Amelia Merlin and the Songs of the Elves

Chapter Sixteen: The Caves of Arlo and Errour

Moira and Isaac were nearing the Caves of Arlo. The terrain around them had grown rocky and the only plant life was small pink flowers shoving their way out of crevices in the rock or a bright red moss that permeated the stones. They had to leave their horses back at the nearest village and do the rest on foot. They were both sweating profusely from the heat and the steep inclines.

"How close are we?" Isaac tried not to groan. His face was beet red and although Moira was breathing heavily, she looked fine.

"We're almost there. The entrance to the caves is around the back of that boulder there."

Their feet fell heavily on the rocks as they clambered around to the other side of the boulder. Moira helped Isaac across and the entrance became apparent the moment the saw it. A giant gaping hole in the side of the rock face could only mean one thing.

"The Caves of Arlo," Isaac pointed to the entrance then blushed immediately after he realized how obvious that was.

"Yes," Moira kept a small grin off her face and Isaac was grateful she didn't make fun of him.

"Do you want to go in?"

"That is what we're here to do," she nodded and drew her sword and a torch. It was the most beautiful work of craftsmanship he had seen. The handle was silver with small blue gemstones pressed into it and carvings around the hilt. A bear's head made up the very end of the handle and the blade was long and perfectly balanced. "Get your sword out."

Isaac drew his much less impressive sword from its sheath and followed Moira into the caves. She lit the torch and Isaac blinked in the darkness. The Caves of Arlo were grimy and the ceiling was so low he had to duck his head. A small dripping noise was the only thing he could hear besides his feet hitting the ground. Moira was silent, no noise was made when she stepped and he couldn't actually tell if she was holding her breath or not.

"Stay behind me," she whispered to him. "Errour is here and she's a nasty one."

"Errour?"

"The woman who's guarding the White Gems of Lasgelan. Well, I say woman but I mean monster," Moira said casually and Isaac felt his heart rate skyrocket.

"Monster?" he hissed and she shot him a look that shut him up immediately. He gripped his sword tightly and remembered that staying behind Moira was probably the best course of action.

They walked silently for a while longer until they turned a corner and there she was. Errour sat in the darkness of the caves; she sat in the slime of the caves. Where her legs should have been was a long serpent's tail that wound around and around her body, encasing her in some sort of reptilian nest. She turned and looked at them, her tongue flickered like a snake's and she screamed at them a high pitched noise that almost deafened him.

Isaac pressed his hands over his ears and backed away from the snake lady but Moira Monatheon charged forward. With her sword and torch raised high, she was the only light in the darkness of the caves. His back pressed against the wall of a cave and for a moment he watched her. He couldn't help but watch this fantastical woman as she swung the torch in a fiery arc towards Errour who backed away, still screaming, and Moira didn't flinch. Her eyes narrowed and she was a warrior and her feet danced around the monster and every blow she delivered was with perfect execution. Errour didn't stand a chance until she opened her mouth.

Hundreds of tiny monsters poured from the monster's mouth and flowed over the floor of the cave. Isaac had to step in. He charged just like he had seen Moira do and distantly heard her yelling at him to get back but he ignored it. Adrenaline propelled him forward like some divine power and he could see Errour's head and he knew exactly where he should drive his sword into and he was almost there and-

And then the reptilian tail unraveled itself and whipped Isaac in the chest so hard he smacked back into the wall and slid to the floor unconscious.

When he woke up he was lying on the ground and staring at the sky through the gaps in the leaves of the trees. He could feel a bandage tightly wrapped around his head with some sort of poultice on his temple. Isaac started to sit up but a hand pressed down on his shoulder. Moira appeared in his line of vision. Her dark hair was so long it almost tickled his face. She had a long cut that stretched across her chin up to her eyebrow. It too had a poultice on it which made it some nasty yellow colour.

She smiled as she said, "You shouldn't get up. You took a pretty good hit there."

"Are you okay?"

Moira laughed a little bit and it was the first time he'd ever heard it. It was a barking laugh that most women would have been embarrassed by but Moira owned it. "Yeah, thanks for your concern."

"Sorry I was so shit in there. You were amazing," he gushed. He didn't care that he had been completely useless, he was so in awe of Moira Monatheon. "You really were."

"Thanks. You were brace too. Stupid and kind of pathetic with a sword, but brave," she smirked and then her face disappeared from over him and he was back to looking at trees. He could still hear her working close by and she said, "We got them, by the way."

"Got what?"

"The Gems, you idiot."

"Gems?"

"Did you lose all your memory when you got hit on the head? The Gems! The White Gems of Lasgelan, the whole point of our quest."

"Oh. Oh! Right! Okay, I remember now," he blushed. "How did you get those?"

"I killed Errour and then shoved her body aside so I could get the gems. They were sitting underneath her," she said nonchalantly. 

"Oh, come on, Moira!" Isaac begged. 

"What?" she said. 

"You have to tell me more! I want all the fantastic details of your epic victory!" he chuckled. 

"Don't be stupid."

"I'm serious! I need to know! How are they going to write songs about you if you won't tell me the story?"

"Are you going to write the songs?"

"Gods, no. You deserve better than that."

"Okay, but I'm only telling you once. And then we are going back to Imladris to give the elves their precious stones back."

"I'll remember every word of it, I promise."