Chapter Seven

While Tygra and Rose figured a way to deal with the creature, Jade and Asha found some troubles of their own when Jade is attacked...

    Tygra and Rose continued to run full speed down their hallway. The steady thump, thump, thump, of the spider’s steps along the ceiling and walls could be heard behind them.

    “Would you stop chasing us?” Rose screamed back at the spider. “Oh, this is endless!”

    Tygra quickly scanned the hallway. She only seen a few doors to her right as the spider made a leap from the ceiling, landing a few feet before them. The two stopped short as the spider slowly turned within the tight space of the hallway.

    Tygra looked to the door just to her right as she backed up towards Rose. “Quick, let’s go in there!”

    Rose hurried towards the door, swinging it open as Tygra ran inside. She had just made it inside the room as well, banging the door behind her as the spider slammed against the door…then stopped.

    They seemed to have entered a study. The walls were lined with nothing but books. There were two long tables set on either side of the room with five chairs each. Directly across from the door was an antique fireplace, a painting of lumber jacks cutting trees was hanging on the wall just above it.

    The girls looked to one another as they fell down to the floor, struggling to catch their breaths. “W-what do you think its doing…out there?” Rose struggled between breaths. She swallowed hard. “I doubt that it just decided to give up.”

    “No.” Tygra said, taking in a deep breath. “It saw us come in here and there is no other way out…” she wiped sweat from her brow a she leaned her back up against the door. “It probably won’t leave us be until it kills us.”

    “But what if it decides to go back after Jade and Asha? They are still out there with that thing!”

    “Don’t worry.” Tygra said, standing to her feet reaching a hand out for Rose to take. “They can take care of themselves. Especially Jade.”

    Rose shook her head slightly as she grabbed hold of her hand, allowing Tygra to help her to her feet. She walked towards the table before turning back to her, a doubtful expression crossing over her. “I’m not too sure about that…yeah, Jade does know how to fight, but not against something like that. And Asha-”

    “They’re fine.” Tygra said as she walked over towards the door, pulling it open with great caution. There was a loud screech as the spider tried to squeeze through, not able to even fit its massive fangs through the doorway. She slammed it shut again as another one of the spider's wails could be heard from within the hall. “See? That thing is after us now. They’re fine.”

    “I guess you’re right.” Rose commented as she sat back on the table, taking a good long look around the room. “There really are no other doors leading out of this place.”

    “Nope.”

    “But we do have to get out of here and get back to Jade and Asha so we can save Drake.”

    “Yup.”

    “But, there’s no other exit beside the one we just came through.”

    “Yup.”

    “So we just have to find another way out then.”

    “Exactly.”

    Rose sighed. “If you already knew what to do, why didn’t you just say so?”

    “It was funnier to watch you figure it out on your own.” Tygra looked around the room again, this time something catching her eye. She walked over towards a book case to the left, grabbing something from the top shelf. “What‘s this?”

    “What‘s what?” Tygra turned back to her, holding up what she found. It was a little golden figure. Rose walked over towards her, looking at the object lying within the palm of her hand. “What is that?”

    “It looks like an axe.” Tygra paused as she looked around the room once more, her gaze stopping upon the painting above the fireplace. “There.” Grabbing hold of Rose’s wrist, she made her way towards the fireplace, pulling Rose along with her.

    “What? Where are we going?”

    “Look.” Tygra said as they stopped before the fireplace; she pointed up towards the painting.

Rose then saw what had caught her eye. The painting wasn’t really a painting at all. It was a carving set into the stone wall. It was a scene with lumber jacks cutting and gathering wood. But, one of the men looked different. He had his arms held high as if he were ready to bring something down, aiming for a piece of wood at his feet, but there was nothing within his hands. There was only a small indentation about three inches long.

    Tygra looked to the small golden axe within her hand then back to the carving as she reached out to it, running her fingers over the indentation. She smiled. “Yes!”

    “What?” Rose questioned considerably puzzled as she followed her friend's gaze.

    “Just watch.”

    Tygra then raised the axe to the carving, placing it inside the indentation; it fit perfectly. A satisfied smile crossed over her features as she glanced back to Rose. Shortly after, a strange scraping noise came from within the fireplace causing the two to back away attentively as they both looked inside.

    Once the noise stopped, Rose bent down warily to check the fireplace more thoroughly. “Hey! There’s a tunnel here!”

    “Good, I was hoping something like that would happen.” Tygra said placing a hand onto Rose’s back, giving her a gentle push forward. “Well, you first.”

    “What?” Rose cried as she stood upright. “Why me?”

    “Because I said so. Now move it.”

    Rose gulped as she lowered herself to the floor on her hands and knees, readying herself to crawl inside the darkened tunnel. “I’m not sure this is such a good idea.”

    “Well, staying in here isn’t helping us any.” Tygra commented as she went down to her hands and knees as well. “Come on, we have to find Jade and Asha.”

    Rose bit her bottom lip as she edged her way into the tunnel with Tygra following suit. She felt along the side of the wall to help her way through. Though the two were only in the tunnel for a short while, the endless darkness gave them the feeling as though they had been following this path for ages.

    “Eek!”

    Tygra stopped at the sound of Rose’s distraught voice. “What? What is it?”

    “I just touched something really, really hairy!”

    Tygra tsked as she rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on! It was probably just a rat!”

    “On the side of the wall?”

    Tygra gasped as she saw a faint light coming from up ahead. “Rose, look!”

    “A light…” Rose said happily she looked down the tunnel. “It’s a way out!”

    “Quick! Let’s get moving!”

 

    Jade and Asha entered the room at the end of their hall. This room was much like the main hall from when they first entered the castle, though the door they had entered from was to the left. There were a set of stairs on either side of the room leading up to a second floor balcony though there were no other doors leading any further on the upper floor. In fact, the only door within this room was a solid steel door in the back. On either side of the door were symbols carved into the stone walls; two on the left, two on the right. They were the symbols of the elements in the order of earth, fire, water, and air; the same symbols in which they had seen within the room of the statues.

    “What is this place?” Asha questioned as he moved to the center of the room.

    “I don’t know…” Jade allowed her voice to trail off as she looked to the door at the end of the room. Something felt wrong. She then turned quickly and jumped back as she saw a blade come out at her. “S**t!”

    Asha quickly turned to see a young man in black standing before Jade, a sword held out to his side. But she thought the sword was strange. Instead of being a plain metallic sword, its tip was dyed with red. She looked to Jade who had her arms crossed over her stomach. That’s when it hit her. The blade wasn’t dyed red. It was covered in red. In blood. It was covered in Jade’s blood.

    “Jade!” She cried coming towards her, stopping abruptly when the man turned to her, a malicious look already set upon his face.

    “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He said, as he took a step toward her.

    “You let her alone!”

    The man turned back to Jade who stood before him, her body shaking with anger and pain. He laughed. “What do you think you can do in that condition?”

    Jade bit her bottom lip as she removed her arms from around her stomach, revealing the tear within her shirt and the deep gash along her skin. “I won’t let you hurt her.”

Asha watched as the blood from Jade’s wound dripped down to the floor, forming small puddles just beneath her. “Jade…” she couldn’t believe she was ready to face death, just for her.

    The man laughed again, turning his full attention back to Jade. “Tell me then,” his said again looking to her through black strands of hair. “How are you going to possibly defeat me the way you are now? When you don’t even know how to summon those powers to heed your call?”

Asha watched the man for a long while. How did he know that they didn’t know how to use their powers? Had he been watching them all this time?

    “Who says we haven’t learned a few tricks along the way?”

    Asha turned her gaze back to Jade. What was she talking about? The whole time she was with her, neither of them had figured anything out about their powers. Was she bluffing?

    “You can’t fool me, girl.” he said, taking a step toward her as he tightened his grip upon the sword's handle. “I know exactly what you girls can and can not accomplish.”

    “Is that so?” She said then closed her eyes.

    Beneath her where the blood had splattered onto the floor, a light began to form. It soon formed a circle around her, slowly working its way up her body, stopping at the top of her head. The man stood where he was, watching her, disbelief shone within his eye as Asha watched on in amazement. When had she learned this?

    The light slowly faded as it began to descend from her body, back down onto the floor from whence it came. Asha was surprised to see that Jade was once again unscathed, without a drop of blood on her or the floor. The only thing which indicated that something might have happened was the lengthy tear within her shirt.

    “That’s not possible.” The man said in slight awe. “You’re not strong enough to know such techniques.”

    “It wasn’t hard.” Jade said, rubbing her stomach slightly. “I just asked our dear old Mother Earth for help. And she was happy to accommodate me.”

    “Jade.” Asha said in relief as she took a step towards her.

    She stopped short when the man raised his sword again towards Jade. “I underestimated you…I won’t be making the same mistake again.” He then raised his free hand out towards her.

    Though nothing happened. Asha looked to the two before her, her eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. What’s going on? Is he going to attack or not? “What did you do to me?” She heard Jade question him. She studied her closely; there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her.

    The man laughed lightly to himself as he came towards Jade, not once lowering his hand. “Doesn’t seem like you have all the answers, now does it?” He raised the tip of his sword to her throat, an intimidating grin playing over his features.

    Jade glared at the man angrily, not moving an inch from where she stood. “So, it’s that kind of a fight is it?”

    “Jade! What are you doing? Get out of there!” Asha cried.

    “She can’t.” The man said looking back to her. “Not while I have her like this; she can’t move an inch.”

    “I won’t let you hurt her!” She cried coming closer.

    “Don’t you dare!” Jade screamed, stopping Asha once again from coming any closer.

    The man turned back to her with a questionable expression. “Why stop her? She’s the only one who can save you now.”

    “I never rely on others to help me. If I rely on them then they couldn’t rely on me.”

    “How noble.” He said in a disdainful tone as he raised his sword high above him. “Or stupid.” Just then he brought the sword down, changing the angle to which the hilt of the blade hit her temple instead, knocking her out cold in an instant.

    “Jade!” Asha cried her eyes wide as she watched her friend fall unconscious to the floor.

    The man turned back to her, his threatening gaze chilling her down to the very bone. “I wouldn’t be worried about her right now.” He stated as he began to come towards her. “Because you are next.”