Page 12 of There's an Elf in My Cockpit

The crevice we were in stretched out in front of us, in the direction of the ice slide we’d slid down. It also arrowed back the other way but that direction was much more narrow. I was no good at directions but I was fairly certain that was going back the way we’d come. It didn’t matter, right now I needed to get moving, any direction would work as long as it meant we wouldn’t be here when they started digging.

With the pack on my back, I spread out one of our sleeping bags next to Oliver in the cramped space and worked to roll him onto it. I was panting and sweating profusely by the time I had him situated on the makeshift sled. Not even from the exertion so much as my terrible fear that he had broken his back and I was making his injuries worse. He still hadn’t woken up, he hadn’t even groaned, and I was so scared that he was dying.

Pulling him along on the uneven ice floor of this crevice couldn’t be good for him either, but I had no choice. To get a good grip on the sleeping bag I had to scuttle backwards and my progress was so slow that it made me despair. He was so freaking heavy, why did he have to be this big? The fabric was slick in my hands and kept slipping, it wasn’t until I improvised a loop with rope that I could finally make some progress.

It was so dark down here that I had to feel my way along the tunnel wall which curved and warped in uneven, jagged slices. The ice groaned too, making me feel claustrophobic and like the walls could start to close in on me at any second. I wanted to turn on the lantern so I could better see where I was going, but I was afraid the light would give me away.

When the crevice had twisted left and right several times and then started a steep incline down that I almost fell from because I couldn’t see it, was when I gave in and turned on the light. We’d made it to the bottom of the small, narrow slope and the space was a little bigger here, like a big air bubble trapped beneath the ice.

I nearly screamed out loud and dropped both Oliver and the lantern as I scrambled away from the sight. It took me a few panicked breaths before I figured out that I wasn’t about to get swallowed whole by a giant sea creature with a maw full of fangs as long as my arm. The massive beast was frozen in place, literally, inside the thick wall of ice. The ice was transparent enough that I could see the giant maw that was opened wide, and large enough for me to stand in. Beyond the maw, I could see a row of three giant eyes and then the shape became a humongous silhouette, black in the blue ice but without any detail.

“Okay, not alive,” I said to myself and then winced when the sound seemed to bounce back at me. No talking out loud, not in here, this place was terrifying. I scrambled back to Oliver and did another quick check with the light to help me this time. Breathing, his color was good, he wasn’t pale or blue and when I yanked off a glove and touched his skin, I could tell his temperature was still good too.

Breathing out long and slow I tried to tell myself that he was going to be alright, those were all good signs. I couldn’t quite manage to believe it, and we weren’t safe yet. Now that I was sitting still, I could hear the scraping, digging noises coming from behind me, echoing down along the twisting and turning walls of ice. They were so close and if they discovered the discarded supplies, they’d definitely start searching for us. Would Elpherian risk his people to send them along this ice crevice looking for me? Yeah, he absolutely would, he knew what was at stake; he needed me dead at any cost. At this point as much to save face as to stop me from testifying.

They hadn’t even arrested him, or he wouldn’t be here, so it was clear that this case wasn’t moving along at the speeds that Merila had promised me. With nothing else to do but to keep moving as long as the crevice allowed for it, I hooked the lantern to my belt and picked up the rope to drag Oliver.

“I can do this,” I whispered to myself as I pulled. Which became a chant the further I went, my muscles aching and screaming. The many bruises that covered my body let themselves be known with each step I took. “I can do this,” I sobbed when I stumbled over the uneven ground for the third time in a row and had to scramble to keep Oliver on top of the sleeping bag.

“Please, just wake up.” It was so dark here, and the noises were as terrifying as the ghostly silhouettes that jumped at me from unexpected vignettes in the ice. If Oliver was awake I would have found those discoveries as exciting as they were scary each time I stumbled on one. Alone they were just horrible; though none were as bad as that first one with the giant open maw.

I knew I couldn’t push myself any further when I fell and bumped my knees hard on the ice. I was exhausted from walking and pulling Oliver along after that massive fall. I thought I’d gotten away from it without any injuries but now I wasn’t so sure, maybe that was just the adrenaline hiding them. I ached everywhere as if I were one giant bruise, and I just couldn’t seem to catch my breath no matter how many times I paused.

Shrugging out of the pack I grabbed the canteen for water and drank my fill, but I couldn’t manage to lift my arms enough, no matter the willpower I exerted, to try to set up the tent so we could get warm. Now that I’d made the decision to stop, my body didn’t want to move. With the last of my strength, I crawled over to Oliver’s side and laid down.

“Please, Oliver, wake up!” I murmured, “I can’t do this without you. I’m so sorry I got you into this mess. I always ruin everything. Please, don’t die. You can’t die because of my stupid mistakes.” I was such a failure, I was a wrecking ball just like my grandfather called me. The whirling force that came in and destroyed everything they touched with their wildness and their lack of sense. And now it was costing this noble male his life.

I’d been crying on and off since the moment I’d discovered Oliver’s body, still and unmoving. At some point, my body had to run out of tears, but I hadn’t reached that point yet, and it was just making me more upset with how useless the crying was. It wasn’t going to fix anything, it was just another of those things that made me different from my siblings. There was Vi, always so emotional, crying at the drop of a hat.

“Oliver, I need you, please,” I whispered hoarsely. I had only known him for two days, but it was long enough to know that if I had a second chance with him. I would want to grab hold of it with both hands and give him what he wanted from me, even if that meant exposing all my flaws. I owed him all of that, considering what he’d done for me, what he’d risked.

“Just please come back to me.”

Chapter 8

Oliver

I woke up to a pounding headache and the sound of a woman crying. I didn’t like the headache, but it was the sound of those little shudders and sobs that pierced my chest. I hadn’t heard her cry yet, but I instantly recognized her anyway, Vi. My little elf with her carefully warded heart was exposing her feelings now. What was making her cry?

A surge of anger gave me strength, whoever the bastard was that had hurt her like this, I was going to kill him. Nobody got to make my girl cry like that and got away with it, not on my watch in any case. I clenched my fist, feeling extremely weak, and each muscle in my body ached. Opening my eyes hurt my head, piercing my vision with a bright light that made everything spin around me and nausea rise in my belly.

Okay, no eyesight for a minute until I recovered, and no fighting some unknown bad either for a while. “Vi. Sweetheart. Please don’t cry,” I murmured, hoping that despite my weak state, I could at least comfort her. I didn’t expect the softly uttered words to have such an impact though, she made a startled squeaking noise and then I felt her hands patting me all over.

“Oliver! You are awake!” she exclaimed and I winced when the much louder noise pierced my head painfully. Man, that headache was serious, what had caused it? What happened, and where were we? I tried to open my eyes again but the light was still too bright and I couldn’t get my sight to focus. At least I managed to move my arms just enough to wrap them around my elf, who was lying next to me on the hard surface we were on.

“Yeah, sorta,” I mumbled, “Why were you crying?” That seemed more important than to figure out where we were and I was aware of how irrational that was. In the short time I’d known Vi, her well-being had gotten insanely important to me. When my head wasn’t aching as much as it was I’d have to think about that, about why I was feeling so drawn to her. She was a damsel in distress and that certainly appealed. She was sexy as sin, which was definitely making me want her, but it was all those hints of vulnerability that she tried to hide that I loved. Those felt like little treasures when she trusted me with them.

“Why?” she asked, sounding baffled, and then much more fiercely, “I was crying because you wouldn’t wake up, you oaf!” She gasped after she said the words and from the way her body shifted against my side, I was pretty sure she’d just covered her mouth with a hand. I couldn’t help myself, I chuckled and then winced when that shot horrible pain through my ribs. Those were definitely cracked.

“Must have hit my head real hard,” I responded, still amused. She was lying down with me, we had to be in a safe place or she wouldn’t be this calm. Well, calm wasn’t exactly what she was, but she definitely didn’t appear like she was in a rush to move so I wasn’t either. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a thick skull,” I added.

She huffed but she was no longer crying. Actually, she’d shifted closer and was now resting her head on my shoulder; I could feel the brush of her soft hair against my neck, tangling with my beard. After the distance she’d kept during our hike that morning that was one hell of an improvement. I just couldn’t remember much beyond that point, where were we? How had I gotten my head knocked?

“Don’t joke,” she murmured, “You were out for hours, and you didn’t move at all, I was so scared…” Her words made me take stock of myself more seriously; where was I injured? Was it just the blow to the head and ribs? Or did I have more injuries and I hadn’t noticed? Had Vi already treated them?

Talking much was still a bit of a struggle but each time I blinked open my eyes, the light got less bright and it stopped hurting. “What happened?” I managed to ask. I couldn’t recall and that was worrisome but not too strange if I’d gotten hit in the head hard enough to stay passed out for as long as she said I had.

“After we fought that ice beast Elpherian almost found us and we had to run, you fell down an ice crevice and got knocked out and I fell down with you.” She moved restlessly and finally, though I tried to hold onto her, she sat up and shrugged out of my arms. I missed her presence immediately so I focused hard on getting my eyes to obey. She fell too, had she gotten hurt?

---