Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 251

Chapter 251: Inside the tunnel
Mia’s heart was racing as she looked into the darkness of the cave. She tried to hold on to the conversation that was happening between the men.

“Blast it, man, it’s a miracle you’re not dead,” Ford’s brow drew together as voice rose. “How many collapses have you had??”

Ford had stepped slightly inside the cave and was running his hand on the rock above.

“Minor ones? A couple a day, perhaps. Mostly where I’m digging. It helps extend the tunnel faster…” Gary was responding. Ford’s gritty words were full of exasperation.

“This ground isn’t stable. Did you feel the rock here? Look at it? Without timbers to brace it, the whole tunnel is liable to fall on your head. It would be better to build the inside entirely with angled crossbeams to support it, but even a few timbers here and there would be better than the death trap you’ve created!”

“Some death trap if it hasn’t managed to kill me in my years of apparently incompetent digging,” Gary threw back his shoulders. “My deepest and most sincere apologies that I didn’t have a battalion of expert miners at my disposal to advise me on all matters subterranean!”

Gary’s vocabulary must have grown quite a bit in the intervening years. Mia didn’t remember any of her captors being very eloquent… but she’d been quite young.

“It should be common sense that if the ceiling keeps falling down on your head, put something there to keep it up!” Ford rolled his eyes.

“Gary, did you move to the capital after leaving here before?” Mia interrupte.

“The capital?” Gary seemed caught off guard by the question. “No, why?”

“Your accent reminds me of my aunt, who was raised there,” She explained, “I was curious.”

“I spent time there in my youth,” Gary blinked at her and turned back to Ford. “Are you going to rail at me about what I’ve done wrong or fix it?”

“I’ll do what I can with the materials at hand,” Ford told him, “but I don’t like the way you’ve done this. The ceiling is too wide. If the way was narrow before, it should be narrow now so that there is less open space. Wider is weaker.”

“I see,” Gary leaned in and followed as Ford began to hobble deeper into the tunnel.

Mia hesitated at the entrance. This wasn’t any part of the cave she had been in. This had been collapsed and re-excavated. And yet, something about stepping back into that space made her heart pound in her chest.

“You two go ahead. I’ll wait out here so it’s not too crowded,” She said a little breathlessly. She wasn’t sure either of them heard her.

Ford’s explanations echoed as the men went deeper into the tunnel. Mia turned away. Why was she afraid?

The memories, so vague at times since she first got fuller glimpses of them, bubbled to the surface, crystal clear, one by one. She’d thought she had most of them before, but she was wrong.

Mama’s tears wetting her hair and making her cold. A shiver running down her spine. Papa reaching out and taking Mama’s hand, bumping Mia’s back in the process. Her brothers’ sniffling despite putting on brave fronts.

The kidnapping itself. Mama being held with a knife. Grandpa running from the fields, his eyes wide with anger and terror as he saw his family threatened.

The girl began to pace back and forth across the mouth of the cave. She shoved a hand through her hair, which messed up the braid she’d put it in.

The hair tie fell to the ground, and she stooped to pick it up. Quickly, she redid her braid, breathing deeply and turning back toward the fire. She cleaned up the meal and did the dishes, unsaddled and watered the horses, and tidied the little camp.

Then she waited. How far did the tunnel go? How long would they stay inside? Was Ford giving extensive advice? Had something happened?

She busied herself until there was no more to do. Night would fall soon.

Ford didn’t seem to like Gary at all. He was naturally distrustful of people from what she’d observed. She’d brushed it off, but was he right this time? Had her reluctance to enter the tunnel put her friend in danger?

He was injured, still, and more vulnerable than he would admit to. She should have stayed with him, to protect him, even though she hadn’t thought Gary was dangerous. She could have been wrong!

Mia’s anxiety was causing her to glance at the cave entrance every thirty seconds or so, but she couldn’t suppress it. Eventually she gave up and stared directly into the gaping maw of darkness as she sat beside the fire.

The flames were fueled by dry desert brush, gnarled and thick and crackling. Each pop or snap of the fire’s greedy flare made her jump slightly, but could not pull her gaze from the darkening gap in the canyon wall a short distance away.

Even when she began to yawn and huddle closer to the warmth, her concentration barely wavered. Gary had carried a lamp; she wondered how long it would last.

As the sun’s last rays faded from the sky, she finally heard echoes from the cave again. There was a deep rumble. Laughter? Arguing? Or a distant roar?

Her imagination was getting away from her. She needed to get it under control.

When the pair of men finally emerged from the cave, she nearly fainted from relief. Mia had been completely reconsidering her desire to come here at all.

She wanted to go home, where it was safe. Didn’t she? Was the concept of reliving the long-forgotten memories important enough to put her through this fear?

Ford hobbled closer to her, and Mia jumped up from where she sat. His face was dirty and tired, but he offered her a nod of acknowledgement.

“We have a plan,” He said. “We’ll start in the morning. I can’t tell exactly when we’ll be able to get through to the main cavern, but from Gary’s estimates of the distance, we can do it.”

“When?” Mia asked anxiously.

“Soon.”