Eternal Changes (Mikah) (13 page)

“Do you always fly like you’re standing up?” Lucy asked as they flew to the south.

“No, but I thought you’d enjoy the view better this way,” Ashton said. “We’ll be to the caves in a minute.”

Lucy took in the blue sky with white marshmallow like clouds speckled across it and her heart soared. She felt completely and utterly free. She laughed out loud as she leaned her head back. The wind whipped through her hair as she glanced back at Ashton. Her breath caught as she looked into his eyes. Lucy could feel the love and joy radiating from him. Her defenses went down and it was then that she knew she was lost forever.

It wasn’t long before they were making our descent. Lucy’s stomach clenched as they moved closer to the ground below. Ashton rubbed her back to offer some type of comfort. Her feet soon touched the ground and he gently released her from his hold.

“There’s an entrance close to here,” Ashton told her as he headed through the woods.

Lucy followed him. Where could there possibly be an entrance? She surveyed the area around her. There were trees, bushes, and rocks.

Goosbumps rose up on Lucy’s arms as Ashton stopped in front of a large group of rocks that surrounded several bushes. She clenched her hands together as her eyes darted over the area.

“We weaved negative energy around it to keep people from coming near it,” Ashton said as he waved his hand.

The goose bumps left Lucy’s arms and her hands relaxed.

“There are some benefits to being a Halfling,” Ashton said as he flicked his wrist once more.

Lucy’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped as the bushes and rocks disappeared into thin air. In its place was an entrance that was the size of a silo in diameter. “How’d you do that?”

Ashton shrugged. “It’s just an illusion. It keeps the entrance hidden from humans and other creatures.”

The entrance was dark and ominous from where Lucy stood. She glanced over at Ashton.

“Here we go,” Ashton said as he grabbed Lucy’s hand and led her through the entrance. He paused and waved his free hand, putting the illusions and negative energy back.

Lucy’s gaze travelled over the cave. There was water trickling down and pitter pattering across the cavern floor. The brown walls were stained crimson in several areas.

Lucy’s jerked to a stop. “Is that
blood
?”

Ashton looked at Lucy with a small smile. “No. It’s just a different type of rock.”

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, ok.”

The darkness washed over them as they moved deeper into the cave. Lucy hesitated as she looked around. She could no longer see the walls or the ground.

Lucy squeezed Ashton’s hand. “I can’t walk through the caves with no light.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Ashton said as he snapped his fingers.

The caves illuminated allowing Lucy to see the natural art the Earth had sculpted. There rock formations hanging from the ceiling looked like giant icicles. The beige rock next to her had streaks of maroon and black throughout it.

“It’s gorgeous, Ashton. Absolutely gorgeous,” Lucy whispered taking in the scene around her.

“We think so,” Ashton said as he looked around. “I need you to get on my back and I’ll carry you to where I live. It will be quicker than trying to have you follow me. These caves can be kind of tricky from this point forward.”

Lucy climbed onto his back as Ashton squatted down to let her on. She clasped her arms around his neck as he grabbed hold of her legs.

“Here we go,” Ashton said as he leaned forward.

Everything around Lucy became a blur as he ran. It was a completely different feeling when everything was blurry as she rode on his back compared to when she ran. She closed her eyes as her stomach rolled. Sweat broke out on her forehead.

Ashton slid to a stop and Lucy dropped down off his back and sat down on the cold floor.

Concern etched Ashton’s voice. “Are you ok, Luce?”

Lucy took a few small deep breaths before answering him. “I used to get car sick when I was little and riding on your back brought it all back,” she moaned as she clutched her stomach.

 Ashton knelt down on the floor next to Lucy and lightly touched her stomach. “That should help,” he said as he wiped a blonde strand of hair from her face.

Lucy touched her hand to her stomach and looked over at Ashton. “It’s gone.” She looked back down at her stomach. “That’s amazing.”

“It’s nothing,” Ashton said as he stood up. “You should be able to do the same thing soon.”

“Thank you,” Lucy said as she finally stood up. “I never imagined I’d feel sick because of a piggyback ride.”

Ashton’s voice lowered as he gently caressed her cheek. “I’ll always take away any pain that’s within my ability to take away.
Always.”

Pink stained Lucy’s cheeks as she felt the emotions radiating from him. The emotions were intense and Lucy had to glance away as tears filled her eyes. She blinked several times trying to will them away. A single tear escaped and slowly slid down her cheek. She brushed it away with the back of her hand.

“Let me know when you’re ready,” Ashton said. “The others will be sleeping, but I can show you around. Maybe it’ll bring you some comfort to see we don’t live much different than you do.”

Lucy took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

The cool air of the caves tickled Lucy’s skin. The soothing trickle of water echoed in the caves as it slid down the rock walls. They walked through a large arch that opened up into a huge room. Lucy looked up at the huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Its gold frame shimmered in the light.  Her mouth popped open as she looked at the massive chestnut table directly underneath it. Twenty seats with crimson cushions surrounded the table and several large wooden cups were placed in front of each seat.

Lucy walked over and picked up one of the cups. She spun the cup slowly in her hand as she looked at the picture painted on it. A woman with curly brown hair was holding a little girl up in the air. The toddler’s green eyes sparkled with laughter as she looked down at her mother. Lucy rubbed her finger over the picture.

“Why’s there a dining room table?” Lucy asked.

“We may be vampires, but we enjoy still enjoy each other’s company,” Ashton explained as he touched one of the cups. “We can’t eat human food without becoming ill.” He looked over at Lucy as she walked around the table. “It’s worse than a case of food poisoning. We keep a supply of blood here for us to use when we don’t feel like going out.”

Lucy paused at the head of the table. “The cups are used for blood?”

Ashton nodded. “Yes.”

“Then why are there pictures of people on them?” Lucy asked.

“To remind us of why we never take more than what we need,” Ashton said.

 Lucy took in everything around her. There was a large, black plush area rug with a blue and yellow design woven throughout it. She felt like she was in a room of a mansion.

“Are you ready to see something even better?” Ashton asked as he grabbed Lucy’s hand.

Lucy nodded and Ashton led her to one of the many corridors that branched off from the room they were in.

“This leads to our entertainment room as well as several bedrooms,” Ashton informed her as they walked down the hall.

Lucy shook her head in amazement. “It’s nothing like I thought it’d be.”

“We like to enjoy where we stay. We’ve got an extremely long life span, so we might as well be comfortable,” Ashton said as they walked into another room.

Lucy stopped dead in her tracks and looked around the room. The black and red billiards table had a rectangular light hanging over it and there was a blue bar not too far from it. A sectional the color of coffee sat in front of a 72 inch flat screen tv.

“Let me show you something even better,” Ashton said as he pulled her over to the adjacent room.

Lucy gasped. Inside the room there had to be over a hundred different arcades game. A white and red air hockey table caught her attention. “This is so cool,” she whispered as she walked over to it.

 “Yeah. We do a pretty good job keeping ourselves entertained,” Ashton said as he slid one of his hands across the air hockey table. “Do you want to play a game?”

Lucy smiled over at him. “Are you prepared to lose?”

Ashton grabbed the puck and set it on the table. “Even losing to you would feel like winning,” he said as he waved his hand.

A whirring sound filled the room as the table came on.

“Will I be able to do that?” Lucy asked as she grabbed mallet.

“Do what?” Ashton asked as they started the game.

“Wave my hand and have stuff turn on. There’s no electrical outlet in this room and this table shouldn’t even be on without electricity,” Lucy said as she shot the puck back at him.

Ashton shrugged as he blocked Lucy’s shot. “You should be able to do everything that I do, if not more.”

The sound of the clicking of the puck filled the room. Lucy slid her mallet across the table and hit the puck. It zipped across the table and rattled as it sunk into the goal. She smiled up at Ashton. “You didn’t know what you were getting yourself into.”

Ashton frowned. “It’s not over
yet.
”

 Twenty minutes later, they were tied and down to the winning shot. Lucy aimed and shot the puck. It hit the left side of the table at an angle and it went sliding towards the goal. Lucy held her breath as Ashton made a move to stop it. The puck whizzed by his mallet and slid into the goal.

Lucy smiled as she did a small victory dance. “I believe I just whipped you at a game of air hockey.”

“You didn’t ‘whip’ me at anything. I
let
you win,” Ashton said as he ran up to Lucy and grabbed her by the waist.

Ashton carried Lucy over to the couch in the other room and gently tossed her on it. Lucy started to sit up when Ashton jumped on top of her, pinning her down.

“What in the world are you doing,” Lucy asked. She looked up at him as she attempted to wiggle free. He had a goofy grin on his face.

 “Nothing.” Ashton shrugged his shoulders as he leaned into her. “I just wanted to see if you were…ticklish!” His hands went to work finding the spots that made Lucy squeal.

Lucy giggled uncontrollably as Ashton hit the spot on her neck. “P-p-please s-s-stop!” She stuttered. “I need t-t-to pee!”

Ashton’s hands immediately froze and Lucy wiped away the tears from her cheeks as Ashton moved off of her.