Fire Realm

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

When my consciousness returned, I could feel a throbbing pain in the back of my head.  I groaned and opened my eyes slowly.  The world pulsed around me, strangely lit in a low reddish glow.  I could feel the dampness of the earth pressing all around me.  It took me a moment to realize that I had not been underground when I fell.  I tried to turn, examine my surroundings, but my wrists were shackled to a wall, held high above my head.  I glanced down and found that my feet were in the same sad state, bound together tightly with some rough rope.  I turned my head slowly to the side and found a companion.  I blinked as the world spun again and I comprehended who it was; it was Jase.  He hung beside me, his body sagging against his bindings and his head resting uncomfortably on his chest.  His dark hair hung in rain-soaked clumps, covering his face.  I glanced around.

“Jase?” I asked, hoping he wasn’t dead.  

He stirred a bit and lifted his head slowly from its cramped position.

“Callie?  Where are we?” he said weakly.  

“I don’t know where we are...” I said, frowning, “we fell off about halfway through the storm... I remember hitting my head and nothing else.” I said

He remained silent for a moment as he tried to recall it too.  He glanced around the room, taking it all in.  As he turned his head and tried to move away from the wall he grimaced and I noticed his shirt was soaked red all along his forearm.  

“You’re hurt?” I asked

“No duh,” he said with clenched teeth.  

Suddenly footsteps echoed from further down the room and approached through some sort of entry.  I turned to look at who was coming and gasped as the (tall, slimy man entered the room.)  

It was Theron.

I set my teeth and glared as he approached, sliming his way over to me, like a slug.  He took a careful seat on a wooden stool and simply sat there, staring at the two of us.  I stared coldly at the evil man, daring him to speak first.  After our defiance smothered all hope of his being asked the questions, he stood and walked softly across the floor, approaching me.

"Oh Callie," he said, reaching up and stroking my cheek with his rough hand, "do you know how long I've been waiting for this?"

I didn't answer but held my gaze as evil hunger flickered in his eyes. I wanted to shiver and cringe away from the creepiness of it all, but I waited; and bit down hard on his fingers. I clamped my jaws as tightly as they would go before he screamed in pain and pulled away. His face contorted with rage and he stepped forward to hit me. I spat in his eyes. I may have been tied, but I was still dangerous.

I knew I had crossed the line when he wiped the spit from his face and the fury gleamed in his eyes. He strode towards me faster than I could react and hit me with a balled fist, once in the stomach, and once on the jaw. My ears rang and I doubled over as much as my restraints would allow. I tried to breathe and gasped like a beached whale. Well, like a beached whale that was probably in a happier circumstance than I was. It wasn't like the whale was getting punched.  

Jase, who had remained silent up till now protested loudly, "You cur!" he shouted.

Theron ignored the insult and walked back across to his stool, trying to repair his  tarnished pride as best he could.

"I suppose you want to know why I have captured you."

"Because you're a jerk," Jase repeated.

"Thank you. I heard you the first time," Theron said, "I captured you to use you as ransom for the Realms."

I scoffed quietly, "My mother would never surrender the Realms."

Theron raised a questioning eyebrow. "Really? Let me ask you this. Have you never wondered why your mother left the Mountain Realm in the first place?"

My eyes must haven given away my surprise, for he continued.

“Your mother was once the great ruler of the Mountain Realm; until she fell in love.  When your parents decided to start their family, Elizabeth did not want her children to grow up in such a place.  She wanted them to have a chance at a normal life, a chance that she never had.  The two of them ran away together, fleeing all that they had known to find a human village.  Near the outskirts of Allabele, I found them, hungry and worn.  I took them in.  Your father was the wiser and tried to tell your mother that she should not tell me anything.  Yet she insisted that I, their saviour, should know.  They told me the whole story.”

“You probably forced it out of them, tortured them into telling you,” Jase said.  

Theron’s head turned sharply in his direction and glared menacingly at Jase.  

“Shut up, fool boy.  You should be more careful who you antagonize.  Right now I hold power over your very existance,” Theron growled.  Jase clenched his mouth shut, wanting to beat the man to a pulp, but also wanting to live.  

“I knew that if I discovered the location of the dragons and revealed it to the Hunters I would be very highly rewarded.  But that was the one thing your parents did not tell me.  After a while, they realized that I was up to something and went off to find their own house.  I learned, after studying for many years, that a ruler of a Realm who is bound by blood, must always return to their kingdom.  Therefore, despite the fact that you had never seen the place itself, Fate would always ease you back to where you  came.”  

“That’s a lie!” Jase burst out.  I gave him a shocked look, but he had already spoken.  

Theron whirled around and swung out with both fists, hitting him the ribs and the face multiple times until he hung limp and gasped from pain.  

"You should watch out boy.  The only reason I'm keeping you here is for her sake."

"That isn't true.  Why would you do anything kind for me? I'm just your prisoner."

"Good point," Theron laughed. He picked up a nail and dragged it down Jase's arm wound, making him scream in pain.  I screamed at him to stop.  "And this is an even better reason why I have him here.  As long as he is here, I can get answers from you.  I can learn even more than I already know.  I can gain power." Theron's eyes thirsted for satisfaction and control, but my own eyes persisted and held his gaze with a fiery hatred that could not be quenched by anything; anything but death.  

The evil man turned away from me, digging around for something I couldn’t see.  

“That about wraps up our session for today,” he said, turning around with a rag in his hand, “Have pleasant dreams!”

Theron held the awful smelling rag over my mouth, and the world faded in a spinning blur.