One cold morning in February Ashleigh and Daddy decided to go to the library. Ashleigh liked the library because she always found nice books to read there. There was just one row in the library that Ashleigh was afraid of. Whenever she walked up that aisle, a cool breeze hit her, as if a ghost was embracing her heart.
"I'm going to do it this time", Ashleigh thought. I am going to walk up that aisle, and not get afraid...and I am going to find out why I get chilled whenever I go there. As soon as they got into the children's section, Daddy let go of her hand and went off to find books to use for Ashleigh's schoolwork. Ashleigh was home schooled, and all of her reading and writing assignments were based off of books that Daddy chose at the library on the weekend. Once she was alone, Ashleigh's sense of foreboding began to rise as she headed towards her aisle of fright. The aisle was dim, as usual, since there always seemed to be a bulb out somewhere along the length of the row. It seemed quieter in the aisle, too since many children seemed to avoid this part of the library. Ashleigh suspected she was not the only person who felt the cold grip of fear when they walked down that aisle. Slowly Ashleigh began to walk down the aisle. The cool breeze started about five feet from the beginning of the row. She steeled herself and kept walking. Slowly, she moved forward. By the time she reached the end of the row, she could actually feel her hair lifting on a breeze. In front of her was an old wooden bookshelf with musty looking books on it. She could feel the breeze on her face, and she started moving books on the shelf looking for where the breeze was coming from. On the fourth shelf, there was a slight hole in the back of the cabinet, and that is where the breeze was coming from. Ashleigh felt around on the back of the shelf and found a nail head that protruded from the back of the cabinet. When she pressed it, the cabinet trembled and noiselessly slid to the side exposing an inky black opening in the wall behind the cabinet.
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Well that's different Ashleigh thought as she looked into the inky blackness behind the book case. She could just see a stone staircase leading down, but it was much too dark to go down without some sort of light. Ashleigh left the aisle and walked up to Georgie the librarian to see if she had a flashlight. "Do you have a flashlight?" she said with a smile. "One of the bulbs is out in the aisle back there and I can't read the book titles." Georgie smiled and handed her a flashlight; she said "I have the same problem too!"
Next, Ashleigh went to get her Dad. If she was going to walk blindly into the unknown, there was no one better to go with than her Dad. He would protect her. She walked up to Daddy and whispered in his ear and told him the situation. Daddy's eyes sparkled as he heard what Ashleigh had in mind. "I always like to explore spooky places" he said as he grabbed Ashleigh's hand. "Let's go!" Soon, the two of them were standing in front of the opening in the wall. The stairs were dusty and unused by anything but small animals in a very long time. They started forward into the darkness. When they stepped onto the fourth step, one of the stones sank about three inches and the bookcase above slowly slid back into place. "No place to go but down" Daddy said and they continued down the stair case. At the bottom, they were in a roughly hewn chamber about 20 feet in diameter. In one corner was a pile of armor and ancient weapons. On the opposite wall was a cave entrance slanting downward. Although the room was filled with dust and cobwebs, the armor looked new, as if the dust and insects were afraid to touch it. Daddy thought the armor was cool, and immediately started sorting through it looking for stuff that would fit him and Ashleigh. Soon, each of them were decked out in armor. Daddy chose a lightweight chain mail that fit over his clothes like a slip. He buckled on a long razor-sharp broad sword which he wore on his right side, and two katana that he slung cross ways over each shoulder. The katana were light, and unbelievably sharp. To finish off his "look" Dad wore three sais, two in front and one behind his back. A long bow and a quiver of arrows were also thrown casually across his shoulder. Ashleigh was dressed as a warrior princess. Her armor was a light-weight scale mail, which moved with her body like a second skin. She carried a smaller sword on her left hip. and two throwing daggers strapped to each forearm. Not visible, but still there, was a third throwing dagger hidden behind the nape of her neck. For long distances, she carried a small crossbow and a quiver of bolts. If you were going to play a game, then you means well dress the part! And right now, Ashleigh and Daddy were playing a game. They were playing at being adventurous explorers and the "basement" of this old library was their playground. And besides, who knew what would be waiting for them at the end of the cave they were just about to explore? A good weapon might come in handy, if they had to fight a giant earthworm or a large vole. Neither knew just how wrong they would be! Ashleigh and Daddy set off into the cave. The floor had a gradual drop so they were walking deeper into the earth with every step. The path seemed well worn and curved away to the right. After about forty-five minutes, the cave opened up into a large cavern which had an eery green glow. Ashleigh switched off the flashlight since they could see what lay about them clearly.
"What happened here?" Ashleigh asked in a whisper. "I don't know." Daddy said, "but it looks like it happened a long time ago." spread out in front of them for as far as the eye could see was the remains of an ancient battlefield. It was like a sea of bones! Skeletons in armor were were strewn about in the same positions as they fell, so long ago. What a battle it must have been! To the right were two skeletons that seemed to killed each other with their spears. Hands still wrapped around the hilt of their weapons, both were sagged forward on each other's weapons...as if their hatred was so great that they continued their struggles even in death.arms and legs were lying about as if they were lopped off in the heat of battle and forgotten. Acres and acres of bodies...and none of them buried. "Why didn't anyone bury these bodies?" Ashleigh asked. "The floor is made of stone." Daddy said, "And, maybe, there was no one left to bury them. This battle looked pretty brutal." "Let's see if we can find where both sides were camped." Daddy said. "We might be able to find out why they were fighting...or maybe even some treasure!" "Treasure! Yeah!" Ashleigh said, and they began to walk across the battlefield. A half hour passed and they were still no nearer the end of the battlefield. "There must have been thousands of them." said Ashleigh in a hushed tone. The further they went into the battlefield, the more craters they saw as if something stronger than the stone had come down crashing on the floor. In these areas, there were no bones; as if whatever had struck had hit with such force that the bones were turned to dust. Suddenly, there was a blast of trumpets coming from the right hand side of the battlefield. A second round of trumpeting was heard from the left. On either side of them, the skeletons slowly started to get up and gather their armor, missing appendages and weapons. Some ran to the left while others ran to the right. Presently, two armies formed and faced each other. Ashleigh and Daddy seemed to be caught in the middle, so they quickly jumped down into one of the craters. They poked their heads up and watched as the two armies faced off. The army on the right began to bang their swords and spears against their shields. Meanwhile the army on the left began to stamp their feet. Both sides seemed to be trying to psyche the other side out with their banging and stamping. Suddenly a flight of thousands of arrows was loosed from the army on the left. Although the army on the right raised their shields, some of the arrows still struck home. With a final bang of their swords on shield, the army on the right started to move forward. The battle was truly macabre. The skeletons ran towards each other and began hacking at one another. Action only ceased when one received what would be a mortal blow, if the skeletons were actually alive. A stab to the chest would stop a skeleton, as would decapitation or the loss of a leg. The loss of an arm would not always stop a skeletal warrior though; only if it was high up near the shoulder blade. As scary as it was, none of the skeletons seemed to be able to see Ashleigh and Daddy. For the most part, they were safe in their crater. Only one time did two skeletons fall into the crater with them. Daddy quickly put an end to them with two strokes from his broadsword. "Aren't you glad we decided to wear this stuff?" he said to Ashleigh with a smile on his face. Ashleigh calmed down after seeing her father's nonchalant attitude towards the carnage. In fact, she even pulled her own sword, and slashed at the leg of a passing skeleton. The skeleton stumbled and was impaled on the spear of a skeleton from the other side. Daddy said "Let's not get too crazy!" as he gently pulled Ashleigh back into the safety of the crater. The battle went on for another hour, with skeletons dying on either side. Unexpectedly, trumpets once again blared from both sides, and the remaining skeletons once again fell to the ground lifeless. After the battle, Ashleigh and Daddy stayed hunkered down in the crater, since they were worried that the battle could start again at any moment. There was no rhyme or reason to why the battle started or stopped. Soon, they heard the sound of heated discussion coming from in front of the crater in the direction they were heading before the battle started.
Daddy peaked his head over the top of the crater and took a look. What he saw made him scratch his head in puzzlement. Walking towards them down the middle of the battlefield were two strange-looking men. The first was Ashleigh's height, but was much broader and had a long beard. The second man was very skinny and short in stature. His most poignant feature were his ears, which were long and pointed. Ashleigh peaked over the top of the crater and jumped up quickly. "Get in a crater quickly", she yelled "These skeletons come alive and fight!" Both men stopped in their tracks as if struck. They both stared at Ashleigh until one finally said "A human child!" and took a step towards Ashleigh. Thats when Daddy pulled himself out of the crater and stood next to his daughter. "Aieee! A giant!" yelled the little man. Daddy said "No, I'm a human, but I don't think either of you are human, now that I get a closer look at you." Both men froze. With a wiggle of their fingers, ten skeletons got up and surrounded Daddy and Ashleigh. "Ah, treachery!" Daddy yelled as he pulled his broad sword. The little man yelled "drop your weapons! There are too many of my soldiers and you will surely die before you can slay all of them." Daddy said "but you will die first!" "How is that?" said the thin man, "we have you surrounded" With that, Daddy dropped his broad sword and fitted an arrow to his long bow. "My arrow will fly well before they strike me down, and you shall be dead." Daddy said calmly as he pulled back on the bow string. Ashleigh casually pointed her crossbow at the thin man. The skeletons quickly fell back to the ground, lifeless once more. "Let's start again" said the short man, "My name is Grundge, and I am a dwarf." "And I am Morlock, and I am an elf." said the wispy looking fellow. "What are you doing here in the eastern realm of the Middle Earth?" "A hidden door led us here." said Ashleigh. "I thought we hid all of the doors to our realm," said Morlock, "You must be very clever." Ashleigh smiled. "Our castle is just over that hill", said Grundge. "Why don't you join us?" "First, I'd like to know why you had those skeletons battling. "Those? They are our game pieces. We play Battle Chess" Morlock said. He wiggled his fingers to make a skeleton dance. "They are harmless if you don't get in their way, or if we don't direct them at you." With that, the four of them set out for the castle. The four friends reached the castle shortly. It was a large edifice, with walls that were easily over forty feet high. It was surrounded by a moat, but the drawbridge was down. Upon entering the grounds, Ashleigh noted that the place was eerily quiet. "Where is everybody?" she asked. "We don't know," said Grunge. "This castle used to hold hundreds of people," said Grunge. "Then Morlock and I went away for a trade mission, and when we came back, most of the people were gone, including our families." "The rest disappeared over the past two months. Now there is only Grunge and I left," said Morlock. " What makes it worse, said Morlock is that the last to disappear were all locked in their rooms when they disappeared, and their was no sign of forced entry." "That is weird!" said Daddy, "Can we see the rooms?"
Grunge let them down a corridor to a hallway with many doors. "Here is where the last of them lived before they went away." said Morlock. Daddy and Ashleigh went into a room. All was silent. Immediately, Daddy and Ashleigh began knocking on the walls. "What are you doing?" Grunge asked. "We are looking for hidden doors" said Ashleigh. "You're wasting your time," said Morlock, "We checked magically." Just then, Ashleigh sprang a lever and a door appeared in the wall. Morlock and Grunge looked stunned. "Of course! Someone has hidden the doors from magical interference! Why didn't we think of that!!" said Grunge. The door opened on a stairway heading down. Daddy closed it gently, and said "Let's check some of the other rooms." In all, they checked twenty five rooms. Each one had a hidden door. The next day, Daddy and Ashleigh decided to go through one of the hidden doors and follow the stairs down. The stairs circled down for more than five hundred feet and ended in a long hallway. Hundreds of doors led off of the hallway, and Ashleigh said "I bet all of the hidden doorways lead to this hallway." Daddy agreed, and they slowly began to walk up the hallway. After a while, there were no more doors, only the long hallway leading off into the darkness. The further they went, the louder it became. It started low, almost imperceptible; a low kachung! kachung! sound that got louder as they walked. Ashleigh began to get frightened, but Daddy consoled her. "We must go on to find out what happened to those people," he said. Soon, they reached the bottom of a grand staircase. The noise was coming from the top of the stairs. Slowly, Ashleigh and Daddy crept to the top of the stairs and peaked over the railing. In front of them were hundreds of elves and dwarfs, all swinging picks and hammers at the walls of a huge cavern. The loud noise was coming from a huge machine in the middle of the cavern that the dwarfs were feeding the rock from the walls into. They had found the missing population of the castle! As they looked out above the top stair, they could see that the elves and dwarfs were being watched by a number of ugly, short, and muscly creatures. The things walked around and whipped people who did not work to their satisfaction. "That's not right!" said Ashleigh. "How can we save them?" Daddy said, "Stay here and stay low so they don't see you. I'll be right back."
When the nearest guards had their backs turned, Daddy rolled over the top step and crawled towards the nearest group of prisoners. The first person to see him was a small elf woman with a pickax. She waved him into the middle of the group and then stood in front of him so that the nearest guards would not be able to see him. She looked at him closely and said "why you're human! I never thought I'd ever see one of you! What are you doing here?" Daddy was amazed by the beauty of the young elf. Not just her either... all of the elves were either pretty or handsome, depending on their gender. He said, "I came looking for the elves and dwarfs from the castle. I guess I found you!" "My name is Cydonia the elf said. "Now that you have found us what can you really do? The goblins will kill you quickly if you attack without an army." Well, my idea isn't to attack them really" Daddy said. "Instead, I want to divert their attention and get as many of you away as possible." "To do that, we need a diversion, and possibly, more of you to be armed." It was at this point that a goblin shoved Cydonia out of the way and said "Ah ha! An intruder!" Before the goblin could raise the alarm, Daddy lopped off his head with a quick draw and swipe with his left katana. The prisoners stood in stony silence. The slash was so quick, that none of them had expected it. Daddy pointed at the goblin's weapons and said "You, take the sword." as he pointed to a particularly burly dwarf. "Cydonia take his dagger." The dwarf's name was Dagmar, and Daddy had him take up position on his right side. Meanwhile, he told Cydonia that once they reached the stairs, he wanted her to stay close to Ashleigh and help protect her. The elf was surprised that Daddy had brought his young daughter with him on such a dangerous excursion. In hindsight, so was Daddy! Since Daddy had extra weapons with him, he quickly passed a few around so that more of the band was armed. He gave his second katana to an elf named Elongil, and his broad sword to a dwarf named Zaxi. His long bow and quiver were lent to a particularly tall elf named Errol. Errol had trained with a bow for most of his life, and he was extremely happy to get the weapon. Now, all the group needed was a diversion! An ancient elf named Weinmar provided the answer. Weinmar noted that when the large noisy machine had a problem, nearly all of the goblins stopped to watch it get fixed. While the prisoners were still under watch, he noted that they could move around a bit more than usual without being beaten. Weinmar proposed hiding the head of a pick in one of the buckets of ore that the group sent to the machine periodically. When the pick head was thrown into the machine, it would likely jam the machine and provide the distraction the band needed. Word was quickly sent to other groups of prisoners telling them what was about to happen. Prior to the pick head being sent into the machine, Errol was to shoot the nearest goblin who was perched on the catwalk above. Zaxi would climb the pillar nearest the goblin, and rush to take his place so that he wouldn't be missed. He was the dwarf closest in size to the goblin that was targeted, and could easily fit into its armor. He would then pass the goblin's bow down to Errol to pass on to another elf. Dad and Dagmar would rush to the left side of the stairs, nearest to Ashleigh, while Elongil and Cydonia would stand at the other side of the stairs. Once everyone was in position, the rest of the dwarfs and the elves would run to the staircase. Now that the plan was set, the prisoners were anxious to put it into action. A pick head was taken off of one of the tools and hidden in a bucket of ore. Weinmar chose to bring the bucket over to the machine, since it was normal for the older elves to carry the buckets, since they did not have the strength to wield the picks and shovels for any great length of time. The buckets were placed in a long line to be thrown into the machine, so he would have lots of time to get back to the group before the machine jammed. Meanwhile, Zaxi sauntered over to the nearest pillar to begin his climb, while Errol prepared to take his shot.
Not long after Weinmar returned to the group, there was a loud screeching sound, and the grinding machine at the center of the cavern came to a halt. All of the goblins became agitated, and Zaxi used this as his signal to begin to climb the pillar. Once he neared the height of the catwalk, Errol let loose his arrow. It was a direct hit! The goblin staggered back with an arrow in his throat. Zaxi quickly caught him and took its armor before it had a chance to get too blood soaked. When he was ready, he threw the goblins bow and quiver down to Errol who handed it back to another elf. Daddy and Dagmar quickly moved to the left side of the stair case nearest Ashleigh, while Cydonia and Elongil took up position on the right-hand side. Slowly, groups of prisoners started walking towards the staircase. The first prisoners were just starting to make their way down the stair case when an alarm was sounded. A particularly ugly goblin had seen what was happening and began to blow on a warning horn. Errol quickly put an arrow through his chest but the damage was already done. Swarms of elves and dwarfs who were only moments ago walking slowly towards the stair case, began screaming and running towards their goal. Hordes of goblins began swarming out of hidden alcoves and began slaughtering the nearest fleeing prisoners, while a second group ran towards the staircase to cut off their escape. As soon as the alarm was sounded, the goblins on the catwalks began raining down arrows on the escaping prisoners. Zaxi sprung into action running up and down the catwalk hewing down the goblin archers nearest the top of the stairs. The goblins were so focused on the fleeing prisoners, that they failed to notice that death had come home to roost among their ranks. As he ran, Zaxi would kick a stray bow or quiver over the side of the catwalk, hoping that one of the elves below would snatch up one of the falling weapons. The first group of goblins to meet Daddy and Dagmar near the top of the stairs nearly overwhelmed them. Outnumbered nearly five to one, Daddy and Dagmar did their best to stay alive. each had taken numerous cuts to their hands and arms, and Daddy had an arrow sticking out of the top of his shoulder. Dagmar had a shaft in his thigh, and another drooping from his arm. Ashleigh screamed and grabbed her sword to go help the pair, but Cydonia quickly grabbed her and said "You can't, your too little!" Ashleigh punched her in the nose, used a quick wrist release she had learned in karate, and rushed to her Daddy's side. The first goblin she met made Ashleigh think that she may have bit off more than she could chew. It quickly knocked Ashleigh's smaller blade aside and smashed her in the ribs with a war hammer, which sent her flying back into the side of the staircase. Daddy heard her gasp and quickly turned and attacked the goblin who had struck Ashleigh. After regaining her breath, Ashleigh decided to sheath her sword and pull out her crossbow. She hid directly behind a pile of bodies directly behind Daddy and Dagmar, and began shooting approaching goblins before they could reach Errol who had fallen back to near the top of the staircase and was frantically shooting goblins who were trying to slay the fleeing prisoners. Meanwhile, Cydonia had taken a position to the left of Ashleigh, and was doing her best to protect the young warrior princess. Cydonia looked upon Ashleigh as a warrior princess because she had learned earlier that while Ashleigh was small and demure, she could use her martial arts training and an element of surprise to keep herself safe. By this time, Daddy and Dagmar were now fighting back to back. There were large piles of goblin bodies laying around them, which new goblins had to climb over to reach them. About two thirds of the prisoners had now rushed past on the staircase and Daddy was beginning to think that the rest of them were either dead or wouldn't make it. He yelled to Dagmar: "we have to drop back and protect the ones that have already escaped or all of this will be for naught!" "Aye" said the dwarf as he screamed for the rest of his kind to fall back and protect the staircase. Cydonia yelled similar orders for the remaining fighting elves. Ashleigh continued to shoot, as the rest of them fell in around her position. She had noticed an interesting thing about her crossbow and quiver. No matter how many bolts she shot (and she had shot many), the amount of bolts in her quiver never diminished. In fact, she was beginning to suspect that she had a magic quiver! Bolt after bolt she shot into the shambling goblin lines, and not once did she run out of bolts! Not only that, but it seemed that the bolts she shot flew truer than she could likely make them do on her own. In fact, she rarely missed a shot... which also kept Cydonia in awe. Once the remainder of the fighting elves and dwarfs assembled into a tight-nit band, they slowly began fighting their way down the bloodied main staircase. The battle on the staircase was intense. As the elves and dwarfs made their way down the stairs, the arrows from above subsided. The angle made it too hard for the goblins to shoot into the crowd with any accuracy. Unknown to the fighters protecting the fleeing prisoners, the goblins were only shooting the slaves in the legs. They were much too valuable to kill outright. The fighters were being killed, because they were armed and killing goblins, but unarmed slaves were being shot in the legs only. Nevertheless, the fighting near the top of the stairs was brutal and bloody.
Large piles of goblins, mixed with the occasional corpse of an elf or dwarf were strewn across the stairs. Ashleigh and her companions were slowly being driven back down the stairs, and the goblins at the top of the staircase once again began shooting at the fleeing prisoners. "We need to give them more time!" Daddy yelled as he broke free of the defensive line and started chopping a path toward the top of the staircase. "Shoot the goblins closing in around him! Ashleigh screamed as the goblins began to surround her father. The goblin's frontal attack down the staircase began to falter as they focused on bringing down the giant among them. Elfs and goblins streamed into the doorways along either side of the hallways, but there were still too many left to escape for the fighters to retreat much further. Although many goblins were being killed, there were just too many of them. Ashleigh's archer's volley of arrows had allowed Daddy to reach the top of the stairs where he brought his katana to bear against the goblin archers. Dagmar and his warriors soon caught up with their human ally, and the goblins at the top of the stairs were being forced to drop back, when a bellow of rage arose from the back of the cavern. Standing in front of an opened doorway was an ogre, with three battalions of fresh goblin troops behind him. "What the heck is that?" Daddy murmured as he looked at the large atrocity at the back of the cavern. The beast was as wide as three humans standing side by side, and was as tall as a two-story building. "We can't beat that ogre!" Dagmar screamed. "We need to fall back now, or we'll never get out alive." No one disagreed with him. In truth, the small band was exhausted. They had been fighting full tilt for nearly fifteen minutes, and all of them were wounded to some extent. As a group, they turned and ran to the bottom of the staircase. There were still too many elfs and dwarfs filing into the doorways. They needed more time. "Let's make our stand here." Daddy said as he turned and looked up the stairs. The dwarfs couldn't believe their ears. Here was a human as brave as they were. He was not fighting for his kind... he was fighting for the elfs and dwarfs so that more of them could escape. And so was his young daughter! The sacrifice re-energized the Dwarfs who turned toward the top of the stairs and let out a war cry that drowned out the sound of the approaching enemies. When the goblins reached the top of the stairs, they stood about laughing at the ragged line of dwarfs and elfs below them. They were waiting for the ogre to catch up with them, for while he was quite large and dangerous, he was also much slower than all of the other combatants due to his size. The elfs and the dwarfs shouted louder, bravely facing their enemies. A rumbling sound soon began to fill the chamber, and suddenly, the goblins laughter and smiles changed to screams and looks of horror. The band soon noticed that the rumbling was coming from behind them. Grundge and Morlock, riding skeleton horses were galloping toward them with their skeleton armies behind them. Morlock was yelling "Clear the stairs or be trampled" as the horde quickly approached. Daddy grabbed Ashleigh and pulled her to the side of the stair case, while he yelled "Clear the stairs!" The small band of elves and dwarfs just cleared the stairs as the first part of the skeleton vanguard rumbled past. Grundge smiled and winked as he rode past and said "We'll take it from here!" The goblins, meanwhile, turned and ran from the staircase. They were outnumbered now, and knew it. Their only option now was to run and save themselves. Too tired to run, the small bloody band of elfs and dwarfs fell to the ground and waited for Morlock and Grundge to return. |