Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Part Twelve
Part Thirteen
Part Fourteen
Part Fifteen
Part Sixteen
Part Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen:
“Won’t…
they… hear… us?” Alice gasped out as she ran to keep up with the others.
Eliana
shook her head. “Don’t… talk… yet,” she said between gulps of air. “Not… safe.”
Well that’s an understatement, Alice thought grimly to herself. I sure hope Alyssa knew what she was doing
when she wrote… But here her thoughts were cut off by Eliana dragging them
into a different tunnel and stopping suddenly. Everyone doubled over, holding
their stomachs and waited until the pain receded. It wasn’t long before their
wild, frightened breathing slowed into almost inaudible regularity.
Eliana
sighed and sat down. “We’re safe. They will come here eventually, but by then
we’ll be safely out side of this cave.”
“Didn’t
they hear us running?” Alice repeated her question.
“Yes,
but we got enough rock wall in between us that they can hear us no longer, so
we are safe.” Eliana smiled. “Of course, eventually they will find this cave,
but it will take them time--they are not organized--and by then we will have
already left.”
“Left?”
Alyssa asked. “You mean we’re almost free?”
Eliana
nodded, her eyes shining. “And with this stone, the gliefs will no longer
bother us.”
“Why
won’t they bother us?” Raynold asked, dumbfounded that something that seemed
impossible could be true.
“We
hold the power to destroy them. This stone, the Fire Stone, is the only thing
that has the ability to easily annihilate their home, thereby destroying their
babies and their species. Besides which, once we return to your village we will
destroy the belief that this stone is the only thing which can kill these
creatures and instead tell the accurate fact: anything that you can kill
everyday animals with you can kill gliefs with as well.” Eliana smiled and
stood up. “Believe me; they won’t give us any trouble. Now they will do
everything they can to keep us away from their home, and they will stay as far
from us as possible.”
Raynold
shook his head and began to speak, then instead changed his mind and remained
silent.
While
Raynold and Eliana talked, Alyssa and Alice furiously scribbled down more in their
book. Diana simply listened, but she kept a wary eye on the twins when they
continued working on the book.
“How
close are you to being done?” She asked finally, unable to keep her curiosity
unsatisfied any longer.
Alice
looked up at her sister. “About two chapters away, more or less,” she answered.
Alyssa
nodded her agreement. “Right now we’re in middle of chapter eighteen, and we’re
hoping to finish it in chapter twenty, but it might stretch out a little
longer.”
Eliana
pressed an ear to the wall. “We need to leave now,” she said suddenly. “I can
hear them beginning their search.”
They
all stood and looked to Eliana for further instructions. She smiled. “The
passage out is right past this turn. We’ll half to climb down a little, but
it’s not impossible.”
Diana
groaned. “More climbing?” She asked.
Alyssa
gave her a sympathetic look. “At least we’ll be climbing down,” she said in an
effort to keep on the cheerful side.
“Yeah,”
Alice put in darkly, “that way when we fall we’ll at least land on our feet and
only break a leg or two instead of our necks.”
Alyssa
glared at her twin. “I was trying to reassure
her.”
“I
was trying to be realistic,” Alice
shot back. “Honestly Alyssa, we won’t be able to even see where we’re putting
our feet while climbing backwards.”
Alyssa
opened her mouth to give her sister a scathing reply when Raynold intervened.
“Let’s not argue when every moment is fraught with danger.”
Reluctantly,
the sister’s shut their mouths and followed Eliana into the daylight. The climb
was steep, but not nearly as perilous as the ascent had been, and soon all of
the adventures were safely at the bottom.
“I
can’t believe we made it,” Diana said, looking up at the sides of the mountain
in awe.
“We’re
not back yet,” Raynold answered, taking charge once again. “We need to find our
horses and get out of here while we still can.”
They
crept to the hollow where the three had left the horses during the rescue and
found the horses very refreshed. Eliana rode double-saddle with Diana and soon
they were on their way across what had seemed before a limitless prairie.
*************************************************************************************
That
night they camped under the stars. No gliefs had bothered them yet, and Eliana
said that they were probably still searching the mountain for them. She guessed
that it would take them at least a few days to find that they were gone, and by
then they would be back in the village and therefore safe from the horrible
creatures.
Alice
and Alyssa again worked on their story until they both found themselves nodding
off to sleep over it. Then, yawning, they put it away and then lay down next to
the dying fire under a canopy of stars.
*************************************************************************************
Alice
awoke to her sister shaking her from her blanket. “G’way,” she mumbled in a
sleep-fogged voice, holding the blanket tighter around her shivering body.
“Come
on,” Alyssa said impatiently, rolling her eyes. “Wake up already. We might make
it to the village today if we hurry.”
“G’way!”
Alice grumbled louder. “I dowanna wake up.”
Diana
sat up and squinted her eyes in the bright morning sunrise. “Time to go
already?” She asked.
Alyssa
sat on her heals and looked at her sister with her arms on her hips. “Yeah, if
I can wake up my sister.”
“Maybe
we could stick her on the horse without her having to wake up,” Raynold
suggested mischievously.
Alyssa
saw what he was doing and grinned. “Hey, maybe you have a point! We could tie
her onto the saddle and then…”
Alice
shot out of her blanket with a shriek. “Don’t you dare!” She yelled. Then she
caught sight of the looks on her sister and Raynold’s faces. “It wasn’t funny,”
she said sullenly, folding her arms.
“Just
come on,” Alyssa answered, her eyes still twinkling.
Eliana
laughed. “She must not like waking up in the morning,” she stated.
Alice
glowered. “It’s not fair. All of you teaming up against me to get me to wake
up.”
“Well,”
Diana replied, “we want to get back soon.”
“Oh,
I do too,” Alice answered, “but I don’t want to have to get up at all hours of
the morning to do so.”
“Breakfast
is ready,” Eliana said, wisely changing the subject.
With
that, the quarrel of the morning was forgotten and the adventurers exclaimed
their delight over Eliana’s good cooking.
“Are
all women good cooks in your story?” Diana asked Alice and Alyssa.
“You
aren’t,” Alyssa replied with a teasing smile.
Diana
sighed. “I’m not?”
“Nope,”
Alice said. “But, you do get better after a few lessons from Bettina.”
“Oh
good.” Diana was relieved.
“I
could teach you too,” Eliana said sweetly. “After all, once the Fire Stone is
safely in the hands of the council, my job is over.”
“But
will you stay in our village?” Raynold asked with a hint of eagerness apparent
in his voice.
Eliana
smiled. “I might. It all depends on how soon I can find a home.”
“You
could stay with my family until you do,” Raynold offered. “Bettina has always
wanted a sister, and you’re about her age. I think you two would become good
friends.”
“I
would love to meet your family Raynold,” Eliana answered. “Many thanks for the
offer.”
Raynold
ducked his head as if he was suddenly embarrassed. “You’re very welcome
Eliana.”
Diana
scooted closer to the twins. “Do they love each other?” She whispered
suspiciously.
Alyssa
put on her best innocent look and widened her eyes. “What on earth would make
you suspect that?” She asked.
“That’s
what I thought.” Diana gave her a look before continuing. “Do they marry in
your book?”
The
twins looked at each other and shrugged. “That, you will have to find out on
your own,” Alice answered with a grin.
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