Marbles: The Hawk Who Refused to Die a Virgin

Chapter 27. Descent Into Friendship

That was fast!" Lucy shouted up at Languin, who was sitting on the plinth, smiling from ear to pointed ear, descending in a slowly narrowing shaft of white sunlight, as if he was a soloist being lowered from the rafters and onto an opera stage.

"Good lord that was a close call!" shouted Languin, who couldn't wait until the plinth had lowered all the way before reuniting with his party. He kicked his heels to trigger the launching mechanism at the base of the plinth, which launched him away from the platform and sent him falling, with an elf's inimitable grace, down to the bottom of the chamber.

He landed right in front of Opal and Lucy, and used his preternatural elven strength to snatch them up in each arm and spin them around and around, and all three were laughing as Marbles and Jezebel circled, screeching, in celebration above them. The beam of sunlight became a pinpoint, then dimmed, then disappeared. There they were, back in the cave. Back down in the dark, again. Together.

Languin gave Lucy and Opal a final squeeze each and set them both gently down. "Thank you all, for saving me, even after all my selfishness."

"No problem dawg," sniffed Opal.

"That gnome who is dating your sister was up there," said Languin. "Brutus?" asked Opal. "He's probably already warned the wizard."

"We'd better get a move on then," said Lucy, flicking relieved tears onto the cold stone ground.

Languin walked over to mole mayor, who was still blinking his tiny eyes in an attempt to adjust to a back-to-back dose of bright mourning light. "Mole king," gushed Languin, "How can I begin to repay you?"

"Again, we abandoned the concept of a monarchy generations ago," said the mayor, "but if your hawk's marbles can somehow stop the Mole God from hollowing out our mountain, we'd be eternally grateful."