{"id":34,"date":"2017-07-11T01:42:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T01:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/?p=34"},"modified":"2017-07-11T01:42:30","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T01:42:30","slug":"four-the-narrow-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/11\/four-the-narrow-cave\/","title":{"rendered":"Four: The Narrow Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cave was, indeed, very tight, and if Raizel had been any better fed, she would not have fit. \u00a0Trinner Traln and the round man shouted at her and each other as ehs slipped through the opening, moving more like a snake than even like crawling. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you even get this in here?\u201d she called. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAh\u2026\u201d \u00a0Trinner seemed to have rolled into one of his jittery, quiet times. \u00a0The large man guffawed. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was smaller then. \u00a0Much smaller. \u00a0And someone paid him to bury it. \u00a0That\u2019s the way these things go, you see. \u00a0A little at a time, a little person at a time. \u00a0And now here you are, a little person, as they say, and here he is, and you are digging it up, yes, even though you should not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m digging it up, or I will be.\u201d \u00a0The passage opened into a wider space where she could almost stand. \u00a0Raizel dragged the shovel in behind her – Trinner Traln had left it propped by the cave entrance, where it had been covered up with vines but surprisingly barely rusted – and pulled herself up into a sort of crouch. <\/span><\/p>\n

There was, indeed, a place where the dirt was a different color than the rest, sort of a glowing reddish hue. \u00a0\u201cHow many people have you sent in here to dig this up for you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The inkeeper guffawed. \u00a0\u201cNow she asks, now she asks. \u00a0And a good question it is, too. \u00a0How many have run away, Traln? \u00a0How many haven\u2019t survived?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHush, you,\u201d Traln complained. \u00a0\u201cThey have all survived, every one of them. And perhaps none have been so brave as the <\/span>Ennizaba child.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOr so foolish. \u00a0They say that about the <\/span>Ennizaba and all those other mountain tribes, you know\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still ON the mountain. \u00a0And old man, if you wish me to destroy your missive, I would be kind about my family.\u201d \u00a0Raizel shouted her threats down the narrow tube she\u2019d crawled in through, not caring how rude she was being. \u00a0<\/span>Foolish<\/span><\/i>, indeed!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, child, you will know the things that I speak of soon enough. \u00a0Do not become horn-twisted in a bush like your ancestors just because I know what the mountains are like.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you keep saying that?\u201d \u00a0She glared down the tunnel. \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re ON the mountains.\u201d \u00a0She would say it again and again. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut look from here and what do you see? \u00a0More mountain. \u00a0Up and up. \u00a0From where the Ennizaba house is, what do you see? \u00a0Nothing but sky and down. \u00a0That is why you are mountain folk and I am not.\u201d\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are an unfortunate and unpleasant old man,\u201d she informed the tunnel. \u00a0Perhaps she would not destroy his missive. \u00a0Perhaps there was nothing to destroy and she could laugh at him for his concerns. \u00a0She\u2019d like that. \u00a0She would like that quite a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

She stabbed into the dirt, over and over again, until she felt like it was making the shovel itself glow. \u00a0Maybe it was. \u00a0Maybe the whole room was glowing. \u00a0She\u2019d find that amusing, to find everything glowing and no – what was it? A falcon? – to be found. <\/span><\/p>\n

The glow increased the more she dug, until there was nothing in front of her eyes but white spots. \u00a0She hit metal with the shovel and the spots sparked and vanished, leaving behind a creature no bigger than her hand, hovering in mid-air on wings like a dragonfly\u2019s but looking almost humanoid. <\/span><\/p>\n

She looked down at the dirt, glowing, and swore. \u00a0The idiot had dug in a fairy ring, hadn\u2019t he? Or in pixie dust, twice as bad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou.\u201d \u00a0The pixie pointed a finger at Raizel while Raizel, in turn, tried desperately to remember what her great-grandmother (the one who had embroidered) had told her about pixies and their colors. Was it blue for trouble, red for blessings? \u00a0Or red for peace and blue for death? \u00a0Or maybe it had changed depending on the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

This one was red, at least, with a little pink frill that looked almost like a dress, if you squinted. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI,\u201d Raizel agreed, because you never gave anything to a pixie but what they said, THAT much she remembered, but you avoided arguing with them if at all possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are going to Buscontra. \u00a0The Tzarina will be there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to Buscontra.\u201d \u00a0She wanted out of this cave. \u00a0She did not want to take her eyes off of the pixie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere you will see the Tzarina. \u00a0You must observe her!\u201d \u00a0The pixie tossed both hands at Raizel. <\/span><\/p>\n

There was no room to duck or dodge. \u00a0There was no place to get away from it. \u00a0Raizel was covered in the stuff before she could get out of the way. \u00a0\u201cYou will observe the Tzarina, the squamous Tzarina! \u00a0She must be seen, she must be seen by one such as you!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOy, what do you mean, \u2018one such as me?\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The thing, of course, was gone. \u00a0Muttering, Raizel pulled the chest out of the pixie-dust-laden dirt and began dragging it out of the cave. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cave was, indeed, very tight, and if Raizel had been any better fed, she would not have fit. \u00a0Trinner Traln and the round man shouted at her and each other as ehs slipped through the opening, moving more like a snake than even like crawling. \u201cHow did you even get this in here?\u201d she… Continue reading Four: The Narrow Cave<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Four: The Narrow Cave. Raizel is getting deeper and deeper into this side quest...","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Tn4Q-y","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/12\/five-pixie-dust\/","url_meta":{"origin":34,"position":0},"title":"Five: Pixie Dust","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"July 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Trinner Traln and the round man were, of course waiting for her. \u00a0 \u201cPixies,\u201d she swore at both of them. \u00a0\u201cPixie dust.\u00a0What were you thinking?\u201d \u201cWhat?\u201d \u00a0The rotund man stared at her. \u00a0\u201cThere are pixies in that cave? \u00a0And you didn\u2019t bring any out?\u201d \u201cWhat do I look like to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/14\/seven-moving-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":34,"position":1},"title":"Seven: Moving On","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"July 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The black-and-blue light danced upwards like a geyser and then seemed to be sucked downwards, towards the books. \u200b\u201dNo!\u201d Trinner Traln shouted. \u00a0Raizel glanced at him just in time to see him jerk away from Esterzon Gorenz and dart towards the idol. The blue-black light seemed to suck him in.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/13\/six-the-evil-idol\/","url_meta":{"origin":34,"position":2},"title":"Six: The Evil Idol","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"July 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Raizel was in a plane of white in front of a black spectre, without fifty sed and nowhere near the train station. If she got out of here, she was going to curse Trinner Traln and that idiot Esterzon Gorenz with every trick and hex and lie all of her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/23\/ten-the-perils-of-ones-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":34,"position":3},"title":"Ten: The Perils of One\u2019s Past","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"July 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"She should have thought of it before she agreed, she supposed. \u00a0She might be stepping into some long-held family feud \u2014 their mountain had several of those \u2014 or maybe into the sort of thing where the city wanted to move someone whose home had stood in the same place\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/09\/06\/eighteen-treason-and-heresy\/","url_meta":{"origin":34,"position":4},"title":"Eighteen: Treason and Heresy","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"September 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cNo!!\u201d The deserter shook his head, more as if to clear a bug from his ear than to negate a thought. \u201cNot for me. \u00a0\u2018No aid for deserters,\u2019 I know so well. \u00a0Do it for the nation, then.\u201d \u00a0He pulled a tattered old piece of paper from an inner pocket.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/09\/06\/eighteen-treason-and-heresy\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/08\/three-the-black-missive\/","url_meta":{"origin":34,"position":5},"title":"Three: The Black Missive","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"July 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The walk to the strange man\u2019s cave was only an hour because of the rolling limp that affected his walk, and, it seemed, his speech patterns. \u00a0He would go up and down, up and down with his tales as they walked, telling Raizel all about the Empire\u2019s plans to read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}