Of Two Suns

ix

There were two things Ryla did not handle well at all: being extremely high off of the ground, and small enclosed spaces. And she really did not do well with small enclosed spaces. She had spent her twenty years of life in fresh, open air. She had never so much as wondered what may live within the mountain she lived on. Yet now she would find out anyway.

It didn't take much to determine that the tiny passage, if it could even be called that, was not frequented. Both sides of it were equipped with jagged protrusions that grabbed at her clothing, dug into her skin, and yanked on her unkempt hair.

It was so tight, in fact, that she nearly fell out the other side; it felt as though she had just been birthed from the mountain. Or, more like into the mountain. It was as if the Goddess of the Moon and the God of the Night Sky had both disappeared.

With her Half-Elf eyes, she was able to see some short distance ahead of herself, enough to make out the rough walls of the cavern. To either side of her the cavern carried on into the pitch darkness. The wall ahead of her rose high up to meet with the one behind her in a pointed arch. She wondered who had carved out this passageway, and why. From each of the pockets in her trousers a dragon head sprouted to look around, but they were silent.

A small grunt escaped the Elf behind her as he emerged from the crevasse. She frowned as she watched him sheath his blades behind his back, having removed them to better fit in the gap. She cursed him for his natural Elven grace, the same that had refused to take root in her.

"Why are we-"

"Don't speak." he was quick to cut her off.

Ryla couldn't control the deep, unimpressed frown that etched into her skin from her eyes down to her mouth. She wished he would look at her so he could see it, but instead he kept his eyes trained away from her. She crossed her arms over her chest as she shifted her weight to one foot to stare daggers into his back.

Without saying anything, he started down one end of the passage. He paused mid-step some distance from her to finally glance over his shoulder. He still didn't speak, but the look in his eyes was sarcastic enough for her to roll her own.

She followed him through the cavern in silence, the only sound her soft breaths. The harsh floor dug into the skin of her exposed feet, causing her to wince every time she found a stray stone. The mostly white dragon climbed out from its hideaway to crawl up to her shoulder; the golden dragon remained inside of her other pocket.

This was one hell of an abduction. Attacked, captured, escaped, rescued, all but recaptured; all by the same Elf. Whatever was up next for her, she had no chance of guessing.

They walked for hours in the darkness of the mountain, not a single torch in sight. Not that either of them needed it. Elven sight was far superior to that of humans, allowing them to see farther and with more clarity in both light and darkness. In instances of darkness, like the one they were currently in, colours were stripped away, replaced only with shades of grey. As a young girl, Ryla's mother had told her it was because colours were afraid of the dark.

After hours of walking, her body had begun to feel the exhaustion previously hidden by Gale's tonic. Her feet were growing sore, especially the one still bare. Her calves were beginning to burn. Her lower back had started to ache. But she couldn't bring herself to stop moving. Even though she felt every sensation, every throb of pain, she couldn't will her legs to stop walking. As if they were stuck in motion, like a cart rolling down-hill.

The entire time, the Elf stayed just ahead. He weaved them through tunnel after tunnel, causing her to wonder how he recognized the way. No matter how hard she stared at the walls of every tunnel they passed through, she could find no obvious markings.