The Elf Thief

Chapter 12: Quarrels

Chapter 12 Quarrels

(A/N Two chapters in a row! Yay!)

The only light source in the musky tunnel was the blue glowworms clinging to the ceiling. In Dearekk’s opinion, the passageway was too small, to steep and too slim. All he could do was shuffle forward, trying to keep up with Sonya, who moved through the tunnel as though she had known the path all her life.

            It took a little while, but soon enough, they emerged into a spacious room, completely covered with glowworms. But as soon as Dearekk stood up, he knew something was wrong. When it hit him, he knew that they were in trouble. The only way out was the way they came in.

            Then the door to the passage closed.

            Both Sonya and he were there in an instant. He slammed his shoulder against the now sealed wall, desperate to get out. The girl, Sonya, slammed her fists into the wall, but quickly stopped realizing that it was useless.

            His breathing coming in quick gasps, all Dearekk could do was sit down, and try to calm himself. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on anything but where he was at the moment.

            Small spaces had never really bothered him. When he was younger, he would crawl into the vacant cupboards in the kitchen and listen to the cooks’ conversations. That was until he was caught by a particularly mean cook and told never to come into the kitchen again. No, he could be perfectly happy in small areas. It was places that there was no way out of that scared him more than an ambush of charging elves. He had spent so many hours trying to suppress his fears, overcome them. With many he finally had, but there remained a few that he couldn’t seem to get over. And most involved a memory.

            “What are you doing?” Sonya asked. He could almost feel her eyes staring down at him.

            “Calming down.”

            “Why do you need to calm down?”

            “Because there is no way out of this One forsaken cave!” he uttered through clenched teeth. “Why are you so calm? We. Are. Trapped!” He tried to keep his voice steady but heard it crack a little at the end, betraying some of his fear and panic.

            He heard the clink of someone drawing a knife and his eyes flew open only to see Sonya holding a knife in her hands. Her eyes flitted back and forth across the cavern, her hand shaking. “You mean I’m trapped! You can probably get out of here whenever you feel like it! For all I know this is an ambush!” she let out a strangled laugh. “You left Remaduce for dead, why not me?” she shrieked, panic and anger lacing her voice.

            Dearekk barley had time to doge her knife as she lunged at him. “Why would I free you if I wanted to kill you?” he yelled as he backed away.

            “So you could earn my trust!” she screeched, “And then kill me!” She slashed at him again and he danced away.

            “Sonya,” he pleaded, “you’re not making any sense! Listen to yourself! You have the knife, so how would I kill you? And why would I want your trust if I was just going to dispose of you?” He had to get away from this insane girl!

            But there is no way out! a little voice in the back of his mind taunted him gleefully. You’re just as trapped as she is!

            For a moment, the reminder of his fear made him hesitate and Sonya tackled him. His fighting instincts kicked in and he quickly threw her off of him, knocking the knife from her hands. Rolling across the earthen floor, he grabbed the dagger and crouched down into a fighting position.

            Sonya’s eyes were wild and terrified. Dearekk instantly knew that something was not quite right. But he didn’t care. This girl, this elf, was trying to kill him! It was kill or be killed, and today was not his day to die.

            He glanced around the cavern, his eyes searching for some sort of advantage, something to use in his favor. His eyes landed on the far wall. There was some sort of…word.

He squinted at it, trying to make out the letters, but they kept swimming, making it impossible to read it. Everything else began to fade in and out around him, he soon forgot all about the elf girl trying to kill him and the cave he was now trapped in. All he could think about was the word, slowly coming into focus before him. It consumed his mind, blocking out everything else. He didn’t know what was happening, until unbidden, the word slipped past his tongue, through is lips and out of his mouth.

Then there was pain, an intense, burning pain in the back of his head. His vision went red, and he felt a freezing wind blow through the cavern.

“You dare enter?” a ghostly whisper echoed off the walls. It seemed to freeze cave with a single breath, turning Dearekk’s blood to ice.

The voice chuckled, a low haunting laugh. “Good,” it continued, “I have not had visitors in a long time. And they never stay long.”

Then everything went black.

(A/N Hopefully a bit of a cliffhanger. :D I hope I wrote their fighting well, I was sort of winging it. :P Vote and comment!)