The children blinked at the woman.
"But… where had Lulu gone all day?" A small boy asked. She disappeared a long time ago."
She snickered. "Listen close and I'll tell you. This is how Lulu became a wanted person in the city of Asgaroth."
Lulu entered the city of Asgaroth, easily following Elenore and Kilrianna. She even drooled briefly over the hot guy Kilrianna had bumped into. However, once they started following him to the Guild, a butterfly flew into view distracting her. She followed the path of the pretty butterfly until it disappeared behind someone's head. When she turned around, the others had vanished from her sight.
Confused and lost, Lulu wandered around the main street near the church. After a moment, she found a weapon shop, and went in, hoping to find a cool sword or something.
There was a smiling man behind the counter and another elderly customer in the corner.
"Can I help you?" The man asked.
"I'm just looking." Lulu smiled back.
She was looking at the short swords when the only other person in the room approached her. It was the elderly man who was in the corner earlier.
"Do you have the money to buy anything?" He whispered in her ear.
"Um… no. All the money we have is with my friend."
"I know where you can get the money."
Lulu's eyes lit up. "Really? Where?"
"Follow me." He grinned and led her out of the shop. In the street he pointed at the church. "In there, in the basement is supposedly the greatest treasure in the whole world. Not even the King's riches match what that church holds."
Lulu blinked large, greedy eyes. "Tell me more."
"I can tell you how to get there, if you just bring me back some. After all, I am but an old man. My body is too weak to enter and carry the treasure. But you are young and beautiful. Surly you can get it."
"You think I'm beautiful?" Lulu asked, hearts and stars appearing in her eyes.
"Will you bring me some of the treasure?" The man asked.
"Of course!"
The man stepped closer to her, whispering the directions in her ear. Lulu nodded eagerly at each step, anxious to get inside and start what she thought would be the greatest adventure of her life. And it would make her rich.
Parting, Lulu easily slipped inside the church, following the man's directions beyond the main service room and into the hall where the alter boys bedrooms were. At the end of the long hall was a wooden door. Eagerly, Lulu reached for the handle and turned it.
It was locked.
"Damn!" Lulu swore.
A door at the end opened. She ducked into a recessed doorway, hidden in the shadows, until a young boy left the hall.
Then, she had a sudden thought. She pointed at the door.
"Fire!"
The door burst into flames, extinguishing itself on the stone that surrounded the flame.
Lulu ran through, regardless of the fact that she left a large gaping whole in the wall that was bound to be noticed.
Didn't that old man tell her something about making sure no one noticed her?
Oh well.
She ran down a flight of stairs, and entered through another door. This one she locked behind her before turning around to look at the new room.
Before her were rows of jail cells. At least four on each side, though each cell was huge so it was hard to tell.
And they were filled with people.
Most of them were laying on the ground, too weak to move. They were of all ages, children, elderly, young men and women in their prime, everyone. Some looked like they had been there for a long time, others looked new, and still had a haunting, frightened look on their faces.
A man approached the bars near Lulu. "Are you from the Church?"
"No. I'm a Black Mage!" Lulu smiled.
The man looked hopeful. "A Black Mage? Then you might be able to get us out of here."
"Well… why are you here?"
"We've opposed the Church. We didn't agree with the sacrifices that the Church demanded, the sacrifices of human life. Because of that, we were imprisoned, and some of us our families as well. Now we are the ones to be sacrificed."
"That sucks." Lulu commented.
Just then, a rattling was heard at the door. "It's locked." A male voice came. "Go get the key, will you? The person should be this way."
The man pressed against the bars. "If you cast lightning at the locks, they should fall open. Quickly!"
"Um…" Lulu looked between the man and the door, where some helpless guard was still rattling the handle. "Sorry, but I really have to go."
And she ran out of the room.
"She did what?" One of the children interrupted the story incredulously.
"She left the people there." The woman smiled sadly.
"Why?"
"I suppose she thought that there wasn't enough time, now that the guards had discovered someone infiltrating the Church. You see, this is a very powerful, very bloodthirsty Church, and they hated people seeing what went on behind the scenes. This particular one controlled Asgaroth."
"So Lulu ran?"
"Indeed. Through many passages that ran under the Church, until she came upon a room full of coffins. In this room, the Church performed a ceremony where they mummified their prisoners."
"That's horrible."
"Yes it is. However, this isn't the story of how that Church fell. Needless to say, the Guards caught up to Lulu in this room…"
Lulu stood, back against a wall and faced a row of four guards.
They charged.
With a small squeak, Lulu ducked out of the way and the four men crashed through the wall she was standing against. They lay on the ground, dazed. Lulu walked over them and ran down the newly revealed passage.
It was very dark, but Lulu couldn't take the risk of making a small fire for light.
The ground son switched from dirt to… something rather crunchy. It sounded like she was walking on bones.
She bumped into something.
That growled at her.
She was so shocked, she couldn't understand what was said, though a small part of her brain, the part that was logical, whispered that it was dragon.
"Pardon?" She choked out.
She felt something sniffing her. The… dragon, she assumed, said something else. The only thing she got out of it was the word food.
"I'm not food." She replied.
"Duh." Was the extent of the dragon's reply.
"I'll get you food if you let me pass."
The Dragon thought for a moment, then shifted, allowing her space to walk past.
Lulu did so, and ran out into the open air. The dragon followed her. In the sunlight, it was obvious that this was a green dragon, who was still staring at her.
"I'll bring you food tomorrow." Lulu promised.
The dragon muttered a reply, something not very favorable and amounted to… "You'd better or I'll fly into the city tomorrow to find you and kill you."
Lulu ran away.
Luckily for her, there was still no one at the gate, so she was able to run through and into the city. She kept running until she actually ran into a building. Looking up, she saw the sign that proclaimed it to be the Healer's Guild. Sighing in relief, she went inside.
There in the waiting room was Elenore, reading a magazine.
"Elenore!" She cried, running up.
Elenore looked up and frowned. "Where have you been all day? Wait," she held up a hand. "I really don't want to know. Look, the Guild is being nice enough to let me stay here for the night, but no one else is allowed to. You're going to have to go somewhere."
"But where? I don't have any money."
"Kilrianna ran into someone earlier…"
"Oh yeah, that incredibly hot guy."
Elenore rolled her eyes. "Yes, him. Anyway, he's letting Kilrianna stay at his place for the night, and he offered me a place too if the Guild wouldn't let me stay. Here's the map to his house. Think you can follow it?"
"Oh yes. Don't worry. I'll see you later!"
Lulu followed the map back through the town. The only incident was when she came upon a couple of guards. Thankfully, she was in the shadows so they didn't see her.
"This woman," one guard was saying as he handed the other a piece of paper. "Broke into the Church this afternoon. You are to kill her on sight."
The other guard nodded, and pasted the paper on a pole. When they had gone, Lulu approached and looked at it.
There was her face staring back at her.
She ran the rest of the way.
Flinging herself at the door, she pounded on it, praying that they would let her in.
A tall man answered, glaring at her with red eyes. "What?"
"Um, my name is Lulu. Elenore sent me here. She gave me this map, and said Kilrianna was here."
"Oh. You're the missing friend she mentioned. Yes, Rianna's here. Come on in. There's a guest bedroom in the back."
"Oh thank you!" Lulu entered. "I'm exhausted."
He showed her to the bedroom, where she promptly collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.