The Mearsmaine Chronicles 1 - The Return of the Queen

Chapter 20 - Sometimes, Our Heroes may be swallowed by the Earth

It was a calm morning, the birds were singing outside the window and the sunlight was entering through the windows, but not sharply enough to wound her eyes. The blond girl sighed in happiness: it was so silent, so calm and so normal; if she believed in God, then that had to be heaven... But then something came to remind her that her life had nothing of calm, silent and normal: Lewis jumped on top of it, landing at her side with his cat-like smile, and, in his usual cheerful voice, he said:

'We are going to Thargorlum, Lizzie!' 

Her eyes couldn't keep themselves shut any longer and, with a supernatural effort, Elizabeth opened them. 'What time is it?' She asked in a sleepy voice.

'The sun has just been born!' Lewis went on his four and placed himself above Elizabeth's body, his noce touching hers. 'And so has our dwarf life!'

Lizz rolled her blue eyes at her cousin: if someone was excited abou that journey, that someone was definitely Lewis and he had made a point to let everybody know that. Somehow, the blond boy was convinced that the going to Thargorlum was going to be a massive adventure to the group: he had only vacilated on that belief when they were told that Edmîntor was to go with them, so, they would have someone to stop them from doing any nonsense, which, for Lewis, was all there is in life.

'Can you get off me?' Lizz asked with a yawn.

The elf frowned, but let his back fall to the side of Elizabeth. 'Now, seriously, you have an hour to get ready or Nathaniel will kill us both.' 

Elizabeth turned herself to the other side and hid her face in the pillow. 'I want to sleep.' She let out in a groan. However, the next thing she noticed was Lewis sitting on top of her, basically crushing her hips, and, with a fast movement, she escaped from her own bed and fell down of the floor by doing so. Fortunately for the girl, Lewis also lost his balance and, fractions of a second later, was landing at her side. The girl side gazed her cousin, who was getting up and passing a hand by his butt, a gesture that made both of them let go of a giggle.

Half an hour later, Elizabeth had lost her sleepy mood, while Lewis was going more and more nuts about the trip. By the time they finally got to the front doors, each of them only carrying their weapons, Lizz was trying to stop herself from punching her cousin so that he would shut up for a moment! However, she couldn't punch Lewis just because he was speaking for the whole castle with an utterly loud voice about how exciting it was to get out of the elvish environment, or could she? Well, either way, it was better not to do it... At least, not in front of his parents.

'Good morning.' Elizabeth greeted and, trying to get away from Lewis, she started to walk towards Nathaniel and Nigel, who were both taking care of the horses. 'I think we should knock Lewis unconscient if we want to survive the first day of the journey.'

Nathaniel, who was caressing Myriam's neck, let out of a low groan: obviously, it was asking for far too much to get a nice and complete answer out of that grumpy mouth at that time of the morning, specially when he was taking care of Elizabeth's new horse due to her being the sleeping beauty of the castle. Nigel, however, was always a nicer person: 'I think he would continue talking even if asleep.' He said with a grin.

Lizz smiled and turned to Nate. 'You seem specially bad-mooded today.'

'I'm not exactly looking forward to a nine-day journey to Thargorlum, if I'm being honest.' He answered without gazing the girl. Lizz sighed and was about to give him an agreeing reply when she heard Edmîntor's voice behind her.

'Are we all ready to leave?' The elf asked to the three of them. He too wasn't looking forward to that visit to the dwarves: god only knows that, if he could find an excuse not to go, he wouldn't even think twice. Nevertheless, he could not and he had promised Lawrence and Margaret that he would take care of the younger fokes and he was going to keep that promise.