The Land of Dragons

Chapter 7

The morning after Chapter 6

When Lando woke up, he was suprised to find himself snuggled close to a sleeping Carlos. He considered getting up but didn't want to wake his sleeping friend. The Devils solved the problem for him. The door opened and two guards came in, tying up everyone without a word.

Max, not fully awake yet, began thrashing around with his arms. One of the guards caught his arm and aggressively forced it behind his back. The slight pain finally woke Max and he realised it was wiser to obey.

Carlos' first thought was that their evening explorations had been discovered. Then he decided there was nothing they could do about it. From the outside he looked sleepy but inside, he was analysing the whole situation, trying to guess what was in store for them.

The guards led them out into the tunnels. It was dark, in contrast to their room, where the lamps were fully lit. Still without a word, the guards led them through the twists and turns, finally reaching a door and opening it to reveal a big cave hall. As everybody stepped in, the guards took the rope off and shut the door behind them.

"In one minute, a rock is going to fall from the ceiling!" a guard shouted as he turned the key in the lock.

Max went there and slammed his fist into the wood. It did nothing apart from causing his knuckles to throb painfully.

"Do you have any idea?" Pierre looked around. "It doesn't seem fun to be crushed under a rock..."

Lando looked at Carlos with fear in his eyes. He hoped his older friend would save them. Carlos was thinking hard, trying to find a solution.

"We have only half a minute left!" Alex warned, his voice a little bit more high-pitched than he wanted.

"Come!" Charles said all of a sudden and began running towards the rocky wall. The others looked at him, startled for a moment but then they all followed him. Charles climbed up the rocks and around four meters high, he disappeared.

"Charles!" Pierre cried out, worried. Charles' face reappeared on the rocks, smiling.

"Don't worry, there's an opening in the wall! It's a small tunnel!" he said.

Only Max, Carlos and Lando were left when the ceiling began crackling. Max basically jumped in the tunnel. Carlos turned back to grab Lando's hand and he pulled him up, both of them nearly falling off. As they reached the tunnel, Lando could just see something huge falling down right where they stood a few moments ago. The boulder crashed with a massive crack that shook the walls.

"They really tore a rock." Lando muttered in a small voice. He was frightened.

"We have to be more careful," Carlos said seriously. "They're not giving empty threats."

The first day came to Lando's mind, when the guard threatened to kill them if they escape and he shivered at the thought.

The drivers set off in the tunnel, climbing through on hands and knees. The tunnel suddenly took a sharp turn and there was no light coming in after it. Hope there're no rocks here, Charles thought.

Everyone was relieved when they arrived in a room which even had some lamps in it. They moved to the middle to think about their next step. The Devils solved the problem for them with a nasty surprise.

From two doors next to the one they came in, white, hairy spiders marched in. They looked scary but their size was absolutely frightening. Their head reached up to a man's waist and their legs were like a child's arm. The youngsters stared at them, all of them terrified, especially Lando and Max, who always stayed a fair distance away from spiders and strange-looking insects. They backed to the wall, but the spiders just kept coming.