Wings Of Fire: Heart of Oak

The Abyss

Holly's POV

"Wren!", Holly yelled. She poked her head out of the gap.
"There were humans here, and they took Dusky!"

In the resulting confusion, she heard Sky yell "No, Wren! Please!" And Umber say "We have to!" And Luna venting to Bryony about how worried she was for her little's friend.
And then Wren was there in the passageway way with Holly, and they ran in the direction the humans had gone.

"Why did they take him?", Wren asked as they hurried down the tunnel.
"What did they say? Could you understand anything of it?"

"No! This makes absolutely no sense!"

The only thing Holly focused on was the faint light of Dusky's flamesilk bracelet.
She tried to run faster, but soon, she had to slow down, so that she wouldn't run into a rock.

"I think one of them said 'Abyss'!", Cricket said, panting behind them.

"It's weird", Wren said breathlessly, " that they would take a baby dragon, when there's a bigger dragon right there. I mean, if they assume you're his mom, they'd obviously expect you to chase them, and probably eat them. So, if they were smart, they'd drop him, an dthen, they'd have a better chance of escaping!"

The tunnel zigged and zagged, and the humans kept turning into other branches, and a few times, Holly nearly lost sight of them

"If the humans knew these caves well, they should have been able to loose us by now", Wren said, stopping to rest one hand on a wall. She was panting so hard, it sounded like she was about to die of exhaustion.
"Sorry- just so tired- you go - ahead."

Holly lifted her onto her back.

"I need you to translate what they're saying. And besides, Sky would murder me in my sleep if I left you."
Wren didn't agrue, and they set off runing again.

The ground kept slanting down, each turn bringing them deeper, and deeper into the earth.

As Holly's eyes adjusted to the deepening darkness, she suddenly realized that there was a sickly green light up ahead of them.
And . . . whispers.

It was hard to tell, but the sound got louder, until they entered a large cavern, a plateau of bolders.
The plateau overlooked a jagged slash in the heart of the planet, a stab - wound in the stone, that plunged down, down, down, so far, it made Holly want to go to sleep.

The Abyss.
They'd found it.

Holly hugged Bait's puch around her neck as she slowed down.

The darkness.
It felt as though it wanted to swallow them whole.

And then Holly saw the humans on the other side, close to the edge, as the girl human, the one with the feathers, cut the net with her knife.

"Don't let him fall!", the dragon yelled.
"He can't fly! Please!"

The girl looked up at her, and said something to the other one, who shook his head.

"She told him to run", Wren whispered,
"But he won't leave her. Holly, I think this is some kind of trap. I think Dusky was bait."

"Bait for what?", Holly asked.
"I don't see anything that could hurt us."

Wren slid off Holly's back and stepped towards the humans, holding out her hands, palms outward.
She called out, and both humans stared at her.

"Here we go", Wren said with a sigh.
"I'm going to try to talk them down, but it would help if you could look a bit more threatening."

Oh.
Uhhh . . .
Not knowing what else to do, Holly spread her wings, in an attempt to appear larger, and glowered.