Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [117]
Crawling through yet another tunnel that seemed to lead nowhere, she muttered, “At least you two are with me.” She stroked each of the dragons, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.
Reaching into one of the cape’s hollows, she pulled out the lightrock and handed it to the little dragons. Then they went through the opening closest to where Kale could feel Leetu’s presence. Metta and Gymn sat on her shoulder, holding the soft glowing lightrock between them.
Sometimes Kale walked.
Sometimes she crawled.
Hours later Kale had discovered how futile was her search. None of the tunnels they explored took them to her injured comrades. Some tunnels veered off in the wrong direction after she had crawled for what seemed miles. Others came to dead ends, and Kale had to inch backward to a spot where another tunnel converged with the one that went noplace.
All of the tunnels were filled with bugs and druddums. The insects crunched under her feet or crawled over her hands. They fell from the ceiling and slipped under the collar of her blouse.
The druddums tore through the stone corridors as if being chased, their normal speed accelerated by a frenzy, probably set off by the landslide. Kale never saw one slow down for anything. They slammed into her at irregular intervals. Sometimes she’d be hit and knocked over, then trodden upon by others following the first.
She grew weary and disheartened and more convinced than ever that all of this was the result of some rash act on her part. “I thought, Move! and the barrier fell apart. But it’s ridiculous to think I could cause such devastation. I am just a slave girl.”
Metta and Gymn did not respond to her words.
“I was a slave girl. Now I’m a servant of Paladin. That doesn’t make any difference. I’m still an ignorant o’rant girl.”
She backed into the most central cave she’d found and sat down in despair.
“Don’t give up!” Leetu Bends’ voice admonished her.
We’ve explored every tunnel going out of this cave. I’m so confused I don’t remember which branches of which tunnels we’ve already been through. Kale knew her frustration rang in her words even though they were not spoken. She struggled to control her emotions. The last thing she wanted was to give the emerlindian another chance to say “immature” in a disdainful tone.
“Then mark them.”
You mean start over? Go back through all the territory we’ve already explored?
“Sometimes you have to.”
Leetu’s patient tone irritated Kale. The o’rant girl spoke to her companion dragons instead of the emerlindian.
“How are we going to mark the tunnels as we go through them?”
Gymn jumped off her shoulder and glided to the entrance of the tunnel they had just left. He put his front foot in front of his face and spat. A fine green spray coated his paw. He stamped that foot on the wall. Metta leapt in the air, did a somersault, and let out a gleeful squeal. She zipped over to Gymn and proceeded to imitate him. She left a tiny purple paw print beside the green.
The system worked, but still it required hours of walking and crawling. Each time they rested for a few minutes, Gymn healed Kale’s new hurts. Under the influence of his healing, she could have forgotten to eat. But Metta liked mealtime and snacktime and naptime. She sang mealtime tunes every so often. The words would flit through Kale’s consciousness and remind her to eat.
Kale watched Metta catching bugs, sometimes bringing extra ones to Gymn, who sat on his friend’s lap and thrummed. The healing vibrations did much to ease Kale’s discomfort physically, but her nagging thoughts remained hurtful.
“I don’t understand why you think stopping to eat is better than eating bugs along the way,” Kale snapped at the purple dragon.
Metta dropped on her haunches and stared at Kale.
Kale looked away from the dragon’s sad eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Metta flew across to land on her favorite spot, tucking herself under Kale’s chin. She began to sing.
Kale