Glowing Caves and Trolls

This journey started when my friend Mike, who works at the Gator (make sure you say hi if you ever drop in), told me about an article he read in the paper. It was a missing persons ad, unfortunately, that told of a girl and her friends who went exploring caves that gave off a colorful glow. The girl went missing when she was separated from her friends. Mike, myself, and some of our friends (you will hear plenty about them later I promise) wanted to go searching to maybe see if we could find what happened to her. Sadly, plans made don't always work out the way you make them. So it was I who went on this journey alone.

The cave I came across was so beautiful, it was hard to believe it was real. Truth be told, I think it was carved by dwarves in the past. They are amazing stonemasons afterall. Wonderful paths, stairs, stone sculptures. And the glowing lights? Turned out to be worms that hung down from the cave's ceiling. There was a small brook of water that flowed through the middle of the cave, which went deeper into the ground. The worms hanging twinkled like stars when you looked at their reflection in the water.

I thought the cave had been abandoned. I had made it to it's heart and there were no signs of the dwarves who might have carved it anywhere. Not even bones or bodies. I would find out why later on. Keep in mind, at this point, I had no cell phone signal and so no way to call or text anyone to let them know where I was.

Trolls. Three of them, but I'm sure there was a possibility of there being more elsewhere. I stumbled upon them quite by accident and they snatched me up. I was 'stored away' in something like a pantry where they had other livestock and such they were keeping.

I am Sidhe, a faery of Irish descendant, one of my skills include being able to communicate with plants and animals. Sometimes animals are able to sense it and so they come to me... because I don't know how to turn it off so to speak. Think of a medium for spirits and you kind of get how I feel when around animals. It is a blessing and a curse, but I am still learning.

One of these creatures that the trolls captured, and they hung like some cherished treasure, was a phoenix. Though you could tell that they really had no idea what it was other than that it had gorgeous plume and sang sweetly. So, when it came to burning day, naturally, the trolls were devastated at how ugly their phoenix had become. I used this to my advantage. I informed them I could heal it for them, make it better so it would sing, and in exchange they keep me alive - just in case this sort of thing should happen again. They agreed.

I hated to do this to such a place of beauty, but as they let me near the phoenix, I explained to the bird who I was and what I needed of it. This phoenix was a male, I discovered, and he was more than willing to be of assistance. I pretended to be working on herbal healing for him when in reality I was giving him more fuel for his fire. Then it came...

And what a brilliant sight it was! Flames spread and built in the cave, myself and what was left of the livestock took cover in the pantry behind fortified doors of rock and stone. The flames burst out of the caves causing an earthquake-like shudder and because of the heat, the flames were a pure burning white. It rose up into a column before going out... leaving nothing more than ash in it's death. Ash and a little baby phoenix, poking its head out of the great pile of ash. I had the trees near by dig near us with their roots allowing us to use them to get out. I carried the baby phoenix and decided to bring him home with me until he was able to fly again.

When I got home, it turned out I had been gone for almost a week... four days or so to be exact. And because of it, I was grounded for a week. Oh well, as you can tell, it was well worth it!

#rhydin #caves #trolls