Feather

"Almost there,” Tashayin breathed relaxing her hold on Kian.

He sighed and tried to quieten his beating heart. He followed her on hands and knees, faintly making out her form in the darkness. After a few minutes deep in thought he bumped into the back of her legs and looking up saw that the tunnel had grown bigger and he could crouch-stand. He could also see much clearer now from the light emitting in front of them, probably the edge of the tunnel.
Without further ado she grabbed him by his shirt front and pulled him up. He could feel the urgency in the air around her and guessed that she didn’t want him to dally. He copied her movements as she crept to the edge and looked over her shoulder choking slightly on his held in gasp.
It was a gigantic cavern, bigger than the one with sliding slopes. Thousands of lanterns glowing a soft silver gave off the light and unlike the previous cavern it had no dangerously looking stalagmites and what not but the walls were smooth with a pearlescent hue and he thought they looked…well, sticky to say the least.
But obviously Tashayin wasn’t thinking about the beauty of the cave but of its inmates. On the other side of the massive space a group of moon elves could be seen sitting on cushions spread across the floor. They were too far away to make out any weapons but he saw Tashayin tense.
What happens now? Who are those people? Kian thought frustrated at the silence.
She turned and silenced him with a glare. She pointed at the group, made the action of a knife sliding against her throat and pointed at Kian.
Ah, he thought. I didn’t know you were so good with words.
She scowled in the dim light and motioned for him to go down on his knees. Again. Kian sighed mentally and followed her as they crept out of the tunnel and kept to the walls of the cave towards their right. As they moved further and further away from the group Kian noticed that the lighting became dimmer until they finally came to two adjacent tunnels lit up by the sickly glow of a plant type that grew like moss against the walls. Tashayin quickly slipped into one and then into a much smaller tunnel that branched out from that one.
Minutes later she had thrown aside a black curtain that hung over the entrance to six other similar caves further down the tunnel. She motioned him in and closed the curtain behind her after throwing furtive glances down the corridor. They were in a rather cramped tunnel just the right height for her tall form and looking up he saw that there were numerous patterns on the ceiling, undistinguishable faces and strange insects carved deeply into the stone.
“We can speak now,” she said softly. “It’s rather a bother to have the ability to see other’s thoughts close to us but to be able to mind talk back. Although my kind have built up a resistance to having our thoughts read so we can only practice our abilities on outsiders. So try to keep your mind clear and sharp when you need to and impenetrable when it’s clarity can pose a danger to you.”
“Where are you taking me exactly?” The tunnel seemed to stretch on forever.
“My father and some of the others in the resistance. You’ll only be meeting a few of them.”
“That group we saw earlier, who were they?”
“Bunch of stubborn old men who don’t want change even though they know it’s for the best. I didn’t want them alerted to your presence as they’re mighty curious and might even blabber about seeing you in more public places where the other clans can hear them,” she muttered just as a man, just as tall and slim as she was stepped out from a doorway and into her path.
“Now, Yin, that’s no way to speak about the elders in front of a guest,” the man said a slight undertone of humour in his voice.
“Kian, this is my younger brother Haung. Haung this is Kian,” Tashayin said grinning.
“Good meeting,” Kian greeted.
“I hope the moon guided your path well Kian,” the man said putting his hand on Kian’s shoulder.
“I guided him well enough,” Tashayin sniffed.
“Let me guess, she never told you about the slide did she?”
Kian shook his head just before Tashayin shot him a pleading look to not say anything. Haung gave out a bellow of a laugh surprising from such a willowy man.
“Come, I’m sure they’ve heard us and would be expecting us anytime soon,” Tashayin brushed past her brother but she sounded happy and Kian followed with Haung in tow.
The chamber they entered was brightly lit as if by sunlight and there was many more carvings in here which depicted whole forests and the night sky along with fearsome beasts that stalked their prey.
Kian wondered where the light came from noticing a hole in the high roof that was shielded by a rough panel of glass.
“We use mirrors to reflect the early morning sun in,” a raspy voice said and looking down Kian saw four men and a woman were sitting cross legged on heaped carpets and silk cushions. A teapot blinked in the light upon a mat along with delicate white transparent cups with elongated bodies formed to resemble some form of lily.
The woman indicated that he should sit and poured him a cup of sweet smelling tea. He took it gratefully offering his thanks but didn’t even take a sip. He wanted to see how Tashayin did this first.
But Tashayin only flopped down onto a particularly big cushion, poured herself some tea and finished it in a heartbeat. Kian sighed and did as Haung did, putting his cup in front of him on the ground and looking intently at the five people sitting across from him.
The men were not young anymore, a few wrinkles here and there but that was all. The woman on the other hand looked younger than himself but by how the other men sat on her right and on her left he assumed she was held in some form of esteem and probably outranked the others.
“Good meeting,” the woman said using Kian’s native greeting. Her face was less open than Yin’s and her eyes held a guarded look. Her features were slightly pinched but her mouth was wide and smiling. “I am the Loushi of my people, in your tongue the Queen. Please accept my gratitude. We are all pleased that you can be here with us today,” she laughed suddenly. “And yes it is already morning! It’s nice to have an ‘open mind’ here after all this time.”
“You’re probably wondering why we even had you brought here in the first place. Well, not you specifically but Tashayin was asked to bring anyone from Outside. Anyone she thought trustworthy however. The thing is we want someone to see how is it from our side and then be able to relate and defend us when we send them back.”
Defend? Kian thought.
“Yes,” the Loushi said. “Of course if this whole unpleasant situation is solved with the sorcerer we’d be assuming people would look at us to lay the blame for not stopping him in his quest for power. Therefore we want you to see what we’re doing here, how we ARE trying to stop him and although it is too dangerous for you to go into the sanctuary without the protection of the caves we’d wish for you to learn it’s layout as much as possible through maps, namely yours, and what we tell you of it.”
How does everyone know of my map? Kian shrugged his shoulders mentally. Basically, Kian thought taking a sip from his tea, you want me to go back to my people and give them inside information about the sanctuary and the sorcerer?
“That is correct,” she said sighing. “Unfortunately not all of my people see things the way we do. They’re terrified of drawing attention to all of us and some have become hostile, not towards me of course, tradition runs too deep, but to those ‘conspiring with me.” She gave a humourless laugh. “The crazy Loushi I’m called.”
Kian felt himself relax in her presence and without thinking he said loudly, “Is it possible to take back the location of the sorcerer’s whereabouts? I think with the most likely appearance of the Queen’s reinforcements coming from the court that would be very beneficial to them.”
There was silence in the chamber and one of the men sitting next to the Loushi said half sadly, “We cannot locate him. He appears where and when he wishes. No one knows where he is.”
“That brings me to the most important topic. There is one more thing we would ask of you although it is not an easy task,” the Loushi said softly, “There is a girl…A long time ago when I was still very young she was a nymph blessed with extraordinary story telling skills.” She had drifted into some far off time and the company were loath to make a sound lest they disturb her.
“I remember that we used to have a festival every full moon and she would be invited as a guest of honour. At that same time however we ignored another prominent figure within the then peaceful forest. An Avian with powerful magic, we assumed he’d been banished from some far place and his arrival at the forest sparked nothing but common interest. Halfway through our festivities he appeared unannounced and with no warning. He lay waste to our magic entertainment we had built, scared off our more timid guests and demanded to know why he had not been invited. The storyteller marched right up to him, and told him off for being rude,” the Loushi chuckled and then her face darkened. “He was certainly of royalty or used to the treatment of one for the blood drained from his face. Before anyone could stop him he cursed her with his powerful magic dooming her to a life of shape shifting and entrapment for during the day she would become bound in the form of a swan and at night she would be free to weep for after that festival the forest seemed to darken, he made brother betray brother and twisted most of us around his little finger so that the forest’s inhabitants committed the most atrocious crimes. No one was allowed near the storyteller and those who came too close were murdered, and after time he became paranoid fearing his demise at the hands of Outsiders.
For the past five years he has been expanding its boundaries for reasons of his own and more deaths have occurred.” She stopped and everyone threw her a sympathetic glance. They could see she bore a great burden that only she knew upon her shoulders. “We do not blame the storyteller, she stood up to him; something we should’ve done right at the beginning. But we were all so scared…” The Loushi shivered slightly and got up slowly.
“Kian, we would ask you to get near and talk to the storyteller. Those of us still connected deeply to the forest’s magic feel that she is the key. For some strange reason the forest protects her and that makes the sorcerer angry for he cannot break her and as the time creeps by so does his hold on the sanctuary slip. We must help her, she could unlock everything and save is all.”

“Leylia,” Yin breathed. And the sound swept like a cooling breeze amongst them all.