The Elders (Sequel of 'The Siblings')

Chapter 4

The clot thickens...heuheuheuhe :3 Anywho, I present you with this glorious chapter that establishes a record of three days between updates. I am most definitely upping my game.

Enjoy ^.^

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I woke up in a cold and damp cell. There was a dim light coming from a torch, but I could only assume as I found myself tightly bound to a surface. Head, neck, arms, legs; the works. Those beautiful sons of bitches made sure I was immobilized. I was all alone in this place. There was no sign of any other form of life, just the sound of the leaky ceiling and the sound of my own breath. Every now and again, I rattled my chains in an attempt to set myself free, but my attempts were rebuffed by aches in my joints. I remembered the battle and I knew I had slashes across my arms and legs and my torso ached from Ajax's final blow, but those flesh wounds didn't seem to hurt. Instead, my joints felt ancient and I assumed it was from being bound for who knows how long and because of the wretched damp place. At some point, my stomach grumbled, making me wonder how long have I been kept in there.

Time seemed to drag on endlessly. I was bored out of my mind, aching and angry. I kept rattling the chains, trying to alert someone that I was awake, but I soon found that there was no on to alert. I had already lost the notion of time and was on the edge of insanity because of the constant sound of drops of water falling from the ceiling and onto the stone floor when I heard another presence. Light footsteps approached my cage, stopping and opening the door. The bars squeaked and scraped onto the stone surface, and the unknown elf approached me.

"Little human, you are finally awake"

Scratch that; it was no unknown elf. It was Ajax, my obnoxious captor.

"You again" I grumbled. "Just kill me now"

Ajax snapped his fingers and my limp neck fell to the side; I was still in chains but free to move at some extent. "I can't do that, now can I, little human?" he purred. "Your kind has gone to great lengths to keep you alive, and now my King wants you in his presence" he said.

Over our short encounters, Ajax had displayed a twisted sense of optimism, cheerfulness not only inappropriate for the circumstances, but borderline obnoxious.

"What would your King want with me?" I asked.

Ajax chuckled darkly. "You'll have to wait and see" he freed my legs and attached a chain to my handcuffs. "Now come along" he urged and dragged me out of my cell.

The hallway was, as I assumed, lit with torches. It was a long and spiraling hole that seemed to descend into the very pits of the earth. We walked to the exit in silence, the only sound being the sound of our footsteps and the rattle of my chains. The door to the outside was a beautifully carved door, with inscriptions in a language unknown to me. Ajax led the way outside, and I was surprised when we emerged in a huge cavern. I knew that elves lived underground, but it didn't mean that I didn't expect to come out into sunlight.

Ajax snickered at my baffled face. "Little human, this is the city of Ta'ric...well, a replica of it, anyway. The old Ta'ric stood underneath your village"

I looked around me with eyes big as saucers, while the elf dragged me down some steps made of stone. But then again, everything was made of stone. Up the walls of the cavern there were doors similar to the one that led into the dungeon, connected to each other by a network of staircases; I assumed those were households. Out of the ceiling of the cavern flowed water from place to place, led into each and every household by a network of drains. What was left of every stream united into a river formed a moat around a mighty castle in the center of the cavern then flowed into another similar cavern thorough a more narrow portion. I could feel Ajax's eyes watch me as I marveled at the ingenuity of the entire constructions.