Chapter 7: Dark Caves

“She got swallowed by a what?” Alric says.

 

“A cave! Like whoosh! then it’s gone!” Oz says.

 

“I think your friend knows something, captain.” Lieutenant says.

 

“Zeales? What is it?” Alric says.

 

“We’ve faced this before...”

 

“What?”

 

“The months you spent playing with Keith before leaving to war, you got lost one day and taken, I fought like hell, ended up transporting you out of it’s dimension, back to ours. You suffer from shock and don’t remember anything.”

 

“Can you bring us there?” Alrics said.

 

“I can port places I’ve been, only some of us, just don’t lose your cool when we get there.”

 

Julia wakes, torches stretch on both ends of the dark tunnel.

 

“Abbey! …Abbey! …Abbe-mmph!”

 

A hand grabs her to the dark.

 

“Shhhhh!” A girl says “Are you trying to get caught?!”

 

The walkway she was on, feet below, now, an unseen platform hidden in darkness she thought were cave walls, the brunette holds her palm.

 

“We never seen someone our age! I’m Macie and that’s my little brother Johnathan!”

 

She sees the back of a tall male with a knight’s physique and a heavy long sword resting on it.

 

“Little?” Julia said.

 

“Don’t mind him he’s always listening for someone coming. So! how long you’ve been here?”

 

“I just got pulled in, I saw a cave, next thing I know, it pulls me and I woke up here.”

 

“How old are you?” Macie says.

 

“16.”

 

“Only kids get pulled in here…” Macie said.

 

“…How long have you guys been here?”

 

“I’m 19 and my brothers 17, we got pulled 12 years ago.”

 

“Hey, shut up….you hear that?” Johnathan said.

 

A soft hum.

 

“That voice..Abbey!”

 

Julia jumps off the platform.

 

“Julia! Stop!” Macie says.

 

“Leave her, she’ll need to learn.”

 

“We gotta help her!”

 

“You know what happened last time.”

 

Macie punches the wall.

 

Johnathan stares at her.

 

She faces the other side, arms folded.

 

Johnathan sighs.

 

“The things I do for you.”

 

Julia runs to the light, a spacious area, a small home in the middle with a garden of flowers in front, Abby hums, picking and placing them in a basket.

 

Julia cries and hugs her.

 

“Abbey! I thought I lost you!” Are you okay?!”

 

She stares at her.

 

“Ah! You must be her friend!” A man says.

 

Julia draws her dagger.

 

“Relax! The children are safe!” The man in a patterned dress shirt says.

 

Inside the small home, more space than it looks on the outside, 40 children sit at tables in a doll house color room.

 

“Why are they like that?”

 

“I found them lost in the forest at night, they were too worried to eat so I casted a calming spell on them until they’re able to go home.”

 

In the distance a tall, linky, pale blue women, a rag as clothing, shedding black hair to her shoulders and small bug eyes.

 

“What is that?” Julia.

 

“Oh! That’s mother!” The man says.

 

The children stand, walk out in a line, she shakes them to wake and Abbey’s in front of Mother.

 

“Abbey!”

 

Mother looks down, reaches out and Julia screams at her.

 

“Abbey get away! Abbe-“

 

Mother chomps half her body, Julia falls, Mother chomps down remains, reaches for another and Julia’s body moves on its own, grabs Mother’s arms, kicks and screams before she eats the next, she start to claw and sees the back of Mother’s hand to her face.

 

Julia wakes, 13 of the 40 remain, Mother bites another, she cries, grips her dagger, it heats, glows blue, she screams and jams it in Mother’s side, it sizzles, the lower half of a child falls to the ground and Mother wails.

 

It grabs her wrist, she screams as it snaps and Johnathan’s sword chops off the pale hand.

 

The garden explodes, Alric, Beast, Oz, Lieutenant and Zeales look around, Julia’s crushed wrist, the child’s lower half and blood, Alric rage, blast straight to her with his sword and Beast transforms.

 

8 hard arrows break on Mother’s face, it turns, sees rocks, Alric knee hits her chin, Beast bites her side and sinks his claws in her legs.

 

“Julia! Are you okay?” Oz says.

 

Beast crashes into the side of the house and Alric is sent flying by them.

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She appears in front of Julia out of thin air, raises her pointed fingers and slashes down.

 

Johnathans swings to cut the second hand but blocks it, they dead lock, angles her hit to the ground and the impact makes a dirt cloud and he pulls Julia away.

 

Mother sees the kids and walks towards them.

 

Julia’s body moves on its own again.

 

Lieutenant conjures a metal beam behind Mother, swings metallic whips around it, wraps Mother’s limbs and body, he’s dragged forward, her hand regenerates, she grunts and the whips force him into the cave walls.

 

Julia balls her good fist, it pats Mother, Mother throws a punch, it’s pushed back by a comet burst of flames in front of her first.

 

Oz’s hand stretch out, holding the spell, Mother’s veins form, forces it but doesn’t go through, she pulls back, the back fist of her other hand smacks Julia to the spike ceiling, Zeales ports her near the ground but has to angle up, her momentum bring her into the air, Mother makes a fists, Julia stops, she forces it down and Julia crashes into rocks.

 

Alric launches tiger fang, a wind slash, Macie rises behind rocks, thrusts a flurry of arrows, Oz sends a frost freezing spell out her hand and Beast and Johnathan rush in to melee, Mother raises her fist, creates a purple hazy force field and counters.

 

Oz throws a colorfull spell out her staff gem and dissipates the field, Alaric slashes Mother’s chest, Mother traps him in the purple force field, smiles, glances left, and Oz smashes her staff into it, the field breaks, stunning Mother, Alric’s sword cuts from her knee to her shoulder, he grabs Zeales’ spear everyone’s holds, hits her chest and her pushes her to the cave wall.

 

“It’s not working!” Johnathan says.

 

“Push!” Zeales says.

 

Mother leans forward, skin around her eyes blacken, raises her hands, walls and ceilings haze and vibrate and a deep sound is heard in the distance.

 

“What’s she doing?!” Lieutenant says.

 

“Push!” Zeales says.

 

Julia staggers, bleeding from her head, taps the spear end, the blade heats, glows blue and runs Mothers chest.

 

Mother screams, it’s sound splitting their minds and stops.

 

“...is it dead?” Oz says.

 

An arrow pound the cave wall through Mother’s eye.

 

“Can’t be too careful.” Macie says.

 

Soldiers dig graves, sunlight shines in the cave and Beast places flowers on them.

 

“You guys really lived here for 12 years?” Alric says.

 

“You’d be surprised, the magic here grows enough plants to eat well.” Johnathan says.

 

“The way you two fight is inspiring, join my crew, if you don’t have someplace to be.”

 

“What’s the catch?” Johnathan says.

 

“I need something dead.”

 

“I can’t be a knight from inside a cave, sure.”

 

Macie smiles at Alric and Oz grabs her cheeks.

 

“The hell are you-“ Macie says.

 

“Hold still.”Oz says.

 

A clear gel drips out the gem of her staff and coats their eyes.

 

“This’ll help you adjust to the sun, come to me every half day for the next couple days and you’ll be fine.” She says.

 

“Where’s Julia?” Alric says.

 

Oz points, sits on a rock in bandages.

 

“What’d our doc say?” Alric says.

 

“I never seen a wizard mend bones, you guys saved me from any real harm, I’ll be fine.”

 

“Those kids, 6 slave and 6 noble are our count.”

 

“I don’t want to talk about that.” Julia said.

 

Alric sits next to her.

 

“Your power...”

 

“I never did something like that before.”

 

“Put it to good use, join the crew.”

 

“Do you go around asking everybody to join your team?”

 

Alric thinks for a moment.

 

“Yeah, the ones I want.”

 

Julia laughs, turns and sees a man fighting the soldiers at the cave entrance.

 

“Help!!! I need your help!!” The man says.

 

The man ducks past them and drops to Alric’s feet.

 

“What is it?” Alric says.

 

“Albon! Our city! Some of us stayed to rebuild, than these men came and start throwing us in cages!..they take child…I’m all she has left!”

 

The man’s shoes shoes and feet are torn.

 

“Lieutenant! We’re leaving!” Alric says.

 

“Actually, there’s something I think you should know,” Lieutenant says, “another tunnel lead some of our men to a home like this.”

 

“What?” Alric says.

 

Johnathan fixes his blade.

 

“A series of tunnels lead to more places like these, this caves only small on the outside, has a housekeeper with children. Housekeepers grew up to get the new one ready to feed Mother, the guy for this house probably ran off somewhere. I don’t need this map anymore so here.”

 

Alric takes deep breaths.

 

“Johnathan, Macie, Oz, and Beast come with me. Lieutenant, kill every house keeper, don’t soil the plants, this will be home for the kids here and refugees from Albon, take that things head, the nobel’s kids and this red paper to Capzin, buy the cave with funds in my name and keep our men in the city.”

 

Alric and the four vice captains leave, Oz pours liquid colors, forming a pool on the ground near trees, the marble chariot rises from the pool, Alric slams his palms on the floor bed, casts bad bang, concentrated air pressure, and they launch into the sky.

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