Somehow, silence was even worse than noise. Silence felt like<i> waiting</i>, as if the castle was holding its breath around her, ready for something to leap at her from the darkness. It was the uncertainty and anticipation that got to her, making her wary even as she continued to press further into the depths of the castle.<br/><br/>After such a long stretch of nothingness, the miniature windstorm that came out of nowhere was a thousand times more startling. The gale hit her like a charging beast sending her tumbling backwards and knocking her torch from her hands. She grunted as she landed hard on her back, head cracking against the stones. Darkness suddenly engulfed her as it was snuffed out, but the freezing wind continued to howl around her, painfully loud in the close quarters of the hall. Dazed but still conscious, she tried to get up, only for the wind to catch her again and slam her against a pile of rubble. Sharp pain exploded across her body at the impact, echoed by tiny, violent stings on her face as bits of grit picked up by the wind were sent flying.<br/><br/>The pain snapped her into focus, her training kicking in. She rolled to lay on her belly, head down and face pressed to the ground. She curled up against the howling wind, gloved hands clapped to her ears in a futile attempt to block out the awful roar. She was dimly aware of another noise under the wind, but she had little time to focus on it, more concerned with keeping the wind from blowing her away. After what felt like an eternity, it finally died down.<br/><br/>She huddled there trembling for a moment longer, before finally daring to sit up. She sucked in a hissing breath at the pain the motion produced, and tried to take stock of her injuries in the darkness. Her padded leather jerkin had saved her from any severe injury, but she was going to have some lovely bruises on her back, and her head was swimming. When she reached shaking fingers up to touch the source of pain, she yelped at the sudden sting. Had she been able to see anything, she guessed, there would be blood on her fingertips. Her face was still hurting as well, likely from being bombarded with tiny bits of stone. Most worrying was the continuous ringing in her ears and the conspicuous sticky warmth she could feel around them.<br/><br/>She had come in prepared for the possibility of trouble, but even with her training, her blood ran cold as she carefully got to her feet, gazing blindly down the hallway but seeing nothing for the darkness. She fumbled about, fingers brushing her crossbow, but wherever her torch had rolled to, she couldn't find it. Without any light, things had just gotten infinitely more dangerous for her. A tactical retreat seemed the only option at the moment. Breathing shakily, she attempted to retrace her steps down the hall, letting one hand trail against the wall as she backed up. Her crossbow was held at the ready with her free hand, even though she knew aiming in the darkness would be next to impossible. Not once did she ever dare to turn her back on the direction the wind had come roaring from, nor did she flee back the way she had come. Her careful, measured pace masked the sudden terror that gripped her. She wasn't sure what she was up against her, only that to fight it alone, injured and in complete darkness, was madness.<br/><br/>Liirah managed to find her way down the hallway to the door, but where she had expected to see dim grey light and a door hanging ajar, there was only more darkness. Concerned, she inched forward, hand leaving the wall to reach for the door.<b><i> "Hell," </i></b>she hissed again, this time far more vehemently as she realized that the wind had slammed it shut behind her. She could feel panic setting in, prickling at the edges of her mind, but she clamped down on it stubbornly. If she lost her nerve, she was dead. She stepped back, then tried to ram the door open again, perhaps a good deal more desperately than she had when trying to get<i>in.<br/>
</i><br/>(Let me know if it wasn't the door slamming shut behind her!)