Sample Chapter - Caroline and The Tweeners

Here's another sample chapter from my book. I wanted to share one more representative of the entire story as the other one I posted does not involve major characters.  To set the scene a bit, Caroline is a girl of about fifteen who is in pursuit of her father - who has been kidnapped. (As an aside, the word kidnap strikes me as a weird way to describe an adult being, well, "napped" but it is the correct usage of the term.) Anyway, she has found herself in a cave and afraid of an unusual species of "cave creatures" that dwell therein. Hope you like it! And the drawing is of course by Shawn Leader!  Let me know what you think.

Chapter Seven- Blinded By The Light

The candle light from Caroline's hand played on the low-hanging ceilings and walls of the cave, and the shadows therein created a thousand terrors in her mind. With every step she imagined In-Betweeners lurking in each shadow, made worse by the knowledge that she really had no idea what a Tweener looked like, which filled her head with awful ideas. For all she knew they were already standing all around her, as the narrow light cast by the candle hardly illuminated enough space to feel secure.

Again and again she desperately fought the urge to turn back and run, and only the thought of her father out there with those Barbarians drove her forward. But she made the mistake of looking behind her, causing her heart to cry out as she was still able to faintly make out the soft glow of sunlight from the cave entrance. Caroline could not help but shudder at the thought of this being the last time she would ever see the light of the sun, and before she was done shuddering she went around a bend of the tunnel. Just like that the sunlight was lost to view.

She felt a panic wash over her and tried to calm down, telling herself that perhaps the temptation to flee would be lessened without the lure of the light, and now she could double the focus on her mission. Perhaps.

Though far from convinced she nonetheless plodded along slowly, taking great care to watch each step as she was wary of falling in a pit. The floor of the cave was extremely difficult to walk on, uneven and filled with holes of undetermined depth. Adding to her frustrations, she was holding out her sword with one hand as the Sasquatches had advised while balancing the candle in the other, and her arms were getting tired. 

Once again she rued that adventures were in no way as easy as they appeared in books.

Gradually the path began to slope downhill, growing quite steep and making it even more difficult to move along slowly as she had to force herself to slow down. The decline was so steep that her knees were aching with effort.

An eerie quiet surrounded her with the only sound being her footsteps to go with the occasional rock kicked by her feet and her breathing, which was hampered by the stifling air. Every noise she made brought new fears that the In-Betweeners would hear her and come rushing to attack.

Coming to the end of the pathway she could feel the flow of the air change around her, somehow less stale and stifling, and the candlelight revealed that the narrow tunnel she had been in was widening into a large cavern, which explained the change. It was difficult to tell exactly how large in the low light, but she reasoned that it was quite so, and it gave her an odd sensation to look up and see no ceiling above, just complete and total blackness.

She stood in the entryway and contemplated her next move. Leery of simply walking out into the large cavern, it seemed to make more sense to use the wall as a guide until it branched off into another tunnel. So she inched along by playing her knuckles along the wall and decided she would follow the edge wherever it led. In conditions such as this she was almost traveling blindly, and the chances of succeeding in her mission never seemed lower, but there was nothing to do but go on.

Caroline thought of the creatures that lived in these parts and figured it would be a good idea to go over what she knew of them to prepare for their inevitable meeting. Chupwah had warned her that the creatures relied almost solely on their keen senses of hearing and smell, but especially smell. This was no good. It had been days since her last proper washing and everything about her felt dirty. If Tweeners really could smell that well then they probably knew she was on her way before she had even taken her first steps in. Again she wished for a hot shower, though even a cold bath would do.

She removed another candle from her pocket with the other nearly at its end, leaving her hand coated in wax which only added to her dirty feeling. She lit the new one with the flame of the old and held the dying remains of the old one together with the new one, adding a bit more light to things, though it helped very little. But soon it burned out so she cast the remnants aside, where it landed with a dull thud, almost as if it hit something fleshy - not the rocky sound expected. She whirled around, shining the light against the wall and searched with her eyes. But nothing was there, or if there had been, it was long gone. She was breathing heavily as if she had just finished a long run and scolded herself for letting her imagination run wild, though it never occurred to her that the piece of candle thrown aside was nowhere to be found either.

Caroline regained her composure and could not help but think of Akari's adventures she had read about. He too had been trapped in a cave with minimal light, only in that case in a cave habited by dragons. If Akari could make it through that certainly she could deal with a few Tweeners. That was the motivation she needed and picked up her pace ever so slightly.

But she dared not pick up the pace much, which proved a wise course as the candlelight revealed a sizable hole in the middle of her path. She shined the light down the chasm, searching for the bottom and never finding it, exhaling, thankful she had played things safe. But now there was the little matter of getting around it.

Her options were limited. To get by she either had to shuffle along a narrow ledge on one side or risk going further out into the cavern without the benefit of the wall to guide her on the other. Caroline chose the ledge. She leaned with her back toward the wall and shimmied across, shuffling bit by bit. With her head hanging over the hole, she decided to take one last peek, curious to see if now she could find a bottom. So again she shined it down into the chasm, then leaned over the edge ever so slightly for a closer look - and screamed!

The light revealed a vile face, one of the ugliest things she had ever seen, and worse, it belonged to a body that was lunging for her. It was a Tweener - had to be.

The creature had bulbous eyes that housed large black pupils, so large that none could ever claim to have seen the whites of a Tweener's eyes. Its nose was all nostril with teeth jagged and sharp, skin as pale as a fish belly, and a plain costume of dark cloth covering its body. Strangest of all, a thin appendage grew from its forehead, from which a small bit of light shined. Yes, it had to be a Tweener.

Caroline ran away, eluding the creatures grasp and throwing all caution aside as she tripped over loose rocks and holes in the uneven ground with no thought to where she was going. All that mattered was that she was going. The candle fell from her hands and extinguished on the cavern floor, but even in the pitch black she kept picking herself up from the ground to run away, desiring to avoid the cold, clammy grip that sought her.

But then Caroline barreled into something hard, not a cave wall but something living. A Tweener - and unluckily her sword narrowly missed running it through. Their arms and feet tangled together as they collided and fell to the ground. Both struggled back to their feet to get an edge over the other. Caroline twisted around and found herself behind the creature, then wrapped an elbow around its neck, holding it tight and with her free arm she grasped her sword and held it to the Tweener's throat. The Tweener spat and tried to bite its way free but Caroline's grip held strong, and she lifted the surprisingly light creature off the ground while still holding the sword firm against its throat.

“Listen to me!” she shouted. “I have no quarrel with you. Show me the way out and no harm will fall on you!” But the creature's only response was to continue to bite and scratch.

Unfortunately, they were soon noticed and from all around Caroline whispery voices talked amongst themselves in an eerie language she did not understand. The effect was chilling and she gulped, well aware she was completely surrounded - front, back, on all sides. Still, she would not surrender easily.

“Do you hear me? What say you?” She yelled at the snarling creature, then choked as she caught a whiff of its hot, stinky breath and wondered if their sense of smell was as honed as rumors indicated, and if so, how was it they were able to stand each other?

But finally the creature answered in a high-pitched, slimy voice, though thankfully in words she could understand instead of the language the others were using. “It won't do any good to kill me, and if you do, you'll be dead before my body hits the floor. Let me go, and maybe we'll do the same for you.”

“It's a likely story.” She moved around in a circle, still holding her captive while searching the darkness for a way out, but saw nothing. Another thought quickly formed in her mind - maybe she could use the Tweener's lights to her own advantage?

She cleared her throat and shouted out. “I don't believe that I'm surrounded. It's likely a trick played on my ears by the echoes of this cavern. I'm guessing there are only three or four of you Tweeners here, and a hundred echoes.”

As soon as Caroline used the word Tweener a symphony of voices responded back in voices equally as high-pitched and slimy as the one Caroline held captive. “Tweeners?!? Tweeners?!?” The sound echoed back and forth from wall to wall, traveling out of the large cavern and down the hall she had come from.

The symphony of voices ceased when one voice carrying an authoritative tone spoke loudest of all, in a deeper tone than what seemed to pass as normal among them. “We are not Tweeners, Earth dweller. We are the people of the core, driven so close to the wretched surface through the evil of others. The word Tweener is a grave insult and I warn you not to use it again.”

“I don't mean to offend.” Caroline responded. “Nonetheless, I am still not convinced there are more than a handful of you down here. You are quite capable of revealing yourself to my eyes and can cut through the darkness, so show me!”

The voices rang out again and surrounded her in the tongue she could not decipher until the deep-voiced one quieted the others. A few voices responded back, sounding upset, but again the deep voice shouted them down. This went on for some time while Caroline waited anxiously for the argument to end.

Finally the voices ceased. “So be it, earth dweller. Behold the Core-People!” the deep voice exclaimed.

Instantly a chain of lights began to form, one by one, traveling in a row. It began on Caroline's left and traveled through the cavern, finally heading to her right and moving up and down depending on where the Tweener was positioned. In no time at all the entire cavern was filled with small lights that dangled in front of the Tweener's foreheads.

Caroline was awed by the sight as it was truly mesmerizing. But it also played directly into her hands as she used the light to gather her bearings and decipher an escape route from the cavern just ahead with only one of the creatures in her way. But almost as quickly as they went on the lights began to extinguish, and whether they were deliberately putting them out or if they could only stay on for a short time Caroline did not know.

The creature in her grasp had stopped struggling by this time, utterly exhausted by its efforts. The Tweener was surprisingly light and easy for Caroline to out-muscle and grapple with despite some legends that said they stood ten-feet tall. Not even close, so she knew she could handle them physically - that was the least of her worries. One on one, with light to guide her, there was nothing to fear of these things, as their advantage lie in their ability to navigate the caves and in their great numbers, not in their individual abilities. So with that in mind Caroline knew she would have to move fast on her escape as there was no more time to think about it. She had to go, and quick. But just before she left the Tweener in her arms started sniffing, smelling Caroline with its nose before speaking.

“Wellll,” it said, drawing out its words slowly. “You don't stink like those three Barbarians that came through here a while ago. Nasty, nasty things. Awful.”

Caroline's heart rate rose as her hopes were confirmed - she was on the right path. As the cavern darkened Caroline was torn between making a dash for it and hearing what else this one had to say. But there was truly no choice as she had to confirm her father was still with the Barbarians, and to her great relief the creature quickly answered her unsaid question.

“Hmm, you smell....” It paused, thinking. “Yes, that's it! You smell like that other one that the Barbarians had brought with them. He smelled nothing like those Barbarians, no. Smelled rather nice, not like those other stinkers!”

“That other one – the, err, non-stinker - was he safe? Was he harmed?” Her tone was desperate and she was so caught up in conversation that she failed to notice the cavern had gone dark. The Tweener answered back, speaking even slower to stall her.

“Harmed? No, not harmed, not harmed. Just tied up and led on a rope, that is all. Not harmed at all. Long gone now, left the caves a few hours ago, yes.”

“Which way did they go, thing, or I will cut your throat!” Caroline threatened, the panic in her tone obvious.

“So heartless,” the Tweener responded. “But you will do nothing! Grab her!”

In a snap Caroline felt the grip of many hands on her, taking her sword and ripping her away from her captive's throat. They pulled on her, grabbed at her, ripped at her clothes and hair, but Caroline struggled back and evaded their grasp. Free for the moment, she ran in the general direction of where she thought the exit could be found, holding her hands out in front of her to avoid crashing headfirst into a wall. It was slow going, to say the least, and terrifying.

Caroline crashed into Tweeners with every step and responded by shoving them down to clear the way. They went down remarkably easy, but their numbers were too great and soon they overwhelmed her. Her hands were bound behind her back and she was a captive of the dreaded Tweeners, terror filling her heart at the thought of what might happen and doubting that the creatures would have mercy on her now. She had completely and totally blown it.

The Tweeners surrounded her and took turns smelling her, which was an odd and disturbing feeling. It reminded her of going to a neighbor's home and being greeted by an aggressive dog, only multiplied by a hundred. These Tweeners relied on their keen sense of smell much more than Caroline had imagined. Yuck, Caroline thought as she squirmed, utterly repulsed.

She struggled at her bonds but only managed to rub her wrists raw against the coarseness of the rope. The same thought kept going through her head - that following after her father was a terrible idea after all, and Matthias was right. She should have been with her brothers seeking aid from Ambrosia City, not off on a fool's mission that had failed miserably. It was all she could do not to cry as the frustration took hold.

The deep voice spoke sternly in the language she did not understand and Caroline could no longer hold back the tears, which flowed freely as she lost all hope for escape.