Okay, already on chapter three, wow! I am doing this…lol…anyway as always honest feedback and constructive criticism are welcome and even asked for, I need to know what to work on.

@Mercy I went back into this and added a little more description like you asked, let me know if you like this chapter better! Thanks so much you guys, hope you like this chapter! It’s the week of my birthday so we might be busy…lol, so yay! Enjoy!

K.A.P.

Kyter and Forsythe bounded into the mine pushing each other and laughing as they ran ahead. Kay Jack was behind them yelling something like slow down or something of the like, but they were ignoring him. They continued running deeper into the mine as they began a game of tag. They turned down a shaft not paying much attention as they called to one another, jumping over rocks, and over all acting as young bucks, and even some young does, will.

It was dark in the mine, the darkness only penetrated by the lamps which glowed at intervals along the walls. These lamps cast eerie dancing shadows onto the stone walls and dirt floor of the mine, illuminating the shaft and making it glow with a strange, dim, flickering light. Sounds echoed off the hard walls making two young bucks sound like twenty, as Kyter and Forsythe laughed and yelled. It seemed that the whole shaft was full of light and happiness, bliss and innocence, but sadly the spell these feelings cast can easily be broken.

Kyter dodged as Forsythe tried to tag him again, then laughed as Forsythe missed and tripped over his own foot. Kyter stopped for a minute laughing as he tried to get some air back into his tired lungs.

Forsythe was back on his feet in a minute, and Kyter prepared to run but by then Kay Jack had caught up with them.

Kay Jack grabbed Forsythe’s arm as he looked from one to the other of them and said, “This is no place for games, it’s dangerous in here. We need to head back to the entrance, nobody has been down this shaft in a while, the supports are weak and need to be redone. You two need to learn how to listen and not go running off, someone could have been hurt, or worse.” Kay Jack looked fiercely at both of them, then let go of Forsythe’s arm with a sigh.

Forsythe rubbed his arm as he glared at Kay Jack, and Kyter came over and whispered in his ear, “Well someone lit the lamps.”

Forsythe looked around and seemed to agree. Somebody had lit the lamps, so someone had been in this shaft, so it couldn’t be as dangerous as Kay Jack was making it out to be. Maybe Kay Jack just wanted to get them out of the mine so he could go back to doing something else. He hadn’t seemed too thrilled with the idea of watching them. Maybe Kay Jack was just trying to get rid of them so he could get back to what he deemed as more important work.

Kyter shrugged as he started running deeper into the shaft, it couldn’t be too dangerous, after all the lamps were lit and he hadn’t seen or heard anything that sounded dangerous. He then called back, “Catch me if you can Forsythe!” In that moment he stubbed his toe on a rock and sprawled onto the cold floor. It didn’t hurt anything but his dignity and he rolled over to get to his feet.

His call for Forsythe echoed off the walls and bounced around the shaft, seeming to come from every direction at once. He cocked his head and listened as did Forsythe, and Kay Jack froze completely. Then something started to rumble and crack in the distance like the gentle humming of a bee, but it was growing louder by the minute. Soon the gentle buzz was like a distant rumble of thunder, but it was growing louder. Something hit him in the head and Kyter looked down to see what it had been, beside him lay a rock which shook violently on the ground. Soon more small rocks fell to join it on the floor. He looked up at the ceiling and gasped. The support beam above him was not only cracking but splintering. The ground shook beneath him and he scrambled to his feet and then fell to his knees as more rocks rained down around him and the ground shook violently.

Kay Jack was looking all around trying to figure out what to do. Then he said, his tone demanding they listen to him, “Kyter run this way, Forsythe get out, now!”

Kyter watched as Forsythe tore off down the tunnel and he tried to get his feet, it was hard since everything was shaking but he did it and started forward as large rocks and pieces of the support beams started falling from the ceiling of the tunnel. “Faster Kyter, hurry!” Kay Jack called from what seemed, to Kyter, to be impossibly far away.

Kyter tripped again, this time over an unseen rock in the shadows and cried out in agony as he fell. He both felt and heard something in his leg snap. A piercing, splintering pain ran up his leg and it was everything he could do to keep from screaming. He lay there unable to move tears coming to his eyes and rocks raining down around him as he clutched at his injured leg. He wanted to pull it close, but it hurt more than anything. More intense than he ever thought pain could be, he had to focus to keep from blacking out. He needed to get out, that’s what he kept telling himself, even as darkness crept along the edges of his vision and his stomach twisted with the intense agonizing pain he felt. He could not be left alone. Please, he thought, please don’t let me be left alone in here.

“Get up, Kyter!” Kay Jack called his voice worried and sounding so far away.

“I can’t!” Kyter sobbed, letting out a cry of pain as he tried to move his leg. It wouldn’t work, more pain intense and throbbing. It rushed on him like a wave making him feel sick, but unlike a wave this didn’t recede it only grew. He wanted to get up to run out and get away, but he couldn’t. Kay Jack started toward him.

“Don’t worry buddy, I’ll get you out.”

Kyter believed him, he wanted out, wanted to be somewhere safe. He wanted to be surrounded by rabbits who loved him, to be embraced, and loved. But more and more rocks were falling all around him and the shaft was becoming dark as the torches fell and went out. He wasn’t sure if he would ever get out. Then one of the falling rocks struck his head and all went black as he heard a tumbling crash.

Forsythe ran fast, faster than he ever remembered running before, it almost felt like he was flying as he dodged falling rocks and debris. Once he made it to the main shaft, he saw miners exiting the mine. Among them was Lord Blackstar, calling orders and trying to make order out of the chaos. The main shaft didn’t seem as bad as the shaft he had just left. Not as many falling rocks and it wasn’t shaking as bad, but miners were everywhere as they hurried to escape the collapsing mine.

Forsythe looked back to see if he could see Kay Jack and Kyter yet, but he could see nothing except a cloud of dust which rushed toward him and the sound of crashing rock. For a moment he thought about going back, but Kay Jack had told him to run and Kay Jack knew what he was doing.

He turned and kept running, shoving his way through the miners, until finally he reached the entrance and stumbled out into the blinding light and clean air. He took deep breathes, filling his lungs with the fresh, clean air as he fell to his knees in slushy, muddy snow. Soon he felt hands on his shoulders. He looked up with blurry eyes into his father’s concerned filled face. “What happened son? Where’s Kyter?”

Forsythe coughed then said wheezing, “We were playing, Kay Jack said to be careful that we needed to go back but Kyter didn’t… we didn’t listen. Kyter ran deeper into the shaft and called for me, then it started… it started collapsing.” Forsythe coughed and wiped at the tears and dust on his face.

“Then what son?” His father asked looking back over his shoulder. Forsythe looked up and saw Lord Blackstar, sooty and covered in coal dust standing there, behind his father, listening and looking worried.

“Kay Jack told Kyter to run toward him and he told me to run out, so I did… I…I don’t know what happened after that, but dad I’m sorry and I was so scared… rocks falling and it was horrible and I think… I think…” Forsythe trailed off and started crying, blubbering like a baby, and mumbling apologizes. He had promised to take care of Kyter and now he had abandoned him. He felt like he had betrayed Kyter and Lord Blackstar, like he was useless. Why had he left Kyter? His father wrapped him in a hug and he heard Lord Blackstar fall to his knees.

Forsythe opened his eyes and saw Lord Blackstar with his head down tears streaming down his sooty face as he mumbled, “It’s all my fault, I never should have said yes.” Forsythe looked away as he said, barely more than a whisper, “No, it’s all my fault, I never should have left him.”

Forsythe was aware that his father picked him up and as old as he was, he didn’t care, he clung to his father, his lifeline. His father then started calling out orders, “Okay bucks this is enter at your own risk, but Kyter Blackstar and Lieutenant Kay Jack are in there somewhere, sounds like they’re in shaft eleven. I’m not ordering any of you to do anything, simply asking if any of you are willing to go in and look for them?”