This was exclusively not happening the way I had anticipated it. For one there should have been more dustbin men patrolling the cave- but there weren't, perhaps it was a good thing?
“Shhh”, Suhani rustled.
There was a flash of light at the tip of the cliff, and then it disappeared. Brio was up there, watching our back, I could almost imagine him lying on their belly with his rifle pointed towards the volcanic mountain.
On the other side three sentries stood at a distance from each other, I doubted they were even awake, but it wasn't worth the jeopardy.
“We need a distraction”, I mumbled.
Suhani half shut her eyes and stared at me, “thank you”, she snapped and unstrapped her bow from her shoulder.
“It's dark”, I informed, maybe she didn’t know.
“Shut up”.
And before I could blink, there was a blurring motion of Suhani’s hands oscillating back and forth from her shoulder to her bow. There were three low grunts and the figures tumbled on the ground, Suhani twisted her head and turned to peer at me, “you were saying . . . .?”
“Sweet”
“I am”, she agreed, “now can we go?”. Staring down at me, her face was almost concealed in the dark, barely illuminated by the faint silvery glow of the moon, “what?”, she frowned.
“Oh”, I blinked, “no, zip nada- nothing".
Personally- I would have loved to run away and never look back. But for some reason I didn't- I couldn't, not after what all we had gone through. 'Just a few minutes more and then this will all be history’, I consoled myself. Maybe I could have a normal camp life- if you call that normal, my future wasn't clear earlier, it wasn't any clear now, but now I had more to look forward to.
We crossed the lake in silence, the only sound came from the periodic sweeps of the paddles. Suhani sat opposite her eyes fixed somewhere at oblivion, her face had a million emotions on them- but fear wasn't one of them.
"Nervous?", she questioned.
I hesitated for a moment, "on the edge of my seat", I replied.
"Oh", Suhani exclaimed clearly not interested
"Or bench", I fumbled, "whatever you call what I'm sitting on".
Suhani gave me one of her looks.
The boat bumped the edge of the rocks, she bit her lips, "let's get over with it". I lifted myself- my palms moist with sweat. The unmoving body of the guard lay in front of us. We tiptoed till the beginning of the cave. I poked my head in- a zap passed through my body.
"What?", Suhani hissed.
Before I could answer, she pushed me aside and peeped in, "three of them", she spoke.
"Four", I corrected. She had a second look, "four", she agreed.
"With guns", I added. "With guns", she agreed.
Her face drooped first and then lit up almost instantly, "I have an idea!".
*******
So then we undressed the knocked out guards.
I squealed as I squeezed the cylindrical helmet down my face. "This", I grumbled, "is so uncomfortable". I adjusted the visor, just half of the view was visible so I had to stick my eyes out and stretch my face to get a better view.
"How am I looking?", Suhani spoke flexing her arms.
"You might want to put that ponytail in", I pointed out. "Right", she snapped, then I heard a bit of grumbling and cussing and foot-stamping, "done- ice-cream!"
"What", I quacked, trying to fix my helmet that had moved on its own. I swear! I did not touch it. She grabbed my helm and yanked it straight, my nose burned. "Ow", I howled. "SHHH", Suhani motioned, "don't be a sissy". Easy for her to say, I tried to reach for my nose but the helm came in the middle. Hard luck!
Suhani looked into my eyes, "if you mess up- and we get out alive, then I will kill you", she spoke in a normal tone.
"Uh-okay", I spoke with uncertainty.
We bent over and walked till the entry, "ready?". "No", I admitted. "Uh-uh", she mused, and before I could register she pushed me inside.
"HEY!", a guard pointed at me.
"Speak something", Suhani prompted.
"Hey!", I spoke meekly,
"Romie", the guard shouted, "that's you?"
"Uh-oh-meh-yeh no- not really, Yes! me Romie", I nodded, then turned to look at Suhani, "Poodlepink", I quacked, whatever came into my head. Suhani's eyes widened, this was probably the biggest insult of her life, I bit my tongue and then forced myself to continue"come here".
The two of us walked down the cave, "you called him Poodlepink- eh?", one of the sentries asked, walking towards Suhani, "wasn't his name Herbert?"
I stood dumbfounded for a moment, "It's my dog's name actually"-"It's her mother's name", the two of us spoke at the same time. I could mentally imagine Suhani strapping me to the target board and embedding arrows into my stomach.
"Dog or mother?", the man chuckled.
"Her dog's mother", I replied. The four men snickered, "that's new". "Totally", another agreed. We stood there staring at the men in dustbins, for a moment none of them spoke, "so? why did you come?", one spoke, then turned towards Suhani, "Poodlepink", he rhymed and went into fits of laughter and the others joined him. "We were", Suhani spoke in a high pitch and deep voice.
"You sound like a girl- Poodlepink", the guard spoke, terribly amused with his joke. Suhani grunted, "we were going to check the- the equipment", I spoke, taking charge.
"Go- go- Poodlepink", the closest one to us spoke clutching his stomach. Suhani was so going to kill me!
"We will be going", I fumbled. I led the way, then realised Suhani wasn't following, I turned to watch her staring at the guards, "Suhaaaa- Poodle Pink!", I correct myself.
The guards stared at me. I almost thought they were going to bust us, something even made me check my helm. Then they burst into laughter once again. I blushed furiously and for once was grateful for the helmet on my face, Suhani squeaked as I pulled her by her arm and blindly moved towards a cave.
"Stop!", one of them spoke, the voice was firm and did not have any hint of amusement in it, "where do you think you are going?"
We turned to face the guards, "the equipment ain't there", it's there, "the guard pointed to another tunnel, right in the opposite direction.
If it wasn't for Suhani I would have surely given us away, "we- uh also have to go to-", she spoke moving towards the guard. "To...?", the guard prompted, "to the....", she repeated moving even closer. And a bone-crunching smack! It sounded almost sweet- the snap and the man opened his mouth to howl. Suhani covered his mouth with her hand and dug her fist into his temples. Another sentry pounced on her, she dodged him and kicked him in his neck. Blam! with two guards on the floor the other two were so surprised they were simply staring at us. So I took my own sweet time freezing them to the wall.
I turned to stare at Suhani, "Poodlepink", she spat, "you're so dead". Then she took a long stride and ran into the cave, I ran after her. As we went further, my eyes took their own sweet time adjusting in the darkness. The air got staler with every step we took must be approaching the end I guessed. And I was right, obviously!
There in the dark, there was an outline. Suhani moved forward hesitantly, "it's asleep", she whispered, I hoped she was right, because for some reason the Razellair looked scarier than ever. Every breath that I took in had traces of poison in it and yes! it made me dizzy. Suhani led onto the thick chains, she was so close to the creature and she didn't seem worried at all. She closed her eyes and her palms began to glow. I stood there, not wanting to disturb her- the Razellair stirred. Panic surged through me, I still did not want to interrupt her, angry Suhani or angry razellair were the only two options I had and somehow the angry Razellair seemed more tempting. The chains, I noticed, were now starting to glow, a bright shade of red. "Done", she announced, setting the chains on the ground, "freeze them". Hesitantly I moved closer, "come on", Suhani groaned, "if the Razellair wants it can get you even where you are standing now". "Is it supposed to make me feel any better?", I frowned. "No", she agreed, "just pointing out facts". I bent onto my knees and held the piping hot chains. My fingers burned, but just for a moment, then it cooled down and so did the chains. There was a cracking sound, which renewed my vigour. I continued to pulse, finally there it was. Louder than all the others and chain snapped in my hands. I immediately let it escape from my fingers and hobbled backwards.
Suhani unstrapped her bow and pulled out an arrow. There was the sound of the string snapping and the arrow slammed into the creature, it hissed. I had to close my ears, to prevent them from getting blown off- the hiss was blood-curling- filled with pain.
"Looks like somebody is awake", Suhani commented, "that distraction good enough?"
The creature's eyes opened, "RUN!", I yelled. What happened next was a flash we ran down the tunnel, guards came in from all sides. My helmet was down and so was Suhani's but nobody seemed to be interested in us. One yelled then others followed, just as we ran out of the first tunnel to the junction and into another tunnel. The Razellair showed up behind us, about a dozen men tried to wrestle with it, and the rest yelled in fright. The result was the same, some crashed onto the floor and others had spikes inside their bodies. The Razellair hit the edges of the tunnels and the whole mountain seemed to rattle. There were loud cracking sounds and next I knew a boulder was covering the only exit and entry point in the mountain.
Thank god Suhani had felt the urge to have a backup plan, "there", pointed into another mysterious cave, "run", she shouted, pushing me forward. We sprinted down the tunnel and my head smashed into a dark figure.
"Ouch", the person squeaked.
I recognized the voice immediately, "Dream- Yui!". "Bracer! Suhani!"
"Please tell me you got it", she spoke softly. Dream held out a glowing object in her hand covered with a white cloth, "we did", she spoke excitedly, "your distraction worked!".
Once the excitement died out, realisation set in, "the exit is blocked", Suhani explained.
"Oh", Dream muttered, "thank god we had a back up".
We followed the dark tunnel and came into another wide cave. There were four pillows strapped on wooden beams. OH NO! Not pillows! My heart turned cold as I realised they were the prisoners. They must have been tortured, their clothes were half torn and the cuts were visible. The four of us had a mental conversation and we rushed forward to untie the people, even though they would just slow us down- we had to get them out! One by one we untied the almost lifeless prisoners. The lady leaned on to me and clutched my face, "my son", she rasped, I tried to correct her- but I could not break her heart- it would kill her. So I let her lean onto me and dragged forward. The yelling and howling behind her increased as the Razellair massacred through the hordes of guards. I wondered how much more time we would get when it would race after us, and sadly to my disappointment. The howling stopped, there was a hiss, loud and clear nobody else in the way. Just one last target, and the Razellair was coming for us. Adrenaline rushed through me and walked slightly faster that caused the lady to groan, but if I had to get out of here alive. There it was, the end of the cave. A solid stone wall, nothing else. No trapdoor, no small hole to sneak out. Just a plane rock, the Razellair hissed, closer this time. The rock shimmered- and Alph came through, "miss me", he grinned stupidly, "oh- we have company", he realised, "let's get you out".
"Too many of us", Suhani warned.
"I'll try my best", he replied.
We held onto each other, the prisoners groaned, probably not even aware of the seriousness of the situation. Alph grunted frustratedly, the Razellair seemed close- the sounds of its scales rubbing against the walls resonated through the cave. Then two things happened- Alph phased through the rock and the Razellair appeared at the other end of the tunnel. The process was painfully slow, taking the injured out was turning out as a task, with the Razellair so close to us- there was no way all of us would make it out in one piece. Suhani seemed to realise it too, "ice-cream", she spoke, "get them out of here".
By now the creature was clearly visible, it hissed louder with every metre it covered, "go", Suhani pushed me, I could feel the urgency in her voice- I had to do some really quick thinking then- even if I would make it, Suhani wouldn't be able to. She let go of my arm and the connection broke- next what I did was both incredibly brave and incredibly stupid. I pushed the lady through and let go of her hand and she phased through the rocks.
"What did you do?!", Suhani spoke, completely shocked. "Come on!", I pulled her out of the way and the Razellair smashed into the rocks. Suhani freed herself from my grip and pulled out another arrow from her quiver and dug it into the Razellair who couldn't help but hiss again. It wouldn't be long before the creature would begin pursuing us again, so we turned to run. I could feel Suhani's breadth getting ragged with every passing moment and to my horror, the creature hissed again. I gave myself the opportunity to steal and glance at the Razellair and there it was right at the end, its violet eyes fixed onto us. Immediately I turned my face ahead, I had seen what I needed to- and it wasn't good. We aimlessly ran from one cave to another trying to take steep turns to buy ourselves time. It was finally Suhani, who spoke the harsh truth, "we can't keep running forever", she rasped, "you should have gone".
Normally my mind would be a puddle under such circumstances, but today might have been my lucky day. How could I have been so stupid! I knew how to get out of here!
*******
The Razellair slithered after the creature, it was the same girl- she pierced her skin, twice that too- she had to die.
And the boy- he also had to die. Simple enough! Even though the creature was having troubles keeping up with the Atlanteans, due to the steep turns they were taking. Oh, come on! You can't blame a creature of this size. The Razellair couldn't think- but its instincts told it the kids wouldn't keep this up forever, and he wasn't wrong. It hissed and thoughts of 'FOOD-FOOD-FOOD-FOOD-FOOD-FOOD- YUMMMY' rambled in its mind. It had to steer itself through the pile of bodies, the kids were irritating it. What was the point? Not as if they could escape. Right there, in front of it- it could seem them, hear their frantic breathing. More than that, it could feel their fear and they were terribly scared, to the creature's amusement. The side of its mouth curled, maybe even the Razellair found it funny. It blinked- yes Razellair's do blink, once in five minutes- but they do, and the creature's disappointment and the Atlanteans joy, it chose the wrong moment.
And Viola!
The creature stopped in its tracks, never had it ever seen anything like this! The kids vanished!
*******
We crawled down the tunnel, I could feel Suhani's breaths slowing down and then quieten. Moonlight seeped through the hole at the other end as we found our way through the same tunnel that had saved us once before.
I pulled Suhani out, she bent over frantically waving her hands and taking in deep breaths.
There a blinding flash, pain flared up in my cheeks as Suhani’s fist connected with them, “what was that for?”, I whined, rubbing the sore area.
“For Poodle Pink”, she justified. Yes, I know I had it coming-and then she did something I wouldn't have ever expected. She leaned ahead and wrapped her hands around me.
'AWKWARD'
I could smell her minty breath and as she clung onto me. I hesitantly raised my arm to pat her back. She sniffed and withdrew, her hair slipped through my fingers.
"Don't get your hopes high", she spoke.
"Oh they're buried"
She smiled at me, "looks like we did it", she spoke, punching me on my shoulder. "Yeah I guess", I replied, still rubbing my cheeks.
"It wasn't bad", she admitted.
"But enough for a lifetime".
She frowned, "we will cross the bridge when we get to it".
"That's the plan", I nodded.
"Come on ice-cream head", she grinned leaning onto me. Instantly I felt better, which made me realize she was using her occult. Grateful, I put my arm around her.
Just when I began to get my hopes high. The ground around me exploded, gunfire and screams filled my ears.
"The invasion", Suhani spoke alarmed, "it's happening!"