Quietly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled himself to fight off his fear and be ready for anything. Gripping his axe tightly, the tall Elf raised it slowly in his left hand and pulled out his shield with his right hand. He moved slowly and cautiously into the dark of the cave, glancing back in fear of being ambushed. "Who's there?" a large man's voice boomed from the mouth of the cave. "Show yourself!" Jair turned toward the voice and saw a large, bearded man standing at the entrance. He was dressed in a brown tunic and wore a necklace of human ears around his neck. "Show yourself, or I'll blast you where you stand!" The gruff voice sounded quite angry. Jair knew he could take out the big man right then, but he knew that would probably alert the men inside to his presence. He decided to wait, but he needed a plan. He saw a torch hanging down from the wall and decided to use it as a diversion. He crept to the entrance and took the torch, setting it up on the ground. He pointed it toward a crack on the wall, watching in the dim light the men of Thildin's army as they marched toward the center of the cave. The man on the far left of the entrance noticed Jair. "What are you doing?" he asked suspiciously. "Just setting a torch, big man," Jair replied. He began to raise his axe to strike, but the other men weren't moving, and Jair was still cautious. He only used one hand to fight—he was still injured from his last encounter. "Quiet!" shouted the big man. Jair dropped his axe and shield and moved toward the torch. "You are in trouble," said the gruff voice, "don't touch that torch!" "Sorry," said Jair, dropping to the floor, "I wasn't trying to cause any trouble, just lit a torch. Where are we anyway?" The big man came forward into the light. He had close-cropped, blond hair and a bushy beard. He squinted through the thick, black beard as he examined Jair. "What were you doing?" the big man asked, stepping into the small room. Jair put his hand to his jaw as he replied, "Just looking around." "Who sent you?" demanded the big man. Jair shrugged. "No one sent me," he replied. "Liar!" the big man shouted. "Hey!" a voice called from the far end of the room. "Someone is up there," said the big man, squinting up at the torch, "and it looks to me like that torch light is coming from the same direction as the voices!" Jair heard a few angry voices coming from farther up the tunnel. "Oh, it's not me. Look, I don't want to make any trouble," said Jair. The big man glared at Jair. "I hope it's not you who is making trouble," he shouted. "Come out of there. Now!" Before Jair had time to think, he heard a loud explosion from the end of the tunnel and a deafening roar. A wave of fire rolled through the tunnel, igniting all the oil that had been used as fuel for the torches, and spreading fire and smoke throughout the tunnel. Jair panicked, not knowing what to do, and took off running in the other direction. He knew that if he went into the cave he'd probably die there, so he ran for the door. He heard the roaring and heard the big man's voice booming at him from behind. He tried to run faster, but fear began to take its toll. He was getting weak, his wounds not healing because of his lack of nourishment, and fear began to take over. He began to weave and stumbled. The big man was quickly gaining on him and shouted, "Stop or I'll shoot!" He was exhausted, and Jair fell to the ground. He heard a loud, booming voice from the other side of the cave. "Give up, it's over!" said the voice. "Surrender and you may live," replied the big man. The man from Thildin was in big trouble. "No, I'm not going to surrender!" Jair shouted, and he stood up in a crouch, his eyes wide and his hands full of weaponry. "I will die before I surrender," Jair said defiantly. The man from Thildin was in trouble, and he knew it. He was unarmed, and the other men were many. He wondered, "What was that explosion and roar that followed me from the cave?" Then, he understood. It was the same fear that had hit him before. It was also the same fear that had been haunting him his entire life. It was his only weapon. He suddenly felt the same way he did that day he had been found by the hunters. He began to slowly walk backwards. It was his last act. He knew he couldn't win the battle that day, but he never thought he'd die at the hands of the hunters and his only weapon was fear. # Chapter 5 ### _______________________ Jair didn't understand why he felt no pain as the knives drove into his body. He thought it might have been because the men were all distracted or he might have died instantly. But, it didn't happen that way. He looked up into the eyes of the tall man who stood before him and Jair realized what was happening. He began to scream as the men pulled his lifeless body back into the caves and closed the heavy, wooden door. He never heard the door close. Jair had died a horrible death, not in battle, but of fear, alone, and afraid in a small, dark room deep in the mountains of Thildin, a few hundred miles from his home. Jair died the same way that his father, mother, brothers, and sisters did, and all the others who had lived their lives long enough to see the sun set on that dreadful day. The men in the cave looked at the lifeless body in terror. "What happened?" one of the men shouted. "Why does he not wake?" A short, scrawny man knelt beside the body and felt for a pulse. The man was a healer, and it was his duty to see that the body of the person died of natural causes, not some external cause. The healer was the first person to recognize the truth. The cause of death was that the man had died from being overwhelmed by fear. The healer looked into the eyes of Jair and knew, "This one is lost." # Chapter 6 ### _______________________ A week after the battle Jair lay in his grave, still wearing the clothes he wore when he died. He was alone, forgotten and unburied, covered with dust and blood. The warriors had been so scared by the death of their leader that they had fled from the cave without even burying the body. Jair, still in a death-like state, lay lifeless in the cave, hidden in a pile of rocks, the soldiers unaware of the cave's secret chamber. The healer crawled out of the cave and gathered some straw. He filled it with water from the stream and hurried to the cave. "I must get him out of here," he said. The healer went back to the cave and was horrified at the sight. The body was in much worse shape than he had expected. It was swollen from his body becoming waterlogged and then turning dark. "What are you going to do?" asked one of the men who stood in the cave. "I'm going to draw the water from his body, and he will come back to life," he said. "How do you know that will happen?" asked the man. "I just do," said the healer, "I have always known this." The healer opened the dead man's mouth and pulled out his tongue. He pinched it tightly and threw it into the stream. He looked at the man and smiled as he said, "That was not his tongue before." The healer gathered more water from the stream. This time, instead of pummeling the lifeless body of the man, he placed the small stream over his head, which made the water in the stream sink to the ground. The man's body quickly began to bubble. The healer left the healer's body to his work and called for the men to come and help carry the limp body out of the cave. In a short time, Jair was resting on the soft grass of the forest floor and feeling the cool breeze on his body. His eyes opened slowly and opened wide as he heard the cheers of the men. "Look! Jair is alive!" he heard one of the men say. Jair struggled to get up, but the men held him down. "You must rest," they said. "No, I must return to my home. I must tell my people that I am alive," Jair said