So, here's Chapter 2. Just so you know, I get much of my inspiration from the Redwall book series and from various Disney movies. So if something doesn't make sense, just think about what other famous published authors can get away with not making sense in their own books and stories, lol. Also, you can always just ask me to clarify something if you want. I'll be happy to respond.
Insert usual disclaimer here. Enjoy!
"-keep that cold pack on her head-" … "-stop moving around so much-" … "-sure this is such a good idea, Kortz-"
Cressa was just making out voices around her. She didn't know if they were real, or if she was dreaming. The horrible throbbing in her head felt real enough and it made her wish that the voices would stop. She wanted to sink back into the darkness where the pain would go away.
"-what are we gonna do with her-"
As much as she was trying to ignore the talking, that last statement got her attention. What did they mean 'what are we gonna do with her'? Where was she anyway? Cressa did her best to try and remember, but her pounding head was making thinking difficult. With great reluctance, she attempted to open her eyes to find out where she was.
"Hey, hey! I think she's coming around," she heard.
Cressa slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was sort of hazy, but what she thought she saw was someone with a long, pointed nose smiling down at her. But that couldn't be possible! People didn't have long, pointed noses. She squinted up at – whatever it was – to try and get a better look. It didn't look like a person. It looked like an animal. Was she going crazy?
Then to her complete astonishment, it spoke! "Yo! How ya feeling?" it asked.
Cressa suddenly became completely aware. Her eyes popped open and she let out a yelp of surprise. She quickly realized this thing was holding her, and on impulse she struggled to get free. She must have surprised it too, because the thing dropped her. She hit the ground with a thud and scooted away from it until she backed into a wall. With eyes as big as dinner plates she frantically glanced around the room, her pain temporarily forgotten due to the rush of adrenaline.
She was in a dimly lit room that she guessed was a bedroom, due to the presence of a bed in the corner. It looked as if the room was made entirely of earth, and there was a large cloth hanging over the opening in place of a door. There were a total of four of the things in the room, and they were all staring at her. She had no idea how she got here, in fact she was having trouble remembering anything at this point. That must have something to do with the pain in her head, but she at least knew that she was human, and these things were definitely not!
"She's a bit jumpy don't ya think?" one of them asked.
"Yeah, and she's so weird looking, all hairless and skinny. You really sure you know what you're doing Kortz?" another one added. They were talking to the one that was originally holding her.
"Hey, come on guys, be nice," he told the other two.
They moved closer to get a better look at her. Cressa held her breath and froze as one of them stuck his nose right in her face and sniffed at her. This one had blonde hair and she could see that he had freckles dotting his nose and cheekbones. At least, she thought it was a 'he'. The thing then reached out and grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away from the wall. She was about to struggle for all she was worth, but then she realized all he was doing was studying her hand.
"I mean, look at these hands. They're so small and frail. How's she supposed to do any work with these?" it asked skeptically.
Frail!? Cressa suddenly felt more offended then scared. "Hey-" she attempted to protest, but she was cut short when the other one grabbed her foot and pulled her onto her back. It was then she realized that she wasn't wearing any shoes. She couldn't even remember if she owned shoes!
"And she's got little feet too," the other one commented feeling her feet and poking at them. "They're so smooth. How is she gonna grip the ground?" he asked. Cressa was suddenly made very aware that she had rather sensitive feet. Because as this thing was messing with them she could feel bubbling laughter making its way up from her belly, and she couldn't hold it in.
She burst out laughing. "Wait a minute! S-stop it! That tickles!" she exclaimed through her laughing.
"Knock it off you two! You're overwhelming the poor girl." The one that had been holding her scolded the other two. That distracted them long enough for her to struggle free. She jumped to her feet and dashed around behind him. This one seemed to have her best interests in mind more or less, and she hoped he would offer a measure of protection from the other two. He turned to look at her and smiled with an amused expression.
"Where am I? How-how did I get here?" she demanded of them. They didn't get a chance to answer before a sharp, stabbing pain shot through her head. Cressa let out a cry and held her head in her hands. She couldn't believe how badly her head hurt. "Could someone please tell me what happened to me?" she asked, sounding upset.
The creatures, well now that she had gotten a better look at them, they looked to her like moles, giant talking moles. They all glanced around at each other. The one that had been holding her, he had red hair that came down into his face and covered his right eye, he answered her.
"You mean, you don't remember?" he asked.
"I-I-can't-" Cressa stared down at the floor concentrating, trying to remember something! But nothing would come, and the harder she tried, the worse her head would throb.
"Do you even know your name?" the other one asked. Cressa glanced up at him. This one had short brown hair and a dark mask of fir around his eyes.
"Uhhh," she stammered, wracking her brain. She knew she had to have a name! What was it? "Cr-Cressa," she managed. She was pretty certain that was her name. It sounded familiar at least.
"Well, what do you know? It has a name," the blonde one teased. Cressa glared at him.
"Alright, that's enough. Pressing her for questions is just going to make her headache worse. She needs to rest for a while before then," the fourth mole-creature in the room finally spoke up. This one seemed like a lady-mole to Cressa. She walked over to where Cressa was crouched and held out her paw-like hand.
"Come dearie; let's get you to the bed. You've taken a pretty nasty hit to the head and you need to lie down for a while. Kortz hand me the cold pack." She instructed. The lady-mole then helped Cressa up and over to the bed. She laid her down and put a bag of something cold on the side of her head where it hurt the most. She then took Cressa's hand and placed it over the bag. "Hold that there for a while. It will help with the pain." She said.
Cressa obeyed, her head hurt too much to argue, and these moles didn't seem like they were bad. They seemed like they were trying to help her, so what else could she do, really?
"Now then Kortz, since you're the one that brought her here, she's your responsibility. You need to stay here and watch over her. Make sure she doesn't fall asleep. I don't think I need to remind you of what may happen if she does," the lady-mole warned. That sounded a little worrisome. "As for the rest of you, out! The girl needs her rest." She lectured.
At that, the other two began protesting. "Awww, come on Ira! We wanna stay too! It's not fair only Kortz gets to stay!" things like that.
But she wouldn't hear of it, and proceeded to push them out the door. The cloth fell back down behind them and then there was silence.
Cressa watched as the one that was left pulled up a stool and sat down beside the bed. He just stared at her for a long moment, like he was studying her. She blinked back at him. The silence was starting to turn awkward, so she decided that now maybe she could get some questions answered.
"So," she began. "You're name is Kortz?" she asked hesitantly. His face brightened and he nodded. "And, you're the one that brought me here?" she added.
"That's right!" he told her.
"He totally saved your life!" she heard someone else exclaim, and the other two guys suddenly burst back into the room. Kortz turned and glared at them.
"Didn't Ira tell you two to get lost?" he asked.
"Come on Kortz, nothing exciting ever happens around here!" "Yeah, this is the first time we've ever seen a human up close," they chattered, as they came and sat down around the bed. Kortz let out a long sigh.
"Cressa, this is Bronzi and Ledd," Kortz told her, pointing to the blonde one, then the brown-haired one, respectively.
Cressa looked from one to the other and then slowly sat up, it felt too awkward lying down to carry on a conversation. "I hope I'm not being rude by asking this, but-" the three of them focused on her. "Where exactly is here? And, uh, what are you?" she ventured.
They grinned at each other before answering. "Why, you're in the underground camp of the Mogma tribe." Bronzi told her.
"Yeah, and we're the Mogmas!" Ledd added, which caused the other two to roll their eyes.
"Mogmas? Under. . . ground?" she asked sounding uncertain and glancing around the room once again. "I guess that makes sense," she decided.
"So, you're not scared of us?" Bronzi asked.
Cressa thought about that for a minute. She had been at first, but these guys didn't seem malicious, just curious. And they were trying to help her, so— "I don't think so, should I be. I mean you guys aren't going to eat me or anything like that are you?" Now that she thought about it, maybe they were just keeping her alive for a certain reason.
They glanced around at each other before they all started laughing. Now Cressa felt embarrassed.
"Eat you!? That's a good one! What do we look like monsters or something?" Bronzi asked.
"Well I just-" Cressa didn't know how to respond to that. She hadn't meant to imply that they were monsters!
"Come on Bronzi, she didn't mean it like that," Kortz defended for her.
"So then, why did you bring me here?" she said to Kortz specifically.
"Oh, well, you were in trouble, and so I-" he stammered, placing a hand behind his head.
"He saved you cuz he's got a huge crush on you," Bronzi teased.
Kortz got a horrified look on his face and started waving his hands around, and shaking his head, attempting to get Bronzi to stop talking.
"Yeah, he couldn't bear the thought of you burning under a lake of lava." Ledd added with a grin.
"Guys! Knock it off!" Kortz exclaimed.
"Lava?" Cressa looked confused. She had never heard that word before.
"Yeah, you know, when the volcano erupted," Ledd told her.
"Volcano-" Cressa trailed pensively. She lowered her eyes to stare into her lap. "I remember – something bad happened."
"Well that's putting it lightly. If Kortz hadn't gotten you out of there when he did, you wouldn't have survived. Especially since you got knocked out when you tripped and fell," Bronzi told her.
"But, how did you even know I was in trouble in the first place?" she asked.
"Because Kortz loves to hear you sing by the spring," Bronzi told her.
At this, poor Kortz covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. He clearly was not comfortable with them sharing all this with her, but there was nothing he could do short of dragging them from the room.
"Sing by the spring," Cressa repeated. This was all sounding so familiar…
"You would come to the spring every morning to wash dishes, remember?" Ledd explained.
It was so strange that these – Mogmas – seemed to know more about her then she did. She thought hard about what they had told her – the spring, singing, the volcano, the earth shaking. She suddenly remembered how the earth had shook, and how terrified she felt. Recognition flashed across her face. The Mogmas noticed her change in expression.
"Do you remember something?" Kortz asked.
"The ground was shaking, and I remember dishes falling and breaking. And a burning liquid, lava, bursting out the top of the mountain, and a black cloud, and falling rocks." It was all coming back, and fast. The horrible sickening feeling that she had felt as the lava rushed toward her village – the village! "My, my village! My family!" she exclaimed suddenly.
The Mogmas were giving her concerned expressions, but she wasn't paying too much attention to them. She felt the sickening feeling returning, and a sense of dread at the unknown. Cressa was suddenly frantic. She dropped the cold bag from her head, scrambled out of the bed, and rushed toward the door.
"Hey, wait a minute! Where do you think you're going?" Kortz demanded, as Cressa reached the door and pulled back the cloth only to find she was in the middle of an underground maze. Tunnels stretched in all directions. She could be lost forever down here, without a guide.
Cressa whirled back around to find the Mogmas studying her curiously. "You have to take me back! I need to see if my family is okay!" she told them.
They looked at each other as if unsure of what to say. "I don't know how to tell you this girlie, but there's nothing left up there. Whatever didn't escape the lava flow is probably buried under piles of rock and ash. It's a wasteland." Bronzi explained.
Cressa's expression fell. She could feel hot tears burning behind her eyes. "I have to find out for sure! Please, please won't you take me?" she pleaded taking a couple steps toward Kortz, and staring at him with solemn eyes.
He looked sympathetic, but, "I can't. It's way too dangerous up there right now. Maybe after the lava finishes cooling…" Cressa didn't wait for him to finish.
"No! I have to know now!" she exclaimed and dashed out the door.
"Cressa wait!" Kortz yelled after her, but it was too late.
"Oh perfect, now she's gonna stir up the whole camp!" Bronzi muttered.
"You just saved her, and now she's headed out to get herself killed," Ledd said grinning.
"This isn't funny!" Kortz lectured and sighed. "I'll go after her."
"I guess you have to. She is your responsibility, after all," Bronzi said with a smirk.
"You don't have to remind me," Kortz snapped and darted after her.
Please Read and Review. I'd really like to know what people think! :)