isleofavalon | Be Bold, Be Bold, But Not Too Bold

The cavern rang out with a demon's laughter. Alec wasn't wrong but as that had been so unexpected it caught even Crowley off guard!

"Wish I had thought of that!"

But mischief worked best when trying to tempt a Pooka into showing up. Feeling the mirth in the air Shadow ended up trotting into the cavern and whinnying a happy little greeting to the group when he arrived. Though he did wonder what he had missed.

Edited 2021-01-12 03:22 (UTC)

He tucked the crystals carefully against himself as he gathered each of them, and turned and gave Crowley a little less of a glare. The look wanted to be a glare, but mostly it just looked smug and a little pleased and he may have reached a little farther for the last crystal just to show off his backside.

"I hope Shadow's at least a gentleman."

He smirked, both at the laugh and the outrage. It felt good. He hadn't felt that good since--

Well he wasn't going to think about it.

Anyway the horse was bloody tall and even when he managed to get to his feet, just staring at it was intimidating.

"Did you bring a ladder?"

Shadow nickered and stomped a hoof... Now whether that was a horsey catcall or not only someone with working animal talking magic could tell you.

"I think he likes the view too."

The mischievous answer would always be the one Crowley leaned towards.

"Careful on the way back down, Angel, you wouldn't want to bruise that."

Shadow pranced in front of Alec, looking between both he and Crowley like this was an impressively elaborate joke!

"Wait, not yet Alec. You just climb onto a Pooka's back and they take off like lightening."

Crowley stepped forward and carefully reached out a hand to stroke the Pooka's muzzle, something he hadn't done since they had arrived.

"This isn't a game. Alec is important to me... No running around like mad, alright? Take care of him."

The Pooka was a small horse really, one rather like the British breeds who barely stood taller than a man and looked as if they might fall over if anyone full sized sat astride him but actually they could handle a fully armored man.

"And maybe could you kneel? He has had a bad day."

Shadow gave a little snort at that but kneeled he would be easier to climb onto.

Alec is still dubious about the horse. He understood it but by and large wished he hadn't and isn't about to translate it. For the moment though he manages to get on the beast's back, gripping its mane though not too tightly and adjusting his seat until the horse tells him he's tolerable.

"Right... Good..." He stares out at the dark tunnels of the cavern. "Where next." And dear god he hopes this isn't a trial. He wants to sleep. Maybe even eat. Though the thought of going back to that inn room sours his stomach-- he's not about to complain.

Aziraphale finished up the climb and joined them. He tucked the crystals away safely and kept any ‘then you can kiss it better’ thoughts about bruised bottoms to himself. They’d had quite enough silliness for now.

“You look very knightly,” he teased Alec. Last one, promise. He took Crowley by the hand. If there were any more visions ahead of them, he wasn’t going to let Crowley face them alone. Or Alec—as long as Shadow travelled slow enough, they’d stay within arm’s reach.

“Well, we can either go the route Shadow took as a return, if he remembers, or we can follow the blue string back to the entrance. Lamassu should be guarding the other end. We’ve faced a trial, received a reward—I think we’re good and done with the offerings of this place.”

Shadow looked ahead at the maze of tunnels, stomped a hoof, and then looked to the blue string. The sure thing looked like a better idea to him and he set off after it... but as he had been asked so nicely, he traveled at a much more leisurely pace than he usually would have. No reason, at all, to give the weird doppelganger a second heart attack.

"All he needs is a suit of armor that will ride up as he goes."

Crowley ever so helpfully added as if this was a problem armor had when it was actually very difficult for metal to squish up into places it wasn't meant to be.

The demon couldn't help but hold Aziraphale back, just to let the Pooka and Alec get a little further ahead. He hadn't actually given his angel a proper hello when he arrived but with a 'farewell to the death cave' kiss he hoped to make up for that.

"Thanks... for not listening and coming after us anyway."

He wasn't deaf and the sound carried but he let them have their romantic cave snogging and kept his gaze straight ahead. He wasn't a knight or a king. He was just a sad tired old man who was still tired and getting older by the minute but no longer as sad as he used to be, even though he knew he would be very sad later.

Little by little the light came through the end of the tunnel and no more visions tore at his mind. Just the sun and the sand and the open water which made a wave of nausea climb up into his belly and settle there. Christ. The horse underneath him bunched with energy but fortunately didn't bolt off into the wild blue.

"Thanks," he muttered to it. For many things.

Six thousand years of barely being able to say Hello. Lovely to see you. Are you well?, the Angel wasn't too put out to not be greeted with a kiss. Still, he wasn't going to say no to one either.

"Of course. I wasn't going to leave you two to have all the fun," he said with another kiss, this time to his cheek. Fun, he said, as if his demon hadn't been battling with inner demons. Still, Aziraphale hadn't really planned to come along and join this quest. He'd only planned to show up with a care package and check up on them, reassure himself that the two most important persons in his life weren't about to get themselves killed in a cave.

"Are you okay, though?" he asked quietly, once they had started to follow Shadow and Alec at a distance, his hand still securely in Crowley's, arm bumping his as they walked. "I know we're are the worst three people at talking about such things, but... are you alright? Is Alec? Are you absolutely sure you want to continue on this quest of yours?"

When the light came through, after being in the darkness for so long, he squinted and held up a hand to block it out. For once, he was almost envious of those sunglasses Crowley always wore. At least they were out of the cave. Lamassu was still there, at the end of the yarn, waiting like a statue.

Shadow nickered happily. This being the first time he had been thanked for anything, he was rather pleased with himself. He practically strutted past that odd human-faced creature still holding onto the string but he bobbed his head in thanks to it for not letting go. Thank you's were catching once they got started.

Crowley walked hand-in-hand with his angel, trying not to squeeze his fingers too tightly or let those nightmares get the better of him. Fire. It was always fire for some reason. He was largely immune but the others hadn't been and now he would never see some of them again. Hn, despite what Alec had claimed the nightmare wasn't all fake.

"I don't know what Alec saw back there. He never said." And Crowley wondered if he would have even if asked, "But it's his quest. You heard him back there. He is not going to be satisfied until he does some good... working his way home. I can't just leave him. What if the next part of the quest is even worse than the first?"

Anything that might have been said about his own state of mind was kept very quietly to himself. Oh he would tell Fell about it, but later, once they had a big pot of tea or even better wine and a nice blanket to snuggle in. This felt a better setting for an 'I miss having a family' conversation than popping back out into the sun and discovering the grim face of a Lamassu staring back at you.

UGH, CREEPY! Crowley was tempted to turn right around and run back into that cave.

"You'll stick around won't you? Join the quest?" His eyes favored Aziraphale's with a hopeful look, "We can be questing buddies."

He looked up at Crowley with big, grateful eyes. He was so good, not just for a demon, but for a human, too. Crowley was so good and kind and loyal to those he cared for, and Aziraphale was incredibly lucky to be here by his side.

Later, they could talk in more detail, but for now, he was just happy to see that both of them had survived this ordeal and that they were still the determined, steadfast men he loved, even if their footing had been shaken somewhat.

"Thank you, Lamassu." The familiar bowed his head once in acknowledgement and ignored whatever look Crowley might be giving him.

Aziraphale tipped his head and considered the offer to stay on, and then, with a sweet, sly smile, he released Crowley's hand.

"That's not really your offer to extend, now is it?" After all, it wasn't Crowley's quest--it was Alec's. He came over to stand at Shadow's side, squinting up through the sunlight at Alec. "Well, sir knight." Not really mocking, though he smiled. "May I accompany you on your noble quest, or should I make for home?"

He wrinkled his nose. "Don't do that. Start that and it'll become a thing and I hate the thing."

He considered it. Would he like Fell to come? He didn't want to think about it really.

"Up to you. Can we move away from this bloody lake, please?"

Aziraphale liked the thing, though.

"Alright. Well, then, I guess I've come all this way, I might as well see it through. Lead the way--my liege."

Lamassu followed along, taking up the rear as Aziraphale returned to Crowley's side with the serene smile of a bastard angel.

Those grateful sparkling eyes of Aziraphale's always left him feeling like a big damn hero... even if he wasn't. Still he smiled that crooked little love struck smile of his and looked away from the group so there would be no one around to see just how taken by that simple gesture he had been, though Lamassu might have caught a glimmer of it before Crowley's head was turned.

"Sounds like a 'yes' to me."

Or close enough to one, Crowley decided as Shadow set off away from the bloody lake as he had been instructed.

"Where are we going anyway? I assume you do have a map or something to the next quest location."

"Ugh. I knew I was going to regret this." He wasn't entirely serious but he was annoyed at the jibe. Still he accepted it for now so long as they kept going away from the lake.

"Aye. I gathered one. There's supposed to be a shanty town not far from here and something like a bridge." He dug the map out of his inner pocket and handed it out, expecting one of them to grab it. He didn't want to lean too far or he was sure he'd fall over.

Aziraphale, deciding for himself that he was the most logical choice to be the map-holder/navigator, given his history with books and manuscripts and for no other reason, hurried up and took the map from Alec's outstretched hand. He unfolded it and began trying to locate their current position and next location as he walked, looking a little like an absent minded professor as he bumped gently into Crowley.

"Well, I hate to tell you this, but there's more water in our near future. Other than that, it's not far if we keep to the road up ahead."

"More water? The cave wasn't damp enough."

With Aziraphale walking so close it was easy to loom annoyingly over his shoulder and get a look at the map himself.

"And what do you mean 'something like a bridge'... isn't it either a bridge or not one?"

"I don't know. It's not very specific. We'll see when we get there." He wasn't happy about more water either. He didn't have any pills left and if anything happened-- well this family reunion would be cut short, he supposed. Only he couldn't die because Miller couldn't be trusted to solve this gordian knot of a murder on her own. Not while she was as soft as half-set jelly.

And speaking of he could practically feel his stomach curving against his spine, but he would be damned if he asked if anyone had brought food. He had brought some but it must have been thrown out in the cave. He knew Anthony had none and whatever Fell had brought would probably be sweet and airy and nothing he wanted to put between his teeth. So he would survive.

Even if his stomach protested.

"By the way, Fell, your familiar is oddly terrifying."

"As we should be, Alec Hardy," Lamassu said, voice somehow both powerful and dull at the same time. "You are right to fear us."

Aziraphale flashed a tight, pained smile and a slight look of horror over his shoulder at Crowley--not the kind of horror that implied actual fear, but the kind of look a teenager got when their parents were being an embarrassment in front of their friends. He buried his nose in the map, and then when the map offered no other answers or distractions, he hurriedly shoved it at his demon in a flurry so he could rummage instead in his supplies.

"Yes, well, anyway! Jolly good! Very terrifying. Now, who is hungry? I'm positively peckish!"

"You ate before we departed."

"Peckish. Starved. Famished, really." He popped the lid off his tin and inside, along with a rudimentary fire-starter and a small knife were some biscuits, of course, along with dried fruits and meats from the market. "Oh and perhaps we should play a game to pass the time. You know, how children play the license plate games, or the I Spy, or sing songs!" Another look sent over his shoulder to Crowley. Save me.

"Oh get off your bloody cloud. I don't care what you are. You called us here so don't act so high and mighty. Christ. How arrogant can you be." And he really didn't like it speaking. It gave him chills up and down his spine and made cold sweat break out on his neck.

But he'd be damned if he gave it the pleasure of acting like it.

As for the suggestion of games....

"No."

Crowley gave his head a little shake, trying to let Aziraphale down gently on the whole 'singing songs' idea. No one wanted to hear that off key caterwauling. He snagged himself a biscuit though and one of those dried up prune-like things that must once have been an apricot.

"Scared of a bloke who stood around guarding doorways all day?"

Crowley smirked. He never had been! In his experience gateway Guardians turned out to be rather fun companions, fussy maybe, but he was keeping his.

"Anyway we're all fair and equal now. Whatever grandiose powers you might have had have been snatched and replaced with with the same training wheels everyone else has."

Aziraphale sighed, but accepted that they wouldn't play any games or sing any jaunty songs, and consoled himself with a biscuit before offering the tin up towards Alec, even while expecting it to be turned away, untouched.

"Perhaps," Lamassu conceded. "But we could do more if someone was not remiss about their training."

"Can we please talk about literally anything else?"

"Oh are we badgering Fell about training now?" There was oddly enough a ginger biscuit, which Alec considered a miracle frankly, and took it.

"He'll get to it in his own time and his own way. And maybe if you worked with him rather than lording over him like some judgmental...whatever the hell you are it would be easier." He didn't say maybe you could tie an éclair on a string and wave it in front of him to act as motivation, but he was thinking it.

"He has been training."

What a wicked demon he was bringing this up and how he beamed about it!

"It just hasn't been your sort of training. It's been WAY more fun than that. Lot's of long evenings."

Aziraphale fondly rolled his eyes at Crowley. He was grateful, though, for their defense of him, each in their own unique way, though he'd be decidedly less grateful if he heard anything about that éclair idea.

"If you are trying to embarrass us with tales of your frequent sexual activities, Anthony Crowley, we are aware and we do not embarrass so easily." Lamassu looked as stonefaced as ever. "However, if you no longer require our presence, Principality Aziraphale, we will be leaving until such time as our assistance is again required. There are other matters elsewhere that need attending to."

The angel nodded, and his familiar disappeared in a blink.

"We probably shouldn't antagonize him, really." Not that Aziraphale looked all that sorry about it.

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