Arleana's bow (Part 1)

The three got up, wiped the dust that had settled on them away, and closed in to explore the small cavern. Arleana, the smallest of them, went in first. Christof was so tall that his head brushed the top and so he ducked. The narrow passage grew wider and darker, but along the way there were shots of light. The passage seemed to be right under the ground. Only a thin layer separated the two, and much to their delight, daylight leaked in.

"I think it is leading up." Arleana said, her voice echoed in the silence. The ground was indeed rising gradually.

"The question is, where will it end?" Chase pointed out.

As they walked on, they came to a wide corridor, in which almost not light streamed into at all. The three, led by Arleana, started slowly into the cavern. All of the sudden Arleana stopped with a cry.

"There’s water, and it’s really cold!" She exclaimed. Chase was holding her back as she was on the very edge.

Christof scrutinized the darkness around them searching for a way around it. Then all of the sudden a thought came to him that he could not believe had not occurred to him before.

"Can’t you turn it to ice?" He asked Arleana, "Just as you do when you shoot you arrow. Try it."

"How?" Arleana asked surprised at such a request, "It usually just happens when my arrow pierces something, but this is water."

"Try with your mind." Chase suggested.

"Yes, this bow was given to you because it chose you. It’s something inside of you."

Arleana thought about this for a moment before answering. She had never done it before and couldn’t even begin to think how. "I can try." Arleana began to will herself into it. Thinking in her head, Turn to ice at my touch, and she concentrated on that thought as hard as she could. Then she reached down and dipped her hand into the water. When she felt nothing, Arleana pulled her hand out and stood back up, "I knew it wouldn’t work."

"Arleana, have you looked? You did it!" Christof exclaimed as he and Chase thumped her back.

Chase boldly took the first step onto the cold surface. It held. Arleana and Christof followed, and the three slipped and slid, often falling on their behinds, until they had finally reached the other end of the lake. Though they had made it across, they were still in utter darkness.

"Well," Chase said after standing in darkness for a little while, "Now how do we get out of here, O Powerful one?"

"How dare you mock me?" Arleana said in an equally sarcastic voice. All at once, she remembered the small crystal that Christof had given her. It seemed so long ago that she had held it in her hand and shrunk it to a marble size. Now she put her hand to her neck where the crystal hung securely. Arleana lifted it over her hand and held it in her palms. Just as Christof had shown her, she slowly began to pull apart. Its light, which had flickered on as soon as she had removed it, began to grow and grow. Finally, she could see Chase and Christof’s face, and clearly the smile that spread across the old mans face in recognition of his own gift to her. Arleana held it in her hand, though it had only enlarged to the sized of a large egg, it shone extremely brightly. The violet color light obliterated the blindness that had seized whilst they had entered the corridor.

Ahead of them was only on long stone wall. As they searched in either direction for a clue to which led out, they saw that the glow of the crystal, though strong as it was, could not reach the farthest corners of darkness. And so they chose out of gut feeling to continue going left. Arleana looked at the frosted water and couldn’t help smile in satisfaction, thought she still could not believe that she, herself, had done it. Maybe it wasn’t herself. She couldn’t help wonder, albeit the water sat frozen as proof, how she had done it.

"I think I see a break in the wall." Chase said whose eyes were young still. Arleana, who had been day dreaming almost, looked up and too saw what he meant.