Kiryaoo
I felt like starting a new story so I just started writing one day. I get distracted too easily if I have basically anything else to do, though, so this took a really long time to finish considering how short it is. I started one day, finished almost a page, and then stopped writing it for like, half a year or something. Maybe a whole year. Wouldn't be surprised. Then one day I thought up an ending, and then wrote it a while after that. Here it is. I don't think it reflects my actual opinions. It's just like my poetry, or something.
I can’t believe I’m actually going through with this, Kiryaoo thought. How did they talk me into this? He crawled through the tunnel, being careful not to touch the poison-coated walls. His lantern flickered as it swayed back and forth, hanging on a leather strap around his neck. Its light illuminated only a small area around Kiryaoo: only enough for him to see directly ahead of him.
He had been crawling for what seemed like hours, not daring to stop lest the viscous poison oozing behind him catch up. He still could not see the end of the tunnel, and had no idea how far he had yet to travel.
He only knew that he had to reach the other end. He could not turn back now, and only partly because there was not enough room in the tunnel. He could not come out of the tunnel without what he had come for: a legendary sapphire that was supposed to rest in this place.
How did she talk me into this? He thought again. He would not have agreed had Rayana not asked.
“Please get me the legendary sapphire,” she had said, looking up at him with those innocent blue eyes. “I know you can do it, Kiryaoo.” He had not been able to refuse her.
I suppose this is what comes of falling in love, Kiryaoo thought, Risking your life for a gem. He did not think of turning back though, and not only because he could not.
The lantern flickered. Kiryaoo looked down at it, and saw that his oil was running low. He sped up, thinking, Best not to be caught in here when it runs out.
Suddenly a speck of light seemed to appear before his eyes, though he could not be sure within the flickering sphere of lantern light. The end of the tunnel! It could be, and if not, it meant only that he had a farther way to go.
Sure enough, though, the speck of light grew larger the farther he went. Eventually he could make out the round shape of the tunnel end. Kiryaoo increased his speed, eager to be out of the tunnel.
He soon reached the end and stepped out into the light. He stood up, stretched, and waited for his eyes to adjust to the bright light. When enough of his vision returned, he extinguished the lamp. Eventually his eyes adjusted to the light, and he examined his location.
He stood in a large cavern, its large vaulted ceiling broken every so often by arched spaces opening out into the sky. Some sort of milky film, transforming the yellow rays of sunlight into pure white, covered the openings. The walls were made of beautiful green stone veined with brilliant blue. Rayana might like a piece of this stone rather than some old sapphire, Kiryaoo thought, and then he saw. In the center of the chamber, mounted on a pedestal made of the same green stone, rested the jewel.
It was perfectly round, as big as Kiryaoo’s fist, and it seemed to absorb the bright light and shine it out, making it seem to glow with some magical light, brighter than that of the sun. Actually, I think she’d prefer this, Kiryaoo thought dryly. Walking over to the pedestal, Kiryaoo was careful not to step in the glass-clear pools of water that seemed to be directly under the filmy openings in the ceiling.
Loosening the strings that held shut the pouch on his belt, Kiryaoo lifted the wondrous sapphire. Before he could slip it into the pouch, however, he felt the force of gravity lift from his body. He floated up, up through the milky film of the ceiling, which parted before him and reformed as he left it below. He flew higher, slowly, but nevertheless uncontrollably.
The gem’s power took him higher, never seeming to slow. However, his course angled out over the village. Well, at least I don’t have to look for a way out, Kiryaoo thought. He didn’t know how he would’ve gotten back past the poison. Now all I have to figure out is how to get down alive.
His course leveled out, so he was hovering toward the village. Then, as the roofs of houses appeared, he suddenly climbed steeply into the air. Kiryaoo looked around, trying to figure out where the stone was taking him.
High over the village square, Kiryaoo stopped moving. His stomach seemed to jump into his throat as he felt gravity once again take its hold and rudely shove him down, faster and faster. Kiryaoo frantically clawed at the air in an attempt to slow his descent, and shook the sapphire roughly to try to reactivate its magic. His efforts were in vain. He plummeted, for what seemed to him like an hour, though it was in truth a matter of seconds before his body thudded into the ground.
Kiryaoo lay there on his back, unable to move. The pain from multiple broken bones had not yet registered in his brain. What happens now? He wondered. Then he heard footsteps. He almost moaned with relief as Rayana’s face, along with a few of her girlfriends, came into his line of sight, standing over him.
“Took you long enough,” his love said coldly. “And were you trying to take my stone for yourself? Really, Kiry, I cannot trust you with anything.” Bending over, she snatched the sapphire from his helpless grasp.
As the flood of pain from his broken body washed away his consciousness, Kiryaoo could see Rayana and her friends fly away, laughing gaily. Why do I even bother with girls, Kiryaoo thought just before blackness overtook all his feeling and pain.