They all sat around the bonfire quietly as Emeryl tended to Prism's wounds. Some of the bruises had faded but he still looked awful.
      "I'm not the youngest anymore." He hummed as he padded Prism's cheek.
      "Ow! Not so hard!" Prism whined.
      "Sorry. Who's the oldest?" Emeryl continued.
      "I think I am. I'm twenty five." Prism answered. Glancing up, Blake wrinkled his nose.
      "I'm twenty seven." He answered.
      "Oh, then that..."
      "Wait!" Emeryl cut Prism off rudely, "If you're twenty seven, you did all that other stuff when you were seventeen! See, I'm not a baby!"
      "You're seventeen?" Blake queried.
      "Yeah." Emeryl smiled.
      "Baby..." Blake went back to cooking his portion of the beans.
      "Hey..." Emeryl whimpered.
      "I'm not a baby!" Leiko replied loudly.
      "You know, Leiko is a boy's name. My father called me Leiko, but my mother called me Blake." Blake replied.
      "So what?" Leiko yipped.
      "Maybe her parents wanted a boy." Eric chewed up his beans cold.
      "Why? What's that suppose to mean?" Bentora demanded.
      "Does it bother you? I'd rather have a boy too if my girls were cursed to look like you..." Blake sighed.
      "What?! That's it pretty boy!" Bentora leapt to her feet.
      "Wish I could say the same to you, unfortunately you don't even classify as a pretty girl." Blake climbed to his feet.
      "Now now brown cow!" Leiko piped.
      All gave her silly expressions. After a second Blake seated himself by the younger drow. A minute longer and Bentora took her seat.
      "The village shouldn't be far..." Blake placed the beans over the fire again.
      "Fifteen minutes that way." Leiko pointed to their side.
      Suspiciously, Blake glanced down at her.
      "You're too enthusiastic to get us to the village. I know you think we'll be killed, but I'll tell you right now that we aren't going into the village. We're going to the hanging ladder." He explained, "Then we're leaving."
      "There's no way out, cuz..." she stopped.
      They waited for her to finish.
      "Well? Cuz what?" Eric asked.
      "A, drow elf named Blake sealed off both exits with lich queens..." she stared at Blake. With little empathy he peered back.
      "You're gonna be so dead." She warned him.
      "Not if we aren't caught. Besides, if you squeal I'll make sure you burn with me." He answered.
      "No wonder you want out so bad. Why didn't you tell us you were wanted?" Prism rubbed his cheek as Emeryl moved on.
      "Because, he's probably planning on getting us caught and moving on by himself." Bentora hissed.
      "If you hadn't destroyed my home we wouldn't be here." Blake replied.
      "If you hadn't destroyed our home we wouldn't be here..." Prism firmly answered as he glared straight at Blake, "Maybe you don't realize this, but everyone here has good reason to hate you."
      "Really?" he glanced at Eric.
      "You killed my brother." Eric answered. Blake's eyes moved to Bentora.
      "It's your fault I morphed." She lowered her ears. They passed to Prism.
      "You blew up my city." He solemnly replied. Without a word he looked to Leiko.
      "It's your fault we've been trapped down here for ten years." She huffed.
      Hesitantly, Blake closed his eyes and irritably responded, "Well, now that we've established that everyone hates me..."
      "I don't hate you." Emeryl blinked, wiping blood off the back of Eric's neck.
      "Emeryl, he tried to kill you." Prism reminded him.
      "Yeah... but Eric tried to kill me too... and Bentora locked us up... and the dragon tried to eat me..." he thoughtfully answered.
      "Well, that's true... but..." Prism began.
      "Mind if I read from the Holy Texts?" Emeryl interrupted him, grabbing his bag.
      "Go ahead." Prism replied. Digging through the bag, Emeryl's face paled as he searched.
      "I can't find it!" he dumped out his belongings. Only two spoons, the kettle on the fire, a brush and some rotting old berries were left.
      "We did fall a few miles below the earth..." Prism suggested.
      "My favorite plush is gone too!" Emeryl cried. He pulled the spider off his head and snuggled the poor thing half to death.
      "There there..." Eric patted the hysterical elf on the shoulder.
      "Fluffy Kitty fell out!" Emeryl sniffed.
      "Fluffy Kitty? What kind of name is that?" Blake twitched an ear.
      "That's what I named my plush. It was white and fluffy. My mom gave it to me." Emeryl hid his face behind the spider.
      "What did you name the spider? Spidey?" Blake sniggered.
      "Err... uh..."
      "Ha!" Blake laughed.
      "Quiet!" Prism replied, "Emeryl, take first watch, then wake me up, Eric and Bentora. Keep an eye on both of them... We'll head for this, 'exit', tomorrow."

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