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‘We’re here,’ he said. ‘The Mines of Mildiana. Dwarf kingdom.’ They were staring at a gaping hole in the cliff they had been headed for. It looked like a crack in the skin of rock. A chasm.
‘Well,’ what are you waiting for?’ Arkenstein said. ‘Come on, let’s go!’ Declan shook himself out of his stupor, and followed Arkenstein into the fissure.
Arkenstein lit a lantern, and walked through the small passageway behind the fissure. Declan followed him. Soon, they started seeing bones. Entire Snakehead skeletons, stuck between axes, dead in pits, Even suffocated in sand. Declan started feeling like they weren’t exactly wanted here. As they passed a particularly grisly scene with two decomposing Snakeheads stuck between pillars of rock, Arkenstein stopped again.
‘No more Snakeheads,’ Arkenstein said. ‘Get ready for traps.’ They walked slowly forward, Arkenstein looking forward at the ground, at the walls, at the ceiling. Then, he stopped.
‘Pit. Right in front of us. Too wide to jump,’ he said.
‘What will we do?’ Declan asked. Then he quickly added, ‘idiot.’
‘Well, traps are made to be fallen into,’ Arkenstein shrugged. ‘I think the Dwarves want us to starve to death, more’s the pain. So…’ and he jumped, straight forward, and disappeared from sight. Moments later, there was a thump, and a cry of pain.
‘It’s safe!’ Arkenstein called up. ‘a bit deep, but it should be fine.’
A bit deep was an understatement, as Declan found out, as he plunged through the darkness. He screamed as fell for a while, before thumping down on something soft and sticky.
‘It seems I was a bit wrong in my assumption,’ Arkenstein’s voice came out of the darkness, as he held up the lantern to illuminate their surroundings. ‘The Dwarves don’t want us to starve. The want us to die. Die in a grisly way. If I’m not mistaken, this is the lair of Verdinag.
‘Who’s…’ began Declan asked. But his question was answered, as a loud click-clacking came out of the darkness, and a gigantic spider came out of the darkness, white as marble, eyes red as blood, fangs gleaming and dripping with poison.
‘State your business, or Verdinag will strike!’ a voice cried from the darkness. ‘It will be a painful process where your skin melts off your bones. You don’t want to feel it.’
Chapter 6: the Burndalog
As Declan squinted, he could make out a small, squat figure on the back of the giant albino spider. It had brown dirt coloured skin, grey stone coloured hair, and light brown clothing. Its nose stuck out quite far from its head, and its mouth leered out at them from the darkness.
‘Thank goodness!’ Arkenstein cried from beside Declan. ‘It’s you! I haven’t seen you for years, Drindik!’
‘That’s your own fault!’ Drindik yelled back. ‘How could we let you back when you de—’
‘Nothing about that now!’ Arkenstein quickly said. ‘That was in the past, Drindik, the past! And I only squished 2!’
‘They were the only ones we had!’ raged Drindik. ‘We had to go up to the High Emperor King Chieftain Cool Dude to get another evsanlius, and it took ages to breed. We had to spend 5 years, 5 YEARS, without the help of the evsanlius to give us the life-giving milk! And we lost a lot of our treasure on that day too, seeing as you knocked it down the abyss of death!’
‘Yes, but I apologized,’ said Arkenstein a bit sulkily. ‘And besides, treasure isn’t everything.’ ‘TREASURE ISN’T EVERYTHING?’ Drindik bellowed. ‘TREASURE ISN’T EVERYTHING? TREASURE IS EVERYTHING, ALTHOUGH YOU WOULDN’T KNOW A THING ABOUT TREASURE!’ Arkenstein seemed to get angry at that.
‘YOU THINK I’M POOR?’ he yelled.
‘YES, I DO THINK YOU’RE POOR!’ Drindik yelled back. ‘AND YOU’RE NOT IN A POSITION TO BE YELLING! I COULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!’ Arkenstein laughed.
‘You and I both know that you wouldn’t,’ he said easily, not yelling anymore.
‘You don’t know what I’m capable of!’ Drindik snarled. And with that, she yelled, ‘Verdinag, pick them up and take them to the Burndalog! Let us see whether these two will be our friends, or enemies.’ Arkenstein groaned and struggled.
‘Not the Burndalog! Anything but the Burndalog!’ he pleaded. For the first time since meeting Arkenstein, Declan thought he detected fear in his voice, and though it seemed that they were headed to a terrible fate, he still enjoyed Arkenstein’s fear as they were carried off by the spider into the darkness.
They travelled over the web for what seemed like hours, but was probably minutes. And all the while, Arkenstein moaned and wailed and pleaded, until even Arkenstein’s fear couldn’t cheer Declan up.
‘Uh, Arkenidiot?’ Declan asked. ‘What’s the Burndalog?’
‘It’s…’ Arkenstein said shakily, ‘it’s…it’s a feeling. It makes you want to curl up, and never live again. It makes you want to tear yourself to bits. It makes you want to die.’ And at those words, Declan was pleading, and moaning, and thrashing just as hard as Arkenstein, while Drindik looked on and laughed. Soon, they came to the edge of the web, and Verdinag flung them onto the ground. Declan stood up, and looked around. They were in dwarf kingdom.
Everything was stone. Everything was brown or black. It was the calmest place Declan had found in this world. And he liked it. Dwarves swarmed to the two travellers, all chanting, ‘Burndalog! Burndalog!’ They were dragged to the mouth of a large cave.
In the cave, there was a small dwarf.
‘So, who will it be?’ he asked, without turning. Arkenstein cowered, then quickly said, ‘not it!’ Declan groaned inside, muttered, ‘coward!’ and turned to the dwarf. If he knew what he was facing, he would have lay there and never moved. The dwarf waved his hand, and armour came down from a shelf, and landed on Declan.
‘Hey! What?’ the dwarf ignored him. Next, he held out two weapons, a spear and an axe.
‘Which one?’ the dwarf said. Declan tested the spear, and immediately the dwarf took the axe away.
‘Wait, but!’
‘Get him!’ the dwarf said. A dwarf twice as big as Drindik picked Declan up, and threw him down a slope. Declan tried to stop his downward decent, but he picked up speed, and fell into the arena.
Declan wished he had picked the axe, but he had got the spear. He looked around. There were burning logs everywhere. In the centre was a shining diamond encrusted cup.
‘HELLO! HELLO! CAN YOU HEAR ME!’ boomed a loud voice. ‘IT DOESEN’T MATTER ANYWAY. YOUR GOAL IS TO GET THE CUP. JUST PICK IT UP. BEGINS IN 3, 2, 1.’ Then, out of the blue, completely unanticipated, Declan was hit by a wave of pain. He fell to the ground, screaming, feeling so much remorse about what he had inflicted on others. the spear clattered to the ground next to him. At that moment, he would have loved to just turn back time so he could change his actions. And he knew the only thing that could cause this emotion was one of the story stones. The one he needed to get to save the world. The one he needed so he could get out of this place. Then, Verdinag jumped down from the roof of the cavern, and landed in front of the cup. Declan lay on the ground, and watched through streaming eyes as he saw the giant spider approach, dripping venom on the ground, clicking in triumph.
Chapter 7: Death by Remorse, or Spider.
Verdinag sped through the burning logs, and Declan watched, pain stricken, willing his body to move. Finally, it did, and Declan was able to stand up, and when he did, he was so dizzy from the effort that he promptly fell over again, hitting a burning log, and knocking it in the spider’s path. It screeched, and reared onto its 4 back legs, waving the other 4 in the air.
‘Thank goodness that dwarf gave me this armour,’ Declan thought, as he watched the fire slide off it. The heat was just another pain that was dwarfed by the power of the Emotion Stone. Declan stood up shakily again, and realized that the spider was afraid of fire. It was still reared up, staring down at the fire with its red eyes, transfixed. Declan staggered over to another log, and shoved it over towards Verdinag. The spider screeched. Now two sides were obscured by fire. This time, bare skin touched the log, and Declan felt a jolt of pain. He tried to scream, but realized he was still screaming from before. Falling to his knees, Declan rolled on the ground until the fire went out, and tried to tone out the sound of his own screaming while he crawled to the next log closest to him. The pain generating from the Emotion Stone was getting worse. He shoved it over as well, and it landed just far away enough for Verdinag to be able to leap out of his prison of fire. The albino spider advanced, and Declan, shaking now, stood up, and stumbled towards the cup. Then, he could go on no further. He collapsed, shaking, writhing, and watched as the spider approached him. Then, he heard a voice. Not the dwarf’s voice, a familiar voice.
‘Come on, Declan! Stand up and get to the cup! Death by spider is worse than death by remorse! Move! Your! Butt!’ It was Arkenstein. Declan somehow found the strength in him to stand up. He half ran, half limped towards the cup, the power of the stone growing stronger as he got closer to the cup. Finally, he was right in front of the cup. Verdinag was right behind him. Just as Declan picked up the cup, Verdinag pounced, and the world went black around Declan.
Declan woke up in a stone hut, on a stone bed, with his body aching all over, and feeling as though he wanted to lie somewhere more comfortable. The remorse was gone, but Declan could still feel the aftereffects. The stone hadn’t so much tortured him, as shown him what it felt like to be bullied. It had made him see things from the bullied people’s side. He felt weak. Then, he was knocked of the bed as 50 Kg of Arkenstein bowled him over.
‘You feeling alright?’ Arkenstein asked anxiously, completely ignoring the fact he had just knocked Declan off a hard stone bed onto a harder stone floor.
‘Yeah, I’m alright,’ Declan said, standing up, and rubbing his ribs. ‘How about you?’ Arkenstein stared in astonishment at Declan.
‘What?’ Declan asked.
‘It’s just…’ Arkenstein said. ‘Who are you and what did you do with the real Declan? That is the first time I have heard you ask me how I felt! This is a breakthrough! Life is great! And you got the cup!’ Declan smiled.
‘Well,’ what are you waiting for?’ Arkenstein said. ‘Come on, let’s go!’ Declan shook himself out of his stupor, and followed Arkenstein into the fissure.
Arkenstein lit a lantern, and walked through the small passageway behind the fissure. Declan followed him. Soon, they started seeing bones. Entire Snakehead skeletons, stuck between axes, dead in pits, Even suffocated in sand. Declan started feeling like they weren’t exactly wanted here. As they passed a particularly grisly scene with two decomposing Snakeheads stuck between pillars of rock, Arkenstein stopped again.
‘No more Snakeheads,’ Arkenstein said. ‘Get ready for traps.’ They walked slowly forward, Arkenstein looking forward at the ground, at the walls, at the ceiling. Then, he stopped.
‘Pit. Right in front of us. Too wide to jump,’ he said.
‘What will we do?’ Declan asked. Then he quickly added, ‘idiot.’
‘Well, traps are made to be fallen into,’ Arkenstein shrugged. ‘I think the Dwarves want us to starve to death, more’s the pain. So…’ and he jumped, straight forward, and disappeared from sight. Moments later, there was a thump, and a cry of pain.
‘It’s safe!’ Arkenstein called up. ‘a bit deep, but it should be fine.’
A bit deep was an understatement, as Declan found out, as he plunged through the darkness. He screamed as fell for a while, before thumping down on something soft and sticky.
‘It seems I was a bit wrong in my assumption,’ Arkenstein’s voice came out of the darkness, as he held up the lantern to illuminate their surroundings. ‘The Dwarves don’t want us to starve. The want us to die. Die in a grisly way. If I’m not mistaken, this is the lair of Verdinag.
‘Who’s…’ began Declan asked. But his question was answered, as a loud click-clacking came out of the darkness, and a gigantic spider came out of the darkness, white as marble, eyes red as blood, fangs gleaming and dripping with poison.
‘State your business, or Verdinag will strike!’ a voice cried from the darkness. ‘It will be a painful process where your skin melts off your bones. You don’t want to feel it.’
Chapter 6: the Burndalog
As Declan squinted, he could make out a small, squat figure on the back of the giant albino spider. It had brown dirt coloured skin, grey stone coloured hair, and light brown clothing. Its nose stuck out quite far from its head, and its mouth leered out at them from the darkness.
‘Thank goodness!’ Arkenstein cried from beside Declan. ‘It’s you! I haven’t seen you for years, Drindik!’
‘That’s your own fault!’ Drindik yelled back. ‘How could we let you back when you de—’
‘Nothing about that now!’ Arkenstein quickly said. ‘That was in the past, Drindik, the past! And I only squished 2!’
‘They were the only ones we had!’ raged Drindik. ‘We had to go up to the High Emperor King Chieftain Cool Dude to get another evsanlius, and it took ages to breed. We had to spend 5 years, 5 YEARS, without the help of the evsanlius to give us the life-giving milk! And we lost a lot of our treasure on that day too, seeing as you knocked it down the abyss of death!’
‘Yes, but I apologized,’ said Arkenstein a bit sulkily. ‘And besides, treasure isn’t everything.’ ‘TREASURE ISN’T EVERYTHING?’ Drindik bellowed. ‘TREASURE ISN’T EVERYTHING? TREASURE IS EVERYTHING, ALTHOUGH YOU WOULDN’T KNOW A THING ABOUT TREASURE!’ Arkenstein seemed to get angry at that.
‘YOU THINK I’M POOR?’ he yelled.
‘YES, I DO THINK YOU’RE POOR!’ Drindik yelled back. ‘AND YOU’RE NOT IN A POSITION TO BE YELLING! I COULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!’ Arkenstein laughed.
‘You and I both know that you wouldn’t,’ he said easily, not yelling anymore.
‘You don’t know what I’m capable of!’ Drindik snarled. And with that, she yelled, ‘Verdinag, pick them up and take them to the Burndalog! Let us see whether these two will be our friends, or enemies.’ Arkenstein groaned and struggled.
‘Not the Burndalog! Anything but the Burndalog!’ he pleaded. For the first time since meeting Arkenstein, Declan thought he detected fear in his voice, and though it seemed that they were headed to a terrible fate, he still enjoyed Arkenstein’s fear as they were carried off by the spider into the darkness.
They travelled over the web for what seemed like hours, but was probably minutes. And all the while, Arkenstein moaned and wailed and pleaded, until even Arkenstein’s fear couldn’t cheer Declan up.
‘Uh, Arkenidiot?’ Declan asked. ‘What’s the Burndalog?’
‘It’s…’ Arkenstein said shakily, ‘it’s…it’s a feeling. It makes you want to curl up, and never live again. It makes you want to tear yourself to bits. It makes you want to die.’ And at those words, Declan was pleading, and moaning, and thrashing just as hard as Arkenstein, while Drindik looked on and laughed. Soon, they came to the edge of the web, and Verdinag flung them onto the ground. Declan stood up, and looked around. They were in dwarf kingdom.
Everything was stone. Everything was brown or black. It was the calmest place Declan had found in this world. And he liked it. Dwarves swarmed to the two travellers, all chanting, ‘Burndalog! Burndalog!’ They were dragged to the mouth of a large cave.
In the cave, there was a small dwarf.
‘So, who will it be?’ he asked, without turning. Arkenstein cowered, then quickly said, ‘not it!’ Declan groaned inside, muttered, ‘coward!’ and turned to the dwarf. If he knew what he was facing, he would have lay there and never moved. The dwarf waved his hand, and armour came down from a shelf, and landed on Declan.
‘Hey! What?’ the dwarf ignored him. Next, he held out two weapons, a spear and an axe.
‘Which one?’ the dwarf said. Declan tested the spear, and immediately the dwarf took the axe away.
‘Wait, but!’
‘Get him!’ the dwarf said. A dwarf twice as big as Drindik picked Declan up, and threw him down a slope. Declan tried to stop his downward decent, but he picked up speed, and fell into the arena.
Declan wished he had picked the axe, but he had got the spear. He looked around. There were burning logs everywhere. In the centre was a shining diamond encrusted cup.
‘HELLO! HELLO! CAN YOU HEAR ME!’ boomed a loud voice. ‘IT DOESEN’T MATTER ANYWAY. YOUR GOAL IS TO GET THE CUP. JUST PICK IT UP. BEGINS IN 3, 2, 1.’ Then, out of the blue, completely unanticipated, Declan was hit by a wave of pain. He fell to the ground, screaming, feeling so much remorse about what he had inflicted on others. the spear clattered to the ground next to him. At that moment, he would have loved to just turn back time so he could change his actions. And he knew the only thing that could cause this emotion was one of the story stones. The one he needed to get to save the world. The one he needed so he could get out of this place. Then, Verdinag jumped down from the roof of the cavern, and landed in front of the cup. Declan lay on the ground, and watched through streaming eyes as he saw the giant spider approach, dripping venom on the ground, clicking in triumph.
Chapter 7: Death by Remorse, or Spider.
Verdinag sped through the burning logs, and Declan watched, pain stricken, willing his body to move. Finally, it did, and Declan was able to stand up, and when he did, he was so dizzy from the effort that he promptly fell over again, hitting a burning log, and knocking it in the spider’s path. It screeched, and reared onto its 4 back legs, waving the other 4 in the air.
‘Thank goodness that dwarf gave me this armour,’ Declan thought, as he watched the fire slide off it. The heat was just another pain that was dwarfed by the power of the Emotion Stone. Declan stood up shakily again, and realized that the spider was afraid of fire. It was still reared up, staring down at the fire with its red eyes, transfixed. Declan staggered over to another log, and shoved it over towards Verdinag. The spider screeched. Now two sides were obscured by fire. This time, bare skin touched the log, and Declan felt a jolt of pain. He tried to scream, but realized he was still screaming from before. Falling to his knees, Declan rolled on the ground until the fire went out, and tried to tone out the sound of his own screaming while he crawled to the next log closest to him. The pain generating from the Emotion Stone was getting worse. He shoved it over as well, and it landed just far away enough for Verdinag to be able to leap out of his prison of fire. The albino spider advanced, and Declan, shaking now, stood up, and stumbled towards the cup. Then, he could go on no further. He collapsed, shaking, writhing, and watched as the spider approached him. Then, he heard a voice. Not the dwarf’s voice, a familiar voice.
‘Come on, Declan! Stand up and get to the cup! Death by spider is worse than death by remorse! Move! Your! Butt!’ It was Arkenstein. Declan somehow found the strength in him to stand up. He half ran, half limped towards the cup, the power of the stone growing stronger as he got closer to the cup. Finally, he was right in front of the cup. Verdinag was right behind him. Just as Declan picked up the cup, Verdinag pounced, and the world went black around Declan.
Declan woke up in a stone hut, on a stone bed, with his body aching all over, and feeling as though he wanted to lie somewhere more comfortable. The remorse was gone, but Declan could still feel the aftereffects. The stone hadn’t so much tortured him, as shown him what it felt like to be bullied. It had made him see things from the bullied people’s side. He felt weak. Then, he was knocked of the bed as 50 Kg of Arkenstein bowled him over.
‘You feeling alright?’ Arkenstein asked anxiously, completely ignoring the fact he had just knocked Declan off a hard stone bed onto a harder stone floor.
‘Yeah, I’m alright,’ Declan said, standing up, and rubbing his ribs. ‘How about you?’ Arkenstein stared in astonishment at Declan.
‘What?’ Declan asked.
‘It’s just…’ Arkenstein said. ‘Who are you and what did you do with the real Declan? That is the first time I have heard you ask me how I felt! This is a breakthrough! Life is great! And you got the cup!’ Declan smiled.