The three sat in a loose circle, the dim light from some distant cracks in the rock casting faint shadows over their faces. The air was thick with the st of damp stone and something faintly metallic—perhaps minerals seeping through the cavern walls.

  Feiyin pressed his fingers against his temple, thinking. "First, we o figure out the basics. Food, water, and shelter."

  Yue's ears twitched, her sharp eyes sing the darkness beyond them. "Shelter-wise, this spot isn't bad for now. It's away from the rger groups and doesn't seem to have any immediate threats lurking around."

  Ren leaned back against the rock wall, one knee drawn up zily. "But we ’t stay here forever. If we want to survive a whole month, we o move smart. The others will be wandering around blindly, getting themselves killed or wasting what little energy they have."

  Feiyin nodded. "Exactly. We have to be effit. If we find a reliable source of food and water, we’ll have an advantage."

  Yue’s tail flicked behind her. "Speaking of food…"

  A sudden, loud growl echoed in the quiet cavern.

  Feiyin froze.

  Yue’s ears fttened in embarrassment.

  Then, anrowl.

  Feiyin’s stomach.

  A beat of silence passed before Yue covered her face with her hands, groaning. "That was me first!"

  Feiyin coughed, his face warming. "We, uh… haveen in at least a day."

  Ren, meanwhile, didn’t react at all. His arms were crossed, eyes half-lidded, as if none of this ed him.

  Feiyin eyed him. "You're not hungry?"

  Ren finally shifted, lifting a brow. "I’ve gone longer without food before. You get used to it."

  Yue shot him a sdalized look. "That’s not normal, you know."

  Ren smirked faintly. "For you, maybe."

  Feiyin shook his head, getting ba track. "Alright, we o find something edible before we lose too much strength. Water, too."

  Yue exhaled. "Water will be trickier. We o find a running source. Standing water might be filled with parasites or poison."

  Ren shrugged. "Could always drink some blood."

  Yue visibly shuddered. "Okay, we’re not there yet."

  Feiyin pushed himself up, brushing the dust off his robe. "The’s go find something before we reach that point."

  The other two followed suit. They wouldn’t get anywhere by sitting around.

  They stepped cautiously into the tunnels, Feiyin leading the way, his heightened senses on full alert. The deeper into the cave system they went, the more he noticed the fai of osciltions—traovement, echoes of life. Some far, some near. Some small, others… not so much.

  Yue kept her ilted slightly upward, sting the air as best she could. “I don’t smell anything immediately dangerous nearby. Just… earth, damp stone, a bit of decay.”

  Ren walked just behind them, hands in his pockets, his posture loose but attentive. “So, dead things. Fantastic.”

  Feiyin ighe sarcasm and focused on the ground. His foot nudged something small and brittle. He crouched, brushing away the dirt, revealing the remains of something skeletal—too small to be human, more likely an animal.

  “There’s life here,” he murmured. “Which means food isn’t impossible to find.”

  They tinued onward, careful to keep track of their path so they wouldn’t get lost. The caverns branched out in uable ways, some tunnels sloping downward into even deeper darkness, others widening into open pockets of space.

  Yue suddenly halted, her ears perking up. “Wait.”

  Feiyin and Ren immediately stopped.

  “What is it?” Feiyin whispered.

  She sniffed again, turning her head toward one of the side tunnels. “I think… I smell something fresher. Maybe a water source?”

  Ren tilted his head. “Or something rotting.”

  Yue shot him a gre. “Do you have to be like this all the time?”

  He smirked but didn’t deny it.

  Feiyin sighed. “Let’s check it out carefully.”

  They moved toward the st, Feiyin leading with careful steps, his inner seretg outward to caty strange shifts in movement. The deeper they went, the more he started to feel a faint, rhythmic osciltion—soft and steady. Water.

  Soon enough, the tunnel widened into a small cavern with a slow-moving underground stream running through the ter.

  Yue grinned. “Jackpot.”

  Feiyi by the water’s edge, its movement, the way the ripples spread naturally. He scooped a small amount into his hands a trickle through his fingers. “It’s flowing, which is a good sign. But we should still be careful.”

  The oppressive darkness of the cavern ed around them like a living thing, thid suffog. It was the kind of bess that swallowed light whole, the kind that made it easy to lose one's sense of dire, of space, of self.

  Feiyin could see, though not in the way one normally did. His perception stretched beyond mere sight—he felt the osciltions in the air, the ripples of movement, the echoes of shifti on stone. Every step they took sent vibrations through the earth, faint but distinct, telling a story of what y ahead, what lurked nearby.

  Ren moved without hesitation, his steps light but sure. "You two are slow," he muttered under his breath.

  Yue huffed. "Excuse me for not having demon blood."

  Ren smirked. "Not my fault my aors actually lived underground."

  Feiyin igheir bickering, fog on the cavern ahead. He could feel the subtle hum of something hanging above them, ging to the rocky ceiling—soft, steady osciltions, barely perceptible against the stillness of the cave.

  Bats.

  He gestured for them to stop, his voice barely above a whisper. "There's food here."

  Yue tensed beside him. "How do you—"

  "I feel them," Feiyin interrupted, eyes sing the darkness. "They're hanging from the ceiling, he stactites."

  Ren followed Feiyin’s gaze, his demon-fed sight pig out the leathery creatures clumped together. "Bats."

  Yue wrinkled her nose. "You're not actually suggesti—"

  "You have a better idea?" Ren asked dryly.

  She fell silent.

  Feiyin exhaled. "We o eat. They're small, but they'll do. The hard part is catg them without getting swarmed."

  Ren crossed his arms. "You’re the genius. Figure it out."

  Feiyin thought for a moment. If they startled the bats, they’d scatter in a panic, making them nearly impossible to catch. But if they used their surroundings to their advantage…

  "Yue, how sensitive is your hearing?" Feiyin asked.

  She bli him in fusion. "Pretty good, but not as sharp as my sense of smell. Why?"

  "Bats navigate using sound waves. If we create a strong enough frequency to disrupt them, even for a moment, we might be able to force them lower and slow them down."

  Ren raised a brow. "And how exactly do we do that?"

  Feiyin tapped his fingers against the stone wall, listening to the way the vibrations traveled through the rock. Then, he inhaled deeply, adjusting his irength.

  Instead of fog it into raw power, he spread it out, letting it ripple through his chest, his throat. Then, he released a low, trolled hum.

  The effect was immediate.

  The bats above them twitched in respoheir tiny, cwed feet shifting as they reacted to the disruption in frequency.

  Yue’s ears flicked. "Whoa…"

  Ren tilted his head. "Did you just—"

  "Not yet," Feiyin murmured, adjusting the pitch.

  The osciltions in the cave shifted, vibrating in harmony with his voice. He carefully moduted it, fiuning the frequency to ohat resonated with the bats' natural rhythm—then, with a sharp flick of his irength, he ged the pitch abruptly.

  The bats shrieked in fusion.

  The moment their wings fluttered wildly, Feiyin lunged.

  His hands shot out, snatg one of the small creatures from the air. His grip was firm but precise—he didn't crush it, just stu.

  Ren moved just as swiftly, grabbing another mid-flight, his reflexes honed from years of surviving in the slums.

  Yue yelped when one nearly smacked into her face, but she ducked in time, growling under her breath.

  Feiyin exhaled, tightening his hold oruggling bat. "We got them."

  Ren ied his own catch. "Kind of sy, but better than nothing."

  Yue grimaced. "We're actually eating these?"

  Feiyin nodded. "We have no choice."

  She sighed. "Fine. Just… someone else do the skinning."

  Ren smirked. "Gdly."

  They settled down by the slow-moving underground stream, gutting and preparing their meager meal. It wasn't much, but in the depths of the cavern, survival mattered more than taste.

  As Feiyin watched the small firelight flicker in the dark, he couldn't help but feel the weight of their situation. They were still trapped. Still hunted.

  But at least, for tonight, they wouldn't starve.

  —--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The damp chill of the cavern g to them as Feiyin crouched by the underground stream, the faint ripples ier. It had been a full day sihey found this pce, and so far, no predators had e sniffing around. It was a small relief in a situation where nothi safe.

  Yue sat beside him, lightly kig a small pebble into the water, her ears twitg. "So… do we stay?" she asked.

  Feiyin nodded slowly, still watg the water. "I think we should. We have a water source, a defendable position, and we've sted a full day without anything attag us. That means, at least for now, this area isn't a hunting ground for something bigger."

  Ren leaned against the cavern wall, arms crossed. "You're saying this as if we're staying here long-term. This pce still stinks of death."

  Feiyin didn't argue. It was true—the stench of decay lingered in the air, a mix of rot and old blood. But here, they had something rare: retive security. He wasn’t going to waste that.

  "I'm going to find more people," he announced.

  Ren raised a brow. "And why would you do that?"

  "Because the more people we have, the easier it will be to survive." Feiyin turo him, eyes firm. "Strength in numbers."

  Ren scoffed. "Or dead weight in numbers."

  Feiyin knew arguing wouldn't work. Ren had survived on his own all his life, trusting only in himself. It would take time for him to see that people could be more than liabilities.

  But Yue, oher hand—

  "I think it's a great idea," she said, tail flig behind her. "There have to be more survivors out there, wandering in the dark. If we don’t help them, they’ll get picked off one by one."

  Feiyin gave her a grateful nod. "But you should stay here. If someoacks while we're both go’ll be bad. You’re the stro here after me, and Ren’s ly the type to jump in and help."

  Ren rolled his eyes. "Gd you uand."

  Yue pursed her lips but relutly agreed. "Fine. But if you take too long, I’m ing after you."

  Feiyin turned, exhaling through his nose. "I’ll be back before then."

  The momeepped away from their small sanctuary, the darkness swallowed him whole. His seretched, pig up the faint vibrations of shifting stones, distant scurrying, and—more importantly—the steady, erratic beats htened hearts.

  There were others.

  He moved quietly, guiding himself by osciltions rather than sight. He followed the fairemors of human movement, weaving through jagged roations and cavernous tunnels. Soon enough, he found the first survivor—a boy, slightly older than him, sitting curled against a stone, his breathing ragged.

  Feiyi. "Hey."

  The boy flinched, eyes darting uselessly in the darkness. "W-Who—?"

  "My name is Feiyin," he said, keeping his voice calm but firm. "I'm taking people somewhere safer. e with me."

  The boy hesitated. "You … see?"

  "In a way," Feiyin said. "Hold onto my sleeve. I’ll guide you."

  Trembling fingers found his wrist, grasping it with desperation. Feiyin pulled him up, steadying him before moving fain.

  One by one, he found more survivors. Some were huddled in small groups, whispering amongst themselves. Others were alone, curled up and shivering. Each time, he spoke to them, offered them a choice.

  Some refused.

  Some were too scared to move.

  But many, when faced with the alternative of dying alone in the dark, reached out and took his hand.

  The line of children grew behind him, each gripping onto the one in front of them so they wouldn’t lose their way. Feiyin moved slowly, carefully. The cavern paths were uneven, littered with hidden pitfalls and jagged stones. If someoripped, it could spell disaster.

  "Where… where are we going?" one of the older boys—maybe ten—asked.

  "To water," Feiyin answered simply. "To safety."

  Anirl, her voice hesitant, asked, "How do you know where yoing?"

  "I just do," Feiyin replied. He didn’t have the time or energy to expin osciltions to them.

  The line tio move, step by step. Some of the younger ones whimpered in the dark, their hands tightening around the fabric of the person in front of them. Feiyi moving, listening, guiding.

  Then, a faint tremor.

  He stopped abruptly.

  "Quiet," he whispered.

  The line behind him went still, holding their breath.

  Something was shifting in the dista wasn’t close—but it was moving.

  A predator.

  Feiyin’s heart pounded. He couldn’t afford to fight, not while leading so many. If it noticed them—

  He exhaled slowly, adjusting his breathing. The vibrations around him steadied. Whatever was out there, it hadn't locked onto them yet.

  "Keep moving. Slowly."

  They pressed on, taking careful steps. Feiyi his senses wide, feeling the faint echoes of whatever beast prowled in the distance. If it turoward them, if it got any closer—

  He would have to make a choice.

  But after a few agonizing moments, the vibrations of the creature faded, moving in another dire.

  Feiyin exhaled in relief.

  Not this time.

  After what felt like ay, they reached the cavern stream. Yue was already o when they arrived, ears twitg at the sound of shuffli. She rexed slightly when she saw Feiyin at the front.

  "You made it back," she said, relief in her voice.

  "I said I would," Feiyin answered simply.

  Ren, sitting against the cave wall, gave a zy wave. "I see you picked up strays."

  Feiyin ignored him and turo the new arrivals. "This is where we’ll be staying. There’s water, and it’s safe for now."

  The children, exhausted, dropped to the ground one by one. Some whispered their thanks. Others just sat there, staring bnkly, still processing everything.

  Yue k beside one of the smaller girls, her a reassuring smile. "You’re safe now," she said gently. "We’ll figure this out together."

  Feiyin watched them, a weight settling in his chest.

  They had a long way to go.

  But for now, they had taken the first step.