The Cave Wall

Chapter Two

Elska had finished getting all the kids to bed a while ago. Now she sat up on the Great Elm, the tree closest to the hut, with giant branches, fat leaves and sturdy footholds. A perfect tree for a post, the tree they used for night-watch. Elska breathed in the frozen night air, wrapping her small blanket closer. She was balanced on a branch perfectly fit into two tree crooks. Elska scanned the darkness more out of habit than importance. There were no city lights in Frost-Valley, so the shadows overwhelmed to complete blackness. Elska mostly listened, smelt, and felt for any danger. It was a strange thing, to simply feel in your skin that something was wrong. Not a feeling that was uncommon to Elska, but simply a sensation buried deeper within her than she wanted to see. Elska allowed her nails to bite into her skin for a moment, letting the pain to shock her from her memories. None of them applied to the now, and were useless. She faced the darkness her mouth set in a grim line, despite the fact that no one, not even herself, could acknowledge it.

 Mags woke up early, at the sound of rustling. Squinting in the early morning light, which was really just darkness, she watched Elska slowly take of her fur boots, placing them gently at the side of the cave. Elska slid off her coat and paused watching quietly in the corner of the cave, a dark shadow against the soft moonlight. She walked up to her bed beside Sam, where she crawled in. Mags thought the sight was weird, though she knew Elska and Sam weren't romantically involved. It was so cold, especially at night that each person needed to sleep near someone. Mags slept beside a little girl named Lilac, who was the apprentice of Red. Red didn't come around often, he was making a map of the surrounding area, and would drop off new versions every few months. Lilac usually went with him, but she had come up with a horrible wracking cough, so she was staying here for a while. Lilac mumbled quietly in her sleep her pale face squished into the bearskin pillow. Mags stealthily stood up and walked to the door, watching her little tribe carefully so not to wake them up. As she slipped her own boots on, she glared at Elska. The dark eyed elder usually remembered to call the next elder up for night watch, but instead Elska was asleep, her face leaned into Sam's back, dark hair tangled in the fur "pillows". Mags stood up straight watching Elska with creeping suspicions. Elska had been on night watch for at least two days and had forgotten to wake another elder up at half point tonight, which should have been earlier, not morning when Elska was actually returning. What could she be doing? Of course the options were somewhat limited, thought mags dryly. She couldn't very well have a secret lover and she could hardly be plotting anything in the middle of the wilderness. Dismissing the warning bells in her head, Mags walked out of the cave silently brushing her thin hand along the fur pelts that acted as the doors to their little camp. The hostile cold assaulted her face so violently she considered turning back around. Looking up at the frozen sky she gazed at the moon quietly. Going back would probably be a good idea because she wasn't out here for a particular reason and wandering outside in the middle of the night in the wilderness was a bad idea in general. She rubbed her shoulders, her arms crossed against her chest gritting her teeth against the chills that penetrated her bones. She walked a little further, on the small hill directly in front of the cave, her boots tugging against the scrawled tundra plants. She got to the top and sat down on the rock near the Great Elm. She smiled slightly in the near darkness. Elska and her stupid names. Her smirk slowly faded into a neutral face. What was she even doing? What was anyone out here doing? She had always fought for the idea of escape instead of complacency, but for reasons not made apparent to her except now in the terrifying grips of the night's silence. If they really were doomed here, what was the point? She brought her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them. Elska was right. Oh god Elska was right. They were trapped in this god damn valley forever. She would never taste spaghetti again. Though the thought was simple and seemingly less potent than the fact she would never see her parents, her throat ached so bitterly that she could hardly breathe. Spaghetti is one of those Wednesday meals, simple and good but usually not a favorite. But now she missed them so painfully and much more than she would ever mourn her favorite treat. A small sound, too crippled to be a sob escaped her closed up throat.