Dragon Bride

Chapter 28 Treasure Cave

Karliene rallied to her senses. The smell of the huge troll that carried her was overpowering. The rocking motion from being slung over the trolls back nauseating. She was tangled in a huge net suspended high above the ground. She rolled herself into a ball making sure her arms and legs were securely in the net. She still had her wits and her little black knife. "I'm hungry!" the troll carrying her growled.

"Can't you wait!" the troll carrying Gorm replied impatiently. "You're always hungry."

"No."

The troll shifted his hand hold on Gorm now holding him upside down by his leg. "Make a wish." The other troll seized Gorm's other leg and began pulling. Gorm shrieked in pain as he was pulled apart. "Lucky, you got the head." Karliene stomach revolted as the troll bit Gorm's face of and began chewing. As she had not eaten in hours Karliene only responded with dry heaves and nausea. It was dark enough that she was spared all the gore but she did see Gorm's face before it was bitten off and saw his terror and heard his last moan. Then she heard loud chewing and lip smacking as they walked. The trolls were huge and although their gait was slow they covered a lot of ground quickly. The trolls argued over who got the lungs but agreed to share the liver and 'stringy stuff'. Then a loud crunching sound was heard as the trolls began chewing on the bones. Although she was beyond panic she remained silent rolled into a tight ball.

The sky had started to brighten when the reached the cave, the former home of Loki. The trolls rolled back the heavy stone door and entered and rolled the stone closed. The fetid heavy ammonia and urine smell of the cave assaulted Karliene. Mixed in was the sickeningly sweet charnel smell of death and feces. She gagged and retched in response to the smell and vomited bile. The air felt thick and damp and she covered her mouth and pinched her nose breathing slowly and carefully until she was able to control her retching. She was slammed against a hard stone wall as the net was carelessly hung from an iron spike that had been driven into the wall. Still in a tight ball she was suspended several feet above the filthy floor and now subjected to the full scrutiny of her captors.

"This one's a female," one of the trolls said. "Not much meat on her bones and she's been peeled already, like the first one."

"Females are softer and sweeter," the other troll said, "been a very long time since I've eaten one.

"Let's eat her now!"

"No I'm tired. We can pulverize her then bake her in the morning." He then poked Karliene several timed and sniffed her and then licked her back. She responded by holding tighter to her balled up position and shutting her eyes tight, she didn't make a sound. "Smells better than the one we ate." Then speaking to his captive, "You're a tiny little thing not much of a meal. And we know you're not dead so open your eyes. We are going to eat you. We want you afraid, very afraid."

"I'm poison, you can't eat me," Karliene shouted and the trolls laughed.

"We heard that before. We're not stupid you know. The one we ate was real stringy. I'll bash this one good and make her smooth and soft." They then sat down and began arguing over what to add to their catch to improve the taste and on the baking time. They decided that a light bashing to break up her bones but not kill her would work best and her fear and pain would enhance the taste followed by only a light baking. If done correctly she would still be alive when eaten. They preferred living food. They continued to argue and finally slept.

Karliene was exhausted and terrified. She could not stop her shaking no matter how hard she tried. She wanted to find oblivion in sleep yet she refused to sleep. Loki had been correct about the door and it was a loose fit. There was a gap between the sides and the top of the door. It was a small gap a finger width or two at the side and four to six finger widths at the top. Not enough to squeeze through. A good amount of sun light illuminated one side of the cave and Karliene saw the other boulder Loki had used to seal the treasure room. Using her knife Karliene began sawing at the net until she had a hole big enough to crawl out of. Dropping silently to the floor she crept on hands and knees to the boulder and found the opening. She moved very slowly and quietly. In spite of her best effort she made a scraping sound as she cleared the fissure entrance and crawled in. She was discovered just as she slipped carefully into the gap made by the ill-fitting boulder.

One of the tolls seeing her shouted to his companion that she was loose and they rushed to her. Karliene had just squeezed feet first into the crack and was nearly through when her chest and shoulders became stuck. A troll had stuck a finger into the crack after her hoping to fish her out but Karliene stabbed the finger with her knife and the troll howled and withdrew the finger. Karliene slipped one shoulder through then exhaled sharply as much as she could and slipped through the crack. "You won't be eating me anytime soon, you morons!" she taunted back. The trolls responded with renewed effort to flush her out using long poles and a hook so she backed away from the opening.

Except for numerous scrapes on her knees, hips and chest she was unscathed. She felt filthy having dried blood on her skin and hair and from the awful odor in the trolls cave. She could hear them both wailing in anger over their loss of a meal and slowly fled deeper into the cave until she could no longer hear the trolls. It was then she became aware of the caves luminescences. The deeper she went the brighter it became. The cave was dry and she could hear water running over rocks close buy. Eventually she reached the back of the cave. There were huge stalactites hanging from the ceiling. They were mostly white in color with veins of many bright colors.. Colorful crystals were embedded in the hanging stalactites and the walls and the stalagmites from the floor. Every where there were piles of the dragons assorted treasure. She walked past a pile of gold coins, a pile of gold and silver cups and flagons, several piles of thick heavy furs, bolts of colorful cloth piled on the furs. There was a number of small decorative boxes. Opening one she found a ladies toilet kit and helped herself to a brush and comb. She also took soap and a scented pomade for her hair. She found scissors, sewing kits in bejeweled boxes, knives and leather goods. Shoes and sandals were simply scattered haphazardly. Everywhere was illuminated but the bright blue-green luminosity of the cave walls and ceiling.

She picked up a mirror and discovered it was a glass mirror. She had never seen an actual glass mirror, hers were polished brass. Her reflection in the mirror was sharp and clear and then she saw the spattered blood on her face and hair. As she looked further her chest and arms were also spattered with Gorm's blood. "So much blood," she whispered. The sound of running water reminded her that Loki had mentioned a hot spring in the cave. She continued forward and was rewarded finding a spring of hot water flowing from a fissure in the wall. The water collected in a small pond also fed by a cooler water source. The pond draining onto an underground stream that wound away in the distance.

The water coming from the fissure was boiling hot but the pond a pleasant soaking temperature. She searched through the piled cloth and extracted a thick blanket then taking her soap and the pomade for her hair stepped into the pond and washed the blood and dirt from her body and hair. She gave herself a good scrubbing then just lay back in the water. When she felt clean she left the pond and used the blanket to dry herself. "Now for something to wear," she said to herself."

She picked up a large rectangle of a dark silk cloth. She guessed the cloth was green but the lite made color identification difficult. The edges were decorated in lacy pattern Karliene held the cloth by the upper corner in each hand the pulled it tight against her back just below her shoulders and crossed each end across her front as she crossed the corners and tying them behind her neck. Then she took one or the long braided leather belts wrapping twice around her waste then fastening the ends in a square knot at her left hip. She inspected herself with the mirror then sat and brushed out her hair. She realized that she was wearing a toga. She had seen drawings of roman men and women wearing such garments. With her belt her toga hugged her curves nicely and ended below her knee just above her ankles. She would love to show off her toga to Bjorn, perhaps folding it to end just above her knee. She knew Bjorn would speechless. She smiled as she finished with hair. Now all she need to do was wait. Help would come.

Her lack of sleep over the last few days finally took its tool and Karliene badly needed to sleep. She lay several thick furs on the sandy floor then rolled another fur into a pillow and covering herself with two more. She briefly whispered a sincere prayer of thanks and slept.