The Land of Dragons

Chapter 5

I love that picture about Carlos hugging his first F1 podium trophy ❤

After Chapter 4

"Okay, now we're together. I think we should stay here until we find a way to escape," Carlos said.

"Yes, and every day when the lights begin to go out, two of us can go exploring like you and Max did last day," Charles added.

"Can I go today?" Max asked. Carlos nodded. He knew Max hated doing nothing and he wondered how he would cope with being locked in an empty room for a whole day.

As no one else said anything, Charles looked around.

"I'll go too." he said. Carlos nodded again, then everything was silent for some time.

"Who are these Devils? And what do they want from us?" Lando asked all of a sudden. These two questions were stuck on everyone's mind since they got trapped.

"They think I know them! But I have no idea! When I asked they only said "oh, you know this very well"!" It was all the frustration and fear of the past day breaking out of Alex.

Charles put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay. We'll find out everything. At least they answered when we asked." he said in a friendly tone.

Alex looked at him gratefully. The youngsters talked about their situation for quite a long time but they couldn't figure out anything. They knew far too little for that.

Suddenly, the door clicked and the drivers fell silent. A guard came in, bringing a bucket of water and a sack of some different kinds of food. Then without a word, he left and closed the door again.

Lando leapt to the sack excitedly.

"I found milk!" he cried out and pulled a bottle from the sack.

"Oh, now Lando is happy to stay here, isn't he?" Carlos said, laughing. Lando tried to make an angry face but he didn't succeed, making Carlos laugh even harder.

The Brit opened the bottle and took a sip.

"Ew!" he spat the milk, fortunately on the ground. "That milk tastes like mud!" 

The smile on Carlos' face disappeared immediately. Then it quickly turned to anger when he saw the disappointed look on Lando's face. He was sure the Devils made this on purpose. While Carlos was trying to somehow cheer Lando up, Alex looked at the remaining food in the sack. None of them looked normal. Musty bread, rotten fruits, far too old cheese and even some mushrooms which they would be mad to eat. There was nothing useful in it. The youngsters decided to put the sack in a corner and stay as far from it as possible.

Despite Carlos' efforts to cheer him up, Lando felt like his world was in pieces. Not only because of the milk, it was just the last piece. He wanted to go home and go back to racing and leave the Devils stuck in their underground tunnel forever.

His mood affected the others as well. Everyone sat with their backs to the wall, deep in their thoughts. The fact that they had been locked in that room for almost half a day by then also didn't help.

Carlos looked around for the thousandth time with a faint hope that he would find something different.

And he really did. Under the door, the corner of a folded piece of paper was just visible. He stood up to take a closer look on it.

"What are you doing?" asked Max in a bored tone, ready to bicker with whoever who provided the opportunity. Meanwhile, Carlos took the paper and held it higher so everyone could see it.

"Look what I found!" Carlos told the others.

"Oh, a piece of paper. How exciting." Max commented.

"It is exciting, because it wasn't there before." Carlos replied.

"Should we open it?" Lando asked Carlos. The Spaniard sat down and began to unfold the paper. The others leaned closer.

"It's like a letter, isn't it?" Charles asked. This finally grabbed Max's attention and he came closer.

"It is!" he exclaimed. "It says "Find a paper that has 26 symbols and 26 holes on it!""

"Short, but at least it's something." Alex said.

"Will we look for that paper?" Pierre looked up.

"Why not?" Max said.

"It can be a trap." Charles replied.

"You can look for it when you go out for exploring." Carlos interrupted before they could start arguing. "But be careful." he added, looking at Charles. 

"Look, there're letters on the other side!" Lando cried out. Carlos flipped the paper. That side was covered in letters but they couldn't figure out any meaning of it.

"Maybe this is why we need that other paper," Alex suggested.

"Yes!" Charles agreed.

Finally, something useful! This way, there's a chance Max and Charles won't kill each other out of pure boredom, thought Carlos. He knew he was the oldest and he already became some kind of leader. He guessed they would have only one chance to escape so they had to keep everyone together. The others were chatting excitedly about the letter, and Carlos joined them too. After all, that was all they could do.

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Thanks for everyone reading this book, it means a lot❤

Edited 13.04.2024