The Crown, The Elixir, The Sword (on hiatus)

The Descent

When the girls woke up, they ate a quick breakfast of bread and dried fruits before packing up to head down the tunnel. There was one issue, they didn't know what they would run into down in the tunnel, and weren't sure if the horses would be able to travel down with them.

"What do we do with them?" Anne asked, "we can't just leave them in the cave."

"It's too risky to take them down the tunnel though." Sasha told her.

Marcy glanced back at the caved entrance, she fiddled with a charm hanging off her shoulder pack.

"Now that the storm is over, we could break down the wall." Marcy started,

"and let them graze."

"So we won't go down the mysterious tunnel?" Anne asked hopefully.

"No, it's our best bet, those carvings mean something. I have a feeling this path leads somewhere important."

Sasha nodded and walked over to the stones. She pressed her hand against a large rock.

"We need to be careful moving these. if we push wrong, they could all come tumbling down on us."

Marcy went over and stood next to her, she passed her hands over the rocks muttering. After a short moment, Marcy set her hand over a stone about the size of an apple. She grabbed the rock and pulled. Dust and gravel poured out from the wall, slowly the rock came loose. Stones fell from the mound, and tumbled out into the forest. When the dust cleared, bright rays of sunlight filled the cavern blinding the girls.

The forest outside had been ravaged by the storm, many trees had been knocked down. Piles of charred wood littered the ground, and many of the trees were bare. Anne pulled the horse's reins toward the mouth of the cave. She held her hand up, shielding her eyes from the sun. Over the next few hours, the girls cleared the debris in a grassy river bank. While Sasha and Anne worked on untacking the horses, Marcy built a perimeter of spiked sticks, each of which carried various different herbs and plants she had found. Anne tied ropes loosely to the horses to keep them inside the boundary.

"What's with the plants Mar Mar?" Sasha asked, as they were finishing up.

"These will protect the horses from outside dangers. Well they should..." She explained.

Sasha called up to Rocky who perched in a tree.

"I will leave Rocky here to watch over them." She then directed her attention to the animals. "If anything goes wrong, Rocky, free the horses and get them out of the valley. Alright?"

Rocky chirped an acknowledgement.

"Are you sure he understands you?" Anne asked, shouldering her bag.

"Hawks are some of the most intelligent birds," Marcy told her.

Sasha nodded and reached for her bag.

"Let's get going, everyone has what they need?"

The other two nodded. The three girls returned to the cave, and with one last look at the forest, Marcy, Anne and Sasha descended into the darkness.

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Without the sun to guide them, the girls had no idea what direction they were going in, or what time it was. Marcy led the group, using the crystal's light to guide them. Sasha walked alongside Anne, her hand resting in her sword. Along the walls, there were dozens of carvings, similar to the ones from the cave. The tunnel was long and twisted, but not once did it branch off. The air became warmer the further they travelled, Marcy assumed it was due to lack of airflow in the tunnels. Five hours had seemed to have passed when the tunnel widened into a large roomlike cavern. The space was round, dozens of carvings were etched into the walls, pink and red light filled in images. The light branched from the way they entered until it reached the other end of the room, the colour filled into a large wooden and wrought iron door. The door glowed red, and the room grew hot. Above the door there were strange symbols that looked to be from a long lost language.

"Can you read it, Marcy?" Sasha asked.

"I studied many ancient languages and alphabets, but I don't recognize this."

Marcy stepped forward, pulling a journal from her bag.

"But, I can probably figure it out by cross referencing it with other languages."

"How long will that take?" Anne asked.

"A few hours?"

"We don't have that kind of time, Marcy!" Sasha told her. "We've been on this journey for nearly a week!"

"Hey," Anne stepped in, "lay off, a few hours won't make much of a difference, right?"

"Won't it make a difference?" Sasha said, the anger rising in her chest. "This whole trip is to save the king, who is dying! The king! Your-"

"Sasha!" Marcy interrupted. "Calm down." She sighed. "I'll- I will go as fast as I can. But, clearly the heat is getting to us. Let's take a rest and cool down."

Sasha grunted and pushed past the two, she dropped her bag down and slumped against the wall. Anne stepped toward Sasha, but Marcy grabbed her shoulder.

"Give her some space. In the meantime, why don't you help me decipher this?"

"Sure."

Over the next hour and a half, Anne and Marcy worked together in deciphering the language. The heat persisted, seeming to come from the doors. Through the walls, they heard odd sounds, like bubbling and sizzling.

"So," Anne whispered, cutting the silence. "Is Sasha always this way or...?"

Marcy looked up from her journal, she glanced toward Sasha, whose back was facing them as she sharpened her sword.

"It's complicated," she answered. "I mean, yeah. Sasha has some, erm, temper issues. But what can you do? She was practically raised by the captain of the royal guard. It makes sense she would have some stuff."

"What do you mean, I thought you said that her parents were high ranking officials-"

"It's none of your business." Sasha cut in.

She had turned to face the two girls, her eyes were red and puffy, as if she'd been crying.

"Is everything okay?" Anne asked.

"Yes!" she snapped. "I mean, yes, yeah. Everything's great."

"If there's anything you need to talk about, you know you can," Anne promised.

"Listen Anne, we don't know each other. We don't need to pretend we do, so just drop it." With that Sasha turned away from the two.

"Sash," Marcy tried. "It's alright. You don't ha-"

"I said drop it."