World Of Light (Arula: Two)

Chapter 14

Omar began to pace back and forth in the holding cell. Something didn't seem right. That's what his gut was telling him. He tried to shake the feeling away, but he found it very difficult. From the corner of the cell, the dwarf, Dagner, watched him from beneath his bushy eyebrows. "If you keep that up," the dwarf commented. "You'll create a draft." Omar glanced over at the dwarf, saying nothing.

"Something's wrong." Omar muttered and pressed his face against the small bar window in the door. "It's been hours since we've last seen Karma." At that point, Omar didn't care about the other three sprites in the cell with them. He was in no mood to call Karma by, what they often called it, her stage name. Growling, Omar kicked the wooden door and made his way over to Dagner.

Dagner grunted in agreement. "Aye, but what we do about it? We're stuck here and it's not like we can ask the brutes out there to let us out. Its hoffnungslos."*1 Omar didn't say anything. He kept his hazel gaze on the door as if hoping that Karma was come through and announced that all their problems had been solved and the sprites were free to go. But it didn't happen.

"What do you think happened to her?" The woman sprite asked, whom they've come to know as Vahla. "From what I know about King Bosca is that he likes to make deals and whatever deal he made with the Creator it can't be good." Alastar, the captain, nodded. He pushed himself off from the wall and walked over to door. He pounded on it with such strength that it might've flow off its hinges.

"Oi!" He hollered through the little window. "Where's be the Creator?!" He pounded on the door again until the face of an ogre came into view.

"What?" Growled the ogre, clearly irritated.

"What keeps the Creator so long?" Captain Alastar asked and the ogre snorted.

"Like I know," replied the brute and his face disappeared. The captain back came to his spot with a look of defeat on his face.

"BAH!" Dagner said. "Don't listen to what that grey-skin boulder has to say. He's as dump as a slug with a brain as the size of a pebble." Omar felt his lips twitch into a half smile. Leave it Dagner to make sly comments such as this one. Hours later, the door to the cell opened and a servant came in with a tray of food and water. Omar went over to the tray of food and found a neatly folded paper on it. He picked it up, unfolding it and reading its sloppy handwriting. Omar's face paled.

"What is it?" Nector asked. But Omar shook his head as Dagner came over and picked the letter from his elven friend's hands. The dwarf read it and cleared his throat.

"Apparently," he said. "The king and the Creator had made a deal."

"What is it then?" The captain asked.

"The Creator, and I quote, 'must create a creature that will be able to help my Clan members down in the mines. If she succeeds then the sprites will be freed... if not, the sprites will remain where they are.'"

"So, we're stuck here until the creator creates a creature?" Vahla asked. "Will that's simple enough." Omar shook his head.

"No, it's not," he said. "To create something, it usually takes her months to create, if not a year. Each creature or being she has made takes forever to make, and each one must have great details and have personalities. It's like a child, you can't simply make one child become a hunter, it takes time and patients until that child can hunt and make its first kill." Omar sighed and fell against the wall. "We may never get out of here."

----

Karma had given up on banging on the door hours ago, her knuckles red and bruised. The room the ogre captain had taken to wasn't small, but it wasn't big either. The room contain on small bed at the far, a desk and chair at the corner near the door, a small window and that was about it. After that, the room was pretty much plain. Karma knew that the only other way out of this room was to create a creature that would help find the jewels and gems down in the mines. She growled and flung herself down on the chair. She opened her book to where the drawing of the cat was.

I could use this, she thought, but shook her head. No, I can't. I've already put too much time and afford on this to change it.  So, Karma flipped to the next page and tapped her pencil against its blank canvas. What could she create? Certainly, it has to be something that would suit the ogres taste. The Ogre Clan was one place where not many animals love to spend most of their time at. You'd mostly see reptiles scurry along these parts, and, if you were lucky, some rabbits. Karma growled.

She tapped her pencil furiously on the paper making the dark led spread on the white sheet. Frowning, she swiped at the lead only to make it smear. She was about to erase the mess when an image popped into her mind. Something that she one day looked up on the internet years ago, it was creature. Big and furry. Karma's mind suddenly snapped back to the present, her eyes looking feral. She turned down to the blank page and began to draw.

She didn't know how long or what time of the day it was, but her hands ached, and her eyes had dark circles around them. Karma smiled tiredly down at her book. Rushing to the door, she kicked aside a tray with refreshments on it, something she didn't realize was there, but was probably cold by now. She began to knock viciously on the wooden door. "What?!" Bellowed an ogre on the other side.

"I've finished it!" She yelled. "I've done it!"

*1 "hoffnungslos" ~ "hopeless"