What could go wrong?

Crux sputtered, pulling back slightly as Triss threw sand at him. He sent her a playful glare and was about to jump back in to digging when a loud rumble stopped him in his tracks and then, the ground dropped out from beneath them. Or rather Triss. Crux seemed to have barely missed whatever fault or other issue led to the collapse, though if he'd been deep into digging as he had been but a moment ago he likely would have fallen in himself, his weight shifted too far forward to stop it.

Instead he had to watch in slowly, too slowly, dawning horror. He stared blankly for a moment at open air, his mind struggling to catch up. And then all of a sudden, almost violently, it clicked and his gaze turned down. The air was still filled with dust and the dim red light could barely penetrate the dark. He tried for a moment to see where Triss had landed but he couldn't seem too... Was that her voice? Panic was about to overtake him but something else was quicker, he'd always thrived in stressful situations. Always found a strange clarity settle over him where others might lose theirs. "I'm jumping down." His voice was lifted to make sure she could hear it, and even as the words left his lips he was scanning for some way down into the chasm... No such luck. It left him with only one option. Fuck.

Crux took a deep breath and then launched himself downwards, unsure just how far he was going to fall or what he'd find once he was down there. And of course unsure he could safely land. No luck on that end, as his paws hit ground pain shot up his leg, the leg. He could almost picture one of the crystals cracking inside his joint, doing damage that could never be fixed. It caused him to buckle, carrying the rest of his weight down onto his chest. But he was in healer mode, and since it was just that one leg that buckled he could easily pull himself back to standing, even if his leg protested. "Triss?" He squinted through the dark and dust, an all too familiar sound his guide towards his fiancée. "Triss, breath." He knew it was a stupid thing to say, if she could she would, but he was trying to stop the panic that would only lead to more strained breathing. There! Crux spotted a small form in the dust and he moved as quickly as he could, coming to hunch over her, not crowding her to try and encourage her breathing but close enough to touch, to comfort. "I'm here, you're okay." They needed to get the panic dealt with first. Damn! He wished he had something to help her breath through the dust, a cloth or something.


"Speech"