The Dreamer

Chapter 9

It's dark inside. I narrowed my eyes to try and get a better look, but there's nothing. I can't even see my hands when I hold them out in front of my face. "Zeke?" I can hear my own worry in my tone of voice. My voice trembles and I jump and scream when I feel something wrap around my hand. "It's okay, it's just me." I take a deep breath, wishing that we had a type of light to use. I start blushing again when my mind registers that I'm holding hands with Zeke now. A sudden fire ignites within me, burning under the skin of my hand.

Then, out of nowhere, a light suddenly appears. I look around for the source and end up finding my bow glowing brightly. "Are you doing that?" I lift the bow off from around my shoulders and hold it out to look at it. My eyes widen and I wave the bow around and a thick trail of light follows it like a giant glow stick. "What is it doing?! What do I do?!"

"Maybe it has magic embedded with it too. It did glow when you first touched it." I sigh and easily just accept it. I've been picked out from the normal world and thrown into a magical adventure with cursed men, glowing bows, and weird dreams. What is a girl to do with this?

I look down and notice something glowing near Zeke as well. "Zeke, your sword." He looks at me before turning to his scabbard. The small opening it glowing and when he pulls out his blade, it's glowing as well. These sure are convenient. I notice that my bow glows a light blue while his sword glows a bright red. In the glow, it's then that I notice swirls on the blade of his sword as well. It's a similar pattern to mine. "That's amazing," I breathlessly say. Zeke just nods with a half smile.

We look around. We're in the cave obviously but it doesn't look like any normal cave. There are no rocky edges or any stalactites. It's extremely smooth inside. We move forward and see a soft flickering light in the distance. We walk closer and see that it's a lit up part of the cave that almost looks like a room. There a heavy looking door on the other side of the room. "What now?"

"Those who pass the test shall move on. Fail and die," a deep voice rang out. It echoes in the cave. "What's the test?" As my answer, I got deep rumbles and a shaking ground. Zeke held me close to him so that I don't lose my balance. When it stopped, there's a tiled floor where it used to be smooth. "That is for you to find out." Then it was gone. I look at the floor, getting a bad feeling about this. "This doesn't seem like a test. It's just a floor." I see him walk past me and my eyes widen in fear. "No, wait!" He took one step onto a tile before I quickly pulled him away just in time. We both tumbled to the ground and I hear a quick ring of metal.

We look and see that spears were dropped onto the tile where he was just standing. I gulp, imagining him being the one between the spears and the floor. I turn to him to see him looking at me in shock, but he suddenly groans when he tries to move his leg. I glance and gasp at what I see. A spear is piercing through his leg. I scramble to his leg and take a few deep breaths before I jump into action. "I'm going to pull it out. You can grip onto my arm if you need to." But he shakes his head. "I'm stronger than you."

"Doesn't matter. You're bleeding out. Worst that'll happen is a few bruises." I grab his hand and make him hold my upper arm. "I'll make it quick." I use one hand to hold down his leg and the other on the spear. He groans again. "I'm going to count to five," I said and he nods. "One two." Then I pull it out, without finishing the count. He squeezes my upper arm so tightly that I'm scared it just might break. He wasn't lying.

I held back my whimper as Zeke shouts. Words just fly out from his mouth freely. Words I didn't think he'd know. I threw the spear to the side and looked at his leg. There's too much blood coming out. As soon as my hand touches his leg, he hisses in pain and my panic rises another foot or two. "I'm sorry." I look down and without thinking, tear a piece of my dress off and wrap it around his leg. His eyes are squeezed shut as I do and I finish it off with a knot. "You need to be careful. Don't you watch movies?" He finally opens his eyes. He doesn't say anything. He stares at me with a slight look of leftover fear from earlier events, but there's more relief. He blinks  a few times and I become worried that he's hurt somewhere else. "Zeke?" I quickly get up and start inspecting him for any more injuries. "Are you still hurt? Are you alright?" He didn't say anything. Instead, he pulls me in for a hug. My breath hitches and I hold it.