Forever and a Day

By Kukaburry

Chapter 10 – An Exciting Expedition

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"Mina! I hate you..." Serena whined while lying on the floor in the sitting room. "Why'd you put me with jerk face? There are a million people I would rather be with."

"Serena, really, you're being a huge crybaby," Lita growled. "Don't ruin everyone's fun just because you're paired with someone you don't like."

Sighing dramatically, Serena rolled on her side. "You guys are lucky, Mina put you with a guy you actually like."

"Serena, he was the only one left," Mina said innocently, "Maybe you'll actually get along better if you spent time talking to him. Anyways, it wouldn't be fair to put any of the other guys with you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Serena yelled while the other girls laughed in agreement.

"You are scared of the dark, Sere," Rei said coolly, "I'm sure Preston would much rather have me hanging on his arm than you. Not that I would be hanging on his arm anyways because I'm not scared."

"Rei you're so mean," Serena mumbled, annoyed that everyone was ganging up against her. "Fine, I'll go, but I promise not to have fun." She sat up and folded her arms across her chest in defiance. This move garnered a round of giggles from her friends.

The afternoon went by slowly in everyone's opinion but Serena's. After a hasty dinner, the group set out towards the crystal cave located 20 minutes west of the palace. Everyone voluntarily walked with their designated partner and left a cranky Serena walking in their wake.

As soon as the sun set complete blackness enveloped them. "Guys this is kind of scary," Serena's voice echoed around them.

"Serena, didn't we tell you not to ruin our fun?" Rei snapped.

"Being scared of the dark is a perfectly normal feeling," Ami stated wisely. "It is unknown what else is in the dark with you, that's what is considered the scary part."

Shivers traveled up Serena's spine, and she huddled closer to the person next to her. "Meatball head you're tripping me up," Darien spoke right above her head. "Can you find someone else to glob on to?"

"I can't see where I'm going," she lied. "I can't help that you take up a lot space."

He just grunted at her response and sighed happily when the stars began shining brightly overhead, giving them better vision of where they were walking. "There it is!" Mina cheered, practically dragging Berano with her towards the opening of the cave.

Everyone caught up and huddled by the mouth of the cave. "Alright teams, the rules are simple. First, no cheating. Second, no yelling in the caves. Third, everyone gets ten stickers to place on their purple crystals. That's it." Mina pulled out five sets of stickers and marked names on each one. "We played this game last year so there might be old stickers left."

Darien was handed a pile of pink stickers with S&D written on them and cringed, "Pink?" Serena on the other hand was ecstatic to get pink and began bouncing like an excited bunny, much to Darien's amusement.

Everyone walked into the cave and all of the males gasped at the scene. Twenty feet high crystals of every color and shape created a maze of paths. A soft light emanated from within each of the crystals giving them a feeling of walking through rainbows. Even Darien had to admit he had never seen anything like this on Earth. They came across a particularly large divide and Mina called out "Me, Rei and Ami's groups will go this way, Serena and Lita's groups will go that way."

The chatter from Mina's half died away quickly as they walked on. Only a minute later they found another junction and Chad decided to take the right leaving Serena and Darien to take the left. As they walked deeper into the cave the light grew dimmer and the walls seemed narrower.

"You moon people have great taste," Darien commented amicably. "This is something I have never seen before."

Not wanting to be rude, Serena gave him a brief smile and thanked him. "You've never been in here alone before," she continued quietly. "It takes on a whole new persona when you're lost."

Darien tried not to smirk at this comment, "You sound like Preston. Easily turned around."

"No, I chased my brother in here once when he was really little and I didn't think to watch where I was going. Next thing I knew I was in the very middle of the cave where the light from the crystals is dead," just remembering that horrible night made Serena shake involuntarily.

Darien saw how scared she really was of this place and tried to make her feel better, "Look, we're going to stick to the light parts of the caves even if we do end up losing. Hey! There's a purple crystal." He hurried forward and plastered the sticky onto it. He turned back to Serena, "Does that sound like a deal?"

She realized how sincere and understanding he was being about her fear and felt soothed. "Yes, I like that idea." They walked in companionable silence for several minutes. "Do you really think Raki is planning something?" Her heart wrenched as she spoke these words.

"I can't be sure," he stated lightly. "I didn't hear the entire conversation, just a portion. I think the best thing to do would be to keep your eyes open."

"I will. I'm sorry I yelled at you. I was just upset," she swept her eyes up to Darien and he smiled at her. "I guess it's hard to find out when someone you trust is lying to you." Darien looked at her strangely, wondering where the sudden change of heart came from.

"Oh, another purple crystal!" She pointed behind Darien at a half-hidden purple crystal. "This is the most I've ever found in this game. Usually Rei and I are paired up and we end up arguing about where to go. Rei swears more purple crystals are in the center of the cave, but... you know."

Darien nodded while sticking a tag on the crystal, "But that's where it's dark. May I ask why those crystals have lost their light?"

Serena cast her eyes up towards the top of the purple crystal and her eyes went glassy in memory, "Many Millenia ago my ancestors harvested a single silver crystal, what we call the Millenium Crystal today. It seemed to suck the energy from the surrounding crystals, so they knew it was somehow special. We learned how to harness its power and use it only in times of war and emergencies. Any time a powerful request is made of it, more crystals in this go out. There is nothing special about these crystals on their own though, so we haven't had trouble with looters. But I know that I will wish to never have to use the crystal in my lifetime." She finished her speech and looked up Darien for his reaction.

He seemed to be contemplating something. "Interesting, so the Moon Kingdom's hidden power that I've heard stories about is this Millenium Crystal." Serena nodded her head. "Well that's a relief. On Earth we always feared it was a massive weapon, but that was just paranoia on the part of my uncle. He's not exactly right in the head." He mimed an old man making rude gestures and Serena couldn't help but laugh.

Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. She whipped her head around and saw a shadowy man running down the opposite passage. "Hey, did you see who that was?" She asked, pointing in the direction of the figure.

Darien squinted his eyes and shook his head. "No, I couldn't tell at all. Although it did kind of look like Preston from behind," he murmured, not sure he wanted to believe it. A terrible 'CRACK' shook the cave around them and several stalactites from above came crashing down on them. "Serena, move!" Darien roared, trying to pull her out of the path of the falling rocks.

Dust rose into the air and settled minutes later. Coughing, Serena stood up shakily and dusted her face off, trying to see through the mist of dirt. "Darien? Can you hear my voice?" She walked around, trying to feel for Darien's body. 'Oof' she heard from underfoot. "Darien, is that you?"

"Ugh, why are you yelling?" He groaned, waving his arms around and hitting the side of Serena's leg. "What the hell, ow," he growled in pain. "Something is on my leg."

"It's not me," Serena said automatically, trying to peer down at Darien's leg.

"I know that meatball head. You're not that heavy," he replied tartly, trying his best to shift whatever it was off, but razor-sharp darts of pain flooded up his leg. "Shit I think it's broken." The mist finally cleared and Serena saw a large slab of granite crushing Darien's leg.

"Oh goddess, how are we supposed to get that off?" She asked in desperation. "There's no way I could push that off by myself."

"Maybe if I counter-balanced the weight of the rock with my good leg, you can push it off?" Darien suggested, sitting up and starting to position his leg underneath the slab. "Alright, push now." He clenched his muscles and pushed up while Serena pushed sideways. The rock shifted slightly and Darien fell backwards in agony. "It's no good. It's too heavy. We'll have to wait for help."

A hopeless expression settled on Darien's face and she felt energized. "I'm going to try again." She positioned herself next to the slab and flexed her muscles.

"On the count of three. One... two.. three!" She shoved with all of her might and will, hoping and praying the rock would move.

"Serena stop. You're going to hurt yourself!" Darien tried to reach forward and grab her, but she was just beyond her reach.

Hearing him call her name gave her an adrenaline rush. "I can help you! I'm not a weakling," She panted, stepping back for a moment and crushing forward with all of the strength she could muster. Push, push, budge. The rock slid off and Darien was free. A sigh of relief escaped both of their lips.

Serena fell to her knees, completely drained of energy. Darien dragged his damaged leg as he crawled over to her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said weakly. "That was a heavy rock." She tried to giggle it off, but she could tell he wasn't buying. "Seriously, I'll be fine in a couple of minutes. You should be looking after yourself, your leg is broken!"

Shrugging, Darien leaned backwards. "It's alright. I've done worse to myself. Although this is a pretty close second," he grinned and she rolled her eyes, not understanding why he wasn't crying in pain. "You're pretty strong for such a tiny girl."

She shook her head in denial, "I don't even know how I did it. I just got lucky."

"Well whatever it was, thanks," he said sincerely and finally lay back on the ground. Serena looked down at him and began detailing his face. She liked his square jaw, high cheekbones and curved nose, his messy raven hair fell all over the place, but in a princely way.

Feeling better, she scooted around his body and positioned herself by his leg. Darien opened his eyes and watched as she gingerly lifted up the bottom of his trousers to look at the damage. She placed a gentle hand on his leg and felt for swelling. "It feels like the femur is okay, but the Fibula bone might be fractured as well as your Tibia."

He grunted in frustration, "There goes my chance at a comeback this year." Serena rolled the trouser leg back down and began rubbing top and the side of his leg from mid-thigh to foot to increase circulation. Darien tried not to think too hard about her hand running up and down part of his body. "And there goes your chance at beating me in the tournament," he joked, taking his mind off of her hand.

Serena sighed and laughed. "Well if I beat Raki then that means I beat you too, right?"

"Don't go getting ideas. Next thing we know you'll be winning the tournament." Darien admired her drive. "If you do end up winning the tournament though, I'll concede a tie between you and me." He gave her a wry smile, knowing how she would react to that.

"What? You've got to be kidding me. You've never even won the tournament, how is that fair?" She challenged, jumping on her feet.

Darien put his arms underneath his head. "Easy, you'll be winning the tournament for both of us. You can handle that, can't you?"

"Fine, I'll do it for the both of us." Both of them felt a tingle start at their fingertips and travel through their bodies as soon as she said 'us'.

'She's not all that bad once you get her to stop whining,' Darien mused, tracing her face with his eyes. Her adorable meatball hair, thin jaw line, full lips and crystal blue eyes really were the sign of elegance in the moon kingdom. He flushed when she caught him staring at her so he cleared his throat and sat up. "I'm ready to get moving if you are."

"What? No way, you're not moving an inch until we get someone to help carry you." Serena stared at him, completely appalled at his idea. "You'll hurt yourself worse that way." Darien grinned, she sounded like his mother.

"And I'm not letting you walk through this cave by yourself. I made you a promise didn't I?"

She pouted her lips, "But that was before.."

"Serena, a promise is a promise and I'm keeping it," he made it sound like his final word. "Look, if I lean on you I'll be fine."

"You're so stubborn!" She whined. "Fine, but if you end up snapping the bone, don't complain to me." She marched forward and slung his arm over her shoulder, practically dragging him down the walkway.

"At this rate you're going to snap both of my legs," Darien choked, trying to hobble along with his good leg. "Can we walk a little slower?"

Serena slowed down as requested. "I hope we find some people soon. You're heavy," she chided while wrestling with her grip on his arm. He snorted his disagreement. Several minutes passed without coming across anyone and they sat down to rest. "I really need a nap," she yawned loudly.

"Me too. Let's close our eyes for a minute and pick it back up. I'll bet it's almost ten now and Mina said we should meet back at ten. Maybe they'll come looking for us?" Darien settled himself flat against the wall and Serena sprawled herself out on the ground nearby.

An almighty growl ripping through Serena's stomach awoke both of them. Serena opened her eyes and felt something squishy under her head. "Meatball head, why are you lying on my thigh?" She heard Darien's voice resound underneath her hair.

"What? How did you get over here?" She squawked, jumping up quickly and dusting herself off. Embarrassingly, she noticed that Darien was exactly where he had been before.

He looked up at her and chuckled, "I think I should be asking you that question." Her face turned red as a beet. "Should we get going again?" She helped pull him up and they picked up their slow journey where it left off.

"Serena! Darien! Can you hear us?" A voice echoed to their ears. "Answer us!"

Without thinking, Serena let go of Darien's arm and cupped her hands to her mouth, "We're down here! Help us!" She looked back and saw Darien flat on his back, eyes closed in pain. "Oh no! Are you alright?" She sprang to his side and cupped the sides of his face.

Only Darien noticed how close their faces now were and his face lit up at the thought. "I'm fine, I just got the wind knocked out of me… again."

"Okay just lay here, it looks like they finally found us," she smiled reassuringly.

"Serena! There you are what happened?" Rei and everyone behind her were out of breath. "Darien, is he alright?" She knelt down and looked at him.

"He's okay, he has a broken leg," Serena replied, looking up to find Preston staring at her intently, almost, angrily. "We have to get him back right away. Can you guys lend a hand?"

Preston, Berano, Chad and Tal each took one side of Darien and hauled him up. Darien turned his head to Serena and grinned, "We'll win the crystal hunt next year."

Another chapter finished! I hope this is flowing alright, I haven't heard much from anyone about it. But I guess no news is good news? Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to another chapter! ~Kukaburry