The Witching Hour

Ch. 19

Avalonna

It was nearly noon before Avalonna and Drow had recovered enough from the magic used the day before to wake themselves up. Avalonna awoke first and used the time to change her outfit and prepare herself for the day. She still allowed her hair to be loose and wavy, but now she wore a darker dress that matched it along with a black hood.

"Why the sudden change of colors?" Drow asked with a yawn when he saw her for the first time that day.

"No real reason," she replied,
"Just figured these darker colors would help me not stand out quite as much."

Drow shrugged and laid back in his bed to return to his sleep.

"Drow," Avalonna said with a smile.
"We need to go to the dwarf kingdom today, remember?" She said, zapping his foot with a jolt of green energy.

"Val! When did you learn to do that?" He replied, laughing and rubbing his foot,
"I suppose you are right though, ok let me get ready." He said as he shapeshifted into a new outfit and neater hair.

"It still shocks me that I had no idea that you were a shapeshifter after all that time with you." Avalonna said with a fond smile.

"To be fair, you didn't know shapeshifters existed, plus I had no idea you were a witch either until recently." He said as he got up from his bed.

"Any other secrets you'd like to share?" Avalonna asked with a slight smirk.

"Hmm none that I can think of." Drow replied with a wink.

He started to gather his things and went through his maps and reports one more time. He seemed content and packed them away and after a quick, and overly expensive, breakfast at the inn, went off to get their horses.

"Well that was rude of them, we could have had a day's worth of meals anywhere else but here." Drow complained as he got back on his stallion.

"Yes, but that's what we get for staying in Asterette too long isn't it, dear?" Avalonna replied with a playful grin and mounted her own horse.

"True, I will be glad to leave this wretched city as soon as possible." Drow stated and lead Avalonna to the outer limits of the town.

"So, where do we go?" Avalonna asked.

"Over here." Drow directed and rode over to a small cave closed off with a boulder.

"How are we supposed to move that?" Avalonna asked, slightly confused.

"Why magic of course." Drow replied.
"It shouldn't be too energy consuming this time. I will let your instincts guide you this time." He said as he got off his horse.

Avalonna nodded and got off her own horse and walked over to the boulder. She placed her hands against the rock and began to concentrate and close her eyes.

"Apertus." She whispered, although nothing seemed to happen.

After a moment, the boulder began to shine a pale green and very slowly started to roll out of the way. The ground shook slightly under the weight of the large boulder until it came to a stop. Avalonna and Drow peered into the cave, though they could not see all that far into it. The cave had an unnatural darkness to it, even with the light of day around them they still couldn't see more than 10 feet into it.

"What do we do now?" Avalonna asked, raising her eyebrow slightly.

"Let your instinct be your guide. This is a magical kingdom unlike any you have seen." Drow instructed.

Avalonna nodded and exhaled slowly. She did not know what to expect from these dwarves or their kingdom. What if they were hostile after all these years of isolation?

She slowly approached the cave entrance and ran her hand along the wall. Drow followed behind her as they began to travel deeper into the cave. Try as they might, they could not see any further. Avalonna sighed and touched her necklace softly.

"Lux." She spoke the word gently and her eyes glowed with their the usual pale green energy. Her hands also began to glow with the same energy until they were bright enough for Avalonna and Drow to see into the cave.

"Impressive." Drow commented and followed Avalonna inside.

"Why thank you. Hopefully I find a way to turn it off later." Avalonna replied with a smile.

The two of them walked further along in the cave until Avalonna figured they must have been under the hillside near the roads leading to Astertte. As they walked along, the ground and dirty beneath then began to changes to rubble and then smooth stone. The jagged cave walls began to smooth out as well and get much wider until it eventually opened up completely.

A large open town stood before them, everything built with either stone or some sort of dirt material. Avalonna quickly turned off her light spell as she and Drow looked around. All the structures seemed to be very well made, though how the dwarves accomplished this feat was unknown. The roads and buildings all were lit up with some source of fire as light. It was visible enough to see clearly, though not nearly as bright as the light of day.

"Where do you suppose we should go?" Avalonna whispered to Drow.

Before he could reply they hurt a heavy thud behind them. Avalonna turned and saw a small squadron of 6 armed and shielded dwarves glaring back at her.

"We have intruders... humans." The one upfront spat out. They were all small in height but stocky with wide shoulders and muscular builds. They carried battle axes, hammers, and shields.

"Should we tell the king?" Another one asked.

"I'm not sure, I think we can take him." The leader said and smacked his hammer into the ground hard enough to leave a dent.

"Please, we mean you no harm." Avalonna said, holding her hands up innocently.

"Yeah, we've heard that before, lady." One of the dwarves said as they all drew their weapons.

"Now, put your hands up and surrender or be put down, your choice mudmen." The lead dwarf said.

"Mudmen?" Avalonna whispered to Drow as she slowly put her hands up.

"A Dwarven insult for humans, they consider themselves as strong as stone... and us as weak as mud." Drow whispered back and did as she did.

Avalonna sighed and nodded.
"Please, dwarves, may we speak with your leader? We have urgent news to share." She pleaded as the dwarves put metal gauntlets on Avalonna and Drow. They had unusual and unknown symbols engraved into them but Avalonna believed she could read them if she had more time...

"Why should prisoner scum get to meet out glorious king?" A dwarf asked.

"No, you'll be taken to the holding cells, judged, then most likely executed." Another commented.

"We can't! Drow, please tell them." Avalonna said. She couldn't feel the flow of magic within her as easily anymore and something told her it was due to the gauntlets.

"We will be ok, Val." Drow whispered as the dwarves led them to the holding cells.
"Dwarves are honorable and we've done nothing wrong. They will release us soon."

The way he said it made Avalonna question how sincere his statement was. The dwarves smirked and pushed Avalonna and Drow into the cells, the newest prisoners of the Dwarven kingdom.