37. Revealed

Brooke never thought she would meet the woman who had caused her family so much pain. Her mother.

          The pain subsided and Brooke maintained balance as they progressed through the tunnels. She breathed and found the horrible stench had gone away. Now, she smelled a minty scent. It reminded her of the Lavender Stream in a snowstorm. What was this? Brooke looked around, but only saw the rounded, metallic walls of the tunnels. In the crevices of them however, a long trail of black substance stretched forward and endless. As she and her friends traveled down the tunnel, she now understood it was obsidian rock. How could that be? There were no signs of a volcano anywhere. She glanced back at her friends and internally groaned to see Meredith still had that disappointed expression on her face. Brooke didn’t get it. She checked her arm and saw that the purple color remained, but the blood had receded into her skin. Secretly checking her temperature, it had cooled. Everything was fine. There was no need to trouble Meredith for nothing. The unusual color will probably fade as well.

            After a few minutes of silence, Brooke found out she was right and the color had gone away. A little soreness kept its place, but that was normal. Meredith and the rest heard a choir of humming. The humming mounted to an old miner’s song. The sound of pickaxes crushing a kind of rock mashed together with their voices and created a rhythmic beat full of blues. “Rustlin’ cross the Eastland Sea, through the tunnels we will be…oh….we been working in the mountains, riight below the sky, giants be sure to pass us by and…!”

The voices had soul in them, Brooke mused as she and her friends listened, but what were they. Brooke saw tiny creatures, tinier than a dwarf, which was fairly odd to her. Then she remembered her mom talk about them. Gnomes they were. They hung miner tools over their shoulders and cracked the rock, scooping it up, and throwing the pieces into a pail. The gnomes didn’t stop working as Meredith clapped and laughed to their song. One of the gnomes stopped to wipe a bead of sweat from his forehead and noticed the giggling princess. “Goodday, mates!” he chirped. He narrowed his eyes at Ross as if hard at seeing. “O, it be you, ey, Ross!”

“Hello, Malik, how’ve you been?”

Another gnome left the choir and frowned at that familiar name. “Is that Ross, that sonofab-”

“Watch yer language, mate,” Malik warned, restraining the aimless, feisty gnome.

Meredith stared curiously at Ross as he urged them all to continue. “That sonofab- I mean b*****d, or whatever gave my daughter that crack stuff and now she’s some addict, come on, lemme take a whack at em!” She glanced at Ross, but he said nothing.

They continued down the tunnels that had started to become long. Meredith decided to speak her mind. “Ross, what was that gnome talking about?”

Ross shrugged. “Nothing important.”

“Oh yeah, Ross, give me my stuff!” exclaimed Ellis, who for the past hours had been silent, only making squeaky scared sounds when it looked like Brooke was going to fall off Athena. She propped her hands on her hips, lifting her light brows. She held her hand out, waiting, impatient.

Meredith saw Ross blush and he shook his head at the anymalis, almost telling her to shush. “Come to think of it, who are you, Ross?”

Ross grinned. “You know who I am.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Enlighten me,” he encouraged.

“That dwarf woman yielded to you like a…like a….you know what I mean,” Meredith faltered.

Ross chuckled. “I see.”

“Oh God, he’s a renowned drug dealer who owned that rave you went to,” Ellis said exasperatedly, angry that she had not gotten whatever it was she wanted.

Meredith stopped altogether, her mouth agape. Brooke was annoyed with this. “Y-you’re a wha-?” There she went faltering again. Meredith had never been at a loss of words like this. She wasn’t a judgmental person or at least she liked to think that. She had made sure to be unlike her elfin brethren and feed into their condescending attitudes. But a drug dealer was too much. Drugs hurt people. Meredith despised people who hurt others. Ross attempted to place a hand on her shoulder, but she shook it off, disgusted by his touch. He looked hurt. Meredith led the way, confused and angry. Her knuckles reddened.

Athena and Ellis’s ears moved like antennas. What did they hear? “What I do doesn’t make up for the person I am, Meredith,” Ross muttered.

“Have you no morals?” she yelled, facing him. Why had she been so mesmerized when they hadn’t even spoken, but few words? They were going to go on a date if it had not been for the zoanthrope, but that didn’t matter now. She thought about the sensation, the chemistry between them as they danced- when in reality he was probably there to sell…drugs. Her body shuddered at the memory. Then, her redness disappeared to a dreaded white. She climbed atop of Athena and everyone followed suit. “Forward Athena, go now!”

Brooke looked back at the panther that chased behind them. He was still alive and simpering at them. She swore because she didn’t have her sword. Behind him, a black wolfhound followed. Its azure eyes held a stern intelligence, and she was suspicious of it. It gave a simper of its own. Did two things hunt them? The gnomes ceased their song and ran around like confused ants beside Athena. They reached the end of a tunnel where they saw an iron door. Ross jumped down, opened it for them, and they escaped the tunnels. Ross closed the door, bolting it closed.

It was then that Brooke saw the cottage house and her heart nearly pumped out of her chest. She heard its rapid beating and wished it would stop. That was the house in which her mother lived. Her mother. How did she look from all these years? Her sockets burned. A curtain pulled back and mature blue eyes stared through the pane window. They narrowed and widened in surprise. Ross ran up to the door and knocked on it. The woman opened the door partly. “How dare you bring these people here, Ross!” she seethed.

He cocked his head to the side. “I thought you wouldn’t mind.”

The door to the tunnel exploded. They all turned to see the two hunters in human form. The puncture wound where Brooke stabbed him had healed. The other one was bald and had scars around his eyes shaped like lightning bolts. He was buff, his muscles large beneath the sleeves of his turtleneck. He wielded a sword and the other hunter wielded a gun. Brooke moved from the door and she took a basic stance. Meredith stood beside her. The panther hunter shot the gun and Brooke cart wheeled out of the way, but as soon as she leaned her weight against her wrists, she fell hard on the ground. The arm with the knife wound burned and the purple color had returned now covering her entire upper arm. She clutched the wound and screamed.

The wolfhound hunter approached Brooke and motioned to stab her with the sword. Brooke couldn’t react; the pain was too great. She closed her eyes. Meredith raced towards Brooke to stop the wolfhound, making caution to dodge the panther hunter. She kicked him in the knee and someone cut him in the stomach. Meredith had no time to see who it was and flipped backwards to avoid the next set of bullets. Brooke couldn’t gasp as she saw her mother, gripping the handle of a sword. She studied her mother. Her hair didn’t have the same luster, but she looked no different than when she last saw her, snuggled close to her, listening to another one of her stories, her breath warm and steady against her face.

Rain lifted her sword above her head, her front leg stretched out, and her rooted leg bent. The wolfhound hunter grunted at his wound, but stood straight. The panther hunter shot his gun. Rain blocked every bullet as she charged at the hunters. She was fast. Really fast. Maybe faster than an elf. How was that possible? Brooke had never known her mother as the fighting type. She was a mystery, yes, but a fighter? Well, Brooke had to get her athletic abilities from somewhere and it sure wasn’t from her father. She took her basic stance and raised her sword to slice the panther hunter’s wrist. He screamed and backed up, blood gushing. She flipped her sword pointing its hilt at the hunters. She jabbed the bald man in the throat, kicking his shin and him off his feet. She dragged her sword across the bald man’s neck and decapitated him. As the panther hunter moved to grab his sword, wrapped around his belt. She elbowed him in the rib and made an x across his chest. She stabbed him in the heart. She stepped on him as she sheathed her sword, making sure to jab the sharp heel of her shoes in his skin. She was so brutal.

Rain glared intensely at Ross. Before she began to yell, Brooke a pain fluxed through Brooke. She screamed and she felt it through her throat. She choked against the ground and passed out.

 

Author's Note

Dear Reader,

I thought it was a nice spin on Ross to add. Let me know what you think of Rain and her fighting style.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely JazzSoulKeke,

God bless