Luminari

Chapter six

I was convinced everything was done for when suddenly the room was filled with an eerie pink light. It was blindingly bright, I hid my face in my arms and squeezed my eyes tight as the room temperature raised to above a hundred and twenty degrees in just a few seconds. The light singed my skin, and I felt myself getting sun burnt all over. All around I could hear the cries from the swamp creatures. I peeked behind me and saw that they were all on fire, running back to the shelter of their tar pit.

"Phooey!" I heard a woman with a deep voice call out, "Are you alright sugar?"

I looked up to see a two-foot-tall woman just as wide as she was tall, her nose large and round like a tomato with extremely pointy ears like an elf. Her skin was light pink and extremely wrinkly, her eyes were a dark yellow and her hair was orange and curly sticking to her sweaty face. She was wearing dirty clothes, big sturdy boots, thick leather gloves, and the kind of hat coal miners wear with the little light in the middle.

"Thank you!" I said falling over again and continuing to cough.

She helped me off the ground and patted my back then she pulled a small flask out of her pocket and told me to have a sip. The liquid was thick, green and tasted like grass, but it helped me calm down and got me to breathe normally again.

"Thanks," I said handing the flask back and wiping my mouth off.

"What's a little boy like you doing down here, anyway?"

"I got lost trying to find my way out when," all of a sudden I noticed Seth wasn't in the room and started to panic.

"Seth?" I shouted looking around in circles for him, he didn't catch on fire did he?

"Honey your dog is fine he's back through here," she took my hand and lead me out of the room.

"You wouldn't believe how many people get stuck down here, I must rescue four, no five a week, not counting all the animals I come across."

"Wow so you really know your way around?"

"Of course I know my way around? I'm a miner, I've lived in these caves since I was just a baby girl."

"You don't get lost?"

"Nah I got a built-in map," she said knocking on her helmet.

"What about those creatures aren't you scared of them?"

" I ain't scared of no hungries, all you need is a little pink crystal it wards them off like a snake to a frog, just be careful you don't get burned, those things are hot!"

"Yeah, I know," I said rubbing the slightly brunt skin on my arms." So why are they called hungries?"

"Because they're always starving obviously, they were put down here by the queen who cursed them, no matter how much they eat they'll always be starving."

"That's terrible, why would the queen do such an awful thing?" I shuttered to think that the queen we were talking about was the same one who took my baby sister.

"Because she can, she's got to enforce the laws of the nation and if you break the laws then you've got to be punished."

"It just seems a little extreme."

"You're not from here, are you?"

"No, I'm from the human world."

"Don't get many visitors from up there no more."

"Why not?"

"After the war things started to go sour, lots of monsters and dangerous creatures started showing up, life for the general public has been on a downward slope for a while now. Hasn't affected me though I still got my little crabies to help me," she said picking a crab off the wall with her bare fingers then sucking it out of its shell, storing the shell in her pocket.