Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

 

 

‘Wham!’ I hit the hard dusty floor with a thump. I stood up and ran my hand along the rocky walls. My eyes darted around the area, taking in everything. I saw no sign of a tunnel, nor an exit. I slowly walked around the room �" as it was more like a living quarter than a cavern �" going over everything in more detail.

            “Why, hello there.”

I screamed and turned around in shock. My arms flew up to my face for protection, though I don’t think I would have been in need of any of that, for standing in front of me was a little old man. He smiled a great big smile, stretching from ear to ear.

“Hello?” I said, quite uncertainly, my eyebrows arcing into a V.

“The name’s Billo. John Billo, you?” He said, the smile not fading in the least bit.

“Jessa... nice to meet you,” I held out my hand for him to shake. He took it firmly in his grasp, Billo was quite strong for his age.

He signalled for me to follow him, I hesitated for a moment, then took a step forward. I tripped on the un-even floor, and got set flying towards Billo. He stepped out of the way and caught me in his arms. I was grateful, “Thanks.”

He lead me to the one corner of the cave I had not gotten to. Due to the fact that he was a very short man, he barely had to squat to climb into a small tunnel that branched out of the room. I kneeled down and looked in.

It was dark, the only thing lighting my way; glow worms that squirmed on the ground like slugs. The sides of the passageway were decorated with a bright yellow moss, fearing it was poisonous I tried to avoid touching even the tiniest bit of it. Sharp rocks, hung like icicles from the roof, I was scarily close to their sharp, piercing points. An over whelming aroma of wet dog and moist sponge crept up to my nose, causing me to scrunch it up in disgust.

I couldn’t see Billo anymore, but I kept on crawling. He must have gotten out of the tunnel, because I soon reached the end. I shuffled my body awkwardly so I was sitting with my legs dangling downwards. I jumped out of the tunnel, my feet taking most of the impact as I hit the ground that had been two meters away from me. Billo was standing there, waiting. I smiled at him and he turned around.

There was a long moment of silence...

“What do we do now?” I asked, breaking it.

“What?” He replied.

I stared at him, “You know, what do we do now?”

There was another long pause, “We wait,” he said.

“Wait? What do you mean wait? Wait for what?” My shock slowly rising it to a fit of rage. “I didn’t run all the way here to be told to wait. How long do we have to wait? Our whole lives? Those things up there are going to kill us all if we just sit here on our lazy butts and wait!” I tried to remain calm, but I had millions of thoughts racing through my mind. I’d never been in a situation like this before, I didn’t know what we had to do, but for some reason, I did know one thing, I couldn’t just wait.

We were in a large cavern now and I started to wander around. I took long, slow, deep breaths to cool myself down.

“Duck!” I heard someone yell, it wasn’t Billo.

I crouched to my knees, placing my hands over my head. My eyes strained to look up, my arms obstructing the view. I could feel a small gust of wind passing over me, like a soccer ball flying above me into the net. I slowly got up a looked around. One of those strange creatures lay sprawled out on the ground; I took a step back.

A man approached me, he was abnormally large and buff. “That was a close one,” he said in a deep voice. “Are you okay?”

I uttered my reply, “Yes, I guess so.”

“What’s a young girl like you doing down here in a place like this?”

It took me a moment to answer him, for I really did not know the correct answer to this. “My city was raided. I wanted to be safe.”

“I see, would you be kind enough to follow me, I’ll show you a place that’s even safer.”

He pivoted on his feet and started to walk away, I followed him, my footsteps echoing through the cavern.

 

***

 

He had taken me to a large city, underground. The only light, bulbs, hanging from the high ceiling.

The whole place emanating tired, dull energy. It seemed as people were rushing off to work, pushing and hustling others to get out of their way. I was surprised at how few of them were walking slowly, let alone in a calm and collective manner, and those who did looked very important, very important indeed.

I was harshly pushed to and fro from one person to another. It was like that for a while until only a few people were left standing there. They all wore suits and carried brief cases. They carried themselves as any proud and proper business man would.

One of them nodded at the man who had taken me here, “James Waters, pleased to see you back alive.”

‘Alive?’ I thought.

“Thank you sir,” James replied. “I found this young girl wandering in the caves.” I looked at him, as he snuck a quick glance in my direction.

“And are you aware of her name?” The man said this as if I could not hear.

James shook his head and I told him, “Jessa.”

The important looking men all nodded and turned away. I was unsure of what to think about this, so I stared at the ground. I shuffled up closer to James and whispered in his ear, “What are they doing?”

“You, my dear, are one of the children of the prophesy. The only one left, who is able to help us. As the legend said, when the Aswangs ruled, there were three children sent to fight. Sent to over throw them, and take back what was rightfully ours. Though they managed this, none of them survived. It was said that in one thousand years from that very day, three new children would be born. By the names of Jill, Jake, and you, Jessa. Now, the Aswangs have come again.”

“Me?” I stammered, “B-but, I’m just a normal kid? And Aswangs? Is that what they’re called? What happened to the other kids?”

“I shall answer your questions later, but now...” His words were drowned out by the loud beating of a drum, it was perfectly synchronized with my heart beat, causing me to feel drowsy.

More instruments joined in, trumpets, sitars, tambourines. They all flowed beautifully together, creating an amazing masterpiece of musical greatness. Then the musicians started approaching me, creating a large circle, that I was the center of. They started to spin slowly in a circular motion, all the while playing music. Then it abruptly stopped.

I assumed it was over so I raised my hands to applaud, not quite sure what I was supposed to. To my surprise it started again, then one instrument stopping at a time until only the drum was left beating. It stayed that way, slowly getting quieter and quieter before the noise disappeared all together.

James called over to me, “I’ll explain everything to you now if you’d like.”

 

Author's Note

Please comment and give me tips on how to make it better! Enjoy!

Reviews

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" An over whelming aroma of wet dog and moist sponge crept up to my nose, causing me to scrunch it up in disgust. "
well that line made my stomach churn :P

"prophe(c)y."
say what i would run as soon as i heard i had to be apart of some life-risking adevture :P hehe other then that you have excellent writing techniques. what a cool story oooooooh! i'm getting excited!