Feather

“Have you found anything?”

“No, have you?”

Braam and Yosk had decided to set up the investigation on their own. But something that should’ve been very straightforward was going all too wrong. They had searched the south west road from the village up to where it stopped, a few metres away from a sanctuary gate.

“Could she have possible lied, this wondrous creature you called a dryad?” Yosk ventured from where he was squatting on the ground. He looked at the boot print in front of him and all the other dozens of others, each different in size and shape. It was going to be impossible to see where Kian went with all these other trails.

“But why would she? Why would she go out of her way to mislead us?” Braam looked back at the road behind them. It was patterned with hundreds of prints and over night a shower of leaves had fallen making the search impossibly difficult.

“We should’ve traced him from where he left his home, not gone on this wild chase just on the basis of what some conniving dryad told us…”

“Yes, let’s start at the beginning. I’m sure we’ll be able to find him that way. But still, why did she do this?”

They went back the way they had come and Yosk mentally shrugged scuffing at the browning leaves underfoot. “Maybe to buy time…”

“You don’t mean…?”

Yosk nodded stopping as Braam did. A messenger waved at them as he sped past on his way back to his village.

“Damn! She was covering for him, making us look like fools while he went on his suicide mission, getting further and further away from us, I’m sure. I don’t care why she did it but if she did, it means someone besides Kian’s friends and family have an interest in him. And they have a use for him.” Braam swore under his breath and Yosk wished Kian was there to see the famously calm Braam lose it. Yosk sighed as Braam sped off down the road and he went after him.
This is bad, Yosk thought wondering at the same time how fast a short person like Braam could be, we have to find him before he draws more attention to himself.

**************************************
Kian looked with trepidation at the distance Tashayin wanted him to jump.
“You must be off your head to think I’d do it.”

Tashayin groaned and threw her one long silver plait over one shoulder. “Look here sir dark elf, your kind might not be famous for tree climbing and what not, but any child could do this.”

“Yes, but my kind are also famous for wanting to feel the earth beneath their feet, not crashing into it head first.” Kian’s vision began to swim and he sat down dangling his feet off the rickety platform.

Tashayin clicked her tongue. She bent down and grabbing Kian around the waist with a yowl of protest she took hold of the rope swinging above her head.

“Hold on!” she yelled and pushed off from the platform. Kian closed his eyes tightly as they swooped through the air and felt as Tashayin tensed to let go. Kian’s heart almost burst out of it’s cage when he slammed into something solid.

“Ow,” he breathed picking himself up from where he lay sprawled in the opening of a cave.

Tashayin stood next to him her hands on her hips. “There now. That wasn’t so bad.” She helped him up as he grumbled a half hearted thanks.

“From this point on you have to be the essence of silence. My tribe may be pro kill-the-sorcerer-with-outside-help and all but that doesn’t mean the others are. Some of them have already turned and we don’t know who we can trust, even if they are our own kind. Can I trust you to be quiet?”

Kian stared at her as his eyebrows shot up. You can see my thought patterns can you not?

Tashayin smiled and led the way into the cave. As they went deeper they had to stoop to avoid the stalactites hanging from the roof. And to Kian’s chagrin he had to clutch onto the moon elf’s cape because although his vision was of a very high quality like any night creature he had to have SOME light to work by and the deeper they went the blacker the darkness became and he was sure that, although she wouldn’t see a troll even if it lumbered past her, she knew her way to their destination.

When it came to the point where they had to kneel Kian felt icy drafts blowing from his left and right at certain intervals and he knew that if he let go of Tashayin’s cape he would surely get lost in a labyrinth of tunnels upon tunnels each possibly leading to a suffocating death pressed in by stone. Just thinking about it made his heart race and he calmed down when Tashayin stopped and placed a cool hand on the one holding her cape.

Thank you, he thought. Even in the forest I can hear something at night, an owl or a night prowler. But in here…

He shivered and she squeezed his hand once and letting go they continued their slow pace.
It seemed like hours later when a pinprick of light appeared in Kian’s vision and as the tunnel sloped downwards the light expanded. Tashayin stopped and Kian could hear her hands patter and feel the ground. And seconds later he felt the material slide out of his hands and he could no longer hear her breathe. He almost shouted out but remembered just in time to keep quiet.
Did she fall into a hole? Kian edged forward and tentatively reached forward with his hands. But still he only felt solid stone. He shuffled along a little bit more…

And felt his knees give way under the ridiculously smoothened stone sending him hurtling head first into a hole. But instead of falling to his death or into a pit of no return he felt the air whoosh past his ears as he sped downwards on a slide of slippery stone. He was terrified lest he flew into something of the solid nature but seeing as he was on his stomach he couldn’t do much more than put out his arms in front of him. Just as he was thinking that he was going to spend eternity sliding down to who knows where, the darkness around him brightened and the walls surrounding him melted away leaving him speeding along a very fast track overlooking fields of stalactites and stalagmites piercing the darkness and reflecting the light cast by hundreds upon thousands pulsing blue lights giving shape to the cavernous roof and walls that stretched into nothingness.

Kian looked about him in awe as these sights passed him in a slight blur. He felt infinitely small and worthless and more terrified of falling than crashing into something. He could hear an insistent dripping of water echoed until it became a roaring waterfall in his ears.

Without the slightest warning a pale arm snaked out in front of him and grabbed him by his shirt front. He was tugged quickly and with massive strength off the slide and into an adjoining tunnel.

A damp hand was placed over his mouth stifling his yell of surprise.