Olansaf 1 - Draft 2

Left foot in that hollow. Right hand up. Right foot... There! The ridge at my knee.
Find a left hand hole first.
Uhmm... ok, don’t find a left hand hole.
Oh... My left foot’s going.
Right foot to the ridge, now! Heave! Crap! My right hands cramping. Oh no. I’m going to go down. No.
I’m going down.
Wait... Rope. Where did that come from?
“Hold onto the rope! Before you fall!”
Well I’m not gonna argue with that. Right hand. Wrap the rope around. Cling with left hand and wrap legs around. Hope!

“Is this the afterlife?” I croak. A dark shape blots out the light. A person.
“Not even close, you’re still alive, thankfully. You gave me a scare, I thought I’d lost you when you blacked out on the rope, but you wrapped it around so you stayed tangled.” The figure bends and I feel a water skin on my lips. “Drink. There we go. You might want to go back to sleep. You didn’t come up whole.. This will hurt.”
Pain in my shoulder. Too much. Blackness...

Snatches of memory.
Being carried, across a field. Green jumper... so cold.
Down a street. Brick building, books. Stairs. Pain.
Voices... “Trust... No.. The one.. Can’t... Let.. See.” Shoulder, blissful chill....
“It’s true.” A soft voice.. A recognition. I know that from somewhere. I can’t fight the blackness. It’s too much...


“Wakey wakey little lady. No don’t sleep again, you need food. Open your eyes...”
Where am I? I open my eyes to a green jumper. The memories flood back with a gasp. I follow the green up to a face. Kind blue eyes smile at me from the frames of dirty blonde hair that falls around the face. The nose and lips, male features, definitely. I can’t talk... Mouth is dry.
“Water...” I manage.
The kind blue eyes offer me a water skin and I move both hands to take it... but only my left hand responds, so I fumble and my grip slips. But the kind eyes just pick it back and offer it to my lips, and a slow trickle of water slithers down my throat. I swallow and wash the water around my mouth, draining the water skin dry. I coughed and tried to regain my voice.

“Can... Can I sit up?” I asked hopefully.

“Ahh.. Ok, but go slow. Support with your left arm not your right.” He helped me sit up and lean back against a pillow.

“What’s your name little lady?” He asked, examining the bandage around my right shoulder.

“Milliner Redlaw, but most people call me the Mad Hatter, on account of I don’t have much sense. What’s yours?” I croaked.
“Jason Yolbas, But you can call me Jace.” He said, distracted by my shoulder. He called for ‘JayJay’ and a brown haired girl came jogging in from ‘round the corner of the partitions that surrounded my bed. He gestured for her to take a look at my arm and she pulled a face, but he glared and she relented, moving forward to take a look. She pulled a face and I felt a faint pressure as she traced something on my arm. I gritted my teeth as a loud crack! cht cht cht! emanated from within.
“Ow. Ow Ow Ow Ow. What was that?!” I moaned fighting another wave of blackness.
“That was the break in your arm re-aligning and fixing. It may have done your shoulder too.”
She prodded my shoulder and surprisingly no pain came.
“Well that didn’t hurt, so am I good to use this arm now? I have an itch I really need to scratch.” I asked. JayJay just rolled her eyes and walked off, but Jace nodded his head and I reached over and sighed dramatically as I scratched the itch on my left arm. I paused.
“How did JayJay do that? She just touched my arm. Is she a witch?” I enquired and I heard a snort from the next partition over.
“She’s not a witch... Though she acts like one. She’s different, like everyone here.” He said busying himself tidying the little room.
“Everyone? How many people is there here? In fact, where IS here?” I asked, sitting up and testing my right arm. It felt stiff, but it seemed alright.
“There are six of us, and a...” He paused, considering his words, “Guest. Plus you, for as long as you need. And this is the library, you’ll understand in a while.”  He removed the bandage from my shoulder and disposed of it. Abruptly he stood up.
“Would you like to meet the rest of us?” He asked, staring at me intently. I thought for a moment and nodded.
“Yeah, alright,” I replied. Jace nodded absently and wandered out of the partition. I heard him talking to someone- a deep baritone voice. A few seconds later there was the shuffle of feet entering the room, and a slight sound of one leaving it. There was a silence and a couple of muttered half conversations. Jace poked his head around the partition, and I stood. He smiled and held out his hand. I grasped it, suddenly nervous at meeting these people.
What if they didn’t like me? What if JayJay used her ability for bad as well as good? What am I walking into?
The thoughts swirled around my head in the seconds as I rounded the corner into a large room. The walls were a deep brick, but they were mostly covered by maps and wall drapes. The room had a couple of woollen rugs laid down near chairs to stave of the cold of the dark wood flooring. a fireplace sat blazing merrily off to my right, and I resisted the urge to go and curl up in front of it until I’d stopped aching. To my left there was a spiral staircase and behind that, a large window, showing the dark night and stars beyond. As I was looking around, a dark shape flickered outside the window and then opened it, revealing itself to be a tall lanky lad with a mop of dark brown hair. He was dressed in a short sleeved shirt and shorts, despite the evening chill. Before he could clamber inside, another guy with jet black hair, leapt up the stairs and slammed the window shut, causing Brown-haired boy to fall back and out of view. I shrieked in panic and whirled round to look at Jace, who was glaring at Black-hair with pointed intent. Black-hair was looking amused until Jace turned to me and shrugged. Black-hair gaped at me, but I’d turned back to the window. I started to move towards it, but before I could take a step Brown-hairs head appeared over the edge of the window, his fingers clinging to the sill. He took one hand off and smacked the window, forcing it to open. His head ducked out of sight. Maybe ten seconds passed before his legs appeared, at the top of the window, and he swung inside. I gaped in shock as he somersaulted onto the railing around the stairs, and neatly jumped down onto the floor. He stood up smartly.

“You called, boss?” He replied in a calm tone. How is he not breathless? The thought flickered through my brain. Jace arched an eyebrow. I was still gaping.
“We have a guest, so show some courtesy Ben.” He gestured to me. “Meet Miss Milliner Redlaw, she will  be staying for a while. While she is here she is to be considered one of us, and will participate with our,” He paused and smirked, “Unusual life style. No leaving her out.” He smiled at me and gestured for me to say something.
“Hello,” I said shyly. Great. Nice one Hatter. I chided. One of the spectators smiled. He had a shock of silvery white hair, pale skin and eyes that seemed to be molten silver. I glanced nervously away and saw his smile widen in my peripheral vision.
“I’ll start the introductions,” he smiled. His voice was warm and quietly comforting. “My name is Lucifer Yates, but you can call me Lu, everybody else does.” He lent forward and held out his hand. I went to shake it, but he simply held on and lightly kissed the back, glancing up at me as he did so.

I tried to smile but my world rocked.
The floor seemed to lurch beneath me and for a dreaded moment I felt like I was on the ship again, the rocks closing in, the rope slick and burning under my hands, the waves crashing over the rocks. No, no, no, I don’t want this. Stop, stop STOP!