Where All My Hope Is

Oh Boy, a Rock

"We're here," Ezra told me as we walked up to a giant rock.

"Oh boy, a rock," I muttered.

Ezra shook his head, "You are hopeless," he told me, while pulling back some thick vines. From a couple of feet away, it would have looked like a solid chunk but up close, you could just make out a slim crack that ran from the top of the rock to the ground.

"Watch and be amazed," he said while tugging at the small crack. In an instant, a solid panel slid away to reveal a dark passage. My answer got caught in my throat. Ezra ignored my shock and ventured boldly into the darkness.

Suddenly a light turned on and Ezra reappeared. I asked, "Why was I with Mr. Plumber for so long when this place existed?"

"Well, two reasons. One we wanted to make sure that you were trustworthy, and it was almost impossible to smuggle you out here without the Fallen Stars finding us."

"Who— Nevermind, where does this lead to?"

Ezra's signature smirk appeared again. "Follow me and find out."

I began to think to myself again. Maybe Ezra and I could become good friends, if only given the chance. I was bored to death having no friends, and had almost forgotten what it was like to have some. My daydreams were quite rudely interrupted by reality.

We came to a fork in the underground tunnel and Ezra stopped. I wasn't paying attention and I slammed right into him. "Watch where you're going!" he snapped while pushing me backwards. His eyes sparkled and I blushed. I must have caught him off guard because he quickly turned away. I could just see that his cheeks were turning a vermilion shade of red.

Ezra took a deep breath and stood up straight. He then tilted back a small panel, under which was a small button. He pressed it and another panel slid open.

I wanted to ask questions, but didn't want to probe his attitude. The other tunnels are probably dead ends. I told myself to soothe my curiosity. We soon came to thick iron doors. Ezra pulled a hairy vine, and the doors opened.

"Fae," he paused. "Welcome to the Adrielan's Guard."

I held my breath and squeezed through the doors. At first I couldn't see a thing, but my eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. The only source of light was a lantern burning idly on a table in a corner of the room. Ezra motioned for me to move forward. I almost tripped because there was a step I hadn't been aware of.

In the middle of the room, there was an old desk. It was covered with papers, maps, candles, and dust. I raised my eyes to the chair.

Sitting tall behind the desk, a teenager sat shuffling through papers, the cold look of a man on his face. He lifted his chin a little and said, "Come forward." Ezra pushed me, but not hard. He kept his hand on my back as we approached the desk. Then, Ezra left and stood next to the young man, facing me.

"Is this her?"

"Yes."

The teenager stood up. "My name is Asher. And you are Fae Cahira?" His voice was shaking, and as I glanced at Ezra, I saw a tear on his cheek in the light of the lantern as he quickly turned his gaze away from Asher.

I lowered my eyes as I said, "Yes."

Asher sat down again. "Take her to her room."

Ezra nodded and led me to a door behind Asher. Grabbing a torch from off the wall, he motioned for me to follow, and shut the door behind us. I could tell he was trying to time the closing of the door with a sob that was rising in his throat, but I could still hear his muffled cry. Again, he kept his hand on my back. When he realized what he was doing, he quickly took it away. I could hear Asher crying softly as we walked farther and farther away. "What's wrong?" I finally decided to ask, my curiosity getting the best of me.

"Nothing," he spat sharply, sucking in his breath.

Before I could say anything else, we walked out of the dark tunnel onto a large bridge. As I surveyed my surroundings, I could see that we were in some kind of a bubble in the mountain. The bridge went straight on to the other side. I was amazed at how beautiful it was. The walls were covered in crystals of all different colors. There were balconies on the sides and bridges through the middle.

Suddenly, two boys that looked about a year younger than me came crashing across the bridge laughing. One of them carelessly crashed into me.

Ezra tried to catch me, but miserably failed, causing all three of us to go tumbling to the ground. This only made the other boy laugh harder.

The boy who had fallen on me clumsily stood up and extended a hand towards me with a nervous grin plastered onto his face. I took it and he pulled me up. "Sorry," he muttered sheepishly.

The other boy grinned at Ezra, "Oooh" he taunted. "Ezra's got a girlfriend!" Both the boys laughed and ran off the bridge, entering one of the tunnels branching oddly from it.

"She is not my girlfriend!" Ezra yelled after them, obviously dumbfounded.

They stopped and turned back towards us, one of them yelling, "Not yet!" Then turned away giggling like teenage girls.

Ezra looked at me apologetically, "I'm so sorry about Ethan and Jason, they are best friends, some of our youngest members, and are always stirring up some sort of trouble."

"Don't be sorry, I haven't seen anyone as happy as those boys in years." I smiled, staring in the direction they had gone.

It seemed to me as if this place was magic. Everyone in it was so happy, so joyful! Even Ezra, who had been crying only moments before, was now happy.

My mouth hung open like a fish out of water, well, until we had to leave the beautiful bubble in the mountain. Ezra was soon melancholy again. Quickly he steered me to the left and then pointed me toward a door, and showed me inside. He glanced away, "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

I nodded, "Goodnight." He didn't say anything and just walked off. "So much for goodbyes," I thought, before feasting my eyes upon the gorgeous room.

I was in a bedroom. There was a bed, a four poster with curtains, and a beautiful dresser along one side, and a great fireplace and bookshelf along another. I approached the bed, and saw there was a lovely dress laid out. Next to it was a nightgown. After gazing around the room and exploring every nook and cranny, exhaustion easily took hold of me, dragging me to sleep the second I hit my bed. The silk nightgown completely forgotten.