Tess Short chapter 15

sorry for my delay in posting the next chapter of Tess Short, I had been drawing Lida a number of Times but the drawings didn't look right..Until I finally got her right!:) 

If you haven't read the other chapters you can read them here 


chapter 15: the Lembas Bread Incident 

“Ow” said Lida, George had landed on her, and he was rather heavy. 

“Very sorry” said George, trying to sit up, but failed. 

“Where are we anyway?” said Lida, looking around , all she saw was darkness… 

“Can’t you just to use your elf-keen-eye-thing?” asked George. 

“Not in the dark, I can’t it’s too dark to see anything” she said, and tried to sit up. but George was still sitting on her. 

“Who knew half elves made good Furniture ” he mumbled, as he tried to get up again. 

“Who knew dwarves where so heavy” Groaned Lida… “What did you eat for Breakfast?” 

“Lembas bread” he replied. 

“How much of it, did you eat?” 

“I ate 17 of them, surprising they were so good, Lauralas only ate a nimble, and yet she said she was refreshed—” 

“You ate 17 peaces of Lembas bread?” 

“Well…I couldn’t find any more Lembas in the bag, I didn’t ask…though—“. 

“You ate all the Lembas we had left!” shouted Lida. 

“Well how was I to know?” he asked. 

Lida sighed, and mumbled under her breath “I was right about dwarves…”

“What do you mean by that?” asked George. “What’s wrong with dwarves??”

“I mean, I was right about….” Lida tried to think, but no words came out of her mouth. 

“You were saying about dwarves?”

“Well…They steal elves treasure, eat a lot of food, and  carry around axes…” huffed Lida. 

George was Silent, “You really Believe  that? I heard that elves stole the dwarves treasure?” 

Lida didn’t reply. Instead she just stared into the darkness. 

“Lida?” 

“Yes…” she said turning back, 

to George, though she didn’t really want to talk to him,

 of course the version she had heard was that the dwarves stole the elves treasure. 

But maybe it was the other way around , no it couldn’t be… 

“Don’t you think it would be good to do something other then sit around, and talk about things…” 

“Right…” said Lida, she tried to get up, but George was too heavy. 

“Could you get off me,please” said Lida. 

“I can’t, must have been the extra Lembas, I ate” he groaned. 

“Well…” she said, reaching into her pocket and bringing out a match, “At least we should be able to see where we are” 

she stroke it angst one of the stones, and the match lite up, it only lasted for a second or two then went out… but they got to see where they were, it was a dark tunnel, that led into a cave, and looked like it lasted forever. 

‘Wonderful…’ Thought  Lida. ‘ I have a dwarf on top of me, We have no food, and we are stuck in a cave which probably is infested with mice, rats, and mountain trolls’ 

“Anyway” said Lida, trying as hard as she could to push George off her. “H-How about we, E-explore the cave” Lida surprisingly some how managed to get  George  off her… He landed thump on the cold ground, 

“Ow” he managed to say, and got up. “Anyway, do you have more matches”. 

Lida nodded, and struck a match. “But we can’t just keep striking matches” said Lida. 

George picked up a peace of broken wood from the floor, it looked as if it could have been a sword’s hilt. 

Lida holding the torch 

Lida lighted it made a perfect torch, and they began exploring the cave. It was dark dreary and showed no sign of life in it at all. But Lida, could hear moans, screeches , and cries from within the cave. 

“Nothing to be afraid of…” she thought, “J-just bats”, Every time she heard a shriek cry or groan, she would reach for her daggers. George would just hold his axe and don’t take notice of the noises in the cave. 

“Are elves afraid of the dark?” asked George. 

“N-no” said Lida, Sliding the daggers back Into her scabbard. and continued walking through the cave. She heard the soft pattering of her own feet, and George’s stomping feet, on the cold stone ground. 

‘If there are any monsters please leave us alone’ she thought, and continued walking down the endless path of the cave… 

Suddenly George stopped Walking, and since he was in front Lida bumped into him. “Ow” they both said. 

“Why did you stop walking?” asked Lida. 

“Because of that!” said George, pointing up to something in the dark, the only thing Lida could see were glowing red lights, that seemed to flicker. 

The Monster of the mines 

“But” said Lida. “Those are only red-glowing lights right?” 

George gulped “No, they aren’t” 

Lida looked at George then looked at the glowing and gleaming Lights. 

“Then what are they?” Lida whispered, in a hushed voice. 

“C-cave monster” whimpered George. “Move as slowly as you can if you see one, and never try to take there eyes not matter how tempting they may be, that’s what dad always said”

Lida nodded, though she wasn’t so sure why George had thought about taking the monsters eyes…But they did looked a lot like rubies, so maybe that was why. 

Lida took a small step towards the monster  trying not to make a sudden movement “What does it want?” she asked. 

“To eat dwarves, and anything that comes into the cave, I may say it has a sweet-tooth for elves so I have heard…” said George, 

“Were may I ask did you get this information?” asked Lida. 

“Books of course” said George. “And…my parents” 

Lida nodded, she couldn’t really see the monster all she could make out was a thorny tail which seemed to be moving in and out of light, and it’s eyes which seemed to glimmer , and shine like jewels… probably that was a way to get a unexpected minor to come up to it.

“Just try not to think of…jewels or gold.” he added. 

Lida nodded, as they approached the monster, it was hard to keep her mind on one thing, it was almost like the feeling of the air surrounding them had changed, almost like a strong smell would give off, but slightly more tempting…

as they slowly walked through trying not to make a sudden movement , Lida almost thought she saw jewels glimmering , specks of gold glowing in walls, Lida felt a sudden urge to walk up to the Jewels on the ground. without thinking she found her feet moving to pick it up…

“Lida!” shouted George.

Lida looked, up to see she was looking straight into the monsters eyes, her hand was not resting on a peace of jewel, instead the monster’s spiky tail… 

she looked over at George but only one word came out of her mouth “sorry” 

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what do you think will happen to Lida? do you think they will be able to defeat the cave monster? feel free to comment below 

-Quinley