Among Races

Chapter XXXII: Kidnapped

            She slowly opens her eyes, yet she still sees darkness with only weak light coming from her small lamp attached to the bracelet she's wearing. "Ah... it's warm... ridiculously warm..." mumbles the little girl. She slowly pushes on the ground to lift her torso up, feeling a little ache from her limbs and back. She wipes sweat off her forehead as she says in a weak tone, "Ugh... Cry? David?" Wobbling a bit, the gnome stands. She feels her back with her hands, suddenly worried about whether she has her bow and arrows or not. "Phew..." she quietly says in relief. She lifts her wrist with the bracelet to try and see where she's going, or where she is even. She speaks up a bit louder, "Anyone?" "Ow!" someone with a rough yet child-like voice shouts as she accidentally steps on something in the dark. She lowers her wrist and attempts to see what she stepped on. "What the--? You again?!" says a young elf in frustration. At the sight before her, she rolls her eyes. "Oh look, it's Jean the jerk," Angela says, not showing any sign of concern whatsoever at the hand she just stepped on, as she begins to walk away with her chin up. "Wha- wait, wait, wait, wait!" says the elf to her. She stops on her tracks but does not turn to look at the boy. "Um..." he mumbles. With this, the gnome slightly looks over her shoulder and at the elf who's still on the ground, expecting something good to come out of his mouth. "... Where are we?" the boy ends up saying. The girl sighs as she rolls her eyes again at him and continues on walking away, yet still answers, "That's what I'm trying to find out." Just then, they hear echoing sobs. Alarmed, Angela quickly races her light toward its direction and readies her hand over her shoulder to reach for her bow and arrow. Not exactly knowing what to do , Jean gets up and rushes behind the gnome as he asks her, "Is it a ghost?!" "Shhh!" she says abruptly as she turns to him and lifts her index finger in front of her mouth. She looks back at the direction of the echoing sound and slowly takes a few steps forward. She speaks up, "Wh-who's there?" Suddenly, the sobbing stops. "Angela?" asks what sounds like a little girl. The small light they had slowly reaches and reveals four children sitting, with their knees up, on the ground and leaning on a wall made out of earth. One girl stands up and runs over to suddenly hug her while saying, "We've been here for hours! Maybe days, we don't know!" "Sammy?" Angela says in a bit of a surprise, "Are you guys okay? Who else are you with?" The little elf girl lets go of her and gestures to the others with her as she answers, "It's just me, Lacey, Tyler, and Spencer." Angela gazes over the other three and respectively sees another female elf, Sammy's identical twin sister who looks up at her with bawling eyes, an elf boy who seems to be comforting the previous girl, and a male gnome who's one seat apart from them. "Oh my god, you're bleeding!" Angela says as she hurries over to the boy separated to take a look at the wound on his forearm. Suddenly, Jean lets out a belly laugh and says mockingly, "You're with two girls, and you're the one who got hurt? That's embarrassing!" They both look at him for a moment, unimpressed, then return to their conversation, ignoring the bully. "No, not really. It's just a tiny scratch and it's turning into scab by now," the boy explains. Angela asks him, "Uh, Spencer, right?" The gnome boy answers, "Yeah, and you should check on Lacey instead. She's been crying for hours." With this, Angela looks over to the girl, seeing how she seems so terrified. The boy who's trying his best to comfort the poor girl says with worried eyes, "She won't stop crying..." Then, Angela asks the group with much confusion, "What happened here?" The children look at one another before Sammy replies, "We just woke up in here. We only heard each other's voices which helped us find each other. We were so scared because it was so dark! I'm glad you have that little light with you." Angela looks down at her bracelet, then says, "Yeah... Yeah, I'm glad too." As they notice her sudden silence, the children look at each other, slightly puzzled. With only the sobbing Lacey being heard, Jean suddenly snaps as he says, "Hey, could you shut up? I mean, I know that it's super scary and all, but geez you're so annoying!" "Lay off her, man," Tyler warns him. Jean suddenly gives him a threatening look as he slowly walks closer to him and says, "Did you say something, punk?" Tyler stands and replies, getting riled up,"We've got enough to deal with as it is! Don't drag us down into your little fantasy where you're some kind of control-freak king." "Say that one more time, I dare you," he says as he threatens him with a forceful push, making Tyler hit his back against the wall. Lacey quickly stands to run to her sister, while Spencer sighs as he stands up to avoid the incoming fight. Angela groans and says, "Jean, you idiot, stop--" Her sentence gets interrupted as they all turn to look at the direction of what sounded like twigs and leaves getting crushed, probably stepped on. Angela raises her bracelet once again as she braces herself for the worst while the others quickly huddle behind her, terrified of the unknown. Emerging from the darkness is another elf boy. Jean chuckles and says, "Oh man, it's the nerd of the class! Watch out, he might solve your problems!" The elf boy pushes his glasses up with his index finger, and says sarcastically in reply while gasping for a little air, "Terrific pun, J-Jean..." "Von!" Angela says out loud as she rushes toward him, "Are you okay?" "Y-yeah... It's just been tough trying to find help alone in total darkness," he answers and asks in more serious tone, "Did you see?" "See what?" asks Sammy as she comes closer with curiosity. "What?" Von says, seeming surprised and looks at each of them. He then asks, "None of you saw what happened?" "What happened?!" Jean and Tyler say simultaneously with their short temper. The two look at each other, slightly annoyed but mostly embarrassed for saying the same thing as the other. From the two elves, Angela returns her gaze to Von and asks calmly and seriously, "What happened?" Unable to believe that they have no idea, he breathes out through his nostrils in slight frustration, and answers, "I don't know about you guys, but when most of us woke up, there was still daylight." "Daylight?" Sammy asks, "So you know where we are?" "Well, as you might have noticed, the ground is dirt; meaning, we're outside and not in some kind of building. The wall over there is the bottom of a cliff, I believe," Von says as he points at the place where the group of four children were leaning on just a while ago. He continues, "I would say we're in a forest... but not the forest around the Kingdom of Solljus. The trees here seemed a whole lot taller, there were fewer bushes, and there were vines. I'm betting we're farther away from home than we thought." With these unforgiving words, even though Lacey hasn't exactly stopped tearing up, she begins to sob once again as she hugs her sister once again in fear. "I-It'll be okay, Lacey!" the twin says as she does her best to comfort her with a return of embrace. Tyler takes a step closer and says, "Yeah! Sir Björklund will save us in no time! Right, Angela?" "I'm sure he'll definitely come as soon as he can, but in the meantime, we have to help ourselves too. We need to be strong," she says in a comforting manner as she approaches the girl, "Can you be strong for us? For your sister? How about your family?" Lacey looks down to take a moment to think as she worries, then tries her best to reply with her soft voice, "O... Okay..." "That's great," Angela responds with a comforting smile. The little elf smiles back as she wipes her tears off. Von watches this happen, then speaks up, "I'm glad you guys got her to calm down, but... maybe don't let her listen to the next thing I'm about to say then." Angela turns around with her eyebrows together and asks about it, "What?" The boy returns a look of uneasiness at the group before answering, slightly hesitant, "Well..."