by Beth Wright
she finally gives in to her tired legs. She sits down on the floor near the cell door. Turning her wrist slightly to see the face of her watch. "Great, its supper time and I'm stuck in this stupid place."
A strange sound then comes from somewhere down the hall. She hears it, but is does not know what it might be. Sitting very still, she decides to listen for the sound again. After a few minutes, the sound is heard once more, this time it is much louder and a lot closer than before. "Hello! Is someone down here?" the noise stops. "Great now I'm hearing things." Again it starts. This time it is coming from the other direction. "Ok! You’re scaring me!" She stands and grabs the bars of her cell door. Looking around, she starts to see things moving about in the other cells. "Hello?" she slowly walks over to the bars on the left side of her cell, placing her hands on the bars as she approaches them. "Hello? Can you hear me? Can you speak?" The movement is seen once again. This time she sees a tall shadowy figure move about the back of the left cell. "I so wish Steph was here with me." Leaning closer to the bars she strains her eyes to try to see what the shadowy figure is. It moves back more, into the darkness. "Are you scared of me?" Still no answer.
THREE DUNGEON FLOORS ABOVE REBEKAH
Steph has tried everything to get out of her cell. She has even tried biting the bars. Yeah she's that desperate. Nothing seems to be helping. She is just making herself more tired and angry. "When I get out of here, I'm going to kill all of you!!" she screams at the top of her lungs. "You better not hurt my sister!"
"They cannot hear you." a voice came from the cell across the hall from her.
Startled by the voice, she stumbles backwards a few feet. "Who are you?" she manages to get out before seeing the man approach his cell door. Stunned by what she is looking at, she is unable to speak. He is tall, he is masculine, has long wavy red hair with black stripes in it, but his lower half of his body is the body of a horse. "Ok, maybe I should start with, what are you instead of whom?" She finally says.
"I was once a Sorceurian," noticing the look on her face, he realizes she does not know what Sorceurians are. "Like the men who captured you." She then smiles a small grin letting him know she understands what he means now. "They put blood of others into me to make me this way."
She clasped her hand to her mouth. "Oh my God." Remembering her sister, she starts to panic again. "What are they going to do to my sister?”
Hearing her worry, he says, "You were the only one brought down here." He then looks towards the other cells. Then back to Steph's frightened eyes. "What did they do and say while you two were upstairs?"
"Well, a man walked into the room and sat at the table. He said he wanted her. But he did not tell me why. Do you think he will do the same thing to her as they did to you?"
He studies her eyes longer. "No." His next reply is softer, and he bows his head, “He wants her as his mate.”
Steph gasps at what she hears. "No!" She starts to pull and push on her cell door once more. "I can't let him do that to her."
THREE DUNGEON FLOORS BELOW STEPH
After two hours of silence Rebecca decides to do something to occupy her time. She starts humming songs her and her sister always sang together. An hour later she closes her eyes and pictures being on a stage. Her sister always sang on stage with her at their father's theater. While picturing being on stage with her sister, she starts to sing softly. The memories fill her with hope and joy.
"Your voice is so beautiful."
Startled by the voice she nearly falls to her feet. Collecting herself she slowly walks to her cell door. Looking out into the dark cells across from hers, she sees movement. A dark figure walks up to one of the cell doors. "Thank you." She’s not sure if it is the one that said it, but she wanted to see if she could get them to talk again. The dark figure is now standing in the lighted area near his cell door. He has a very long cloak on, his hood is blocks her from being able to see his face. Without saying another word, he lifts his arm and points down the hall to the cell at the very end. Realizing he must be pointing out who made the comment. She says calmly, "Thank you," the figure moves his head towards her and then looks back down the hallway, still holding his arm up. "Thank you for telling me." She smiles when she sees his head jerk back her way in a shocked reaction.
Straining her eyes while watching the cell at the end of the hall she notices a figure standing by that door. Speaking out loud she says, "Thank you, no one has ever said that to me." Looking down to her watch she starts to cry. A small whisper comes out of her, "I wonder if Steph is ok."
"Who is Steph?" It's that voice again. She notices motion in the cell at the end of the hall again. This time the figure is standing in the soft glow of the light.
After awhile of pure shock, Rebecca finally comes to her sense and replies."Who...who are you?" She starts to realize she never answered his question. "She is my sister."
He nods his head slightly. "My name is Ungieroc." Removing his hood he watches as Rebecca gasps. He knew she would, all of the humans feared his appearance. But for some unknown reason he did not want her to. He was hoping she would look past it and see the true him. After a long moment of silence and staring at each other he finally asks, "She is here in the castle?"
Snapping out of her stunned state of mind. She shakes her head slowly as she lowers her eyes to the floor. Then ever so softly replies, "Yes. They took her to the dungeons a little while before sending me here." Tears start to roll down her cheek as she remembers everything that has happened.
Pondering her words, he soon is struggling over the situation. "Before they brought you down here?" Watching her shake her head slowly he then asks, "Why did they take her first? Usually they bring all humans down to the dungeons at the same time. Did they say anything to you before bringing you down here?"
With tears still sliding down her face she softly replies, "Their leader said I need to be placed down here till I can learn to be a good mate. Apparently physical violence towards the guards are not proper behavior for a mate."
He chuckles, "So now you are in the dungeon till you can learn to obey and not act out. Right?" He knows the answer so he does not wait for her to respond. "Can you be broken, beautiful?"
His words hit her hard. Without hesitation she shouts out, "No, Never!" Then calmly lowers her voice, "Like I told them already. I would rather die than be his mate."
His eyes widen as he listens to her. "I would never allow that." Stunned by what he just said, he slowly backs up into the shadows of his cell. Questions are now rising in his thoughts. Why did her words hurt him? Why does he even care? What hold does she have on him? Tellianar died billions of years ago. She was a woman who cared about no one but herself. All she ever wanted was to mate with all the men she ever came into contact with. But this young woman was different. She is pure of heart, body, mind and soul. Never has anyone ever felt feelings for any woman other than their Tellianar. So why does he have strong feelings for her?
Rebecca jumped when she heard him yell out his words. Then she slowly says, "That is what the guard said his leader would say."
Half of the lights in the hallway flicker out. She can no longer see Ungieroc, for the only lights left on are the ones near her cell.
Jongian stands at his cell door listening to her breathe and cry softly in her cell. He heard all that was being said, but did not speak a word. Just as the others, he dared not to show his true form to this young human. His was even more horrible then Ungieroc. After Trillions of years, having been in here, he knows how all humans act and feel about his appearance. They would all rather hide in the shadows then see another beautiful woman hide in fear from seeing them. He turns his eyes towards Ungieroc, who is now back at his door watching the young woman cry. {You care deeply for her.} His thoughts catch Ungieroc off guard.
He soon answers,{Yes, but I do not know why. She is not my Tellianar.} After awhile he turns his eyes to Jongian. {Why is that? Have you ever heard of this happening before?}
Jongian grins
, {Yes. She may not be your Tellianar, but it seems as if you have found your one true love. For you see, a Tellianar mate is one who is bound by birth. But true love is bound by your heart. Some Tellianars are also true love mates to their Tellianar.}
Ungieroc grins as he listens to Jongian's words. So the young one is something special to him. Now he just has to find a way to keep her safe. Staying in this dungeon is not the way to do it.
THREE DUNGEON FLOORS ABOVE REBEKAH
"Young one you cannot escape your cell." the voice comes to Steph as she continues to slam her hands against her cell bars. "Calm down, the way to escape has to be thought out, not done by force."
She rubs her now bleeding hands together, "I cannot just sit here and do nothing while they have my sister."
He sighs, "If you calm down and let your hands heal. Then we will all help you plan your escape."
Stumbling over his words, she soon calms down and relaxes on her cell floor. "You can find a way out? Then why haven't you done it, yet?"
"We have no reason to leave." Movement in the cell beside her catches her eyes. "We all know how horrible we look. Many have told us. We are not wanted even by most of our bloodlines any more. Some of us were born here, like this. So leaving would mean going out into a world that
