A Second Chance

Chapter 3

After seven and a half (approximately) minutes, Emma decided that she disliked dungeons. Immensely.

She had been dragged back to a huge palace made of roots and hauled across bridges made of roots, all the while observing her surroundings, most of which, were made of roots.

Eventually they had reached a large, slightly dirty, a lot damp, semi-dark room. It was made mostly of roots. What was with the roots? Not that she minded, but this was a little ridiculous. Of course she then noticed the cells and deduced that this room was a dungeon.

Unfortunately for the guards that were dragging her, she had talked the entire time they were moving, "Why am I being brought to a dungeon?"

No answer.

"Does that elf king plan on releasing me at some point?"

Still no answer. Disgruntled by her lack of response, Emma had tried some a ridiculous question, "What are your names?"

Nothing.

"I'll have to give you names if you don't tell me your real ones."

Silence.

"Fine! I'll call you on the left, Carl and you on the right Zippy."

This time both of the guards had rolled their eyes, though the one on the left looked faintly amused. Score 1 Emma. she had thought smugly.

Emma sighed and thunked her head onto her knees. It was so boring down here... She heard a creak and saw the guard she had designated as Zippy, walking towards her with a tray.

"Oh yay! Food!" she shouted joyfully.

Zippy rolled his eyes and opened the door, shoving the tray inside. Emma grabbed it and immediately started snarfing it down. Looking up, she saw that he was still standing there (he looked a little disgusted). Raising her eyebrows she asked, "And you want...?"

He shook his head a little (probably to get the disgusting image of her eating out) and said, "The Elvenking wishes to speak with you when you are finished... eating."

Stuffing another bite of salad in her mouth (just to annoy him) she said, "Ok. Almost done. Though I do not plan on cooperating."

Zippy looked like he was about to say something, but seemed to think better of it, choosing to just stand there silently and watch her eat. Emma briefly thought about how it was a little creepy to have somebody just stand there and watch her eat. Who does that? She mentally sniggered, apparently elvish guards named Zippy did. She wondered how many elves were named Zippy...

Banishing the thought lest she burst into hysterical laughter, Emma got up and said, "All done. Bring me to his Royal Eyebrowness." Zippy scowled, but nevertheless opened the cell door and grabbed her arm, guiding her towards the dungeon door.

"Hey, hey, hey! No need to man-handle me! Or is it elf-handle? Do you know?" Emma said. Zippy just rolled his eyes.

Outside they were joined by Carl and Emma said brightly, "Oh, hi Carl! I was just asking Zippy here if your term for being roughly jerked around was man-handled or elf-handled. Would you happen to know the answer? Zippy seems a little slow."

Carl bowed a little, looking extremely amused, "Well my lady, if Zippy seems a little slow, then I shall indeed answer the question. I believe the term is man-handled, though now that I think about it, I am not sure why."

Zippy groaned and said, "Please don't encourage her, Arntel."

Carl (he would always be Carl to Emma now) feigned surprise, "Why Zippy! I was under the impression that my name was Carl!"