Journey to the Suface

Just a little note: My damn keyboard is playing up, especially the space bar. If there is random extra letters or spaces, I apologise. I think I got them all, but may have missed a couple. :) (And yes I have finally posted woo)

Domination: an act or instance of dominating. rule or sway; control, often arbitrary. 

I run and stumble down the tunnel, which is old, and scratched, with claw marks from previous escape attempts etched up the sides. My uneven breathing seems to echo and announce my presence to anyone who wants to drag me back, back through the darkness to the light which seems to bind me even more. 

I don’t know how long I run for, but it never seems long enough. It doesn’t feel real either, to be able to escape the clutches of the totalitarian elf government, and it probably isn’t real- it is rare that anyone does. It’s probably why the tunnel is here- to give us hope, where there is very little, just to make us behave, just to give us a choice.

My foot lands in a puddle, and it splashes all up my legs, soaking my shoes and clothes. It takes me a while to realise, but eventually I do. Why is there a puddle in the middle of a tunnel where it can’t rain? Suddenly I am glad for the darkness, cloaking my legs, making sure I can’t see them, or the liquid.

Eventually a faint light appears right at the end of the tunnel, and I quicken my pace to reach it, just in case it would be so cruelly snatched away.

Monster: any creature so ugly or monstrous as to frighten people.

It was the smell that hit me first, an unforgiving odour that sought out my nostrils, filled them and didn’t plan on leaving anytime soon. A grunt came from a corner, echoing and making it impossible to place.

A faint light pulsed from the sides, though I’m not sure how. A table stood in the corner, with a single sword and small elfish shield laid upon it, right behind the… thing. This thing was crumpled with broken scales and from its look it was passed decay and bound for decomposition. I had no idea how long it had been down here, without food, without water, and it had clearly paid dearly for the mistakes of the elves. It looked right up at me, gave a sigh and put his head back on the floor, as if it carried the burden of all the lives that had been sent in here. It had the look of a creature who needed warmth yet had not the first clue of how to light a fire.

I sat by the monster- no, that’s not the right word for it. Creature- and waited. I’m not sure how long I waited, for all time ceases to exist when waiting for a life to end, but even though the creature's eyes had been closed for a while and even though his breathing had been so soft it was almost silent, I knew at the exact moment it died. When his flame went out. When the first tear trickled down my cheek, just before a surge of anger tore through me.

This was the animal that had lived here for who knows how long. This was the creature that had been here just to end the lives of anyone who passed through, just to get some food. This was the animal that had been chosen by the elves. I knew even more certainly that I had to leave, that I could never go back. 

I laid my thin jacket over his head and left.

Goodbye: farewell (a conventional expression used at parting).

The image of the dying then dead creature keeps racing through my mind, repeating over and over and over again. It won’t stop. It will never stop. I didn’t want to leave him, not like that, not by himself, but I had no choice. The next person who comes through will just find a pile of bones and a jacket. They will have no idea what a gentle animal he was, but assume he was rabid and evil, just because he was there.

It makes me wonder if I should have left my family- after all us dwarves were as happy as we could be, living together, being together. It wasn’t a perfect life, but I did know where I stood, and I did have a family. Up there, will I be like this creature? Destined to be shunned by society, and then die alone? 

Illusion: something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.

The next room I come across is light, blindingly so, and it takes me a couple of minutes to adjust. I realise why it was so bright, because the room is covered in mirrors. Everywhere, Floor. Ceiling. Walls. Some were just placed randomly. I started to walk and a thousand mes started to walk too.

And then it changed.

Because it wasn’t just me in the mirrors, but hundreds of hands all reaching, all trying to grasp my arms, legs, head, my entire body. I whipped around to find… nothing. It was just in the mirror, but I was certain I could feel them clutching me. I didn’t want them to drag me back, I was closer than I had ever been, closer than I ever knew I could be. All these possibilities, and it shackled me. I froze. I just watched those hands in the mirror come closer. 

I crouched and clutched my arms, trying to make myself smaller and smaller, because maybe, just maybe, they wouldn’t see me, wouldn’t be able to find me, but it was just an impossible hope, because find me they did. They reached around my neck, around my body, pinning my arms to my sides, not letting me go. I started to shake uncontrollably, then I fell on the floor, where more hands tried to grab me.

I fell.

How could I fall if I was trapped?

My mind starts to return, to think, to calculate and work out how to escape this room of nightmares. The door was about 10 metres to my left, surrounded by mirrors and hands. Unsteadily I stumbled onto my knees, and crawled, foot by foot until I reached the door, and staggered through it. I put my head against the cool cave wall, and sat there just waiting for my heart beat to fall.

Fear: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.

I didn’t realise when I first entered the tunnel again, but it is slowly becoming lighter. I could see my hand if I held it out, and I could begin to make up my legs, which had grown to be this crusty reddish-brown colour, which had begun to smell metallic.

I could see something blue at the end- no more than one hundred metres away. I thought it was the sky- I’ve been told that out in the World, the sky is blue and the grass is green, with a multitude of so many other colours I don’t think it could be real. 

Just a little further I told myself, just a little further and then you’ll be free. No one was going to stop and no one was going to make me go back.

Puzzle: a toy, problem, or other contrivance designed to amuse by presenting difficulties to be solved by ingenuity or patient effort.

When you're just seconds away from a freedom you’ve never had before, so close that you can smell a whole new type of air- slightly salty- and bars trap you in, it is the worst kind of desperation that could ever happen. When the bars did suddenly appear around me, so did a table, with 5 cups full of liquid appear along with a short concise note, that so quickly diminished my hope. It read:

Here lies 5 potions. Drink the correct one and live. Drink the wrong one and bad things will happen. In ONE there is the potion which lets you walk through the metal to freedom. In TWO is a teleportation potion which will bring you right to the middle of the cage to the right of my throne. In ONE nothing will happen so you will live a bit longer before dying of starvation. In the last one is immediate death, which is probably preferable to starvation or torture.

Good luck :)

One of us is safe

It is one of four in a carafe

The fifth is a one of a kind

The one to the left will forever bind

You to this room

The like at each end dare you to consume

So choose just one

Drink it and be done

Logic. I’m good at logic. It will just take a little bit of time. 

Most dwarves aren’t very good at logic, which is probably why it came up. It probably changes depending on the species. However, I secretly studied maths with my mama. It took me all of 5 minutes to solve it. 

I knew the odd one out was not safe, nor the one to the left of it, which left three. Two on the outside were also not safe, which makes the last one the safe one. Simple!

I swallowed the liquid, which burned my throat, and for a heart stopping second I thought I had chosen the wrong one, but after tentatively holding out my hand to the bar, it passed through. 

Freedom: the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint:

Outside the sky was blue. The floor was yellow. The water was just one great shimmering grey expanse. A gentle breeze started to pick up, chilling me slightly without my jacket on, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was being here. I started to laugh, started out as a quiet chuckle, but rose into a crescendo. I started to run for pure pleasure, towards the water, and splashed through the shallows. I never had this freedom back Under, but I am never going back.