Eyes darting for a second as she felt a push of cold air on her back, and an eerie whistle begin to start off, the otter couldn't help but feel slightly nervous. It was as though they weren't alone here, although she wasn't quite sure what that noise was or what was making it. Was it the same as that awful noise she'd heard upon her emergence into that world? That howling cry that seemed to come from everywhere?

It seemed louder, closer up here, and it felt like there was something pushing against her.

She couldn't delay any more, as her jaw was starting to hurt and the paranoia mounted with every passing second. Without waiting another second she drove her claws at the stone and pulled, leaning backwards, putting all her weight and strength into trying to raise the other so that he could finally climb up to her.

Finally he was pulled up from the ledge that he was stuck on. He gave a weakened smile his helper in gratitude before flopping to the floor in exhaustion. He gave a sigh, his legs splayed outwards, just as they were before. He knew that it was the creature that did all the work, just to get him up a tiny ledge, and that made him feel rather helpless.

Is life really this hard? He wondered. In his heart he knew that it would be. He didn't want to live his life relying on another to pull him over every hurdle but for every challenge so far, the otter had done just that.

He heard the howls of nature echoing not so far away. It made his fur stand on end as he knew that every task he had had so far, was only just the beginning.

Eira managed to pull him over the edge of the ledge, and it seemed like that was enough work for her. She let herself flop onto her belly with legs splayed in all directions as she brought back the breath she lost. It wasn't long before she sat back again though, she was eager to get moving and out of the way of the 'monsters' that she could hear so close by now. She stood up and began to walk, but she'd gone barely a few steps before she was hit full-force by a blast of wind, both chilling her to the bone and startling her.

She pressed herself into the wind as it ripped at her fur, but as quickly as the blast had started, it was gone. She dropped back onto her haunches again, startled, looking around. Luckily, it hadn't been quite enough to sweep her off her feet but... well, she didn't know that she'd been lucky. She looked around, and as she did so, caught sight of an entrance in the wall, a few metres away but... it was also only a few metres back to her shattered chrysalis. It lead away into a tunnel of some sorts. Perhaps if they went for that, they'd be able to escape.

She pointed with her webbed pink paw towards the tunnel entrance. "I wanna go for that!" she yelled over the sounds of the wind. "C'mon!"

His partner flopped just beside him, they seemed to be equally as tired. Though it wasn't long till it got back to its feet, to which Kimen sighed. He remembered the struggle he had getting to his feet and seeing the otter do so so easily made him feel weak.
It seemed that the howling he heard had caught her just as she started to walk. She looked frightened and it was pleasing to him that his feelings were shared.

He heard a light and feminine voice that confused him deeply. The voice yelled something that resonated in him and its words sounded comforting, even in his less than comfortable situation. Kimen? Was this his name? Was there some sort of deity that assigned him with this? If so, could this deity fix him? A thousand questions raided his mind but he kept them unanswered, this was not the time for that. Thoughts of a deity, some one who could fix him filled him determination. He got to his feet, albeit with a bit of difficulty, and started to follow the otter, who had gone wondering up ahead.

As Eira watched, the red panda got up slowly onto his feet, and though she waited for him, she twitched and moved nervously, looking around as though trying to see when the next wind would come. It wasn't clear whether she knew the winds were a natural thing or thought that they were the by-product of some invisible demon trying to get her. But the enraged crease of her brow seemed to suggest "demon".

As the red panda drew closer, the next wind came, stronger this time, and she could barely stay on her feet, driving her claws downward so they rasped on the cold stone floor. This time though as the wind died down somewhat, she raised her paw and lashed out at the air, wanting to attack whatever it was that was making it so dang difficult to stay standing up.

Her paw collided with empty air, and she snapped her short, sharp teeth instead, before pushing onwards a couple more steps, giving up. The closer to the tunnel they got, the stronger the wind seemed, though that was understandable as they were walking close to the odd twister in the centre of the room, visible by the dust it picked up. Eira assumed that was the being causing this, and she turned to look expectantly back at her companion.

A second wave of winds struck himself and the otter. She seemed to cope well but strangely attacked the air but Kimen panicked. While being pulled from his back paws by the harsh howls of nature, he struggled to catch his breath.

His light frame meant that the wind made easy work of him. It lifted him quite high from the floor, high enough for it to hurt if he didn't land on his paws. Drawing on the strength of his new found belief, he tried to move his paws in a suitable position. He drew a sharp breath and fell to the floor but as he was falling, his right paw, the same paw that was broken by his gem imbued shoulder, began to grow warm.

A strange feeling but nothing more came from it. As quick as it came, it went. Was his deity calling to him once more? He hadn't the time to ponder as he hit the floor with a resounding thud!

The winds calming slightly around her, Eira turned just in time to see her friend sprawling on the ground just behind her. A shiver of shock ran through her and her eyes widened, wondering what he'd done and if he was hurt. That was odd. Did he just jump, throw himself to the ground. Or maybe it was... The demon! Eira was decidedly angry about this, erasing all of her progress forward as she bounded back to the small panda.

Like she had before, she pressed her side against his as she tried to push him to his feet. "We gotta go," she muttered nervously, as though she was afraid of being heard by prying ears. I don't like this. Scary sounds. invisible monster. I wanna come back for this. When we can go all up against it better!" The youngster thought about this on terms of brute force. She wanted to fight it. She imagined what would happen when she did, huge fantasies of being a hero. And then a distant howl of wind brought her rushing back to her senses. She panted, mouth drying up.

Kimen was lain flat on his stomach, he ached just about everywhere. Any landing from the height he fell would have hurt. Red Pandas were not meant to fly. He rose on all fours, the pain from his moving his shoulder equal to the bruises beginning to form on the bottom of his paws. Though he supposed it could have been worse, he could have landed on his arm and broke his bones.
His mind was too focused on his aching paws than anything else. He soon forgot the heat which rose in one paw though he couldn't help but to notice that there was more pain in that paw than any other.

The otter looked at him, startled by his fall. "Invisible monster?" Perhaps she had also heard his deity? The thought intrigued him but he agreed with her, they had to get out of this place, out of this fierce wind. He moved every so slowly on all fours, dragging his immovable arm and staying as low to the floor as he could.

Eira grunted in approval as the panda pushed himself to his paws without so much of her help this time. As soon as she was up, so was she, and she was waddling off to where she had been before, nodding and going "Uh-huh!" under her breath once or twice. Once there she turned to see him moving after her, dragging his paw behind him, and she sat down to wait impatiently, itching to keep moving but saddened by the sight of his pained limb.

"Yeah. I think there's a monster in here. I think that's why all the noise is coming from." she crinkled her nose and looked about nervously. He'd almost caught up, and another breeze was beginning to ruffle her fur. "I think it picked you up and threw you!" The otter seemed even more enraged at that thought and moved in a small circle, hurrying on closer to the tunnel entrence which seemed to loom nearer everytime they turned(probably because that's what they were heading towards). She was growing more agitated though as she focused on her drying mouth. A water creature without access to any water... Instinctively she knew why her mouth was so dry.

Without really thinking about it, she tried to drink her own saliva to quell the unpleasant feeling, but as she got more and more agitated that it wasn't working, the sliver of blue in her forehead began to softly glow. The air around her rippled, shimmering, condensing into vapour that dampened her fur and poured into her pores. And suddenly her eyes lit up with glee, because her throat wasn't burning anymore.

Making slow progress in following the otter, Kimen sighed at her response. Thankfully it seemed all his sighs were hidden by the gentle breeze that ran through his fur between each harsh blast of wind. He sighed because it seemed that his companion did not hear his deity, as he previously thought.

"That's the wind. Not a monster, it simply swept me off of my feet." He declared to his companion. He wanted to clarify that they were alone in this. It was them against the world. "It's nature." He said, looking towards the tornado in the centre of the room that he had previously tried to ignore.

He looked back towards the otter who was now, somehow, completely wet. But there wasn't any water around? He gave her a look of bewilderment and let her try to explain.