“I don’t want to stop,” Will said.

Ezra hadn’t always had the nicest of attitudes, but he did seem to be pretty aware of what was going on. If he thought someone might be following them, there was a good chance he was right.

“Yeah, I don’t want to stop either.” Bet said. “Who do you think it is?”

“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.”

The three of them got strangely silent as they pressed ahead. Will no longer allowed his eyes to drag across the strange cracks and swirling patterns of the canyon floor. He instead kept glancing upward toward the cliff’s edges and occasionally back over his shoulder.

Nothing happened for a few minutes. That’s when Will began to listen.

It was odd. He couldn’t hear any animal sounds. No chirping insects or twittering birds. How long had it been like this? He tensed to hear the tiniest detail.

Finally, there was something. A cracking sound that came from above.

All of them turned simultaneously to stare at the leftmost canyon wall. From the edge, a few rocks had broken free. Will froze and watched them tumble and bounce from the ledge until they hit the ground and shattered into dust.

“I think I just saw a pocket.” Ezra sounded alarmed. “Come on!”

The three of them took off at a run. Swoop left Will’s shoulder and instantly split into her shadow duplicates. Ezra was in the lead but stopped alongside Tenebrim.

“Go ahead,” he said. “I’ll bring up the back.”

In front of Will, Pexel clung tight to Bet’s hair as she ran.

They didn’t slow, and soon, Will could feel that sharp pain in his side he always got from running too long. He didn’t know how much longer he could do this. Surely they could stop soon.

Only a few moments later, their destination came into view. The ground sloped downward in a harsh angle and revealed the mouth of the cave. They ran another twenty yards or so before Will called out.

“Are we going inside?” he said.

“Stop, stop, stop.” Ezra said. As Will turned, he saw Ezra with his hands on his knees struggling for breath. “I don’t think we want to go in there.”

“Why not?” Bet said. She seemed the least winded of the three.

“Because I’m not so sure that’s a cave.”

Will gave it a quick look. It did seem strange. It was so very round. Not like the caves back home, but then again, so many of the things here in Androsia were unlike Alabama.

“What’s that stuff outside?” Bet said.

“We shouldn’t have come this way, the longer route would’ve been better.” Ezra looked a bit frantic. “This isn’t good. It really… really isn’t good,” he said.

Whatever Bet had seen had gotten him really worked up. Will began to squint to make out what the small white piles were outside the cave’s entrance.

“Do we go back?” Bet said.

“Maybe?” Ezra said. “But I really think I saw a pocket behind us. It’s likely Murden.”

“Maybe we could fight ‘em?” Bet sounded more confident that Will felt.

Suddenly, Will realized what the piles were. The white and broken pieces were bones.

At that moment he could no longer hear Bet and Ezra’s heated conversation. He could only stare at the cave. It wasn’t too far now, fifty yards or so. Behind him the others squabbled over what to do. He could hear the tension in Ezra’s voice but couldn’t make out the words. He was too scared.

Ahead, wrapped in the cave’s darkness, were two enormous glowing eyes.

What is inside the cave?

A giant spider

A giant badger

A giant lizard

This Poll is Closed