

She left Paulie behind in the entrance as she painstakingly crawled out and got up on both legs. She didn’t take any time to stretch out or anything though, as she immediately crouched and pulled Paulie out fully, along with myself.

It was very bright. We were in the middle of a forest, right beside a large, troll-looking rock, in a little clearing. The sun was just going down, dying the sky a gorgeous and natural combination of pink, yellow and blue that simply shook my heart.

I didn’t think I’d ever been so happy to see the sky before.