The Dragon's Gift

Chapter 19

Soon, a faint light awakes me. I turn to look where it's coming from. A bobbing light, presumably from a lantern, is approaching. I quickly wake Kai. The elf carrying the lantern reached the cage. Then he looked at us, distaste in his eyes, then abruptly spun on his heels and left as quickly as he came. I turned to see Kai shaking with what seemed to be fear.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yea, just a bad dream," he replied. I'd never seen him afraid.

"What about?" I asked.

"Nothing, just something that happened a long time ago," came his response. "One day, my brother and I were walking. I had heard a noise but I brushed it off as nothing. Then, out of nowhere, two or three people with pointed ears grabbed him. I tried to chase them, but they were too fast. I'd yelled, 'Zack!' but they wouldn't stop. After months of searching, I never found him."

"Oh, that's awful. Did you try to tell the enforcers?" I asked, referring to the law enforcement officials in Alstrein and all other human cities and settlements.

"Yea, they thought I had a few loose screws in the head," he replied.

All I managed to say was oh. Then a look of realization dawned on Kai's face. He immediately went and woke the third human with us.

"Whosit?" the groggy voice asked.

"Zack?" he asked, a tinge of hope in his voice.

"Who? How do you know my name? Who are..." he stopped. "Kai? Is that you?" he asked, disbelief welling up inside him.

"Yes, yes it's me!" he exclaimed before wrapping the overjoyed person in a hug. They caught up talked and talked. Hours. Soon, the sun had come up and it's warm rays lit up the floor.

The training grounds

"We can't just sit around and do nothing!" an angry voice shouted.

"Well, we can't exactly do something either, now can we Kirk?" a calmer and more collected voice said.

"We cannot sit and wait while two of our best fighters are in the hands of the elves Jett!" the voice shouted once more.

"Fine, we'll send a medium sized group to track them down. Will that satisfy you?" Jett replied.

"Yes. We need a plan. By going in swords brazen, we almost hand ourselves over, any ideas?" Kirk asked.

After about fifteen minutes of thinking, Jett responded. "They're most likely being held in the center of their nation, so their probably in their Capital. We have someone who knows their way around and most likely knows a way to get in unnoticed. Then we break them free by watching the guard routines and slipping a few in while the rest stay hidden if back-up is needed."

"How did you come up with that so quickly?" Kirk asked. Jett only smiled, for he had been thinking this up while they were bickering back and forth.

The Elven Prisons

About sixdays had gone by. We had had a meeting with the queen. She basically told us that the humans had lost, she captured us, and that she planned on torturing us for information. She's a fun gal. To pass the time, we all had played a game where we would pick up a small rock and see who could annoy a guard the most with just one rock. Just as a guard was about to make his return from patrolling the other part of the prisons, his lantern clattered noisily to ground followed by a soft thud. Then, sparks showered all three of them, briefly illuminating the area as a hooded figure smashed the lock with a sword. The cage door was flung open as the figure brought his finger to his lips to make sure we stayed quiet. We passed by an elf lying in a red liquid. Blood. I guess they had to kill him or he'd wake up and tell of the plan. We took a sharp left as the hooded figure lead us down a corridor we'd never been before. He tossed me my emerald green armor, as he'd done to Kai. Then he handed me my sword and Kai both of his. To Zack, a club. We had just made it outside. We crept around the edge of the cave. The hooded figure removed his cloak and I saw Raphael. I peered around the corner. Dang! An elf. Kai noticed too. He reached for the swords strapped to his side. I shook my head. I grabbed mine from where it was strapped to my back. I show water and froze his mouth shut. Then, I quickly whirled and slid the blade across his throat. We had made it the rest of the way without a hitch. Until we got about a few hundred feet from the forest entrance.