Ellaway’s eye lids dipped down and she jerkily popped them back open. The wounds on the back of her neck stung and ached as she cricked her head upwards. The hot after noon sun beat down on the tunnel. Ellaway’s tired battered body could barely keep crawling. Sweat soaked her clothes. Salt dripped into her mouth from her perspiration. She tried to whip her sweaty face, but merely smeared blood and dirt across her forehead. Images of herself crushed in the corner with an eerie moan surrounding her dead and rotting body flashed through her mind.
She had gone so far, but this seemed like the end. There was no finish to this tunnel; Bolbart had lead her down here to die. Her rashens would be exhausted in a couple of days and she would starve to death, a slow painful death.
But she kept moving forward. What else was there for her to do? She would never make it out if she turned around. With mechanic impulse she moved forward, barely taking notice of any thing. But with a leap of her heart, she saw a dark opening in front of her.
A narrow opening to a cave was just ten feet in front of her! Excitement and hope filled back in to her body, propelling her forward. When she reached the cave and stuck her head inside, and with deep gratitude she saw that it was tall enough to stand up in. She ducked her head inside and crawled through. Stiffly, she stood up.
It felt wonderful. Ellaway never thought she would appreciate standing as much as she did then. She stretched out her muscles arching her back and legs. She was able to look forward with out cricking her neck upwards. The hole sensation had new meaning to her.
Once she basked in the luxury of legs, Ellaway looked around. It was very dark but for the dim light from the tunnel. From what she could see, the cave looked man made. It’s square shape and flat walls rose high above Ellaway’s head. As she walked around, her soft steps echoed dully in the cave. It was much bigger than she first expected. As she got farther in, the less she could see. With well chosen words, a small ball of light sparked in her hand. She rose it over her head. The room was huge! The entire red river could fit in this cave. The walls were a dark stone color that were straight with a rough, prickly texture.
Examining the place she just entered, Ellaway could see no exit out of the room but the entrance she used. Looking back at the hole to the tunnel, but gave a perplexed look. The hole was gone! She bent down, but still it was not there. Frantically she looked around, making sure this was the right wall. But the hole was gone. There was no way out of this room. This was impossible!
She smacked the wall next to her and regretted it with a howl of pain. As she looked up cursing, a black hole started to appear in the dark ceiling and a silver rope fell down out of the black hole and dangled wildly next to her.
Ellaway looked curiously back to the spot on the wall she had hit and up at the rope. With a smirk and a shrug of her shoulders, she grabbed onto the rope. It was smooth and silky with almost a metallic feel to it. Roughly, she pulled it. It seemed sturdy enough. Still she started flinging the rope in wide circles, just to make sure. However, it stayed strong.
Ellaway looked at her only source of light, the small ball in her hands. She transferred it into her necklace freeing her hands to climb. Steadily, Ellaway grabbed onto the rope and after one hefty pull she regretted it. She gave a loud yelp as her tired worn out arms gave way. With a thud, she fell hard on the stone floor. Groaning she slowly got up, rubbing her sore back side. She looked up and sighed.
Determined, she took a deep breath and grabbed onto the rope once more. Fixedly, she heaved and although her arms trembled slightly, she moved upward. Hand over hand, she progressively made her way up the rope. As she did, she grunted under her breath about the stupid tunnel that had worn her out so much she could barely climb a stupid rope. The whole thing was stupid and Ripple was at the head of all this stupidness! First thing she did when she saw him was give him a swift kick in the pants.
Her arms shook but Ellaway had been through to much to give into her tired arms. The rope’s surface was silky and smooth, but still easy enough to keep hold of, but squeezing onto the rope ached her sore raw hands.
Finally Ellaway reached the ceiling and the hole in it. The hole extended farther up into the ceiling, enough that Ellaway could not see the other side, like another tunnel. Ellaway screamed in aggravation, “You have got to be kidding me! Another tunnel!!! No way!!” After a moment of looking back down and deciding that was not an option she climbed into the hole. As the round stone walls closed in around her, the feeling of claustrophobia started settling back into the pit of her stomach. She looked down, but as her stomach lurched with queasiness she quickly looked up and to her surprise the rope ended in mid-air. It dangled there about a foot above her head, hanging on nothing. Not sure what else to do she kept climbing, expecting to shortly reach the very end of the rope, but to her shock she didn’t. The rope seemed to grow longer the closer she got to it.
Ellaway started to wonder what kind of people lived in this hidden city to have so much magic. After a bit more of her climb she did reach the end of her rope and the tunnel curved to her right to a horizontal plane. Carefully, Ellaway gently swung so she could reach the flat tunnel to crawl once more. But instead the entire rope moved and flung her into the opening. A little taken aback she looked at the rope, but it was gone.
Her sore hands and knees ached as she turned back onto them. She moaned every time she pressed against the hard rough stone floor. She trended as softly as she could, but even with her old bandages wrapped around her tender ligaments her wounds started opened again leaving behind a trail of blood. Ellaway snarled at every movement.
Suddenly her head hit against a rock wall. Ellaway yelled in pain and sat back a little rubbing her head. Then she realized this was the end of the tunnel, there were no other openings.
Remaining calm Ellaway looked around. The tunnel ended in a small round tip, she tried banging on the walls and looking for a leaver or something to open an extra hole, but she found nothing. She pressed on the walls and tried to push but nothing was bugging. Panic started to press in on her, with no control Ellaway pushed her back to the small corner, scrunching into the tip like a frighten child. Something compelled her to squash her self against the wall. Then some unseen force started pressing her into the wall! Ellaway’s breath started to get more shallow and her eyes were wide in terror. She was actually being pressed up into the ceiling! She felt the cave’s stone wall moving around her back to her sides and crawling around her stomach. The very insides of her gut felt like they were being sucked out into the wall. Ellaway waved her arms and hands frantically trying to pull her self out, but her hands merely groped along the walls with nothing to grab. She tried to scream, but the sound was muffled as the stone covered her face. Her body was being thrust upward and as quickly as the stone sucked her up she rolled out onto another stone floor with a heavy grunt. She lay on the ground looking up at another dark stone ceiling.
This was it. Ellaway was done, she had had enough. She laid there, content to stare blankly at the ceiling and never move again. Out of the silence a feeble moaning rose from her left. The sound eerily reminded her of the moan surrounding the corpse and she thought, “See there is that morbid moaning coming to surround my soon to be dead body.” She laughed quietly at her own tragic death, to have come so far and die now seemed so wrong. The moan started to mutter her name she thought, “See there it is calling my name trying to claim me.”
Slowly the moaning turned into coughing and sputtering, then quietly, “Ellaway, what are you doing?”
Ellaway muttered back, “I am not sure, dieing, I think.”
The moaning perked up, “You’re not dieing.”
Ellaway thought that was an odd thing for this moaning to say and sat up. She looked across the room to her left and there curled up on the floor was Ripple.
Ellaway pointed her finger at him and scowled, “You! Do you know what I have been through for you!” She started shifting toward him. “I’ve been attacked by Bolbart, a corpse, and almost a shark. I’ve crawled on hands and knees for almost three days straight and been sucked through a stone wall. I should have just been grateful that I was still alive and left you.”
Ripple looked at her through his swollen eye and smiled with his bruised lower lip and with a husky voice muttered, “You’re alive! I thought that you were dead.”
Ripple’s mangled face came into view and Ellaway took a little more pity on him, she smirked as his happiness and sighed, “Well no I am not dead, good thing cause it looks like you might have been if I left you hear. What did they do to you?”
Ripple chuckled, “Oh got beat up a little.”
Ellaway started getting her pack from off her back, “That looks like more than a little.” She got out a small cloth and dappled a little water onto it. Gently, Ellaway dabbed his bleeding forehead.
Ripple clenched his teeth and started dodging her cloth. He waved her hands away like they were an irritating fly and groaned, “That hurts, ow, Ellaway! Oh no! Stop coddling, come on.”
Ellaway grunted in frustration, “Ripple you have to clean those off!”
Ripple moaned, “They did clean it off and that hurts!”
Ellaway rolled her eyes, “Oh you big baby. You could face an entire army of Kin, but you can’t take a little cloth and water! Now just sit still!”
She pressed softly on his lower lip and Ripple’s hand went to sew her away. He gently grabbed her wrist, but instead left it there and tried to keep quiet while she worked.
Ellaway smiled as he relented into letting her clean him up. “So what did you do to be here?”
Ripple moaned, “Long story.”
Ellaway went on wiping. She washed as much blood off his face as could with out hurting him to much, “Who ever cleaned you up before didn’t do a very good job.”
Ripple cocked his brow, “Yeah, guess they didn’t.”
Ellaway sighed and looked down at his shirt, blood had soaked through and stained his front a dark red. Determined to do the job right she scooted toward his torso. Before she even moved, Ripple started complaining, “Ellaway! It’s just a graze. I’m fine. Leave me alone now wouldn’t ya!”
Ellaway lifted his shirt, “Well this may be just a graze, but it needs to be cleaned up just as much.” She poured a little more water onto her cloth and wiped away at the blood. Under the blood she uncovered a bruise that stretched farther up his chest, she moved up his shirt to see the extent of the damage. He was covered in black and blue. Ellaway curled her lip, “Do you think you have any cracked ribs?”
She moved to feel across his chest to check, but he grabbed her hand before she could, “You’ve done enough for one day, don’t you think?”
Ellaway shook her head, “Fine. Any way if you got any thing broke, I’d be sure to know about it.”
Ripple looked at her confused, “What do you mean?”
She laughed, “Well you do enough belly aching, I’d be sure to know.”
Ripple grimaced as he shifted to sit up, Ellaway went to coax him back down, but stopped herself. She stood up and looked around the room. A dim light shown through the open door way and she looked at it confused. Similar to Ripple, she looked around for something to stop her walking through, but saw nothing. She looked down at Ripple and cocked her head. He responded by holding out his hand toward the door in a welcoming gesture and said, “Be my guest. My prison cell is your prison cell.”
Cautiously, Ellaway walked to the door, there didn’t appear to be anything there. She put her hand through and sure enough nothing was there to block it. She moved a little closer and went to take a step, but just as she moved her foot through the door way, she found her self facing the opposite wall. Ellaway turned around and Ripple laughed quietly at her, “It is pretty funny to watch.”
Ellaway looked at him disgruntled, “What happened?”
Ripple chuckled, “Well even watching you I can’t tell. It’s not like you disappear then reappear it is more of a fluid movement, but I have this moment of confusion and can’t even tell what happens.”
Ellaway looked back at the door, “How does your captors get through?”
Ripple remarked, “They walk.”
Ellaway bobbed her head annoyed, “Oh yeah that’s a lot of help.” Ellaway went back to the door, examining the walls surrounding it. Then she muttered distractedly, “There has to be a way they put this spell on us and what about me no one has even seen me.”
Ripple pursed his lips together, “I don’t know. You got your hand through though that’s better then any thing I have done.”
Ellaway scrunched her eye brows, “How do you mean?”
Ripple grunted as he started to stand up, “Well watch.” He walked over to the door way next to Ellaway and slid his clasped hands through the door and ended up on the other side of the room. Ellaway looked around at him confused not sure of how he had gotten there.
She looked back at the door stuck her had through and muttered, “How strange.” Bewildered she looked down at her right foot that she had stuck through the door first. Ellaway cocked her head and looked at it more curiously. There dangling on her ankle was a round metal clasp like those around Ripple’s hands. She waved Ripple towards her she said, “Ripple take a look at this. I didn’t notice it before, I don’t even know when or how it got there.”
Ripple looked at her extended leg, raised an eyebrow and smiled cockily, “Oh, don’t worry, I have notice those legs of yours for quite awhile.”
Ellaway rolled her eyes and tilled his heads to look down at her ankle, “The metal bracelet! It is just like yours!”
Ripple furrowed his eye brows, “Mmmm, must be something in them keeping us here.”
Ellaway had an idea. She stepped through the hole with her left foot then lead her hole body through the door way excluding her right foot with the metal ring. She stood in the middle of the hallway looking toward the light but as soon as the metal ring went to exit she ended back in the room. Some spell must have been put on the rings to keep them in the room, and they figured that if connected to a person it would keep them in the room too. It was really very ingenious. Ellaway sat down and was marveling at the clever little rings while Ripple muttered, “So they tied my hands together for no reason huh? Just would rather make the rest of my life a little more awkward.”
Ellaway looked up at him from examining her anklet, “What do you mean the rest of your life? Do you mean they had no plans to kill you?” Still not sure who they was, she emphasized the word.
Ripple followed suit as he said, “No they don’t have plans of killing me, just keeping me alive here till I die.”
Ellaway sighed, “Truly Ripple what are we doing here?”
Ripple grunted as he sat back down, “I told you it’s a long story.”
Ellaway smiled at him sarcastically, “Well Ripple I came a long way to rescue you and get myself in a lot of trouble so I would like to know what I did it for, and it seems like we have plenty of time to kill, so…”
Ripple looked at her with a smug grin, “So.”
She made a gesture to kick at him and yelled, “So get talking before I add to some of those bruises!”
Ripple shifted around a little but still said nothing. Ellaway was back to looking at the rings, but muttered, “Well?”
Ripple gave a heavy sigh, “Alright! It is really nothing to be ashamed of really!” He got a little more comfortable as much as possible at least and started, “Well about fifteen years ago, I came around these parts, that’s when I met Jerrt and his family. They were very nice and hospitable. Kirk, his oldest about ten at the time, told me this old folk lore about a hidden city deep with in the depths of the woods. I, of course, was a little curious, so I thought that I would try to find this hidden city.”
Ellaway laughed, “You and your curiosity. Where was the profit?”
Rippled threw out his hands in a decisive gesture, “Do you always have to assume the worst of me!?”
Ellaway merely raised her eye brows and curled her lips. Ripple smiled, “They said the city shines and glimmer like a far wondrous star.”
Ellaway cocked her head, “Gold and silver.”
With his eyes a blazed and his hole face lit, he shook his head, “No, even better, diamonds! Thousand and thousand of sparkling diamonds, if I got my hands on just one I would have been rich forever!”
Ellaway was still tinkering with her metal ring, “Impressive.”
Ripple cocked his head to look at Ellaway’s concentrated face, “Are you even listening to me?”
Ellaway nodded, “Yes, yes, Kirk told you of a hidden city made of diamonds just one you’d be rich, go on.”
Ripple continued, “Any way they told me that if you walk through the forest straight on from their house you’d reach a part of the wood you just walk in circles around, with out even meaning to! But Kirk said he had heard Bolbart talking about a way to get into the city. Bolbart said that only he could see it cause the others were to tall.”
Ellaway smiled, “So let me guess you crawled on all fours to look for the entrance.”
Ripple looked up at her, “Are you crazy? I would never do that! I took one of Jerrt’s levitaters! If you just glide it right on the forest ground you can see the tunnel just fine! Then I just levitated right in. Only took me about an hour till I reached the stone caves.”
Ellaway glared at him, “You mean to tell me, that while I crawled for almost three days in that stupid cave you glided through it in an hour!”
Ripple smiled, “Yeah I guess so.”
Ellaway scowled, “You make me sick!”
Ripple went on, “Any way, I finally made it here I suppose, I didn’t realize before this was the same place.”
Ellaway looked at him confused, “How is it that you didn’t recognize this room?”
Ripple took a deep breath, “Well they never knew of the entrance before I came so they hadn’t made the spell to put those claps on yet. So I barely even looked around here before I left to go find diamonds.”
Ellaway pursed her lips together, “Hum, interesting. Sorry go on.”
Ripple thought for a moment then he said, “Well right above us is the governmental offices, so came waltzing up into the hall dazzled by the light.”
Ellaway leaned forward a little and whispered, “It really is made of diamonds?”
Ripple smirked, “I thought that you weren’t interested in gold and riches and all that superficial stuff?”
Ellaway backed away and spoke in a normal tone, “I’m not, but a city of diamonds would be a sight to see.”
Ripple laughed, “Well it shone alright, but it wasn’t diamonds.”
Ellaway looked at him quizzically and he responded, “The people here are craftsman of metal and steel. The entire city is made of steel.”
Ellaway eyes grew wide, “An entire city made of steel?”
Ripple nodded, “Yep, huge tall buildings all of metal.”
Ellaway crinkled her nose, “That would take centuries!”
Ripple sighed, “Actually these people have a way with metal, they almost work it like clay. They can even make it change colors, they call it staining, or make it stay in one room, and make it bend in to what ever shape they want.”
Ellaway shook her head in shock, “Amazing.”
Ripple went on, “I know. Any way, I stood out like a sore thumb amongst all the shininess with me all grungy and dirty. First thing I knew when I came up was people screaming “Intruder!” and they took me into this conference room. A little while later a man name Titus came into question me. He asked me all about how I got there and what I was here for and how I had heard about this place. I am not particularly fond of questions-”
Ellaway cut him off sarcastically adding, “Could have fooled me.”
Ripple glowered at her, “Any way, Titus decided I wasn’t so bad, a little greedy, but not altogether horrible.”
Ellaway cut in again, “So what changed his mind?”
Ripple looked at her impatiently, “Do you want me to tell you this story or not?”
Ellaway acted surprised, “Of course I do!”
With a little shift on the floor Ripple remarked, “Well I am getting there! Any way so he decided I was free to live in the city and of course I told him that that was very kind but I would prefer to leave. He told me though that that was out of the question, once a person comes into this city they can never leave.”
“As you expect, I wasn’t to happy to hear this. I argued, at first, but there was nothing they could do about it. There was no way out of the city. He told me that long ago his people decided they had had enough of the evil in the world, so they moved into this city were the world could never taint them. It was Titus’s duty to uphold this way of life, but he felt pity on me and took me in to live with his family and he had this daughter.”
Ellaway chuckled under her breath, “Uh-oh, that can never be good.”
Ripple laughed a little himself, “No, girls always seem to lead me into trouble.”
Ellaway cocked her eye brow and was about to retort, but she stopped herself as she looked at Ripple’s wide grin, “Oh go on.”
“Any way her name was Ali. She wasn’t very old, well only a child to me, but she was coming into womanhood among her people. We both spent our days at home helping her mother, Delilah, with chores.” Ellaway looked at him doubtfully, “Alright I talked to her while she did most of the chores. She really was very intriguing. Her people loved metal and have a tradition of making special hand crafted metal fans. They are amazing, I watched her make some. Any way, so like me she was stuck in this city and always wondered what was in the world beyond, the small city was all she had ever known. So I told her about the things I had seen and the life I had led in trade for legends from her people. They call themselves the Silver Warriors. They are talented swords men and make the most precise weaponry in the world. One day she told me a story of a man named Cameron that escaped the city, he had found a tear in the spell that surrounded the city and had squeezed his way through. I never realized how much she hated living there till that day, as she told me the story tears poured down her face and she shook and trembled till finally she cracked and started yelling in frustration.”
Ellaway could see the pain on his face of watching the poor girl’s break down he truly felt for her ache and it touched Ellaway.
“This was the first news I had heard of any one leaving, and I have learned that most legends stand on a grain of truth. So I started looking for the legendary tear. I traced the story as best I could to where it was believe to all happened. I went as far into the invisible wall as I could sliding me hands up against it and follow the wall till finally my hands slipped off the wall into a hole. First thing I did was ran to tell Ali my discovering. I guess that was my mistake, she was so tormented about what to do, I offered her freedom, but here she had family and friends and a life she could never come back to. I persuaded her though. It wasn’t too hard. We decided to leave that night. We packed up and left after her parents had gone to sleep. She had felt so traitorous, this kind of thing was exactly what her father had worked so hard to prevent. He worked so hard keeping everyone safe inside city and she was doing the exact opposite.
We got so close when someone heard us and sent to tell Titus that I was up to something. I guess he made it sound like I had kidnapped Ali. Soon guards were close on our trail and surrounding us. Fortunately Ali made it through the tear before the guards closed in, unfortunately I didn’t. As you can image Titus was not very happy. Delilah oddly enough seemed pleased. Titus wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do with me. He kept me locked in the building he worked in with two guards always standing by. He seemed determined that I had forced Ali to leave, I tried to tell him otherwise but he would never hear of it. One thing to he had to be sure of was that this incident never got to the public. It was his duty to keep the people safe.” Ripple scoffed and huffed under his breath, “Ridiculous. His daughter suffered because of his duty and he didn’t even blink an eye. Delilah though felt very differently, she would come to visit me and bring me hot food. I asked her if she thought as evil of me as her husband and she told me no, that she thanked me for setting her daughter free. How she, so loving and caring, ended up with that stiff man will always puzzle me.
In the end she took pity on me. She came late that night and rescued me. She had a lot of authority being the wife of Titus and being the women of strength that she is that we walked out of there in the dark of night like nothing was out of the ordinary. She brought me to the tear and told me to leave, that she didn’t blame me for any thing, but she gave me charge to watch out after Ali, to make sure she didn’t get into too much trouble. I tried to convince her to leave with us and I could tell she was tempted, but she merely smiled gently and said I love Titus and as much as you will never understand that, is the depth of my love. Poor Ali sat by the wall unsure of what to do with herself. By the time I got to her she was almost resigned to die right where she was. I stayed with Ali for a while till she felt comfortable enough on her own, last I saw her, she had seen enough of the world and settled down not far from here with a husband and had a kid or two. After the Silver Warriors over came me, I knew no more till I woke up here.”
Ellaway sighed, “Where did you get all the bruises from?”
Ripple pointed at his face, “Oh these, well I guess I started talking about where Ali was to the guy that brings me food, and Titus wasn’t to happy to hear that, so he made sure I knew it and that I wouldn’t do it again.”
Ellaway shook her head and looked confused, “I don’t get it though, if he is so made at you why doesn’t he just kill you?”
Ripple smiled, “I told him about my life trapped in my home town that and that it was my one major fear, guess that backfired on me. He knows that this life is my worst nightmare.”
Ellaway suddenly looked up at the door, quite steps sounded from the other side. Soon A dark figure with a small dish in his hand appeared in the door way. The dark figure saw Ellaway and with a shocked face dropped the small dish in his hands and ran out silently. The dish splattered loudly on the floor. Ellaway looked cautiously at Ripple and he simply stated, “You girls always lead me into all kinds of trouble.”
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