Short story by: Casi Thurber
The Great Door
"Why did I agree to this?" I think to myself as I reach the floor of the cave. "To feed myself? Maybe. To have an adventure? More likely." The thought encourages me as I turn to help the others prepare.
"Its dark." We hear Alfred say in a half-hearted moan.
"We have flashlights you know." Russel glares at Alfred and give him a flashlight from his pack.
I realize Alfred is right when I turn and stare into the seemingly endless tunnel, its darker than it should be. I notice that Russel sees it too when he turns to see what I am up to. "Its just a tunnel." he says reassuringly.
We start walking carefully stepping over all the large rocks and roots scattered across the floor. "Where are we going?" Alfred asks. But no one answers...no one knows.
As we walk we slowly, one by one, put our flashlights away, it was getting light enough to see. The light was green so none of us thought that the light was from the end of the tunnel. Up ahead I start to see the source of the mysterious green light. A great round door with a powerful green light shinning above it.
"Now what is that?" says Russel in a wonderful questioning voice. He walks up to it putting his backpack on the ground, not looking away from the door, and turns the wheel that was attached to the center of the round door.
Suddenly we hear a loud crack and the door swings open. What lies ahead was a long round tunnel with slimy green walls.
"Sasha, Alfred and I are going into the tunnel and you are going to stand watch!"
"Your reasons?" I replied calmly.
"I am going to go forward because it was my idea to come down here in the first place and I am the strongest. Alfred is going because I promised you that if we brought him I would be the one to watch him because he is my brother. Besides you are the only one who can handle intruders without killing them, if you think them to be useful." Russel explained.
"Very will, I will stay." It was settled, I made myself comfortable on the floor of the cave as I watched them walk into the darkness.
The position I was in made it easy to fall asleep and the silence is so hypnotizing that I couldn't help but slowly drift into a world all my own. When I wake the sight before me is enough to throw a grown man off his feet and into a pile of mud without the man noticing any more than what stood about three feet taller than him.
Ogres...Big, ugly, discussion green ogres that stood around eight feet tall. There where about eleven of them standing in two neat rows with one ogre guiding them. They were all just standing there staring at me, when suddenly the one at the front of the line barks an order to the last two,
"Bring her with us!" the fact that they spoke my language startled me insomuch that I did not realize they were talking about me.
When the last two picked me up I was so paralyzed with fear that I did not struggle in the least. They took me in through the door and went through he tunnel with such speed that I don't remember anything I saw in that dark slimy tunnel.
When we got to the end of the tunnel I was astonished to see that there was a village, and underground ogre village. There most surprising part was that it was organized. The village was in the shape of a circle with small houses on the outside growing larger and larger the farther to the center until, the middle where there was a large circle building that towered above all the other houses. I believe that this is where they were taking me. When we got to the building and entered through the large doors at the front of the building we where joined by another group of ogres carrying Russel and Alfred.
I had completely forgotten about them while I was being kidnapped by these tall creatures. I realize now that I did not fear for my life or theirs until the end of a long hallway we were led down. The hallway brought us to a smaller but still fairly large door that we then passed through.
After the ogres put us three down and we all looked around the room, there was nothing really to look at, just a rectangle room with a desk and chair at the other side of the room. In the chair was the biggest creature I have yet to lay eyes on. As he stood up I guessed that he was about ten feet tall with muscles the size of watermelons.
The ogres voice was deep in such a way that it could stop the heart. "Why have you come here?" The question ranging our ears.
"We wanted to leave Satin and someone told us that the tunnel led to a better place!" Alfred said. Russel and I looked at him questioningly. Alfred has always been difficult and unspoken so hearing him speak up to such a monstrosity is even more astonishing than the neat ogre village.
"...Send them to their rooms." ordered the ogre at the desk. The ogres picked us up and brought us down a series of hallways and finally dropped us in separate rooms, locking the doors behind us.
The room was much like the one I just left except there was a bed instead of a desk. I figured that if I was going to be stuck in this room I might as well catch up on my sleep. When I got to the bed I threw in on the floor. I sat there for a minute thinking about what had happened earlier that day that caused this.
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In the morning I had gotten up before the sun rose. I lived in a very old two story house with only one window that wasn't broken, but it was a house none the less. In fact, it was the only house in the entire area of Satin. Satin was mostly made up of garbage, trees and animals so it made it fairly easy to live there. This place also keeps you busy with hunting in the morning and most of the afternoon and the required schooling in the east hills in the evening. If you miss even one day of school, unless you are deathly ill, you will be sent in a train across the desert to the city and the city officials will punish you according to the law. I however, had a different schedule. This schedule was make especially for me by the city officials, I had been sent to the city because my trainer thought I was smart enough to make it to state official but what came of this trip was completely different. When I got to the entrance of the Towering Building I stopped to admire the fabulous splendor of the magnificent buildings above me.
This was a terrible mistake.
A gang started to grab at the small leather bag I had brought from home so I, naturally, defended myself as I would gangs in Satin, and soon they all got too tired to continue beating on me so they left me alone in the street. I then went into the building and was led to the top floor in a fancy elevator by the desk attendant. The people on the top floor (the city officials) told me that they had seen what had seen what had happened outside and decided that instead of keeping me here they would send me back to Satin to train to be a warrior in the war that was about to start.
When I got back home I went to bed and slept until a guard came to bring me to my first lessons. The gym in which I was to train in was very large and could hold over a thousand people. Every day I would have to go to the west hills right at the crack of dawn to get there at about ten, have breakfast, and train until sunset. Every day I come home and the guards will have prepared dinner for me so I could get the max amount of sleep for the next days training. I had no time in the day for myself, and this is why I agreed to come down here. By the time we came down here I was so good at hand to hand I could put someone over one hundred pounds heavier than me on the floor in five seconds.
Now I was locked in a room and beginning to think this was a bad idea. I lay down on the bed and immediately went to sleep.
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When I woke up there was an ogre standing at the door waiting for me to follow him. This ogre had a kind face and seemed to be willing to help in any way possible. I got my coat on and walked towards the door. The minute I got there the ogre started walking down the hall. I followed and he led me to the room where I had seen the supposed "head" ogre. I went in all he once again turned around. This time he did not seem to be mad at me but still not happy with me intruding his home. We talked for several hours and I found out that he was the one spreading war across the county and he felt horrible for causing so much pain. I also found out that he wanted me to go to the city and that he would provide transportation, he wanted me to reason with the city officials and give them a peace treaty and in return he guarantied that he would free my friends and me. I happily accepted the offer and was on an underground train in the next few hours. The city officials gladly signed the paper and sent it to state and it was approved once more. The war was over within the next month.
I had done my job for my community and the consequence was wonderful. The war was over, Satin became a richer and healthier community, and I had no more schooling or training ahead of me. This was going to be good.
THE END
Note from the Author:
I had to improvise on the last part because this was a project for school and I only had one more day to finish.
