Rose had learned a long time ago that gasping awake only made more bad things happen. She couldn't count the amount of times she had been jolted out of sleep and directly into the worst circumstance of her life. And those circumstances had gotten worse and worse the longer she'd lived.
So she now woke silently, without a single twitch of a muscle or an inhalation of breath that would give away the fact that she was now aware. She didn't know what had woken her, but she'd developed a sixth sense for danger in the many years of her life.
She listened carefully, trying to hear what had snapped her awake.
There it was. A slithering, almost like something heavy was being dragged, and the tiny taps of talon tips against stone. Whatever creature was here with them, it was trying to move quietly. She had no idea what it could be, but Gunnar wasn't moving. Rose was certain he was still asleep and some foolish part of her whispered that she had to do this without him.
She snapped her arm out to the side and reached for the lantern bulb he'd brought her. Bright light illuminated immediately, green as Gunnar's eyes, and she sat up with it brandished like a weapon.
What she saw was not anything Rose had ever thought to see in her life.
A massive creature, long as she was tall, with hundreds of legs, had crawled on top of Gunnar. It didn't have much of a face, just massive pincers that were inches away from his throat. Countless eyes dotted the top of its head as it leaned ever closer to the man she adored, but the light made it turn to her and let out a mighty hiss.
Spit hung in glistening strands between its open pinchers that somehow moved even wider as it realized she was awake. And then she noticed that there was something buried in Gunnar's stomach. A stinger that had come out of the creature's tail, which was wrapped around his body.
The air was heavy with its scent. Earthy and musky, as only a creature born in the dirt of this world would smell. It let out another hiss that made all the hair on her body stand on end.
Rose let out a shriek that she was certain rivaled the sound of its hiss and pushed the bulb even closer to the creature. All of its legs moved, trying to rush away from the bright light that it seemed terrified of. She held it higher, trying to scramble to her feet, but she couldn't with the stone above her head. Rose nearly knocked herself out trying to stand up and then cursed as she was forced to crouch and watch it slither away.
"Gunnar," she said, planting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a firm, hard shake. "Gunnar, wake up."
He didn't.
She looked down to see that there was white foam bubbling out of his mouth. She'd only seen someone do this once before, and they'd been hit in the head so hard they started seizing. She hadn't known what to do then either, but she rolled him onto his side as a start.
Cursing again, she set the bulb down and willed it to stay lit long enough for her to get a look at him.
Panic swelled. In the past she would have disappeared into that other realm by now. She would have hidden from the fear that made her throat feel tight, but now she didn't want to hide. Rose wanted to be here with him.
And just like that, with the realization that she didn't want to hide anymore, the world seemed to open up.
The glowing deep inside the mountain reacted to her panic. What she had seen as only a well of power deep underneath this stone woke up. Hands emerged from the depths. Troll hands that were worn and wrinkled with age pressed down upon hers. She sucked in a deep breath, looking at the woman who had appeared from the heart of the mountain itself.
A crone with a wrinkled face, her hair laced with the bones of tiny birds. "Press here," she said. "Cut here."
Cut? What was she supposed to cut with?
A rock? She guessed. Rose didn't know why she trusted this apparition, but every fiber of her body did. So she took a rock and cut a slice in the cap of his shoulder, then looked at the troll woman.
"Now your hand."
Rose didn't hesitate. Pain meant nothing to her now.
Once blood welled in her palm, the troll woman pressed her hand over the open wound on Gunnar's shoulder. Old wordsbubbled up from her then. Words the old woman was saying with her. Words in the black tongue that Rose didn't understand, but suddenly she could feel a swelling of magic deep inside herself. Stronger magic.
Older.
The power deep inside the mountain was even brighter than before. She sucked in a breath, mystified at what could be happening. But she couldn't see anything at all because the bulb had gone out.
Without the light, all she could see was the glow of the mountain. That silvery magic was only something she could see, and if she wasn't careful, that creature would come back.
Light bloomed beneath her fingers where she was still holding on to Gunnar’s shoulder. Pretty blue light. And then more, a yellow that was brilliant as the sun, binding together until they were green as the emerald grass above this mountain. Blinking out all too quickly.
Almost as though her thoughts had summoned it, she heard the creature. Many taloned feet tapping toward her, rushing, racing, knowing it only had a small chance and then it could inject her with whatever venom had frozen Gunnar as well.
Rose nearly fainted. She wasn't strong like this, wasn't a fighter.
But then a hand came down on the bulb. A hand that couldn't possibly be there. The creature reared up at the light, showing its armored underbelly and the many legs. That pincher nearly broke through the image of... of...
