*It really didn’t need to happen. It really didn’t. And Shining knew it. But he’d been too slow. If he had only been a second faster… He did not dwell on what if’s. He had to run.
Moments ago, things had been proceeding… well, they had been proceeding. Cain had explained a few things to him - namely the situation, and the danger posed for those who fell - and how he and Isaac were searching for them to bring them back to the opening. Though he refused to explain who he was, stating adamantly that he would not speak of it without Isaac’s permission.
He had proved no threat, however. Cain had actually been quite an aid; He already knew the layout of majority of the caves. Cain had dealt with most of their creatures - leaving a large amount of questionable fluids and viscera chunks behind - using what Shining understood was his own tears. He could sense the magic they contained, similar to that he’d noted in Isaac.
But whereas Isaac’s was thick with concern, with frantic unease… Cain’s was worried. Remorseful. But calm. Cain was like stone. Guarded, passive, with only the deepest etches showing on the surface.
Shining hadn’t been sure he could trust him entirely.
They’d been escorting one of the last few foals - the one Shining now carried on his back - to the main room, where hopefully Isaac had found the last of them. By then the guard would be there, if they weren’t already, and take them out of the cave system. Then Cain would talk.
Or at least, that had been the plan. Now the plan was to get them all out as fast as they could, and hope that Cain would be able to talk. If they could find him.
One moment, he was walking Shining back toward the main room. He was held midair the next. Gone in three seconds, taken by some reddish tendril that Shining had seen Cain slaughter dozens of by this point.
Many of the same now appeared in every room, quickly struck down with bolts of magic, deflected by the same. It was a frantic, uncertain race which would only end in one of two ways.
Shining prayed his memory served him right, running in through the darkness, only the brief lighting of his self defense illuminating the suffocating darkness. There were many times his hoof met the void of the watery depths - several times he ended up swimming, tenaciously clinging to the foal.
He met brief reprieve when he finally reached the main room. Rain met his already-soaked face, and he gave a sigh of relief, letting the foal off his back.
Then he heard it roar.
Shining’s head quickly whipped over to the source, and he gagged at the sight. It was some abomination, composed of pulsating flesh, capped with misshapen skulls. The remains of a dozen or so tendrils bled- no, poured out blood in thick streams- into the water. The stallion saw the children and teacher scramble away in a blind panic, roughly in his direction.
He saw one of the foals being dangled in front of the creature, away from him. He wasn’t kicking or screaming, he was just… there. He saw Cain being held by the ankle, swaying around like a ragdoll. No struggle.
“No!” He heard a faint yell. Isaac. He couldn’t see him, but he heard him.
The creature shuddered, and dove beneath the ground, taking Cain and the foal with it. Shining ran past the fleeing foals, to Isaac. The child ran past Shining carrying something blue and glowing, not even acknowledging him.
“Isaac?” the guard captain called.
“Get them out!” Isaac called back, stopping briefly to look at him. Tears streamed down the human’s face, in spite of the resolute tone his voice carried. “It’s gonna come back, they need to get out of here."
Shining, taken aback by the tone of Isaac's command, paused only moment before he followed through. The stallion ran over to the group of ponies who had gathered in the far corner. “Stay close together, I’m going to get us out.” he reassured them.
They huddled together, some crying, some whimpering, all drenched thoroughly from their ordeal. Shining quickly set about lifting them up, the strain of his magic use becoming more prevalent with each one he deposited at the top of the cliff. He dared not look around when the ground erupted beyond his vision, instead redoubling the his efforts.
He closely heard the splashing of footsteps in the rain, quickly followed by the dull roar of a fire - the captain turned, and saw Isaac standing between him and that hideous creature. A wall of eerie blue flames divided them from it. Shining finally saw what Isaac had been holding - a simple candle, the same flames as the barrier dancing at it’s tip.
Shining shook himself from his temporary daze. “Isaac, get over here, I gotta get you out right now.” he demanded of the child.
Isaac looked over at Shining. Behind him, showers of blood tossed by the monster evaporated against the flames. “Get yourself out. I need to save them.” he said shakily, unable to look at Shining’s face.
Before he could object, Isaac ran through the fires, unscathed, and swung the candle at the monster. A blue fireball ignited it’s body, and it dove under again with a screech.
Shining was stunned by this. Isaac had seemed so helpless… so frail. And yet he was the one fighting for the lives of others while he stood on the sidelines. Momentarily, he was jealous. He didn’t like the feeling of… of being so useless. A bystander.
The fires were lowering. Shining, catching a brief glimpse of the both Cain and the last foal, the human in the far corner, the foal not far. The stallion leaped over the last lights of the blue flames, toward the foal. Isaac threw blaze after blaze at the behemoth everywhere it rose, keeping it away from Shining.
He reached the foal, quickly severing the tendril binding it with a quick swipe of a spell. The foal never touched the ground, immediately being flown up to the clifftop.
He didn’t take two steps before everything fell apart again.
The monster rose right behind the tendril binding Cain, dangling him precariously in front of its multifaceted face. Isaac half-waved the candle, stopping abruptly at the sight. The beast laughed, a horrible, grinding growl that sent chills down even Shining’s spine.
It tossed Cain high, high into the air. He very nearly seemed to peak above the cliffs themselves.
Isaac didn’t move fast enough, the flames reaching too late.
Shining reacted too slowly, his mind too sluggish, his spell dying on his horn.
The monster’s tentacle soared skyward at incredible speed spearing the child in the back as he fell back down to the earth.
The flames danced wildly as it finally blazed across the creature’s whole body in a brilliant azure inferno. The monster exploded violently, it’s charred chunks spattering the area around.
The tendril bearing it’s last victim weakly sunk down again, stopping just before Cain touched the ground.
*Isaac was speechless. Motionless. Mortified. Cain had just been… eviscerated. He was still here, dripping the blood into the water like ink. Right here, before his eyes.
I failed him.
Isaac bolted towards him, crying silently. He looked over at the other child’s front. The tendril had ruptured the spine, pierced his left lung, and shattered his rib cage. Blood had already ceased flowing, the last drops already crusting to the body.
Isaac wanted to pull him down, hold him tightly, for days, years, forever… if only it would make him okay, make him okay, make him okay, make HIM OKAY - ... but he didn’t. Isaac looked up at Cain’s dead face. He stared long enough to capture every detail, every scratch, nick and bruise the Stain inflicted on him. He saw how the wire coat hanger had impaled him, dead center of either side of the head. There was a small screw twisted in his neck, just beneath the chin.
Isaac removed Cain’s eyepatch. The glass eye beneath was shattered, tearing apart the socket in a bloody display. Isaac wrapped the patch around his wrist, closing Cain’s eyes as best he could.
I’m sorry.
He held up the candle. He ignored Shining’s protests, closing his own eyes and turning away from them both. The boiling hot tears rolling down his cheeks fell into the water.
Mixing with Cain's blood.
I’m so sorry.
The corpse was lost to the flames.