Young Writers Society

The Shadows recoiled under the storm of poison darts. But Viperidae knew that they would not stay like that for long. It was only a matter of time until they became imune to the poison. All of a sudden, Viperidae motioned for the dart storm to cease.

"Why are we stopping?!" Serpantae hissed angrily.

"Each time they are hit by our darts, the closer they come to imunising their effects." Viperidae explained. "We must leeave know and meet the warm bloods." The Lizards turned and set off. Crawling along the walls, towards the warm blooded ones.

She'ana waited as the others leapt away. Her cream could only slow the Shadows' effects. A mixture of Dragon bone and werewolf blood would not be enough to destroy the Shadow poison.

She replaced the cream and took flight, catching up with the group.

Celka landed easily in a crouch, before replacing her hood.

"There are Lizardmen," she murmured, pulling out her bow and aiming a particularly nasty-looking arrow at the swarming Shadows above them. "Hmm..." she considered something, then leapt with inhuman agility back to the rooftops.

"Where are you going?" asked Dan, frightened.

"I'm going to lead them away in the other direction. I'll catch up with you later- but don't let anything dead touch Sirion's bandage, or else it won't work." called back Celka, before vanishing.

Sirion's evil glare permanantly plastered on his face sent shivers down Dan's spine. Rather than keeping eye contact, Dan reached to study the wound upon Sirion. The avian grabbed the outstretched arm and twisted it violently.

"I have no need of help from a human." Sirion spat the word out as if it was poison. Dan grimaced, and yanked his hand away, put as much space between him and the hot-headed avian.

Dan walked away from the avian, muttering under his breath. Lye watched him carefully. "What's wrong?"

"Celka told me to watch over the avian, but he obviously wants nothing to do with a lowly human."

Lye smiled. "Do not worry about such trivial matters. The avian does not matter. You are not friends, not even aquaintances! If i am to teach you to control your emotions, you need to learn something; a bond is not something to be taken lightly. Do not aid someone without proof of their loyaalty. And if, once I teach you thoroughly, you seek revenge, we may begin."

Dan sighed. "But it's hard. So hard."

"Dan, your family is gone. Things like this often happen in our world. You need to stop your foolish emotions, so you do not feel so much pain. Some people, you can trust. "Others..." she looked at the avian. "You may have to watch."

Lye turned away from Dan, pondering. Humans are such emotional creatures, she thought. She had her work cut out for her. But, if she could succeed, she would have a powerful ally among the humans. Dan had more power then he knew.

She motioned for the others to follow, walking steadily along the street.

Dan glared at the avian, and followed in her footsteps, not bothering to see if he followed.

"Where are we going, exactly?" He called.

Lye called back. "Somewhere safe. You will see all else when we get there."

Dan sighed, wondering if this drow would ever give him a straight answer.

She walked up to a door that looked identical to dozens of others. She muttered something under her breath, and pushed it open.

Inside a tunnel went steadily down.

She turned to the others. "A part of the drow city. Stay close. You will not be disturbed if I am with you, but if you wander, well, there's no guarantees on your wellbeing."

She pulled out a torch from her pack and passed it to Dan, waiting for the others to enter.

Dan raised an eyebrow at Lye. "You know, before we go in, it might be helpful to light this."

Lye's expression almost resembled a grin. She took the torch from Dan, and a flame flickered into being. She handed it back to him, and started walking down into the tunnel.

"Don't you need a torch too?" Dan said.

"Drows have no need for such things. We can see well in the dark, but we carry torches because one never knows what could happen."

Dan continued on, satisfied. behind them, he could hear the others plodding onwards.

He stumbled a few times on his way down, so steep was the slope. But the drow always maintained her footing.

Dan marvelled at her. She had so much power, and he... he had nothing but invisibility, which he couldn't even control!

He seen the light at the end of the tunnel and squinted. Lye began to walk faster, and the party were soon out in the sunlight.

Dan gasped at the amazing city which surrounded him. It was amazing...

Lye turned, and handed everyone a piece of paper with a strange language on it.
"show this to any drow. It will keep you safe."

She waved at the huge cave, the size of a city. Small huts covered the uneven landscape, and drow children fought and chased along the 'streets.'

"Stick together. I'll find you. You may explore, but do not annoy the locals. This pass will stop them from harming you, but they have long memories. I will go back to leave a trail for the missing party member."

Without another word, she nodded to them and walked back the way they came. She moved quickly, much quicker then they did on the way in. She did not have to wait for half-blind outsiders this time.

She came to the door, and carved a large 'X' in it. inside the door, she left a pass with celka's name on it. She then dragged her dagger along the wall, carving the way they had come, slowly making her way back to the group.

Dan waited anxiously for the drow, frequently looking around. He couldn't see any drows that looked menacing, but he knew nothing of their race. What looked friendly to him could be someone about to strike to them. The differences between the races were shocking, even on first appearance.

He saw what he knew was coming - a drow that looked angry. The drow walked towards him, and Dan began to edge away.

The drow saw this, and moved to cut Dan off. He stopped right in front of him. "Stop," he said. "Who are you?"

I- I'm Dan. I came here with Lye. She has just gone to find a... friend of ours." Dan held up the pass.

The drow took it from him, and examined it. "This seems to be authentic, but I do not approve. Lye should not be allowing those of other species into our santuary. So much has been lost through past indiscretion."

Dan felt tendrils of fear begin to clutch his heart. "I have no reason to cause trouble," he said. "I'll just stay here, and wait for Lye-"

"What is happening to you?" the drow yelled, and the playing children looked up, curious.

The drow grabbed Dan's upper arm, and ran his hand downwards. Dan could see why - his hand and wrist had vanished."

"Remove your hands from that human, someone called, and the two of them turned. Lye was striding towards them.

I wasn't really sure about the plural of drow here... Like the fish/fishes debate lol. Is it drow, or drows?

Sirion followed the pair into the tunnel, gritting his teeth and limping. Yet he was silent enough, for they did not turn or waver, yet continued on. He could hear figures around him, hissing and watching them with their glaring eyes.

He had no real reason for following, other than the fact that it was safer than the surface. That is, until he fell several pairs of hands grab him and drag him away.

one drow, two drow. right?

Lye ran up to the drow, anger barely perceptible on her face. How dare he threaten someone under her protection? And where was the avian? She didn't particularly car about the avian's well being, but to take someone she had put under her protection was intolerable. She wrenched the drow's grip off Dan, who stared at his hand till it reappeared.

The drow male turned to her, his dark eyes glinting with malice. "You. You grant access to the heart of our civallisation to outsiders and..." He glared at Dan. "..Humans?!"

Lye glared at the drow. "Yes. Yes I do. You cannot stop me. More then that, you will take me to my other companion, and grant the one who will follow complete safety."

He snarled at her. "The avian. You stoop low these days, Lye. You know what those bird-men have done to our race."

Lye shook her head. "Better him under my eye then roaming free anyway."

Dan looked confused. "What are you talking about?"

Lye turned to him. "Avians are convinced all drow should be wiped from the earth. The elders of their race convinced them all that they are all righteous and good. And that our race was a direct insult to their power against evil."

The drow man nodded and sneered. "Fine. If I release him to you, you have to contain him and leave as quickly as possible. And keep the human visable."

Lye nodded. "We shall pick up the avian after we have rested then. I am not in a hurry to go back up."

"Fine. He's in the prison when you're ready."

Lye motioned for Dan to follow, and looked around till she spotted She'ana, who had been rather quiet since entering the dark elf's city. Lye smirked. "Let's go grab something to eat, shall we?"

The group quickly moved quickly through the streets, following Lye. She moved with obvious direction, intent on her destination.

But lye soon stopped when she seen a male drow coming towards her. He smiled. "It has been a long time, Lye."

She cocked her head at him. "Not so long, when you stop to think."

He shook his head and grinned. "Even so, too long. You always were the darkest of the dark elves, Lye."

Lye opened her mouth to reply, but stopped when she heard someone calling after them. "Wait for me!"

Everyone looked back to see Celka jogging towards them. "I'm sorry. I detected Lizard men, and went to find them. They didn't seem to be hostile."

Lye glared. "You never know who could be hostile. The friendliest face and hide a murderer. And we need to be quiet here, as to remain inconspicous.

Celka only stared at the male drow, who stared back at her. Dan looked between the two of them, confused. Do they know each other? he thought.

Sirion could feel the anger seering within him. His arms and legs were tightly changed to the wall, and a thick metallic casing covered his wings. The humid stench was familiar to him. He had been in it only three hours previous. fate was cruel to him. It taunted him, letting him taste freedom but then dragging him back into the darkness that concealed him.

The drow. A sworn enemy of the avians. They had always been puffed up and prideful, calling themselves angels, so when the drow challenged that, a blood feud began. And so now Sirion felt even more threatened than he had with the humans. His face was permanantly plastered with a glare that was directed to every drow that went by. Few noticed him, and just left him like he was scum splattered across the wall.

The avian hung his head low, and sighed. The pain caused by the shadows was unbearable, and yet he knew no one would care. He notcied a heavy puddle of blood that was beneath him. His blood? He did not know. But he knew, either way, he was not going to last long.

A sudden dizziness took over his body. his vision began to cloud. He made a random struggle to try and break free, a dilusional attempt. Then he fell limp, his body surrendering to his imminent doom.

She'ana looked across the street to see a trail of blood leading into a dark tunnel. She left the group and followed it deeper underground. She passed a few staring drow, but she didn't care. Her race had nothing against them and she wasn't intent on drawing attention by staring back.

She could tell this was a prison, probably the prison where they had taken the avian. She passed several empty cells and soon came to one where a winged figure hung limp, his wings encased in silver drow magic. She could see he needed help from the look of his skin, which was extremely pale.

There were no guards and She'ana used her faerie magic to open the lock. Drow half-expected to have Faeries in their prisons.

She'ana placed a hand on the avians neck, feeling for a pulse. Blood dripped down his legs and pooled on the stone floor.

She quickly unlatched the metal restraints and caught the avian before he fell to the floor. His wings were heavy with drow magic and She'ana had difficulty holding him with her strength alone. She wasn't sure how she could get the silver substance off. The wounds on his back were swollen and his leg was turning a reddish purple color.

She'ana heaved the avian over her shoulder and hurried from the cell. She hid in the shadows as a pair of drow passed by, not even noticing the empty cell. She hurried upwards, dodging passing drow. It would've been easier to fly, but the cramped quarters and heavy drow magic kept her from even attempting it.

Lye looked around. "I suppose we shall have to go fetch him now." She lead the group to the prison, surefooted and confident in her way around.

She checked the books at the entrance, ignoring the guards.
She motioned for the group to follow, and wandered down the cells. She stopped suddenly, Dan almost crashing into her.

"He's gone."

She looked around, noticed the blood on the floor, and calmly followed it through the passages.