Sword of Flames [Book I] - {#Wattys2017}

Chapter 24 - The Five Ghosts of Etherlond Cave

Chapter 24 - The Five Ghosts of Etherlond Cave

And there she was in another dark tunnel.

Levana was getting sick of not being able to see her surroundings; she did not fear the dark, but had actually gotten quite annoyed by it. She sped walk through, only holding the rock wall for balance every once in awhile when she needed it.

The girl at the moment could only hope that she wasn't over analyzing things. Maybe the song said only "Aboves;" it even sounded like a known folk song to them. If it happened to other species, they would not care enough to list them out. But at the same time there could be no mistake. Because there were no Earthians in The Above anyways, she doubted that the curse was made for her as well. I guess I'll have to find out, she assumed.

But the invisible barrier the old woman talked about was a physical reminder that there was no way out of it. All of the mistakes she made had come to haunt her there in the Dagalda, and if she could not get out she would be stuck regretting those choices for the rest of eternity. That itself made her even more determined to find the exit.

As she placed her hand on the damp rock once again, she froze in realization. She patted the rock repeatedly as if she had never felt such a material before.

Could it be? she wondered as she began breathing out of her mouth.

The girl dug into her memories to the time she was at the king's palace. She envisioned the opulent dining table and the large man sitting in the middle with his son and accomplices to the sides of him. She could again smell the food, feel the purple vegetable she had loved so dearly, and hug the warmth the sun provided from the wide window at the end of the room. Levana remembered everything.

Then, their conversations came into mind. She clicked her mental "fast forward" button and stopped on the last day of her presence there. The words from the king's mouth came to her so clearly.

The swords fled to a place that is dominated by their element.

The caves and tunnels containing rock walls, ceilings, and the like dominated anything else in the Dagalda. And then the teenager reminded herself of the second part of the conditions of the Element Swords, verbatim.

They hide themselves in locations that they know the average being will have extreme trouble retrieving them in.

Indeed, Dagalda was a place where the average being could not thrive. The girl began jumping up and down in the dark, not caring about her surroundings or the chances of getting hurt. It all made sense! The Sword of Earth had to be there somewhere!

"Of course!" she shouted. The Earthian thanked Berrithin for making her come down there; for once, the tides were in her favor. She kept going with a new fire in her heart, but it was quickly extinguished when she could not feel the metal of the sword the king gave to her.

"No," she denied. The teenager patted her pants pockets and shirt as if the tall weapon would somehow be found in those areas. When it was official that she had forgotten her sword in the pile of ship remains, she sighed heavily.

"After all that trouble I ended up losing it on my own accord," she whispered to herself. Luckily, the tunnel was not as long as the former one, so she did not have the time to scold herself.

She entered a shell-shaped cave that fanned out at the end. Five different entrances greeted her on the opposite wall, one right next to the other as if they were set up to confuse the person who dared to come forth. She walked over and attempted to glance inside each of the entrances, but she was only greeted with the same blackness that she saw in each of the passageways. There were even more candles that lit up the room, the wax sticks placed in between each entrance. The source of lights that seemed to be neatly placed in the strategic areas of Dagalda continued to irk her.