Disclaimer: Any refrences to anything that looks familiar are not mine. Such as: The Goonies, Zippo and anything else you might see.
Chapter 1:
Anna
The birds chirped loudly as Anna walked through the wooded area of the park. She stopped to listen to them and watched as they chased one another through the labyrinth of limbs. Not wanting to have them drop a little 'surprise' on her she continued on to her favorite spot.
She rounded the corner of the path and smiled as 'her rock' came into view. It was a rather large, almost a boulder that was securely positioned over the small stream that ran through the entire east side of the park. It wasn't really her rock. It belonged in the park, which belonged to the city. But she pretended it belonged to only her, it was more fun that way. She rarely saw anyone else come here and that only added to the deception in her mind.
She climbed up on it and sat in the middle. Taking a deep breath she did what she always did when she came here; she thought. She allowed herself to focus on the sounds around her and forced the sounds of the busy highway that sat not far from the park away. She thought about everything and anything. It helped her to soothe her problems and not make them appear to be so large. Sitting here on her rock, listening the stream and various creatures go about thier day made her think of how small she was in comparison to everything around her. Although scary, it was a comforting thought to her. It made her see that her problems weren't near as large as others. And that thought made her feel better.
She leaned forward on her rock and looked into the stream. The small minnows fighting the gentle current were what met her probing gaze. She smiled as she watched their small fins wave quickly back and forth. She watched them for a few more minutes until something caught her eye across the stream.
She glanced up to find a cardinal staring at her. She stared back as if waiting for it to say something and dissmissed the silly train of thought. For God's sake, she wasn't Snow White. She laughed at her own corny joke and took a deep breath.
There was something about this spot. This spot in this park where she could pretend that there was no highway, houses or people around. When she was here, it was just her enjoying nature to it's fullest. She found this spot a few months ago after moving into her own small house. Being on her own wasn't always fun but she liked it well enough. She'd been forced to like it or hate it ever since she could remember. Having your parents die when you were a baby and being raised by an aunt that didn't like kids wasn't exactly ideal. But Anna had persevered.
She'd finished high school and gotten out of her aunt's house immediatly. She wasn't scared of her aunt; her aunt had never physically hurt her, but Anna didn't want to be where she wasn't wanted. And she knew she wasn't wanted there.
Sighing she decided she didn't want to drag up all those nasty skeletons and tried to focus on something lighter; something happy.
An hour later she noticed the sun wasn't as bright as it was before and it was probably getting time for sunset. Sighing, she decided it was time to go home. She stood reaching her arms upwards as she streched with a yawn. She looked around for a moment and hopped off her rock to start the treck to the other side of the park where the parking lot sat. She was about to turn when something caught her eye.
"What in the world is that?" she asked aloud, though knowing no one would answer.
A few yards from her rock there sat a small opening that resembled a cave. Anna had been to this spot dozens of times before and she had never noticed it. Glancing down at her watch she decided she had a few minutes to spare and started toward the rock opening.
She stopped at the entrance and peered inside. "Wow." she breathed, "It's really dark in there." But being the curious person she was and knowing that it would get the best of her later not knowing what, if anything, was inside, she whipped out her zippo lighter and forged ahead.
Not being able to see very far into darkness wasn't exactly a good way to explore something foreign. She was well through the entrance when a thought suddenly occured to her. "Bats." she whispered. What if there are bats in here? What if it turns out like the movies and they chase me screaming from this cave?
Anna wasn't exactly scared of bats... Just the possibility of one biting her. Or a thousand biting her similtaniously. And getting rabies wasn't exactly on her list of fun things to do today. So with that thought she turned to exit the adventure and the cave and make her way to her car. But as she stepped to turn, her foot slid on the slickness of the earth and she fell on her backside with a grunt of pain.
"It figures." she stated aloud to no one. "Brand new pants, too." she said as she felt the gooey mud on her hand. "I don't even want to know what my butt looks like."
She moved to stand but the mud was so slick she ended up slipping again. But this time instead of just falling back down she starting sliding down an incline in the cave.
Thoughts rapidly raced through Anna's head. Thoughts such as, "Why did I think a lighter would work better than a flash light?" and "Why do I have to let my curiousness get the best of me... I know what happened to Alice." and lastly but definatly not the least, "Why did I walk into this stupid cave, anyway?"
She felt the earth underneath her dissappear and that's when the small 'eeps' turned into screams. The scream came up short however as she landed quite hard on a rock, knocking the wind out of her. "Owww." she groaned when she at last found her breath and rolled to her side. "Thank God I had that extra slice of pie last night; it added more cushion to my butt." She rubbed the offending spot and whimpered for a moment.
She slowly stood and the pain that was small before shot through her body for a blinding moment. "Okay, next time there's a cave, I'm not going in." she told herself as she felt around for her trusty lighter.
Her fingers felt the smooth cold metal of her zippo and she brought it up with an, "Ah ha!" Stricking the flame to life she peered around the darkness for some way out. What she saw was a tunnel. Not trusting that she glanced up from where she fell. Not seeing anything useful, like a rope, she stamped her foot. "Damn it. I knew I should have taken those rock climbing classes when I had the chance."
She looked towards the tunnel again and sighed, "I do not want to go down there." A sudden thought sparked to life in her head and she began digging in her pockets for her cell phone. "Pack of smokes, keys, another pack of smokes, lint." she spouted off as she found the various items. "Hmm... " She checked all six of her pockets on her cargo pants but did not find her cell phone. "I know that I had it." she frowned into the darkness.
She looked around on the ground again and finally saw something glinting back her. She scooped it up and narrowed her eyes, "No! No, no, no!" She stared down at one half of the broken phone. "Durable, the man at the counter said, it's very durable. Liar. One fall and it splits in two!"
Seeing the other peice she scooped it up as well and trying forcing the two back together. After a few moments of blindly trying to make them fit she gave up, got angry and threw the phone across the cave where it landed with a plunk in a small pool of water.
Taking a deep breath she stood once more. Striking the lighter again, she began walking towards the small tunnel. All sorts of thoughts went through her mind. Mainly about the movie 'The Goonies' and how it could be worse, because she could be being chased by mobsters.
She continued on and came to where the tunnel met back up with some sort of underground spring. Never knowing that something like this was anywhere near where she lived, it gave her quite a start. How on earth was this possible? If she were correct this shouldn't even exist here. Here there should be water lines and sewers from the sub burbs that were close to the park. Thinking on that subject she was suddenly glad she was wrong.
"If there's one thing worse than being in a cave and walking in mud, it's being in a sewer and walking in... well, definatly not mud." she mused aloud.
With that thought she looked down at the water. With the cave being so dark and the trusty lighter not giving off a lot of light it was hard to tell how clean the water was or what might be lurking in it. Seeing no other way out and refusing to ruin her pants anymore than they already were by jumping in, Anna sat near the edge and wished she hadn't thrown her cell phone across the cave.
"Maybe I could have peiced it back together." she reasoned aloud. "Then again, I'm not MacGyver." She blew out a breath and tried not to let the seriousness of the situation get to her. If she didn't let herself think that it was a really bad situation she could remain calm and try to come up with a way to get out of here.
She slipped the lighter back in her pocket, it wouldn't do her much good if she wasted all the fuel in it. It also helped that she knew there was nothing in the cave large enough to swallow her whole. "Cause that would suck." she said aloud.
She fingered the ring that was on the index finger of her left hand. It was the only thing she had left of her parents and the one thing she'd been able to hold onto throughout her life. It wasn't anything too fancy, just a stone set into silver with what looked like two celtic knots on either side. When she was younger she had hoped that maybe her parent's death was a hoax of sorts. She had told herself they had just gone on vacation or left to be missionaries in the wilds of Africa. She had believed they would come back for her someday. And if it ever happened they would know her by her ring. Years ago she had put those thoughts away, finally accepting the truth but she still never went anywhere without it. Now, with no way out, she could die here.
She put her head on her drawn up knees and let herself feel pitiful for a few moments. "I just want to go home." she said into her lap.
Her head popped up a moment later as she heard the water in the small pool begin to ripple as if something was moving it. Assuming the worst, Anna jumped to the conclusion that a monster lived down here and it decided to have her for an early dinner. Screaming and jumping away from the edge of the water she tried to think of something to throw at the monster. Feeling around on the ground only made her hands more muddy and was no help.
She could hear the water moving faster now. It sounded like it was getting closer. But that was impossible. Wasn't it?
Suddenly Anna felt the cold water come like a wave over her and it swept her into the pool. She must have caught an undertoe because a force dragged her down. She was held down for what seemed like an eternity and just when she felt her lungs were going to burst from lack of oxygen, the current that held her let go.
She surfaced in a bigger pool of water and sputtered as the much needed air finally filled her lungs. Coughing, she swam to the side of the pool and lifted herself out. Having used all her energy to fight the current she collapsed on the soft grass. She tried to calm her body down by taking normal sized amounts of air in, instead of the large gulps that she really wanted to.
Her body finally began to relax and her heart rate slowed to it's normal rhythm. She could hear birds chirping and took a deep breath in gratitude that she made it out of that exprience alive.
Her eyes popped open. The air. There was something about it. It smelled... fresh. Clean. Nice. This air was completely different from anything she'd ever smelled because it had no odor. None. Not the fumes of gas or exhaust from various vehicles, just clean air. Anna instantly loved it.
She lay there for a few moments and tried to recognize her surrounding by the trees. She knew almost every tree in the park from all the time she spent there. And yet, she didn't recognize any of these trees. They seemed bigger, greener than the ones at the park. Looking at them more intently she realized that they even looked heathier.
"It must be this air." she muttered as she slowly stood and brushed off what grass she could from her nearly ruined cargo pants. As she straightened she felt something had changed in this wooded area. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
The breeze blew slightly and then she realized the birds had stopped thier singing. Apprehension tightened her stomach into one large knot. She could feel something behind her.
She whipped around quickly and came face to face with a bush. "Well, I feel intellegent." she muttered. She started to turn to assess her situation when something stopped her mid-turn.
"Daro!" someone's sharp tone commanded of her from behind a tree.
Having no idea who this 'Daro' person was or what he wanted of her she stopped and tried to see where exactly the person who spoke this was.
"Hello?" she asked timidly. She started to step towards where she thought the voice had come from but it stopped her again as it shouted.
"DARO!"
The voice was much more forceful this time. Not knowing what to do, Anna ceased all movement.
Suddenly the branches of another bush rustled and out stepped a... Well Anna didn't know exactly what he was. She knew he was a male because he walked with too much arrogance to be a female. Nope, he was pure male. But what kind of male he was she didn't know.
He was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. His skin was flawless and he walked with a sure but light foot upon the green grass. His long blonde hair was smooth and the sides were pulled back to be kept from his face. He wore leggings that were a muted light blue and a silvery tunic. He carried on his person a sword, a bow and quiver full of arrows and no telling what else.
Anna didn't know what his intentions were, and she definatly didn't want to cause him to attack so she stood there, staring at him curiously.
He stopped a few feet before her and slowly looked her up and down. Anna could only imagine what thoughts were running through his mind. She looked like a drowned rat, she knew, from her little adventure through the water. Not to mention, she was pretty sure she still had some mud caked on her pants.
His eyebrows drew together curiously as he met her gaze again, "O man dor tuliel le?"
She stared back at him in utter confusion. He was speaking a completely different language. One she was sure she'd never heard before. "Huh?" was the word that spurted from her mouth first.
He stared back at her in mirrored confusion. "Man eneth lin?" he tried.
Anna continued to stare at him. When he opened his mouth to say something else she held up a hand, "I have no idea what you just said." she told him with a nod.
"You speak the Common Toungue?" the stranger asked with a raised eyebrow.
From the look on his face Anna supposed he was surprised she could speak at all. That thought was infuriating. "I don't know what the 'Common Toungue' is, but I can understand you when you're speaking it." she told him as she folded her arms in front of her.
"From where do you hail?" he asked her.
"Uh... Tennessee." she told him. "From where do you hail?"
"I shall be the one to ask the questions here." he informed her in an authoritive tone.
She bristled at his arrogance, "Look, buddy, I don't know who you are or from where you hail but I would like to make it back to my car and get home before the traffic starts and I miss my television show, okay." She moved to take a step forward.
"Stop!" his voice commanded her attention. Her foot came down quickly before it even had time to inch forward. "I do now know who you are, but I do know you tresspass on this land." he told her. Before she could protest that this was a public park and she was an American citizen and therefore he had no right to tell her what she could and could not do, he brought his hand to his mouth and a shrill whistle sounded from him.
"Ack." Anna covered her ears, not expecting the shrill tone. When he stopped she lowered her hands and sent one of her meanest glares his way. She was about to tell him how rude she thought he was when four more of his kind pushed through the foliage and stood behind him.
Anna was now out numbered and scared out of her mind.
Key:
Daro! - Stop!
O man dor tuliel le? - From what land do you come?
Man eneth lin? - What is your name?