We All Fall Down

Silent.

The Brits had the right idea. Nothing like a good silent cave to hide herself out in. Peace, quiet...

Silence.

Taking measured steps, the blonde explored the cave, taking herself further and further from the enterence and into the darkness before her. Heaven, her recent constant companion hovered at the enterence, yipping at her, but not taking a step further.

"Calm down you mutt," she muttered, a tone of fondness in her otherwise harsh voice, "I'm fine, see just-"

It was funny, how still she stood, as the cave drone and rumbled around her. Danger was screamed from every creak and sound from the cave, and yet... instead of attempting to move back out of the cave, or even cover her head. The young girl merely stood there, staring at the room around her, as a buzzing filled her ears.

And then the room started to crumble dust, and rock slipping around her. It wasn't until a large force - most likely a falling rock - brushed past her back, practically forcing her forward, that Ashleen's brain unfroze, and she scrambled the rest of the way herself.

Laying on the cold ground, stunned the young girl let out a groan, not even bothering to attempt to look about through the slowly sinking dust, and dark. If she had, she would have seen the pathway she had once been coming through - standing in - was completely covered with rocks.

She was effectively trapped.

Casey was wandering slowly towards the caves with her hands in her pockets, just thinking, when she heard the crash of falling stone and a dog's barks. She went from ambling to a flat sprint in two seconds, reaching the cave as the dust settled. A dog was skittering around, barking at the wall of rock. And dogs usually mean people... she thought. "Hello?" she called. "Is anyone over there?" She spotted a tiny hole in the side of the pile and ran over. She peered through, but it was too dark to see anything. "Lumos," she muttered. "Hello?"

The light was bright. To bright. She wanted to just sit in the darkness for a bit longer. The darkness was nice.

Even if she wasn't entirely sure where it came from.

"No," she griped, not entirely happy with anything all of a sudden, "The wall's just groaning over here. What the hell happened. And will you tell my dog to calm donw please? She's going to kill herself with panic."

Huffing, Ashleen pushed herself up and glared at the wall of rock between her and her way out.

"Shush Heaven!" her tone softened significantly, "I'm fine."

Casey raised an eyebrow. "Well if you're well enough to make snarky comments, you can't be too bad off." She turned to the dog. She had never used her Empath powers on an animal before, but it couldn't be that hard. She sent calm energy towards the dog and she did stop barking, though she wasn't completely relaxed.

Turning back to the wall, she said, "How am I going to get you out? I don't want anything to collapse on you if I start levitating rocks off. Can you move backwards so nothing will crush you if I start moving boulders?"

"Glad I'm be rescued by a medic," she muttered rolling her eyes. The fact was, Ashleen was pretty sure she would use her last breath to make a snarky comment. After all, the world had to know how unamused she was with being taken out of it.

"No," she called her voice dripping with sarcasim, "I'll just let the giant rock smoosh me to death. Cause thats exactly what I want."

Even though the girl couldn't see it, Ashleen took great comfort in rolling her eyes, "If I think I'm going to die, I'll move. How does that sound?"

Casey smirked. "Yep, that's me. Grade A healer right here." She actually had a lot of practice with healing spells seeing as she and Lyssa were injured a lot during pranks. Lyss more than her, so LOTS of practice.

Casey rolled her eyes. "Sounds good. And I'm sure not even the rocks would want to come anywhere near you, you'd probably yell at them for landing on you." Although the girl's comments got on her nerves a bit, Casey really did want to help her. Pointing her wand at the top rock, she said "Wingaurdium leviosa." the rock floated away to the spot she directed it to and she turned to the next one, sighing. This was going to take a while. "Wingaurdium leviosa."

Seeing as she was being helped, Ashleen didn't feel compelled to question how young the girl was. She certainly seemed rather young, but who knew.

Besides, like Ash cared about underage magic or not.

"So, what do you call yourself grade A healer?"

Casey grinned. "Wow, that question had minimal sarcasm. Congrats! My name is Casey, I'm a 4th year Gryffindor and I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to use magic here as it's a potentially life threatening situation. Besides, I live in a wizarding house, my Trace would go off all the time. I don't think they'll really care. How about you?" She moved another 3 rocks. The hole at the top was getting pretty big and the pile left more stable. She'd probably be able to go over soon and check the girl out to see how serious the damage was.

"And it nearly killed me," she quipped with a snort.

"Ashleen D'Angelo, Sixth year Hitrost - Durmstrang if you couldn't figure out," she shrugged her shoulders, "Trapped in a cave."

Proping herself on up on her elbows she moved from looking at the ceiling to the slowly dismantling wall.

"I suppose I could help you... if the rocks won't cave from being pulled at both ends."

Casey laughed. "Well stop doing things that almost kill you. That's what got us here in the first place."

Casey looked at the hole in the top, then at the base of the wall. "No, I think I can climb over. And then I can either help you over the top, or we can blast the shit out of the remaining wall without hitting anyone. That is if your dog will stay outside if I take him/ her out of the way."

Ashleen rolled her shoulders looking up. Part of her wanted to say she could just climb over herself, but whatever had brushed past her back had left her a little sore.

And the idea of getting to blast something excited her. She needed to take her energy out on something.

"She'll listen," Ash said, "Just.... Heaven! Heaven! Go outside! Go outside and stay, got it!"

On the otherside of the wall, the dog title her head to the side, letting out a soft yip and shuffling her feet, but didn't quite move.

Casey looked at the dog, which was obviously fond of Ashleen. Bending down, she said, "They say dogs are smart, so I hope you understand this. If you don't go outside and stay, I might not be able to get Ashleen out, so you have to come nicely, ok?" She straightened, putting her hand on the dog's head and leading it outside.

Returning, she surveyed the pile. It wouldn't be too hard to climb up. She put her hands on the first big boulder and jumped, pushing herself on top of it. In no time, she was easing through the sizable hole she had created and jumping down the other side like a mountain goat. Landing, she turned to Ashleen. "Right, what hurts and do you think I could take you up the way I came in?"

Heaven yipped once but did as she was told.

On the otherside of the wall, Ashleen raised an eyebrow as the girl plopped beside her.

"I think I'll manage," she stated, pulling herself up to full height, only having to bite back one groan, "Nothing's hurt that I haven't hurt worse before."

Casey raised an eye brow at her. "Alright, if you think you can manage. Here, if you put your arm around my shoulders, I can help you climb up. I'll go first down the other side and then help you down there too." They moved awkwardly to the pile.

Ashleen made to further protest, but then the girl was already helping. She figured it wasn't worth the struggle shriking off what might have been - though she'd never admit it - helpful.

Waiting impatiently for the girl to slip through the slim hole, Ashleen crawled up the wall awkwardly to slip through it. The fight was tight, and there was a moment when she was sure she wasn't going to make it, but then she slipped through to the otherside with only a slight wince.

"Well... I suppose one could call that an adventure."

Casey helped Ashleen through the hole and then down the other side. She was relieved that Ashleen didn't seem to be hurting too bad. She laughed. "Well we made it through that adventure alive. Do you need to go to St. Mungo's? Or my house is right near here and my mom sells potions. She could make you something if you needed it." Mrs. Donohoe was famous for giving away potions to people in need, despite the fact that the Donohoe family wasn't rich at all.

"God no," Ashleen snorted and shook her head. She could already picture the flurry of particular parties if they found her in St. Mungos. It was nothing more than a bruise anyways. Ashleen certainly could deal with a bruise.

"I'll survive," she said whistling for Heaven who came bounding back in, jumping at her heals. "I suppose thanking you is the polite thing to do now, isn't it?"

Casey grinned. "I suppose it is. You're welcome. I'm just glad you're ok. And I'm sure your dog is too." She smiled down at Heaven. "If you're sure you don't need anything, I guess I'll leave. You can get to... where ever it is that you're going, right?"

The girl gave Casey an absentminded wave, "Later."

She bent down to rub behind Heaven's ears, smiling softly, not even noticing if and when the girl disappeared.

"Suppose we should go home shouldn't we?" At the responding yip, the girl picked Heaven up - A feat that wasn't as easy as it once was - held her close, and pulled the Portkey out of her pocket.