When I woke up, the first thing I felt was relief. My wounds weren't healed, but cushioned with fluffy, crimson spattered white bandages. Even though my head throbbed from that surprise whack to the head, I felt joy that it hadn't killed me. I'm not dead! I'M NOT DEAD!
What a wimpy celebration Shallow-Human-Dain.
"Dain?"
I blinked open my dark violet eyes and saw King Leif pacing outside my dungeon cell. It was peculiar to see someone so regally dressed in such a dingy, threatening place.
"Leif. Or would you prefer I call you 'Majesty' or something of the sort?" I asked sharply as Leif grit his teeth. I continued, "Why knock me out cold if you were just going to patch me up?"
"Jasmine said to," he sounded like he didn't agree with her decision at all, "Why are you here? How are you here?"
I finally averted my eyes from the fierce anguish in his own and focused on the shady looking servant sweeping in a nearby corner. What was I supposed to say to him? I don't know how or why this all came about. Obviously, God didn't resurrect me for being a wonderful person, I guess Leif just destroyed the ol in me. Ol in me? I AM- was - an ol, not some human with ol-like qualities, or ol with human qualities? Impossible. I was created to serve a purpose for my Master, nothing more, nothing less. But then...
"Answer me, Dain." Leif growled and I snapped out from my thoughts. I really have no desire to speak with the king. I want to talk with Jasmine, alone. Last night she'd started being less angry as I spoke to her, maybe less afraid...did it all go away once Leif came in, or do I still have a chance?
"I'm sorry, Leif but I don't know."
There's no use being cocky anymore, maybe if I'm nice enough he'll let me out some time soon. Or at least consider NOT impaling or hanging or doing whatever he had in store for the boy who betrayed him and extinguished the burning hope of the once divided Deltora nation. I just need to prove that I'm not interested in fooling him or trying to get the belt from him anymore, I just need somewhere to stay, and even though I won't mention this...I need to see Jasmine again.
"I...I just don't know what to do with you. I can't trust you again, Dain. I'm sorry I just," Leif muttered furious with himself as I just sat up and fixed my eyes on that sweeping servant again. Something about was very...unsettling. As Leif fumed over what to do, the servant quietly set the broom against the wall and stuck his grimy hand into his pants pocket. Seeing a flash of silver, I gasped and shouted, "Leif! Look out!"
The servant scowled swiveling around on his heel, and charged toward a stupefied Leif waving a dagger and yelling. Leif ducked and I grabbed his sword from his belt, and blocked the servant.
"Who are you?" Leif boomed at him as he retreated from my fierce block. Leif snatched his sword back from my reluctant hand. Suddenly, the panting impostor's face twisted into an eerie grin, and he croaked, "Your worst nightmare, Highness!"
His whole body started shaking and twisting in terrible ways, blowing up bigger, and bigger, paling whiter and whiter as suddenly, before us was a waaaaay out of shape ol. The broom resting against the wall crackled and morphed in a matter of seconds, and there stood the servant ol's partner. I should've known! Ols almost always come in pairs, and I swore...I've been a dagger before, so why didn't I see that a broom is possible?"
Leif ran forward valiantly swinging his sword and started slashing away at the monsters, crying out and aiming for the Shadow Lord's hand-print mark over their hearts.
"Leif!" I called rattling the bars and trying to get out, "I can help you fight if you let me out!"
The foolish king barely glanced at me and answered stubbornly, "I'm not fighting against these ols WITH an ol! Do you think I'm stupid, Dain?"
I rolled my eyes and tried pushing harder on the door screaming desperately, "JUST GET OVER YOURSELF, WILL YOU? WHAT USE WILL A DEAD KING BE FOR DELTORA?" This made Leif freeze and get a nasty cut on his forearm. Good. He at least deserves that. He plucked the keys smoothly off the ground as the overweight ol (I can tell, trust me I've been down that road before) lunged forward, and tossed them so that they skidded across the grimy stone floor to my cell.
Snatching them up hastily, I groped for the lock with the most rusty old key and watched as Leif was lifted into the air. An ol's hand wound a few times around his middle and squeezed all of the air out of him. Leif's eyes bugged and he wheezed soundlessly. Panicking, I stuck the key quickly in the lock, turned it, pushed open the door, and grabbed his sword.
I could tell these ols were amateurs from the moment they flopped their long poofy arms at me. The first one went down in a matter of seconds as I plunged the sword tip into the center of the shadow lord's mark. As he oozed away, I gave the stronger, faster ol a painful jab to the leg. Leif fell from his suffocating hold gasping and with a face so blue it was almost laughable. I kicked him grouchily out of my way and cut away one of the arms reaching for me.
The ol pressed down on me and I narrowed my eyes as it spoke in a gurgling, familiar voice, "Dain? No, it can't be you! Well, you are pretty much the laughing stock of all of the Shadow Lands!" I howled angrily and attempted to hit its mark, but the ol's arm curled around my left leg and lifted me upside down in the air.
"That's right Mr. 'Master's Favourite Servant'. Ha! Seeing as you isn't dead, let me take care of you to spare you from any more humiliation!" boomed the ol in it's thick, awful voice. AS it shook from laughter and gripped my leg tighter, I shook from anger, and gripped Leif's sword tighter. As Glathon some more gnomes, and Jasmine came hurrying down the stairs, they were just in time to see me stab the ol in the heart, and help Leif up.
" What happened down here?" Jasmine asked in exasperation seeing the ol disintegrate and Leif shake my- wait? Shake my hand...
"Dain -gasp- he -gasp- saved me."
I grinned.
