It's never the same

She scrunched her face at him behind his back half heartedly as she shuffled down the stairs behind him. She spied the opening, oh wow it really was just to the right of their porch. She felt a warmth from the idea of being close to Bas, under his protection, and close to Spider as well.

Just as he was saying she'd have to climb in she was already halfway up to the opening, leg, and injuries be damned. They were just comfortably numbed and she merely winced through the pain. She was rather deft at climbing the rubble to reach it. It would be easy to see just how she had climbed the makeshift ladders of the storeroom in the past. Her small size let her squeeze into the opening easily and she grunted as the sides brushed her injured ribs. Nothing could get between her and discovery.

As she first scrambled through her body blocked the only light source and as she carefully crawled forward into the darkness the light began filtering through the dust motes.

"I'm in!" She called from inside. Her voice bounced back to her almost instantly, the cavern room was probably small. So much for a giant caldera or lush cavern grove.

She lifted her goggles from her eyes to get a better look around as she let her eyes adjust to the light.

She saw two towers of stalactites meeting their stalagmites on either side of the room, forming a natural arch that supported the roof. On the far side, it seemed like an old collapse of a tunnel had happened centuries ago that was then smoothed over by some running water that was perhaps diverted more recently away from the wall, forming natural shelves and even a solid platform that was easy for her to hop on. In the filtered half-light the stalactites had a fine crust of glittering crystals, not large enough to be a resource. She had noticed that fine crust in several other places in the storerooms, baths, and even her temporary room.

She clambered back up to the opening, pushing a few more rocks and dirt out of the way to make the opening a little larger.
"It's perfect!" She exclaimed, poking her head out with the biggest smile on her face. Like she got the telescope she always wanted for Christmas.

"Speech"