Story I did for an English class. It was a fill in the blank vocab assignment. I like the way it came out, even though I rushed it.

Enjoy.

Kree

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Tameron’s view began to stray from the forward field of vision he was supposed to be following to his left. Long, golden hair, swaying in from, bristled past his face as he forced his horse faster and faster. He pushed a strand of hair behind his pointy, Elven ears. On one side lay colorfully clothed trees, abundant and never-ending, and to his left a massive crevice in the earth, at almost ten feet of space between two separate lands. In between these two lands ran a river at least a hundred feet below. The river traveled across the entire territory until it rested in the ocean. The sun was neither cruel nor comforting. If only he could say the same for his wife.

He and Aderes married when they were sixty-five, resembling humans in the ages of eighteen or nineteen. This had been one year ago. One year had seemed like minutes to the elves and he still had not grown completely accustomed to her. The two of them were as different as day was from night. With a fiery temper, she was surly and stubborn. Aderes had spent many years as an illustrious general of her father’s empire incognito. In fact, even now she wore the magnificent armor of steel, decorated by gold trimmings and black designs as they rode on to meet a certain Human general. She was proud and of course as a warrior, pugnacious. She broke out into sprightly outbursts when something upset her, as a small child would if not appeased. At times she was heartless and selfish, thinking only of herself. Her repugnant personality repelled many people, including Tameron.

As the youngest of the princes, Tameron had known no drudgery and was only accustomed to the fancies of the court. He was no warrior for his older brothers had done most of the fighting for their kingdom. When they were killed in battle, he was suddenly thrust into the responsibility of kingship he was not prepared for. He was quiet and shy by nature and grew squeamish at the sight of blood. No doubt Aderes would have broken his neck because of such traits, regardless of marriage, if it hadn’t been for what this union stood for. The princess of one kingdom and the heir to the throne of another…the marriage had no other purpose but the alliance it secured.

But tensions were dwindling and they found times of friendliness when the two of them were without burden. Unfortunately, this was not such a time. Two grown adolescents shared one horse at the same time as Aderes sat behind him, her arms wrapped around his stomach.

“We’ve been riding like this since morning and it’s well into the afternoon!” He heard her grumble from behind.

“The same as five minutes ago…” he replied softly, hiding his exasperation with ease. His temper hardly rose enough to have him yelling and snapping in specific directions. At the moment, he was much more concerned with the pace of the brown horse the two of them were riding. “We have about five miles till we reach the bridge and twenty till we reach the village.

Aderes groaned and he felt her arms pull him towards her. “I hate clinging onto you like a pretty Elven maiden to her newlywed,” she whined.

“But you are an Elven queen-to-be holding onto her husband,” he mused.

“I hardly look like a woman with all this armor on,” she scoffed.

Although he did not turn around to face her, he knew it was not entirely so. She had fooled many others but he had been able to point out the small traces of femininity hidden by her military uniform. Long brown hair held together by many ties fell from her head, but no man could keep such tresses as neatly brushed as hers. Her tan eyes, though dark and piercing, sat beneath thin eyebrows. She possessed no sharp features on her face and appeared regal and noble to all who had seen her. Her build was larger than most women but not large enough for a man, even for her short height. She hid the truth of her size with large armor and numerous layers of padding but she could not hide the small hands born to a princess, as rough as they had become.

“Stop, Tameron,” she ordered suddenly and nudged his arm with her hand. He pulled the reins, slowing the great creature from his rapid travels, circling until they completely stopped.

Aderes slipped off of the horse and walked towards the crevice in the ground. Staring at it for a few seconds with her hands on her waist, she finally turned around towards Tameron. “Tameron, come here,” she motioned with her hand.

He quickly descended from the horse, reaching into the saddle for a few oats, and fed them to the loyal beast. “Good girl, Mara,” he stroked her mane a few times. Aderes was growing impatient, he could tell by the shifting of her feet and her downward glance, so he hurried to her side only to notice the unusually pensive look on her face.

“Think we could jump it?” She said with a strangely jovial grin on her face.

“Absolutely not!” he replied, his eyes growing as large. “What a preposterous idea!”

“What is wrong, Tameron, renowned tamer of horses? Scared of a mere jump?” she taunted. “It’s doable. I’ve done it myself.”

“Were you wearing armor?”

“No, I was only forty-eight at the time.”

“And I’m sure you jumped this with only one person on the horse, am I correct?” She did not reply this time. “You were younger, lighter, and the sole rider. Now, we are two persons on a horse, one wearing a heavy suit of armor. We are not jumping.”

But when he turned around, she was already on the horse with the reins in her hands. “Yah!” she shouted, and rode her in the direction of the opposite side. However, Mara knew that such a jump was not possible and skidded to a vigorous stop before she reached the edge. The momentum grabbed Aderes’s body, throwing her off of Mara and into the opening in the earth.

In a dash of panic, Tameron rushed towards where the horse stopped, looking for a trace of Aderes. Perhaps she had caught hold of something…perhaps he could save her! Alas, he saw nothing below him but levels of rock and the meandering river that she had fallen into. As intolerable as she was at times, he certainly never wanted her dead. But in moments, Aderes had left him. She had left him all alone.

A spark of realization kept him staring at the river for a bit longer: he had not seen her fall. Even if she fell fast, he would have at least seen her when she hit the water or the ground. Perhaps he could have seen her while she was still falling. But he had seen nothing when he rushed over while looking over the edge. She had suddenly disappeared…

Grabbing the rope from the side of Mara’s saddle, he held on end of it and dropped it the other over the edge. To his astonishment, a few feet from the ground in which he stood up the rest of the rope had disappeared.

He had read of such traps that sucked beings from the air laid out by demons called the Ozganis. The dreaded demons brought all kinds of creatures to their horrifying realm so that they could use their energy to prolong their miserable lives. He had a feeling that this was an Ozgani trap and it was just their luck… Aderes had fallen into one.

The proper thing to do would be to save her. However, he didn’t know exactly how he could accomplish this. He could not fight the creatures; the sword at his belt was ineffectual in his hands. Although he was in the middle of a war, he was clumsy with his sword. Though he wanted to save her, play the part of a knight in shining armor, what could he do? He was useless, utterly useless.

But was he just as useless if he stood around without even trying? It was best that he at least find Aderes’s captors and attempt to rescue her. After tying the rope to the trunk of a tree, he began to lower himself down the gap, clinging onto the robe with firm hands. “Anyway,” he thought to himself as he climbed down, “it’s not as if her father would believe me if I told her she accidentally fell to her death.”

So as he steadily ventured down the swaying rope at perilous heights to meet a terrifying predicament, Tameron began to notice the changes in the environment. The cliff-like structures he was climbing down began to darken and the small details in the rocks, such as shrubs growing in between the cracks, began to blur. He realized that this must be the effects of the transition between his world and the habitat of the Ozganis. The changing of settings startled him, and he found himself shuddering when he saw that he had finally left his upper world.

His foot found solid ground so he let go of the rope to take a look around. It was if he was inside a cave passageway, but it was too dark to tell otherwise. Specks of light screamed from one direction so his hand found the wall and traced his way through the tunnel. As more and more light enhanced his vision, he began to see monstrous stalactites drooping over him. However, the sharp structures were translucent and he could see water dancing in the form of a flowing river above him. The sediment walls and the dirt below him seemed solid enough, however, so he continued his way until he reached the source of illumination.

He suddenly stopped short in his tracks. Leaning back on the shadowy wall, he glimpsed a figure in black clothing with a key in its claws. Here, at last, was the Ozgani. The creature in black turned the key to the entrance of a small jail, thin columns of rock serving as the bars to keep the prisoners from escaping. The black robed figure turned towards the north wall and hung the key on a little piece of granite that jutted out like a hook. The Ozgani then burst into a thick, charcoal smoke that dissolved into the air after a few minutes.

Waiting a short time after the smoke had cleared, Tameron stepped towards the jail. There was only one cellmate and he was relieved and somewhat pleased to see that Aderes was there. She was unconscious and her body lay in a mangled position. A drop of blood ran down the side of her cheek just missing her closed eyelids. Parts of her hair had fallen from the ties and lay in an unkempt mess. With one swipe, he grabbed the key and looked back at the helpless Aderes.

“Aderes….” Tameron called out to her, taking a quick glance behind to make sure no one was creeping up on him. “Aderes!” He said her name once more.

Her eyes struggled for light and he could see that she was desperately trying to regain consciousness. “Tameron?” The name on her lips helped her in a battle for control of her state of mind. Victory was hers as she pushed herself up with the palms of her hand. As she sat on the cold dirt, she put a hand up to her temple. “Dear gods, what a headache…”

“Aderes, I’ve got the key,” he held it up. “Come on, let’s get out quickly!”

“No, no, no,” she murmured quietly, shaking her head. “I don’t need you to swoop down and rescue me… I’ll get out myself.”

“We don’t have time for this,” he hissed, fitting the key into the lock of the jail door. He was a bit repulsed by her lack of gratitude but then remembered that Aderes had never been thankful for anything he did for her. “The Ozgani might come back!”

“Go away!” she snapped, forcing herself up on her feet. She almost fell in the process but she then stood erect as a proud general was accustomed to. “I’ll slit your throat if you don’t back away from the door and let me figure this out myself!” she bellowed.

“An elven man!” a rasping voice crept up Tameron’s spine. “What fortune! Two elven youths on the same day!”

Tameron drew his sword and spun around simultaneously. He pointed his sword at the creature with firm hands but trembled in trepidation as his cerulean irises beheld the Ozgani standing before him. Ozganis resembled human crones, bony old women engulfed in sable robes. Knifelike talons grew at the end of her pale and elongated fingers. Tiny gray spikes outlined her wrinkled face but her most incredulous feature was a third bloodshot eye sitting on top of two others. There was a suffocating aura of fear sucking him into a state of uncontrollable despair. At last, he swallowed and mustered the courage to speak.

“Let us go freely,” he feigned ferociousness and a warrior’s confidence that did not exist within him. “Or I will be forced to take your life.”

“You’re a fool if you think you can kill an Ozgani with a sword,” she croaked. “And an even greater one to think your delicate hands could actually handle one.”

His face flushed with red but he regained composure. “Ozgani,” he took a deep breath. “I beg you… at least let my wife return to the surface safely. Let me take her place as your prisoner,” he pleaded. He looked back at the flabbergasted Aderes. Be her widened eyes filled with a mixture if curiosity, surprise, and apprehension, he could tell she couldn’t believe what her husband was saying. He too, could hardly believe the words that came out of his mouth. “I will give you my life if you give back Aderes’s. This woman is my wife and I will do anything, everything for her.” He stopped. His weapon sat in his throat for many a minute and now it was the time to strike. “I love Aderes.”

Love. It was hard to believe that the word was his only useful weapon. Nevertheless, he was still clumsy with it, as he was with his sword. It was powerful, but his heart and his voice held it with shaking, yet effective control.

The Ozgani immediately shrieked, her reddened eyes streaked with obvious disgust. Her black robes blurred into a twisting mist, slithering upwards into nothingness. Three red eyes glowed in the darkness, but soon disappeared with the rest of her body. Tameron let out a sigh of relief. It had worked.

“Will you come out with me now?” he questioned. “Or do you still insist on saving yourself?”

Her eyes watched him cautiously but she calmly walked out of her prison and to his side. He wiped the blood off her face with one of his sleeves. “Follow me.” He felt awkward taking the position of the leader. “I’ll show you how to get out.”

They began to travel through the passageway, but only a few seconds had passed when Aderes blurted, “how did you do that?”

“I read it somewhere,” he shrugged.

“Be more specific.”

He looked her in the eye and found himself not as embarrassed as he usually was. “There are not too many Ozgani survivors. One wrote a book of his experience. He found out that Ozgani are repelled and will flee at any sign of affinity, kinship…” and he said quietly, “love.”

“For once, you’re stupid stay-at-home habits had its uses,” she grumbled, putting a hand up to her head.

It was not long until they reached the rope Tameron had left for them to climb. They had to feel the walls in the darkness until they felt the rope in their hands, but it didn’t take too much time. “Climb up,” he instructed, letting her go first. She grasped the rope in her hands but she turned back towards him.

“So you didn’t mean all of the foolish things you said to the Ozgani when you were trying to save me, right?” Although her voice, cruel as ice, while her expression was hard and scornful, her eyes failed to hide a glisten of hope and a touch of uncertainty.

Tameron smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re safe, now,” he said softly.

This answer seemed to suit her well. She smiled back, sending strange jolts crashing into Tameron’s chest, and began to climb up the rope.