10

As Siofra walked, the darkness gave way to Cirida’s feint outline. Then the weak color of brown could be seen ahead, barely visible. Siofra opened her eyes wide and moved her head sideways trying to see——anything clearly. The light was steadily increasing.

Then they noticed clearly visible light, coming in from the right side of the tunnel up ahead. When they got there, they saw that the tunnel turned right into vast chamber. They could see the distant rough, rocky walls. In the center, water was dripping down into a shallow pool of water and gravel. The drops echoed on the walls as they hit the floor. On the far side there was a curved ledge that led to where the light was coming from——a hole to the outside. “We have to move, I think one of them might be a tracker, come” Cirida said quickly, her eyes set on the hole as she pulled on Siofra’s hand.

Siofra took a couple of steps “wait, I think I can walk on my own for now, thank you” she said, as she let go of Cirida’s hand. Cirida gave a quick blank glimpse at her before moving forward, Siofra followed.

The slow steps from earlier had rested siofras’s feet and the light of the sun piercing the dark cave had revived her soul. Her feet still hurt each step, but somehow they felt light as a feather.

They made it to the top of the curved slope, getting a first view of the landscape outside the narrow moss covered hole. It was a wall of green. Trees and plants surrounded the hole concealing it from the outside.

As they walked out the hole, Siofra’s eyes instantly hurt from the bright sunlight. She put her hands over her eyes, closing them. Slowly, she began opening them, she squinted as she went. She started to see the green of the trees and plants that surrounded them. There wasn’t much ground visible.

“Through here” Cirida said as she squatted near a tree and moved aside its thick tree branches. She then went under them, disappearing into its leaves. Siofra quickly followed.

Cirida was moving through, digging by hand at the tree branches and plant leaves, then as she moved a tree branch, the light blue sky revealed itself behind it.

Cirida and Siofra stepped out of the wall of green leaves and trees into a view from the middle of the mountain. The rocky floor was mostly barren. Only patches of trees scattered around.

“We can go down this way” said Cirida as she started to walk towards where the mountain seemed to lower.

They walked down hill for a while. Then they came upon huge rocks in the way. The only passable path was near the edge of the cliff. As they walked that narrow path, they could see far down. They could see the Bandit fort and commotion in front of it. People moving fast, dust picking up.

Siofra stared, her eyes so focused that she tripped and almost fell. Cirida looked back at Siofra. “What are they doing” Siofra asked. “They’re battling” Cirida calmly answered, her breath uneven. Even she was starting to fatigue. “A battle, why, for what? Siofra asked in a light whiny voice. “Someone must have come to rescue you” Cirida answered.

Siofra had seen her father Tidwield’s numerous army marching off into battle many times. She knew it wasn’t her father that the bandits were fighting. If it was Tidwield’s army, there would be many more soldiers down there.

“No, I don’t think anyone came for me, are you sure they’re not just practicing” Siofra said, looking again trying to make out details. “No…that’s a battle to the death” Cirida said, certain of herself. Siofra stared at the battle again, her eyes trying to pick up every detail “…who’s winning?” she finally asked. Cirida looked for a moment with the corner of her eyes before looking back at her path. “Looks like the bandits” she answered in a dull voice tone. Siofra quickly looked away from the battle and into the ground. Her eyes became slightly blurry. She could feel a little water building up on the bottom of her eyelids. She hoped that battle wasn’t for her sake.

As they were about to reach the bottom of the mountain, Siofra started to slow down. She hadn’t seen the bandit’s chasing her since the dark tunnels, there wasn’t much need to keep walking so fast. In front of her, Cirida kept looking back occasionally, until something caught her eye “they found us!” she uttered, greatly picking up the pace. Siofra took a quick look back but did’t see anything but she knew they were there, stalking. Of course mountain bandits would know the mountains better, the better paths, how to move past obstacles better.

Siofra and Cirida made their way down, to a treacherous looking slope. It was steep and covered in fine gravel all over. But once they got down from this slope they would reach the ground.

Just then, the mountain bandits came out from behind large rocks straight at them. Cirida slowly put her feet on the slippery slope, her legs bent as she balanced her self going down. Siofra followed but at her second step in the slope, she fell on her behind, sliding down with some pebbles. Her body hurt as she got up to try and walk with balance like Cirida was doing ahead of her. This time her first steps were balanced but then she was tilting back about to fall again. With great effort she pushed forward, but now she was tilting forward, about to fall on her face. She stepped forward trying to correct her imbalance, and kept on stepping. She picked up so much speed she was unable to step to save her. She fell and slid far, scraping her chest and belly.

Siofra lifted her head and noticed that she had kept up with Cirida, and was even faster at some point. Cidira stared at her then looked back to see that the bandits were almost at the slope themselves.

Siofra quickly put her shaky arms on the ground and lifted herself. She stepped, letting her body tilt forward and lose balance as she stepped as fast as she could. She sped past Cirida. Then, again, her feet couldn’t keep up and she fell forward, this time her speed was too great, when she hit the ground, she rolled. Her body twisted, and bumped to the air, like it floated at great speed down the slope. She finally stopped rolling at the end of the slope, where her body laid tangled and in small dust cloud——the bottom of the mountain.

Siofra was motionless for a moment but then she lifted her head. Her eyes were distant, half shut. she put her palms on the ground and started to push herself up with her hard shaking arms. She knew she had to do it like that, the bandits were getting too close, but she underestimated the damage it would do to her body. Her whole body ached. She had tears all over her gown, scrapes and scuffs on her arm, blood was coming out of her nose and bottom lip, and she had some scratches on her cheeks.

Cirida swept down from the last of the slope to where Siofra was. Siofra was on her hands and knees still fazed. Cirida quickly reached out her hand, taking a hold of Siofra’s hand and gave her a hard pull to stand up and run. Siofras shaky legs with bloody knees struggled to lift her and run. She was running but slow, limping on both feet.

Siofra had forgotten for a moment that reaching the bottom of the mountain wasn’t the end of it all, they still had to keep going.

Siofra took a quick glimpse at the bandits behind, they were around midway down the slope. They kept falling on their behinds but their hardened bodies not seeming to mind the bumps they were taken.

As Siofra ran with Cirida pulling her hand, her legs had become better, some of the pain had numbed, she was limping less. Her daze had begun to fade, and the distant sounds of screams, soaring shouts, heavy thuds and resonating clangs had begun. She looked ahead, past Cirida. That’s when she realized where they were headed. “Come, we’ll go to the ones battling the bandits. Know this, if they’re not willing to help us, we die. If they lose the battle, we die. But they’re the only chance we got!” Cirida said, the most serious Siofra had heard of her.