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Shrouded past-Chapter one |
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Rai
Rai sat outside under a large willow tree contemplating whether or not to enter the cave. There were many stories shrouding it, bringing fear to the villagers. Rai wasn't like them and what repelled others attracted her. Many looked at her oddly whispering secrets behind her back, forbidding children to speak to her, and shunning her. Her own father used her as a way to look better around his peers and superiors.
Rai streched out her limbs sighing heavily before rising to her as the sun set behind the mountains. She bit her lip looking longingly at the cave and then set her mouth in a defiant line. "I'm going in!" she declared aloud to no one inparticular, stepping lightly over the roots of the willow that peeked out of the earth. She emerged from the tree's curtains of leaf and branch into the open. This brought her within sight of the cave, making her heart beat with excitement. She stopped to gaze at the jagged rocks marking the entrance and cliff's above in the mountain itself. The sight was one of beauty and aspiring awe.
Rai shook her head to clear it of all thought and started to walk again toward the cave with a steady pace. She reached the entrance in no time only stoping to touch the rough jagged rocks before going in.
The air of the cave was cool and dank, smelling of earth and something she couldn't quite put her finger on. She followed the single ray of the setting sun into the cave's passage way, using the meager light to see. The further she entered,however, the more the light wanned until it was gone all together and she had to feel her way along the passageway.
She was about to turn back until she heard a soft scuffling sound behind her, and turned to see what it was only to fall flat on her face. She'd tripped on a stone laying in the passage way. Rai groaned rubbing her knee and forgetting about the scuffling that had mysteriously vanished. "What the hell!" she whispered shrilly to herself feeling the slickness of blood as she rubbed her knee. She could tell that it was only scrapped but never the less it still hurt. She ripped a small piece of cloth from her exspensive dress and tied it over her knee.
She didn't stay sitting long and soon gut up,using the rough stone wall of the caves passageway for balance. Her knee was a little stiff from her fall and the cloth tied around it but Rai was made of tougher stuff than most girls. She didn't cry or complain about it, knowing it would do her no use any way.
Rai walked for what seemed like an hour before she came to the first fork in hte passage. She chose the right fork, hearing a soft trickle coming closer. She could only guess that it was ground water leaking into the cave, and chose to ignore it. She didn't let her imagination get too out of hand because she knew if she did she wouldn't have been able to keep her mind clear. It was one of the many lessons her twelve older brothers had taught her.
"My brothers..." Rai thought frowning in rememberance of them. They had often left her alone unless they needed something or were teaching her some "valuable" lesson she could use later in life. She snorted,rolling her eyes. "Like how to weild a weapon, fight against someone much bigger than myself, ride a horse like a soilder, and perdict an eniemies moves."
Rai's thoughts had brought her through more of the cave along many twisting and twining passageways. She stopped walking when a small underground stream came into view, illuminated by strange glowing globes of light and fireflys. The light hurt her eyes,making her sheild them against the harsh light.
After her eyes had adjsuted Rai looked at the lake and her mouth fell open in awe. The water looked to be waist deep, looking to be illuminated even from underneath. Strange yet beautiful multicolored fish swam in the water peacfully. Rai smiled to herself for a moment, moving toward the water unconciously. The closer she got she noticed that the water had some steam coming off of it. "It must be an underground hotspring." she mused to herself,bending down to inspect the fish.
There was one that was a bright orange with a redish tint to it when the light touched it's scales. The tail looked like a large fan the color of the rainbow, and the fin was the same save for the color. It was a pinkish red color that ran down from the fin to the fishes body in a thin line. The fishes eyes were a deep blue and seemed to stare back at Rai with human like intelligece. Rai drew back in shock, moving to fast and falling on her but. The fish looked at her curiously and drew itself half way out of the water to look at her. When it realized she was alright it seemed to have shrugged and plopped itself back in the water, swimming to a group of fish.
"Wow." Rai remarked watching it for a moment longer and getting to her feet. "I guess I should keep going." she decided and headed off in toward a large opening on the other side of the hot spring lake, and it wasn't long before she was plunged into darkness again. She was forced to use the wall again as her guide following it even further into the cave.
She was begining to get tired and a little hungry. She was about to turn back when she seen the soft flicker of fire-light on the cave wall ahead of her. She stopped frozen to the spot for a moment, heart beating quickly in her chest. She went for the dagger at her thigh and brought it out, preparing to protect herself. She inched forward along the wall trying to make as little sound as possiable. She stayed as close to the wall as was possiable in an attempt to hide her shadow.
As she got closer she could hear the sounds of something just ahead. She was so close to seeing it when she lost her footing again and fell flat on her face. Her falling had made a distinct "thump" on the stone of passage. It was the sound of soft flesh hitting the hard stone and her heart froze with it.
Rai could hear the creature ahead getting up and grabbing some kind of weapon. She was trying to get up and hide when she seen it coming toward her, outlined in the light.
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