"Cleao, I'm going back to that cavern that I found. You know, the one with all the books. There has to be something in there that can tell me how to help him," Majic said as he rose from his spot by the fire and stretched. He stepped over the small fire to kneel beside Orphen. Majic really didn't know how long they had been here. It was always dark in the tunnel and maze of caverns connected to it, and, without the sun or another way to tell time, he had no way of knowing if they had been here for five minutes or five days. All he knew was that Orphen had been asleep ever since he had returned from fighting Morph, and, to Majic, it seemed like it had been years since his master had been awake. He gently rolled Orphen over from his side onto his back and checked the bandages covering his chest and shoulders. He was relieved to find that the injuries hadn't started bleeding again, and he gently pulled the soft, warm blanket back over Orphen's body.
"How is he?" Cleao asked.
Majic shrugged. "Um, about the same, I guess. It's really hard to tell. He couldn't really talk much when he came back, and he's been like this ever since. I know his shoulder and ribs are broken. I tried to heal them, but I don't have enough power yet to really do it. At least, I was able to give them a good start at mending. So, those are probably OK. But, he said that Morph thing bit him, and, I don't know, but I think that thing maybe was poisonous. I won't know till I find some information on it --- maybe in that cavern with the books. And " His voice trailed off as he hesitated for a moment before continuing, "well, he's really weak. I think that Morph thing sucked up most of his power somehow. He said he didn't have the power to heal himself." He sighed and then smiled at Cleao in an attempt to hide his concern. "How long do you think we've been here, anyhow?"
Cleao sighed. "Who knows? Five minutes, five days, five years. What does it matter?" She stepped around the fire to sit next to Majic and look down at Orphen. "When do you think he'll wake up?"
Majic shrugged again. "Don't know. But, until he does, we can't leave. I don't want to move him, and he's really too heavy for us to carry. Besides, he's the only one of us who knows the way out of here." He tried to smile reassuringly at Cleao, and, to lighten the mood, he commented, "You know, I'm getting pretty darn good at this fire spell."
"Hmph," Cleao snorted. "If you're so good at it, why don't you make a bigger one?" she asked, laughing. "Majic," Cleao said softly, straightening the blanket over Orphen, "do you think he will wake up?"
Majic gave Cleao a harsh look and snapped, "Stop it, Cleao! Of course he will. Don't even think like that." He stood and walked toward the cavern entrance, calling over his shoulder, "Until then, I'm going to keep on looking for some way to help him."
"Want me to come help you?" Cleao asked.
"Nah. You stay with Master, in case he wakes up while I'm gone. Besides, you're no good at reading the runes, and you'd probably just end up making a big mess of the books."
Cleao threw a large rock at Majic, and he ducked out of the cavern just in time to prevent it from hitting him in the head. She could hear him laughing as he walked down the tunnel toward the cavern with all of the books.
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Orphen groaned, rolled over onto his back, and slowly, very slowly, opened his eyes. At first, he panicked because he couldn't see anything, but, as his eyes focused, the cavern ceiling came into view. He slowly sat up, an action he immediately regretted as a sharp, searing pain seemed to begin from his shoulder and travel down to his ribs. Just breathing hurt like hell. He felt as if he had been dropped off of a cliff or run over by a wagon --- or dropped off a cliff and then run over by a wagon. He couldn't ever remember being so sore. And, he was tired --- so tired he could barely keep his eyes open, even though he had the feeling he had already been asleep for a long time. Although he was sitting near a small fire, which provided some dim light in the cavern, he was cold --- so cold that it felt like his blood had turned to ice. He shivered and reached for a blanket, only to find that it was already pulled tightly around his shoulders. He coughed, which sent another searing pain shooting through his body, and, as he put his hand to his chest, he was shocked to feel bandages. He peeked underneath the blanket and saw that his entire torso and shoulder were covered in strips of clean, white cloth.
'What the hell happened here?' he thought groggily. 'How did this' His thoughts trailed off as the memories suddenly rushed back to him. He could remember it all, although it was a bit fuzzy --- having his power taken by Morph, fighting the creature, passing out in the cavern where the battle had occurred, and, finally, somehow, finding his way back here. After that, he couldn't remember anything, but judging from the bandages covering his body, he guessed that Majic and Cleao had cleaned him up and taken care of him. 'Majic and Cleao. Where' Suddenly, he felt panic overtake him, because he couldn't remember what had happened to his two companions.
He looked around the cavern. In the dim light, he could see Cleao. She was asleep on the other side of the fire, but he could see her through the flames. She appeared to be okay. He slowly looked around again, but he didn't see Majic anywhere. He started to worry. Majic seemed to have a knack for getting into trouble, and Orphen tended to worry whenever he couldn't easily locate his apprentice. All he wanted to do was give in to his aching body and go back to sleep, but Orphen knew he wouldn't be able to rest until he satisfied himself that Majic was all right. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he slowly pushed himself up to a standing position, using the wall for support, and, then, walked unsteadily out of the cavern.
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Majic coughed and sighed in frustration, looking around the huge cavern, which was dimly lit, with the help of the illumination spell that Majic had recently mastered. It had obviously been someone's library, once upon a time. The Heavenly Ones, if they really were the ones who had built this tunnel and the maze of caverns leading off of it, had carved floor-to-ceiling shelves right into the solid rock walls of this particular chamber. They ringed the vast, circular room, and they were crowded with dusty, old books full of ancient and long forgotten knowledge. Books overflowed off of the shelves and were stacked in hundreds of piles all around the room. Majic was seated near the center of the huge cavern, on a pile of books he had already reviewed. He felt like he was covered in dust from head to toe. In the dim illumination provided by the glowing phosphorous in the cave's walls and ceiling, he could see clouds of dust floating in the air. Each time he finished leafing through a book with no success, he tossed it aside, onto the pile nearest him, sending little clouds of dust up into the air like puffs of smoke. He had seen the cavern full of books when he, Orphen, and Cleao had initially explored the tunnel maze looking for water, and, after Orphen had been injured, he had just known that he would find something in here to help his master. But, he felt like he had already been searching for days without any success, and his frustration was beginning to get the better of him. He finally reached the last page of the book he was holding, still without finding any answers to his questions. "Dammit!" he cursed softly. "How the hell can all these books be here, but, still no answers. How can there be nothing in here to help him?" Without even looking, he angrily threw the book across the cavern room, toward the wall next to the entrance.
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Although he was fairly unsteady on his feet, Orphen managed to make his way down the tunnel fairly easily, thanks to the dim illumination provided by the glowing rocks embedded throughout the tunnel's walls and ceiling. 'Pretty damn good, Majic,' he thought, looking around appreciatively, 'making fire and learning the illumination spell. There might be hope for you, yet.' He tripped over a small rock in the middle of the tunnel, and grabbed for the wall to catch his balance. He groaned as he hit the wall and pain shot through his broken ribs and shoulder. 'Gotta watch where I'm going,' he thought as he managed to right himself and continue further down the tunnel. He knew that Majic had to be somewhere in the vicinity. The glowing tunnel walls and ceiling told him that his apprentice had at least come this way. Orphen tried to remember back to when he had explored the different caverns with his two companions. He vaguely remembered seeing a room full of books, which had immediately fascinated Majic, but, now, he couldn't remember exactly where that particular cavern was located within the tunnel maze. Unable to remember exactly where the book cavern was, he decided to just continue following the glowing path that Majic had illuminated. Sooner or later, he figured, he would run across his student.
He continued walking down the tunnel. After a few minutes, he thought he heard Majic's voice coming out of the distance. He could barely see an entrance a few feet ahead of him. As he approached it, Majic's voice became louder, and he could hear the sound of books thumping into the rock floors and walls. Feeling somewhat relieved that he had located his missing apprentice, Orphen approached the cavern's entrance --- only to be knocked flat on his butt by a flying book striking him squarely in the face.
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A surprised yell drew Majic's attention from the pile of books he was perusing. He looked up curiously, and, seeing nothing, he decided to investigate. He slowly, hesitantly, made his way toward the cavern entrance. He had begun to get used to their dark surroundings, but the thought that this place might have been made by the Heavenly Ones still gave him the creeps. When he reached the cavern entrance, he peered cautiously around the doorway's edge. He looked up and down the hall, but saw nothing.
"Who's there?" he called, hoping that his voice wasn't shaking as much as he thought it was.
"It's me, Majic."
The sound of Orphen's voice floating up from the floor startled Majic, making him jump. He looked down to see his master, half lying on the floor and half leaning against the tunnel's rock wall. Blood from a cut on his head dripped slowly down his face, and he held up the book that Majic had just thrown from the cavern.
"Oh! Master! Did I Did I hit you with that book? Oh, I'm so sorry. I I didn't know you were there," Majic stammered as he reached out a hand to help Orphen up off of the ground.
Orphen shook his head and took the outstretched hand that Majic offered him, slowly pulling himself to his feet. As he stood, he suddenly felt dizzy, and he swayed dangerously back and forth, his hand searching blindly for the wall that was behind him. Majic quickly moved in to offer Orphen some support. He frowned and silently cursed himself. The last thing his master needed right now was to be hit in the head with a huge, heavy book. He looked down at the book in Orphen's hand and frowned. It had to be one of the largest books he had looked through yet, and he recalled that it had been so heavy that he had had to use both hands just to throw it. 'I would have to hit him with that one,' he thought, shaking his head.
"Thanks, Majic," Orphen said slowly. He regained his balance and straightened, so that he was standing slightly away from his student, but his hand remained on Majic's shoulder, as though he needed the extra support. He still felt dizzy, and he gingerly put his hand to his head and felt the cut caused by the heavy book he still held. He put a little pressure on the cut, thinking that he would stop the bleeding that way, but it just made him dizzy, and he swayed, dangerously close to falling, before Majic managed to catch him.
"Master," Majic said quietly, trying to hide the worry in his voice, "Come on, inside, and sit down, OK?" When his master didn't respond or move, he said, "I think you need to sit down." He half-carried Orphen into the cavern and deposited him on the nearest pile of books.
Orphen groaned slightly as he dropped heavily onto the make-shift seat. Majic sank to the floor to sit, cross-legged, next to him. He quietly watched Orphen and tried to hide the worried look on his face. Orphen leaned back against another pile of books and pressed his left hand to his head. Majic tore a square of cloth off of his shirttail and wordlessly held it out to the older boy, who accepted it and pressed it against the cut created by the book.
"Master, I " Majic began, looking guiltily at the floor and rubbing his finger across the stones near his feet, "I I'm really sorry about that book. I ""Don't be silly," Orphen muttered, cutting Majic off in mid-sentence. "You couldn't have known I was there. It was just an accident, and getting hit in the head by a book probably isn't what's gonna kill me." He held up the huge book and looked at it, continuing, "Even if it was a damn big book. What are you doing here, anyhow?"
"Guess I should be asking you that," Majic replied. "You should be resting, not wandering around in this cold tunnel." He stood and exited the cavern. Within a few moments, he returned, carrying the blanket that Orphen had had wrapped around his shoulders. He had dropped it when the book's impact had caused him to fall to the floor. Majic gently placed the warm cover around Orphen's shoulders, silently noting that the young sorcerer's skin was as cold as ice.
"Thanks," Orphen mumbled as he pulled the blanket tightly around him with shaking hands. He saw Majic watching him with a worried look, and shrugged. "Can't stop shaking," he said with a cough. "Even the blanket doesn't help, really. I'm cold from the inside. Nothing's gonna warm me up, now, I guess. So," he said, giving Majic his best "angry master" look, "what are you doing here?"
Majic sat back down at Orphen's feet, and, looking at the ground, muttered, "I was looking for something to help. Some information on that Morph thing, something that would tell us how to cure you, something anything." Suddenly, he felt ashamed that he hadn't been able to find anything that would help his master.
"If that's what you're doing, why would you throw it away just when you found it?" Orphen asked.
Majic just looked up at him, and in response to the question he saw in the boy's eyes, Orphen tossed the heavy book onto Majic's lap. It fell open to a page containing a rough sketch of a familiar-looking, snake-like creature. Majic instantly recognized it as Morph.
"Master! Wow! You found it! Oh my gosh, that's great I can't I can't believe it. I've been looking for it all this time; seems like I've been looking for it for days and days, and here you walk right into it!"
"Yeah, literally," Orphen replied, tenderly rubbing the cut on his head, which was beginning to form a large knot.
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"Majic! Majic! Where the hell are you, you little dweeb!" The sound of Cleao's voice coming from the tunnel a little way from the library cavern made Majic jump and jolted his attention from the book he was studying. He had had his nose buried in the large, dusty tome ever since Orphen had shown it to him. He had become so absorbed in trying to decipher the ancient language in the book that he had completely lost track of the time, and he had no idea how long he and Orphen had been there. He looked over his shoulder, to the spot where he had last left Orphen, and saw that his master had fallen asleep, sitting on the floor and leaning back against a huge, dusty stack of books. Majic couldn't help but smile. He was happy just to see his master up and about, even if he was moving fairly slowly and still sick. Majic hadn't yet been able to figure out exactly what the book said about that Morph creature, but he was convinced that he would be able to find something in there or in another one of the volumes in this room that would help Orphen. He just knew it. He jumped again as he heard Cleao's voice, coming closer and getting louder, and he decided that he had better stop her from yelling before she woke up Orphen, although there weren't any signs that the young sorcerer had even heard her. He shut the book with a soft thud, causing a puff of dust to shoot out of its pages. Coughing, he put the book aside and quickly made his way into the tunnel just outside the cavern.
"Cleao!" he called in a loud whisper. "I'm here, so stop yelling."
Cleao gave him an angry look as she stopped a little ways away from him and stood with her hands on her hips. "Majic, why the heck do you care if I yell? It's not like there's anyone around to hear me!" She rolled her eyes as Majic waved his hands, trying to motion her into silence, and, of course, she ignored him and continued speaking in a loud voice. "Stop that, Majic. Anyhow, we have bigger problems." She stepped closer to Majic and grabbed his arm.
Majic's anger disappeared the minute Cleao stepped close enough for him to see the fear in her eyes and hear the panic in her voice. "Cleao, what is it? What's wrong?"
She quickly wiped away a tear, and sobbed, "Orphen. I woke up and and he was gone. Majic, I I don't know where he is."
Majic quickly hugged her to him to try and stop her crying. "Cleao," he said soothingly, "it's all right. He's here. Master's here with me."
Majic was shocked at how quickly Cleao's fear turned into white-hot anger. "What!" she screamed, pushing Majic away and completely ignoring his pleas for her to be quiet. "Oh! That weasel! I'll kill him! I swear, I'll kill him for making me worry like that! All this time, I thought he was on his deathbed sick, and here he is, gallivanting around like a big MORON!" She shoved Majic aside ran into the cavern.
Majic whirled and tried, unsuccessfully, to grab Cleao's arm before she got to the cavern entrance. He raced after her, and, because he was so intent on stopping her from waking Orphen with her noisy tirade, he wasn't watching where he was going and ran right into her back, almost knocking her down on top of his master. Cleao waved her arms in the air to regain her balance, and narrowly missed falling down on top of Orphen. Instead of falling forward, she fell backward slightly, and Majic only barely managed to catch her.
"Majic!" Cleao hissed in a whisper, "what the hell are you trying to do? Kill us all?"
"Sorry," Majic mumbled. "I just didn't want you to wake him up, that's all. You can be so noisy sometimes well, most of the time, actually." He ignored the evil look that Cleao gave him and helped her get back onto her feet.
Luckily, Orphen hadn't awakened during the noisy commotion made by his two companions. He was still asleep, sitting in the same position on the floor, sprawled out against a huge stack of books. Sometime during his sleep, the blanket, which he had carried with him from the cavern where they had camped, had slipped off his shoulders and now rested on his lap. He looked peaceful and comfortable, and, if it hadn't been for the bruises and bandages covering his body, they wouldn't have even been able to tell that he was hurt or sick --- except for the fact that they had been standing there talking for the past few minutes, and he hadn't even heard them.
Cleao put her hand to her mouth to hold in a sob as she said, "Oh, Majic. I'm sorry for being so loud. I just when I woke up and he wasn't there I just got scared." She knelt and gently pulled the blanket up over Orphen's bare chest and arms. She looked up at Majic and tears filled her eyes, "He really looks tired, doesn't he? I don't know why I didn't notice before, when he was sleeping, that he looks so tired and sick"
Majic, who was standing behind her, replied, "Yeah. He does."
Cleao wiped away another tear, and gently ran her fingers through Orphen's hair. When he slowly opened his eyes and gave her a confused look, she softly said, "Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up."
"S'okay," he mumbled. He looked around, as if he were trying to wake up and remember exactly where he was, and, as he ran his hand through his hair, lifting up his bangs, Cleao caught sight of the cut and large knot created by the book that had hit him in the head earlier.
"Hey!" she exclaimed in concern. She leaned forward and gently probed at the wound, making Orphen wince. "What happened? Did you fall down or hit your head?"
"Nah. Majic hit me in the head with a book," Orphen replied.
"What!" Cleao whirled angrily to face Majic. "Majic, you idiot! What the hell are you trying to do --- kill him off?"
Majic backed away hastily and held up his hands in a gesture that he hoped would placate the girl's anger. Over Cleao's shoulder, he could see Orphen laughing silently, and he knew that his master was enjoying the fact that, for once, she was angry with someone other than him. "I it it was an accident really!" Majic stammered as he backed away, toward the cavern's entrance.
"It was a really big book, too," Orphen whined as Cleao continued to stalk toward Majic, who was laughing nervously and still backing away toward the door.
"Master, how could you?" Majic squeaked. He darted out of the cavern's door, just as a book, thrown by Cleao, whizzed by him and hit the wall, barely missing his head.
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Majic hastily finished the latest entry in the journal he had been keeping ever since he started traveling and training with Orphen. As he placed the final punctuation mark on the entry's closing sentence, he quickly flipped to the journal's back cover and placed a hash mark on the page. He had been placing one mark on this page each time he awakened after what he supposed to be a "night's" sleep. Without the help of the sun, it was the only way he could even begin to try to approximate the amount of time they had been in the tunnel and cavern maze. His latest mark joined five others that were already on the page, indicating that they had probably been in the tunnel for six days now. Majic shook his head as he surveyed the marks on the page. It was so hard to believe that so much could happen in less than a week, but he only had to look back over his journal entries, written in a frenzied, shaking hand, to confirm the occurrences of the past few days.
Majic stretched to ease his cramped muscles. His back was aching from hours of poring over the dusty, old magic texts, and, on top of that, from writing his latest journal entry. He stretched slowly, reaching toward the ceiling, and then leaned back to survey the room. As they had for the past two days, he and Orphen had returned to the library cavern shortly after eating breakfast to study the ancient books for some type of clue that might help them out of their current situation. Majic had been thrilled at finding the book that discussed Morph, but, after that brief victory, it had been very slow going. Majic's education in the ancient scripts was far from complete, and, even though Orphen could easily decipher the ancient texts, he didn't have the energy to work for more than an hour or two at a time. Once he had translated part of the first text, Orphen had been able to confirm that Morph was a magic eater, a beast that lived and gained strength by using the magic of its victims. According to the book, the ancient sorcerers known as the Heavenly Ones had created Morph to defeat and control sorcerers who had used their magic powers to prey upon the weak. Once these evil sorcerers had been defeated, the ancient ones had found the beast to be too dangerous and difficult to control, and they had sealed it deep within the tunnel, in the cavern pool where Majic had awakened it by inadvertently breaking the seal. Orphen had also been able to confirm what he already knew and what both Majic and Cleao had feared --- that Morph had been highly poisonous. The first book hadn't given any real details about the poison or its effects, but it had contained a vague reference to another text containing a possible antidote. So far, after two days of searching, they hadn't been able to find the second text.
Majic stifled a yawn and surveyed the room. It appeared that the ancient library had never been kept in any real order, and he had ransacked it like a madman in his desperate search for the key to his master's survival. Books --- there must have been thousands of them --- tumbled from the shelves that ringed the huge cavern, and were stacked in hundreds of crumbling piles all around the room, leaving only a narrow, maze-like path in between them. The stacks were so high, that, from his seated position, Majic couldn't even see Orphen. He stood and began to make his way around the room, through the piles, until he finally found his master.
Orphen was asleep, sprawled out in between two giant stacks of books, using a third, smaller stack as a makeshift mattress. The book he had been translating rested, open and upside-down, on his chest. Majic couldn't help smiling. It amazed him that his master could look equally at home in a room full of books as he did fighting beasts, dragons, or evil sorcerers. Even though he was obviously sick and tired, Orphen looked comfortable and content, lying on the books. Majic frowned slightly as he watched the young sorcerer sleep. Over the past couple of days, Orphen had begun to look even more tired and sick. He had virtually stopped eating, taking only a few mouthfuls of food, and only after Cleao begged him to eat something. Even while he was asleep, Orphen's face looked pale, haggard, and drawn, and his skin was an ashy gray color. Cleao had managed to mend Orphen's shirt, but, even with the added warmth of the clothing, the young sorcerer was ice cold all the time. Even though Majic and Cleao begged him to use the blanket to stay warm in the damp caves, Orphen had given up on carrying it with him, saying that he was cold from the inside, and nothing was going to warm that. Suddenly, Majic felt a shock of fear as he realized he couldn't see the book rising and falling with his master's chest. Slowly, almost afraid of what he would find, Majic knelt beside Orphen and reached out to touch his arm. Just as he was about to shake the young sorcerer awake, Orphen sighed, and Majic realized that he was breathing. Majic smiled slightly in relief. He had just decided to let Orphen continue to sleep when he heard someone making their way through the maze of books. He stood to look over the stacks to find Cleao smiling at him over one of the closest piles.
"Oh, Cleao," Majic said, smiling gently. "It's you."
Cleao shook her head and replied, "You idiot! Who the heck didya think it would be? You've had your nose buried in those books for too long." She tried to make her voice sound harsh, but she was smiling. "Anyway," she continued, peering over the book stacks standing between them, "I came to get you guys because dinner is ready. It seems like you've both been in here all day. Aren't you hungry?" She stepped around the two stacks, until she was standing next to Majic. "How's he doing?" she asked, looking down at Orphen.
Majic just shrugged and replied, "Did he eat anything earlier?" When Cleao shook her head in response, he said, "Well, then, let's see if we can get him to eat something. We should stop for the day, anyhow. I think he's pretty worn out."
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"Come on, Orphen," Cleao said gently as she held a dish of stew out toward the young sorcerer. She frowned as Orphen shook his head and waved the dish away.
Majic's eyes met Cleao's over the fire's small flames, and he saw the worry plainly written there. He easily recognized the look, because he knew it mirrored his own expression. He was as scared as she was, and he knew that they both were beginning to realize that Orphen's health was quickly deteriorating. Majic silently wondered how much longer his master could hold out against the exhaustion caused by losing his powers and the poison that was attacking his system. Even though he didn't know exactly what Morph's poison was doing, Majic knew it was affecting Orphen. The sorcerer had stopped eating, complaining that the food made him sick. It was difficult for him to control the shaking that seemed to slowly be taking over every muscle in his body, and it seemed to be a struggle for him to just keep breathing. Cleao prodded Majic with her elbow, making him jump and startling him from his thoughts. When Majic looked over at her, she nodded toward Orphen, who sat across the fire from them, staring blankly into the flames.
Majic nodded in response to Cleao's unspoken request, and took the dish of stew from her. He skirted the fire to sit next to Orphen. "Come on, Master," he said gently, "just try to eat a little, won't you? Please. We're worried about you. You haven't eaten anything all day, and you hardly ate yesterday. You have to stay strong." He smiled and took Orphen's hands in his own, frowning as he felt them shaking, and gently cupped his master's fingers around the plate's edges.
Orphen took the plate from Majic and looked at it silently for a moment before replying, "I'm sorry, Majic." He looked up, first at Majic and then across the fire at Cleao. Both of them felt their hearts drop when they saw the deep, black circles that ringed his eyes and the exhaustion in his face. "I'm really sorry." He handed the plate back to Majic. "I just I just can't." He turned away to lie down on his side, with his back to the fire.
"But, Master," Majic protested weakly, "you need to eat something if you're going to have enough strength to look for the cure tomorrow."
"Not going back to the library tomorrow," Orphen mumbled. "Leaving tomorrow."
"What? Master, what does that mean?" Majic asked. Orphen didn't respond or even look at Majic. "Dammit, Master! You answer me!" Majic snapped angrily. He shook Orphen roughly, but the sorcerer didn't show any signs of responding to his questions. "You son of a bitch!" Majic screamed. "You're giving up, aren't you? You're just going to give up and die. You bastard!" He angrily pulled Orphen toward him, rolling him onto his back, and slapped at his face. He grabbed the front of Orphen's shirt and continued to shake him roughly. "Answer me! Answer me right now!"
Orphen didn't reply or even try to protect himself from Majic's attack. Instead, he silently allowed the boy to angrily shake him until his head snapped back and forth like a rag doll's. He groaned as his head bounced off of the hard rock floor, but Majic, caught up in his anger and fear, continued to shake him.
"MAJIC, STOP IT!" Cleao screamed. She jumped across the fire and grabbed Majic's shoulder, pulling him away from Orphen. When Majic looked up at her, she saw tears shining in his eyes and running down his face. "Majic," she said, her voice shaking, "stop. Please, stop. You're hurting him."
Majic jumped as he suddenly realized what he was doing. He let go of Orphen's shirt and buried his head in his hands, sobbing. "What what am I doing? But he he can't just give up like this, Cleao. He just can't" His words dissolved in a succession of sobs.
Cleao knelt down and pulled Majic into a gentle embrace. She smoothed his hair, trying to comfort him, and whispered, "He knows what he's doing, Majic. You just have to trust him. Trust your master."
Sobbing, Majic pushed Cleao away, and ran out of the cavern. She silently watched him go, and then turned to check on Orphen. "Are you all right?" she asked. She felt relieved when he nodded in response, and, as he tried to move back into a more comfortable position on the ground, she moved closer and helped him. Once he finally settled down into a fairly comfortable spot, Cleao gently pulled the blanket over him and sat down next to him, watching the entrance, as if she thought Majic would come back through it. She gently laid her hand on his chest, taking comfort in feeling it rise and fall beneath her hand. She jumped and looked down at Orphen when she felt his hand on top of hers.
"Don't you think you should go check on him?" she asked. When Orphen responded by shaking his head, she frowned and asked "Why? He's been doing this all for you. Even though he's been terrified ever since you got hurt, he's been searching for some kind of cure --- some way just to help you. He's been struggling just to hide his fear so that you won't lose hope, but you're just gonna give up like this? Just waste everything he's trying so hard to do? Don't you even care?"
Orphen groaned and held his broken ribs as he rolled over onto his side. "I care, Cleao," he mumbled. She had to strain to even hear his voice. "But, Majic has to find his own way. He has to learn to trust himself and me." Cleao reached out to gently rub his back as he started coughing. Once the coughing fit stopped, he continued, "I don't expect you to believe this, but Majic and you you guys mean everything to me. I only stayed here this long for him so he would figure out on his own that sometimes you have to find your answers within yourself. But now now there's no time. We need to leave."
Cleao didn't understand anything Orphen was saying. She leaned forward to lie down against his back, resting her head on his shoulder so that she could look down into his face. His eyes were closed, and, except for the lines of exhaustion and pain etched around his eyes and mouth, he looked as if he were completely at peace. "What do you mean?" she asked softly.
Orphen didn't open his eyes as he responded, "Figure it out. I'm tired, Cleao. Leave me alone."
*******************************************************
Majic ran blindly down the dark tunnel. He was crying so hard that he didn't even know where he was going, but he suddenly found himself standing in front of the library cavern. He chanted the illumination spell and, once the room was lit, he entered it and sank to the floor, sobbing, in the middle of the piles of dusty books. He was so angry. He had never felt so angry and hopeless in his whole life. As he looked around the room --- all those answers right at his fingertips --- all that knowledge there for his taking, he suddenly realized that he would never find the answers he needed in these books, no matter how hard he searched. He felt a rage, born of helplessness, overtake him.
"SON OF A BITCH!" he screamed, listening to the sound of his voice echoing off of the hard rock walls and disappearing into the distance.
He reached for the nearest book and threw it angrily, taking comfort in the sound of it smacking solidly against the wall. He followed it with another and another and another, until books were scattered all over the room. Still finding his anger unsatisfied, he grabbed one book and ripped its pages into shreds. Without even stopping to think, he grabbed for another book, and then another and another and another, until little pieces of shredded parchment floated in the air and littered the floor like snowflakes. When he had finally exhausted himself, he sank down onto the floor like a crumpled ball of paper, pressing his face to the cold, hard rock, and cried.
********************************************************
Cleao woke up to find Majic sitting next to Orphen, watching him sleep. Majic looked up when he heard her moving to sit up, and she could see, even in the dim firelight, that his face and eyes were red from crying.
"Is he OK?" he asked, turning his attention back to Orphen.
"Yeah," Cleao replied as she scooted over to sit next to Majic. She gently stroked Orphen's hair, letting it fall through her fingers, chuckling softly as she said, "You know, it's funny. Whenever I'm near him, I want to do this, but, if he wasn't so sick, he'd never let me. You'd think I'd be thrilled, but I really just wish he'd tell me to go away and leave him alone." She looked sideways at Majic and asked, "Are you OK?"
"Yeah," Majic replied, nodding. He smiled at Cleao and squeezed her hand gently. "I'm sorry about earlier. I I don't know what came over me."
Cleao leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder. "Majic, he he didn't mean to hurt you, you know."
Majic
smiled back at her and reached out to gently smooth the blanket
over Orphen's chest. "He kind of looks like a little kid when he's
asleep, doesn't he?" He laughed softly. "It's kind of funny,
don't you think? I mean, he's always so serious, and, well grouchy,
kind of. But, when he's asleep like this I wonder why I never
noticed it before? Probably because he is so darn grouchy."
"Majic," Cleao said, "he does care, you know. About you. About me, too, I guess."
Majic reached over and ruffled her hair. He laughed as she tried to bat his hand away. "I know," he said. "He only stayed here this long because of me. But, now, I think he feels like we're running out of time." He sighed and rested his chin on his knees, which he had drawn up to his chest. "He's the only one of us who knows the way out, and he doesn't have time to humor me anymore. He has other things on his mind now."
"You knew all along?" Cleao asked. She stared at Majic with her mouth open. "But how? How did you know what he was thinking?"
Majic shrugged. "He's my master. I just wish " His voice trailed off and he wiped away a stray tear before continuing, "I just wish I had found some way to help him."
Cleao bumped Majic softly with her shoulder and said, "Hey, I know I'm not really good at all that book crap, but, why don't we go back to that library room and look again? We still have tonight. I'll help you. I'm sure, if we look together, we'll find it by the time Orphen's ready to leave."
Majic reached up to gently squeeze Cleao's hand, which rested on his shoulder. "Thanks, Cleao. Thanks a lot. But, the answer it's not there. It's not in those books. He knew it all along. It just took me a while to figure out what he was trying to teach me this time."
"What the hell are you talking about? What could you possibly learn from that? I mean, he just let you waste all that time. He wasted all this time when he knew there wasn't any answer to be found there. What the hell did that do except shorten his life? What could that teach you?"
Majic smiled and, reaching out to gently lay his hand against Orphen's hair, he replied, "Trust."
Cleao shrugged and stuck her tongue out at Majic. "Whatever," she said. "I'll never understand you or him. So, if the magic cure potion thingy isn't in those books, what are we gonna do?"
"Don't know," Majic replied as he turned away to begin packing up their belongings. "Guess we're both just going to have to trust him and hope for the best."