~ Jaden skidded to a halt just inside the door. He was fairly sure that he even gasped, though he wouldn't have admitted it. He knew instantly that they must have stepped into a live-sim because there was no way that the architects would have built an antechamber this size behind every door. They literally couldn't have, the thing was enormous. Takyle had not paused and was already a good ways into the thing, Andrew two strides behind her. Which turned out to be a very lucky thing when the floor fell away beneath her feet.
Andrew leapt forward with shocking agility and, grabbing two handfuls of her pack, hauled her back from the precipice onto firm ground. She regained her footing faster than Jaden thought he would have been able to and they both scrambled away from the still widening chasm. What remained of the stone floor trembled as huge chunks of marble cascaded into the abyss, thunderously reaching their ends somewhere far out of sight. Andrew still had a grip on Takyle with one hand, and she wasn't complaining.
"Oh my...Shit...I wasn't expecting that." She laughed and it sounded forced. Jaden was sure that he heard a tremble in her voice. Andrew didn't say anything, just stood there looking grim. Jaden felt compelled to fill the silence.
"Well...That was...Guess this is the first obstacle then." Andrew shot him a look that was a little sarcastic, and a little amused. Takyle recovered enough to be biting.
"Yeah? Really? Cause falling into a dark echoing abyss wouldn't, ya know, be fatal or anything."
Jaden surprised himself with a ready retort.
"Oh, ha freakin' ha, Takyle. Incidentally, I think that you should definitely continue to take point, you know, play to your strengths and all that." Out of the corner of his eye he could see a grin attempting to creep over Andrew's face. Takyle narrowed her eyes at Jaden, wavered on the edge of declaring all-out war, and took the highroad. She turned to gaze across the divide.
"How are we going to cross?"
Jaden felt a little bit satisfied because she'd backed down. A little bit more the lesser man for taking the bait offered him.
"And winning!" the satisfied voice protested. He squelched that voice. "This isn't about winning," he mentally reprimanded. "It's about getting along and getting through this alive and together." Jaden looked at Andrew. He had that you're-lookin'-crazy-but-I'm-not-gonna-say-anything-about-it-cause-it's-none-of-my-business expression on his face. Jaden cleared his throat and closed his mouth. He hadn't realized that it had been hanging open.
Andrew neared the jagged precipice cautiously and peered down into the darkness. Takyle, unsurprisingly, kept her distance. Jaden touched her arm.
"Sorry," he murmured. She had the class not to make a big deal out of it. She nodded her acceptance and reciprocation of the sentiment. ~
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