In The Shadows of the Cavern of Death (Shadows of Death Book 1) (10 page)

Unable to stand the dark thoughts that I held no answer to a moment longer, I banished them to the back of my mind. Reaching into my bag, I pulled out the strips of cloths and tied them around my eyes, not wanting to wake in pain again. Stretching out onto the ground facing the fire, I closed my eyes, forcing sleep to take me. At some point in the night, Tristian joined me, laying down behind me and wrapping his arm around me. I woke slightly as he raised my head to pillow it on the crook of his arm before his gentle murmurs lulled me back to sleep.

I don’t know how long we slept before a sound woke me. Opening my eyes to pitch darkness, the fire having died long ago, I slowly raised my hand and removed the bindings from my eyes. Something wasn’t right. I could feel the tiny hairs on the back of my neck standing up as if someone was watching me. The tightening of Tristin’s arm around me would have caused me to jump if I hadn’t been holding myself so stiffly. He obviously must have heard the sound and woken also. The flash of the knife in his hand by my head gave me comfort even as I cursed myself for not taking my knife from my bag before I laid down.

A rustling in the thicket started again as if something within was moving toward us. When I felt Tristian move, so did I. Slowly mirroring his movement, we rose to a crouch on the balls of our feet. Luckily my bag was within my reach, and inching my hand in, I felt the handle of my knife not a moment too soon. A deep growling sound began to echo in the silence before shining eyes gazed out at us in menace. A large chasm surrounded by sharp white teeth moved from the greenery, the figure it was attached to was huge, and massive paws shook the ground as it came into our small clearing. Pawing the ground, it twisted its head as it rose into the air, towering over our small forms before coming back down with a heavy thump and a roar of challenge that was unmistakable.

Tristian’s “RUN!” broke through my terror at the sight before us. With a tight grip on my bag, I followed him into the darkened woods, swinging my bag onto my back as we went. The monster pursued us, the sound of heavy braches breaking in its wake. We could hear it closing in; turning and twisting through the woods was no use––it still followed. Terrified, we came to a large tree, and gripping its limbs, we pulled ourselves up. Higher and higher we climbed, but what we hadn’t counted on was the fact that the beast would follow. We were halfway up into the tree when it found us, digging its sharp claws into the tree trunk as it pulled itself up. Trapped in the high branches, we watched in horror as it made its way toward us, growling and snapping as it went. We had only one choice: to keep going up. The branches got thinner and weaker the higher we went, cracking under the pressure of our weight at times. We had reached the top with nowhere to go, the monster right under us shaking the tree with each swipe it took at us. My back was to the trunk of the tree with Tristian in front of me, trying to offer what little protection that he could when the rope end coming out of his bag gave me an idea.

Pulling out the rope while trying to hold on to him and the tree so we wouldn’t topple to our deaths was what saved us. The tree began to shudder so badly I thought we were going to topple out, causing me to drop part of the rope to get a better grip on Tristian. The rope coil fell into the monster’s face, startling it. When it swiped at the rope, the thing lost its balance, putting too much weight on a weak branch, causing it to fall to the ground. The sound of breaking branches on the way down signaled that its fall was slow enough that when it hit the ground it sat there stunned instead of dead for a moment before yelping and running back into the darkness that it had come from. Wide-eyed, we gazed at where the monster retreated, waiting for it to come back. Every sound that I heard caused fear to engulf me until about an hour passed without any sight of it.

“I think it’s alright to get down, I don’t think it’s coming back,” Tristian whispered to me.

Furiously shaking my head, I said, “I’m not going back down there until the sun comes up.”

“Alright, let’s move down to the larger branches that we can sit on, we’ll sleep up here for the rest of the night,” he said, while prying the rope from my hand so he could roll it back up.

Taking slow breaths, I calmed myself enough to take the rope from him and put it back in his bag. Telling me to stay, he began to descend first before motioning me to join him. We went about halfway down before he was satisfied with a branch. Taking his pack off, he took out the rope and looped it around the tree before telling me to take my bag off and pulling me into his lap. Cradling me to his chest, he tied the rope around us and the bags before taking the forgotten cloth from around my neck and recovering my eyes. Wrapping my arms around him, I listened to the beat of his heart until the sun started to rise and exhausted sleep finally claimed me.

Chapter 10

It’s been five sun risings since the monster attacked us from the darkness. The first day after the attack, every sound in the woods had me gripping my knife. We had climbed carefully from our tree and backtracked to our original camp, the damage from the night before making it easy to find. The few items that we had left behind after our mad dash, we gathered. After carefully studying the paw prints left behind so we knew to avoid an area if we saw them again, we set out quickly moving through the area, not wanting to meet up with the animal again. Since that night, we had made sure to either find high ground or a tree to sleep in, not wanting to be caught at even level like that again.

About two days into our trek, we ran out of food. Worried, we slowed down to search the area for animal trails. We were lucky we only had to go a day before we stumbled onto deer eating a black type of berry. Greedily, we stuffed our mouths before we stuffed our bags full and moved on. We had managed to stumble onto other types of fruit and nuts I recognized from pictures at school, collecting them as we went, but I was leery of the berries, preferring to avoid them if I didn’t see an animal eating them first.

Our eyes seemed to be adjusting to the sun a little at a time. This morning before we left, I was able to remove one on the pieces of cloths and still see without pain. If we’re lucky, within a month we won’t need them at all. Looking ahead, I couldn’t help but smile in relief as the place where Tristian had been leading us was finally coming into view. I couldn’t help but be a little worried as we approached, since after the night of the attack he had been more serious than I have ever seen him. Specifically, he was worried about me. He wouldn’t let me go first, but pushed me behind him, taking the lead. I knew he wasn’t getting enough rest, but when I offered to stay up while he slept, he ignored me. We were going to have to find somewhere safe to hole up for a few days before he drops from exhaustion.

Wanting to distract him, I smiled when heard a stream off to the side. Running forward, I grabbed his hand pulling him to a stop. “Do you hear that?”

Running a weary hand across his face, he said, “Do I hear what, the water?”

Nodding my head, I tugged on his arm. “Come on, we need to fill our bottles and I want to try swimming again.”

Moving in front of me, he kept hold of my hand, but changed direction to the sound of the water. When we reached its banks, I stood frozen, caught by the beauty. It was different from the other one. This one has a ledge that water was falling off from above that almost made it look like a moving blanket. Thick groups of brightly colored flowers coated both sides of it, giving it a magically quality. Entranced, I began pulling my clothes off, dropping them as I walked, wanting to be part of the beauty. Between the shade of the trees and the lowness of the sun in the sky, I carefully took off my eye wraps. When I get only a slight sting, I discarding them completely, dropping them with my clothes before stepping in.

The water was colder here than in the other stream, but I ignored it as I walked toward the cascading water from above
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Tentatively reaching out, I was fascinated as it slid over my skin. Closing my eyes, I stepped forward and let it cover me, amazed that it was not as cold as the water below. Wherever it was coming from must have been heated by the sun. Running my hands over my face, I lifted my chin up, pushing my hair back. For long minutes I stood there before arms encircled me from behind, startling me into turning. Placing my hands onto the bare, water-covered chest to hold my balance, a shiver passed through me as I collected my courage. Forcing my gaze up, I was caught in the same trance that this place had put over me. With shallow breaths, I stayed locked in his arms as he bent and captured my lips. Like before, I was shocked for a moment, but unlike before I couldn’t pull away, caught in his arms I felt the warmth of what he was doing to my lips spread through me. Pressing into his body instead of away, I curled my fingers into his chest, wanting him closer but instead it pushed him away. Breaking our kiss, he turned me in his arms, keeping my back pressed tightly to his chest. Wanting more, I tried to turn back, but he held me still, not allowing it. If it wasn’t for his unsteady breaths, I would have thought that he was unaffected.

His chin, which had been resting on my head, slid down the side of my face until his lips came to on my neck. With a barely-there touch, he pressed them to me, whispering, “Close your eyes and don’t move,” before removing them and dropping his arms. Tight with nerves, I jumped a little when his hand glided up my neck, tilting my head back. The smell of soap touched my nose as his hands moved through my hair, washing it. I don’t ever remember anyone ever washing my hair before, but even if they had I don’t think it felt like this. I was shaking with emotions that I couldn’t identify by the time he finished. He told me to turn and I slowly did as he asked. Dumbly, I stared at my hand that he placed the soap in as I watched him kneel down in front of me, pressing his face into my stomach. Raising my shaking hands, I slowly soaped them up before setting the soap on a shelf of rocks next to me. With study movements, I worked my fingers through his hair as his hot short gasps against my stomach caused it to quiver. Placing a hand on each side of his head I gently tilted it back until hot eyes gazed at me before closing as the falling water and my fingers softly rinsed out the soap.

When the last of the soap left him I allowed my fingers to glide down to his shoulders. In silence, he opened his eyes, holding my gaze with his as he rose and stepped back, diving into the cool water and making his way back to shore. Not looking back, he walked onto the bank, collecting his bag and moved into the woods. With shaking hands, I took the soap and finished my bath, waiting as long as I dared before going to the shore. Drying off the best that I could, I pulled my clothes over my damp skin. Filling my water bottles, I froze when Tristian kneeled down beside me to fill his.

“If we’re going to make the high ground before the sun completely sets, we have to get going now,” he said, as if nothing had happened, “and don’t worry about your eye covers––the sun is down enough that it won’t be an issue.” He threw this in as an afterthought before turning and walking away.

Shock held me still before anger took over. Fine, if that is what he wanted then we’ll just pretend that it never happened. Stuffing my bottle and clothes into my bag, I stood up and followed him, not saying a word at the grueling pace that he set for us to make up for the side trip to the water. It was well dark by the time we reached the spot that he had chosen. Without a word, I dropped my bag to the ground, too tired to be mad, just trying to catch my breath. Once I felt that I wouldn’t keel over, I searched the grounds and gathered sticks. The spot we were on was pretty bare, so I had to walk about twenty minutes back the way we came to find what we needed. When I got back with a sack full of sticks it was to find a furious Tristian. “Where have been?” he yelled, knocking the bag from my hands before grabbing my arms to hold me in place.

Confused, I said, “I went to get fuel for the fire.”

Too angry to speak at my words, he dragged me toward a group of large boulders that was hiding our fire from view. Pushing me forward, he turned on his heels and walked away. Completely irritated by his high-handed attitude, I turned right on my heels to follow him.

Grabbing his arm to stop him, I said, “What’s your problem?!”

Instead of pulling his arm from me, he moved forward, crowding my space. “Go back to the fire,” he pushed out between clenched teeth, before pulling his arm from my grip, intending to walk away.

  Who the hell did he think I was? A child to be spoken to that way?

“From the way you’re behaving wandering off without telling me, that’s exactly what I think you’re acting like,” he growled, forcing me to realize that I had said that out loud. Taking a deep breath, I gave him a withering look before turning on my heels and going back to the fire. Obviously not liking being ignored, he stomped behind, towering over me as I sat down and stared into the fire. “Don’t walk away from me when I’m speaking to you.”

Ignoring him, I kept looking into the fire until he knelt down and gripped my face, forcing me to look at him. Keeping my eyes adverted to over his shoulder, I shed my face of expression and said in a monotone, “I’m just doing what you told me, sitting by the fire like a good girl.”

This seemed to drive him over the edge. Pushing me down, he loomed over me, pinning me to the ground. Not wanting to give him the satisfaction, I sat perfectly still as he waited tensely for me to struggle. After a moment, when he realized that I wasn’t moving, he gently gripped my face, getting the reaction his anger couldn’t––my eyes on his. “I didn’t know where you were. I didn’t know if you were hurt or if someone or something had taken you.” Removing his grip from my face, he gently ran his fingers over my pulse as he continued in the same low voice. “The only thing that I knew is that when I called out you didn’t answer or come.” Leaning down until his lips touched my ear, he held his weight on his arm, not touching me. “Now do you understand why I was upset with you?”

“Yes,” I said breathlessly, unable to hide the reaction to his nearness. Satisfied with my answer, he nimbly jumped up and walked away, leaving me on the ground to fight back my body’s traitorous reaction. Staring up at the sky, I tried to figure out how we had gotten to this point. I shook my head as the sky didn’t give me the answer as to why I was suddenly attracted to my best friend. I rolled to my side, gazing at the fire, no longer hungry. I closed my eyes and fell into a light sleep. Turning in my sleep, I snuggled deeper into the warmth, wiggling and moving trying to get comfortable until hard hands forced me still. Whimpering, I raised my arms, wiping my bleary eyes before blinking them into focus. Tristian’s face was level with mine. Softened by sleep, it looked like the boy I had always known. Careful not to wake him, I scooted out of his arms, going over to restart the fire. Not wanting to go back to sleep until I knew that it would stay lit, I walked around the boulders to stretch my legs.

At first when I looked into the distance I thought that the sun was rising. My sleepy mind was not making sense of what I was seeing. As I kept looking I realized what I was seeing were lights in the distance covering a huge expanse of area. The more I focused, the more I thought I saw outlines of buildings, but with the distance it could have just been shadows playing tricks on my mind. Sitting down, I stared. So that was the city. Looking around the surrounding areas, I saw no other lights like that, so it must be the only one. The distance from us was great, it could take us weeks, months to reach it, depending on the terrain we encountered. Now that we knew where it was, wouldn’t it just be smarter to head in another direction and move away from it?

What would we really find there that would make a difference to us? Did deep down I think that we could help those people? There were two of us and what were there, hundreds of thousands, millions of them waiting for their chance to kill us for daring to escape the caverns? Standing up I made my way back to Tristian, sitting down next to him, glad that he was finally sleeping. Our earlier fight must have worn him out. Carefully reaching my hand out, I lightly touched his cheek. My thoughts were going to our future. The weather up here in the world above was different than the cavern and always changing. We had no clue when it would change or how. We should be worrying about a permanent shelter to retreat to and stocking supplies before even thinking of making our journey to the Loyalist city. Deciding to talk with him in the morning about this, I turned and added more wood to the fire. Once I was sure that it would go for a while, I laid back down next to Tristian. For a moment I was afraid that I had awakened him, when his arm snaked out and pulled me into his embrace, but when he didn’t move after that and his even breathing was the only thing that I heard, I closed my eyes and joined him.

Opening my eyes, I blinked at my fuzzy vision until I realized that the cloths were over them. Tristian must have put them on was the only thing my sleepy mind could surmise as I thought of the night before. Stretching slowly, I looked around for him and when I couldn’t see him I rose. Moving around the boulders, I saw him sitting in the same spot I was last night, gazing out at the city that was barely visible in the distance. Without a word, I sat down next to him resting my head on his shoulder, smiling when he put his arm around me. Sitting there, my thoughts of last night came to me again.

Breaking the silence, I said, “I was thinking that I was wrong. Maybe we shouldn’t go to the city.” When he remained quiet, I said, “I was thinking that for now we should be working on finding a shelter somewhere and collecting food. We don’t know the weather patterns of this place. Eventually we need to journey to the city, but until we have a home base, I don’t know if it’s a good idea.

“Are you sure?” he asked, those three little words telling me he would risk death to the elements if it would make me happy.

Nodding my head against his shoulder, I asked, “Which way do you think we should go?”

Looking around, he gave a humorous laugh. “That way toward the mountains. We’ll probably do best in a cave since we don’t have any tools.”

Unfortunately, he was right. Until we could make or find tools, we were pretty limited in our forms of shelter. As much as I hated the thought of living in a cave even for a short time, it was probably our best bet at survival. “OK, a cave it is,” I said, trying to put enthusiasm in my voice. From his dry chuckle I knew that he wasn’t buying it.