by Cara Wylde
She was panting too hard, and her heart was beating too wildly in her chest and ears for her to be able to hear what was going on behind her. She tried to focus and figure out if she was being followed, but there was no use. She needed to stop for more than three seconds to listen carefully to her surroundings, and she couldn’t afford to do that. It was too much of a risk. For now, she would run until her legs gave out.
When her hands, which she was holding extended in front of her, failed to meet the trunk of a tree for what seemed like a few minutes, Aileen stopped dead in her tracks. Her whole head was pounding with the sustained effort, but she noticed how silent the night was. She squeezed her green eyes into tiny slits, trying to make out where she was. It was so dark, and the moonlight didn’t even peek from between the branches of the tall, rich trees. She wished she had had her flashlight with her. That was when she remembered she kept her phone in her hip bag.
“Come on,” she whispered to herself while she struggled to open the bag, and dug in for her phone. It was turned off. “Come on!”
The screen flashed to life, and it was enough for Aileen to realize she was in the clearing they had found before calling it a day. She was right in the middle of it, and if she took a couple of steps to her left, she would reach the grove and the opening of the cave. She turned the flashlight on her phone on. A shudder ran up her spine, making her swallow heavily. She hadn’t been afraid a couple of hours ago, but it was probably way past midnight, and this place looked terrifying in the dead of the night. The last thing she wanted was to go inside the cave.
As she was considering her options, a noise came from the direction of the forest. Aileen immediately turned her flashlight off.
“Shit!”
It was clear now that someone had been following her, and they would be in the clearing soon. The man, or men, had surely seen the light of her phone and knew exactly where they would find her.
Aileen eyed the dark, threatening opening of the cave again, then looked back towards the trees.
“Shit!”
She really didn’t want to go inside. There was something about the cave, now. It looked scary, even though it hadn’t a couple of hours before. Like there was a presence that hadn’t been there when she had first found the clearing. She had no choice, though. She couldn’t start running again, as her legs and soles were already protesting. She couldn’t run forever. Also, she was pretty sure a woman couldn’t outrun a man, or more men, who were bent on catching her. At this point, the cave was her only option.
Aileen took a deep breath and stepped carefully towards the black hole of the entrance.
“There’s nothing there,” she whispered. “It’s just dark and cold, but there’s nothing there. Just a cave. You’ve explored caves before, Aileen.”
She tried to ignore the small detail that the caves she had explored before had all been especially prepared for guided tours. She stopped in front of the opening and peered inside. She would have given anything to be able to use her flashlight again and see what was waiting for her in there, but she couldn’t afford to let herself be spotted by her pursuers. If she wasn’t afraid to enter the cave, then why would they be? She had to use it as a place to hide, not point them right towards it. Another noise came from behind her, and it sounded closer than the last one she had heard. It urged her to take one last deep breath and step inside the darkness.
“There’s nothing here,” she thought. “Nothing here.” Those two words became her mantra.
It was weird how just a couple of hours ago she had actually wanted to find something here. An empty cave would have been such a disappointment. The Guardian, the Golden Fleece, anything! Now, as she was stepping deeper and deeper into the darkness, Aileen wished there was no Guardian and no Golden Fleece. Or, well, okay… if she could find the artifact without having to deal with a Guardian, that would have been just dandy.
When she was sure she was far away from the entrance, she used her hands to feel the wall on her right. The stone was cold but, fortunately, dry. She allowed herself to fall to the ground, where she wrapped her arms around her knees and starting rocking back and forth in an attempt to calm herself down. The “nothing here” mantra was still playing in her head.
Soon, Aileen heard someone stepping closer to the entrance of the cave, stopping, then pacing a bit, reluctantly. She held her breath, afraid any noise she might make would give her position away. Her lungs had started to burn when the stranger decided to walk away. From what she could hear, there were probably two men. They either thought they had lost her and she would have never had the guts to seek refuge inside the dark cave, or they knew she was there, but didn’t feel comfortable going in after her.
“Smart guys,” she though.
When she was sure they were far away, she allowed herself to breathe normally. She looked around the cave, trying to figure out how tall the ceiling was. There was no use. It was so dark that she could barely see one foot ahead. She didn’t dare turn around and look inside the cave. Now, with her pursuers gone, she could take out her phone, turn her flashlight on, and take a good look at what lay behind her. The prospect of doing that paralyzed her with fear, though. No, she couldn’t do it. She would simply sit there, curled up in a ball, and wait for the sun to come up. Actually, she would even move closer to the entrance of the cave. The moment she felt some of the fresh air hit her cheeks, she stopped and decided it was the best spot she could find. She took a few minutes to tie her shoelaces and secure her bag around her hips, then leaned against the wall and started counting to 100, then back to 1, just to fill her mind with something other than worries about her team and what might lie hidden deep inside the cave.
CHAPTER FIVE
Aileen’s exercise in counting didn’t quite work. No matter how hard she tried to calm her nerves and think clearly, thoughts of what had happened to Nadia, Josh, and Luka tortured her. What if they were dead? What if they were being tortured to tell their attackers where she was? It wasn’t like they knew…
“This is insane,” she whispered under her breath.
She hugged her knees tighter to her chest and tried to come up with solutions. What could she do now?
“Wait here until morning.”
Then what?
“Rescue them.”
The moment the words left her lips, she almost burst out in bitter laughter. She stopped herself in time. The last thing she needed was to rise an echo within the depths of the cave and the mountain. She shook her head, and a tear fell down her cheek.
“I’m just one. One woman. How am I supposed to fight God knows how many men and save my team?”
The other solution was to call for help. But how? The village was four days away, and the hike there was anything but easy. Also, she needed supplies, food, water, clothes… her tent, her sleeping bag. They were all at the camp, and without them Aileen had no chance of reaching the village. Another tear made its way down her dirty cheek.
“What am I going to do? Oh God, what am I going to do?”
She was tired, her feet were sore, and her calves were cramping from the brisk run. She swallowed heavily and realized she was dying of thirst. If she kept crying, she would only dehydrate her whole body faster. She sniffed loudly and wiped her eyes and nose with her sleeve. There was no used thinking of solutions now. All she could do was try to rest, regain her strength, and hope something better would come to her in the morning. After all, there was an old saying which encouraged people to “sleep on it” when they dealt with something bigger than them.
“Yeah, sleep on it. That’s what I’m going to do.”
But sleep didn’t come easily. The huddled position was giving her a backache, but not even that could convince her to relax and spread her legs. She would have only felt more exposed if she did. Resting her head on her knees, she started counting again. When, once more, counting failed to distract her heated mind and bring about the much needed sleep, she went back
to her mantra: “nothing here, nothing here.” Eventually, her breathing slowed down, and her arms relaxed around her knees. She was well propped against the cave wall so she wouldn’t fall over.
Aileen’s fears and worries didn’t forgive her as she slipped into a heavy dream, which quickly turned into a nightmare. She was running from a group of men. They were, probably, a dozen, and they were all after her. They were shouting her name and ordering her to stop and give them what they wanted. When a long, thick tree root tripped her and she fell to the ground, the dark faces of the men were all over her. Their hands were pulling at her hair and clothes, and they kept telling her to give them what they wanted.
“I don’t know what you want! Leave me alone! I don’t know what you want!”
Aileen woke up with a startle. For a moment, she couldn’t remember where she was, and the darkness around her paralyzed her with terror. Then, little by little, it all came back to her, and she relaxed. She even gathered enough courage to stretch her arms above her head, making her shoulders and back pop pleasantly. She stretched her legs, too, before bringing her knees back to her chest. She could see outside the cave, and it was still dark. She thought about checking her phone to see what time it was, but then changed her mind. She had to trust the sunrise would make its appearance soon. She didn’t want to check the time and see there were still something like three or four hours left. Right now, she preferred hope over reality.
She dozed off again, in the same unfortunate position, against the cold wall. Her last thought was about finding a way to rescue her team, and that thought only spiraled down in a nightmare with blood and corpses all over the camp the moment Aileen abandoned herself to her subconscious. She moaned in her sleep, then started crying silently. She couldn’t wake up, this time. Her body and mind were too tired to pull her out of the nightmare, so the only solution she was left with was to embrace it and try to process the tragedy. After all, it couldn’t be far from what had really happened at the camp.
When she finally woke up, the sun was sending thin, warm rays all over the floor of the cave. They stretched at her feet, but stopped abruptly where the darkness was still too thick to penetrate. Aileen held her breath and didn’t dare move. She hadn’t woken up because the sun had shyly invaded the entrance of the cave. She had woken up because she was finally feeling warm. No, hot. She was feeling hot. Her entire back was so hot that she was afraid her skin might soon start sizzling.
“This isn’t right,” she thought.
She closed her eyes and focused on that feeling, trying to determine where it had come from. It didn’t make sense. The wall and the floor were still cold and, normally, she should have been freezing by now. It was as if she was sitting with her back to a dry sauna. She had always hated dry saunas…
Aileen swallowed hard, trying to convince the lump in her throat to allow her to breathe again. She opened her eyes and decided there was no other way. She had to turn around and see what was happening behind her, what the thing which was making her sweat bullets was. It was either that, or she could stand up and run out of the cave, hoping whatever was behind her was inanimate and wouldn’t follow her. The harder she thought about it, the more she believed the latter was the better solution. However, there was something that was pulling her towards the depths of the cave, just like she had felt the day before, when she had first discovered it. The attraction to whatever lay there, in the freezing darkness, was too much to handle, impossible to ignore or oppose.
Slowly, Aileen turned around. She kept her arms around her knees, although that wasn’t a good position in case she had to bolt up and run. The first thing she saw was a pair of big, leathery feet ending in sharp, black talons.
“Holy shit,” she thought.
That was the last thing her mind could come up with before it shut off completely.
The claws were covered in small, golden scales, and the same scales covered the strong legs, the broad chest, and the long neck Aileen saw when she dared to look up from where she was sitting. A dragon. A golden dragon with pale blue eyes that were almost white was staring down at her. At least, now she could see how tall the ceiling was: tall enough so a dragon could fit inside the cave. The heat she was now feeling on her face, too, was coming from the dragon’s skin and scales, from the fire burning inside his chest, ready to be released through mouth and nostrils if the dragon so pleased.
For a long moment, Aileen looked into the pale blue eyes, and the eyes stared back into hers. Then, the beast straightened its back, stretched its wings, and let out an earth-shattering roar.
Aileen passed out.
CHAPTER SIX
Aileen groaned and tried to sit up. Pain shot through her back, as if she had been smashed against a wall. She was afraid to open her eyes. She knew where she was: inside her worst nightmare. She hadn’t even known this was her worst nightmare, until she started living it. She used her fingers and palms to explore the floor around her. Just as she had thought, she was still inside the cave. As she focused on sniffing the stale air and listening to the soft sound of water flowing somewhere far away, Aileen checked her whole body for possible injuries. She moved her legs, and gave a sigh of relief when she found out they were fine, that she could feel them and use them. When her senses began to get used to her surroundings, she opened her eyes.
For now, there was no golden dragon in sight. She was alone in a dark room with a tall ceiling and no windows. She pushed herself up, and moaned in disappointment when she saw she was not in a room, but a cell. It was quite small and cramped, too. It looked like it had been naturally sculpted by water, and someone just added the final touch: a sturdy set of iron bars to block the opening.
“No,” Aileen whispered. “This isn’t happening.”
She stood up, went to the bars, wrapped her fingers around the cold iron, and started pulling and pushing with all her might. The thing didn’t even budge. What was even more worrisome was that it didn’t look like a door. The bars had no handle and no lock, which meant the only way to get out was to remove them completely. That gave Aileen another idea. She took a step back, then slammed herself against the bars. Sharp pain shot through her right shoulder. She cradled her right arm gently, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. Well, that had proved to be an unfortunate idea. She didn’t think she would try it a second time.
“What do I do now? Shit. What do I do?”
She started rocking back and forth, then abruptly stopped. She was behaving like a hopeless victim. Aileen had never been a victim. Not even when she was a kid, way before her mother decided to screw the prophecy and change her daughter’s life completely. Change it not for the better, but for the best.
With trembling fingers, she patted the hip bag. The bottle was still there. Just to be sure, she unzipped the bag and slipped her fingers inside the inner pocket to check the scroll. Yes, it was still there, intact. At least there was that. Her phone was nowhere to be found, though. She had probably lost it at the entrance of the cave, when she had passed out.
Right. She had passed out.
Aileen’s whole body shuddered when she remembered why she had lost consciousness so suddenly. It was the first time in her life when something like this happened to her, and she couldn’t say she was glad to have discovered just what it felt like. When the dragon had stretched its wings and roared at her, she had genuinely thought she would die. She could swear the beast had decided to turn her into breakfast and was getting ready to roast her right on the spot. Apparently, that hadn’t been the plan. The thing had taken her in this cell and locked her up. Maybe it liked something lighter for breakfast and wanted to save her for lunch or dinner? Aileen shook her head. Thinking along these lines didn’t do her any good.
“All right. There has to be a way out of here.”
She started pacing the floor. Her eyes were getting used to the darkness. She liked to believe it was the middle of the day, but she couldn’t be sure. As far as she could
tell, her cell was pretty deep inside the cave. The sun never penetrated these walls. The sound of flowing water made her lick her parched lips. She was thirsty, but not hungry.
“I’m not going to die here,” she said, louder this time.
Her voice echoed through the empty halls. For a moment, she wondered whether there was a chance that her team might come looking for her. Then, she remembered they were all probably dead, or held prisoners. In that case, maybe the attackers would venture inside the cave in hopes of finding her? If they really wanted her, or something she had on her, then they wouldn’t give up that easily, would they? She laughed at her train of thought. This was ridiculous. She was actually wishing she were with the men who attacked her camp. Even they were better than a freaking dragon. They were humans, they could be hurt. Aileen had some idea of how she could protect herself against them, even if that idea was just kicking her arms and legs in their general direction. But a dragon? How in hell did one deal with an ancient dragon?
She was going insane. She started pacing back and forth faster, with more determined steps.
“There has to be a way out.”
This time, there was something about the echo of her voice that she liked. Clearly, she was in danger just by being there. The dragon had locked her up for a reason. It would be back soon. Why not now?
Aileen went back to the iron bars and grabbed two with her hands. Her right shoulder was still throbbing from her earlier attempt to break free. She looked between the bars, but it was too dark to distinguish much. More likely, there was only another cold wall in front of her. The cave seemed tall and wide enough for a dragon to stroll down its halls with its wings at least half stretched.
“Hello!”
The echo bounced off the walls, filling the insides of the mountain.
“I know you’re here, somewhere.” Aileen couldn’t believe how bold she was being. “I don’t know what you want from me, but if there’s something you want to do to me, just get it over with. Just…” Her voice broke. “Don’t let me rot in here. Don’t let me die of thirst and hunger.”