//------------------------------// // Part 4 // Story: What's Under the Ground... // by Sorren //------------------------------//         Daring walked silently down the tunnel, her hoofsteps the only sound in dark. She had lost all track of time. But, there was no need for time anymore. Day never faded to night and the same in reverse. Light was a rare delicacy only held by those worthy enough to possess it. Daring had earned her right to the lantern, and the caverns knew this. They let her keep the lantern, because she was worthy.         “Rivers?” Daring called. Her voice didn’t even echo—it drifted away to be swallowed by the walls, hardly even reaching her ears. She paid no attention to direction, neither to slope or even color of the walls. Once she had cared for direction, but the more one thought of it, the more confusing it became. Rivers was somewhere in here, somewhere in this maze worse than that of being banished to the moon. Daring wouldn’t give up, she couldn’t. Rivers was real—she had to keep telling herself this. Shall she ever waver, the thought would strike itself back into her mind, giving her the fuel to continue on for whatever the real purpose of this was.         “Daring!” Daring called into the darkness, receiving a loud echo. She had tried this trick multiple times. Her own name always echoed back, but Rivers’ wouldn’t.           “This is useless,” Daring said to herself.         “No it’s not,” she replied. “Rivers is real. I’m going to save her.”         Daring laughed at her ignorance. “What makes you think so? What if she was just the useless trifles of your mind when you were alone in dark? Oh I certainly hope you aren’t afraid of the dark.”         Daring stomped her hoof. “I’m not afraid of the dark,” she replied in an aggravated tone.         “Well you should be,” she hissed to herself. “Scary things happen in the dark.”         Daring held up a hoof in a gesture of silence. “Quiet,” she warned. “I hear something.”         She scoffed. “Well of course you do. You’re going insane.”         “No I’m not. Now leave me alone.” Daring quietly crept forward, trying to ignore herself.         “Daring?” a light voice whispered in the darkness.         She froze. “Rivers?”         “Rivers,” the voice whispered. Daring quickened the pace, making forward gain. “Where are you?”         “In the dark,” the voice whispered softly. “I don’t like the dark.”         “I’ll get you out of the dark!” Daring said frantically. She was almost galloping now. “Tell me where you are!”         “Down here,” it replied.         Daring skidded to a stop, tossing her head around frantically, but seeing nothing. “I told you you were insane,” Daring said matter-of-factly to herself.         “Shut up,” she growled.         A certain section of the floor stood out form the others. A small, sandy brown block lay embedded in the beige stone surrounding it. Daring brushed away the layer of dust to reveal the ancient writing on the block below. It read, ‘Trap.’         “She’s down there,” Daring murmured. Slowly, she reached out a hoof and applied pressure to the stone. It sank into the floor and a dull clunk emitted from below her hooves.         Daring lifted her hoof and struck the rock again; nothing happened. “One heck of a trap,” she scoffed. Daring realized what she had just done. “Why did I just try to set off a trap with my hooves?”         “Because you’re insane,” she replied to herself. “You think you’d realize it by now.”         Daring ignored her cynical self and hurriedly stepped away from the depressed stone. Just in time too. A large boulder dropped from the ceiling and struck the ground over the stone. It started to roll down the passage, away from her.         “There’s the boulder!” Daring exclaimed. “I knew it would only be a matter of time before there was some sort of temple stereotype.”         Daring spared a glance at her lantern. The second pot of oil was half full.         “I’d say it’s half empty,” her cynical side said.         “I’ve got to follow that boulder,” Daring said determinedly. She had no idea why. But she had to follow it. If the boulder had been placed in the ceiling, then the ponies who had done it must have intended for it to go somewhere. She started off after the large round stone as it rolled slowly down the tunnel. The rough sound of stone on stone met her ears as she followed: a nice break from the unnerving silence.         Daring took the time to contradict herself. “I’m trying to look at things on the cheery side. I say the oil pot is half full.”         “Hey,” Daring replied to herself defensively. “I’m trying to be cheery too. I’m just stating the facts.”         She rolled her eyes. “How so?”         Daring cleared her throat. “Well I used the term half empty because the oil is in the act of going down. If the pot were being filled with oil I would say half full. You see where the terminology comes in? If it’s in the act of filling it’s half full. If it’s being drained then it is half empty.”         Daring had to admit, she did have a point.         The tunnel curved right and the descent steepened. The boulder picked up speed, forcing Daring to trot behind it. It continued to gain speed until Daring was galloping in its wake. After a minute, her endurance started to fade and her injured wing made itself noticed.         “Slow down boulder,” she gasped.         There was a large crash and the tiny world around her shook as the behemoth stone reached a T junction in the passage. Daring skidded to a stop, nearly tripping over her own hooves. Ahead of her was a large round hole in what had once been a wall. “Whoa,” she awed. “You alright boulder?”         Daring gave her head a shake. “Stop it. Hold yourself together, Daring. Don’t lose it now.” Cautiously, she stepped forward, stepping carefully around the scattered rubble. She unlatched the lantern from her saddlebag and brandished it ahead of her, trying to illuminate the dark pathway created by the rolling stone.         Slowly, she crossed the threshold of fresh stone, having just been exposed to the air by the path of the boulder.         Daring spotted her boulder companion, resting against a far wall and broken in two. She looked around. This was a room. Daring rolled her eyes. “A room, real shocker.”         She set down the lantern, stopping to observe the newly discovered room. The room she was in only spanned about ten by ten feet. Along the walls on all sides were skeletons, those of unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, and dozens of them at that. Daring fought the urge to scream. Junk was scattered all about the room as well. Old canteens, scrolls, assorted bits of treasure, probably taken from the very chamber she had left what felt like so long ago. Daring turned over a compass with her hoof. The glass face was cracked but the dial was still intact. It spun in a fast circle. One thing was for sure, the compass was not pointing north.         A certain blue shape huddled in a corner caught her attention. Daring froze on the spot. “Rivers!” she cried.         Daring ran over to the mare. “Rivers, get up,” she insisted. The blue lump didn’t reply.         Rivers didn’t move. Daring reached out and prodded the mare. “Rivers?” she examined the pony more closely, registering the gentle rise and fall of the mare’s flank. Rivers was definitely alive. Daring reached out and turned the mare over.         Rivers’ limp form rolled over to face her and Daring froze to the spot. Her mind locked up all at once and her mouth fell open in a silent scream of terror. A strangled squeak escaped her vocals and her heart swelled up in her throat. “Rivers?” she choked.         The mare had no eyes. Well, sort of. What was left of them could not be called eyes. To Daring’s immense relief, and horror, the blue mare slowly raised her head from the stone floor. After seeing her eyes, Daring was almost hoping the mare would be dead. What pony could go through that kind of agony?         “Daring?” Rivers asked disbelievingly. Her voice rattled as if her vocal chords were made of stone. “Is that you?”           Daring stooped close to the mare, trying her best to ignore the sickening sight. “What happened?” she asked lightly.         “You left me in the dark,” Rivers answered quietly. She choked back a sob. “You left me. Then they found me. And now I’m here. And now you’re here.”         Daring blinked a tear from her eye. “What happened to your…” She hesitated. “What… what happened to your eyes?”         Rivers sat up and turned her head towards her and Daring averted her gaze to the floor. “I took them out,” she replied. “I h-had to. I couldn’t stand the dark anymore. Every time I opened my eyes, all I saw was black.”         Daring’s eyes trailed down to a rib bone on the floor. One end of the old bone was caked with blood. Daring balked. “Why would you—”         Rivers choked a heavy sob and stomped her hoof. “I had to! I could see them in the dark! They wanted me to see them!” She trailed off to a whisper. “So I took out my eyes. Now I can see whatever color I want. I think it, and it’s there. If I j-just imagine… that I’m not in the dark, it makes me feel better. B-but it’ll only last a while.”         Daring shuddered. “But Rivers, you’ll never see anything ever again.”         The mare shook her head vigorously. “It never mattered anyways.”         Daring picked up her lantern and attached it to her saddlebag. “Come on, Rivers,” she instructed. “I’m getting you out of here.” She had better do it fast too. Rivers didn’t appear to be holding too well. She had gouged out her own eyes with a rib bone for Celestia’s sake.         Rivers’ ears perked excitedly. “Did you find a way out?”         Daring nodded, then realized that Rivers couldn’t see the gesture. “Yeah,” she replied. “I think I can find my way back.”         Rivers tilted her head. “Wait? You… you found a way out… And you came back to get me?”         “I did,” Daring said. She reached back and rummaged through her saddlebag.         “Are you an absolute moron!?” Rivers scolded. “You weren’t supposed to come back! You should have never come back!”         “Well I did,” She replied matter-of-factly. She pulled out a rope and tied a loop, then slipped it over her head. “I’m going to get you out.” She trotted over to Rivers and tied the other section of rope around the mare’s neck.         River hurriedly backpedaled. “What are you doing?” she asked fearfully.         “Tying us together so I don’t lose you again.” Daring finished the knot, giving Rivers enough slack to breathe, but not enough for the loop to slip over her head.         “I thought that was it,” Rivers said absently. “I gave up. I thought you had made it out.”         Darning nuzzled the mare’s flank lightly. “Hold in there,” she said reassuringly. “Never give up.”         Rivers cried openly. “Thank you Daring Do,” the gasped. “Thank you.”         Daring started forward, towards the hole left by the boulder. She gave the rope a little jerk, signifying for Rivers to follow. “Don’t thank me yet. We aren’t out of this mess.”         As they left the skeleton-filled room, the ground shook menacingly. “It doesn’t want us to leave,” Rivers murmured. She walked right beside Daring, her blue flank brushing Daring’s yellow. Daring assumed this was so that she could tell where they both were.         Daring gasped as Rivers pressed against her injured wing. “What’s wrong?” Rivers asked tensely, voice reflecting fear of the worse.         “Walk on the other side of me. My wing hurts and I don’t want you bumping into it.”         Rivers obediently switched sides. “What’s wrong with your wing?”         Daring looked back at her wing; it didn’t look too good. “I broke it.” A sudden, terrifying thought struck her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the medallion. A broken-winged pegasus looked determinedly up at her from the golden mold. Daring’s jaw began to tremble. She didn’t want to put the talisman back in her pocket; she wanted to keep an eye on it. Instead, she slipped off her hat and hung the necklace around her neck, then perched her hat back on her head and started forward again.         The golden talisman chilled her skin as they walked, never gaining warmth from her body.         Daring was on edge, more on edge than usual. As they continued on, there were no disruptions, no strange noises, nothing tried to fall on them. Even their hoofsteps seemed muffled.         After a while, the tunnel ahead started to lighten. Daring reached back and turned down the lantern to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. Her mind did a somersault when the lantern was completely extinguished and she could still see.         “Yes!” she jeered, causing Rivers to jump. “Light! I see light!”         Rivers’ perked her ears. “You do?” she said excitedly.         “Yes, come on!” Daring ran forward and tugged at the rope. She ran for the light, Rivers right on her tail, using the strand connecting the two as a guide.         The two mares skidded to a halt in a bright wash of white sunlight. Daring looked up. The source came from above them. In the ceiling was a square hole, roughly five feet all around. The narrow upward shaft stretched up at least a hundred feet before deep blue sky could be seen.         Daring allowed herself a moment of triumph. She thought about it. She was strong enough to lift both herself and Rivers to safety. Instinctively, Daring made to unfurl her wings. The right one flared up readily but the left stayed pinned to her side and sent a bolt of pain to her brain. She tried again, to the same effect. Meekly, she looked backwards to find the problem. “Stupid!” Daring scolded herself. How could she have, even momentarily, forgotten that she had broken her wing?         “What is it?” Rivers asked.         Daring gazed longingly up at the clear blue sky. “There’s no way out. I can see the light, but it’s through a hole in the roof.”         Rivers hung her head. “I knew it was too good to be true.”         “Come on,” Daring said glumly. Most of the determination had left her with the false victory. She re-lit the lantern and they set off again.         Hours, minutes, Daring couldn’t tell down here. All that she was aware of was the lantern at her flank and the mare by her side. That, and how hungry she was. She rummaged in her bag for the last sandwich, but to her dismay, it was nowhere to be found. The same was with her canteen.         “Great, now you’re losing things,” Daring scoffed.         “I’m sorry,” she replied to herself. “I thought it was in my bag.”         “Well because of that little slipup I’m going to go hungry,” Daring said angrily. “Thanks.”         “Stop complaining,” she told herself pleadingly.         Rivers gave Daring a nudge. “Are you alright?” she asked tentatively.         Daring shook her head. “What?”         “You were talking to yourself,” the sightless mare replied.         Daring flushed, feeling guiltily glad that Rivers couldn’t see her do so. “Sorry, I’ve been doing that a lot lately.”         Soon, they were well away from the downward spire of light and back into the swallowing darkness. Slowly, the tunnels around them began to fade and she noticed her light source was dying. Daring looked back to see the oil pot on her lantern had burned empty.         “Hold up a minute,” she told Rivers. “I’ve got to refill my lantern; it’s empty.”         She set the lantern down and pulled the new oil pot from her saddlebag. She made the change as quickly as possible so as the wick didn’t extinguish without its source of fuel. The surrounding beige quickly came back into proportion as the lantern once again burned bright.         Hours, minutes, she didn’t know. All Daring did know was that they were walking. Soon, they arrived in what appeared to be a large room. This room led off to another, and from that one to another still. Daring found the change of scenery rather unnerving. After all the time spent traveling through narrow spaces, wide-walled rooms and decorative ceilings wasn’t the most comforting feeling. She had gotten used to the narrow passages. This was new, and from what she had experienced so far, anything new meant trouble.         “Are we still in the passageways?” Rivers asked.         She shook her head and waited for the mare to reply. Daring silently scolded herself. “No,” she replied verbally. “We’re in some sort of maze of chambers now.”         Rivers nodded. “Thought so. The sounds are more spaced apart. It takes longer for the echo to reach me.”         “Have you been here before?” Daring took a left turn into a room containing a  golden sarcophagus. She paused in the stone archway. The room ahead had been tiled with gold. A small staircase led up to the sarcophagus. Daring paced forward slowly. “Sweet Celestia,” she murmured. This was it. This was the final resting place of the one these ponies had considered their goddess.         The sarcophagus scared her. She had seen many, but she hadn’t ever seen one of the likes of this. It stood five feet tall, modeled with gold and silver. The figure upon the front was a smooth-coated pony of gold. it had no wings, no horn, nor eyes nor ears or nose. It’s mouth was a perfect circle of silver and bronze twisted in a swirl. It’s body was skinny and sleek, it’s hooves narrowing down to mere points. But of all the strange features about it, the most peculiar was it’s extra set of forelegs, right below the first pair. The extra set of forelegs clasped a crystal staff to its shrunken belly. the staff protruded a little higher than sarcophagus, the white crystal tip glowing with light that seemed to only produce darkness.               “Daring?” Rivers asked worriedly. “What do you see?”         “It’s the chamber of their god,” she whispered, body trembling.           Rivers froze to the spot. “Don’t you dare go in there.” Her voice was layered with fear and knowing urgency.         Daring gazed on in awe. It was hypnotizing, the mouth seemed to cast an optical illusion, as if it were moving. “But we’re already in here.”         “What!?” Rivers protested loudly. She sank low to the ground, cowering. “This is bad, this is really bad. Ponies aren’t supposed to come here.” There was a heavy gust of wind that sent a thick cloud of dust into the air. “Are you insane!?” Rivers cried out in protest. The dust swirled around the room, dropping visibility to no more than a few feet. Rivers screamed as fell to her belly and was dragged away, towards the golden sarcophagus and the glowing crystal stone.         Daring lost sight of her. There was a heavy tug on the rope and she was almost thrown off balance. “Hey!” she yelled at the spot where Rivers had disappeared to. “Give her back!” Daring strained against the rope and managed to pull a few feet backwards, but then she was tugged forwards again and fought to not fall on her face. There was a short tug-of-war between Daring and the opposing force, neither one prevailing as the rope stretched in protest. Whatever had Rivers let go right as Daring went for a heavy tug and Rivers came flying at her out of the dust. Before Daring could dodge, Rivers hit her square in the face and the two mares tumbled to the ground.         There was a crack and a tinkering of glass as Daring rolled onto her side. The yellow light of the lantern was suddenly extinguished. The wind stopped all at once and the room fell quiet once more.         “What happened?” Daring asked urgently.         Rivers trembled on top of the pegasus. “I-I don’t know. I c-couldn’t see it.”         Daring sat up. “One second, the wind blew out my lantern.” She reached back to retrieve the lantern from her flank but found only the metal handle. Her stopped beating. Daring ran her hoof along the cool stone and quickly discovered shards of broken glass. Further investigation revealed a bent fixture and shattered oil pot.         “No,” Daring stared down at the spot where she assumed the remnants of the lantern were. “No,” She scooped all the broken bits into a single pile and frantically tried to reassemble them. “No no no no. Please no!” The ground below her shook and silt rained from the roof. From very close, terrifyingly close, a low, triumphant guttural sound met her ears. She fell to the ground, sobbing, paralyzed with fear and despair. “Why!?” she bellowed. “What did I do?”         “Daring!” Rivers insisted. “We have to get out of here, now!”         “What does it matter? I’m going to die.”         Rivers’ voice changed. “Why? What happened?”         Daring brought her hoof down on the remaining shards of glass and metal, pulverizing them more. “The lantern broke,” she choked. “It’s gone. I’m in the dark. There’s no more light.”         “Calm down,” Rivers said gently, placing a hoof on Daring’s flank.         Daring rounded on her. “Don’t you tell me to calm down! Light doesn’t matter to you because you’re as blind as a bat! I need it!”         “It’s okay,” Rivers soothed. Daring let herself be calmed by the mare. “We’ll be okay. I can lead us.”         Daring looked around frantically. She blinked. There was no difference if her eyes were open or shut. “No, I’m going to get separated from you again. I just know it!”         Rivers sighed. “Tell you what.” Daring felt as an ice-cold chain slipped around her neck. “I want you to hold on to this until we’re out. I would never leave without it. I’ll make sure we don’t get separated.”         Daring ran a hoof over the new item hanging around her neck. It was made of metal, that much she could tell. It was also rectangular, and held the dimensions of about four inches by two.  “What is it?”         “It’s a case,” Rivers replied. “But don’t open it now. You won’t be able to see it. You have to wait until you’re outside. Okay?”         She nodded, thankful for something to take her mind off the despair. “Okay... What’s in it?”         Rivers stood up. “I can’t tell you that. It’s something you’re going to have to see.”         Daring trembled. “Rivers?” she asked. “We’re going to make it, right?” Daring didn’t understand her fear. This whole time she had held strong, fought through whatever there was to face. She had tried her best to save Rivers. But now, something inside her had snapped. Her remaining sanity had extinguished like the final flame of the now-shattered lantern. Rivers was the strong one now. Without her, she was a goner..         “I swear it by Celestia herself I will get you out,” Rivers said determinedly. “You came back for me when you were never supposed to. I owe it to you. I don’t care what happens to me, but we’ll make it. I promise.”         Daring pressed close to the mare, not liking the way she felt cold to the touch. “What do you mean weren’t supposed to?”         Rivers was quiet for a long time. The mare stepped away from Daring and nudged the pegasus to her hooves.         “Rivers?” Daring asked. “Did you hear me?”         “Yeah,” she replied. “Come on, let’s go.” The mare started forward. Daring felt the rope tug at her neck and followed the blue mare through the darkness.         “How will you know the way?” Daring asked.         “I just do,” came the sightless mare’s reply.         “But how can you?”         “Look,” Rivers said glumly. “I’ve been down here for a lot longer than you know.”         “Rivers…” Daring trailed off. There was a tug on the rope from the left and Daring turned to follow. “You’re scaring me. What are you talking about?” there was no reply. “Rivers!” she insisted.         The ground shook, and there were sounds in the tunnels below, terrible sounds, indescribable by any means possible. No thing could emanate a sound even remotely similar to what was coming from the tunnels. In a way, it sounded like the agonized moo of a cow mixed with the angered roar of a lion... nothing from this planet. Daring bumped into the back of Rivers, who had stopped dead.         “What’s wrong?” Daring asked.         Rivers’ voice shook with fear. “It knows I’m helping you. I’m not supposed to be helping you.”         “Please tell me what you’re talking about,” Daring pleaded. “Rivers, I think I’m going mad.”         Rivers started forward again. The rope jerked and Daring was forced onward. “We’ve got to hurry,” Rivers said urgently. “There isn’t much time!”         The sound screamed from below again, this time much closer. “What is that?” Daring asked. They were now trotting swiftly through the dark.         “I can not explain to you what it is, Daring,” Came Rivers’ voice. “If you know what it is then it means you are dead. The fact that you don’t know means you still have a fighting chance.”         “Rivers what are you talking about?” They were almost running now, hooves thundering as the ground shook below them. “Do you know what it is?”         The blue mare tugged the rope, drawing them even faster. While Daring had expected Rivers’ to speak, she had not expected the mare’s voice to sound within her very mind. She nearly faltered as Rivers’ voice rang clearly in her head. “Nopony truly knows what it is, but we have the closest idea. It dwells here. It chose the ponies here, long ago, and remains in their ruin. Long ago they tried to stop it, feared its power and hoped to destroy it before it could gain... They killed it, or so they thought, but it became their demise. It plagued their land and sickened their young. It fed from them, drew them into the temple and fed on their despair. Their spirits left here in earlier times, guided by their savior. Now we take their place, imprisoned for all eternity as it feeds on our very essence.” “H-how are you doing that?” She asked in sheer panic. “There are some things you do not know, Daring. Some things, nopony should ever know.”           Daring was losing track of her surroundings. Now, over the roaring and the sound of the tunnels shaking around them, she could hear hoofbeats, but it wasn’t just her and Rivers’. She could hear the sounds of many hooves, all thundering in beat of her own.         “Keep going!” a stallion’s voice said encouragingly in her head.         “You’re almost there!” Cheered another, this one a mare with a heavy vintage accent.         She was now at a full gallop, the rope tied to her neck the only thing leading her on. A whole barrage of sounds filled her ears, a whole stampede of hoofs on stone, jeers, cheers and whoops, screams of joy and encouragement as she ran on.         One voice stood out over the rest. “Come on Daring!” It was Rivers. “Just a little further!”         Daring noticed something. She could see the faint silhouette of the blue pony ahead of her. The tunnel was bathed in a dull, gray light. It was light, light on such a level of beauty and purity that the likes of she had never seen in her life. Her heart did a somersault in her chest at the sight of leafy green trees beyond the end of the tunnel.         This tunnel was wider than the rest. It spanned a good ten feet in either direction.  Rivers led Daring directly down the center. Ponies ran on both sides of them, more than Daring could count. They whooped and jeered. Their smiling faces beamed with triumph and happiness, their hooves a chorus of freedom, a beautiful havoc. The sound of evil emanated from the tunnel behind, but not as loud as it had been before. Although, much, much more angry.           A brown stallion with a monocle tipped his hat to her, then fell back, fading into the darkness. Slowly, the ponies around her began to fade as the setting sun shone down the length of wide tunnel, lighting the stone a golden-orange. Their words of encouragement faded with them, until only Rivers was left at her side. Daring made to run the last ten feet out of the tunnel but Rivers slid to a stop.         The blue mare’s momentum carried her right up to the mouth of the tunnel. The sun cast its golden rays upon her face as she gazed longingly at it, reflecting in her haunted eyes.           “Come on!” Daring urged, running out into the sunlight to the rope’s end. “We made it!” She did a little prance, looking happily at Rivers. “We made it!”         Rivers cast a proud look at Daring. Her eyes shone with a joy one would have never thought possible, but there was also sadness there. Daring gasped. The mare had her eyes back; and they weren’t multicolored anymore. Instead, they were both a deep, sea blue.         Rivers nodded towards the jungle beyond. “Get going, you made it.”         Daring looked to Rivers, then the jungle beyond, then back to the Rivers. “Aren’t you coming?”         Rivers shook her head sadly. “No, it’s just you from here.” A single tear welled up in her eye and ran down her face.         Daring tugged on the rope but the mare didn’t budge. “Come on,” she urged desperately.. “Please, Rivers! Let’s go!” Daring gasped at the sight before her. The blue mare was slowly turning transparent, the stone behind her showing through. “No!” Daring cried. “No! You can’t.”         “Don’t you see?” Rivers said. Sorrow filled every syllable as she spoke. “I’m not supposed to leave... I never left.”         The rope around the mare’s neck fell through her body and landed limply on the stone. Daring fought her own brain, hoping her mind was lying to her. “No, Rivers. You can leave! Don’t go!”         Rivers smiled. “It’s okay. It was meant to be.” Her figure faded further until it was little more than a shadow. “In the case is a letter,” she said, her voice murky, as if spoken from behind a wall of sand. “Make sure it reaches the right place.”         Daring watched in grief as the mare slowly faded away, the final wisp of her voice filling the peaceful air. “You were the one... Daring Do.”