‘So you’re a mermaid?’ Eli asked for the third time but she only nodded her head. ‘And I would gladly help you open the doorway since you are a descendant from Amitris.’ It turned out the girl, Via, was a mermaid who lived in the river and she was even a friend of my mothers as she had helped Via escape from some smugglers. ‘but I need the necklace.’ Protectively I closed my hand around it. ‘You don’t need to worry, I won’t steal it.’ She smiled. ‘How can we be sure to trust you? You could be lying to us.’ Kai said. He was right. There was no way we could really trust her. Her eyes seemed angry with his words. ‘Listen here you humans, the gnomes aren’t very human friendly. Even though you have a Griffin that won’t mean they will spare your lives. I just want to help you by giving you a special necklace, one I can only get if I have the witches wisdom. If you want to help your empire and friends, then you had better hand me that necklace or else good luck on getting in the cave.’ He eyes were earnest and even glowed in a bluish light as did her hair and some little sparks around her. She looked truly magical. ‘Fine.’ I removed the silver chain from my neck and stretched out my arm to her holding the necklace. ‘But.’ I said right before she would take it. ‘If you don’t bring it back I will get you and kill you, you got that?’ I made sure my tone of voice was serious and  threatening and it seemed to work as she nodded slowly and took the necklaces chain and disappeared in the water. 

‘I really hope you did the right thing.’ AJ sighed as we waited for Via’s return. Mia and Eli were practicing their powers as Kai and I sat silently next to each other by the water. Andy sat next to him and Rubin next to me. ‘So you saw your mother.’ I nodded silently. ‘What did she say?’ I took a deep breath before I began. ‘She said the key is in the necklace, so the stones but she also said she couldn’t tell me more because it was our job to find out how to open the door.’ 

‘And then she just disappeared?’ I nodded again. He laid his arm around me pulling me a bit closer. ‘You’ll see her again.’ He whispered before planting a kiss on my head that sent butterflies throughout my whole body. ‘Aren’t you sweet.’ I jerked away from Kai at the sound of Via’s voice. ‘Oh don’t mind me.’ She smiled as she came closer and sat with her lower body still half way in the water. ‘I’ll help you from here, ok? I could come out, but the transformation from fins to legs and back is quite unpleasant.’ She handed me two necklaces, my own and another that seemed black in the darkness. It was a pendulum and was very simply cut. It hung on a silver chain as well. ‘It’s a pendulum that will help you find your way in the caves. The gnomes will not harm you since you are in possession of it and it will warn you if there are any worms near you when it starts to glow.’ She said. As I took them, I took a glimpse at her lower body and legs but I couldn’t recognize anything.

‘You need the light pink stone and the white one.’ She said as I walked to where the stone doorway was. I opened the phial gently and poured its content into the palm of my hand. ‘Eli, I need a very pale purple to see the colors here.’ He did the best as he could and I picked out the two stones. ‘Now what?’ I called to Via. ‘There should be two little cavities opposite from each other somewhere around your shoulder hight. Put them in there. The white on the left and the pink on the right.’ I did as told and the stones started to glow in their places, letting little streams of light flow from them. The light drew a picture of a willow tree on the stone and there were some writing on the wall as well. ‘Now take the silver one and place it in the middle of the threes trunk.’ Via instructed. The whole door glowed and the picture of the tree, the writing and the carvings around where clearly visible. There was a soft thud and then the door started moving. It slid back and even further into the cave. ‘Don’t forget to take the stones back out, you’ll need them later!’ She called. ‘Thank you Via!’ We all called to her and waved as she elegantly dived back into the water, popping up quickly to wave back to us before disappearing again into the water.

When all where in I carefully took out the stones from the door and put them back into the phial with the rest. The stone door moved forward and sealed the entrance shut again for who knows how long and darkness fell over us once again.

There wasn’t a single light in the room and since my hands were free, I gathered some light yellow light in them and sent the beams, which formed into little balls, to float under the ceiling of the cave and to my surprise it was a rather big cave but the ceiling was very low. It was so low that Kris had to duck his hed down a bit. ‘Now what?’ Eli asked as we stood there looking around the cave. It had two rows of coulombs going from the entrance of the cave to some very wide stairs at the other end. It wasn’t clear to see, but I made out two arches that lead to the unknown. Genias was first to hear or sense something. ‘Someone’s coming.’ Lay whispered just a second later. And then it even got to me. It was a strange feeling, not bad but yet not good either. Like a mix of good and evil at the same time. The energy from the mysterious thing that was coming towards us was almost bouncing around and I felt very energized just by feeling his energy. Then on the left side of the stairs from the arch light could be seen and after a couple more seconds a small, very small creature. It’s short legs moved quickly and as he came closer, I could make out red eyes. His cape or coat floated behind him and he help a long staff in his hand. It was like they had taken three branches and had twisted them together forming the top to look like a hand with three fingers protecting a glowing ball of light. 

When he stopped only a few meters away from us, I could see him more clearly even though his hood covered a good part of his head and the shadow hid the rest except for his long black beard that was braided strangely, having sliver rings and pearl like beads added into the black mass. He looked at us and we, uncertain of what to do, exchanged looks with each other. ‘You’re not from Amnender.’ He then said in a very deep and husky voice. Kris was first to speak after a long pause. ‘That’s correct.’ The gnome eyed us all again. ‘Who are you?’ Kris was calm as he answered question after question. ‘And what do you want from us?’ He asked. ‘Well…’ Kris looked at me and I nodded understandingly. I gently took of the necklaces and held them out to the gnome. ‘The phial is from my mother and it has lead us here. Why, I do not know, but I hope to find out and the pendulum is from a mermaid we met just outside who helped us get in.’ He nodded. ‘You mean Via. She’s been living here since a few years now, also a good friend of your mothers.’ He said. Wait, what? As if the gnome had heard me he chuckled and I could slightly see him smile under the mass of beard. ‘You still have much to learn, Ren. As do the rest of you. Come, you’re being expected.’ He turned and started to walk back to the stairs but now going to the tunnel on the right of them. ‘Wait, how do you know my name?’ I asked following him. ‘Oh, Amitris used to go on and on about how she hoped to have a baby girl and call her Ren. That phial, we gave that to her. Not everything of course, but a part of it since there are stones in it and we, the gnomes, are the dwellers of the earth.’ Despite his small figure and even smaller legs, he walked at a good pace. Even making it hard to follow him as the tunnel went downwards. There were no lights on the walls, just the light from his staff and the light from my beams that followed us. 

‘How do you know my mother?’ He didn’t turn around as he answered me. ‘She was on a mission to spy on the emperor of Amnender, at the time he was still alive and she found Via being kept imprisoned to entertain the royals. Your mother, being the sentimental person she is, helped free Via and escaped with her and fled into the mountains. The thing is, we never knew was how she found the gate and the river. It not listed in any map, well, then it wasn’t, so I was shocked to find her and Via sitting at the water as I came back from doing my patrol round around the area. Gnomes are known for being human intolerant, but that doesn’t apply to all gnomes of course. I’m an example of that and because of that I took her in, letting Via live in the river that has a passage way under the mountain to get into the caves. That’s probably how she got you the pendulum.’ He took a short breath and I took that chance to ask him a question. ‘Why do we need it again? She said, it’d help us find our way in the caves, but I don’t really think we’ll need that now.’ the gnome chuckled. ‘Oh, she’s right. We’re here to help, but we won’t be here the whole time. The caves are so big, we can’t even populate a third of them. You guys are going to have to find the main gate of the caves to get out of these mountains and that pendulum will help you.’ I looked at Rubin who walked beside me with a look that said ‘what the hell?’ ‘What do you mean to get out of these mountains?’ Kai asked. ‘Well, even though we’ve built these caves, we’ve never made a map of them or anything and we live pretty far into the mountain that we haven’t found the way to the main gate in almost fifty years. The other reason is because the caves are a labyrinth and there are creatures and other mysterious things that we don’t know much about. But that’s a story for another time. We’ve arrived.’ He said stopping in front a, well, for the gnome a huge door, but for us an almost small door. ‘Just do me a favor when we’re in there,’ he said turning to me. I looked down to the small man and his red eyes and black beard, ‘don’t tell him I let you in.’

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Hey guys! Sorry again for taking so long to update the chapters, but I have good news! Only four more days and then I'm on vacation!! Well not really, because that's a wednesday, but at least I won't have any tests anymore until after the christmas vacation! Yay! 

Anyways, thank you all for reading and please comment!