Part 6

I acualy wrote most of this a while ago.  This is really where the final battle begins, so heads up!

            It was eight hours before anything happened to any of the three of us.  Or perhaps it was only twenty minutes.  It just felt like a long time.

            I sat there, and I almost started to cry.  Not quite though.  It would be too embarrassing.  I had been so close; I could have been the world’s greatest adventurer, world renowned for my expedition to the lost isle.  But I was in a dungeon in the middle of a volcano, captured by a bunch of wimpy faeries.

            I could have been amazing, had the best life, but I was probably going to be killed.  And I didn’t even know why.

            I looked sadly at my paws, fingers laced together in waiting.  I let out a sigh.  I looked up, and looking at the windowless walls and mesh cots, I almost related it to the pound.  And I did start to cry, my eyes exploding with brackish liquid so similar to the stuff that had sloshed upon the deck in the midst of the storm.  And then I remembered: the captain and Lillian!  They were still on the boat/ship/whatever the heck it was, and they might be able to save us yet!  A flame of hope began to glisten inside of my chest, and I hoped so very much that they could help us.

***

            Lillian held onto the wheel for dear life.  She had unbolted it, thus making it so that the boat would not be able to move.  But the captain seemed to have gone a bit insane.

            “Give me the wheel!” he roared at her.

            “I’m not leaving until the others get back,” she said timidly.

            “Why should you want to wait for them!?” he continued shouting at her, “They left you behind!”

             “We have to wait for them,” she said defiantly, “we aren’t risking anything just staying here on this boat.”

            “No,” he said, “but I want to get out of here!”

            “Oh, stop acting like a baby,” she told him, “we can stay anchored here for as long as necessary.”

            “Give me the wheel, or else I will push you off of this boat!” he shouted at Lillian.

            “You would not!” she exclaimed, now a bit alarmed, and she began backing away towards the hatch.

            “Then give me the wheel!” he shouted at her.

            Timidly, at first, Lillian began giving him the wheel.  But, since he was a good seven feet away from her and she did not really want to get thrown overboard, she threw it at him, and hit him squarely in the head.  He slumped to the ground, unconscious.

            “Oh my!” exclaimed Lillian, hands fluttering to her mouth, “Now what am I to do?”

***

            My face fell as I realized that they had no way to get to the island, since they were anchored off of the island without the rowboat.  I felt my self shaking as I realized how hopeless we were.  And I still needed an explanation.

            “Kid,” said Roxton, and I looked up at him, “You did your best.  We might not be able to get out of here, but I’m glad I at least got to come back to this island.  It was my first real big adventure from when I was younger.  But just to think that it’s the secret hideout of a bunch of faeries,” he shook his head, “It feels like a stupid way to go.”

            “Yeah, well, you’ve at least done something in your life,” I told him, “I mean, you’ve discovered temples in Gerapiktu, you’ve went through a time warp, you’ve discovered Moltara for goodness sake!  And I haven’t even ever done anything, because every time I try, something always goes wrong.”

            “Well,” said Clara, and I could tell there was a hint of annoyance in her voice, “instead of wallowing in your own self pity, maybe one of you could, I don’t know, help me with this?” and I looked over at her.  She sat on her knees near the door as she picked the lock with a hairpin.

            Roxton grinned, and so did I, and we both ran for the door as we heard the lock click. 

            “Okay, so maybe we should check to see if there are any guards patrolling the hallways, and then we can formulate a plan to esca-”

            “No time for that!” exclaimed Roxton as he burst through the cell door, and practically into a rather large Darigan Chomby.

            “Sound the alarm!” she wailed (yes, she, and she had a rather high pitched voice), “Prisoners from cell 852 have escaped!  Sound the alarm!”

            Clara whacked her forehead, quite annoyed.  “Really Roxton?  We’re just going to skip through the dungeon and hope we don’t run into any of the guards?  Really?”

            “Keep picking the locks,” he told her as he began running towards the exit, where there were quite a few guards.

            “Ugh,” she groaned, “May, can you pick these instead?”

            “I dunno how,” I told her innocently, “if I did, I wouldn’t have spent so much of my life in the pound.”

            Her eyes got huge.  “You’re an orphan?”

            “Yeah, I thought you knew that already,” I told her, “anyways, what’s so important about it?”

            “That makes much more sense!” she told me, but then she looked over my shoulder, “May!  Watch out!” and a Magma Lupe wearing a guard’s uniform came up from behind me.  I whirled around, and ducked when I saw him try to bring down a rather large stick on my head.

            As the stick hit the ground, I grabbed it and wrenched it out of the Lupe’s paws.  Using it, I whacked him in the knees and he fell to the floor.  I whirled around, just in time to see Moht, Kerlie, Jordie and Gaviella sprint out of a nearby cell, and follow Roxton down the corridor.  Still holding onto my stick, I sprinted along after them, and it looked like we might escape yet.

***

            “So,” muttered Yyro as she looked through the magic window that floated in mid air.  It was about 23.65% more accurate then a crystal ball or a magic mirror, as windows were much easier to enchant.  “It seems that we have yet another newcomer to this island.  And she has been here before,” her voice, though it was confusing with its odd way of never being defined, seemed full with tension to Jessalia, “You have met her before.”

            Jessalia’s mind was whirling to find who it might be, but it stopped at a certain earth faerie.  “Illisiy,” she practically whispered, “She has returned.  But why?”

            “The child,” Yyro said, and though Jessalia could not see her face, she new that Yyro must have been nervous, “is already here.”

            “But what am I to do?” pleaded Jessalia, now desperate.

            “The child is in the dungeons, but has just escaped,” Yyro told her, “eradicate her.”

            And so, with a sweep of her blood red cape, Jessalia left the throne room for the dungeons, unsure of whom she would encounter.

***

            And I bumped straight into a really really tall faerie.    Well, I mean, that was the first thing I noticed about her.  She was really tall, with crimson coloured hair and dark eyes.  Her skin was pale white, and she wore a burgundy cape over her shoulders.

            She raised her eyebrows at me.  “Not quite what I was expecting,” she muttered to herself, and with a louder, more confident voice shouted, “Prepare to duel!”

            “Uh,” I said, as she began gathering magic in the palm of her hand, “What?”

            The magic dissipated as she looked at me.  “What do you mean “What”?”

            “Well, what exactly do you mean by duelling?  As in, magic duelling?”

            “I seem to have the wrong child,” she said, and shook her head, “Show yourself!” she shouted, her voice echoing about the dungeon.

            And nothing happened.

            I glanced over her shoulder and noticed that everyone else had stopped.  They were looking at me, some fearfully, some confused, and a certain Lutari just plain annoyed. 

            The faerie looked back at me.  “Perhaps I am right,” and she paused, “but perhaps I am wrong.  Are you not the one who has “saved the life of another”?”

            “On which occasion?”

            “And one who has “spent her life in loneliness?”

            “More or less, I guess.”

            “And one who will “suffer great pain”?

            “Uh,” I mumbled, finding this last one rather disconcerting, “I dunno?”

            She sighed, and proceeded to blast me with a ball of powerful magic.  I shouted as I flew backwards into the wall, back colliding first.  Dizzily, I stood up and shook my head.  Wincing as I opened my eyes, I found that the faerie had left, seemingly in a hurry.  I saw her flourish her cape as she sprinted down the hallway.  I shook my head a bit, convincing myself that I was absolutely fine.

            “Okay!” said Clara as we neared the end of the dungeons, “Judging by the positioning of the guards, they are currently on the second shift of the day, each of which is four hours long.  They are currently into the eighty-sixth minute of said shift, positioning about three of them right outside this door.  They are all probably carrying-”

            “Easy peasy,” grinned Roxton, and burst his way through the door.  “Large stones!” Clara shouted as one of them fell onto his head.  Roxton slumped to the ground, and a faerie Korbat flew by, cackling loudly.

            “Roxton!” she shouted, and quickly ran over to him, “Can you hear me?”

            “Yeah,” he said, and pushed himself up with his elbows, “I think I’m okay.”

            I leaned on the wall, my head still spinning.  I couldn’t really see straight, but I told myself over and over again that I was absolutely fine.

            “Duck!” shouted Jordie, and we all ducked out of the way (well, all of us that were standing up) as a large boulder tied to a vine swung over our heads.

            “Don’t stand up!” shouted Clara, and we all kept running.  I felt my feet pounding on the floor, felt my knees bending, felt me head spinning as we ran.  Then I fell.

            “Keep going!” I shouted to Moht as he turned around, “I’ll be okay!”  I collapsed there, and glanced up above me.  Easily ten boulders were swinging back and forth across the ceiling, the air around them blowing my hat back and forth.

            I let out a huge puff of air, and rested my head on the ground.  But only for a second.  Then, mustering all of my strength, I pushed myself up, and proceeded to crawl in the direction everyone else was running.

***

            Jessalia narrowed her eyes at the earth faerie.  The two of them began circling each other, preparing for the battle that would follow.

            “So,” said Jessalia, “We meet again.”

            The earth faerie laughed, “Oh Jessa, you know that we shall meet again time after time.”  Jessalia cringed at her old nickname.  Back before the time warp… but she thrust the memory from her mind.

            “So,” Jessalia asked her nemesis, “what have you been doing for the past twelve years?”

            “I have become a guardian faerie,” the earth faerie told her, all seriousness.

            “I doubt that,” Jessalia snorted, “who have you been guarding?”

            “The Huntress,” Illisiy stated simply.  Jessalia drew in a deep breath.

            “You mean to say that you have been guarding yourself?”

            “Oh no,” the earth faerie said, “You just passed her and her family.”

***

            As I continued crawling under the swinging stones, I heard a loud cracking noise up ahead.  I looked up, and saw a falling stone.  Then came another, and another.  The vines were breaking; I realized, and hurried onward as fast as I could.  Well, I mean, crawling isn’t exactly the fastest mode of transportation, but what choice did I have?

            I could see everyone else further up ahead, and tried to catch up with them.  That’s when they hit a wall.

            “What are we supposed to do now?” I heard Clara ask over the crashing stones.

            “We have to find a door!” Roxton shouted, and they all looked around frantically for one.  As I crawled, stones pounding all around me, I searched for a way out as well.  We were in a simple hallway, stone walls and floor, and when I looked up to try and see the ceiling, I saw…a door.

            “Guys!” I shouted over the crashing stones, “The way out is up!”  But no one seemed to hear me.  I looked at them frantically, trying to figure out how to get their attentions.

            Which was when I saw a boulder about to break.  And it was right on top of someone.

            “Clara!” I shouted, and immediately got up and ran to her.  I pushed both my pain and her out of the way, and just in time.

            “Ahh!” she shouted as she fell out of the way and onto the ground.  Face up.  And so she saw the door.

            “I see a way out!” she shouted over the boulders, and apparently she had a much louder voice then I, since everybody looked straight at her.  She pointed up, and so everyone looked up at the door.

            It actually looked like a door; I mean, one would expect a trapdoor type thing, but it actually looked like a door.  Doorknob and everything.

            Jordie shrugged, as if to gesture that he had no idea how to get up there.  I looked back up at it, as uncertain as the next pet on how on earth we were supposed to get up there.

            That’s when Kerlie had an idea.  He jumped off of the ground, and landed on one of the swinging stones.  He swung back and forth, hanging on with his tail, so much that I started to get even dizzier.  Then he jumped to a higher rock, and a higher rock, until he was almost at the ceiling.  Before all of this happened, we all took the hint and got onto our own rocks.  It wasn’t as easy as it sounds; those things were moving pretty fast.  I hung onto the vines for dear life, but I eventually made it to the top.  Kerlie had already opened the door and popped through, and I followed him quickly.

            I popped up into pitch darkness.