I was smiling, I was the hero-maiden of Atlantivanne once more, but I still had to prove it to Rune. I had to make him feel defeated.

  I found a well which had light from a torch mounted on the wall. It smelled like mildew and caressed madness in my mind. I could almost faint at the taste of the ripe pool. It had several thin tentacles from inside, they nestled, but still as vines, and were slimy and green, sprawled along the ground next to my irons.

  I drew my short sword from the scabbard and cut one. It retracted and whipped me, I fell back, and my sword and shield lost their grip and clanged onto the ground, but I never looked down.

  A green female head bobbed and weaved and made bubbles into the murky water.

  “Who dares disturb my pool? Your weapons are of no use against me, Lady Janice.”

  “How do you know my name? You couldn’t have.” I backed up quickly from the pool. I picked up a rock and threw it at her hard. It plopped into the water off her head.

  “Ouch!” She quickly touched one of her tentacles to the wound where the rock struck her.

  I ran away but the rope was gone. I reached and reached hoping it would come down. I could hear her voice echoing in my head.

  “I know all who enter my cavern, I saw you all and what you did,” the Water Spirit came out showing dark teal spots over fair white skin. She wore a large black sash over her vital spots and had pointy ears and long white locks.

  She whipped her tentacles to scare me, and one tentacle grew a new limb. The once wriggling severed limb oozed red in the murky cavern and was still and lifeless.

  “Are you some kind of elf?” I said now trapped against the wall face-to-face with her. She towered over me, snapping her tentacles at my gauntlets when I reached for more rocks. I mumbled and cussed frantically as my eyes began to dart in every direction for help, but no one came.

  “I am the last of my kind, you should know, and the purest. The queen. I have never known a man and never will.”

  “Oh, I see, but I need your help, great Water Spirit.”

  “This is my opportunity to help you slay Zarlock, the destroyer of my kind, the Water Elves of Dunharn. Such an evil monster, the largest of demonic dragons who is a violator and a corruptor,” said the Water Spirit. “I barely escaped with my life when he reigned once ago. Now he is back amassing an undead army, rising from the depths, I saw it, but not all of what commenced."

  “I see, I am very sorry Zarlock did that to your kind.”

  “Be quiet.”

  “Okay.”

  “I would fight Zarlock myself if I could leave this wretched pool for more than enough time, but then, I would die.”

  “Go back in, then come out.”

  The Water Spirit looked back at the pool. “I see your brother is climbing down now.”

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  “We don’t need Rune, I will help.”

  “The Fire Lamp will not work without both of you working together. We'll all suffer torment and death by Zarlock if you do not get along. I do not want Atlantivanne turned into the undead like most of the world was during the War of the Dragons.

  A tentacle dipped into the pool and a bronze oil lamp came forth. She gave it to me and the Water Spirit entered the well once more.

  “I will help you,” I said.

  I examined the ordinary oil lamp and found it not special. I pulled the cork and rubbed the lamp, then dropped it with a clang by accident, and a murky gas came out of its spout. I thought a genie was emerging, but nothing happened.

  The strange elf may be upset, I hope she doesn’t know I dropped it. That is right. She knows all we did. She seems to not care. I better put the cork back in.

  So, when my brother comes, the Water Spirit will help me, and hopefully, tell me how to use the lamp. Then I can become the greatest dwarven maiden that ever lived. A hero known for ages, until time stops.

  There was a tumble of rocks that came down with Rune and he fell on his arse.

  “Ouch!” said Rune.

  “Good, you are both here now.” The Water Spirit emerged once more.

  Rune drew his hammer from his pack and charged the Water Spirit.

  “I will slay it first,” said Rune.

  “No, brother, stop,” said Janice.

  The tentacles from the Water Spirit stretched under Rune and flipped him on his arse.

  “Ouch!” said Rune.

  “You are powerless here,” said the Water Spirit.

  Rune wiped the rock residue off his plate mail and trousers, then he saw the oil lamp.

  Rune gasped and stood terrified and backed away, “You're a genie.”

  “No. But sit, I have a tale to tell.”

  “Fine with me,” said Rune.

  “See that oil lamp?” said the Water Spirit.

  “Yes.” Rune nodded.

  “It is a unique magic weapon, you and your sister Janice must use it to slay the Dragon Zarlock, Rune.”

  “I’ll use it myself,” said Rune stoutheartedly.

  “No. You are not strong enough,” said the Water Spirit.

  “You have to use it with me, Rune,” I said.

  “Once long ago, when the water elves flourished, there was an elf named Zarlock.”

  Janice sat down next to Rune.

  “An evil, detestable elf, a monster, but no one knew. And I loved him, so I married him. But I wouldn’t give myself to him, and he was outraged. I was queen of the water elves; we lived in a great ocean Rune and Janice. That well behind me is the last of that ocean.”

  The Water Spirit smiled and wrapped herself in her tentacles. She loved to meet new people in person, especially dwarves like these.

  “What happened next?” I said.

  “Zarlock used the Pirates of the Black Key to obtain that oil lamp.”

  “Is there a genie in it?”

  “No, there used to be, but now Zarlock freed that genie, his name was Renald Windart.”

  “Har, har,” laughed Rune and me.

  “It is true,” she snapped a tentacle and the dwarves remained silent.

  Rune and I nodded.

  “He used that lamp, and made three wishes, with the first, he became the most powerful dragon that ever lived, like the monster he really was, with the second,” she gasped, “he dried up the waters of Dunharn.”

  “I am sorry,” said Rune and me.

  “Now you two are Renald’s children, yes, you have immortal blood in your veins."

  “I see," I said.

  “Be quiet. Oops,” said Rune.

  “When Renald became free, he fell in love with a dwarf named Isabelle, a most beautiful dwarf, she looked like you Janice.”

  I flaunted and blushed.

  “After Zarlock was defeated in the War of the Dragons, Renald stole the Fire Lamp from him and gave it to me, and I hid it here in the cave where no one found it, until now. Zarlock thinks I am gone like the other water elves. I waited many years for you two to come here. Many have died in that time. We must unite the Kingdoms of Casper and Atlantivanne for war.”

  “Aye.” Rune and I nodded.

  “Alone, you are not strong enough to use the lamp. Inside the lamp is a great, but dormant volcano, and together,” she smiled wickedly, “you can use it to slay the dragon lord himself.”

  “Do not touch the lamp Rune, I will carry it.”

  “You must journey back to Atlantivanne and save your people from the Pirates of the Black Key before it is too late. You must not tarry here.”

  “Aye," said Rune.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  The Water Spirit descended back into the well splashing her precious water on me as there was an earthquake. White boulders crashed down the chasm. They tasted and smelt rock dust, and I coughed. I took the lamp and tied the rope tightly, squeezing it around myself in a triple knot, and climbed.

  “Pull Ledge,” I said.

  Ledge pulled me up as I climbed, then Rune next.