Night 49: Room of Earth

[timedork]

[From here]

"...What?"

The door slammed shut behind them and locked with a rather distinctive click. The Doctor glanced back at the door—which was very different on this side than it had been on that side—but it wasn't the slam or the door that ended up grabbing the Doctor's attention. There was a loud rumbling that did not, he was quite positive, have anything to do with the thunder that they would have heard more clearly outside. Nor was it a sound that would have come from any construction work, had he and Dean stumbled across it. No, this was different.

"What?"

Following that hall, they should have exited the building into the field. It should led have outside, should have been raining. But in here—inside here—well... that definitely wasn't rain.

Not rainwater, at least. It rather appeared to be raining boulders in the room.

"What."

Comments

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

If anything, the rumbling seemed to get louder the further through the tunnel they got. Kenshin’s senses, heightened through a lifetime of training and battles, were assaulted from all sides by noise until everything had joined together into an endless roar. The only indication that another boulder was coming was that the roar grew louder for a few moments before it rolled towards them. At one point he thought that he might try leaping off the walls for momentum, but they were too curved and smooth to give him any traction and the stunt resulted in an even closer shave than the others. A boulder rolled over the part of the wall where his leg had been a fraction of a second before, trapping the hem of his hakama and ripping it as he tried to get free. It was a small price to pay for his poor judgment.

Still, it had put him in a position closer to the door than Okita was. He nodded at the other swordsman—not that he was even sure that Okita could see it—and put on a last burst of speed, dodging two more boulders as he did. He was sweating now, breathing hard with the effort. They had run from one boulder to the next without stopping, and maybe that had not been the right way to approach this room.

He was almost to the door now. Just a few more feet…

[notachick.livejournal.com]

Okita was almost disappointed when Kenshin's move didn't work. It was a conflict though - whether he wanted the rock to kill the bothersome rurouni or whether he was upset that the move didn't take the man any closer to the door and survival. This was why he didn't like working with Kenshin very much. It put his conscience in conflict. On one hand, he wanted his partner to survive. On the other, he had a kneejerk reaction to want to kill him. As it was, Kenshin's new hakama were only ripped as he sped off toward the door.

Unlike Kenshin who had almost unbelievable speed and agility on his side to help him with such moves, Okita had to take it a little more cautiously. His lungs were already burning at having run this far without stopping and he could feel his body rebelling against the effort. He was sweating, his breath was short and shallow, and he could feel it creeping up on him.

But like hell if he was going to start coughing in front of Kenshin again.

Somersaulting out of the path of another boulder as it rolled right over where he'd just been, Okita popped up and glanced to the side to confirm where Himura was. Just a few paces ahead of him and in position to get the door first if nothing got in his way. However, with the way the boulders were going, who knew would happen in those last few feet? Dodging to the side, Okita let his hand hit the floor, pushing off as he launched himself full tilt at the door. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see another boulder coming leaving not but a hair's width between it and the door itself. Not good. Not good at all.

Jumping ahead of the other samurai, Okita kicked the door open and held a hand out for Kenshin. "Come on!"

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Kenshin never even hesitated. Okita was holding out his hand for him and risking his life to do so; there was another boulder coming and if he stopped to think about it now they would both be killed. He grasped Okita’s hand and pushed off with his right foot, adding his momentum to the other samurai’s. If it bowled both of them over, at least they would be out of the path of the last of the boulders and ready for what other obstacles Landel saw fit to throw in their direction.

That last bit of energy was all they needed, it seemed. Together the two swordsmen toppled through the door and into the darkness that lay beyond, just as a familiar voice began to filter through the tunnel…