Ganit jumps from foot to foot, desperate for some sort of brilliant plan to pop into his head, but as he couldn't think of anything better at first than diving right in, he stares stupidly out across the silent water for want of an ounce more of blind bravado. Then he hears the smarting clap of a splash in the water and a choking series of breaths. This breach of silence thrusts him into action; he shakes his head and furiously works to strip down to his pants.
Terasha starts with his sudden burst of movement. She watches with wide eyes as it becomes apparent what his intent is. She gulps loudly, impressed with his bravery.
In the midst of unfastening his shirt front, he shout out, "Lady! We're o'er -" he seems to remember Terasha, and speaks shortly, "Keep up some racket, will ye? Make ye'self useful and do that, and mind if ye hear her call back!"
The cat-girl nods vigorously. "Eleina! Eleina! Where are you? Can you hear us? Say something! O Please say something!" she calls, repeating herself again and again as sxhe watches Ganit prepare himself.
The fox shivers on the step. He'd rather sit here and clean himself off, but his task is nowhere near finished. He has to go back and finish this, face the hunger, and retrieve the jewel.
But he's been in the water three or four times already. He's running out of strength, and he may not survive the ride that the elf is taking for him.
He needs to eat. He sits quietly, miserable and wet.
Terasha looks down at the suffering animal. Pausing in her calls, she bends down and gently picks up the soaked fox.
"Oh, poor foxey!" she coos, wrapping him in her dry shirt, close to her furry chest. Hugging him gently, her warmth slowly seeping in to him, she returns to her despirate calls for the elven woman.
"Eleina! Please, answer us!"
The fox hasn't the strength left to curl up like he wants to, so he just rests quietly, soaking Terasha's shirt and absorbing her warmth. With no way to communicate that wouldn't cause him to collapse in total exhaustion, he can't let them know what's down there.
[snip]
~Who are you?~ she queries the monster again. ~What do you want of me?~
The water swirls around her, as if irritated by her presence. ~I am the forgotten. I am the lost one. I am the mourned.
//The mourned? What manner of people would mourn the passing of a creature such as this?//
I want company...~ the mind-voice hisses.
~Company? I doubt you will find me the politest of guests.~ The elf again begins to try to break free.
Raspy laughter echoes in her mind.
Eleina feels herself pulled deeper downward, and her hips and arms scrape against stone.
She sees a small trickle of blood - most likely, her own - begin to seep into the water. //I hope there is no other beast here to be drawn from its depths to the smell of food.//
Nothing else stirs in the black waters.
For what seems an eternity she continues in the constricting darkness, but just before her lungs burst in need of air, she is released.
Eleina swims desperately upward - or in the direction that she takes to be upward. She is very disoriented after being towed through the darkened tunnel. //Air...air...// Her head breaks through the surface of the water, and she chokes as she tries to breathe. For a moment, she simply lets herself float on the water, drawing in air in great, sobbing gasps. Then something - some shadow, or shadow of a shadow - catches her eye. She instantly remembers the water beast. Spurred on by a rising feeling of fear, Eleina looks about for some sort of bank. //I *must* get out of the water.//
"Lady! We're o'er -" ..."Eleina! Eleina! Where are you? Can you hear us? Say something! O Please say something!" ..."Eleina! Please, answer us!" Ganit and Terasha's calls can be heard like distant echoes.
Eleina hears faint noises, and realizes that the children must be calling for her - but she dares not risk a reply...and doubts the wiseness of using what little strength she has left in such a risky act.
~To your left, plaything. Dry land...~ the raspy laughter echoes again. ~Make yourself comfortable.~
The dry land the voice refers to is a shelf, barely large enough for her to stand or lie down in, just above water but dry and dusty. It's deeper than she can immediately see, but she hears echoes come back to her, so she knows it isn't endless.
Eleina hauls herself quickly out of the water, scrabbling in a state very close to desperation for a handhold. She is dripping wet, and shivering cold - though she is too numb for the sensation of coldness to register. She looks down at the ground, and traces the tracks that the drops of water have left in the deep dust. She blinks as she looks at one runnel, though which a darker material flows down to meet the lake. //That is not water. That is blood...// She blinks again - //...mine...// - and then gasps as the pain hits.
~Have a seat. Look around. Put yourself at ease. Oh, yes. Try on a bauble or two... you'd look quite pretty, I think...~
As she nears the shelf, a glint of light flickers into her view. At the edge of the dry spot, Eleina can see that deeper in there is something glowing... blue, cool and brilliant. Blue-green reflections echo the original light. Blue-green that can only come from something golden.
The elven woman crawls towards the back of the cave, towards the light. //Anything to get away from that beast...// She slumps against the wall of the cave. //Curse you,// she thinks. //Curse your noble asprations! Nobility gets one killed. Especially one who chooses to be noble alone, with no harp, no knife, not even the flute....//
~A musician then? Hmmm... I like music...~ the voice plays in her head still.
Eleina lacks the strength to block the creature's voice out any further.
She sits up slightly and clamps her teeth shut to stifle a groan, then looks around, tyring to avoid looking at the blue and golden light. Eleina knows that she does not have the strength at the moment to avoid any traps, magical or otherwise. //If the beast hoped I knew nothing of glamories*, it is mistaken.//
There is a dry laugh in responce.
//There seems to be no immediate danger.//
~Oh, no, my pet. You are perfectly safe here. There is nothing alive, _here_!~
Another wave of pain washes over her, and she has to fight to keep herself from crying out. //Other than the wound.// Now that her first wave of fear and adrenaline has worn off, the pain comes surging back.
And with the pain comes the memories. //The dragging against the wall...the blood in the water...the blood on the mountain rocks, that time not mine, but - //
Eleina vehemently rips off a length of fabric from her sodden clothing and looks down at her left leg.
~Aw, does it hurt? Would you like me to kiss it and make it better?~ Again, dry laughter fills her mind.
Eleina tries to ignore the creature's thoughts floating through her mind as she binds the wound.
//You could not save his life,// a little voice of doubt sounds in her head. //You will never be able to save your own.//
She ties the cloth tightly just underneath her knee, and the blood flow slows. There are small chunks of gravel embedded in the deep wound that show through the already-crusting blood. She picks them out, slowly, painfully, one at a time, then rinses out the wound with what water she can wring out of her clothes.
//It is a bad wound,// she thinks with a strange sense of detachment. //See, the vessel is severed, and there the muscle cut. Perhaps it goes to the bone. It is like the wound that the uncorin gave to Erel on the hunt trip.// //Yes, and Erel died as well,// her doubts nag.
With a skill born of practice, she pushes the pain to the back of her mind, and debates what to do next. She can feel herself weakening rapidly. //Far too rapidly. If I only had time to spellsing the healing!//
~Don't worry your sweet head about it, my pet. The pain will go away... it will all go away...~ the voice fades to a breezy whisper.
~It will not. I will not let it.~ Now that the wound is bound, she uses the training of years, passed on from generations, and uses the agony to keep herself alert. //I will not sleep.//
The mental voice turns suddenly sharp, as if breaking through madness.
Which it very nearly does.
~I can make it stop. I can mend it. You only need to agree.~
She shakes her head. ~No.~
She comes to the only option she has left. Closing her eyes, she hums a note that rapidly becomes louder and more intense. She gathers the last of her strength, and Calls. Through the water, the rock, the air, the Call and the accompanying mind- picture of Eleina's location goes up to the two children and the fox. ~Ganit, Terasha, I am here and I need you, quickly.~
//It was a weak Call,// the voice in her head knells. //They will not find you, and something else will.//
Eleina bites her lip and tries not to give in to the creeping blackness threatening to swallow her vision. And sits. And waits on the knife-edge of pain.
Above, Terasha sits up suddenly, her hold on the fox tightening slightly so it doesn't fall.
"Ganit! Ganit! Did you see that? Did you hear? She's alive! She's trapped!"
The little cat-girl points to the pool. "Way down there..." she says.
Way down there, the fox knows, is what it seeks.
But how to reach it?
A pair of cool, glowing eyes appear on the stair above.
Eleina shrinks away from the eyes. ~Get away from me!~ She lays absolutely still, hoping not to attract its attention with movement.
Again her mind is touched, but this time the touch is calm, soothing. ~Do you forget me already, music mage?~ The guardian's slightly amused voice dances within her thoughts.
Eleina looks upward, but there is not yet any hope in her eyes...just wariness. She swallows. //It could be the cat creature, but...// there have been too many times when an enemy has taken on the guise of a friend for the simple mindvoice to make Eleina let her guard down.
A howl breaks loose. It's so loud in Eleina's mind she cannot be sure that it wasn't vocal as well.
~NOOOOOOOO! You shall not take her from me! She is mine!~
The elven woman blinks, then looks up at the cat-creature. She smiles slightly. ~You are not the other, then,~ she mindspeaks. ~Please, help me...how may I leave here?~
The Guardian approaches, her feline form glowing oddly in the light of the enchanted treasures nearby. ~First, you must calm your fears. Second, we must deal with your hurts.~ the motherly tones try to soothe her. The creature then sniffs at Eleina's crude bandaging.
"Calm my fears?" Eleina croaks. //Fear is what keeps me alive, and has done so many times before.//
"Yes, your fears. Caution is wise, but fear and terror leads to ruin. Be aware of the threats, do not be ruled by them."
//She sounds like the old elders,// Eleina wonders. "My hurt I can deal with once I leave this danger."
The feline's eyes brighten slightly. "Child, do not force hurt upon yourself."
The elven woman says nothing.
The ground around Eleina in her small nich begins to tremble.
Eleina looks up, barely concealed terror in her eyes. //No! Not under the ground,// she thinks.
~Do not panic,~ she is reminded. Then the gentle tone becomes hard as stone, but Eleina knows at once the words are not directed towards her. ~Tommen! Enough of this!~
The howl subsides, and the ghostly voice whimpers petulantly. ~It's been so long! I'm looooooonleeeeeeey!~
The feline creature shakes her furry head. ~You brought this upon yourself, Tommen! Do you wish another hundred years added to your punishment?~
The response comes very quietly. ~No...~
With a satisfied nod, the feline sits. ~You have frightened and hurt this young woman. You sought to kill her. How do you make this right?~
Sounding more like a child than ever, the spirit responds dutifully. ~I should open the gate, bow and apologize, and grant her a choosing, right?~
~Yes. But first, give her the stone.~
//Stone?// Eleina thinks dully.
At once the monster returns. ~NO! IT IS MINE!~
~TOMMEN!~ The single word echoes in both mind and cavern. The tremors, which had subsided, return for a brief moment.
Eleina shudders.
There is a long stretch of silence. Eleina can hear nothing but her own breathing, and the gentle lapping of the water against the walls.
Without warning something erupts from the water, arcs through the low cavern, and plops lightly onto Eleina's lap. It is a pearl, dark colored and perfectly spherical, about a quarter inch in diameter. One side seems to be affixed with the remains of some adhesive.
Eleina picks the pearl up. It feels cold and damp in her fingers. //What do I need with this?//
~Good. Now the gate, Tommen,~ the Guardian presses.
The sound of protesting, rusted metal explodes within the cavern, accompanied by a louder grinding. Eleina can see nothing, but senses that only a few feet to the side of her niche something is moving. With a clang, the sounds stop.
~Move quickly, child,~ the Guardian says to her. ~Choose from the treasures around you, and take them and the pearl to the gate. Tommen is obedient only a short time.~
***
Above, the boy, girl and fox hear an animal-like cry echo through the caverns with a muffled quality, and the water begins to bubble and churn, as if boiling. There is no heat, however, and Ganit, within the water, feels it go much colder.
***
Eleina looks at the cat-creature, then back at the water. "My thanks," she says, hardly audibly.
She stands up, and nearly blacks out as the throbbing pain of her wound reasserts itself. Blood seeps through the bandages and crusts around the frayed edges.
The elven woman hobbles over to the treasure-pile, clenching her teeth at each step.
She is followed by the feline, and when she stops, the creature gently brushes against the wounded leg. At once the pain subsides, though it does not vanish, making movement somewhat more bearable.
Eleina looks down at the cat-creature. "Thanks," she says, softly.
She selects small treasures - a silver engraved hand-mirror, a fireruby jeweled headpiece and necklace, a set of small throwing knives engraven with words of power - and is nearly ready to leave when she notes a plain walking-stick of polished wood in a corner of the cavern.
//Can it be...?// She walks over to the corner, and touches the walking stick. It trembles, tingles under her hand. She can feel the notes welling up inside the wood, twined in the grain, ready to burst forth in song - she pulls her hand away, and carefully takes the stick by the leather thong looped through a hole in the top.
With her treasures, she heads to the rusty, disused gate, and passes through.
The moment she passes through the gate it falls with a resounding, metallic crash.
Eleina starts.
Beyond the corridor is light gently with glowing lichen, revieling steep, corroded stone stairs.
~Up, child. You shall find your friends presently. Take the pearl to the fox. The creature knows what it is.~
She nods, and bows to the cat-creature as best she can. Though the gesture amounts to little more than an oversized nod, the grateful look in her eyes is that of one noble to another.
When Eleina looks back, she finds the cat has vanished again.
The elven woman shrugs, and begins to climb painfully up the stairs, with every step wishing that she could use the staff, yet knowing she cannot.
----
Elsewhere, a young felinoid girl is watching into the darkness for her companion. "Any sign, Ganit?" she calls out as calmly as she can. She glances down a their fox companion.
"She's been gone an awful long time," she whispers slightly. The oppressive echo of the chamber is starting to wear upon her.
The silence grows louder, and louder, and louder, until one can hear the beat of one's own heart. Bump-thump.
Bump-thump. Bump-thump. Bump. Thump. Clunk.
//I cannot,// Eleina repeats to herself, over and over, dragging the heavy wooden staff up the stairs behind her. She curses its noise. //I cannot. I cannot use it...not yet, not now...but...// she winces and nearly falls as the staff brushes against her leg, tripping her. She lurches, and catches her balance once more, but her weight lands on the wrong leg. Red-hot pain screams up into her side and nearly causes her to fall down the stairway. //I cannot,// she thinks, with new resolve, as she staggers up the last few stairs.
Her foot reaches for a step that is not there. Eleina falls at the top of the stairway, catching herself by reflex, with weak outstretched hands which also collapse. She can hardly see. Her last thought before she sinks into the soft black darkness is, //I should have...that death would have been preferable to this.//
A distant whisper of something out of place causes Terasha's ears to perk. Holding her breath, she listens intently.
"Foxy?" she murmurs, barely above a whisper, her voice nervous. "Did you hear something?"
Not waiting to see if the fox is going to respond, Terasha stands and moves upwards, away from Ganit and back up the stairs. Halfway up her nose twitches, catching the scent of fresh blood. And a familiar scent.
But the scent-trail leads to a blank wall on the stairway. Terasha studies it, perplexed. Another sigh of movement seems to issue from the wall. A gentle moan.
"Eleina?" Terasha calls tenuously.
There is no answer, but the scent is too close. Terasha begins to search the wall, certain that there was some answer to the riddle to be found between it's stones. She caresses the bricks, pressing her cheek against the cold, clammy surface. Excitement causes her heart to hammer within her.
"Eleina? Are you there?" she calls out again.
There is only silence from behind the wall.
Suddenly her fingertips find something out of place. One stone that is smoother than the others, colder. She studies it and finds that it is actually a metal plate barely disguised as stone. She runs her finger over it's outline, noticing the morter is paper thin between. She cannot pull it out, but when she pushes it, it yeilds. As it retreats into the wall there is a grinding noise.
Terasha steps back as the wall begins to shift. Slowly, accompanied by protesting squeals and rasps it rises. Stale, foul air drives Terasha back another step, but only for a moment as it is strongly mixed with the scent of Eleina and blood.
In the shadows the cat-girl spies a figure slumped on the floor.
"Eleina!"
Rushing to the elven-woman's side, Terasha is relieved to see Eleina still breathes, though barely. She sees, but pays little mind to, the staff beside the woman. She also spies the injuries, and winces at the stains of blood.
Carefully pulling Eleina's head into her arms, Terasha sobs, "Eleina, wake up! What happened? Are you okay? Oh, Eleina!"
In the darkness, someone is calling. "Eleina." //Talrien? Is it...I...but...my loved! Talrien!// "Eleina..!"
"Tal - Talrien..." The word is little more than a sigh, but quite loud enough for Terasha to catch. "Talrien! Wait...wait..."
The words, though unfamiliar, give the child hope. "Eleina?"
"NO!" The word explodes, then fades to a whimper.
The outcry startles Terasha, but she remains steady. //Would it help if I cleaned her?// she wonders.
The elven woman's eyes fly open. Then, her eyes adjust to the different darkness, and she recognizes the cat-girl an instant before the pain comes. Her first tiny grin of recognition twists into a grimace of pain.
"Terasha?" She does not wait for a reply, but finds the pearl and puts it in Terasha's hand. "Give this to the fox."
Startled, she looks at the small jewel. It's perfect shape and gentle gleam seem somehow calming to her.
"Now - give it to the fox now!" Eleina says. The slightest hint of the command that had once been hers tinges the woman's voice.
Terasha turns and looks at the fox. //Give it to the fox? She must be hurt bad. What would a fox do with a pearl?// Despite her misgivings, however, she places the small sphere on the ground before the animal.
Eleina nods, even that small movement giving rise to more pain.
She faints for a moment, then, groaning, awakens.
"Can you...can you help me stand?" she asks, paling even more. //I am glad none of the elders are here to see this.// "I *need* to get out of the wet."
"Uh, oh, yes, of course." Terasha crouches beside the elven woman. She helps her sit up then pulls Eleina's arm around her own shoulders. "Easy..." she sighs...
Eleina shudders from the pain, and finally stands, shivering. Whatever parts of her clothing that are not sopping wet from the water are soaked through with blood.
Terasha shudders as the red liquid pools on the floor. It's too close to something she remembers.
"Where are we?" she finally asks. "Is there far to go?"
"Some kinda underground pool place. There's some stairs up, back to the room with the bells. That's where you disappeared."
"Mmm," the elven woman says, acknowledging the fact. She motions the cat-girl to help her, and haltingly begins to walk up the stairs as best she can.
Terasha ducks under her shoulder, giving what aid she can. "What happened, Eleina? Where did you go?" She asks as she helps the woman up the staircase. She feels the pull of the key grow stronger, as if insisting, but knows she dares not rush the injured woman.
"I was -" she pauses. //How to explain it to the child?// "I was not prepared, not expecting that kind of magic...and was taken unawares. A water-creature dragged me down to its lair."
Terasha shudders, but doesn't speak.
One wrong step. A red watercolor wash of pain, and then the pair once again moves up the steps.
The cat-girl hisses with concern.
"I nearly died."
Terasha shudders again. "I'm glad you didn't," she whispers.
Eleina says nothing, but a number of emotions flicker across her face. They are suppressed only with obvious effort. She sighs.
//Stupid, stupid. Stupid! And rash. How fit are you to be called elder now, if indeed you ever were, Eleina?// she thinks.
"That cat creature we saw earlier saved me." //Have I sunk so low I am now depending on chance to save my hide? Perhaps, then, it is no longer worth saving.// "It was she who gave me the pearl and the instructions to give it to the -"
She looks around suddenly, alarmed.
"The fox. Where is the fox?"
Glancing around, Terasha cannot see the little animal. She can still make out its scent, however. "I think it ran ahead."
The elven woman nods. //Good.// "How much further?" she asks in a voice that seems to be weary of living.
Terasha is unsettled by Eleina's weakness, instinctively needing the adult to be strong. She fights this, knowing her distress would only concern Eleina more.
The elven woman catches some hint of this in Terasha's eyes, and stops. She looks down at the girl. "You're worried about me." The tiredness in her face is a mask.
Abashed at being so easily found out, Terasha nods slightly. "Uh huh. You're hurt. I like you a lot, and wish you didn't hurt anymore," she murmurs.
//She is still just a child!// Eleina realizes anew. //She should not see things like this...// She sighs. //But I saw worse, and younger. And she has to see such sometime.//
"Just up a few more stairs, and down the hall. Remember the room with the bells? That's where you vanished from. Do you think it could happen again?" she asks.
Eleina mumbles something, and averts her eyes.
Terasha stops, partly to let Eleina rest, and partly to confront the woman. "You said they took you by surprise. Now that you know they are there, would that stop you from being grabbed away? If it won't we can just leave. It... it isn't so important! I don't want anybody else hurt."
"No, I _said_ I would be fine," the elven woman says.
Terasha nods. "Okay. But... maybe we should hold hands really tight as we go in?" she smiles slightly. To show her determination, she takes Eleina's hand into hers. Her small fingers barely reach halfway around Eleina's palm.
Eleina's first thought is to jerk her hand away. //Doesn't the child know that if there's something in there, we'll both need out hands free, whether for spells or weapons?// She sighs. //...Though I doubt I could wield more than a thrown stone in this state.// She cringes as a fresh wave of pain seems to freeze and bake her body.
"Not too tightly," Eleina says rather gruffly, but, for a moment, Terasha could swear she sees minute tears clinging to the tips of the elven woman's eyelashes.
//For just a few hours,// she thinks. //Just a while, slip into yi'sha*, and then we will be able to move on. But - who will protect then while I Roam?//
*[OOC: "Yi'sha" is a bit of the elven culture of Eleina's people. It's a healing kind of dream or trance-state, with hallucinations, similar to Plains Indians' Dreamquests, except one must will themself into yi'sha, and (which is more difficult) will themselves back out should the need arise. Elven children are trained to enter yi'sha from the time they start to remember their dreams. Depending on the user's amount of injury and/or skill at entering yi'sha, they can stay in that state anywhere from 15 minutes to a week or so. The state of being in yi'sha is called 'Roaming,' and others refer to them as 'Roamers.' Any other questions? You'll understand when I write her into yi'sha...hopefully. :) ]
She turns to Terasha and speaks. "Where is Ganit?" //If that fool of a boy is still coming out of the drink - //
Terasha looks back over her shoulder. "I-I don't know," she whispers. Worry is trying to eat her from inside, and her mind is reeling as she tries to decide on the priorities. //Eleina's hurt. Her first,// she tells herself uncertainly.
Eleina sighs. The elven woman sees light up ahead. "We are nearly at the end of the stairs?" she asks, her voice toneless.
"Almost," Terasha says, trying to brighten her voice. "Then you can rest a moment."
The fox, having run ahead toward his next goal, pauses to lick at his matted fur. The memories are a little weaker here, and he needs time to think.
Down the hall just a short way is the bell chamber, with the ancient statue. The fox has the pearl, and knows what it must do.
The elven woman nods, and limps painfully up the last step. The light, though dim here, hurts her eyes after being trapped for so long in near-total darkness. She blinks, then says, "How much farther to the bell-room?"
Terasha stares down the hall. "A dozen feet or so. Think you can make it? Do you need to rest again?"
"No. I can get there." She starts limping across the floor, leaning on Terasha. Finally, they get to the bell-room, and step inside.
As the elf and colzar females reach the threshold, all three creatures see the bright eyes of the felinoid guardian light up in a dark corner. Inside Eleina's head she feels the tune that took her by suprise when she first entered. She finds she understands it's meaning, and the power behind it. There is a message there.
Forewarned, she knows it is part of a key, but a note is missing. A note that must be provided.
A note the elven woman, at the moment, is racking her brains for. //A simple children's song...not even complicated enough to be a spellsong, and I cannot remember!//
The fox is touched with the inspiration to once again look at a ledge on the far side of the building. There the statuette of a creature sits patiently, a cavity at it's throat that once held a rounded stone. The cavity must be filled.
Terasha hesitates. She worries that their misadventure of late might be repeated, and now Ganit is missing and unable to help or provide support.
Eleina suddenly releases Terasha's hand, slumps to the ground, and leans against the wall, exhausted and paining in spirit and mind as well as body. She begins to hum the song under her breath, but always stops at the missing note, and begins again.
Terasha kneels next to her. Her ears perk, listening to the song. They move back and forth, as if trying to catch the missing note. Quietly, as if afraid of breaking Eleina's concentration, or causing her further strain, she asks, "Do you know it? The old lullaby?"
"You know it?" Eleina asks, surprised in a dazed kind of way. "I cannot remember." She looks dismal, and as she opens her mouth to hum the melody once more, she faints - despite her best and rather feeble efforts to push away the cold black darkness.
Terasha catches her awkwardly, and lowers her down, cradling her head gently. "Oh, dear. Oh, poor Eleina!"
As the melody continues to tinkle around them, the colzar girl begins to hum. Then she sings.
"Rest gently now, my young one
Fear not the growing night
For I am by your side now
I'll remain until the light
Sweet dreams my little one
Let magic fill your sleep
I will keep you safe love
Your trust in me I'll keep
Do not be afraid dear
Of the wolf outside the door
He's locked away from our home
We are safe here evermore
Within your heart you know
Together we shall be
Through out the coming dangers
You will always be with me."
As she finishes the melody, Terasha realises just how silly the whole song sounds. She wonders what horrid poet wrote the lyrics.
Whatever the source of the words, with the final note sung, the bells grow quiet.
There sits the fox, looking up at the walls, moving from face to face around the room. There's a spot with something missing, a broken necklace he noticed so long ago. A place where a beautiful small pearl might go.
The small statue, wearing the necklace, still waits patiently. Even as the fox considers what to do, the pearl suddenly is pulled away from him, and drifts up to the statue. It begins to glow as it settles into its setting.
Girl and fox both hear a muted grinding sound, as the hearth beneath the statue moves aside. Behind is revieled a metal vault. In the center of the vault door is a keyhole.
Terasha looks down at Eleina. "Oh, my," she whispers. Beneath her shirt she feels the tug of the key, more demanding now than ever.
Somewhere in her blackened dream, Eleina hears the grinding sound. She shudders and wakes. "What was it?" she asks the cat-girl quickly. Then, noticing that the bells have stilled and the door has opened, she glances to the fox and smiles slowly. "You remembered. What shall we do?" Angrily, she calls out mentally for Ganit.
Terasha stares at the vault. "I- I think this is where I use the key."
And then: "You can leave me here. I need time to heal...perhaps this will give it to me."
The cat-girl hesitates. She doesn't want to abandon her friend, but the urgency of seeing her treasure hunt to an end pulls at her as strongly as the magic of the key. "Okay. I- I'll try not to be long, but you rest."
Eleina nods. "I - I may look as if I am dying when you return, Terasha," she says, "but I will not be...it is just a healing sleep. I will wake if you need me."
//It is so hard to explain yi'sha to an outsider,// she thinks.
She sinks into yi'sha with a sigh of contentment as the pain gradually dims, then fades away altogether.
Suddenly, she is back in the land of her birth. The sand swirls across her vision. Here, at least, she knows what do to, and feels secure even in the midst of the harsh atmosphere. She is home.
"Eleina," someone calls behind her. The sound of her own tounge is as refreshing on her ears as desert rain. She stops slowly, and spins around, shading her eyes from the sun.
A giant pumal is looking down on her from the cliff-top. Its eyes sparkle green in its silvery fur.
"Why," the elven woman asks, "are you out in the day, the heat of the sun?"
"Why?" the pumal asks. Its voice sighs like the wind. "You have found my staff."
Eleina starts, then bows. "Forgive me, Mindwalker. Do you wish it returned?"
The Mindwalker chuckles, a deep growl in its current form. "If I asked for it, would you return it?"
"Yes," Eleina says without hesitation. "But - not without some regret."
"Then," the Mindwalker says, "it is no longer mine. I thought I lost it long ago, but I believe now it lost me...it wanted to find you. It is not, you see, that I have no need of it here." The pumal stops and washes a toe. "You have more need of it there."
"But - I - " Eleina stammers, then continues on. "I am not ready for it yet."
"It thinks otherwise. You are ready for it. Take it. Use it. You cannot tell me you did not feel it call you." The pumal fades, eyes first. Soon, there is no sound but the sandshift and the beating of her own heart.
"Mindwalker."
She sighs, and begins to walk east. She can smell the water, and where there is water in a Roaming there is a release from pain more permanent than the small respite yi'sha brings.
The tiny gold and red fish dart around her ankles as she bathes in the spring that is colder than it looks. She gets out and lets the sun warm her battle-scarred body for a moment before redressing. She straps on her sword-belt last of all, and contemplatively draws her sword. Its silver blade sparkles in the sun, and she begins to practice her technique. Parry. Thrust. Deflect. The movements leave a pattern of footprints in the sand.
Clang. "You have improved your technique much since we last sparred," a friend says with a smile.
"My thanks, Liv - "
A snarling Nank suddenely takes the place of the friend, and she runs it through with a song. The aim is good, and it dies. The blood soaks black into the sand as it breathes its last - a few notes which Eleina stores away in her memory.
She cleans the sword - and as she puts it back into the scabbard, she awakes...
Looking at the fox, she [Terasha] asks, "Watch over her, little Foxy? Please?"
Turning again towards the vault, she steps cautiously closer. When nothing leaps out at her, or drops on top of her or from beneath her, she grows bolder. Pulling the key from under her shirt, she closes the distance to the metal door.
Inches from the keyhole she hesitates. Ears flicking, she glances back at the wounded elf woman and the fox. Irritated at herself, she turns back and thrusts the key into the keyhole.
Nothing happens.
Remembering that keys need to turn, she twists the key to the right. A hollow grinding sound accompanies the turn. Two loud clicks and one resounding thud emerge from within the vault. After turning ninety degrees the key halts.
Terasha moves back as the door slowly grinds open, filling the room with the sound of rusted metal. In a few moments it stops, revealing the darkened interior of the safe.
For two heartbeats nothing happens. Then a burst of bright, colorful light emerges from the vaults interior. Terasha steps back, startled, then cries out in surprise when a calm, elderly male voice issues forth clearly.
"At last, dear child, you have come."
The cat-girl can see no source for the voice, blinded by the swirling, sparkling lights. She backs away some more.
"I leave this for you in the hope that one day you will be able to reclaim what has been stolen from us. The key which led you here is the only proof of your heritage. I pray that in discovering its power you discovered the power within you. You will need it for the tests to come.
"I am sorry, my dear one, but the artifacts to return our family to it's rightful power, and restore the wealth that I have hidden away, could not be found within easy reach. They each had to be hidden seperately, and the clues hidden so only the true heir could find them.
"The key is the most important of the artifacts. Without it you will be unable to find, free, or use the other items. Guard it well.
"I wish I could be by your side and aid you, but our enemy has seen to it otherwise. Be ever cautious my child, for our foe will seek you out!
"Your first task is this; within this vault I have placed the ring from my own hand. It will be useful to none but you, as you hold the key. Make the ring yours, and the next direction you must take will be revealed to you."
With a deep sigh the voice concludes, "May the All-Seeing guide you."
As the voice fades, so do the lights. Her sight restored, Terasha peers into the vault and spies a small pillow of satin, upon which rests a ring, as promised. It seems to be a simple silverish band with a flower decoration of gold on it.
Hesitantly, Terasha reaches out and picks the artifact up. Upon closer inspection she discovers the ring is platinum, and in the center of the five-petaled flower decoration is the image of a burning torch.
Turning and walking back to Eleina, Terasha shows the ring to the others wordlessly.
...and looks up to find the cat-girl standing over her. "Terasha," she says slowly. "Do you need me?"
She stretches...most of the pain is gone. There is only a residual general soreness, and the gaping leg wound caused by the water beast, though still sore (it cracks open and bleeds a bit as she moves) looks as if a week's healing has occurred. She smiles slightly, and gets up.
"Something happened. What did you find?"
Terasha keeps her hand held out, the ring perched in the center of her palm. For several long moments she remains silent, but then, quietly, she recounts the events leading up to her acquisition of the artifact, describing the scene in amazingly exact detail, down to the inflections in the voice that had prompted her to take the ring.
"Should I... put it on?" she finally whispers.
Eleina thinks a moment, digesting the information, then nods. "I see no reason not to do so," she says, smiling at Terasha.
With a solemn expression, Terasha nods. Wordlessly, she slips the band onto her small finger.
For a long moment, nothing happens. Then, like a wave building from offshore and crashing onto the sand, a voice issues from nowhere, almost singing:
. "Deep within the Roundy-Wood
. A Troll rests on its knees
. Praying that some tasty food
. Come skipping through the trees.
. Tra la tee hee, o silly me,
. To walk the wood today
. The Troll he asks me seven tasks
. Or in the wood I stay!
. Steal the key that holds the bridge
. Aloft o'er brook and stone
. Bring it down and break the ridge
. The Troll doth make his home!"
Eleina only listens to the song, thinking and hardly moving.
The sound dies out quickly. Terasha, shocked, shivers. "That was strange," she whispers. "But it's supposed to say where the next part of the treasure is!"
Eleina looks at Terasha. "I believe it just did."
She looks at Eleina. "The Roundy-Wood is outside of the village. A deep forest with only one main road. No one travels there without good reason. Some say it's haunted, others say fierce beasts protect it."
Eleina moves closer to Terasha, and peers over the cat-girl's shoulder at the ring. "And our reason is not good enough?" she questions.
Terasha does not immediately reply.
Worried about her companion's strength and health, the cat-girl lowers her hand and glances at the walls of the chamber.
"Terasha." The elven woman lays a hand on the cat-girl's shoulder. "You need not worry." She smiles. "I told you - I can heal myself. The wound is not yet healed completely, but is better than it once was...and will eventually be brought back to normal - save for the scar. Did you not believe me?" She raises an eyebrow, but a smile tugs on the corner of her mouth.
There is some relief to see Eleina in better humor. Despite this, however, Terasha does not feel entirely at ease. She feels the exhaustion finally creep up on her.
Eleina notes this. After a moment's hesitation - //No, its type of magic would have no effect on her// - she hands the staff rescued from the monster's lair over to the cat-girl, holding it by the leather strap, being careful not to touch the creamy-smooth wood herself. "Here," she says, and smiles. "Borrow this for a while."
Terasha's hands and tail wrap around the staff gratefully. "Thanks. I only need it a little while, I think."
Eleina smiles.
"I think we need to get out of here and back to the Inn. I'm hungry and tired." [Terasha]
"However," she [Eleina] says, "if *you* are hungry and tired - it is a different thing altogether. We will find Ganit, the fox, and leave this accursed hole." She turns, and beigins to walk through the archway, knowing Terasha will follow.
Which she does, but her mind is racing. "I don't know where they got to, and then we gotta find a way back upstairs, 'cause I can't fly, can you?"
Eleina considers this for a moment. "Yes. I can." She looks at Terasha. "But I do not know if I will be able to carry you now."
Surprised, the cat-girl's ears perk up. "What if I were just as big as a pet cat?" she asks, excitement in her tired voice.
"I shapechange," Eleina says in response to the girl's suprise, then nods. "That," she says, "would be ideal." She looks over at Terasha. "You can do that? How do you know?"
Terasha shrugs. "I've been able to ever since I can remember. I've met others like me who can as well. I guess we all can." She suddenly vanishes, replaced by a tabby kitten. Another moment later she reappears.
Eleina nods slightly, and watches as the change takes place. One moment later, she frowns, and gestures to the staff Terasha holds. "You - perhaps it would be best if you did not change while holding that," she says. "I think that it would affect you, or you would affect it, not, but...it would be best if we did not have to take that chance."
"Then there's that... _thing_. What do we give him? What's the least thing we have found here? What did that all mean?"
The elven woman shakes her head and purses her lips. "It could mean many things," she says softly. "I think we shall be forced to wait and see...although that would not be what I prefer to do."
She chatters on as they leave the bell chamber and move back along the corridor. Her young voice echoes against the walls and up the path.
Eleina makes a small movement with her hand, cautioning the girl to silence. "I would not dampen your enthusiasim, child, just your shouts." She ruffles the fur behind Terasha's ears in a casually affectionate way.
Abashed, Terasha silences, but her body straightens and a small purr escapes from Eleina's caress. It has been longer than she can remember since someone touched her with such gentleness. She fights back tears of joy and smiles at Eleina happily.
Eleina, despite herself, breaks into a grin - one that soon disappears. //When, when will you learn?// she berates herself. //You'll be giving the child ideas, promises you know you cannot keep.//
//Maybe, maybe I can stay with her.// she hopes, //After we figure out this puzzle? Maybe...// She dares not even think of her dearest, dearest heart's wish.
In the silence, their soft footsteps seem to grow increasingly louder as they creep their way through the abandoned halls. Only the dust stirs with their passage and they retrace their own path and find themselves at the threshold of the chamber they had fallen into. The rubble remains, untouched.
Eleina looks down the hole and pulls quickly back. She can't see anything.
There is no sign of their companions.
"Should we wait for them?" Terasha whispers, "Or do you think they are lost?"
Elenia stands still a moment, thinking. "The fox can - the fox knows this place, I think, well. It can take care of itself. Ganit..." she stops and turns to the girl. "Ganit would act like such but he could not. I hope he is not lost. Perhaps...we should wait here. Just a while. I could...call him. But I do not think he could hear it."
From an unknown area a familiar mind-touch whispers to them. ~Do not fear for your young friend. I will see to it that he safely escapes this place and, if it is his will, rejoins you.~
Eleina starts as the mind-touch reaches her, but almost instantly recovers. ~My thanks,~ she mindspeaks, and sighs.
Terasha looks at Eleina, watching the the other's reaction to the Guardian's promise. "I'm sure she means it."
Eleina nods shortly.
The cat-girl then steps closer to her friend. "Put an arm around me," she asks, raising her own arms above her head, "When I change, you will be holding me."
She nods again, and smiles to Terasha. "Go ahead, now," she says.
Terasha hands over Eleina's staff and steps into her embrace. She once again wills herself into the form of a young cat. Soon she is dangling from Eleina's arms.
"Mew?" She looks up at her companion and purrs encouragingly.
Carefully avoiding the touch of the staff, Eleina hums a soft, slow melody, and gradually turns into a giant bird. She holds Terasha gently in her talons, and gradually rises through the hole in the roof. The backwind from her great wings stirs the dust on the floor into tiny ghosts of tornadoes.
Back into the main part of the manor they arrive. The same faded walls, the same worn and torn carpeting, the same rotting furnature. The same, misshapen creature, with bright, eager, glowing eyes.
"You remember?" it hisses, the voice squeezed out of its throat like tortured notes from an accordian. "Did you bring it?"
"Why do you want this 'least thing,' creature?" Elenia asks, while staying well back, and shielding the cat-girl as best she can with her wings. The power-hum of the staff entices her, calls her, entreats her. It was made for use against such things. Yet she does not touch it. "I ask again, beast."
The creature seems to writhe with impatience, a sorrowful look crossing its twisted features. It gives forth with a mournful moan. It clutches at its face with its hairy, paw-like hands, and shakes all over.
Eleina steps back a pace. /I know not what this thing can do./
"Why?" it cries out, "Why? Why why why why why! Why? You may as well ask why such a god-forsaken lump of miserable flesh must dwell within this rotting hulk of a ruin! You might as well ask why a man, noble born, must chase through overgrown gardens after rats so he may not starve to death! You may as well ask why I tremble before... before...." His words are choked off by another moan of agony. The beast falls to the floor and shudders in a mad fit.
The elven woman, still in bird-form, steps back another pace, and shields Terasha with one giant wing. Then, she squats down on the ground, and looks at the shaking, grizzle-furred hulk. /It does appear to be in great pain,/ she thinks. She frowns.
Terasha watches with a mixture of horror and curiosity, and a tiny, growing, touch of sympathy.
The creature's seizure ends a moment later and it sighs deeply.
Eleina notes its stirrings and immediately rises once more to her feet, on her guard.
"Why elven Magess?"
Eleina frowns. The creature is powerful enough to see beneath her guise. Power, such power, is dangerous, when used unwisely.
"Because of a fool! A great, greedy fool who thought to steal from this place. Who could have been rich beyond his dreams had he not stepped over one fine, invisible line of limit. Do you not see before you the visage of greed uncontrolled? Cursed, I am, wouldn't you think! Do you think I was _born_ thus? Cursed, yes. Cursed to live here, in this squalor above the greatest of treasures, the most wondrous of wonders, begging for scraps of worthless things! The least, yes, the least I ask for, so the least I treasure over gold and jewels."
"What will you do," she says finally, "if I give this least thing to you?" Her eyes narrow, and giant pinions spread black shadows over the moss-covered paving stones.
The creature gasps for breath, his speech exhausted.
The cat-girl, still hidden behind the disguised Eleina, decides she's not as sorry for the miserable beast as she first thought. She mews quietly, encouraging Eleina to decide the fate of the encounter.
Panting, the creature considers. "What I must do. I must find it in my heart to treasure it above all else. To understand what, indeed, its worth is. To know what my error was in my greed. So that one day I might look with fresh eyes upon the world and know what true treasure is."
The words are rote, repeated. The beast speaks words that it has heard before. So many times before....
Eleina frowns. From the way the creature is speaking, she can tell it has memorized the words, heard them so many times that they no longer hold any meaning and are only sounds.
Terasha wracks her brain. // What small thing have we found? What can we give it? // she wonders, looking at the back of Eleina's currently feathered head.
Suddenely, Eleina gets a flash of inspiration. She ducks her head underneath her wing for a moment and preens her feathers, searching for the source of the itch under her pinion feathers. //Aha. By the Elders of the sands, I hope that this will work.// She brings her head up from underneath the wing. In her beak is a large, fat tick. "This," she says, speaking aroud the parasite, "must be the least thing. And it was indeed found here." She motions Terasha to stay back, then gently places the tick in the beast's outstretched paw.
The creature looks with some concentration on the tiny insect. With one gnarled claw it nudges the parasite, which tries to find some shelter and a new source of nutrition. The beast's eyes return to the feathery Eleina, narrowed, uncertain.
Eleina looks warily at the beast. Her beak and talons, in this form, are sharp. She is glad of it. /I know how to fight, creature, in this shape and many others... if you come at me I will take you down. I swear it./
"The least?" it grumbles softly. It eases back onto its haunches, engrossed in the tiny living thing in its paw.
The elf shapechanger casts a worried, darting glance to Terasha.
~Well enough,~ a familiar mind-voice rings in Eleina and Terasha's heads. ~Go, now. Time for you to leave this old place.~
Behind the monster, eyes glowing, stands the guardian once more.
Eleina starts, then notices the source of the voice and nods. ~Thanks, Guardian.~ The pent-up tension inside of her releases. She blinks, once, then asks: ~You will take care of the boy, Ganit, wherever he may be? He has not answered my thought-summons...~
She swallows. /The last time no-one answered your thoughts, they had died./ She shoves this thought to the back of her mind, and buries it with thoughts... /the moss is so green here/.
Terasha obediently moves towards the crumbling archway that she and the others had entered through so recently and yet so long ago. "Yes'm," she murmurs.
Eleina inclines her head, as if one equal to another, as she passes the Guardian.
And, then, they are free. The sun is shining, and all around lichen grows on the granite. A small sunning lizard skitters away at their approach, and looks at them with small, unblinking eyes.
She turns to Terasha. "What," she asks, sounding tired, "do we do now?"
Terasha looks at the feathered Eleina. "Back to the Inn? You can rest and eat."
Eleina looks down at herself. Almost as an afterthought, she changes herself back into her own form with a small, almost child-like song.
The cat-child looks down at the mysterious ring, remembering the silly song-clue they had heard when she had found it. What adventure lay ahead for her? Would Eleina part from her now? How different an outcome this treasure hunt had come to than she had expected at the outset. She fondly remembers the bright little dragon, Darcy. Where was she now? And what of Ganit? She prays the Guardian oversees him to safety. She puzzles a bit over the little fox. She is certain it was wild, but it had followed them like any tame little dog. What of it's fate? Again, she hopes for the best.
She does not doubt her path will follow the clue of the ring. She feels tied to it somehow. Eleina, however, she feels has had enough of her company. Rather than make the woman choose to go with her or not, she would slip away when they return to the inn. Terasha fights back tears; Eleina, in this short time they had been together had felt the most... permanent... in her heart. She struggles to convince herself that the woman did not need the burden of a familyless and unwanted child.
"The Inn?", she repeats quietly.
"The Inn." She sighs. "As good a course as any." She smiles a smile tired, yet genuine. "Come, child." She gestures for the cat-child's hand, and takes a step forward. "I would be glad of your company this eve."
Moving past the rubble that was once the outer wall of the Palace, it is less than an hour back to the simple yet welcoming inn where the adventure began. The proprietress greets them with the same enthusiasm, serves them the same, hearty and tasty food. The clientele have changed slightly, but otherwise, the surroundings are as if no earth-shattering events had occurred. There have been no monsters here, no mysterious guardians, no treasure. Only good food and a friendly hostess.
Terasha sighs. With the sunset of the day, she wonders what will happen when dawn comes.
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