Kami's courage - A Born of Shadow Fanfiction

4 - Finding the light

“Whoa... no offense, cousin, but you look a little weird.” Yasmin commented.

“... None taken, it's definitely weird...” Kami said.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, thinking that she wanted her own eyes back. She opened them again, and glanced at her reflection. Brown.

“That's better,” Yasmin said.

“Can't say I disagree,” Kami said. “But we still have one problem : how do we get out of here?”

As if to be even more unhelpful, the torch fizzled out at that exact moment. But Kami's scarab lit up again.

“It's like it can hear or see what's going on or something...” Chris said, staring at the bright light.

“You know, Chris, it would hardly surprise me if it did.” Liam said, resting a hand on the small boy's shoulder.

“Okay, let's try and see what we can do with this gate...”

Kami and he stepped closer to it. Unlike their shadow chains, it was made of solid metal. No light would get through that.

“Hm... back to old school, I guess,” Liam said. “Samuel, come here.”

“What? I don't usually let people boss me around.”

“Oh, quit being so high and mighty and get over there!” Yasmin cut in, shoving him forwards.

“Look,” Liam said, pointing outside the cell. “The gates are half-pin barrel hinges. All we need is enough leverage to get it off them and we'll be home free.”

“But this thing looks like it weighs a ton, Liam,” Kami pointed out, stepping next to him to look too.”

“We just have to lift it high enough to knock it over.” Liam said. “Samuel, give me a hand.”

They each stood on one side, and pulled upwards. They pulled and pulled, but the gate didn't want to move.

“... It's too heavy for just us...” Samuel panted.

“Why don't we all try together?” Yasmin suggested. “We'd double the lift power.”

“It could be dangerous...” Liam began.

“Liam, we appreciate the solicitude, but we're not made out of sugar, we can handle lifting metal,” Kami said.

Liam sighed. Why was he even trying? She was as stubborn as an Egyptian camel.

“I guess it can't hurt... But Chris, you stay back. You'd only hurt yourself.”

“... Okay...” he said, though he didn't seem thrilled.

Alexander the Great was worried. That was a feeling he deeply loathed experiencing, and fortunately it had only happened to him on a few occasions. But the fact remained that he was uneasy. What he had sensed had been terrible. Powerful, and mysterious. And Alexander hated what he didn't recognize or understand. He needed to find out more about this power. But how? He couldn't identify it and thus couldn't have Zaynah look in books... what should he do? This power was clearly a threat and Alexander the Great could not and would not tolerate any threats to his ambitions. He half had a mind to send Zaynah's shadow minions out to search the area and see where this energy was coming from. But Zaynah hated him using her “toys” and it would just be a waste of time and energy. He would find out his own way. He had waited this long, he would not let anyone or anything interfere.

“Oh, do stop worrying,” Zaynah said impatiently. “With your knowledge and my power, we cannot be defeated. You give me headaches with your pointless panic attacks.”