Darkness. That filtered through Freezia's mind before she stirred. Feeling her shoulders, she felt that her clothing was badly torn, except for her cloak. That cloak had the power to conceal her from enemies when she wished. It concealed her now, but more from cold and darkness than enemies.
Drip, drip. water droplets were falling into a pool by her side. Moving her hand, she felt a gradual decline in the height of the rock. As memory flooded back, she regained her hearing fully. In the distance she could still hear the rumble of the whirlpool, and on her other side the swift, deep waters of an underground river sped by. She had washed up on an island of rock in the riverbed.
"Oh - oh - oh!" came a groan nearby, recognizable as Vialla. Using the powers of her light seal, Freezia lit up the cavern. The deep, dark waters rushed by on either side, but there was a natural arch of sandstone over one side of the river.
Vialla blinked at her, and held up her water seal. "A lot of use it was," she muttered.
"The seals grow weaker. The light I make now is weaker than before." Freezia staggered to her feet and felt the bruises all over her body. "I don't feel so good."
"You don't look so good," Vialla retorted, wincing. "But I know what you mean." Somehow managing to get her feet underneath her, they crawled across the arch.
Freezia looked back. "I wonder what happened to those others."
"Don't. I think they're dead."
They skipped over puddles until they reached a sort of underground cliff.
"What - what - "
To either side, the cliff dissapeared in darkness. In all actuality, they were walking along one step in a giant staircase. To their left, the underground river curved around and poured over the cliff, into a series of smaller waterfalls. The edges of the 'stair's were jagged and sharp as steel. Freezia quickly located a portion of one that had broken, causing a pile of debris to pile on the second step, making them a sort of rocky 'ramp'. "Might as well," she said, looking at it. Vialla shrugged. So far on this mission, all they'd managed to do was get themselves lost in the honeycombed passages of Landinarre, get attacked by unending and almost unrealistic hoards of orcs and goblins, get sucked down a whirlpool and narrowly miss floating over a giant waterfall and get killed once and for all.
"Yeah." Their voices didn't even echo in the giant cave. It was large enough to hold two or three star destroyers end-to-end, and a third that deep.
Freezia leapt nimbly down the broken lip of rock, followed closely by Vialla. In this fashion they ran for several hours at least, maybe even six. Finally, they reached a level place at the bottom, which sloped down to an archway to another, much smaller cavern. Several underground streams followed either side of their path. After that cavern, there was another, where it spread out again into amazing vistas. "The entire plains must be honeycombed," Vialla commented, running her fingers over the rough sandstone walls. Freezia had found among her remaining things the small light crystal she'd made years before. Captured in the gem was a flame imperishable, which lit the area as a floodlight. She'd set it in a staff of wood cast up beside them, and it lit the entire area. They suddenly stopped, and took a deep gasp. A wall faced them, a wall with a mural of a war, drawn not long before! It showed orcs being driven back, by a vague figure holding what looked to be a disc of some sort.
"An elf!" Freezia exclaimed. Vialla nodded and pointed to something.
"Look!"
The words were printed there, a clear warning. In orcish, dwarvish, elvish and common tongue. 'Do not pass. Death waits for those who pass this mark.'
Freezia brushed it with her fingers, eyes thoughtful. "We mean no harm. Surely whoever it is will let us enter."
They looked at the arched doorway, cut from the limestone and carved with many runes. "Whoever did this had a lot of time on his or her hands." They walked through, and found themselves under the unwavering mark of Reon.
"Did you read the sign?" The voice stung like a hornet.
"Surely you don't mean to harm friendss."
Reon put up her bow. "I knew you were not orcs. I spotted you long before, and followed you from the falls. I took a short cut, though. Welcome to my caves."
~~~~~
Was that good, Darrions?
