by Emma Hamm
This world was alien to her, uncomfortable to a point of pain. She wanted to find beauty in these things. She wanted to enjoy the newness and the oddities.
But how could she enjoy these things when she should be worried about Luther and Willow? Jane had no frame of reference here. She didn’t know when was night or day, she didn’t know how long it had been since they had taken her. It could have been a week or more since she was taken, or as little as one day.
However long it had been, she needed to get back to them. They needed her as much as she needed them.
Eventually she had to get out of the water. No matter how much she wanted to hide and never come out again, her fingers had turned to prunes and she feared the rest of her body had as well.
Arms firmly over her chest, she turned back to where she had seen him last. The darkness was all around the pool, but since she had stirred up all the glowing strands she could see where his feet were. She shivered to think that it was likely he had claws on his toes as well. What kind of animal was created with brute strength in mind?
“Ruric?”
She hadn’t realized that the cave had not been completely silent. There had been soft echoing movements. The water had rippled from her bathing. A soft scraping from his corner, as well as the sound of his breathing. As soon as she started speaking, Jane heard silence in the cave for the first time.
“What noise were you making?”
“Carving.” Came the quiet reply.
She was curious, wondering what exactly this creature was carving. There couldn’t be wood down here for him to notch away. She wasn’t going to swim any closer though. Getting into the water had been easy. For the moments when she had been removing her clothes, she hadn’t thought of him as anything but a beast.
Then she felt the pricks of eyes watching her every move and Jane had reminded herself that he was not just an animal. She had seen enough of these creatures to know that he was just as much a man as her own people.
Getting out of the water would be more difficult now that she was suddenly self conscious.
“I’m ready to get out now.”
His feet retracted from the water and he seemed to disappear back into the shadows. The water was warm on her skin, but any skin that wasn’t submerged was ridged with goosebumps. The air was always so chilly here. It was nothing like the warm heat of the sands.
She heard stones being kicked as he walked back towards her. Never before had any of the goblins made such a racket when they were walking which led her to believe he was doing it for her. Jane could not understand this creature. He had no qualms about knocking her over the head when he thought she was a miner. Now that she was known to be a female, he treated her as though she was made of glass. She preferred it if he treated her like the rest of the men.
He grunted, the grumble carrying across the water until she could pinpoint where it was. It appeared that there was a few stone steps on the other side of the pool.
As much as she didn’t want to, it appeared that there would be no way to step out of the water without him seeing every inch of her. Her hands could only cover so much. Jane refused to be embarrassed. It was not her first time having someone else see her naked, why should this moment be any different from the other times? He was nothing more than an animal.
She started up the steps, startled for a moment to realize that the glowing strands had stuck to her. Even as her skin moved out of the water the blue lights clung to her in bright ropes. It looked as though she was glowing as she moved through the steam.
The globe lit upon him and the wide cloth he was holding up for her. It appeared that the goblin was trying to be even more chivalrous than she had expected.
By the time the water had hit her thighs, he was stepping in towards her to wrap the towel around her firmly. It was the same movement she had seen mother’s do on their children before. A quick towel hug before briskly rubbing the water off of their skin before they could feel the chill.
The goblin did the same to her, wiping her down until he heard the hissing breath she let out through her teeth when he touched her back. She could see his brows furrow in the blue light before he turned her and let the towel drop at her back.
The pads of his fingers feathered across her skin, those deadly nails avoiding even the slightest graze. She shivered, this time more from the touch than the cold. It was a daunting thought to know that he could have harmed her so easily. Yet his touch was nothing short of the warm caress of a human man.
“Hurt.”
“Yes.” She said, trying to look over her shoulder. “When I was back in the tunnel I scraped my back on the walls. Same with my hands and knees.”
She had been hurt worse in her life, even at the mines before she had seen the goblins. Her head was more of a concern than anything else.
The goblin obviously didn’t agree with her own assessment of herself. He seemed to be upset by the cuts that decorated her skin. The deep growl that vibrated in his throat made her tense. If his fingers hadn’t remained so delicate against her skin, she would have taken that sound as a bad sign. But he remained ever so gentle with her.
“They don’t hurt.” She said quietly.
She wasn’t so sure that he was listening to her.
“If you have anything to put on them, I would appreciate it.”
That seemed to snap him out of whatever revery he was stuck in while staring at her back. If she knew how to read their facial expressions, she might have seen it for the anger that it was. He was furious at the situation, that she had been harmed, and that he had not known it was her that was being harmed. He would have protected her if he had known she was female. They all would have.
She pulled the towel around herself firmly.
“Ruric, it’s cold.”
Slowly she was started to realize that if she said she was uncomfortable he would snap to attention. Perhaps one of the fine ladies in the City would have enjoyed such treatment. A part of her felt as though she deserved such recognition after the life she had lived. But a much larger part was uncomfortable from the attention. No one had done things for her and they certainly hadn’t gone out of their way to take care of her.
It was awkward to suddenly find herself in this position.
He stepped back from her, kicking rocks as he went so she knew where he was. She breathed easier when he wasn’t standing before her but the shivers running down her spine betrayed her want for his warmth as well.
She could hear swishing sounds but couldn’t see what he was doing until he stepped back into the dim pool of light she had around her.
He was carrying an armful of cloth like nothing she had ever seen before. It fluttered in his arms as he moved. The fabric was so light that the merest movement of air disturbed it. She saw too many colors in it to name, all of them seeming to bleed into the others so that there was never a hard line to define them.
“That’s too fine for the likes of me.” She said quietly, though every fiber of her being yearned to touch those colors.
“Arms.” The word was said softly as she blinked at him. She hadn’t known he could speak like that.
She let the towel drop, holding her arms out straight. He made quick work of dressing her, respectful even in this exchange.
There was a wide hole in one of the pieces of fabric that she realized were all separate pieces. He dropped that over her head, leaving her sides open. The cut in the fabric dipped between her breasts and down her back which he quickly situated around her. Another piece was wrapping quickly about her waist, tucked into itself until it looked almost like a belt. Yet another was looped through that and he used both of the ends to criss cross around her chest. These were cinched around a metal collar he produced from the pile until he started on her legs.
The belt piece that he had first placed onto her appeared to be the one piece of fabric that held everything together. All the other pieces were tucked into that and let
to fall on their own. It created the illusions of one piece of fabric when in reality it was many slices of fabric.
He stood back to look at her, large arms crossed on that wide chest once more. He gave a quick nod, the beads in his braids clacking together. “Goblin woman now.”
She looked down at herself, stunned at the weightlessness of the fabric.
“I can’t wear this, I’ll ruin it.”
“Keep.” He rubbed the smooth fabric between his fingers before stepping back once more.
Out of a pocket he pulled out a necklace, the crystals clacking together as he held them out to tie behind her neck. They were the same kind as the one she had seen in the tunnel. Firey deep within the stone, there seemed to be a swirl of colors that caught her eye.
It was overwhelming really. Jane had gone from a world of yellow and blue. Now she was immersed in colors so vivid that they nearly hurt her eyes to behold.
“Not best.” He seemed to murmur, his voice deep. “But good.”
Not the best? Not the best stone? Her eyebrows knitted together as she looked up at him, two deep grooves between her eyes appearing. He was quick to smooth them. His thumb pressed against the lines, stroking up until they disappeared.
It was an intimate move, too close for her to feel comfortable with. Apparently he shared the same sentiment since they both stepped back at the same time, and he growled, “Come.”
She followed him out of the cave, wondering why her heart was beating so fast.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THEY MADE THEIR way back to the cave, stopping at a few other crevices that she hadn’t noticed before. Jane remained outside while Ruric disappeared from her sight. He left the blue globe with her.
The first time he returned with a mesh bag that he tossed over his shoulder. The other times it appeared as though he came back with nothing.
She stepped into Ruric’s cave without recognizing it was his home. She didn’t think it was possible for it to be darker inside, considering that the entire place was a giant cave. But if darkness had shades, then the inside of his home was even darker than what she had been in before.
It was daunting, uncomfortable, and made the hairs on her arms raise. To be blind in a place she still considered to be dangerous was not a position she wanted to find herself in.
He moved around her, that pack on his back clinking as he went by. A few feet in front of her, he knelt, dropping to his knee with his back to her. Jane wasn’t certain whether this was something she was supposed to acknowledge or follow along with. It would be like her to completely disregard some kind of religious or even polite thing to do when a goblin walked into their home.
Of all the things she had expected, she had not thought that he would plunge his hand into the pack and pull out one of those globes. He shook it hard before setting it gently on the floor and rolling it to the other end of the cave. Over and over again he did this, sending the globes on their way until they tapped gently against the stone walls.
There were ten in total. Each one illuminated all the parts of the cave until she could see fairly well. It wasn’t as big as she had originally thought. With a high domed ceiling, it could only be described as clean. There were a few places where there could be seating and the opening that led into the back room was the bedroom. Other than that it was rather bare.
Lonely really.
He settled himself down onto the floor in a corner of the room where there were a few woven pieces of furniture that could pass as seating. At least she wouldn’t be sitting on cold stone.
Jane realized how horribly uncomfortable this was when she sat down. She was expected to sit there in companionable silence when she wanted to leave. This was no place for her! She didn’t want to sit and talk with him. Nor did she want to sit and stare into the darkness. There were things she had to do, places that she needed to go. Being a captive of goblin creatures did not fit into any of that.
He didn’t seem interested in her plight.
She settled herself down onto one of the mesh seats. Once she did so, Ruric sat on the floor a little ways away from her. There was another place for him to sit that looked much more comfortable than the stone, however he chose to leave it vacant.
The oddities of these creatures would never cease to amaze her. Comfort had always been a large concern for people Above. But the longer she was with the goblins the more she realized that comfort was relative. They didn’t seem to want the large pillows and soft blankets. They wanted something that would keep them off the ground and at least a little warm.
His hands were back in the pack now, rummaging until he pulled out something that looked as though it was wrapped in bark.
Her brows furrowed as she looked at him in confusion. He handed the bundle to her which she realized were reeds covering the food. Each one had been painstakingly cut in half so that it could be used as lashing.
“What is this?”
By the time she looked up, he was miming bringing something up to his mouth.
“Food?”
That made her nervous. In all the stories goblins were flesh eaters. And while that meant that perhaps he had gotten some kind of cattle beef, it was more likely that this was going to be something she had never seen or heard of before. It made her stomach roll just thinking that she might open this up to see an arm of one of the miners she had come down here with.
Gulping hard, she unraveled the reeds to reveal a strangely shaped fish.
It wasn’t as bad as she had expected. Jane was relieved that at least for the time being she wasn’t going to be eating someone that she knew. That thought wasn’t going to be tossed out of her head though. At some point, she very well might have to do that.
“Eat.” Ruric said quietly from where he sat.
“It’s rude to watch people eat,” she quipped.
Her stomach clenched hard as she remembered she hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. She didn’t let herself think that the fish was still raw nor did she let herself think about the pale pasty color it was. If it was half rotten she would have eaten it just to keep her strength.
Still she paused, looking at him for a moment.
“Are you going to eat?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He didn’t answer. It was good enough reason for her to dig in, even though she wasn’t expecting the best.
It was far from half rotten. Sweet against her tongue, she was surprised at how it didn’t taste like any of the fish she had eaten Above. Those had been dried so that they would last the trip across the sands this was… different.
She had expected it to be slimy, and while it slightly was, it was also smooth against it tongue. Easy to swallow. She had eaten a little more than half before she knew it and her stomach finally stopped complaining.
She took this moment to watch him, her eyes tracing the large bulk of his shoulder and inhuman movements.
Ruric had taken out that strange bit of crystal once again, his clawed fingers moving surprisingly well as he chipped away pieces. Jane didn’t know if she would ever get used to those sharp blades that were attached to him. He could tear her apart with just a touch and yet he always seemed to be so gentle with them. The fact that he could carve without scratching the crystal was a testament to his control.
“Where did you learn to speak my language?” She asked quietly.
He didn’t look up from his carving. “Micah.”
Now that there was more light she could see that every word he said forced his throat to bob. His lips struggled to form the sounds over teeth that were pointed.
“You understand it very well don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Is it hard for you to speak it because of your teeth?”
His tongue traced over the points. “Yes.”
“Is that why you don’t say full sentences?”
“Some.”
“Some.” She repeated quiet
ly, narrowing her eyes as she picked at a few pieces of the fish. “Does that mean it’s part of the reason why you don’t?”
He grumbled, the sound familiar enough to her now to know that it was an affirmation of what she was saying.
“Your language is very different from mine.”
“Yes.” The word was accompanied with the strange warbling laugh that the goblins seemed to have. It made shivers travel up her spine.
“Could I learn to speak it?”
She wasn’t going to be here long enough to learn it, not if she had her way. But Jane also understood that it would probably be good to understand at least a few words. She could use that to assist in her escape.
“No.”
She blinked in surprise at him.
“No?”
“No.” He repeated once more.
“Why not?”
“Hard.”
“Hard to teach me or hard to speak?” She asked. Her voice had risen in frustration until she saw him wince. She remembered then the younger goblin from the tunnel, the one whose ears had bleed when she had screamed.
“Both.”
“I’m sorry I’ll try to keep my voice down.” She said quieter. “Why is it hard for both?”
He leaned forward slightly, turning the crystal in his hand as his mouth formed the words before saying them. “Words. Hard. Human.”
“They would be difficult for me to say?”
He nodded.
She leaned back, one arm bracing herself against the end of the seat and the other holding the fish still in her lap. “Could I understand it at least?”
His hand raised, flattened, and rocked back and forth in the air.
“Sort of?” She asked in response.
“Sort of.”
It was a start. He couldn’t speak very easily it seemed, though she had hopes that with enough practice perhaps he could start stringing together words easier.
“Why sort of?”
“Sound.”
That gave her pause. What in the world could he mean by sound? Eventually though she snapped her fingers, the sound echoing in the cave. She leaned forward animatedly.