My legs refused to listen to my brain as I took step after step, moving out of my house. I ran through the pathways, not caring a damn about my balance or that I tripped thrice, not giving a hang about the fact that everyone was yelling at me from there windows and doors. I ran and ran, I could Urna and Rory behind me, yelling my name, Rory hyperventilating, and however much I want to go back to the safety of my house, my legs didn’t let me.

I ran all the way till the west lift, and started frantically pressing on the button when I saw my father appear in the maze of Paths. I winced. I didn’t want to disobey and rebel, but something in my legs, or probably deep inside me was telling me that I had to go down. Right then. I must find the human in Rothem, if it was the last thing I did. There was something about it, something so necessary and irrevocable that I would regret it if I didn’t find him.

It felt bad. My father’s face was agape and aghast, and as he tumbled towards me I knew he would be willing to do anything to keep me out of the clutches of a human. But I couldn’t explain why my guts were leading me there, and if I couldn’t explain I would have to go without explaining. I would have to leave as quickly as possible before he reached me and tried to stop me from achieving the only thing in life that felt it had meaning.

I looked behind in a panic when he was only a minute away to realise that the lift wasn’t working. It had been shut down, like all the lights of the city, all the mechanisms in the cavern. But wait … Not all.

Not too far away, I could see the floor to ceiling parallel bars with the hooks still moving up and down, carrying a couple of vehicles with them. Instead of stopping, they seemed to be going continuously, looping and looping with the passengers stuck in their cars until the emergency was dealt with. A car was just coming up from the ground level, about to make the curve and move down. A wild idea struck me.

I glanced at my dad, and then anxiously at the car lift. Would he figure out what I was planning to do? Would he murder me for being so reckless? It didn’t matter, because as I exchanged glances between them I made my decision. I dashed towards the vehicle lift, crossing two Paths in under ten seconds and leaping onto another one. I knew I was carrying my life in my hands, and a single slip would send me flailing down to oblivion, but dwarves were supposed to be balanced creatures. At that time, I was depending on that assumption. I reached the hooked lift just as the car crossed the curve and started its descent. I shot one last look at my father. He had been chasing behind me and was completely out of breath as he bent over. When he looked up again, the fear in his eyes almost made me stop. Almost. And then I jumped.

The platform was only five metres above the descending car, but I still made a loud thump as I landed on its metal surface. It was disorienting to feel it falling while falling on it myself, and it took me a second to regain my balance. I crouched doon and grabbed the hook above it, then let out a sigh of relief feeling that I would be fine. Until I looked down.

While it might feel like standing in a normal elevator if your eyes were closed, with open eyes you could see there was nothing stopping you from falling to your death except sheer willpower. Below me spread out the entire ground of the city, with tall sprawling buildings and roads winding between them. I could see a couple of police cars down there, surrounding one particular building. Policemen fanned out around it with their weapons ready. I focused on that place to keep my fear of heights from kicking in. Then I recognised the building. It was the school.

A loud “What?” from below distracted me. I looked down to see a dwarf’s head poking out of the car window and gawping at me. He must have been a young guy, fresh out of college and barely twenty. “Get off my car!” he yelled.

I regretted looking down. It reminded me that I was still high above safe ground, and any slip would again mean certain death. I needed to stop gambling with my life. “I can’t jump off right now!” I shrieked back indignantly.

He frowned back at me. “Then stop jumping on people’s cars!”

I could see the ground approaching me. Thirty seconds till we reached the curve. Twenty. Ten. “Won’t happed again!” I shouted to the guy and jumped off the top of the car to the floor just as it reached the lowest point of its curve and went up again. I braced myself for the impact by pulling in my knees and rolled onto the cement floor. Pain racked through my body as I made impact, every bone and muscle screaming in protest to what I was doing. But my crazy legs had a mind of their own. As soon as I regained balance, they led me away from the wall, right into the heart of the city. Straight towards the building surrounded by police, into the hands of the human.

It took me longer than expected to reach the school building. I ran and aran through the streets, which had never seemed to silent and menacing before. Every corner seemed to have a shadow lurking behind it, or it was my own fear of being caught and sent back before I accomplished my mission. I couldn’t let anyone find me.

By the time I reached the building next to the school, I was out of breath and wheezing. As I chocked on air and tried to catch my breath, it finally hit me that I couldn’t just stroll in nonchalantly on the ambush. However deaf I pretended to be by not having heard the announcement or not hearing them try to stop me, they still wouldn’t let me enter the premises. Not with such a huge threat on their hands.

I contemplated what I should do. Eve pretending to be a diplomat or with them wouldn’t work. Which left me with only one option. Sneak in. I went towards the back. I knew there was supposed to be a door at the back of the school, which was supposed to be so old that it would fall off its hinges when used to we were all forbidden from using it. Maybe that day would be the day that it finally fell to its demise. And its perpetrator would be me.

I peeked out from the edge. Two policemen were standing close by, chatting together. Just like me, they believed that the human wouldn’t know of the existence of the door and wouldn’t be using it. They had their weapons, but they weren’t cocked and pointed like the ones in the front. An image popped into my mind of overpowering them and knocking them out, like I had seen in movies and books, but I realised how foolish and impractical it was. And it would defy the whole point of sneaking in.

They were fairly distracted, but they would definitely see me if I made a move towards the door. It was right in front of the, and if they mistook me for something else they might shoot. Not an option. Which meant I needed a distraction.

I looked around myself. A stone would definitely not be enough. If I threw it in their direction it would momentarily distract them, but not enough to get me in the school. But wait, I could use it for something else.

There was an alley between the building I was behind and the school. The windows of the school were few, but they loomed dirty and large. I aimed at a huge circular window on the second floor. There was a loud shattering sound behind me as I ducked behind the building, hidden by a small doorway, while the two policemen rushed into the alley, calling in the ones that were in the front.

As soon as they rushed in to investigate the broken window, I dashed past the alley and towards the old school door. The handle was cold and strong against my skin. Surprising. I turned it and slipped inside. When I turned on the light the sight that awaited me left me astounded.

I had to say, you cannot expect to find a refrigerator in a school. Nor do you find a microwave, utensils, and a huge store of the best snacks in dwarf kingdom. I realised it must be where the teachers enjoyed guilty pleasures like chocolate and candy.

I dashed through the door at the side and ran through the corridors, peeking into classrooms and hoping the police outside wouldn’t spot me and shoot. I was just rushing out of a classroom when I saw a figure standing completely motionless in front of the bulletin board with his back to me. I rushed forward to see him. “Raghav?”