Enter Abyss

Chapter 11; The shadow kingdom.

Minutes seemed to pass by in the length of years as Pip strained to hear any more screams. They had stopped a moment ago and now she wondered if whoever it was was dead.

She wanted to kick down the bars of her cell, fight the guards guarding them, and find whoever it was that had been screaming just to make sure that it wasn't Archer.

"LET ME OUT!" she yelled for the hundredth time, her throat nearly going raw, "YOU'LL BE SORRY YOU EVER PUT ME IN HERE! I'M PIPER BRAM! THE MOST FEARED EXPLORER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!"

"Pip, I don't think it's working."

Piper sighed. WHY did Cogs have to be so pessimistic all of the time? Her plan was working BRILLIANTLY and she could sense that the guards were close to cracking. "Cogs, I am going to need you to shut up if we are to survive." she explained as if speaking to a three-year-old. "Do not interrupt my ingenious plan--"

"Ingenious? It's barely functional is what it is."

"Well, what's your grand idea? To sit here and rot?"

The blond boy frowned-- an adorable look on him, actually, but Pip ignored that-- and he replied sharply, "Piper, Archer is probably dead and we're next. I don't think any amount of shouting is going to save us from that fact."

"No," Pip felt her lip quiver at the thought of her cousin dead. Then she steeled herself and continued, "No, it may not be, but I'm not going to die without putting up a bloody good fight."

Turning back to the bars, she was about to continue shouting, this time more colourful phrases if she could help it, when something or rather someONE caught her eye.

He was shirtless, grimacing, and leaning against some pale bloke, but he was alive. Gloriously alive.

"Archer!" Pip squeeled, straining against the bars of her cell, "Oh Archer, I knew you weren't dead!"

Her cousin smiled weakly at her, patting his chest, "Well, no, I don't seem to be dead."

Usually, Pip would have made fun of him for such a joke, but now she could only grin from ear to ear at the sound of his voice.

"Well, now that we have all established that no one is dead, then perhaps you would like to be released from that cell." The pale bloke butted in, smiling politely.

"I very much would, yes."

The next few minutes after that were filled with mushy things like hugging and introductions.

The pale bloke, for example, was King of the Abyss it seemed. His name was Galen and while he WAS rather polite, Pip had a few choice words for him.

"I don't appreciate you throwing us in a dungeon, you know." she huffed.

The young king rubbed the back of his neck rather awkwardly. "You must forgive me; though I did not know of it till now. My brother, you see, he doesn't like strangers much... or anyone really, for that matter. Allow me to make it up to you."

Pip snorted, "I doubt you could do that."

"We have food in the kitchens."

"On second thought...."

After that, everything went smoothly and Galen proceeded to show them around the kingdom of shadows.

Most houses were made of stone, carved right into the very walls of the Abyss, while those in the center were hollowed out from large hunks of rock. It would have been completely pitch black if not for the glowing rocks that portruded from the ground at random intervals. And there were lanterns too, shining in various hues of pink, blue, yellow, and violet, casting warm rays of light on the stone pathways.