While others might be satisfied with their lot in life, stuck down here serving these pointy eared leaf lovers, he’s not.
Thurnik smirks as he eyes the chained down dragon. Oh yes, he’s going to get out of here very soon. And he knows just how to do it.
Slowly, awareness returns to Mari. The first thing she feels is the numbness stinging her whole body. The second is the cold.
Groaning, she tentatively cracks open an eye and, thankful for the lack of light, slowly opens them both to fully to look around at her new surroundings.
Well, not very new as it turns out; she’s back in the cells again.
Sighing, she shifts, wincing at the pain ricocheting about her body as she pulls herself into a more comfortable sitting position against the wall, rather than the heap she’d been dumped here as. Still, the cells are better than the gallows.
Squinting through the darkness, Mari stills as she trains her ears to listen. Once the ringing stops, only silence meets her. She’s alone down here it seems.
Again.
She winces once more at the sporadic bouts of pain as she considers her options. She may have made her daring escape from the gallows look easy but falling from a dragon mid-flight is not fun. Her protesting ribs, back, legs… and everything is a testament to that. Add getting electrocuted by elf magic to the mix and Mari can safely say this is the most pain she’s ever been in.
Apparently, the elves don’t trust her much now either, Mari thinks as she eyes the manacles left on her wrists. She couldn’t break out of the cells before, so it’s not like the chains are necessary.
The distant sound of footsteps brings Mari out of her sulking as she trains her ears to capture the sound. She frowns as she listens in. They’re quiet, not like the heavy clunk of the guards, and the stop and start movement sound like someone trying to sneak around unseen.
Holding her breath, Mari’s ears twitch as she focuses in on the sound, they’re getting closer.
Gradually, the faintest of white light begins to fill the corridor outside her cell, and Mari watches with cautious eyes as a hooded figure creeps in front of her cell.
Their dark cloak hides them from view, but they’re short and slender, a small hand clutching a weakly lit orb provides the only luminance between them.
“They’ll be coming for you soon.” The figure warns in a small female voice, her words spoken in the elven tongue. “But we have a plan. We will come for you when they do, follow the Midnight Star.”
A sound further down the dungeon spooks the female, making her jump and turn, the low light gives Mari a glimpse of wide green eyes, before the girl uses her free hand to tug her hood down further as she hurriedly turns back.
“I have to go.” Then she’s gone, disappearing into the maze of cells out of sight, taking her light with her.
Mari frowns as she sits back. She’s no expert on the elven tongue, having only learnt a few words here and there, so the strange girl’s message is a mystery to her. But one thing Mari did understand, whoever she is, she’s not working for the elven army.
Mari can feel a smirk tugging at the side of her mouth. Perhaps she’s not as alone down here as she thought.
Chapter 9
There is one benefit to the lack of watchmen down in the caverns, a benefit Thurnik is all too happy to take advantage of.
It took a while, skulking around and sneaking off when he could, but finally he had completed it; his secret hideout.
Built behind a small natural crevasse; the watchmen wouldn’t have a clue anything was hiding back there even if they looked.
Tucked away in his hideout, Thurnik has everything he needs for a daring breakout. Tools, gear, supplies, he’s a one-man rebellion. Or he was, until she found him.
The hooded elf girl in question now sits across from him as Thurnik huffs. He’d been all set to launch his little breakout, planned everything perfectly, all he had to do was swing by his hideout to grab a few essentials, and suddenly there she was, waiting for him.
He’d thought she was one of the watchmen’s spies at first, grabbed his pickaxe and was ready to take a swing at her the moment he saw her.
But she had hushed him as she pulled him away from the entrance as a watchman was passing. Not something a spy would do, unless they were a pretty bad one anyway.
“A right, start talkin’ lil’ missy.” He huffed.
The girl frowned, then slowly spoke with all the skill of a drunken miner. “You wish… escape. We… will, no, are… escaping.”
“Eh? You’re no making’ much sense, what are you blabbering’ on ‘bout?” Thurnik grumbled.
Shaking her head, the girl tried again. “Sorry, I’m not very good at dwarven. We… help you… escape. We have… plan, plan to escape.”
“Now you’re getting’ somewhere. But who’s this ‘we’? And how do I know I can trust you?”
The elf girl frowned further, mulling over her words before saying, “We are… rebel like you. We will help you. Trust me… we can free… all dwarves.”
Thurnik grumbled as he considered her broken words. “Well, I don't care much for the other yellow-bellied arses down here.” He then glared. “Besides, I already have a plan. A damn good one too, so what’s in it for me?”
The girl blinked, making a face that either said she didn’t understand a word he said, or she understood everything he said.
“Your plan… is our plan. We want the… the same thing. Freedom.”
Thurnik huffed, looking the girl over. She’s wearing the same type of dark cloak as all those annoying watchmen, but the way she sits, so jumpy at the smallest sound, constantly looking towards the hideout’s only exit, she’s clearly on edge and not meant to be down here.
Rubbing a hand down his long brown beard, Thurnik grins as a plan of his own begins to form. He could use this. If what this girl says is true, then she could prove an even better distraction for his daring escape. After all, if it comes down to him or a pointy eared menace, he’d have no quarrels throwing her to the wolves to save his own skin.
He smirks as he thrusts out a hand. “Alright, you got yourself a deal lil’ missy.”
Clearly pleased, the girl hops down off her rock to shake his hand.
Sucker.
Sunset, the plan begins.
Mari is awakened from her nap in the darkness of her cell as a group of guards dragged her to her feet. They don’t say a word as she’s pulled down the dungeon corridors and tunnels. She thinks they’re taking her for round two of the gallows, but rather than drag her up the stairs, she frowns as they take her further down into the cavernous underbelly of the castle.
After several minutes of hurried, silent walking, they meet with a group of three hooded and cloaked figures. Their attire looking remarkably like the strange girl that visited her some hours ago.
Nothing is said as she’s handed over, and more importantly, the guards remove her manacles. Rubbing her sore wrists, Mari raises an eyebrow at the group.
“Let’s hurry.” One says as they place a hand to her back, and that much Mari can understand.
Nodding, she doesn’t protest as she follows the three strangers through the long and winding maze of tunnels, the cells thinning out until it’s only bare rocky passages ahead of them. Mari has no way of telling time down here, but after a while she’s panting heavily from the rush. Eventually, they come to a section that looks like a dead end.
Looking around cautiously to make sure they weren’t followed, one of the three steps forward to place a hand upon the stone wall.
“Reveal.” They whisper a foreign word and the stone melts away to reveal a smaller, more cramped tunnel.
Mari can’t help but stare, this is the first time she’s seen magic close up that wasn’t aimed at hurting her.
It’s another fast-paced rush through the smaller tunnel, until they suddenly come out into a massive cavern. But rather than continue their escape, the three strangers remain nervously huddled together by the
opening.
“What’s wrong?” Mari asks in her native language, then again in the human tongue.
Neither gain her an answer as the three shifts worriedly, before a small shadow slinks along the wall to greet them.
It’s the girl from before, Mari realizes upon hearing her voice.
“He’s agreed. The dragon will be set free, and we can make for the portal.”
“Good, then let’s move. We’ve only got one shot at this.”
Mari may not understand them, but she’s not about to run off into the caverns on her own. So instead, she sticks close by as they lead the way in almost pitch blackness. They soon come to a stop again however, as the four cloaked figures nervously await some sort of signal.
Mari soon understands what that signal is when she hears a very familiar roar echoed through the cavern.
“Aniljem…” She whispers, her heart skipping a beat. “He’s alive… Aniljem!”
Throwing all caution to the wind, Mari calls out for her beloved dragon, and is more than a little surprised when he comes storming around the corner. But her joy is short lived, as hot on his tail is a group of rather short people which she belatedly realizes are dwarfs, but it’s not the dwarfs that worry her.
The cave brightens with blinding light as blue lightning crackles and whips at Aniljem from the elf wizard chasing after the group.
“Get back here! You will obey me!” The wizard roars as he casts another bolt at the dragon.
“Eat rocks, you bastard!”
Mari can only stare in shock as, sat laughing his head off, a single dwarf slings what she can only assume to be insults back at the elf from atop Aniljem.
She’s drawn away from the sight of the incoming carnage as one of the hooded figures tugs at her arm.
“Time to go!”
Mari looks to them, and back to Aniljem. She doesn’t even have to think about it, she goes for her dragon.
“Aniljem!” She shouts again, racing straight for him.
To anyone else he might look like a wild and enraged beast, but Mari knows her dragon, she knows how to get to him. How to save him.
And even in all his anger and fighting, he must hear her voice, as he ducks his head down as he passes, allowing Mari to grab and pull herself up onto his back. Unfortunately, this also meant coming face to face with the laughing dwarf.
“Who the hell are you?” He snaps, not that Mari can understand him.
Choosing to ignore the dwarf for the time being, Mari directs her attention to her dragon.
“Aniljem, follow those four there, they know the way out!”
He rumbles deeply, showing his understanding, and makes a sharp turn to follow the hooded figures down a different tunnel. Another dead end, or so it seemed.
Putting her trust in strangers, Mari hugged close to Aniljem.
“Not matter what, don’t stop!” She says, closing her eyes as she prays this will work.
“Open!” She hears one of the figures call and braces for impact. What she feels instead is wind.
Lifting her head up, she’s met with the sight of a deep valley, tall cliffs bordering them on either side as Aniljem comes to a skidding halt. Turning to look behind her, Mari’s eyes widen at the glowing portal of swirling blues and violets, shimmering in the middle of the valley floor.
The group of running dwarfs tumble through, followed by the four hooded figures. Hurriedly, the three tall ones turn on the portal.
“Close!” They all cry, but not before a hand of the elf wizard reaches through and grabs the arm of the cloaked girl.
“Ahh!” She screams, but the other three come to her aid, holding tight to stop her from being pulled through.
Freeing her of her cloak, the four tumbles backward as the portal finally closes, the elf wizard only succeeded in taking the girl’s cloak.
Silence falls over the group as de-hooded, the girl is revealed.
She’s an elf, that much was clear from her language, but it’s what kind of elf that shocks everyone.
“You’re a High-Elf.” Mari whispers, both mystified and confused.
Elven society has a long and complex history of hierarchy and subjugation, even amongst their own kind. Elves, she was once told, aren’t a singular people, but rather a mix of three distinct classes.
There is the Wood-elves, who lived in the forests, the Dark-elves, who prefer to work in darkness and master black magic, and the High-elves, who sought knowledge and power. A long time ago, there was an elven civil war, and while not much is known about the details, what is known is the outcome.
The Wood-elves, simple in their nature, put up little resistance, while the Dark-elves fought longer, they too, untimely fell to the winner, and to this day the current ruler of the elven people, the High-Elves. So, out of those three, nobody would have expected it to be a High-Elf that helped them to escape.
Realising their secret is out, the three others lowered their hoods, which only further served to confuse everyone.
Their saviours are a group of two Dark-elf males, a female Wood-elf, and the High-elf girl.
“The hell is this?!” Thurnick muttered to no one in particular.
And that was another thing, Mari thought. Still perched behind her on Aniljem’s back as if he owned the place, is a rather loud dwarf. One of nearly a dozen who made it out with them, now all staring at the elves.
Elven was one thing, but Dwarven is a completely different matter. The sharp, guttural language is beyond Mari’s understanding, but even so, she thinks she shares the same thoughts as the dwarf.
Still- she has more pressing matters to attend to right now. Turning to the dwarf, she snaps at him in the human tongue. “Get off my dragon.”
Aniljem gives a growl of agreement, but the dwarf doesn’t seem to get the message.
“I said, get off!” She tries again in her native language.
Thurnick scowls at the girl sitting in front of him. “What you yappin’ ‘bout?” He grumbles back, but not knowing what Mari wants, he doesn’t move.
Tired, sore and generally fed up with the world at large, Mari gives up trying to be nice and instead shoves the Dwarf hard enough to unseat him. He tumbles backwards, only catching himself on the edge of the metal harness.
“The hell was that for?!”
Ignoring him, Mari grabs for the fasteners of the harness and pulls, trying in vain to break the restricting pieces off. While she’s distracted, the dwarf tries to pull himself back up, but a shake and kick of Aniljem’s back leg is all it takes to send him tumbling to the ground. From above, Mari smirked down at him, patting Aniljem’s side around the harness.
“Why you lil’ pointy eared-”
“Everyone, please calm down!”
Mari blinks, looking over at the one who spoke. The Wood-elf is standing with her hands out, trying to placate the group.
“You speak human?” Mari asks, wondering why they never answered her before now.
Turning to look up at Mari, the woman nods. “Yes, please forgive our earlier rudeness, but time was of the essence.”
To her side, one of the Dark-elves frowns deeply as he speaks in the same language as the annoying Dwarf, and by the looks of it, Mari guesses he is repeating the Wood-elf’s words.
“Everyone, please listen.” The woman continues. “I know it may be hard to understand, but we are not your enemy. We are just like you, fighting against the tyranny of the elven Queen and First Family. We helped free you, so that you might join us in the fight to stop the coming war, and destruction of our entire world.”
Mari doesn’t know if she should laugh or frown. Destruction of their entire world? Thinking back to the war she lost less than a week ago, she could be persuaded to believe what she’s saying.
That annoying Dwarf on the other hand, chooses to laugh.
“Help you? An’ why in Ores name would I do that? I could have busted out of there all on my own, you know. Didn’ need lil’ missy there’s help or anything.”
Mari is still clueless as to what the Dwarf is saying, watching as he points at the cloak-less girl. The rest of the dwarves break out into deep grumbles and what sounds like snarking.
Turning to the Wood-elf, Mari decides to make her own position clear.
“Look, I don't know about these Dwarves, but right now Aniljem is my number one priority. He and all dragons are my responsibility, so unless you can help get this-” she makes her point with a hard kick to the metal fastenings, “-off and save the other dragons those elves have captured, then I don’t have a reason to stick around.”
A quick glance at the deep frown of the Dark elf told Mari talks were breaking down with the Dwarves too.
“Please, just hear us out!” The Wood-elf begged, first turning to the group of Dwarves. “Dwarves, you forged the chains and harness on this dragon, with your help, we can break the chains. And you, Dragon-kin,” She adds, turning to look pleadingly up at Mari, “with your help, we can free all dragons from elven control.”
She doesn’t know it, but Mari asks the same thing as the grumpy Dwarf, “And how do you plan on stopping them?”
“With me.” The young High-Elf says, not that anyone other than her protectors understood her.
“Please, just trust us. We’ve come this far to free all of you, won’t you at least give us a chance?” The older woman asks.
Mari sighed, leaning back against Aniljem neck and looking to the sky. The sun has long since set, the last hues of twilight giving way to the bright starry night sky. Where could she even go from here? She could take Aniljem and fly far away, out of the reach of the elves. Find somewhere hidden, somewhere secret to hide and then… and then what? Live out the rest of their lives in hiding, abandoning all the other dragons she had been so set on helping?
It was different before. When it was only that black dragon and the possibility of others under the elves control. But now…
Last of the Dragon Warriors- a Will of Fire Page 4
