Chapter 13:

The weapons room was impossibly larger than the library and it was filled from top to bottom in well, weapons. The weapons lined the walls and tables and even the ceiling. They varied from swords to bows and crossbows, spears and halberds, and whips and lassos and battle axes. There were some Willow couldn’t even tell what they were because they seemed like a combination of many things. There were some Ganashes in there, they were adults, dressed in gear and filled with weapons, talking to some strange man dressed in a black cloak.

                “Over here,” Chelsea said, taking Willow to the wall left of the door they had just walked through. “Are the Kopor Blades.”

                “What are Kopor Blades?” Willow responded, looking at the wall where the supposed “Kopor Blades” were. They seemed like normal weapons; although they didn’t have much selection.

                "Kopor means human or someone without any special powers. These blades are meant for people like you who can’t handle Ganash Blades, like the Deflector." Chelsea replied, grabbing a wide, heavy looking, plain sword off the wall and handing it to Willow. Willow grabbed it just to be pulled down by the weight. It was heavy! Heavier than she could carry and the blade clattered to the ground, the sound echoing through the room, bringing the eyes of the adult Ganashes and strange man on her.

                Chelsea laughed at her and she heard laughing behind her, too. Looking behind her, she saw Michael, looking amusingly at the blade on the floor. Willow tried her best not to blush and regained her composure. “That blade is heavy, there must be something lighter.”

                “Here,” Chelsea said, grabbing another blade off the wall. “This is a Polished Glass Kris, much lighter than the Deflector.” She handed the forearm sized, thin blade which was much lighter than the last blade, but still had some pretty good weight. She gave the blade back to Chelsea, whom carelessly dropped it on a nearby table.

                “Well, let’s stock up.” Chelsea said, running to a table on the far left side of the room and grabbing a couple of what Willow guessed were belts. She ran back to Willow, gave her the belts. “This one goes around your waist, this one around the arm, this one around your other arm. We won’t need a lot of weapons so I won’t be giving you many belts.” She said, pointing to each individual blade. Willow carefully wrapped the waist belt around her waist, taking a moment to figure out how to attach it. But then came the problem of putting the belts around her arms, she wouldn’t never be able to latch it with one hand.

                Michael seemed to have seen her struggling and to her surprise, he came over, “Here.” He said, latching it around her arm for her. Then he walked to her other side and took the last belt, which was in her hands and latched her other arm. The feeling of his fingers touching her arm gave her the shivers, but she wouldn’t show it.

                “Thank you.” She replied to him, careful not to make direct eye contact.

                He nodded, “No problem.” And walked away without another word or glance.

                Chelsea came back with her arms full of weapons that she dropped on the same table she had dropped the Polished Glass Kris on. She then carefully took some blades out and put them in the belts.

                She didn’t give Willow many weapons at all. Just a couple small daggers and the Polished Glass Kris in the arm belts and three long blades in the waist belt.

                “The two daggers I gave you were Insisors. Insisors are very light and can cut through hard shells much easier, they are also much easier to toss. The two long blades I gave you were Harecs, Harecs are also lightweight for your sake.” Despite the reassuring that the blades she had given were lightweight, Willow could still feel the heavy pull of them. Very uncomfortable and making her much more sluggish than usual.

                “Alright,” Chelsea said. “You’re done. Just wait for us to get ready and we’ll get going.”

                Chelsea ran over to a faraway shelf with fancy, very long swords on it. Willow stood awkwardly, watching as Alicia entered the room, her hair in a tight bun, all loose hairs behind her ear. They were all walking around the large room, grabbing weapons. Within minutes they were all ready. They didn’t get many weapons at all, only a few here and there. Chris was the one with most, it looked like. Not seeing very many weapons on them reassured her, she hadn’t trusted them before when they said this wasn’t dangerous, but seeing that they did not have many weapons let her know that this was indeed not a very dangerous adventure.

                "Are we ready to go?" Alicia inquired, then stopped to look Willow up and down. "You rock gear better than any of the other Willows, that's for sure."

                Willow smiled just a little, "Thanks, means the world to me.” She teased.

                Alicia seemed to enjoy the teasing, "I try to be supportive as much as I can."

                Willow laughed at little, then caught Michael watching them.

                "Made a new bestie, Alicia?" He said, mocking sadness.

                "Aw," Alicia replied, patting him on the shoulder. "Don't worry Goldilocks, I would never replace you."

                Michael smiled and pulled his tongue out Willow, pretending to show off that Alicia had said she would never replace him. Willow pulled her tongue right back and snickered.

                Chris threw his hands in the air randomly, "Quit it with the sweetness, I think I might cry." He said, faking as if he were wiping a tear. "Let's go."

                Willow’s heart beat a little faster with excitement; this would be her real first, dangerous adventure.  

                "Let's go bug some Mountain Lyres!" Alicia whooped and pumped her fist in the air as they exited the large Weapons Room.

                As they were walking down the hallways, it occurred to Willow that she had never been outside. In fact, in all her business she had never thought to look outside her window. She knew nothing about the UnderWorld. Was it like a huge city? Or more open spaced?

                Michael, Alicia, Chelsea and Chris were all making jokes in the background and giving ideas of what tricks they could play, distracting Willow momentarily.

                "We could steal their dinner," Michael suggested.

                "Or we could stab them with sticks!" Alicia replied excitedly.

                Willow realized she was a step or two behind them all so she walked a little faster to catch up, "So, do you guys do as you please? Like kill whenever and stuff?"

                Michael shook his head, "Yes and no. Unlike you UpperWorlders, there are no laws that bound us to certain things. There is no real supervision on Ganashes over fifteen years old. But, we do have codes, like ‘Do not cause unnecessary wars or you will pay the price.’ The biggest one is no injuring or killing any other Ganash unless valuable reason. If you break that code, it’s a death sentence. And the second biggest where you could be put to death if you break is disrupting the Legend." At the last sentence, everybody seemed uncomfortable as if that code had hit something personal, as if someone they loved was disrupting the Legend….

                Chelsea cleared her throat and continued on for Michael, "Well, sometimes CarvesWay River or different leaders assign us to different tasks. Like Willows we have to train and what not’s. And it's good to have allies in certain situations, so we might get assigned to help a certain kingdom or tribe to get on people’s good side."

                "And," Alicia added. "No, we are not allowed to kill as we please. We can mess with things, get involved in certain wars if we're looking for adrenaline, but we are not allowed to go on a killing spree, ‘Death should only come when necessary,’ the code says. "

* * * * * * * *

                Willow knew exactly when they had reached the front doors because of the way they stood out. They were huge, larger than the ones for the Weapons Room. And had intricate designs all over them. Willow paused as one design, the largest that occupied most of the door caught her eyes. It was two swords crossing over a heart, but not ripping nor touching it. Inside of the heart was writing,

                “Karuaso es ra vorax, wes yujo ha s'qou hafti torr.” Michael said, reading the inscription inside of the heart, “’Courage is not in death, but in the gift of life.’ It’s the Ganash motto, as one might call it.”

                Willow nodded, somehow almost hypnotized by the writing. Chelsea started to go through the intricate process of unlocking the door, there were so many volts and buttons that Willow lost track of which ones Chelsea was clicking within seconds. There was loud, almost deafening click that echoed through the hallways, making Willow jump.

                “There we go, it’s open!” Chelsea said, pulling the door open with the help of Chris. 

                They were halfway through opening when Willow had to ask, "What happens if someone somehow gets in here?"

                “We’re being invaded,” Michael replied, teasing her slightly.

                “No, I mean, aren’t you scared that something might come in?” She clarified.

                “We can handle ourselves, Willow,” Chris replied, opening the door all the way and letting the breeze hit them.

                The view hit her like a wrecking ball, blowing her breath away and making her feel like it was a dream.

                It was like a painting of a perfect landscape, she could see the mountains peeking out from behind the clouds. She could see the endless prairie that was filled with flowers and grasses. She could see a dark forest in the distance. It was like a fairy tale coming out of the pages of a book, but so much more real and so much more overwhelming. The air was the freshest she had ever breathed and the wind was the sweetest.

                She turned around and looked at the Headquarter. It rose up so high Willow felt as if she might fall just lifting her head up to look at it. It was like a castle, with carvings and wind worn bricks, vines inching their way up the walls.

                The garden around RiverPlain was kept neatly, with bushes full of flowers, colorful trees.             "Welcome to the UnderWorld." Chelsea said, almost with a sense of pride hinting her tone.   "Now," Michael said. "If this Hell, then I wonder what Heaven looks like."

* * * * * * * * *

                “What is the news that you bring, Mudaru?” Machire drawled, looking up at his messenger in annoyance. He had lots of work to do and usually Mudaru’s news was irreverent.

                “They have grabbed another Willow for the Legend.” Mudaru responded, looking at Machire with curiosity as to what he might think.

                Machire rolled his eyes and put his pencil down, “So, what’s new? Another unfortunate Willow who is going to die is not my problem, please, leave now Mudaru. An idiotic Warlock tried to raise a demon and I have lots of work trying to clean up after him.”

                “But sir, I think you may be interested in this Willow!” Mudaru said, looking at Machire with a hint of desperateness, the man really wanted to please his master.

                Machire sighed and folded his hands across his desk, “Speak.”

                “Her name is Willow Glasspiers, she is your daughter, sir.” He said it quietly, as if anticipating a bad response.

                Machire closed his eyes and laid his head on his desk. He was quiet for a long moment, trying to clear his mind and get it to think logically, “I thought Anne changed her name, I thought she fixed this problem. She went to the UnderWorld and met up with the Midnight family yearly to have this fixed, so tell me, how is it possible that my daughter is in the UnderWorld as Willow Glasspiers and going to slay a dragon?”

                “I don’t know, sir.” Mudaru replied, nervous that this may make his master angry.

                “Bring her to me, I need to get her out of here and fix what Anne started.” Machire said, going into a drawer in his desk and pulling out a small piece paper. He wrote the order down and held out the note for Mudaru.

                Mudaru walked up and took it in confusion, “Do you care about her, sir?” He asked.

                “She is my daughter, of course I care about her,” he replied, honestly. “But daughter or not, if she becomes a problem, I will not hesitate to kill her. Do you have the time when’s best to get her?”

                “Yes, sir!” Mudaru said, proudly. “Our spies say she is leaving the RiverPlain with her group to bother some Mountain Lyre in the Mount Devoru in the MayDark Mountain Range.”

                “Send some Bolesgire to get her for me and kill anybody that gets in the way.” Machire replied, writing the new order down on the piece of paper. “And leave me, I have some phone calls to make.”

                Mudaru nodded and left, more than ready to send the Bolesgire.