The Land of Dragons

Chapter 9

When the explorers set off

Max followed Charles uncomfortably. He wished with all of his will that they wasn't going to run into any of those dreadful spiders.

It's easy for Charles, he thought. It wasn't him who got touched by those horrible legs.

They reached the elevator-room, Charles looking around for messages and trying to find something on the wall. Max kept an eye on the tunnels and didn't really pay attention to searching. He knew he was not very useful. He only said yes to the exploring because he didn't want the others think he was scared.

"Let's see the right-hand tunnel!" Charles said. They haven't been there yet as their rooms were to the left.

"Okay, let's go." Max replied through gritted teeth.

Charles led the way, Max right on his heels. In this part of the maze, the walls were more uneven, and the fading light made tricky shadows. When looked at from the corner of the eye they seemed like they were moving. Max peered around every corner, fearing that a big white spider might be waiting for him. Charles was also more careful than before but he didn't notice Max's uneasiness.

They rounded a sharp corner, and Max suddenly stopped in his tracks, his mind blocked by the fear. Before the next turn, a big, white, hairy spider was visible at the wall. Max felt pain shooting through his arm right where the spider touched it a few hours ago. He screamed aloud, not caring about anything now.

Charles spun around to the sound, startled. For a moment, he was puzzled. Then he looked back at the spider and realisation hit him.

"Max! It's only a painting!" he said, rushing to the Dutchman and clapping his hands over his mouth to silence him.

Max also realised it was not a real beast and the pain immediately lessened.

"It felt like when it touched me." he said, still shocked a little.

"We should go back to the others," Charles replied, Carlos' thoughts about poisoning coming into his head.

Max felt ashamed and he didn't want the others to know about this.

"No, I'm fine now, we can continue." he lied.

"If you say so..." Charles replied sceptically but went forward.

At the next turn, Max was prepared for painted spiders but he was surprised again. Charles was the same.

The wall became smooth again and it was covered in hundreds of ink-blue geometric shapes. Lots of triangles, squares, circles, pentagons and some many-agons as well. Charles looked at Max and their eyes met. They both thought the same.

"It's going to be hard to find that hexagon here," Charles said, still looking at Max. He still wants to turn me back, Max thought angrily.

"Let's try it." he replied.

"Okay then I look from the top right corner and you look from the bottom left." Charles told him his plan.

"I hope there's only one," Max muttered.

"And I hope the Devils don't catch us while we're standing here!" Charles snapped back, a bit more grumpy than he was intended to do so. He was still worried about Max and it made him frustrated that the Dutchman even seemed angry at him.

Max, also in a bad mood, didn't take Charles' comment very well. Why does he always have to know better? he thought.

After some time which seemed like hours, Max finally found a hexagon. That was the only one so far.

"I found it!" he exclaimed, realising it too late that he was supposed to be quiet.

"Shhh! You might wake the Devils!" Charles shushed him.

Max wanted to say "I KNOW!!!", but instead went to the hexagon and pushed it. It turned out to be made from thin wood, which now cracked and revealed a secret hole in the wall. There, hidden by the hexagon, was a beautiful, amulet-looking medal with a smooth, deep blue stone in the center and a polished metal socket. Max took it and held it in his palm.

"Wow, that looks good," he said. "Although I have no idea about how it can help."

"Our "ally" said he'll leave a message." Charles told him. Know-all again, Max thought.

They decided to return to their room because the lamps were close to darkening completely. In the elevator-room, they looked around one more time, hoping to find a message telling them what to do next. They only found a small, brown spider in one of the corners which was peacefully living its life. It was probably very proud of itself because it managed to scare away two big humans by only taking a step towards them.

When they arrived at their room, Carlos opened the door and let them in.

"Have you found something?" Lando asked immediately.

"Nothing for the exit, but we have the blue hexagon-thing." Charles said.

Max told them about the wall and the secret box, then pulled the amulet out of his pocket.

"We have to be careful with this, surely the Devils want it as well!" Pierre pointed out. He also told the explorers about their plan to keep everything with a different person.

"Alex, can you keep the amulet? If we go exploring again, we shouldn't have it with us." Charles said. Alex nodded and Max handed the amulet to him, not wanting to complain.

"Was there anything else?" Carlos asked. Charles hesitated for a fraction of a second, then replied.

"No, not really. We couldn't find any messages."

Max let out a small sigh, relieved that Charles didn't tell them about the painted spider. He was still somewhat annoyed with him but at least he did something right as well.

Charles hoped Carlos wouldn't yell his head off if he found out about the lie. He had lied because he had realised Max would seriously try to kill him if he wouldn't do so, and he decided the Devils were more than enough for that role.

The last streaks of light vanished as the lamps were finally switched off. Alex put the amulet in his pocket, lying down on the ground with his hand still on it. It gave him hope that there was still a way out of there. He didn't really show it, but he missed his pets, his siblings, his team and his car terribly. He was also hungry as he hadn't eaten in two days. The amulet gave him hope that they were going be out of this and everything was going to be back to normal.

 / / / / / / | \ \ \ \ \ \

Tension is building...

Maybe I can do another chapter in August, then it's going to be slower because school starts.

Edited 14.04.2024.