Roeg was confused. “What is clothes?”
Minnoa giggled and pointed to his hide coverings. “Gnomes call what you are wearing ‘clothes.’”
Roeg nodded. “So how do we dry them?”
Minnoa pointed to a room at the end of the cavern. “That is the dry heat room. Put your wet clothes on, then go stand there. You’ll be dry in no time.”
Roeg turned to explain to Ookum and Tsisa what Minnoa had told him and saw they were both sprawled out on the cavern floor, snoring.
Minnoa walked to the opening of the cavern. “I’ll wait and keep a lookout while you wash.”
Roeg peered into the small, round chamber: A pool of steaming water gurgled, with a lone dancing light floating in the pool.
In the next chamber, Ookum dove into the small pool of water. “Aaaahhh. This is nice. Get in, Roeg, the water is hot!”
Roeg dipped his toe in. It was hot. He climbed into the pool and sat. The water came to his chin. He sunk in. When he opened his eyes, he saw Ookum standing in the doorway to the small chambers. “Did you fall asleep?”
Roeg blinked. “Uh, I guess so.”
“It’s nice in there. I’m going to the dry room now! I heard Tsisa yelp when she went in,” Ookum said with a wide grin. He ran off to collect his clothes.
Roeg climbed out of the water, and gooseflesh rippled along his body. Even with all the steam in the room, after the warmth of the pool, he felt a chill. Scooping his clothes from the small, steaming pool he noticed the familiar scent of wild in the hides was gone. He brought them to his nose, closed his eyes and inhaled. Gone. A pang of fear washed over him. Unn was gone, and he was stuck underground with a bunch of blue gnomes he wasn’t sure were friendly. The Firestone, for as much as it protected him, also hurt him and sometimes didn’t work. And now, he didn’t even have the smell of home.
Ookum charged out of the room, squealing. He looked like a giant puff ball; his hair stood on end, and his furs puffed out, but he was bone dry.
“How? You’re completely dry already!” Roeg touched Ookum’s striped shoulder hides.
“You’ve got to see this! I want one of those back at the village! Sure beats being wet and cold after a dip in the river,” Ookum said.
Roeg nodded excitedly then entered the cavern.
A sharp blast of hot air blew at his feet and took his breath away. He looked down to see tiny slits in the stone floor blasting hot air upwards. The small chamber hummed with the blasts of air. His hair and clothes shot up with each puff. Before he was able to eye the room’s entirety, he was dry.
He walked out, patting his saber tooth shoulder cover, it felt soft. He raised his eyes and saw Tsisa, a loud laugh escaping him before he could stop it. Tsisa stood with her hands on her hips, disheveled. Her hair had grown to twice its original size and stood on end, still moving as one unit. She tapped her foot, and her hair swayed with the movement. Her furled brow added to the effect.
Roeg collapsed in a fit of laughter.
Ookum pointed at Tsisa and laughed as well. Tsisa swatted him, but he didn’t stop laughing.
ROEG
Great Hall
E
very muscle in Roeg’s body felt relaxed. His breath was slow and steady, his mind focused and calm. He brought his arms to his face. All the bites from the red bugs on the thorn tree were gone; his skin was smooth and clean. He was ready to meet the King of the Gnomes. Unn had said they had been friends when he was young—Roeg was excited to hear stories of Unn’s youth. What kind of mischief did he get into? Roeg smiled to himself.
Minnoa led them through a series of tunnels, all dimly lit by the green dancing lights. As they walked further on, the walls changed again to the smooth black stone. Roeg ran his hand along the stone; it was slippery and slightly warm.
Tsisa whispered to Roeg, “I don’t like this place.”
He leaned to her so their elbows touched. “We need to talk to Jexif and find where we need to go, then we can get out of here.”
Tsisa poked Roeg then whispered in his ear, “That gnome in the kitchen didn’t like us. I couldn’t understand what he said, but when an animal is going to attack, it does certain things. He was doing those things.”
She was right. Roeg had the same uneasy feeling when he had met Bulbus. Roeg’s hand instinctively came to the Firestone, which was still tucked under his clothes. He should probably keep it hidden there. He didn’t need another reason for the gnomes not to like them.
Minnoa looked back and said, “We are almost at the Great Hall. It’s big and busy, so stay behind me and don’t… just follow my lead, okay?”
Roeg nodded to her, then turned to Ookum and Tsisa. “We are going to the Great Hall and—”
“What’s a Great Hall?” Ookum and Tsisa said in unison.
“I don’t know, but she said to follow her lead. She seems nervous, so be on guard,” Roeg said. Minnoa seemed nice, but ever since they entered the Gnomish Caverns, she had been acting nervous. Why?
Low thumps echoed through the tunnels, followed by the hum of chatter. As they turned the corner, light broke the dark of the tunnels, and a rush of exotic smells washed over them. Roeg squinted as his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the Great Hall.
Minnoa swiveled and waved her arm in one smooth motion. “Welcome to the Great Hall!”
Roeg had no words. He couldn’t believe he was underground. The dancing lights were bigger and brighter here. It wasn’t dim like the tunnels; it was aglow with a rainbow of colors, like the Bath Caverns but without the steam. The stone-stacked walls sparkled and reflected the dancing lights. The room was filled with gnomes of similar shape and size, their skin roughly the same blueish color. There were many foods and delicacies placed on various tables. Gnomes chattered and bartered with one another, filling the whole space. It was organized chaos.
“What are they doing?” Roeg asked Minnoa.
Minnoa raised an eyebrow. “This is now our market… ever since… well, since we can’t see the nymphs anymore because… well, never mind.” She paused. “We craft, sell, and trade with one another on market days. Because of what happened with the Atlanteans, we have to use the Great Hall for our market now.”
“Who are the Atlanteans you keep talking about?” Roeg said.
Minnoa winced. “I should probably let Jexif tell you about—”
Ookum drew a large sniff, “What is that? It smells better than the… what did you call that place with the guy with the blue beard and the mushroom hat?”
Roeg looked to Ookum. “She called it the ‘kitchens.’ I think that’s where they cook. It’s like our cookfire, but they have different ways of cooking. I don’t understand everything I saw in there. They seem to have better ways of doing things than we do.”
Tsisa crossed her arms. “Pfft. They live underground, and they are weird, little, blue things. And it smells funny down here. Can we talk to this Jexif and get out of here?”
Minnoa tilted her head at Roeg. “What are you saying to them?”
Roeg turned to Minnoa and explained the differences in how they cooked.
Minnoa giggled. “We call it ‘kitchens’ because there is more than one kitchen in the cavern. They are used to prepare all the food for the gnomes, and—”
Roeg stood with a blank stare. “I don’t understand.”
“Never mind. It’s not important.” Minnoa shrugged.
Ookum walked over to one of the stands and grabbed a steaming bowl of stew. He brought it to his mouth and gulped it down.
The gnome behind the table dropped the glass bowl he carried and screeched, “Atlanteans!”
The room went silent. Every gnome stopped and stared at Ookum. Ookum dropped the bowl and stumbled back. He let out a loud belch that echoed throughout the Great Hall, the sound bouncing off every wall; it was magnified by the complete silence. He brought his hand to his mouth, turned, and scuttled behind Tsisa.
A gnome sitting on a l
arge chair central to the Great Hall stood. The chair sparkled brighter than the walls. Multi-colored gemstones formed the pattern of mountains along the bottom of the chair.
The first thing the trio noticed about the gnome was his very large, white beard that hung down to his feet. Three circular coils of mustache, each bound with a golden ring, looped from each side of his face just under his nose. On the tip of his bent wooden staff was a dancing light. It shined brighter than all the other dancing lights.
He stamped the staff on the ground, and an echo rang through the Great Hall. “Minnoa, my daughter. Who are your disrespectful companions?”
Minnoa walked foreword and looked back to her friends with a timid expression. “King Jexif, Father, these are my friends. They are from the coast. Unn Truthsay’r sent them.”
Jexif’s eyes flashed. “Unn, you say?”
Minnoa nodded. “I found them in the clearing.”
Jexif squinted. “Of course, you did.”
The King looked to the corner of the Great Hall and said, “Guards, escort these outsiders to my chambers.” He turned and stalked to a doorway at the end of the hall.
Four gnomish guards marched to the group. They had small spears and little metal helmets covered in gemstones. The largest guard poked Roeg with his spear and grunted, “Move.”
Roeg made his way across the Great Hall with their escort of guards and Minnoa. Whispers echoed, and gnomes stared and pointed. Roeg heard them whispering, “The Atlanteans are back,” “What will Jexif do?” and “What was Minnoa thinking?”
SEPHONEI
The Bet
S
ephonei opened her eyes. Sleep still clung to her lashes, making them hard to open. She didn’t want to open them anyway; she was still tired. The little bedroll did not offer much comfort on the hard, rocky ground.
Abil called out, “Come on, kid, hurry up! We’ve got a long day’s walk ahead of us up this mountain. There are only so many areas to set up camp.”
“Ai, I’m comin’.” Sephonei yawned.
Ku-aya stared at her map on the ridge of the mountain overlooking the valley below. The chattering of life in the forest echoed up the mountain. As Sephonei tucked her bedroll in her satchel, she noticed an odd land formation at the base of the mountain.
A stream flowed through a carved, rocky channel into the depths of a large crevice at the foot of the mountain. Sephonei had studied land formations from an old scroll her parents had picked up in their merchant travels. They had tried to sell it many times but never had any luck, so they kept it in their inventory. Sometimes, when Sephonei was bored, she would thumb through it. It fascinated Sephonei how things worked, whether it was a mystical creature, or how the land came together. When she saw the channel down at the foot of the mountain, she knew there must be a series of caverns underground.
She looked up the slope of the mountain and sighed. It looked treacherous. The rocky outcroppings and jagged terrain did not look easy to navigate.
Sephonei called out to Ku-aya, “I think there’s an underground cavern. It might be a better option to go under the range than to go over it.”
“Ha,” Abil teased. “Didn’t you have enough of caverns when those beetles attacked you? An’ when the cavern almost collapsed on us?” He slung his crossbow over his shoulder and headed up the mountain.
Sephonei ignored him. Ku-aya turned to Sephonei and walked over to her.
Ku-aya pointed at the map and said, “There’s no cavern system. See?”
Sephonei looked at the place Ku-aya was pointing to on the map and remembered their conversation the night before. “But Abil said the maps weren’t accurate. Maybe there—”
“No. This isn’t my first time on a stone quest, unlike someone else I know. Do you remember my basic trainin’ I gave you in the Atlantean caverns? What is rule number two?” Ku-aya raised her eyebrows and looked expectantly at Sephonei.
“Ai. I remember but look down there.” Sephonei pointed to the stream that flowed under the mountain.
Ku-aya turned her head and sighed. “What am I lookin’ at? The stream? So what?”
“I learned a lot about landforms and how they work. I bet there is a cavern system throughout this whole mountain range. If we could access it, maybe it would be easier than goin’ over the mountain,” Sephonei said.
Abil stopped his climb, looked back, and said, “Are we goin’ or what? The only place to rest will take all day to trek to. What are we waitin’ for?”
Ku-aya shushed him then gave Sephonei a stern look. “Okay, stream girl. How do we get in these caverns of yours, if they exist?”
An energy shot through Sephonei—she finally felt heard, and maybe, just maybe, she could get some respect that didn’t have anything to do with using the lute. If she could find a way through the mountains, it could save them time, and she could get back to her parents faster. The flow of the stream cascaded down the slope of the hill until it flowed under the mountain, entering into a darkened crevice.
“There.” She pointed to the crevice at the base of the mountain. “We enter through there.”
Ku-aya looked to the crevice then said, “Ai. Go check it out, but if, for whatever reason, we don’t end up goin’ through the caverns—” Ku-aya paused and looked around the makeshift camp. She smiled then turned to Sephonei. “You’ll carry my satchel across these mountains, along with your own. Deal?”
Sephonei looked at Ku-aya’s satchel that sat on the rocky ledge of the mountain by the night’s campfire. It looked bigger than her own. Then she looked to the crevice and thought of the look on Abil’s face if she was right. “Deal,” she said.
She whistled. Pery plucked a tuft of brown grass by the ridge and gulped it down, then turned his head and ran to Sephonei. She jumped on his back and made a clucking sound with her tongue. Pery shot off the ridge, and they soared down to the edge of the stream. The morning air bit at her skin, but she felt alive. She hopped off Pery and told him to stay. She looked up the face of the mountain and waved to Ku-aya, who stood tapping her foot and motioned for Sephonei to hurry.
Sephonei paused and thought about her family. She thought of Sin, then looked to Pery and back up to Ku-aya, who still stood watching her from the edge of the ridge. She could just run. She could hop on Pery and go. She didn’t know where she would go, but she would be free of the Crystal Hunters and of Sin. An image of her parents weeping crept into her mind; she lowered her head and released a long sigh. She couldn’t run, not yet anyway. Not before she had a plan.
Sephonei walked to the edge of the stream then toward the hole at the base of the mountain. The water gurgled as it rushed past the heavy stones in the center of the stream. A cool mist formed at the surface where water met air. She crept closer to the large crevice and looked in. It took a second for her eyes to adjust. Images formed, and she saw flat rocks descending into the hole. She could use them as steps.
As she moved forward, she heard Pery mew when he lost sight of her. She toed down each step, careful not to slip and fall. The stream dipped to a waterfall as she made her way further down the hole. When she reached the bottom, she gasped from the intense heat that slapped her in the face. As she walked deeper into the cave, sweat dripped down her face and soaked the collar of her jacket. When her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw a series of caverns and tunnels. She had been right—there was an underground cavern system!
The ceiling glowed from the light that entered the crevice. She walked to the wall and noticed tiny flecks of light throughout the cavern. A rainbow of colors washed over the cavern walls, and the falling water rested in a large pool that steamed and bubbled. It glowed a bright blue. She walked to the pool and stuck her hand in; the heat of the water made her jump. The water rippled from her touch, and the glowing spots on the surface broke apart then mashed together again. She smelled sulfur. It was beautiful down here. This would be a much better passage than climbing the mountain.
She turned and scrambled up the rock stairs. She exited the crevice, and a chill tickled down her spine, making her shiver.
She whistled to Pery, who had found a patch of bright green grass to chew on. He looked up and padded over to her. Looking up the side of the mountain, she whistled to get Ku-aya’s attention. Ku-aya looked down and said, “So? Did you find anythin’?” Her voice echoing down the mountain.
Sephonei put her hands around her mouth to direct her voice and yelled, “I found it! There are caverns. I’ll come back up with Pery—”
CRASH!
The mountain shuddered all around Sephonei. Pery bucked and mewed then snorted. Small boulders crashed down at the base of the mountain, sending debris into the air. Sephonei turned and hurled herself sideways, as one of the boulders almost rolled right over her. She fell to the ground and looked up.
A storm of boulders and debris slid down the mountain in dusty torrents. A landslide. Large boulders broke through the dust and rolled directly for her.
She scrambled up and ran to Pery. He bucked and hopped at her approach. Sephonei, reading his panicked aura, tried to calm him. She raised her hand to him and inched closer. He snorted and extended his wings as if to fly away. Sephonei couldn’t wait any longer. A large boulder pounded the ground where the crevice entered the foot of the mountain, sending a shock wave across the small valley. Sephonei lurched forward and grabbed onto Pery’s bridle. “Go, Pery!” she yelled.
Pery shot off. In four steps, he was airborne with Sephonei on his side, her leg scrambling to wrap around his back. The other leg dangled in the air as she tried to find leverage. Pery was smart and flew away from the mountain, narrowly avoiding several rampant boulders. The peryton reached the ridge of the mountain where they had camped, and landed heavily. Sephonei launched herself to the ground and rolled to a stop.
Firestone Page 19
