The Five [EDITING]

Chapter Eighteen: Eggs

VENNY

   The staircase was only a few feet further then that anti-climatic trap. The ladder not ten feet after that, set into the stone, just as Uncle Jack said it was.
   At the top, it was slightly brighter and after walking only a few minutes, it seemed to become blinding.
   "Is that...?" Alie scrubbed at her eyes.
   "The Chamber of Gold." Geacob said in a whisper. Of awe or fear I could not tell. We walked toward the light through a wave of heat that burned my lungs.
   The light was so bright that it came at us like a physical force when we turned the corner, literally knocking us back so we stumbled into the semi-darkness, rubbing our eyes as if they had been burned. We all gasped and blinked repeatedly at each other in such a way that it would have been hilarious had it not hurt so terribly. Finally, our eyes had adjusted enough that we risked peeking back out, squinting through the tears.
   The chamber was huge, with mirrors all over the curved ceiling and glass orbs that shot beams of light onto charcoaled stone and the several eggs laying about under the beams. The eggs were scaled in shades of yellow and orange which reflected even more light all over the room, making the chambers look, in fact, like it was made of gold. Scattered around, were papery scales husks. Shredded skin, I realized. Like snakes.
   "Don't see no dragon." I whispered, looking straight ahead at the wide tunnel a dragon could fit through perfectly, wondering how good their hearing was.
   The heat was so terrible and the light so strong I went back into the shadows, slightly dizzy. The others followed, grasping for their bladders. I did the same, longing to lean on something but the walls were simply too hot.
   "We have to get out of this heat." Alie said hoarsely, hands on her knees. It looked like she was about to pass out.
   Even Loryn looked ill. "Which way is north?"
   "That way." Geac, Hark, Rich and Alie all pointed, but Hark pointed just a little more to the left then all the others.
   "It's that way." I said, agreeing with Hark. "Trust me, he's never wrong. You're all pointing east."
   "Alright." Alie said, having seen Harks ability just after she first met us. He'd been sick with fever to the point of having hallucinations, yet he'd pointed us directly west. "We all go out and head straight to the passage. Quickly and quietly." She weaved a bit on her feet. "Now, please."
   The heat. The heat was so terrible. Geac lead us out, then Hark who I made sure went in front of me. I went out just behind him.
   I have never felt such heat before. It was absolutely sickly. With watering eyes, we weaved through the eggs and under the papery skins, stumbling along. Hark dropped to his knees and threw up suddenly, and just for a brief moment, the heat was so terrible that I very nearly kept going on without him. That moment passed quickly though, and I grabbed his arm and pulled, Ritch grabbed the other arm though I didn't notice until Hark was suddenly much lighter.
   But I seemed to have used the last of my strength trying to get him moving. I felt the stone beneath me sway and my knees hit the ground hard.
   "Up." Loryn's voice was in my ear. "I can't carry you, idiot. Get up." She was yanking at me hard and somehow, I found the strength to stumbled blindly to my feet. "Keep going." She said. "Keep going. Almost there. Almost..."
   I fell again and this time, I was passing out and I knew it. I was dying, just like that, I was dying.
   I was being cooked alive.
   "Where's Alie?"
   Was that Geacob?
   "Get up, Venny."
   "Alie?"
   "Get up, stupid Tarkan! Get up!"

LORYN

   In Florn, at the height of summer, eggs were often cooked for supper instead of during the time we broke our fast because eggs meant no fire needed to be lit beneath the stove. Instead, eggs were cracked over a flat, black rock and left in the sun for ten minutes or so under the hot, Florn sun.
   I often took walks under that very same sun, dressed in several layers of skirts. As the sun cooked the eggs, I picked flowers under it, and if my mother was not near enough to hear, I would sometimes dare to hum under my breath. Once, it was so terribly hot that the cobblestone streets were vacant of people and I had risked dancing in twirls down the street, the scent of cooking eggs around me.
   Heat bothered me very little.
   But in this chamber, I felt like one of those eggs, cracked open and exposed to the heat to cook and broil. My lungs literally hurt as I sucked in the burning air. My lips had already been dry, but now they felt like if I were to attempt a smile, they would crack open. My leathers beneath my feet felt like they were quite possibly melting as they were much too soft and seemed to stick to the stone.
   But the rest had it worse.
   Geac had collapsed just inside the passage and Venny, just before it. Ritch literally dropped Hark onto the passage then collapsed himself, passing out instantly. I grabbed Venny by the undershirt and started dragging him, too.
   "Where's Alie?" Geacob mumbled once again, lifting his head, then dropping it back down.
   I stumbled. "Get, up, Venny." I said, desperately. Please. I was in the passage, just a little more...
   "Alie?" Geac mumbled again but this time as if in sleep.
   "She's right here." I snapped, even as I dropped Venny inside the passage.
   But... wait...
   "Alie?" I called, squinting around. I saw her form laying flat about twenty feet back and cursed loudly. "Stupid northern girl!" I shouted hoarsely at her but stumbled back out into the light.
   My feet wavered, as did my vision, but I kept going until I dropped to my knees a couple of feet from Alie. My hands fumbled for the water bladder at her waist as mine was out and dropped the cap in my hurry to open it. I skipped drinking it and just poured it over my face. The water was hot, but not as hot as the air around me and it cleared my head enough to get to my feet and grab her arm. It was dry now as there was no more sweat in her system to bead out.
   Dragging her back was done in a wave of blurry, dreamlike dizziness. Twice I fell to my knees and threw up whatever water I had in my stomach, and once I fell to my hands as well, nearly passing out. The only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that if I stopped, I was dead and so was Alie... if she wasn't dead already that was.
   "If you're a corpse, I hate you." I mumbled and felt my dry lip crack open as I spoke, causing blood to dribble down my chin. Desperate for any liquid, I sucked at my lip but my own blood seemed to absorb back into my system before it could reach my throat. Before I could even taste the salt of it.
   I fell inside the passage, literally tripping over Venny and landing on my elbows hard enough that the pain cleared my head again.
   Was that... water?
   I knew many who spoke of going to the deserts across the seas and thinking they see water, only to find that the water was moving away from them as they walked toward it. For a moment, I lay frozen on the burning stone, wondering if this very thing was happening to me right then. It didn't help that after the light of the chambers, the passage looked black except for that annoying spot of light that was burned into my retinas. Still, real or not, I crawled forward blindly until my fingers touched slowly flowing water.
   It was real.
   It was not hot, but it was far from cool. Yet, it could have been coated in a layer of ice for all the relief it gave me and I ducked my whole head in, then let myself slid in like a playful otter, keeping my fingers on the ledge just enough to keep me steady in case it was deep.
   It was deep. My feet didn't touch the bottom. Still, I stayed emerged in it, so relieved at the lack of heat that tears prickled my eyes and washed away with the gentle flow, until I began to feel panic for breath.
   I gasped in hot air painfully and dragged myself onto the ledge again. The air was just as hot as before of course, but my mind was clearer now and my eyes less sore. I looked at the five people sprawled across the burning floor of the passage. I needed to get them past the pool. But where did we go?
   There was a wall on the other side of the pool, I saw, now that my eyes had adjusted to the lack of blinding light. I saw no other direction. Had we taken the wrong passage?
   Then I remembered Uncle Jack mentioning that the dragonfire (the dragon! How had I forgotten about the dragon!) couldn't get past the tunnel. Did we go under the water?
   I slid back in and felt blindly on the wall beneath the water. I had to swim down a bit, but three feet under... yes... yes, there was a place to go. I swam back and pulled myself up on the ledge.
   Hark first. I decided. Then: No, Alie first.
   I went to Alie and started dragging her again even as I glared at her, this time with more strength than before. I rolled her into the water by pushing her on my knees and she came awake so quickly that I jumped back, stumbled, and hit my head on the stone floor painfully.
   Alie spluttered and gasped and choked on water, even as she started drinking it blindly. "W-what happened?" She asked hoarsely after a moment, then she saw the others. "Geac!" She scrambled out of the water and weaved weakly over to him.
   "We need to get Hark out first." I said.
   She looked around and I saw that fear leave her eyes to be replaced with that unnerving calm she had. She nodded firmly, then went to Hark and took an arm. Together, we managed to get Hark into the water where he woke but more groggily than Alie had. We had to swim him over to the other side ourselves as he was too weak to do so, and roll him up onto the ledge before going back for the others.
  We managed to stir Geac by dumping water on him. A good thing too, seeing as he was much too heavy to pull. Alie managed to get him to crawl blindly to the pool of water himself so he could revive himself further. While he did that, Alie and I pulled Venny into the water but Alie stumbled once again and could barely get up, the heat already becoming too overwhelming for her and so I forced her onto the other side before I was forced to save her again or something.
   Geacob and I dragged Ritch to the water together and then we all went to the other side of the wall where it was still hot, but noticeably cooler. Alie and Hark had passed out again already, with the hands in the water as if they'd fallen asleep while cupping it and bringing it to their faces. Venny had his feet in, even as he bent over the edge drinking greedily, but he looked ready to pass out too.
   I drank some more but my strength was gone and Ritch had to help me onto the ledge where I instantly fell into an exhausted sleep.

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A/N: Short chapter for me, I know, but leaving it off right here! Next chapter tomorrow :-)