Ferra shook her head then twisted around, maneuvering Lilah’s hand into hers. “Come meet the others.” The girl reached out to Daphne, who took the offering.
“We can stay for a little bit. How’s that?” Daphne glanced at her over the head between them. Her cousin’s comment was a good idea. They needed time to come up with a plan to escape anyway. She gave a nod to Daph, and the girl led them up the tunnel, and up, and up.
By the time they came to where light penetrated the dark passage, her legs were jelly. They’d been dragging Daph the last mile or so. Geesh. Had they climbed to the top of the damn mountain?
They entered a room that had her jaw dropping. She glanced at her cousin. Daph’s eyes were as wide as donuts, which sounded good at the moment since they had berries and grains for breakfast a few hours ago.
The space they entered was huge, with sunlight pouring in. Lilah’s eyes needed a minute to adjust to the brightness. Ferra dropped their hands and rushed forward toward other ladies. Some with brown sheets on, some with them off.
The females’ clothing was very different from the gnoleon’s. Where the tree people wore animal hide and bead necklaces to cover their flat chests, these women had a smaller version of the ghost sheets but with no head covering. It looked like they wore a T-shirt that was two sizes too big.
But the most important thing she noted was that they all had big thighs and butts. With all the climbing they had to do, having larger muscles in that area of the body made perfect sense.
Lilah slipped her coverall over her head and laid it over her arm. Daph just pushed the hood back. As the two stood at the entrance, the women started noticing them. Many women stood along a rectangular island in the middle of the cavern, like many kitchens on earth had. They held small knives, and stone bowls of food were scattered about. Smelled like food, anyway.
On the far side, women came down a slope, carrying larger bowls filled with stuff, stopping when seeing her and her cousin. An elder set her blade on the stone island and approached them.
“Welcome,” she greeted, “I am Valori.” She bowed her head slightly.
Daphne made the same move. “Thank you for the welcome. I am Daphne, and this is Lilah.”
Ferra rushed toward them, chewing on something like a carrot. “Valori, Father said for them to learn our ways.”
Valori jerked around. “Why? They are not one of us.”
The girl shrugged.
Lilah smiled, coming out of her stupor. “We are not staying long. In fact, we should be leaving now.” She pivoted on the ball of her foot and walked back the way they came. Daphne caught up to her.
“Do you know how to get us out of here?” her cousin whispered.
Lilah stopped. Of course, she didn’t. Dammit. She stared down the dark slope they had climbed. Shit. “What do we do, Daph?” she asked. Her usual bravado and confidence were gone in the face of failing her friends and thoughts of never getting home.
Her cousin turned back to the women. “Since we just got here, we’d love to have a tour of the place.”
Oh my god. Daph was a genius. She would’ve never thought of something so brilliant. Though she had to admit, she didn’t give Daphne much credit when it came to anything.
When they were young, Lilah’s mom always belittled her by saying things like, why can’t you be skinnier like your cousin, and why don’t you try to be smarter like Daphne. After a while, young Lilah came to dislike her friend as Lilah’s mom continued to compare the two, Lilah always being the one lacking.
For years, Lilah had dreamed of running away so Daphne could take her place in the family. Maybe then her mom would’ve been happy not stuck with such a disappointment as Lilah.
As they grew older, her mother had stopped her ugly words, but the damage was done. To Lilah’s mind, brushing off Daphne made her cousin a flawed person. If Daphne wasn’t perfect, maybe one day, Lilah’s mother would appreciate Lilah for who she was.
Now, as an adult, Lilah tried not to remember those times as a child, but the hurt and feelings of being a failure to her mother still cut deeply.
The worst part about it all was that Daphne had no idea how much resentment had built up during the younger years. And through no fault of her cousin’s own. The girl was innocent of everything but being herself.
Maybe it was time to let all that go. Daphne really was a smart woman, even if she was willowy and tall and graceful and all the things Lilah wanted to be. She had accepted that her body was what it was and worked to keep herself as healthy as possible.
But she also had the philosophy that if she was going to be alive, she wasn’t going to hate every moment by eating bland, tasteless food. If she was to live, it would be on her terms, and she was enjoying a big juicy, buttery, steak when she wanted. What was the point of living if you wished you didn’t?
“Oh, Elder Val,” a woman on the slope covered in sunshine called out, “I will take them on a tour of our home.”
Turning to Lilah and Daph, the elder rolled her eyes. “Shinni would love to show you the improved garden. And, of course, the rest of our mountain if there is time.”
The woman almost skipped across the floor to them. “Come. Let me show you what we’ve done.”
Lilah looked at Daphne, who shrugged. If they wanted to find the way out, they’d have to take the scenic route. The two followed Shinni up the slope, and to Lilah’s surprise, out into the open air. Quite chilly air. Looking around, she realized why it was cold. The clouds couldn’t have been more than a hundred feet above them. And the ground was at least three hundred feet below.
Instinctually, she jerked backward from the edge and into Daphne. Her friend wrapped an arm around her. “I got you, Lil. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
Those words melted into her heart. She looked over her shoulder to see Daphne’s serious expression. Her friend meant those words. A little bit of the hurt she’d involuntarily harbored against her cousin vanished.
“Over here,” Shinni said, waving them to cross onto a sizeable flattened area of dirt with crops. Damn, they did have a garden—on a mountain top. Who would’ve thought?
Not only were the crops growing, but they also looked like a large dose of Miracle Grow had been used. How did they even carry a melon the size of a beach ball? Shinni gabbed on about the food items, much of which meant little to Lilah since she had never tasted any of them. They looked unlike the gnoleon melons and root food items.
The dirt even looked different. She squatted and grabbed a handful. The texture was strange. The color was a mix of grey and brown.
“And that’s what I discovered,” Shinni said, crouching next to Lilah. “By adding ash from the volcano to the dirt brought up from the forest, everything has almost doubled in size. It’s fantastic.” The woman’s eyes shined along with her smile.
Wait a minute. There was a word in that last bit of what the sunburned fae had said that surprised her.
“Shinni, hold on. Did you say ‘volcano’?”
The fae tilted her head like Ferra had done earlier. “Of course, where do you think the metal for the swords and knives come from?”
Honestly, she hadn’t thought about it. The forest dwellers didn’t have metal utensils. They ate with wooden sticks like chopsticks. When they arrived in the main cave, the soldiers were training with large, heavy metal weapons.