Secrets of the Underwater Dome

Chapter 6: The dungeons

Nate sat on a pink cushioned stool and the girl's desk as she tended to his hand. "What's your name?" she asked. "Nate Fairebourne, and yours?" Nate answered charmingly. "Nathalia Abyssal, and may I ask why you're here anyway?" she said a note of accusation in her voice. "I'm, um, here to propose a possibility, to the, um, queen," he said, going red. "Oh, and what did my mother say? She didn't lock you up did she?" She said looking up at him. Nathalia's hazel brown, round eyes gazed into his, and Nate's leafy green eyes gazed into hers. After what felt like a minute Nathalia whipped her eyes away from his to stare back down to his hand. She picked up a normal human-like plaster and peeled off the seal, before wrapping around his and pushing it in place. Before Nate had time to think about what he was saying he said "Are you human?". "Um, yes," she replied, looking at him slightly annoyed. They stood there silently and awkwardly staring at their shoes. Nathalia was wearing gold ballet-shaped shoes with a small lace ribbon, and Nate was wearing dark blue trainers that were drenched in water. "Do you want to get out of here?" She said quickly, Nate hesitated and then said "How?", "I know a way," she replied, smiling a devious smile. Nathalia grabbed a white fabric tote bag and slung it on her shoulder before tiptoeing down the stairs, beckoning for him to follow. Nate obliged and followed her down the stairs and out of the creaking door. She halted behind one of the grand pillars and whispered, "You are here alone right", she sounded like she needed to confirm it before doing something mischievous. "No, I'm here with my two friends and Nate stopped not knowing what to call Barry and Barney "And two elves which brought us here". Nathalia signed and whipped around before running silently back down the corridor

Annalise sat down leaning against the wall with Barney at her and sighed, fiddling with the button on his overalls. They both sat there for a while silently until they were interrupted by a deep voice "Hello you two, fancy a trip down to the dungeons' ' the voice whispered. Both Annalise and Barney turned their heads slowly up to face a beefy, muscular man with a walrus mustache and a grin of gold teeth. He yanked Annalise and Barney up, gripped at the scruff of the necks, and walked them down the corridors and stairs like they were dogs on leashes.

Waylan and Barry followed the guard through the winding passages of the dungeon until reaching a ceiling-high barred sliding door and behind it was a man, a very unwell-looking, thin man. The man had shriveled up dry hair which clung to his head and limbs which were long and dandly. He sat on a bed carved out of sea stone and a blanket that was weaved out of seaweed. It smelt very fishy down here. The man looked up as they approached, his hollowed-out eyes looking them up and down. Waylan shivered, he felt uncomfortable because it felt like a skeleton was watching him. "Your father," said the guard pointing to the man. The man in the cell didn't even question the words that had come out of the guard's mouth. "Um, could we please have some alone time?" Waylan said, swallowing hard. The guards floated away and Waylan looked at Barry. "So I was just wondering, do you know anything about the queen?" Waylan timidly asked. "Queen Abyssal, the woman who trapped me in here?" the man said in a croaky, hoarse voice though this was the first time he had spoken. "Um, yes her," Waylan said, urging Barry to speak. "Fairy Evil Solstice, you know about?" Barry spurted out like a fountain. " Did you just say her name? Well, that sure was brave of you." the man said. "What's your name again?" Wayan asked curiously, "Archie Hamsley, and you are?" "Waylan Thornhill and this is Barry. "Could you tell us more about the evil fairy and Queen Abyssal?" Waylan continued. "All I know is that the evil fairy has a massive evil plan and is taking advantage of Queen Abyssal's ignorance but you didn't want it from me" the man whispered through the bars, "wait who is taking advantage of her ignorance?" Waylan said "I would love to but your time is up '' as the man said guards came from every corner and surrounded the cell. "Time to go little fella'" one guard said grabbing Waylan by the arm. "I don't want to though, I haven't finished talking to my father," Waylan retorted back. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't know you ran this place?" another guard sarcastically said. "Lock him in," another guard muttered. A guard grabbed Waylan's upper arm and held on tightly with an insane amount of grip. He grappled around and at last was pulled to his feet and dragged away.

"Where are we going?" Nate said, running to keep up with Nathalia who was a very fast runner and had done this before. "To the dungeons," she said calmly, "why there" Nate said starting to panic. "Your friends will most likely be there, so it is easier to just start down there," Nathalia said as though it was obvious. Nate followed Nathalia down and down the flights of stairs to the dungeon as though he was some type of servant agreeing to his master's every bidding. They reached the dungeon and Nate stopped. All the guards who were lurking in the hall, rotated slowly round to stare at them menacingly. "He's with me," Nathalia said grandly, "so if you could back off that would be great". The guards stepped aside and Nathalia strolled merrily down the corridor, stopping at one cell and gesturing to Nate. When Nate reached Nathalia and looked into the cell. There, sitting curled up in the corner of the cell was Waylan. "Waylan, what are you doing here?" Nate said unconsciously holding onto the bar. "I came to speak to Archie Hansley to find out more about Fairy Solstice," he said moaning, clearly regretting his life choices. Nathalia went red beside Nate and began to look around at the other cells. "I can't believe my mother locked all these people up" she muttered. "How do I get you out of here?" Nate said pleadingly, staring at Nathalia. Instead of Nathalia's usual adventurous solutions, she stood frozen still, her eyes fixed on a distant cell. She slowly began to walk towards it, each step she took echoed, and each breath she would take would mirror in front of her. "Nathalia?" Nate said, unhandling the bars. "Come here," she said. In the cell she was engulfed with, 2 gnome-like elves sat curled up together, "Barry, Barney!"

"Nate, oh lovely Nate, you saved us!" Barney said smiling, throwing his hands up. Nathalia still stared confused down the dark passage, "If you guys are here" Nate said slowly, "then where's Annalise?" he finished, eyes widening. "Take them her!" Barry wailed, tears rolling down his face. "Where did they take her?" Nate said, eyes wide with panic. "We don't know!" Barney wailed along with his brother. "There is only one place apart from here where they would take her," Nathalia said dryly, "The moat".