I totally agree with you Assassin, that was a really weird chapter! Well, I was sick, I was a little high on cold meds, and all that diet Pepsi made me write really weird, I mean I was reading it over this morning and I'm like, 'Oh, my God! I wrote this? WOW,' I thought about re-writing it but I'm a little crabby and I don't want to... see? I am crabby today, huh, default setting I suppose. :)
-O-
Ayla was up and chattering in the morning, they had stayed in the Crystal Lake Cavern, as they had dubbed it, using the dragon to the best. They had refilled the water skins in the lake, and found it was full of fish and eels.
Ayla and Zeva were fishing at the moment, and really enjoying it too.
"Oh come on Zeva! He's out at the thirty foot mark!" Ayla yelled out, Zeva was swimming over to a huge eel Ayla had hooked.
"Thirty foot mark? There is no thirty foot mark!" she yelled back, a scowl plastered upon her face.
"Um, I have no response for that! Just go get the eel!" Ayla shouted. Zeva yelled something unintelligible, and swam out to where the eel sat hooked.
Zeva latched onto the eel, then all hell broke loose. The eel thrashed, squirmed, and even squalled, then dove, the rat still holding on.
"Shit! Shitshitshitshitshit! Yo, Sparky! I need some help over here!" Ayla yelled, the eel was starting to drag her out a little into deeper water.
Gregor and the other rats ran over, Ayla thrust the fishing pole into his arms.
"Here! Take this, don't let 'im get away!" she yelled, diving into the water much like a cow would.
But under the surface she could swim, moving her body like a dolphin, she swam out to where Zeva had disappeared, came up for air, and cut down through the water like a knife.
She could see Zeva and the eel down at the bottom, Zeva was on top of it, clawing and biting at it, she thought she saw her rat flip if off, but she was unsure.
Ayla yelled out, and surprisingly it was really loud! Zeva looked up, the expression on her face told Ayla three things: 'I am sooooo going to kill you,' 'You owe me one, big time,' and 'Hurry up dipshit! I'm running out of air!' Ayla reached into her belt to find a knife, her best one, the dagger. She swam out to the eel's head and slid the knife into the base of the neck. It thrashed a little, and lay still. Ayla did a fist pump, and grabbed onto the line, finding Zeva was caught up in it, she untangled her and dealt the line three sharp yanks, they were pulled in, along with the huge eel.
Soon, they both lay laughing on the shore.
"Haha, lets do it again!" Ayla said.
Zeva sobered up, "Hell no girl!" she said, "You do owe owe me though," she said.
"Gah, kill joy, c'mon, let's help with the calamari," she joked.
The two got on their feet, and walked down the small stretch off beach where Gregor and the others were chopping the eel into cubes and drying them over a fire.
"Hey Sparky, Cheese Wiz, Glossary, thanks for helping me out," Ayla said.
"Huh, what use would you be dead? Well, we could have eaten you two, but Ayla's got a little too much of a warmth pad," Silkfur said, gnawing on a cube of eel.
"Way, whoa, whoa, whoa, are you saying I'm fat?" Ayla asked, her eyes flashing.
Silkfur looked a little crestfallen, "No! No, I would never call you fat, you're just a little, big boned," there was a collection of ouches and oohs.
"You know, you're still calling me fat," Ayla's eyes were a little red now.
"No I'm not I'm just- you know what, I am going to stop here, I am just digging myself into a bigger hole," he said, going back to his gnawing.
"Smart rat. Now, once we're done here we leave and continue the on the Golden Brick Road, till we reach the Wizard, right?" Ayla asked. Luxa cocked an eyebrow.
"What? You think we should keep going and ignore the creepy voice? I for one want to find out who and or what it is," she said, making a fist and slamming it into her open palm.
"Uh, no, I don't want to know what it is, I just want to finish this quest and get this over with, get Boots home, and all that," Gregor said, nodding to where his little sister sat, playing a game with Temp.
"What about everyone else? Wanna go find the voice?" she asked. "No" came her answer.
"Fine," she said, leaning against Zeva.
-O-
They continued on their fabulous journey, going through the tunnel. This time, the bats could walk.
"Ew, it smell bad, Gregor," Boots said, a little smelly water dripping down the back of her shirt.
"I know," Gregor said back. The tunnel smelled much like the one in the gnawer's land, the water was even the same color, "Hey, Ripred, are we near the gnawer's lands?" Gregor asked, scowling when water plopped onto his nose.
"How would I know?" Ripred answered.
"How long until we get out of this thing?" Ayla's voice rang through the tunnel.
No one answered.
Ayla grumbled about something, and they continued walking.
-O-
Hours later, Ayla say the end of the tunnel.
"Look! The end!" she said, upping her step.
They wound up shying back from the end.
A huge lake stood before them, but instead of water, it was magma. The magma below bubbled and popped, moving about like waves on an ocean.
"We are beneath the Queen, this must be her magma chamber," Silkfur said, his nose twitching every now and then.
"So, it's like a giant zit? Well, then again all volcanoes are, like Mount Saint Hellenes!" Ayla said.
"How do we get around it?" Zeva asked, shooting a questioning look to Ayla.
"Fly. We sent two across at a time," Luxa answered.
Boots walked over to Gregor and looked over the edge, her brother grabbed the back of her shirt.
"Hot. Very, hot. Lava!" Boots squeaked.
"Yes, now come away from the edge, Boots, go play with Temp," Gregor told her, Boots obliged.
"My question is where is the other side? Ayla asked.
"There," Jinx said, pointing with her snout to a small lip on the other side of the chamber.
"Coolio. Who's going first?" Ayla looked over the edge.
"You, Zeva, Gregor and I" Luxa said.
"Gee, thanks for letting us stay with the pup, Luxa" Ripred rolled his eyes.
"No, Boots is coming with me," Gregor said.
"Well, now that that's settled, lets mount up!" Ayla said loudly, getting on Jinx, Zeva following.
Gregor took Boots and, letting Luxa get on first, mounted.
The bats soared over the magma, the massive amounts of heat waves letting them glide. They landed, Gregor kept tight hold of Boots, and Ayla walked over to the other side of the lip, looking at the wall.
"Uh, where is the tunnel?" she asked.
Zeva shrugged, looking over the wall too, "Hey, take a look at that," Zeva said, gazing at the floor of the lip.
A shape was carved out of the ground, forming what looked like a small sword, a dirk, a very curvy dirk.
"Ooh, lets see what happens if..." Ayla said, sliding her dirk into the hole, there was a click. A very ominous click.
Something happened, the magma started to rise at a frightening rate, also on the door a slot appeared.
"Ayla!" Zeva gasped.
"What? I didn't do it!" she said.
"No, piddle fart, take your dirk, and put the blade in that slot!" she said.
"Oh, akay!" she said stupidly. Ayla ducked and pulled her dirk from the ground, and put the blade into the crack, it fit perfectly. She twisted it like a key.
The magma stopped rising just as the others made it.
"Um, now what?" Ayla asked.
The wall rumbled, and a section pulled up.
"Guess that's what," Ayla pulled her dirk out and re-sheathed it.
-O-
Step. Step. Step. Whack! Cringe. Step. Step. Step. Trip. Curse. Gregor was once again going through the motions. The ceiling was low, and had the tendency to crack your skull.
Ayla was arguing over something stupid with Ripred; "See? That's how you cheated!" she said.
"Oh, Trickster, you wound me!" Ripred said.
"Yeah, well I'm gonna do a lot more..." Gregor tuned her out, and looked over to see how the bats were doing. Aurora was on Temp, and Zeva and Silkfur were carrying Jinx. He turned his head, Luxa was brooding, her eyes narrow, a scowl painted over her face.
"You okay Lux?" Gregor asked, shuffling closer to her.
"No," she said.
"Why?"
"Because,"
"What, are you claustrophobic?" he joked. Luxa glared at him, "Oh, you are, okay, I'll drop it," he said.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?" he asked.
"Worrying" she answered, moving a little closer for warmth.
-O-
"So you see? The Queen held a secret! And her secret to give was that my dirk is a key!" Ayla said, they were in another little pocket, the room was big enough for them to stand.
"I guess, it's just really weird..." Jinx said
Ayla's stomach growled, "Sorry, I'm hungry. Can we eat?" she asked. Before anyone answered she began digging in the food pack, pulling out a hunk of beef jerky, and began gnawing on it.
"I agree," Ripred joined her, and found an eel cube. Silkfur took two, one for him and for Zeva. Gregor took enough for him, Luxa, and Boots. Temp just took a little as did the bats.
There they sat, eating jerky, enjoying the silence.
"Hey, Zeva?" Ayla asked.
"What?"
"Wanna play Paper, Rock, Scissors?" she asked.
Zeva's eyes narrowed competitively, "Bring it," the two sat opposite from each other and held out their fists.
"You're gonna lose," Ayla said, "You always do,"
"Huh, let's see," the shook their fists, "Paper, rock, scissors, shoot!" they said, Ayla had paper, Zeva had rock, "Paper, rock, scissors, shoot!" Ayla had paper, Zeva had scissors, she smirked, "Paper, rock, scissors, shoot!" Ayla had paper again, Zeva with rock.
"Haha! I beat you!" she laughed, Zeva muttered a few curses and grabbed a small rock from the floor. Ayla ducked as the rock flew through the air, "You missed!" she laughed, then got a tail in the back of her head.
"What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of me not missing," Zeva sneered.
"Fair enough. Rematch?" Zeva held her fist ready.
-O-
Later Ayla got everyone to play Hangman. She used a rock to write on the side of the wall, so far, they had a head, eyes, and an arm.
"Um, an A?" Jinx said, Ayla wrote an A on one of the lines, they all sighed with relief.
They continued until Zeva guessed; "How much wood could a wood chuck chuck?" she asked, Ayla smiled and wrote it out.
"Hooray, you won!" Boots cried out.
"Yes, yes, hooray, can we go to sleep? My legs are getting tired," Ripred slouched in his place.
"Fine, kill joy, go and sleep, do whatever rats do in their free time," Ayla rolled her eyes, and found a place to lay down, it was late.
-O-
There was a scratching noise. A very irritating scratching noise.
"Zeva, can you quit it?" Ayla mumbled in her sleep.
"I'm not doing anything," she hissed back.
"Then who is?" Ayla asked. She clicked, and saw what, "Ahhh! We're under attack! Fight back!" she shouted, pulling her dirk. Everyone leapt up at the mention of attack.
A group of small dragons were tearing at the food pack, trying to get in.
Ayla saw red again, and charged, hacking and slicing. The tiny dragons squealed and began attacking. Using echolocation, she tracked them, Ayla ducked as a spew of fire came from the maw of a larger one, she sliced it's head off.
Mere minutes passed when they defeated the dragons, Ayla was wounded in several places, a jagged bite mark on her shoulder continuously bled, a cut above her left eye blinded her with blood, one had gotten a claw into her back, pulling it from shoulder to hip, the rest of the group was no better, everyone was alive though.
Luxa treated her shoulder, and other wounds before moving on to the rest.
"Well, that was fun," she said, "I call first watch," she said, no one objected.
-O-
Wow, long chapter! It was over 2000 words long, so I think I did good today! I hope you liked it, the part about the secret was a little hard to write, but what would be the secret? I have a bland imagination, so it's hard. :) I will update tomorrow!