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[starry_eyed]

The Damsel and the Distressed
Chapter Three

Chapters One and Two can be found here.


CHAPTER THREE

A light flickered on to my right, candle light, or so it appeared. I looked at Thalia to see where she had found a light only to find her cupping a flame in her bare hand. I stared at it, fascinated, until she stepped away.

“All right then. We have to find the way in. Check all the closets__”

“Closets?” I asked and she gave me an exasperated smile.

“Yes, Gracie. Closets. Or tell me, do you happen to know where I can find a rabbit hole big enough for us to fit it? Or a cyclone we can ride to our destination?”

I blinked at her.

“That's what I thought. We need an easy way inside, and there is one in this house.” She looked at me, and her eyes were shadowed in the light of the flame. “You need to trust me,” she said, and walked off to leave me in the dark.

“Thalia? I need a light. Thalia?”

But she was already gone. I sighed deeply and tried to turn in the dark. I bumped up against some sort of little table. On it, which I could see once I'd bent down within a couple of inches of the table, was an unlit candle and a bottle of some sort of liquid. The world felt so odd and out of order, if I drank the liquid would I shrink like Alice in Wonderland? The thought made me pause. It was just insane enough to fit with everything else that had happened so far.

Thalia poked her head around the door.

“Gracie, I forgot to mention. Don't touch anything. This house is full of... surprises. Oh, and here.” She nodded towards the candle in front of me and it flickered on.

“Thanks.” I said, but she was gone again.

I thought the candle would help, but instead it only seemed to highlight how old and disgusting the house around me was. Everything (furniture and house alike) was covered in cobwebs and the room reeked of mildew. To my right, an old carpet had been rolled up and was lying like a thick snake about three feet away. When I stepped over it, something squeaked and I screamed a little without meaning to. I took a few quick steps into a short hallway, my light flickering as I carried it with me. There, in front of me, was a door.

I knew we were looking for a closet but what for? Thalia hadn't said. I stepped forward towards the door, laying my hand on the cool metal of the doorknob. Nothing. No reaction like before. Relieved, I twisted the doorknob and yanked the door open. The candle flickered again but did not go out as I pushed it ahead of me and peered into the near darkness.

“That's not it,” Thalia suddenly said behind me. I jumped in the air, burning my hand in the process. Before I could curse, she was pulling at my elbow to move me towards the stairs. “I think it's up here. C'mon.”

I followed her up the stairs, staying as close as I could without being right on top of her. They creaked threateningly beneath me as I went and I was paying so much attention to the stairs that I didn't even notice that my candle had went out. I immediately saw that I didn't need it anymore because at the top of the stairs was a door that was glowing around the edges, the light so bright it looked like it was trying to escape. I sat my candle on the landing and stepped towards the door.

“This is it,” Thalia said, her voice light with excitement. She ran her fingers over the dirty old wood that covered the door, caressing it. “Isn't it beautiful?”

I stepped up to it and gave a halfhearted shrug.

“Looks like a door to me.”

Thalia's eyes narrowed.

“It would.”

She nodded for me to open it and I reluctantly put my hand out, hesitating with my fingers over the doorknob as I anticipated the shock and pain to follow. Finally I wrapped my hand around it and pulled. The door came with me as if it was glued to my hands. Hot light filled the room.

I staggered back from the door, my hand leaving the door knob with one last shock of pain.

Thalia smiled and a sudden wind blew out, tossing her hair back while her Cheshire grin seemed to glow in the light. In that moment she was so beautiful, so otherworldly, I could see her for what she really was. She was a Muse, and this was all really happening. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe.

“You ready?”

I looked into the light and back to her face, not sure what to say or do. In truth: I was terrified, so scared that I didn't know which way was up. But I'd come this far, and I had to save Oliver.

I nodded to her and stepped over the threshold, my hands out in front of me to guard against the bright light. I brushed against something and jerked back but it was only a jacket. I tried to tell Thalia there was no way out but she crowded in next to me and shut the door. The light went out. In the darkness even the jacket was more ominous.

“Gracie. I'm getting cobwebs in my hair. Why aren't we moving?”

“Because, Thalia, we are in a closet.”

In the dark I could hear her take a deep breath, as if she was trying to calm herself.

“Well spotted. Start moving towards the back.”

I couldn't see the point but I did as I was told. Holding my breath against the smell, I shoved the jacket aside and moved towards the back wall, Hands out in front of me, I waited for my fingertips to brush against the wall so this nonsense could end. At her prodding I took several more steps and was surprised that my hands did not encounter a wall. From behind me, I could hear Thalia sighing.

“A little faith would be nice. Here now,” she said, and handed me a lit torch.

“Where did you...” I started, but she gave me a shove.

“Walk.”

I looked in front of me and was amazed at what I saw. Stretched out before me for what appeared to be miles was a corridor cut out of stone. When I looked behind me, however, I could still see the jacket and the room beyond. It was surreal.

“It's just like all the stories,” I said in disbelief. I couldn't process what was happening, it was all happening so fast and yet... yet I could feel my fear fading in degrees. Though I didn't know what was ahead of us in this corridor or where we might end up, there was something about it that was so magical. So right.

Thalia had been right. I had dreamed about something like this, and now that it was happening, I wasn't going to waste all my time being terrified. I was going to enjoy this adventure. Throw caution to the wind and live it up. Maybe even get myself some Asher action. After all, he may be obnoxious, but I wasn't blind and oh my God if he was half as sexy as he was written then he'd do just fine. I smiled to myself before I realized Thalia was staring at me strangely.

“Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be walking,” I said, and began scurrying down the corridor. Thalia followed me but I could feel her looking at me as if I'd lost my mind.

The corridor went on for what felt like forever, occasionally dipping sharply so that there were tiny, crumbling stairs cut out of stone but mostly just stretching on straight in front of us for miles. I tried talking to Thalia about what was going to happen next but she just ignored me and told me to watch my step. I ignored her back, pointedly, and stumbled several times because of it.

Finally I gave up on talking and allowed myself to think. If what Thalia said was true, then we were somehow going to end up in the The Keeper books. I thought I might as well brush up on my knowledge of the books, seeing as it might come in handy very soon.

The Keeper series took place on a planet much like Earth many years ago. In the beginning, everyone on this planet was capable of different forms of magic: some could move things with their minds, others could conjure fire and some could even do several types of magic at once. Over time though it became apparent to the people that their magic was destroying their planet and causing parts of it to die. So they agreed as a whole to give up their magic, all except one family who would keep the old ways alive in case the they were ever needed again. This family was called the Keepers, and Asher was one of them.

The problem in the story was this: Asher's older sister, Aella, was also a Keeper and by some horrible stroke of luck, she had gained all the magical ability in the family. So while she was off being evil and taking over the world, Asher was powerless to stop her as his abilities had yet to manifest. That was pretty much the story, or at least the important parts. A good bit of the books focused on Selene (a lowly farmer's daughter) and Asher's love for each other, but as I said before I wasn't much impressed by that. Mostly it was just filler in between the good (read: exciting) stuff. I liked my adventures, well, adventurous.

I pulled myself out of my thoughts a little and realized that the ground beneath us was starting to slope down. I began to hear the sound of rushing water somewhere nearby and the ground began to have that earthy, living sort of smell, like we were near a lot of trees. I tried to look back at Thalia to see if any of this surprised her but the second I did the corridor took a huge dip down and I stumbled. She caught me under my arm and righted me quickly. She was definitely stronger than she looked.

“Thanks,” I said, embarrassed that I had fallen all the while Thalia was walking perfectly. In heels, no less. She just gave me a smile in return.

We traveled another minute in silence, slowly moving down to what felt like the center of the Earth. The decline was sharper now; we had to hold the damp walls as we walked. After a moment, I had to fill the silence.

“So... The Great Wood.”

Thalia didn't say anything which I took as my sign to continue.

“Asher and Selene too.” Thalia made a small sound of agreement. “Will I meet them?”

“More than likely.”

I waited for her to go on but it didn't seem as if she was going to.

“Is Asher as hot as he is in the books?”

“Yes.”

“And as obnoxious?”

“Very much so.”

“Well. This is exciting.” I was running out of things to say but still couldn't seem to stop myself.

No response from Thalia though. I was starting to feel a little self conscious.

“Not for you though I bet,” I said, taking care to step over a large weed that was growing in the corridor. The stone had given away to dirt floors and every so often something bloomed in our path. I continued. “You're probably so used to visiting all these worlds that it's just like any other day to you. A life changing experience for me is like Tuesday to you.”

Again, no response.

“Am I talking too much?”

“Yes,” Thalia answered quickly. I flushed.

“Sorry, I talk a lot when I get nervous.”

In front of me, about ten feet ahead, the ground seemed to give way,. As we came closer, I shone the light on it and could see that there were steps leading down away from the corridor. Steep and half broken, they seemed to go on forever. The bottom was too dark for me to see.

“Well, this is our stop,” Thalia said and gestured for my to start down the stairs. I gulped. Oliver so owed me for this.

We made our way down the stairs as carefully as possible, gripping the cracks in the wall to steady ourselves. More than once we had to skip a stair because it was missing. Two began crumbling under my feet and nearly made me fall. Finally, the bottom of the stairs came into sight and when I finally reached it I could have kissed the ground, I was so happy.

From the light that the torch gave off I could see that we were in what appeared to be a very large cave. A river or stream must have been nearby because the sound of rushing water was louder down here, and so was the smell of vegetation. I watched Thalia cover the last few steps in her heels (amazed wasn't even the word for it) and waited for her to catch up to me so she could tell me where we were going. The second she reached the bottom, we heard screaming.

“What the...?” I started to say, but Thalia grabbed the torch from my hand and put it out in a puddle just to my right. Instantly we were plunged into near darkness, the only light coming from the mouth of the cave which was roughly twenty five feet ahead. Then she grabbed me and yanked me down behind a rock.

No more than five seconds later and someone ran into the mouth of the cave, looking around a moment before dropping behind a rock just ahead and to the left of us. It was hard to see the person, but it appeared to be a man, tall and broad shouldered. I pressed back against the rock wall, not realizing how loudly I was breathing in my fear until Thalia clamped her hand over my mouth to stop me. I looked up at her wide eyed and the look on her face was as hard as the stone all around me and underneath me. Fear instantly began to flood my body in waves.

I heard the sound of horses approaching, the heavy thuds from their feet ricocheting off the walls around us. Then the grass in front of the cave began to rustle and a large thump carried in with us. It appeared the man across from us was being chased and according to the noise of what I thought was a man jumping off his horse, he'd been found. Which meant, of course, that we had been found as well.

There were weeds growing up over the rock we were hiding behind, so I dug my hands in them, closed my eyes and began to wish I was far, far away. Or at least that whoever was getting ready to walk into the cave with us was far, far away. Maybe further.

“Find him,” came a gruff voice from outside. “He has to be here.”

“What does the green eye say?” came another voice, this one a little higher.

“The green eye is none of your concern!” the first man said sharply. “You two, check inside this cave. The rest of you spread out in the woods. He was on foot. I know he couldn't have escaped.”

I gulped and dug into the weeds harder with my hands, thinking, please oh please don't find us. Please don't. Just go away.

Two men stepped into the cave and I heard the others ride away, the trees rustling as they went. The two men that were in the cave with us paused at the front to light a torch just a few feet away from the man on our left. Then they began to move towards us.

Please. I thought. Then gripping the weeds as hard as I could, I screamed inside, GO AWAY!!

The men stopped, then turned into to each other to share a look.

“He's not in here,” said one man to the other. His voice was high pitched and I thought he might have been the second man who had spoken.

“If he'd show us the green eye,” said the other man, “I bet we'd find Asher in a second.”

I would have gasped with shock had Thalia's hand not still been over my mouth. Asher! It was Asher in the cave with us. Suddenly, everything clicked into place. The visions I'd kept seeing with the woods and the man running, the last part of the book I'd read where Asher sent Selene to safety and he'd ended up surrounded by Aella's men. It all made sense. Well, as much sense as something like this could make, considering I'd been sucked into what wasn't even one of my favorite novels.

The two men, suddenly sure that Asher was no where near (for reasons I still did not understand completely, but hey, I wasn't about to question it), turned and left the cave. I waited to hear the sound of them getting on their horses, then for them to gallop away. Once they were gone, I expected Thalia to let me go but I was sorely disappointed because if anything she only gripped me harder. I dug in the weeds again only to have them crumble in my hands.

They were dead, as if the very life had been sucked out of them.

I didn't have much time to consider the implications of that because Asher was moving, standing behind the rock slowly as if he couldn't believe what had just happened. I wasn't sure I could either. He started towards the front of the cave then stopped, turning back at the last minute.

“Come out, then. I know someone's there.” He waited a beat and when neither of us moved, he drew his sword. “Come out now.”

Thalia stood first and I went after, barely able to stand on my shaking legs. It was still dark but more light was coming through the mouth of the cave now and I knew the sun must be coming up. It caught his disheveled brown hair like a halo and for a moment I was struck with how utterly handsome he was. Then he spoke.

“I knew someone had to have been there. One of you breathes likes a horse.”

I looked up at Thalia to give her a sheepish look only to see that she was staring at the dead weeds. She looked at the me with a sharp turn of her head, her eyes examining my face like she was seeing me for the first time. Clearly she was going to be no help here.

With the most obvious danger behind us, I began to feel much better about the situation. Yeah I was in a land of magic and evil doers but for the most part this was something I had wanted since I was old enough to read: an adventure. A real, true, horses and arrows adventure. And I was determined to make the best of it.

“Hello, Asher is it? I'm a big fan.” I said, giving him my most charming smile as I reached towards him with my hand out. He looked at it a long moment but didn't remove his hand from his sword. Eventually I lowered my hand, but I still wasn't bothered.

“I'm Gracie. This is Thalia,” I gestured behind me to the woman who was still staring at me in near amazement. Asher's beautiful face grew hard.

“I know the Muse,” he said roughly. Finally she looked up at him. “I thought your kind wasn't supposed to get involved?”

Thalia gave him a brilliant smile.

“What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good underdog story.”

“You're not needed here. We can finish this ourselves.”

“I see. Well you're doing a splendid job so far, I must say.”

“Must you?” I whispered, seeing the look on his face. “It really seems like it could have went without saying.”

Thalia brushed her pants off in distaste, frowning at a muddy spot that she couldn't wipe off. Finally she looked up, straight at Asher who was still looking at her like she was a bug under his shoe. She only smiled at him harder.

“Anyways, you're right on one count. You don't need me. My powers are limited here and their isn't much I can do to help you. But I'll tell you what you do need.” She paused and Asher and I both waited for her to go on. “You need her,” she said finally, and pointed at me.

Wait...

“Me?” I said, my voice coming out in a croak. It would have been funny if I wasn't so confused.“What can I do?”

Asher looked equally unimpressed.

“If I needed someone to breathe loudly through their mouth and stand around awkwardly, we'd have a deal,” he said. I looked up at him, shocked by such blatant rudeness and fully prepared to knock the smirk right off his face. I had known he was a jerk just reading about him but this? I was so mad that the words seemed to cling to my throat like something sticky.

“You... you... you're so...”

“Out with it then,” he prompted, as if he was talking to a rather slow child.

I took a step closer to him.

“Oh I'll out with it you rude, stupid, little__”

“All right now, that's enough,” Thalia said, breaking in before I could really get started. I huffed a bit and sat down on a rock, chewing my lip to keep quiet. When she saw I was finished, she went on, addressing Asher this time. “You haven't seen her eyes, have you?”

“What about my eyes?” I asked. They ignored me except to come in closer, Asher bending down right in front of me. His own eyes were large and dark brown, a deep chocolate that was almost black. The color of coffee, barely lightened by cream. I sighed. If he'd just stop talking and being so annoying, I could truly appreciate how gorgeous he was.

Asher examined my eyes a few seconds more, his face still, not giving anything away. Then he stood.

“Does she have the power?” he said, addressing Thalia. I was getting a little tired of people talking over my as if I wasn't there already, and I had a feeling there was going to be a lot more of it.

Thalia shrugged.

“I think so, but there hasn't been much opportunity to check.”

Asher turned to me.

“You. Girl. Show your power.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, raising my eyebrows at his demand. “Excuse me?”

“If you have powers, show them now!” he said, raising this voice. I turned back to Thalia with a 'can you believe this guy?' look on my face. She ignored me, which only made me angrier. I stood, shaking my head the whole time.

“Nope, no sir, this is not the way this story is going. This is my little self insert fantasy story and when I say I want answers, I want answers! Now tell me right now, what it is about my eyes that are so damn special?”

Thalia sighed as if I was being difficult. I supposed I was, but I felt like I had the right to be. After all, she had brought me here under the pretense of saving my brother, and now she was acting like I was going to save the whole freaking planet. I thought I deserved an explanation at the very least.

“You have green eyes,” she said, as if that should explain everything.

I shook my head at her.

“No, they're hazel,” I said then, feeling as if she'd missed the point, I went on, “Besides that, what the hell does that have to do with anything?”

Asher suddenly lifted his sword and swung it. It flashed through the air before I could move and stopped right in front of me, inches from my throat. I raised my hands slowly, as shocked as I was scared.

“Woah,” I said, as if that would stop him from killing me if he felt the inclination. Thalia didn't move at all to help me, just watched. Real helpful she was, all those magic powers and there she was staring at us like we were a movie on television. “A little help would be nice,” I hissed to her. Asher brought the sword closer.

“Show your powers. Now.”

“I don't have any powers!”

He pulled the sword back, this time over his head and swung the sword down as if he meant to split my head in two. I had no time to move, no time to react or think. My lips moved of their own violation, the word flew out without any thought or foresight on my part.

“Stop!” I screamed.

Everything did.