Chapter Text
Jacques swore under his breath with a sigh, leaning back against the cold stony walls of the crypt.
Because of course we went to investigate the creepy crypt. What else would we do?
Granted, he also agreed to the decision made well over an hour ago while they stood around that stupid job board, but that certainly wasn't going to stop him from complaining now. Should have listened to Megan's suggestion and picked the haunted house.
But no, they went to the crypt that turned out to be much larger on the inside and a mess of traps and undead servants that just kept going — all to get a stupid family ring back.
They had it now, at least. Megan currently held it up to Clark's torchlight to get a better look.
Jacques didn't remember how much this job was paying, but whatever it was couldn't have been worth it.
Whatever. They were done. They could leave, finally.
"You alright?" Bloom asked, the ranger seemingly just appearing beside him.
"Oh just great," Jacques replied dryly, moving away from the wall enough to stretch his arms back.
His shoulder still ached from where he pulled had to pull the arrow out the room prior. He hadn't even been the one to step on the pressure plat. Just the lucky bastard standing closes to the hidden launcher.
"Alright everyone, let's get moving," Bensai called out from the front of the room, gathering everyone's attention and cutting off whatever mini argument with Clark and Megan David was walking away from.
Jacques and Bloom only moved about a step each before freezing as the sound of cracking rock echoed across the whole crypt. Jacques eyes trailed up to the faulting stone ceiling above them.
The cave in started before anyone could get a word out. Jacques stumbled back to wall, tucking his head in and covering the back with his hands in a desperate attempt to avoid serious injury.
It was over just a quickly. Jacques hesitantly poked his head up, met with the black void in front of him. Once again swearing to himself, Jacques carefully glided his hand across the wall behind him, trying to feel where the fallen rocks started.
Just wanted to get out of here — so close to getting out of here. Our fucking luck…
It was only then he remembered the elf that had been right beside him less than a minute ago.
"Bloom?" he called out quietly.
"Right here," his friends voice responded quickly, Jacques rolled his eyes as he turned towards the sound.
"That doesn't mean much when I can't see."
A hand grabbed his left arm.
"Happy?"
"Thrilled," Jacques muttered. He tried to slowly kick his leg forward, still trying to judge how much space they had, but was met with a splitting plain the moment he move it.
"Don't do that," Bloom insisted quickly. It probably wasn't ment to sound condescending. Sure felt like it though.
Jacques bit his tongue, both as a distraction from the pain and to prevent another sarcastic comment from sliding out. He could hear Bloom move around him, felt his hand leave his arm and tilt his leg slightly straighter.
"How bad is it?" Jacques asked as he shifted back to the wall more. He did his best to keep the injured leg as still as possible, the slightest movement causing the pain to flair up yet again.
"It's not great," Bloom admitted honestly. "But I've seen you look worse."
"Ha, that's something then," Jacques breathed, relaxing slightly. They could still joke around, couldn't be that bad. Still hurt like hell though.
"Don't suppose you see a way out too?"
"Afraid not," he replied, Jacques heard him knock against some of the rocks. "We're pretty trapped."
"Wonderful."
Jacques eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to see the outline of Bloom perched in front of him, and what he could assume was the rockfall trapping them their not far behind the elf.
Bloom was thankful for his own darkvision, giving him a clear view of the small shelter the indented wall had provided. Likely the only reason they hadn't found themselves crushed by the tightly packed rocks around them.
Didn't leave them anywhere to go now. And he had no idea where the others had ended up. Relying on help from them wasn't realistic, not when they could be in need of more help themselves. They'd just have to figure something out.
He would. He doubted Jacques would be much help with his already sour mood only added too by the large gash running down his leg.
Bloom found a convenient roll of bandages in his pockets, warning Jacques of the upcoming pain as he did his best to treat the wound with their limited supplies.
Jacques complaining was kept to a minimum, mostly a rhetorical question about Bloom not having a spell that could work better.
About three encounters ago, he would have. But they both knew that.
"It'll work, for now," Bloom said once he'd finished.
Bensai, Clark or Megan all would have likely done a better job, but it was better than nothing. And it's not like they had a plethora of other options at the moment.
"Thanks," Jacques replied, leaning back into the wall again.
The pair heard a small click, the wall shifted as Jacques accidently pushed it open. He had to quickly bring his hands back, catching himself before his head could hit the ground.
"Secret room," Bloom realized, carefully standing in a crouch and stepping around Jacques. "Wait here."
Jacques rolled his eyes again at the ranger's request, lowering himself to fully lay down on the hard ground. It was hardly comfortable, but beat leaning back on his hands.
The secret room would have been vaguely interesting if they'd found it a couple minutes ago. Maybe it could have made this whole trip feel slightly more worth it. But right now, unless it miraculously had an incredibly convenient exit out of this place, Jacques hardly cared.
He did get a little concerned and the prolonged silence from Bloom however. Enough to sit back up and turn to look for him.
"Bloom?"
He heard something shift back there, the sound of heavy breathing as Bloom seemed to be trying to move something.
"One second," he insisted though his teeth, followed by a exasperated sigh as whatever he was pushing gave way.
Jacques couldn't believe it when he saw a sliver of the fading daylight shine through a tiny barred window pressed against the ceiling Bloom had revealed.
"Good fine," Jacques remarked, taking advantage of the small bit of light to look around the room.
It wasn't very big, mostly filled with fallen rocks, broken barrels and other such junk. Nothing really stood out as useful or valuable.
He was too preoccupied to realize Bloom had returned to his side. Silently implying he was there to help the bard to his feet.
Jacques sighed as he took hold of Bloom's arm, his other hand pushing into the wall for support. This was going to hurt — obviously. But he could only sit around being useless for so long.
Jacques put all the pressure he could on his non-injured leg as Bloom helped pull him up, quickly stumbling back into the wall.
"Ah- Sssshit!" he muttered, biting his tongue again.
It was more painful than he'd thought. Like his leg with both on fire and being stabbed with hundred of needles. Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic, but Gods did it hurt. So much so he hadn't realized how tightly he was still gripping Bloom's arm, just noticing as his friend gave him a vaguely sympathetic look.
Because pity is what he needed right now.
"It's fine," he brushed off unconvincingly as he released Bloom's arms, pretending not to notice the red marks his nails had left behind.
Bloom kept staring at him, face unchanging. Like he was studying Jacques. He hated that.
"What are you looking at?" Jacques questioned defensively, maybe a littler harsher than intended. "Are we able to make it out of here or what?"
Bloom thankfully turned away from him and back towards the window.
"Guess we'll see."
Bloom climbed his way up the rock slab he pushed, managing to hang onto it's side while grabbing hold of the small stone pillars acting as bars. They cracked without much force, he easily pushed each one out to open up what was really just a slot in the wall.
Jacques thought the ranger would likely be able to slid himself through it, he was fairly sure he'd seem him crawl through small gaps. So it confused him when Bloom jumped back down and returned to his side.
"We both now I'm not making it through there," Jacques commented before Bloom could say anything. "What are you waiting for?"
"I'm not going to leave you here like this," Bloom replied bluntly, gesturing at the leg Jacques refused to put any pressure on. "It's at least twenty minutes back to town, another twenty back. Not to mention the time it would take just to find someone to help. Too long. And if anyone of the others had made it out, we would have heard them by now."
"Well, at least go check," Jacques insisted, though he knew Bloom was right. There group was anything but quiet.
Nevertheless, Bloom listened and climbed back up to the window, managing to slip his way through it and out with only a minor struggle.
Jacques wished he'd just go try to find the others at the least. Instead of looking back at him like he was a sick dog. That was definitely an over-dramatic way of viewing his friend's valid concern for his injury, however Jacques never claimed to be anything but dramatic.
A sharp, sudden pain caught him off guard. Not from his leg, but his shoulder. It came with a strong headache and a wave of dizziness. Jacques slid down the wall back to the ground, doing his best to avoid bending his leg but ultimately failing.
It was a battle to keep his eyes open as his vision went blurry, overwhelmed by the pain split between his leg, shoulder and head. He couldn't even call out for Bloom, hand pressed against his chest as each breath felt heavier.
He was either going to pass out or throw up. Maybe both. Neither sounded very pleasant. Maybe sending Bloom away wasn't such a good idea after all. His pride really was going to get him killed one of theses days.
Bloom hadn't found anyone else outside, just as he'd expected. A quick glance inside the door showed at the least the first room undamaged, maybe he could check further down and see if Bensai had avoided getting trapped.
But not before checked on Jacques again. The bard was clearly in more pain than he tried to let on. Bloom really didn't like the idea of leaving him alone for long, but he also knew the best thing he could do for Jacques was find him a way out.
He shuffled his way back through the tiny slit of a window and down into the crypt yet again. He eye took only a second to adjust to the shift in lighting, quickly landed on Jacques figure slumped against the wall with his head hanging down.
Exactly why he didn't want to leave him alone.
Bloom hurried over and slid to Jacques side, carefully lifting his head up as he checked the other man's pulse. His face had gone pale, eyes hardly open and still looking down.
"Come on Jacques…" he mumbled, unsure what he was asking of him as he found a weak pulse. "What happened?"
His first thought was blood loss, but the bandages he'd applied seemed to be holding up fine and there was no notable amounts of blood anywhere. No, it must bee something else. Did Jacques have any other injuries? Bloom hadn't seen any… any from before the rockfall? Clark and Bensai had taken most of the hits in that last fight…
He was reminded of Jacques complaining towards David, questioning how the rogue of all people managed to be the one to trip the trap while he pulled an arrow out of his shoulder. Had anyone check on him after that?
Bloom pushed back Jacques loose shirt over his shoulder, finding a familiar green ooze dripping out the poorly patched wound.
Poison — of course the arrows were poison-tipped. He thought as he attempted to dab away the poison with the leftover bandages from before. He removed the patch already on Jacques shoulder, making sure he could remove any of the visible green ooze.
Thankfully, due to their frequent luck with poison, Bloom had a vial of antidote on hand. And this looked to be just your average poison. Hopefully.
He quickly found the small vial in his pocket, once again titling Jacques head up as he pulled the stopper out with his teeth. He brought the rim up to Jacques lips, slowly pouring the thin yellow elixir down his throat.
"You have to swallow Jacques," Bloom insisted, immediately hearing the jokes that would have been made if it said that in any other situation.
Jacques thankfully seemed conscious enough to listen and follow Bloom's instructions, successfully not choking on the liquid and even able to grab hold of the glass himself with a shaking hand. Bloom didn't let go right away, confirming Jacques had at a good enough grip before moving his hand back slightly. He was still keeping his head up too, whether he still needed help with that or not.
"This stuff tastes terrible," Jacques muttered once the vial was empty, some of the colour already returning to his face.
Bloom let out a small laugh as he turned attention back to Jacques shoulder. All things considered, it wasn't terrible. The shitty patch job would have likely been fine, if not for the poison.
"This is why you should let someone else check wounds you can't see properly," he began, catching sight of Jacques rolling his eyes yet again.
"Don't start, my head hurts too much already," he pleaded, resting his head against his other hand.
"And whose fault is that?"
"David's."
Bloom laughed again with an eye roll of his own. Fair enough, he supposed, sitting down properly beside Jacques. He kept a close eye on him, wanting to be sure the antidote worked.
"Others weren't outside, the cave in didn't seem to wreck the main room but they're likely stuck further back," he reported.
"Alright then…"
Jacques had planned to tell Bloom to just head back in the main entrance and try and find them. He still wanted to. But, after all that, he doubted he'd agree.
And — not that Jacques would admit it — he no longer liked the idea of being stuck in there alone.
"When we get out of here, I'm going to kill David," he said with a sigh, once again making Bloom laugh.
He liked making people laugh, part of the trade as in preforming and all. Something a little more special about getting a laugh out of one of his adventuring mates, however. It felt worth more… not that it made any sense.
"As fun as that'd be to watch, I cannot recommend it," Bloom insisted, standing back up. "I'm going to see there's a weak point in the rocks, somewhere we can break through."
He hadn't made it over there before the pair heard the familiar sound that could only be made by an oversized sword cutting it's way through solid rock. The sound of their team coming to their rescue.
Bloom carefully helped Jacques back to his feet (Foot, more realistically) just as Bensai and Clark pulled the rocks backwards and created a way out.
"Oh good, you're both alive," Bensai remarked, greeting the pair with his typical friendly smile as he hurried over to relieve Bloom from helping Jacques.
"I'd keep your distance," Bloom warned David, walking ahead of Bensai and Jacques with that soul purpose in mind. "Turns out that arrow was just a little bit poisonous."
"Oh believe me, figured that one out," David muttered, rotating his own shoulder while turning to Jacques. "That second one hit me, you know?"
A detail Jacques and Bloom had both forgotten, but being reminded of it certainly didn't stop Jacques from glaring daggers into David.
"You're still a dead man."
"Not if you can't catch me!" David exclaimed before scurry back up towards the crypt exit, followed quickly by both Megan and Clark begging him to slow down.
"You aren't actually going to kill him, are you?" Bensai clarified as he help Jacques move forward at a much slower pace. "He wasn't lying, he was also briefly poisoned."
"Probably not," he replied unconvincingly.
Bloom slid past them back into the room he and Jacques had been trapped in, causing Bensai to stop and turn around with a confused look on his face.
"What are you doing?" he asked as Bloom climbed up to the tiny window again.
"Sneaking ahead to scare David," he replied truthfully with a playful smirk.
"Attaboy," Jacques praised with a smile of his own as the ranger crawled out through the window again.
Part of him wanted to wait so they could hear David scream, but he didn't argue when a still confused Bensai started moving forward again. Besides, knowing David, they'd here it anyways.