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„OUCH!“
Eskel had instinctively reached out to break his fall, but his head had hit the back of the cupboard with full force nontheless. Turning around quickly, his bottom still hurting from the kick Lambert had given him, his fists thundered against the cupboard doors.
„Lambert! This is NOT funny! Open up! NOW!“
I should have known what was going on when he said the huge emtpy cupboard needed something fixed ON THE INSIDE. Congratulations Eskel, Juka's donkey is smarter than you.
Lambert didn't answer. Instead, Eskel could hear something heavy being shoved in front of the cupboard doors.
Damn that huge chest. Wanted to get rid of it in ages.
Next to him, Juka got to her feet. It was incredibly dark, but the small streak of light filtering through a small crack in the upper corner of the cupboard was enough for him to see the wild look on her face.
„LAMBERT! FUCK YOU! OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR!“
„Nope!“
The shoving sound had stopped. Eskel thumped the door one last time, but the wood didn't budge.
He blocked the doors.
„I'm sick and tired of the two of you cooing over each other! You stay in there until you have finally come to your senses and own up to wanting to fuck the other one!“
The sound of steps reached Eskel's ears.
„I'll be back for you in a couple of hours. Take your time.“
„NO! LAMBERT! OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR! LAMBERT!!“
„He's gone.“
Eskel let out a growl, letting himself sink against the side wall of the cupboard. He leaned the back of his head against the wood and closed his eyes.
This is ridiculous.
Juka wasn't so ready to give up. She was still pounding the doors with her fists, interrupting only to give the wood a few good kicks, all the while cursing in a mixture of Dwarvish and Gnomish.
„Juka.“
„IF YOU WON'T OPEN THIS DOOR THIS INSTANT I AM GOING TO FIND ONE OF THESE ANCIENT SWORDS VESEMIR TALKED ABOUT AND STICK IT RIGHT INTO YOUR-“
„Juka, he is gone. He cannot hear you. Calm down.“
Leaning forward, he put a hand on the young woman's upper arm. Juka turned her head, looked at him, her eyes big.
„No! I … I can't be here! It's too dark! I don't see a thing! And this is too small! I can't breathe! I want OUT!“
Dammit Lambert. I hope you are happy now.
Tears were streaming out of Juka's eyes, as she continued to hit the door. Finally, Eskel reached out and took her arm, pulling her towards him.
„Juka. Calm down. Please. I know that this is a foul joke, but-“
„This is not funny! We're gonna suffocate in here!“
„We are not going to suffocate.“
He could feel her relax a bit against his grip. „We are not going to suffocate“, he repeated, worried by the look of panic in her face, „we will have to sit it out for a while.“
„We'll be in here forever“, she crawled to the other corner now, pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged her knees tight, „we will be in here forever and we're gonna starve and not be able to breathe and ….“
Well, Lambert. THAT was a great plan.
„Juka, come here. Sit with me.“
„I can't.“ He could see her shaking from head to toe, „I can't move. I don't see a thing, it's fucking pitch dark in here.“
„Don't gnomes and dwarves see exceptionally well in the dark?“
„Not me. Another thing I inherited from my mother.“
„Well, I see you well enough.“ Eskel held out his hand, „Take my hand. Right next to your left foot.“
Slowly, he directed her towards him, moving to the side so she was sitting directly under the crack in the upper corner. He put an arm around her, feeling her snuggling against him.
„Don't worry. We won't be here long. I know it's shitty, but we will have to wait a bit.“
She snivelled. „How can you be sure?“
„Because Geralt asked me to train with him earlier, and I told him I'd come once I had had a look at this cupboard. He knows where I am, and he's going to come for me to look.“
„Not if Lambert told him you were busy“, she spat the word out.
„Geralt knows better than that.“
At least I hope so.
Eskel replayed the conversation he had had yesterday with his favourite brother while repairing one of the numerous cracks in the Kaer's wall in his head. He had left with the feeling that Geralt, now that he was finally in the picture, would stop joining Lambert in the neverending teasing, but now, he wasn't so sure.
„Geralt knows better than that“, he repeated.
„I hate being in small places. I hate not being able to move as I want.“ Juka snivelled again.
Damn, her heart is drumming in her chest. She's shaking again, too .
Pulling the young woman a little bit closer, he took her hand into his.
Glad I took off the jacket.
„Take a deep breath. We won't be here long. I promise. Here“, he put her hand on his chest, right over his heart, „feel this?“
„It's fast.“
„Yes“, Eskel grinned, „faster metabolism, remember? Maybe that wasn't the best example.Take a deep breath. Close your eyes, if you want to. Nothing will happen. I'm here with you.“
He could see her close her eyes. She huddled against him, still shivering, and put her head against his chest. Resting his chin on top of her head, he closed his eyes for a moment, too.
Bet he didn't know she was claustrophobic. I am going to kill Lambert.
„I'm going to KILL Lambert“, he heard her say. He grinned.
„Great minds think alike. How?“
„Don't know. Take an axe to his fucking head would probably work.“
„Ahh, but he's quick. Remember, you're not mutated.“
„Doesn't matter. I'll come at him from behind when he's taking a sh-“
„Yeah, that might work.“ Eskel chuckled.
Gotta try take her mind off this situation, make her calm down.
„It smells nice in here though“, he remarked after a short pause, „this is oak wood. You still smell a bit of it when you pay attention. Like the woods.“
The young woman raised her head a bit, he could see her sticking her nose up. „I smell wood“, she agreed, „and smoke and a bit of these weird sausages you always eat for breakfast.“
„Yeah, that's gotta be me. Sorry though.“
„It's fine. Where is your face? I still don't see a thing.“
„Right here. Don't you see? I sat you right under the little crack up above.“
„Where?“
„Right there! Just lift your head up, it's right above you.“
She looked up. „I see the crack“, she nodded, „but no light. Dammit, cat-eye“, she grinned, „one bloody advantage after another.“
„Well, you're better off right now“, he smiled, „at least you're small enough to move around in here. I'm more or less stuck.“
For a moment, nobody spoke.
„Are you still afraid? Your heart slowed down a bit.“
„I'm getting tired. I hate this. When I was a kid … I was playing with others in an old mine shaft.“ She shuddered, „it was one of these really small ones, you have to crawl through on your belly. They made me go last, and when it was only me in the shaft, they blocked the exit.“
Oh no.
„It took hours for my dad to come and get me“, she snuggled closer to him now, pressed her face against his chest so that her voice was muffled, „We had been crawling for ages, and I couldn't turn around and was too panicky to go backwards. They never told anybody where they had gone to, so he only realised I wasn't home late at night when he had finished work. He asked around, and finally, when he went round the houses for a second time, one of them admitted what they had done and led him to the mine shaft.“
„That's awful.“
She was hugging him now, shivering. He could feel his shirt getting wet and heard her swallow hard.
„I was all alone down there. It was freezing cold, and I couldn't move, and they left me ….“
„Shhht. That was long ago. If all else fails“, he stroke her hair, putting his arm around her, „I'll use Aard to blast the doors away. Might be tricky though, I don't want to hurt us.
You can breathe“, he added, „and you can move around. Heck, you can even stand in here. Lambert will get what he deserves. I promise. This will never happen again.“
She nodded, wiping her eyes with the her sleeve.
„Thanks, Eskel.“
„You're welcome.“
~ ~ ~
To cut a long story short, Geralt DID find them after another 30 minutes. As soon as the doors were open, Juka sprinted out and into the Main Hall, where the two Witchers heard her slap Lambert's face, accompanied by the stream of profanities she was shouting at him.
While apologising for the lock-in, Lambert wasn't willing to admit that this had been a shitty plan, and told Juka to „get her shit together and be happy she could finally spent some time snuggled against Eskel“.
This resulted in a not-so-funny prank war that Vesemir only tolerated for about a week.
He finally put his foot down when
a) Geralt caught Juka practicing axe-throwing in the training grounds, using a crudely drawn picture of Lambert's face as target, and
b) Vesemir was woken up by Juka's screams one night, because the arachnomorph-egg Lambert had procured from gods-know-where and had placed under her bed, had hatched and the arachnomorph, being really hungry, had attempted to bite her. Nobody found that particularly funny, because while not deadly, the poison of young arachnomorphs is still enough to do serious injury.
Vesemir gave Lambert and Juka a good talking-to that took the better part of two hours and left him hoarse for the rest of the day.
Juka had to clean all weapons and armour in the Kaer by herself (with Eskel not being allowed to help her out), while Lambert was sent into the next big village during snowfall to get her a present for Midvaerne, accompanied by Vesemir. (Eskel had informed Vesemir of the dwarvish/gnomish custom of giving presents on Midvaerne to start the new year off on good terms)
Lambert was made to buy five pounds of the best wool available (already carded), and to hand it to Juka as an apology for the lock-in.
Juka did make him a pair of very light woolen mittens that he could wear under his leather gloves for extra protection against the cold. Lambert was so happy about them that the others asked for mittens too. Everybody got their own pair, Eskel getting the best one, of course.