A Guide to Kingdom Building - Chapter 171

The door started to move. The clicking and clanking sounds became more audible as the runes continued to grow brighter. Adaloun tried pulling out his hand from the mold, but it seemed to be stuck. He tried pulling out his hand from it, but it only hurt him every time he did.

Orphella noticed blood trickling out of Adlaoun’s hand. She looked at himThe sight caused her to panic and tried helping Adaloun to pull out his hand from the damned stone door. She grabbed his arm and place placed her leg on the door before attempting to yank Adaloun’s hand out of it.  They tried it for a few moments, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Stand back!” Adaloun shouted. “Stand back, Orphella! Let’s just wait for this one to—” He pulled out the dagger and was about to cut his arm free when all of the sudden, the door opened.

His hand was finally released from door’s grip. He stumbled back and almost fell on the ground when she caught him before landing on the stony, cold floor. There was another awkward silence, Orphella saw Adaloun’s head resting on her chest. She immediately pushed him to the side and dusted herself.

“Are you alright?” She asked.

Adaloun was still confused from what he did simply nodded. There was an air of awkwardness between them, or it might just be her. Orphella still couldn’t get over from what he did to her earlier, that kiss made her felt with a feeling she couldn’t understand.

Orphella shook off that notion as soon as it entered her mind, but every time she saw him, warmth would spread all over her face. She cleared her mind about it and just focused on what was important, tending to his wounds.

The door left Adaloun a big wound in the center of his palm. It seemed like the door could only activate with the use of blood and it just so happened that her comrade was either too unlucky or simply just a fool to try and place his hand on that mold.

“Your hand is bleeding.” She tore a cloth from her arm and tried to wrap it around his wounded hand.

Adaloun quickly hid his hand away from her, “No, I am alright!” He said as he checked his wound for himself.  His bled profusely, unfortunately, it was not a small wound but rather, a gaping one. “It’s jus a…flesh wound!” He was lying and she could tell.

Orphella was getting annoyed at him, but she remained calm and logical with the situation. “Please, let me look at your hand.” She asked. “I have to and I must, if you want to live or get out of here with your body intact.” She said.

She grabbed Adaloun’s wounded hand and tried the best as she could not to show any sign of awkwardness to stop him from feeling uncomfortable. The wound was about 3 fingerlings long that ran across the center of his palm to the base. She covered the wound with the cloth before applying pressure on it to stop the bleeding.

After wrapping and stabilizing the wound. They set again their sights on the opened door. She gestured Adaloun to stay right behind her, while she tried and checked what was beyond the door. Her heart pounded wildly as fired an arrow. The last thing she wanted was another monster meeting them on their way inside.

The arrow flew by the empty dark room. There were no hindrances apparently. The arrow also shed some much-needed light to survey the area clearly and rid any dark lurking monsters, which luckily, there was none. It was safe, nothing was lurking inside of it. On the other side, was another door, probably a way out but it was way too far from them and apparently, there was a chasm in between their mode of exit.

Orphella looked down and noticed the ground below was scorched and filled with embers scattered around. Just by looking at it she realized that the chasm was caused by and explosion, a huge one at that. It seemed new, as if someone or something just exploded and took three stories along with it.

The chasm wasn’t relatively deep, but it wasn’t conveniently easy to cross it either. Without ropes and harnesses, the entire way down would take a lot of effort and time to do. Adaloun peeped behind her and saw the deep pit in front of them.

“Looks like we have no other choice but down.” Adaloun commented.

“It seemed so,” She sighed. “I need to find a way down there first. Could stay up here and wait for me?” She said adamantly.

Adaloun protested on her idea, “You know it would be safer if I came along with you.” He pointed at the chasm below.

He had a point, however, without them knowing how steady the remaining rocks were, it was best if one of them stayed in case the other one needed rescue or at least the other lives and find another way out.

“I’ll go ahead and do that then!” Adaloun volunteered.

“No, you’re injured.” She answered back. “You need to recover first. I’m the only one around here that could fight with both hands.” She pointed Adaloun’s wounded hand.

Adaloun wanted to insist even further and tried to tell him that he was in the condition to fight. Orphella nodded and approached him, tired from arguing. She pulled out the knife he holstered on his waist and pressed the sharp blade on her comrade’s neck. He never got to react from her sudden attack and realized the extent of the injury he had. Right then and there, Adaloun never argued again.

He took a deep breath and slowly moved the knife away from his neck. “Alright, I understand. I’ll just sit here and wait for you.”

Orphella knew how deeply he had wounded his pride; however, she knew it was necessary. It was the only way for him to listen and it worked.

She look down at the chasm once more. She scanned for any other possible routes down, but there was only one route down. The stony rigid rocks at the right ledge were the only possible way down. The stones where big and stacked against each other like a piled box. Although it looked sturdy, she still needed to be very careful just in case it might collapse under her feet.

Orphella turn around to Adaloun once again, “If I won’t make it down there, you find your own path out of here.”

Adaloun smiled at her, “You’ll make it. I know that you can.”

She smiled shyly to Adaloun and she doesn’t know why she did. She gave nodded at him to signal her descent and made her way to the ledge.