by Emma Hamm
She put her hand in his without question. She might not trust him entirely, and she might not see him as her equal, but she trusted him enough to touch him without flinching. Since that was exactly what she had done only a few weeks ago, Ruric considered this a sizeable bridge between the two of them.
He wasted no time pulling her through the crowd. A few hands grabbed at them, trying to get them to stay. Others were not pleased that they were leaving. Most thought it was scandalous that they refused to appreciate all the trouble that had been put into creating this feast.
Ruric pushed through the straying hands, frequently pausing to pull them off of her. He could see her spine stiffening, that courage of hers showing through even though he could smell her fear.
Finally they broke through the mouth of the cave, murmuring and warbles of unhappiness following in their wake. He looked up the crevice. Jane followed his gaze. Her eyes traveled up the strong column of his throat to see the curious goblins staring down at them. Her heart was still beating hard from trying to escape the cave. Shallow welts had raised upon her back where a hand had gripped too hard and claws had scraped her.
“Are we going to have to get through them as well?” She asked quietly.
He looked down at her. Frustration made his teeth grit, but anger at his own species made a low growl rumble in his chest.
“No.”
This time he did not ask her. Ruric had never been a man to defer to anyone, and in his own way he was saving her. He was tired of the questing eyes and the lingering hands. He was tired of thinking that his own species thought they were nothing more than an oddity. What he needed and desperately wanted was an escape. A few moments where he wasn’t looking at her and thinking, “My bride is human. “
So he picked her arms up and stooped to loop them around his neck. His hands gripped her thighs, wrapping them firmly around his waist and ignoring her squeak of outrage. There was no need for her to be embarrassed about her legs which were now bare by the gaping of the fabric. As she had said before, he had already seen what she was trying to keep hidden.
“Do not let go.” He grumbled.
“What are you doing?”
She quickly realized what he meant as his claws dug into the side of the rock. Her stomach shot into her throat as he dropped over the side of the cliff. He was going to kill both of them. What kind of insanity had to plague a goblin to try and do this?
Except they weren’t going to die. He had anchored them against the stones, his claws and strong hands lowering them safely the further they went. She slowly realized that they weren’t going to fall. And though the pitch black that surrounded them made it difficult to see, every now and then there was a burst of light when his hand touched the algae that seemed to coat the stones.
He made quick work of the trip, his arms bulging and body flexing as he carried them both further and further into the darkness.
Eventually they landed, her stomach once more dipping as he pushed them off of the wall and for a moment she thought they were free falling. The ground was jarring enough while she was in his arms, she couldn’t imagine how he felt.
“You can let go.” If she hadn’t known he was a goblin, she would have said he sounded amused.
Her hands unclenched behind his neck, nearly frozen from how long they had gripped him tightly. Her legs were a little more difficult for her to unwind. She couldn’t see the ground and somehow it felt as though she was going to be dangling in thin air if she let them down.
There was solid earth beneath her feet though. She toed the ground tentatively, feeling it out as though she was on the edge of a cliff. It spoke largely of the trust they had built when she did let go of him. Though she did not unsqueeze her eyes.
It was easier if they were tightly shut.
“Jane.” There it was again, that amused tone that had her wanting to smack him.
“Ruric.” She replied, equally saucy in her tone.
“Open your eyes.”
“I think they’re fine closed thank you. I wouldn’t be able to see anyway.”
It was fear that was keeping them closed, but she was shocked to feel the warmth of his fingers pushing at her eyelids.
Stepping back, she waved at his hands as her eyes snapped open.
“It’s rude to prod people in the eye, didn’t anyone ever teach you that? Those claws could have blinded me!”
She could see him. She could see the smug expression on his face and the wide stance with his crossed arms.
Jane blinked slowly, looking around them to try and understand why they had descended into the depths of the caves and somehow she could see him.
All around them was a soft blue light. She looked down at her feet, seeing the trails of glow from where her toes had marked the ground. One foot lifted to see the imprint on the ground, the other lifted likewise. There were marks on the wall from where he had slid down. She could see now that he had spread the light as far as he could so when she opened her eyes she could see.
He always seemed to do things like that. It was so unusual to find a man that thoughtful of a woman, let alone a creature from another species that just wanted to take care of her.
“Where are we?” She asked, looking around them further.
“Below.” He replied as an answer. It seemed they called a lot of things by that name.
Below was a good word for it. They were so far down that she could barely see the lights from above them. But where he had taken her seemed like a secret oasis. There was a stream nearby, she couldn’t quite see it but she could hear it. And every step that she took made even more light glow around her.
For him, it was like looking directly at the sun. Every movement she made had a burst of light that arched up over her. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She had a way of glowing under these lights that his own kind did not. Goblins reflected the blue, turning into the bioluminescent creatures themselves. But her… She was a creature all on her own.
Her skin rejected the blue, instead revealing colors he had only seen in their dyes. Purples and greens shimmered underneath her skin as the blood flowed through her veins. Golden strands twisted in the braid she kept long against her back, blue shimmers dancing as the light sparked against them.
“What is Below?”
His head jerked as he looked at her, clearing his throat as he reached out a hand for her to take.
“Where we do not live. Stone too hard to break.”
“Ah. But it is beautiful down here.” She slid her hand into his, allowing him to guide her further into the darkness.
“It is. Many do not come here. Some say it is…” He shook his head. “Bad. Energy.”
She could tell he was searching for a word. “Cursed?”
“Yes. Cursed.” The word tasted strange against his tongue.
It was difficult down here even for a goblin to pick his way through. The darkness was so heavy. Every step they took guided him though, and gently he lifted her over a large stone to the other side.
“Why do they think this place is cursed? It seems the same as everywhere else.”
He paused, trying to think of the words to answer her. “Death happens here. Children, people, sometimes fall.” He pointed up. “There is no help.”
She shivered. “Do you just leave them down here? Is it their spirits that you think haunt this place?”
“No.” He shook his head, guiding her over another tricky stone. “We take their bodies home. This is where we end.”
He meant this was where death claimed them. It was not unheard of for goblins to throw themselves down here. The fleeting moment of wind rushing past them and the sweet oblivion that greeted them was often a better choice than a life watching their species die. He had seen many goblins die in this way, young and old.
“That’s sad.” She said quietly. “It is such a beautiful place to be the host to so such sadness.”
He didn
’t want her to think he had brought her here for that though. Ruric was quick to add another story to soften the blow.
“I came here. When I was a child.”
She paused for a moment, the light glowing around her. “You came down here? Wasn’t that dangerous?’”
“I am strong.” He replied, holding out a hand for her once more. “Climbing is easy. I was very careful.”
Somehow she doubted that. By the look of him, he had been a reckless youth that thought tossing himself into the depths of their most haunted place was a good idea. She had no idea how right she was.
“You must have been quite the troublemaker.”
“Yes.” He wasn’t going to deny it. Most goblin children were after all. “This place was… fun.”
“Fun? It’s hard to imagine you having fun at all.” She said, sliding down a rock and into his waiting arms. Strange how easily she trusted him with that. Anyone else and she would have insisted on finding a route on her own but with Ruric she knew he was big enough to catch her. Strong enough that he wasn’t going to let it topple both of them over.
“I was child once.”
“A child.” She corrected easily, wiping some of the algae off of the gown that was no doubt thoroughly ruined already. “Where are we going?”
“A cave.” He emphasized the words, clearly mocking her for correcting him.
“We are currently in a cave.” She responded.
“A secret cave.”
She paused, looking at his back as he seemed to pause to get his bearings. “Oh a secret cave. That’ll be so much better than the others.”
Jane was so tired of caves. The endless darkness, the stone walls. She longed for warm sands beneath her feet and the heat of the sun at her back. But, if she had to pick a cave to be wandering in, this one was not so bad. It truly was beautiful down here.
“Here.” His low rumble seemed to echo. It was unusually loud for a goblin whose ears were sensitive to sound. Perhaps it was excitement.
He held out a hand for her again, a habit she was finding endearing. He always wanted her to take that last step, to allow her to choose whether or not she followed him. There was no grabbing, no forcing her to do anything.
As strange as it seemed, she was starting to view this goblin as a friend.
“I used to go playing in the sands when I was little.” She said quietly as he guided her through a small opening in the stones. She had to turn her head and body to the side, sliding through the small gap and trying not to breathe.
“I have seen sand.” She heard his voice from the other side of the gap. “It falls through sometimes.”
“Oh yeah?” The fabric of her dress caught on a stone behind her, and she had to pause to reach back and tear it loose. “What did you think of it?”
“Small crushed stones.”
She chuckled, yanking hard and banging her hand against the stones accidently. “Yeah I guess that is basically what sand is, huh.”
Finally she popped out of the crevice. She took a deep breath of air as she reminded herself that claustrophobia was a terrible thing to have in a cave system. She was going to have to deal with small spaces, at least until she was sent home.
Jane didn’t have it in her believe that she might never go home.
“This is what I found.” He said quietly.
For the first time she looked around. The ground dappled into what looked like moss from where she was, and as he moved she was able to see more. It was, in fact, a moss covered cave. How it was growing without sunlight she didn’t understand.
Ruric moved around the edges of the cave quickly, dragging his feet as he went and his hands against the walls of the caves. Soon it was painted in streaks of color, allowing her to see the rest of it.
Moss covered the stones, a bright blue now glittering on a few of them. Through the center was a small stream, bubbling up and over the rocks it had smoothed in its course. Here and there she could see gemstones breaking through the soft crust of the moss. It was beautiful, a small haven in a world that was mostly grey stone and hard angles.
“This is beautiful.” She felt as though she had to speak quietly.
“Yes.” He stood in the center of the small cave, feet planted next to the stream. “Come see.”
It felt strange to walk through something so beautiful. Jane had lingered near the crevice, not wanting to harm anything in this room. She was not a soft nor delicate woman. Fragile things were broken so easily in her hands.
He had walked through it though. If something so large could walk across this soft ground then surely she could as well. It was an excuse for her to not doubt herself. To not think for the moment that she could be treading across something terribly fragile.
Once she reached him he knelt, his hands gliding down her legs to gently pull her foot onto his bent knee. He made quick work of the soft shoes that had been tied onto her feet. One and then the other was set aside until her bare feet could wiggle in the moss. She had never felt anything like it before.
“It is not dry.” He said, looking up at her with a wry grin. Those teeth would never fail to make her uncomfortable, but she knew that he was teasing her.
“No it is very different from the sand.”
Her toes curled in the moss, bright colors peaking through the gaps between them. She had expected the moss to be chilled, but it was fairly warm in the cave. Likely it had something to do with the water running through it that seemed to be warmer than she would have expected.
“Sit.” He said, patting the ground next to him in plumes of bright light.
He was fascinated once again as she settled next to him, the moss blinking as she found herself a comfortable position. She had never been more beautiful than she was in this moment. The beautiful fabric his people had decorated her with that smeared with dirt and algae, ripped in some places from their journey here. But she was strong, she was capable, and he had never seen anything like her before.
Ruric truly was a lucky goblin to be bound to her, whether that lasted for more than 12 months or not. The others could not understand the beauty of the creature that was beneath her oddities.
“Why here?” She asked him quietly, those strange eyes turning to stare at him.
He nodded towards the stream. “Look.”
And he watched as she leaned forward, careful to keep the fabric tight around her body as she leaned over a stone to peer into the dark depths of the stream. He leaned over her, one strong arm bunching as the other reached over her head to tap his claw gently against the surface of the water.
It came alive at his touch. Sparking tendrils of blue light swirling through the eddying pools until it revealed its hidden wonders. Schools of fish scattered and bunched in the waters. Their bodies were translucent and within their centers tiny red lights burst into life. Each heartbeat could be seen as they breathed in the water. It created tiny specks of moving lights that scattered through the slow moving stream.
The first time he had seen it, he had been fearful. Surely something such as this was the reason why these caves were cursed. Surely this was the reason why none would travel Below.
But the lights had captivated him. Ruric had returned again and again until he realized that this was one of the breeding grounds for the fish he and his people ate. They schooled here in the warm waters, safe from predators and harm.
“Wow.” The word was breathless, shocked, and perhaps a little reverent as she stared into the water. Her fingers curled around the edges of the stone she had pressed herself against. “What are they?”
“Fish.” He answered quietly, stooping low to look over her shoulder at the lights. Every breath pressed his chest against her back but she did not seem to mind. He would move when she asked him to.
“They don’t look like fish.” She said, reaching out a hand but stopping just before she touched the water.
“You can touch.” He said with a half smile. She w
as so brave his human, wanting to be involved in everything in their world. No matter how much she said she wanted to go home, he could see that she was fascinated by their world.
Her finger dipped into the water, swirling slightly as the school of fish swam up to stare at the new arrival to their world. They seemed intrigued by the movement for a moment, before scattering back into the long fronds at the deepest part of the pool.
“So this is where you came when you were little.”
He reached his hand out to join hers. His long black claw dipped into the water, a well known feature to the tiny fish that made this place their home. They were quick this time to nip at the hard nail.
“I still come here.” He said quietly. “It is peaceful.”
Jane was rather shocked. She never would have guessed that the hard warrior she had come to know would appreciate a quiet place such as this. “So this is… what? Your home away from home?”
“Sometimes.” She watched as his head bobbed in that strange laugh that his kind seemed to have. “It is safe.”
They quieted, both enjoying a moment where they could stare into the water and not have to speak to anyone. He was right that there was a certain amount of peace here. A certain amount of safety without prying eyes or thoughts that someone might be coming to visit. It was an oasis away from the bustling life of the goblin world. She had never expected to be gifted with something so wonderful. Something so profound.
“Ruric, I have to go home.” Her words were quiet. They were said more to the water than to him, a final plea to send her back where she belonged.
He dragged a claw across her cheekbone, catching a strand of hair and gently placing it back where it belonged.
“You are needed here.” He did not know how to make her understand. They needed her. Not just to give them the hybrid they were so desperately hoping for but because she brought about change with her every breath.
“I am needed in my home too.” Jane was stuck. This place was becoming more fascinating each day that passed. She was trusting him more with every soft touch and gentle encouragement. But that did not mean that she would be able to stay here. She had obligations, people who were waiting for her.
