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Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Knights.
Beauty and the Beast
Chapter 6
Shadow of the Unknown
A heavy object hit the wall. "Damn! That's the sixth time the head of this darn pick has fallen off!" The speaker was a boy heavily adorned with the gear fit for an expert archeologist. His thick belt was decked with magnifying glasses of all shapes and colors, and if he had been out in the light, his overall look would have been that of a rainbow.
His baggy pants were full of overly large pockets, in which numerous things were kept and, due to this, the only part of his boots you could see were the tips. In total contrast to his lower appearance, the boy was wearing a tight fitting shirt that only covered the top of his chest and didn't cover his stomach at all.
The boy was currently sitting cross legged on the hard floor, trying to put the pick together. He pushed an auburn colored lock out of his face, and sighed. Sweat ran down his face diagonally, where a long scar had already created a path for the water from his forehead to his mouth. Another scar was right next to that mark, underneath his left eye in the shape of a lopsided cross.
He took his newly arranged pick and thrust it with a mighty heave at the rocks in front of him. The pick, once again, fell apart, but so did a few rocks, leaving the barest sparkle of light in its wake. The boy, with renewed enthusiasm, clawed at the small hole, only to retract his hand from the pain of a sharp stone. He looked around for something to use instead of his hand, and finding nothing better, he hammered away with the head of his broken pick.
After some time, the boy couldn't tell if it had been minutes or hours, him never being very good at math, a hole had been made in the wall with light shining through. Although the hole was fairly small, the boy easily slid through after taking out various things from his pockets.
On the other side of the hole was a majestic hallway, and he himself was sprawled across a thick velvet carpet. Albeit the flooring had a good sized amount of dust on it, and the hallway a sort of gloomy look, the boy was sure he was in some sort of house, and a house meant people, and people meant food. Man, how he was hungry!
Some ways away, the boy could just make out a few people, and, not really having any strength at the moment, he did a sort of crawl towards them.
She had wiped the blood off his chin with a piece of her dress and had taken him into the hallway when he noticed it. A strange looking creature with a filthy mat of hair and gigantic hind legs was crawling towards them.
He immediately pushed Cesia behind him and stood protectively in front of her. He hoped he looked intimidating, because if the creature were to attack he would not be able to defend Cesia very well, him having no weapon to fight with and all. Although at the moment his arm band did seem very heavy...
When Cesia saw the beast, she immediately ran up to it. "Rath, look at him! He's practically skin and bones!"
Rath willfully forced his hand away from the arm that was ready to chuck his arm band at the creature after Cesia implied the beast might be human. For the first time he noticed how the creature's ribs were standing out, and that it had numerous cuts on his body. Of course, that didn't explain why the creature's legs were so large, but he just assumed they were pants. If the thing really was human, that is. Rath moved toward Cesia to look at the thing, and light brown eyes stared back at him.
"Do you... have... food?" Hopeful brown eyes looked towards Cesia. She shook her head.
"I don't have anything on me right now, but I'm sure this place has a kitchen. I'll go look for something, okay?" She turned around and ran down the corridor.
Rath looked at the boy and sighed. It was obvious he didn't have the energy to stand, and that meant that he would have to carry him. Well, Rath wasn't about to let anyone get a piggy-back ride out of him, and he sure wasn't going to carry this strange boy bridal style. So, Rath did the next best thing. He extended an arm and hooked it around the boy, took the boy's arm and hooked it around his neck, and dragged him down the hall.
When they got to the end of the hall, two mahogany doors with black lining were waiting for them. A fragrant aroma wafted from the entry, and with significant strength the boy broke away from Rath and barreled through the doors.
On the other side was a large table crowded with heaps of high-quality cuisine. There were three settings, one already occupied by Cesia, with the complete amount of dessert forks, soup spoons, and butter knives. There was a large glass chandelier above the table with lit candles, which sent flickering shadows to the floor.
On the floor was a rather worn olive carpet, and the along the wall were old painting covered with dust. There were no windows in the room, and Rath didn't remember seeing any windows in the hall, either.
The boy grabbed the food with his fingers and began to mercilessly attack the turkey while somehow spilling the gravy all over the table.
After a few minutes or so, when the amount of food going into the boy's mouth lessened, Cesia tried to make conversation.
"So, what are you doing in this place, um...?"
"Thatz." The boy supplied. "My name's Thatz. I was looking for some treasure with my partner, Kitchel, when the ceiling collapsed. We were separated and I tried to get out. I'm not sure how long I was in there."
"Well, I just got here. All of this food was already here when I came in. I actually don't know how Rath got here." Cesia said, looking over at Rath pointedly.
Rath, getting out of his seat and ignoring Cesia, said, "I would like to see where I can sleep, because I don't really think we can leave this place. I also just got here, and it seems to be getting dark."
Indeed, even though there were no windows and they hadn't been eating for that long, the room had darkened considerably, and if it weren't for the chandelier the whole room would probably be pitch black.
Taking Rath's example, Cesia and Thatz both got out of their seats, and went out into the hall.
There were doors along the hall that no one had noticed before, and a candle next to each door. There was a staircase near them that looked more inviting than the eerily glowing doors, so Cesia, Rath, and Thatz went up it.
The staircase was not all that long, and when they got to the top there were three doors ahead of them. Slowly, Rath took the knob of one and opened it. Inside was a fairly large room with a large vanity by a miniature canopy bed, one averaged sized oval window, and a standard oak cupboard near the door. Along the wall were designs of simple curves and swirls and on the floor were cold metal tiles.
Wasting no time Cesia and Thatz opened the other doors and found that each room held the same thing. Cesia flung herself at the bed in one room and within seconds she was asleep. With tentative goodnights both Rath and Thatz closed their doors and also went to sleep.
Something was bothering Cesia. Her mind was telling her something was very, very, wrong. She blearily got out of her bed and made her way to the door, and along the way happened to look in the mirror on the vanity.
A shrill scream shattered the air.
Please do not kill me. I can't write if I'm dead.