Hades

Chapter 3

ELARA

Ughhh my head hurts, it feels as if a teenager is slamming a door in anger within my head continuously. My eyes are still closed, I'm afford that if I spend them ill bring my head into more pain. Where am I? All I remember is falling, footsteps, mumbling. I took a few deep breaths and found some strength within me, I felt my fingers twitch and my hand followed. I brought my arms from my sides and up towards my head and with all the little strength I had and pushed myself off of the floor. Once I was sitting up I took a few moments to rub my head and slowly opened my eyes. It was dark but not so much so thatI couldn't make out my surroundings. The floor was stone and dusty from centuries worth of dirt and filth, I moved my eyes from the floor up to the walls and they too where stone and encrusted with filth. I observed that there where no windows in this place and I started to panic. I looked directly ahead and found bars, they were the cleanest thing about this place with no a speck of dust, dirt or rust residing on them; I observed that their didn't seem to be a lock and that made no sense... How would I off been put here if there was no entrance? 

I moved back and slumped myself against a wall trying to figure out where I was and why but I could not come up with an answer. I prayed to the gods but no answer was found and I cursed my inquisitiveness, I always thought it was a gift but I guess that on this occasion it had turned out to be a curse. I took some more deep breaths, my heart was pounding and I felt a panic attack coming in full swing. I needed to calm down there was no point getting myself in a state when it went going to help my current situation. I started to count how many stone blocks allied the walls, It was a grounding technique that I had learnt and it helped a great deal with my anxiety. I felt my heart starting to slow to it normal rhythm, I focused on the beats of my heart they reminded me that I was still alive and that I should have hope that whatever is going to happen will leave me safe and unarmed.  

ughhh it smelt so dank in here I felt like I was sitting in puddle. God the smell was just awful the moss on the stone bricks was wet just adding to the smell, I don't know how much longer I can take in here without going mad. I felt a few tear brimming in the corner of my eyes, I was strong I was not going to let them fall. I quickly wiped them away and used the wall to support me as I stumbled to stand up. I wanted to know where I was, who took me here and why. I was determined to get answers so I did what I do best, I walked toward the bars took a deep breath and prepared to scream as loud as I could but when my hand sucked the bar it shocked me. I stepped back quickly puzzled... maybe it was just static electricity from somewhere and I was very tired maybe it was just a ghost feeling. I looked down at my hand my eyebrows knitted together as I stared at my hand then the bar and repeated. I shrugged my shoulders and slowly reached forward to grab the bar again, I was so close to touching it... I must have been mad why would I actively try and touch a bar that could electricity me? curiosity killed the cat I guess. 

"I wouldn't do that I were you, If that bar touches your skin for just a moment too long you will be left a pile of dust on the floor". A deep voice echoed around the room, Its tones bounced off of the stone wall and floor. It was too dar in the room to work out direct feature of the man but I could tell that he was tall and well built. He towered above me and I couldn't say that I wasn't intimidated but, well, it was weird his aura washed the room in calmness and I felt that I didn't feel as scared as I perhaps should have been.

I dropped my hand from where it was frozen and placed it behind my back and joined it with the other. I grimaced realising that the filth on the floor hadn't just been filth, but instead, the filth on the floor was ashes of those who had touched those bars for a moment too long. with a shaky breath I whispered "where am I?", I hadn't expected the strange man to have heard me I was so quiet but he must have. The stranger stepped forward a few paces and stared at me, he took me in from my bare feet to my dress to my hair before settling on my eyes. His stare was intense but with the closeness I could see more of his feature. The stranger had blonde hair and a strong Jaw, his eyes where an icy blue and the only marks that adorned his porcupine skin where a splatter of light freckles. the stranger looked perfect, he looked like a painting only made with the finest paints and brushes. 

"you're an interesting creature aren't you? you have a fairy like beauty about you, but you're defiantly not magical... I can smell the human in you a mile off ". the strangers voice boomed, He had not answered my question but I was momentarily flustered my cheeks warming slightly. I was not used to compliments and it took me back, the stranger still held my gaze and I was growing uncomfortable but something commanded me not to drop it. He paused before speaking again, "you have somehow fallen into the underworld darling... I must say a pretty flower like you has no place in a realm like this. How did you find this place?". the stranger spoke calmly questioning me, but I did not know how to answer. What did he mean I was in the underworld, I thought one had to pass to enter not simply fall... and I defiantly wasn't dead I could still feel my heart pumping the blood round my body strong and stable. 

"T-thee Underworld? what do you mean I am in the underworld,  I am not dead... am I? I stuttered out trying to keep the confidence in my voice, how convincing it was I shall not ever know but the stranger didn't seem to ridicule my voices betrayed. The stranger didn't reply waiting for me to answer his question, I guessed that he would not continue or answer any of my questions till I had answered his. I was in no position not to reply to every question he would give, it was me behind bars and he seemed to be my hope of getting out. I would do well to keep the stranger on good terms. I thought for a minuet re tracing my steps that led to me being in this place, "I umm- I mean this is going to sound a little crazy ummm". I used laughing little dropping my gaze to the floor, the stranger is going to think I'm positively mad, actually why would the stranger think I was mad he literally just told me I was in the underworld... there was no room for judgment here. I looked back up and met his eyes, " I uh found some rose quartz in the stream near my home. I took it with me to my uh- ritual spot to ask the moon where it had come from. the rose quartz had disappeared but no one was around to take it, then suddenly there was little lights that I assumed where fireflies that created a path so I followed. It seems that I had followed them too far and I wasn't looking where I was going and I fell". I spoke quietly, I knew that is wasn't the most normal thing to ask the moon about all my queries in life but it was just the way I was. 

I screeched the back of my neck and smoothed down my hair and shook some of the dust off of my dress waiting for the strangers reply. He seemed to be deep in thought but after a while a smirk appeared on his face. His eyes drank in my appearance it was something I was not used to, being looked at as if you were a spectacle was not in my list of things that I knew how to react to. I was waiting in agony for the strangers reply, it seemed to take him years but eventually he did. the man sighed "it seems that you have fallen down an old gateway that is not used anymore, and the reason you are here is because of that quartz" he paused chuckling darkly "It seems that you where brought here on purpose by a friend of mine, Its a shame though love, I would have liked your company to have been mine to keep". The stranger swiftly turned away and the bars lifted, my instincts told me to follow so I did. what could he have meant brought here on purpose, who was his friend... and why was it a shame that I was not his company to keep. what on earth, could any of this mean!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A/N: How was it? Was it good, bad or did it just feel like a filler? And who is this stranger and where is he leading her to? x