The Untrusted 6

Walking, it seemed she had been doing that a lot lately, but she didn’t mind. And she wouldn’t have minded this time either had she not had to carry a boy that was as heavy, and seeming to be getting heavier by the moment. It took her sometime to realize there were lights of a sort in the cave just like the ones in the cave that taken her here, wrapped up in walking and about to drop from sheer exhaustion. She was tired and very hungry. She hadn’t eaten for about a day and the lack of food was relentlessly eating at her energy. Just as she was about to give up and sit down to at least giver herself a small break, when she spotted a small light up ahead that she hadn’t seen before and it was different then the other lights, it was very bright, then she noticed the fresh air that was around her, not the stuffy air she had been breathing for some time.

She was so relived. The cave did have a second exit! She nearly laughed in relief as she continued forward. For some reason she wasn’t as tired any more. It was as if her body had stored energy just for this and now let it flow. With a burst of adrenalin it didn’t take Azrea long to get to the spot of light, but when she finally did get to the source of light she stopped in bewilderment. The light was coming from a lantern on the left side of the cave, but what surprised Azrea was that instead of a flame there was a small ball of light. Azrea took a step closer and yet again she was surprised; for the lantern wasn’t hanging onto the wall, it was floating in mid-air. She gazed at the lantern for a minute or two longer then her gaze drifted further down the tunnel. Twenty feet ahead Azrea saw yet another lantern. At that moment the boy started slipping from Azrea’s grip because she had unknowingly loosened her grip. Luckily her reflexes were quick enough that she was able to stop him from falling to the ground. Azrea hoisted the boy up, so he wasn’t going to fall, and started forward again.

After walking past five more lanterns Azrea turned a corner and found herself in a big cavern like area. Yet the weirdest thing was that there was a long red carpet that flowed from where Azrea stood to a door on the other side of the cavern. As confusing as this was Azrea didn’t stop to puzzle it out instead she followed the red carpet to the other doorway. She continued through the doorway and into a walkway that had several tunnels leading in all directions. Sighing Azrea slowly and gingerly put the boy on the ground. She wasn’t about to carry him now that she knew they were fairly safe. Even though she was tired Azrea still wanted to look around before she rested. She wanted to make sure that nothing was living here or anything that was dangerous. The second reason was because she was very curious to see what lay in the maze of tunnels.

So making sure the boy would be alright, Azrea headed for the closest tunnel on the right. As she walked she was noticing that this tunnel was lit just like the one she had just come from. The tunnel wasn’t very long and it only took Azrea about five minutes to reach the end. The tunnel came out into a bigger room. Not as big as the cavern with the rug, but not so small that she might have to crouch in it. At first the room was cloaked in darkness, but when Azrea stepped over the threshold lanterns that were scattered about the room flickered into existence and lit the room. It made Azrea jump and when she saw what was in the room she gasped. ‘How,’ she wondered, ‘did these things get here?’

For what was in the room was that of modern stuff. There was a gas stove, a sink, and a microwave. Azrea could tell right away this was a kitchen; for it even held multiple cupboards and a small table rested in the center of the room. There was even an old time oven that was set into the wall by the stove. Azrea walked over to the microwave. She tried turning it on, but it didn’t even have power. Azrea then went over to the stove and found out that it did work because it used gas and not electricity. She smiled; if no one lived in this cave then she could use it until she found out how to get back home. Azrea gave the room one more look over and then headed back the way she had come. Azrea when to the boy and made sure he was ok; then she turned back to the tunnels.

There were four other tunnels that had yet to be explored; so Azrea went down the one at the left of the kitchen’s tunnel. This tunnel was shorter than the other one, and just like the other tunnel this one was lit with the lanterns. The tunnel came out into a room full of food. It had to be the storage room. Shelves lined the walls and they were all stocked with dried and fresh fruit and jars of food. Azrea didn’t waste time in here and turned back to the intersection. She then went into the tunnel that was left of that tunnel and at the end of it she found herself in a room that was twice as big as the kitchen was, but not as big as the cavern entrance was.

It had a really nice king sized bed sitting at the back of the room. There was a small table on one side of the bed and a closet on the other. There room looked as if it was meant to be the masters’ room, but if everything went well Azrea had plans to sleep in here. She almost went to the bed to get some sleep, but she resisted by reminding herself that the boy still needed some place to sleep, and she had no idea who really lived here and if they would welcome her uninvited visit. So with little enthusiasm Azrea went back to the intersection again. As soon as she got back she glanced quickly at the boy and then went into the next tunnel. At the end of this tunnel was something Azrea had been really wanting.

The room contained only one thing, and that was a hot spring. It was hot in the room and Azrea could tell that the water was perfectly warm too. Promising herself that she would come back here after she got some rest, Azrea headed for the next and last tunnel. She walked straight to the tunnel with determination to get done exploring soon.

This tunnel went a little ways and then sectioned off into five other tunnels. Azrea chose the first tunnel and walked to the end of it. It didn’t even take a minute to get to the end and the tunnel came out into a room that was a miniature version of the master bedroom. Azrea didn’t even give it a second glance before she took off to see what the other tunnels held. She was slightly disappointed when she found out that they all were just miniature versions of the master bedroom, but she brushed her disappointment away.

That’s when she remembered the boy. Azrea went back to the intersection to get him so she could put him in one of the beds. Coming out of the tunnel Azrea looked to where she had set him, but when she looked she didn’t see him. Azrea looked around the area, but sure enough he was nowhere to be seen. ‘He must have woken up,’ she thought worriedly, ‘I should find him before he gets too lost or hurts himself.’ Azrea stood there a moment longer, thinking which way she should start looking. Just as she made up her mind to search the entrance a sound came from the tunnel where the master bedroom was.

Azrea stopped and listened, but when she didn’t hear anything she dismissed it as part of her imagination. Again Azrea went to head toward the entrance and that’s when she heard the noise again. This time Azrea was positive that it wasn’t just her imagination. She changed her direction and headed toward the noise. That’s when she heard it again and she realized the sound resembled that of someone limping heavily. ‘It has to be the boy,’ Azrea thought as she made her way to the room. As much as Azrea had been in this realm, nothing would have prepared her what happened next.

When Azrea walked in her eyes went straight to the boy. His back was to her and she saw that he had his shirt off and changed his pants. Azrea was about to speak up, but before she could even open her mouth an invisible force slammed her against the nearest wall. It knocked the breath out of her and her vision darkened for a split second. When she was able to see again the first thing she saw was the boy. Azrea then tried to look around, but she couldn’t for whatever invisible force was holding her up against the wall also held her frozen in place. The only thing she could move where her eyes and so she took in what the boy fully looked like.

With him standing up Azrea could tell he was half a head taller than her. The boy stood with his head held high and Azrea could practically fill power radiating from him. Azrea scanned his body and saw to her own surprise that the bandages were no longer there. In their place were pink lines from the healing wounds and Azrea almost couldn’t grasp that he had healed so fast. She brushed that thought away, for that didn't make sense to her, no one should heal that fast. She looked him over from his legs up, and so the last things her gaze fell on were his eyes. One eye was the color of a stormy sky while the other was blood red. If they weren’t so full of hate and disdain then Azrea would have found them amazing. But it was that moment that it finally dawned on Azrea that she had helped a creature that would more than likely kill her rather than thank her even though she risked her life so she was a little more than terrified.

It hadn’t even been a full minute and already Azrea’s nerves were stretched as thin as they could go without breaking. She had never been so terrified in her memory. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could stand the silence, and being held there against her well was not helping her jangled nerves. She didn’t have to wait long, she found out, when the boy suddenly started talking, "Who are you and how in the hell did you get in here?" his voice was full of venom and he practically growled the words. Azrea was pretty scared by now, but she still managed to speak, "M-my name is Azrea Fierily. Please let me-"Azrea was cut short when she saw disgust cross over the boys face.

"You have to be a human. Only humans are so stupid to try and help someone they don't know or stick their nose in something that is not there business," the boy said as his lips curled back as if he had tasted something fowl, "Never the less, even a human shouldn’t be able to come into my territory uninvited. So how did you get in?"
This question baffled Azrea so much that her fear was almost forgotten, "What do you mean?"

The boy’s face wasn’t contorted with anger any more, but by the look her was giving Azrea, she could tell her was more than a little annoyed; "I shouldn’t even have bothered to ask," The boy came forward as he said this and so when he finished he was standing less than a hands span away from Azrea. The boy raised his hand and moved it toward Azrea’s neck. Azrea should have been freaking out, but she was seething instead. For he had called her and other humans stupid; even if he was smarter that didn’t mean he had to be so rude about it. Azrea struggled as much as she could, but she hadn’t even been able to move a muscle before the boy’s hand came in contact with her. When that happened blinding pain was sent shooting up Azrea’s spine and everything went black.

Azrea woke up hearing whimpering that was mixed with deep growls. She opened her eyes when she found that nothing on her body hurt. Azrea sat up to see the boy crouching over holding his left hand. A pang of worry coursed through her, even though she knew she shouldn’t worry, for the boys’ welfare. As if sensing her gaze on him, the boy looked up and Azrea saw that he was glaring fiercely at her again, "What did you do?" the boy growled slowly, as if breathless.

"I-I didn’t do anything," Azrea stammered with confusion. The boy stayed silent and cradled his hand for a few minutes, but then suddenly he straightened and glowered down at Azrea. She looked straight to his hand and saw that it was undamaged. Azrea nearly sighed in relief that he was not hurt, but then stopped herself. ‘I have to stop worrying about someone that might kill me,’ Azrea thought to herself. The boy walked up to Azrea, but the way he walked reminded Azrea of a cat stalking its prey. He only stopped when he was one foot away from where Azrea sat. Azrea watched as he glared down at her and snarled, "I don’t know who you are and I really don’t care ether, but this is my territory so you better get the hell out of here and go back to wherever you came from before I decide to kill you," Once the boy had said all this he turned around and started heading to the other side of the room.

Azrea was so baffled that at first all she did was sit there staring at the boy. Then a spark of anger ripped through her banishing her bafflement to the back of her awareness, leaving her fuming and pissed, "You jerk!" Azrea snarled as she stood up, "You cold, black hearted jerk!" by now the boy had turned back around to glare some more at Azrea as she stormed over to him getting right in his snarling face, and not caring a wit," I risked my life to save you from bleeding to death from that dragon. I could have just as easily left you there to die. Just because you are monster doesn’t mean you have to act like a savage unforgiving, ungrateful prick, if I knew the way back I would be out of here in a heartbeat," Azrea ranted as tears of anger rolled unchecked down her cheeks, "But I don’t know the way back. Hell, I don’t even know anything about this world. And you’re not helping my situation by acting all high and mighty-," Azrea didn’t get to finished what she was going to say for the boy interrupted her.

"Shut up already!" the boy yelled and all of a sudden the air around Azrea stopped and Azrea could fill some sort of power glide a crossed her body. Yet the only thing the power did was lift Azrea’s hair like a hand would. Then suddenly the power disappeared and as Azrea watched she saw the boys face change from being contorted with anger to utter astonishment before he was flung backwards into the wall on the other side of the room. He hit the wall with an echoing crash and fell to the floor in a bundled heap.

Azrea gasped and worry instantly replaced her anger. She rushed over to the boy as he slowly picked himself up off the floor. Crouching down Azrea tried to help him, but her efforts were in vain as he refused her help and growled for her to get away from him. Azrea stood up and watched the boy carefully, "Are you alright?" She asked as the boy leaned up against the wall gasping for breath. His chest, belly, arms, and legs were riddled with small cuts that were starting to drip blood. Tattered and cut up, the boys’ pants were barely staying around his hips; and with every movement they threatened to fall.

The boy finally stopped gulping in air so he could talk, "what the hell do you think? And why should you even care anyway? If it wasn’t for the seven day protection my spell wouldn’t have backfired and would be dead," he didn’t say it with the spite and venom he had been using so far, but his tone still said he didn’t like or even remotely want Azrea there.

Azrea crinkled her brow in confusion, "Seven day protection? What is that?"
The boy looked like he was gaining his strength back as he answered with a sigh, "you really are ignorant to this world aren’t you? Don’t answer that," he added quickly when Azrea opened her mouth to answer, "Any way, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you one or two things," After a slight pause he continued, "the seven day protection is just that. You get protected for seven days. Some sorcerers created this spell because the creatures of this world kept killing off the humans way too fast.

The sorcerers wouldn’t have done this had they not have been so curious about humans and their ways. So now when a human passes through the Tandros Tali they have seven days to get a settlement up before they are free game. And for those seven days of protection you cannot be touched by someone that wants to do you harm. That’s why my spell backfired and why you’re not dead," by now the boy wasn’t using the wall for support and he was standing upright. "Oh, that explains a lot, but what is a Tandros Tali?" Azrea asked as she pieced everything together.

Finally the boy had gained back his strength and probably had healed himself for he didn’t even have a scratch on him anymore. Along with his strength he also gained back his arrogant manner and distaste for Azrea. He scowled at Azrea, "It’s the tunnel you came through to get to my world or are you that thickheaded as to forget?" he said and then continued before Azrea could say anything, "Now before anything else happens I want to know how you were able to get into my territory without my permission."
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Sorry it took so long. and thanks for being so patient . Hope you like it, please comment =3.