It was dark.
Well, actually, it was dim, but it felt like it was dark. It was also hot. And there wasn’t a whole lot of room to move or air to breathe. It would’ve driven any claustrophobe mad.

Feat was something of a claustrophobe. But he didn’t scream or panic. He kept his mouth shut, and his hands in his pockets, and tried, almost in vain, to control his breathing.

“Something wrong?” the child with him said. “Kid” was the name the boy had given when they met, and he looked something like a twelve-year old Feat once knew, acted like a six-year old he once knew, and sometimes showed a maturity that the other two had never reached. Feat tried to smile.

“N.. no,” he forced out, “Just hungry.” Kid looked at him suspiciously; he was lying and they both knew it, but Kid wasn’t the type to argue with those he considered “grown-ups.”

“How long do you suppose it’ll take them to find us?” Kid asked, moving the couple of feet to the collapsed ruins of what should’ve been the ceiling, taking what light there was with him. No, he was the light; it emitted off of him, soft and white. He was also the one reason Feat had not yet begun really panicking.

“I’m.. I’m not really sure they will,” he admitted. Kid had made it abundantly clear long ago that he did not appreciate the truth being glossed over for his benefit.

"Why do you say that?" Kid questioned, "I mean, you're a Hero, right? Heroes always make it out okay! That's just how it works!" Feat shook his head.

"Kid, do you know how many Heroes fail?" he asked, "Heroes save themselves, or a God takes pity and saves them, and I can't get us out of here, and I don't think any Gods are too fond of me. You, maybe." For a moment, niether said anything. Feat stared at the ceiling.

"Maybe they weren't saved because they didn't think they would be." Feat turned his gaze back to him; Kid was leaning his forhead against the stone wall, his back to Feat.

"Kid?"
"You know... Jess was always sure things would turn out right in the end. An... And they always did, too. Maybe not always completely right, but mostly. And then... And then the one time she... She admitted defeat..."

Feat knew this story. Jess was a woman that had taken care of Kid for a long, long time. She had been a retired Hero, enjoying her Happily Ever After after she had helped overthrow an empire, when she found Kid. Feat didn't know the details, but Jess eventually died of one disease or another, leaving the presumably-immortal boy alone again.

"Kid, I--" The boy turned around, wiping his face on his sleeve as he did.
"My point is, if you don't believe things will go right, then why should they? I mean--"
"KID! I get it. You're right."
"I-I am?"
"Yeah! I mean, I'm a Hero, and we still don't know what you really are, and we can't die until we do, right?"
"Hee! Yeah!"

Feat smiled and returned the motion when Kid came to hug him, but he didn't believe. Not really. But the boy didn't, and really, Kid was just that: a kid. Occasionally he seemed more mature than he actually was, but he wasn't really. Feat did admire Kid's optimisim, though. It was dark and hot and hard to breathe, and they were trapped on the bottom level of a deep, underground maze, but the boy was certain that things would "turn out right." Feat had lost the ability to hope like that a long time ago, and he was rather begining to miss it.