It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaackkkk XD
First off: SORRY IT'S BEEN FOREVER SINCE THE LAST UPDATE (I've got no good excuse, I was just too lazy to write it)
Second off: I will be writing more(and hopefully longer) chapters this summer. Thank you all of those people who stuck with me this long!(seriously, thank you)
Short recap: the class has gone on a field trip to the top of the mountain. The two squads challenged each other to a face to see who gets to the top first. Loser has to do one thing of the winner's choosing.
I hope you enjoy! ^-^
Nali and Upa sat on the steps for a long while, regaining their breath. "I guess those rocks hit me harder than I thought." Nali huffed to herself, her words catching Upa's attention.
"Well you did get pretty badly injured." The girl shrugged. "You got out of your sling far sooner than I'd have thought. I'm always having to go to Oin's place. I know he's not one to take injures lightly."
"Well… I didn't get his permission ye see…" The shorter of the two confessed meekly. "It just annoyed me so…" Upa chortled. "We better start the climb." Nali sighed.
The other nodded. "I guess it's not gonna climb itself…" both rose and began climbing one step after the other. Slowly.
It seemed like hours had gone by when the path finally changed, opening out into a large room with a low ceiling. It was too dark to see, save for the torch light on the other side. The torch was held aloft by one of the teachers, Tigard.
"Welcome to your challenge. This you must past in order to continue on your path."
Upa and Nali exchanged a look. "What do we have to do?" Upa made a face of disgust.
"Cross the room." Tigard said from the other side.
Nali started across immediately, not bothering to consider how surprisingly simple it was. Upa gave her an odd look before following. Tigard watched them for a moment, waiting for them to figure out the catch but the continued forward completely oblivious to anything.
"Stop!" She said at last. The two came to a halt, looking at her in confusion. She shook her head and pointed for them to look down. They did, and slowly backed up. They had been only inches away from falling into a deep chasm. It was much to dark to see the bottom.
"Who put a pit in the way?" Nali asked indignantly setting to fists on her hips.
"What kind of field trip is this?" Upa looked up in shock. "We almost fell in that! We could have died!"
"It's not deep enough that would kill you." Tigard rolled her eyes. "But you were suppose to see it for yourself so you wouldn't fall."
"Who goes around leaving pits in the middle of rooms?" Nali continued to rant to herself.
"Well how are we suppose to cross the room now?" Upa huffed.
"You'll have to figure that out for yourself." Tigard replied. "It is supposed to be a challenge."
"What did Teella and Jade do when they came through?" The younger asked.
Tigard raised an eyebrow. "You're the first two to come through here. To be honest, I was wondering where the other two were."
"They went on ahead because we were too slow." Upa frowned.
"I say we jump it."
"What?" she looked over at Nali in surprise, and a possibly hopeful expression that said 'maybe I misheard you please say I misheard you or that you were joking because your suggestion is completely impossible'.
"Jump it." Nali repeated shrugging. "It's not too far." Upa crept up to the edge and looked at the crevice that ran along the length of the room. Her face twisted into one of disgust.
"How could we possibly-" but before she could finish her sentence, Nali had rushed past, launching herself from the edge. She sailed through the air an incredible distance, but hadn't gained enough altitude and soon found herself gripping the far edge with her arms. She winced as her injured arm twinged painfully.
Then Upa jumped, missing almost completely and having to hang onto Nali's other arm to keep from falling to the bottom.
"What kind of class is this?" Upa repeated, trying to climb the sheer rock face. Nali grunted in reply straining to keep her grip on the edge and the dwarrowdam beneath her. The torchlight quickly drew nearer as Tigard hurried to help the girls up. The three collapsed safely on the other side of the crevice and caught their breath.
"You two almost got yourselves seriously hurt." Tigard shook her head disapprovingly.
"It wasn't my idea!" Upa quickly defended herself. Nali just grunted again, shaking her head.
"You were supposed to find the boards in the corner and use them to cross, or the spears on the back wall and pull vault. Or the rope on the ceiling."
"But we couldn't see any of them." Upa frowned.
"You could if you had bothered to look around." Tigard explained gently. "Instead of just rushing into everything."
"I get the point, I'm an Idiot." Nali grumbled, teeth gritted in what sounded like pain. This got the teachers attention.
"Are you alright Nali? I forgot you're still recovering from your injuries."
"It's nothing." Nali shook her head stubbornly. "I just… can't move my arm." She whacked the stiff thing before hissing in the pain she inflicted on it.
"Well hitting it's not going to help anything!" Tigard shook her head. "Come on, let's get you patched up. Upa, grab that ladder there, and put it across the crevice. Just like that, thank you. Can't have anyone else getting hurt when I'm not around." She sighed before bending down to help Nali, who was still hissing in pain and shooting dirty glares at her immobile arm. Tigard sighed. Why did she get stuck in charge of this path?
Faina paced anxiously in front of the two door and their guards as her three lackeys sat around the room bored.
"We're wasting far too much time here!" She said aloud. "Will you three think of something instead of just sitting there?"
"But I've been thinking." Zelena shook her head, frowning earnestly. "And I can't think of anything anymore except how much I'm craving sweets right now."
"Who cares if we get there or not?" Mai complained. "Just pick one."
"I'm with Mai on this." Remi agreed. "It's just as likely we'll be right as wrong. We'd probably be there already if you didn't spend all your time trying to figure this out."
"I thought you liked riddles?" Faina glared at her. "Aren't you the one who's always reading those riddle books?"
"No, that's me." Zelena raised her hand.
"Well then why don't you figure this out?"
"I told you I can't! I just like reading them, not solving them." She frowned. Faina groaned. Brimli had sat motionlessly in the corner this entire time, watching them. Faina smirked, and whispered to Remi who nodded and walked over to the teacher.
"Excuse me, Lady Brimli." She smiled as best she could. "I know this is a learning experience and all… but I have to go to the privy."
"Go in the hall." Brimli shrugged. Remi balked at her. "Or just hold it in, it's your choice. If you're on the battle field, you aren't going to have time to find a privy"
"But-"
"No."
Remi scowled. "This is completely uncivil! My parents will be hearing about this!"
"It's this way." Faina interrupted. Everyone turned to see her pointing to the door on the right. The guard turned the key into the lock and opened the door. "Come on lazies." The three followed her without question. Zelena smiled brightly at Remi and mouthed 'good acting' to her. Remi nodded back humbly.
Back in the room, Brimli stared at the now open door in surprise. "They actually figured it out?" The two dwarves nodded that they had, but discreetly pocketing small money pouches that they had recently come into possession of. Brimli was unaware of this as she continued to muse to herself. "Well there's a pleasant surprise."
Teella sighed in annoyance as, once again, Jade got stuck in the small crawlspace that served as a secret tunnel to more familiar parts of the mountains. The wirier of the two reached back to pull Jade forward further. The young woman's figure may help when it came to men, but there were other drawbacks.
"Are we almost out yet?" Jade called to the front. Even her voice sounded cramped.
"I can see light ahead." Teella reported. "So yes."
"Good."
Teella did not reply, bit returned to her task of crawling forward painfully. She was silently praying that this deviation would turn out to help. That they would come out in some hallway familiar to them and quickly find a way to the top of the mountain. That was the plan. But things rarely went according to plan. Ever.
Teella wormed her way to the end of the tunnel and peered out. It was high up on a wall next to one of the more unused hallways. But it was familiar. And that was what was important. Now just how to get down.
"Hold my feet." She instructed Jade who was already coming up behind her.
"What? Why?"
Teella rolled her eyes. "Just do it." She felt hands grip her ankles firmly and she began pulling herself out of the tunnel. About halfway out, she started falling and Jade just barely tightened her grip before Teella found herself on a one-way trip to the floor.
"Ok, now lower me!" Teella shouted up, hoping desperately that no one would pass by while she dangled upside down, her dress obeying gravity so annoyingly. "Slowly." The dwarrowdam began to get closer and closer to the ground before both of them came crashing to the ground in a pile of limbs and fabric.
"Get off of me!" Teella grumbled.
"Get off yourself!" Jade snapped untangling herself and brushing off her clothes reflexively. "Well that was fun. Any more brilliant ideas? I don't think I have enough cuts and bruises for today." Teella almost snapped at that. Complaining was one thing, but sarcasm she just couldn't stand.
"Look, do you want to win this or not?" She asked angrily. "Do you really want Faina to win and rub it all in our faces?"
"At this point I don't even care any more." Jade threw her hands up in exasperation. "I'm tired and sore and just spent the last half hour crawling through a tiny tunnel meant for rodents or something! I don't care if Faina wins! I don't care if she publicly humiliates us or makes us be her personal servants! I just want to go home. I hate this class and I hate this stupid field trip! And I hate you for dragging me into this petty little war of yours! Why couldn't I have just went along with the rest of the crowd instead of getting caught up in your pathetic little struggle to prove yourself. Well guess what? I'm sick of it. And you can go run around all you like, but you won't be pulling me into any of your schemes any more. You hear me? I'm going home and if you've got anything to say about well spit it out know cause I doubt you'll ever get another chance!" Jade breathed heavily, exhausted from working herself up, but not yet showing signs of weakness. She was still high on adrenaline as she stared challengingly at Teella, daring her to say something.
And Teella wanted to say something. Oh, there were many things she wanted to say. But she couldn't seem to put them into words. Instead she just nodded and turned away. "Fine. It's not like I'll be missing you." And she did not turn back around as she heard Jade's heavy footfalls stomp away over stone hallways.
Teella shook her head to clear it. Fine. And she started forward, determined to keep moving forward, to win. Even if she was all alone.
The Lady Dis walked slowly upwards, the large stray cat limp in her arms. The mangy thing had strutted in so smugly. Dis was planning on asking if it belonged to any of the girls. It was likely enough.
The field trip was supposed to be a challenge, a bonding experience. It was a way to have an adventure and teach the girls to face adversity, without any real danger. And Dis was rather proud of it. The challenges, of course, were of her own design. Not too hard, but easy enough to mess up if you didn't try. Then you add a little competitive edge and it becomes a rare treat indeed!
Which is why it greatly surprised Lady Dis, when she reached the top to find all of the dwarrowdam's sitting around in silence, exhausted expressions on their faces. Even Nali, who was usually full of energy, was resigned to silence as Tigard applied bandages to her arm before setting it in a sling.
"Has everyone arrived then?" Dis asked brightly, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere of the place.
"Jade Halliwell went home." One of the girls said. Dis sighed through her nose and nodded.
"Well congratulations for making it to the top." Everyone looked up tiredly, but slightly interested.
"So…" Ciri spoke up. "There's supposed to be a beautiful thing at the peak of the mountain." The others all nodded, looking to Dis anxiously. The dwarrowdam smiled to herself and nodded.
"It is beautiful indeed." She crossed to one of the walls and pulled down a large lever.
The walls of the room were filled with a mechanical grinding of gears and the clank of chains. Everyone tensed, as the walls seemed to begin shifting and turning around them. The floor began to vibrate as the sides of the room seemed to fall away and were replaced by a blinding light.
Everyone's eyes adjusted, blinking into the light of the setting sun. The room had lifted up out of the mountain, opening the dwarrowdams to the fresh air and gentle breeze.
But the view…
Land stretched far into the distance. To the west stretched to Emerald see of the Greenwood. To the south, the quieting city of Dale, and Esgorath and Long Lake beyond it. To the East, over far ranges and hills, was the faint shadow of mountains, the Iron Hills. It was the same to the North where the ends of the grey mountains stood.
But it was the view that captivated them all.
Endless beauty of nature stretching on for miles around them. The detail lost to distance as shades and hues danced amongst each other in the breeze.
And for that moment, they all forgot the day's events, the struggles they had gone through, those around them, themselves. And they breathed in the beauty of the world around them.
And it was remarkable.
I'm hoping to get the next chapter out next week sometime!
I love reviews! (as you all probably know) *hint hint*
...again, sorry about the wait!
