The Legend of Midna: Clockwork Darkness
Chapter Fifteen
"Son of a bitch!" Siobhán shrieked.
"What," Eoghan grumbled as he was abruptly awakened from his sleep.
"That old, greasy bastard sold us out!"
It was clear what she meant once his eyes finally focused. Instead of the cozy house they had fallen asleep in, he now saw a cold, black stone cell around him.
"Damn," he said to himself. "Well, we've got to find a way out of here."
"How do you plan to do that?" Siobhán chided. "These walls are perfectly smooth and there's no door that I can find."
"Would you all keep it down?" came Cailin's tiny voice from where they had just been sleeping. "I'm seriously hung over."
"Well, hangover or not, get up," Siobhán ordered.
"Oh dear Gods," Cailin said as she stood up and rubbed her eyes. "Alright, so now what's going on?"
"Basically what it is, is that that booze-monkey played us like fools," Eoghan said.
"Great," she nodded. "So how do we get out of here?"
"We haven't quite figured that out yet."
"Well, there's bound to be some way," she asserted.
They searched the cell, looking for something they had perhaps overlooked in their initial survey of their surroundings. They felt every reachable surface around, but sure enough, there were no grooves that might suggest a door, or any other type of imperfection for that matter. All that was there was the three of them and the lamp hanging above their heads that cast a dim but sufficient light.
"I just had a thought," Cailin said. "If we're supposed to be prisoners, they'll have to feed us at some point. I mean, if they didn't want us alive for some reason, wouldn't that fisherman have just killed us and been done with it?"
"She has a point," Eoghan affirmed.
"Alright," Siobhán pondered, "so we wait for someone to bring us food, and then what?"
"I guess…" Eoghan thought, "I guess we snatch the person when they come in and then force whoever it is to tell what's going on and how to get out of here."
"Oh yeah," Siobhán said with a look of haughty derision, "that's a great plan, that is."
"You know, Siobhán," Cailin said, "there's something I've noticed about you."
"Oh really," she fumed. "And what might that be?"
"You're terrible at improvising."
And so, they began to wait. And they waited. And waited. They continued to wait, not really knowing for sure what it was they were waiting for. Eventually, after a long while, something happened. A tall rectangular patch of the wall started to glow a deep rust color. After a moment, where there had been nothing before, there was now a rusty iron door, which slowly creaked open. In stepped a figure who they assumed must be a servant, as she had the most simply of sack cloth garments. She came carrying a tray with three wooden bowls on it. It wasn't until now that they noticed just how empty their insides were.
"I think we'd better hold off on the plan just yet," Eoghan hissed at the other two, attempting to remain unheard by the servant girl.
She entered the cell with a stiff, jerky gait, and stopped in front of them, bending to set the tray on the floor. Her hair fell in a tangled mess around her face, but she seemed to pay no attention. Then she straightened back up.
"I'll be back," she said in a dull monotone, "to collect the dishes once you've finished." She turned to head out the door, and once she was gone, the door was once again replaced by unblemished wall.
They couldn't tell what it was supposed to be in the bowls the servant girl had brought, but they didn't much care. They ate the tasteless, bland gruel without complaint, and then set the bowls back down on the tray and waited for her to return.
"Hey," Cailin piped up, "listen. I just thought of a cunning plan."
Soon enough, the rectangular patch that would become the door began to appear. Eoghan and Siobhán situated themselves on either side of it, making sure to stay pressed against the wall. Once the door had fully materialized, they readied themselves. The door opened, and sure enough, the same servant girl as before entered the cell. As soon as the door shut behind her, though, Eoghan pounced on the servant girl, while Siobhán simultaneously tackled her by the ankles. They all came crashing to the ground with a sound like that of a falling soldier.
"Now," Eoghan snarled as he straddled the girl, his hand around her throat, pinning her to the floor, "where are we and how do we get out?"
She gave no answer. Instead, she hissed a long steady expulsion of air from somewhere inside her. Her mouth fell open, and Eoghan was very surprised by what he saw.
"Hey, come look at this," he called to the others.
"What is it?" Siobhán said as she got to her feet.
"Look at her mouth," he answered.
"Whoa," Cailin said taken aback as she saw what Eoghan was pointing out, "that's freaky."
"What is it?" Siobhán insisted.
"Her tongue goes back a little way," Cailin said, "and then her mouth just…stops. It's just flat."
"So she's not –" Siobhán began.
"Alive?" Eoghan finished for her. "No, I don't think so. Nor do I think she's really dead either."
"Well, what do we do now?" Siobhán demanded.
"I guess we just go until we find something useful," Eoghan suggested. "I mean, I don't really know what else we can do."
"Listen to yourself," Siobhán chided. "You're suggesting that we go out into whatever this place is without any idea of where we're going or what we're after, and in case you've forgotten, we don't have any gear. They stripped us of everything but our clothes."
"It'll be around somewhere," Eoghan said nonchalantly. "We just have to find it is all."
"You're incredible," Siobhán sighed.
"Well," Cailin said with vigor, trying to motivate her comrades, "let's get a move-on, shall we?"
Together they exited the door onto a dimly lit landing with a stone staircase spiraling upwards out of sight. Eoghan leading the way, they set forth into parts unknown.
A/N: Just out of curiosity, who can tell me where I got the idea for the servant girl?