Arranged (6 page)

Her heart was racing wildly as she pulled herself out of the ravine. She had stopped just in time; her waist was dangling over the edge. Her muscles bulged with effort as she pulled herself out, coughing up leaves and dirt.

Once she was safe, she turned to look down the deep ravine. The creature was sprawled over the sharp rocks at the bottom, perfectly still. She pushed herself too her knees, her body fatigued from all the running, her adrenaline dwindling. She used the tree as a brace as she stood and gasped in pain, her leg nearly buckling beneath her. Somehow, she had broken her ankle. She slowly put weight on it, testing, and she buckled.

She hobbled a few feet. If she had to travel at this rate, she would never get far enough from the manor, and she couldn't outrun those creatures. They would find her.

She brought her palms up, most of the bandages had been torn off and her cuts reopened. She curled and stretched her fingers, wincing in pain. This escape was not going as planned, at all.

Tears stung her eyes, but she fought them with all the strength she had left. Now was not the time to cry, she needed to get herself to safety.

She pushed herself on, hopping mostly on one foot. She used the trees for a brace, ignoring the sharp pain coming from her hands every time she grabbed a branch. Thinking of a plan, she made her way into the trees. She figured the other creature wouldn't find her in the dense mess.

Too soon, she heard a mournful wail that chilled her to the bone. She assumed that the other creature had found the body in the ravine. She pushed herself onward as quickly as she could manage, which wasn't very fast.

Again, she underestimated her pursuers. She saw a blur of gray out of the corner of her eye and tried not to whimper. In this state, she had no chance against them. Her eyes scanned the forest floor, spotting a nice sized branch broken from the tree. She picked it up, ignoring the pain. She held the branch like a weapon, her eyes darting around. Hissing sounded at her side. She turned, swinging her stick. Nothing was there. More hissing behind her. She swung. Nothing.

Her throat was dry with fear. She couldn't see her attacker. Her body froze, listening. Soft padding of feet sounded to her left. Before the creature could even hiss, she swung and turned. It ducked just in time, hissing angrily at her.

Her eyes grew wide as she got her first good look at one of the creatures. It was slightly shorter than she was. Its skin was almost black. There was a strange hump on its left shoulder and it had an enlarged left arm. Three fingers on each hand, one ear larger than the other, and eyes as black as the night sky completed the creature. It looked so awkward. She was surprised that it could run so fast.

After her quick perusal, she raised the branch again. The creature opened its mouth, revealing tiny sharp teeth and a strange forked tongue. It hissed, its tongue lifting. Before she could bring her stick down on top of it, the creature sprayed her with a strange slime. It landed on her face, covering her nose and mouth. She dropped the stick, screaming. However, the sound was muffled by the slime that was quickly beginning to harden.

She tried to suck in a breath, but could barely get air. What she sucked in was a strange sulfur smell. Almost instantly, she began to feel lightheaded. Her hands tried desperately to rip the hardened slime off, but it held tight.

Her lightheadedness increased and she swayed on her feet. The creature just watched her. Her eyes felt heavy, but she knew that she couldn't fall asleep because that monster would eat her.

Nevertheless, the slime had other plans. She collapsed to her knees, desperately trying to pull off the slime that was suffocating her. Her lungs burned and her eyes watered. She collapsed to her hands and knees, losing her strength. The world around her began to have white spots. She clutched her throat, fighting, but the substance won. She fell to the forest floor in a heap, searing white over taking her and her last ounce of strength. Her eyes closed.

The ground under her seemed to be shaking, waking her from her white slumber. Her eyes fluttered open, frowning at her surroundings in confusion. It was dark, darker than the forest should be. There was a light ahead, and somehow, she was moving toward it. She tried to fight the fog in her mind and remember what had happened to her, but for the life of her, she couldn't recall. She went to rub her eyes, only to find that he hands were bound and connected to the ties that also bound her feet. She looked around wildly, only to find that she was being carried by a creature. Then it hit her. The chase, the ravine, the pain, the slime, she remembered everything. Her heart leapt as she began to struggle. The creature turned its pitch black eyes to her, making strange hissing sounds as its arms tightened around her. She tried to scream, but the slime was still covering her mouth, a portion of it had been removed from her nose so that she could breathe.
If it wants to eat me, why did it let me live?

She wasn't planning on sticking around to find out. She struggled more, flailing her legs and sucking in a quick breath of pain because of her ankle.

The creature continued towards the light and her eyes widened as they took in two large doors covered in complex golden carvings and in the center shone a crest. She didn't have very much time to study it, because the gate began to open. Her eyes darted around wildly.
Where is it taking me?
The creature continued to tighten its hold on her, squeezing the life out of her. When she continued to struggle, it shifted her and slung her over its shoulder.

She growled and tried to kick it with her good leg; however, as if sensing her weakness, it grabbed her broken ankle. She screamed in pain, no sound coming through the slime covering her mouth. Her captor got what it wanted; she stopped struggling.

Now she could see the doors closing her in, a huge log sliding into place to lock it. Her heart raced in fear, she was surrounded by creatures. Three creatures had to push the log, each one strange, but Alison was not allowed a good look as the creature that was carrying her continued onward.

They made their way through another cave then entered a cavern larger than any she'd ever seen. Her captor began to descend a long flight of stairs carved right into the rock face. The stairs lined the cave wall all the way to the bottom.

Alison swung her body in a desperate attempt to see where they were going. What she saw made her pause and question her sanity. A whole world resided in the cavern. She could see down the edge of the cliff of stairs they were on.

Houses that seemed carved from rock were scattered around the cavern, each big enough to house a family of five or six. The cavern went deeper and deeper. It seemed impossible that something so big could exist without being detected.

The creature shifted her to lie more comfortably on its shoulder and grunted as she gasped. Her eyes were taking in more. Lanterns were lit between a few houses. The "road" they were now walking on was made of packed dirt. As they passed houses, she spotted odd plants. They looked like bushes; however, they were giving off a strange glow.

As she looked around, she noticed that almost every plant was glowing, some brighter than others. Then she realized that the cavern actually had no source of light, but the glowing gave a soft light to see by.

Where am I?
She wondered. There were many forms of…
people?
She looked closer. They weren't people, but more creatures. They were standing by their houses, as if they had come out just to see her.

Alison's bravery began to dwindle as she noticed that the number of creatures continued to grow. She swallowed hard, fighting the feeling of crawling under a rock and staying there forever. She had to figure out a way to get out of this crazy place.

How can a place like this even exist?
She wondered. How could there be creatures here that no one knew about? She figured she was in a mountain of some sort or underground because the pressure around her had changed.

However, there were more pressing issues at hand. The creature had stopped and was speaking to someone…or something was more like it. Alison tried to bend her body to see what was going on, but her captor merely gripped her tighter. She gasped in pain as it squeezed her ankle.

Then they were moving again. For the second time, tears threatened to fall. She fought them back, knowing that her tears were the only thing she could control at the moment. More creatures gawked at her. Eventually she closed her eyes, trying to shut out everything that was going on around her.
This is all a dream. I must have fallen and hit my head,
she tried to reason with herself, but the throbbing in her ankle told her that this was real.

A chill swept through her as she tried not to imagine the things they would do to her. Perhaps they would eat her, or sacrifice her to their strange deity. Perhaps they would feed her to a bigger monster. Her future looked bleak either way.

Her ears picked up more hissing around her.
That must be their language,
she thought. She opened her eyes again, trying again to look around the creature to see where they were headed. Suddenly everything stopped. The creature holding her spoke to another and the sound of a large door opening was heard. Alison tried more desperately to look at what was happening, but the creature squeezed her again. She cried out, the sound muffled and sobbed against her gag.

A voice sharp with authority was heard, causing Alison to stop. Her captor gripped her and pulled her back over its shoulder, setting her on the ground. She tried to run the second her feet touched down, but her bad ankle caused her to buckle. The creature held her up, hissing under its breath at her, facing someone that was walking toward them.

Alison looked up and her eyes widened as a tall creature stood before her. Its pitch black eyes seemed to study her face. The creature reached up its four-fingered hand and pushed her hair back to get a good look at her face. As if snapped out of a stupor, Alison sucked in a deep breath and screamed into her gag.

The tall one hissed, now touching her with its other four-fingered hand. She screamed more, trying to get away. Suddenly its hands were on her head, stilling her. Her eyes bulged in horror as it applied gentle pressure.

A strange glow raced down its arms and to its hands, covering Alison in warmth. Instantly her eyes grew heavy and closed. She felt more arms around her as she collapsed and drifted into oblivion.

The cold chill surrounding her brought her out of her strange slumber. Her eyes cracked open, taking more effort than usual. She groaned as she pushed herself to her elbows and peered around. Darkness surrounded her, except for a small patch of strange moss that clung to the stonewall at her side. It seemed to be giving light in a strange greenish glow.

She racked her brain feverishly for answers. She remembered the chase, the capture then she had been brought to a strange cavern. One of them touched her head. Her fingers grazed her temples, sighing in relief as she realized they felt normal enough. She rubbed her fists into her eyes and pushed herself to a seated position. Since she couldn't see past a few inches in front of her, she used her hands to feel around her.

Her palms slapped the cold stone floor. She touched dirt, grit and more stones. She tried to pull her knees to her chest, but was met with a sharp pain rocketing up her leg. Her hands flew to her injured ankle and to her surprise she found shackles surrounding it. Her fingers blindly followed the shackles to where they were bolted into the wall.

Fear rose in her and threatened to overtake her in the suffocating darkness. She was their prisoner. How was she going to escape when she was chained to the wall?

A dry sob escaped her throat. She wished she had light. Hearing her cry, a tiny door opened and a pair of blood red eyes peered in. Alison couldn't help but shrink back from the monster peering in at her. She was also forced to shield her eyes from the soft light that was coming from the hole.

"Kaaasnaa arrrray," it said in its strange hissing language. Suddenly the tiny door closed, leaving her alone with the darkness once again.

She pressed her back into the cold stone and carefully dragged her legs by her. Hope faded more and more with each passing minute. Awhile had passed, then the entire door opened and one of the creatures entered. The soft light from the lantern it was holding stung her eyes. She squeezed them shut for a moment before she realized she would rather see what was going on. Forcing her eyes open, her retinas screamed as they hurried to adjust to the light.

The creature was tall. It was the one who had put her to sleep. She pulled her legs closer, ignoring the sharp pain in her ankle. It was wearing dark pants of black leather, knitted together by thick string. It wore no shirt, but a thick black cloth that seemed to attach to the front of its pants, crossed its chest and wrapped around the back, only to be draped over its arm. Its shoes were made from a strange material; however she didn't have time to study them because it knelt down before her, at her eyelevel and peered at her through pitch black eyes that seemed to reflect the light from the lantern. She couldn't help but tremble under its gaze.

From the stature of the creature, she could tell it was a male. He looked her over with his dark eyes. The lantern he held hardly offered any light for her to see him clearly. His four-fingered hand reached out to touch her and she shrunk back. Her back pressed into the wall, she wished she could pass through it.