The Land of Dragons

Chapter 12

Soon after Chapter 11

For Carlos, it seemed like hours had passed until he finally heard the footsteps. He had been beginning to feel worried so he let out a relieved sigh.

It still seemed like an hour until the others finally arrived.

"Hey!" Lando waved.

"Hello," Carlos greeted them. "I guess you came as fast as you could but it felt like hours."

"I also felt it longer than before," Charles said.

"Probably we were slower with Alex's injury." Pierre replied.

"Let's take a look at it." Carlos said and walked over to Alex who sat down with his back to the wall.

Alex took off his shoe a bit reluctantly, not wanting to see his injured foot. Carlos carefully lifted the sock and peered under it.

Alex's ankle was definitely bruised, it had a bit of bluish colour to it. Also, it was somewhat swollen, but not too much.

"Well, it's a bit bluish and I think it's swollen," Carlos summarized. Alex leaned closer to take a look at his foot.

"It doesn't look as bad as it felt," he said.

"Is it better now?" Carlos asked.

"Now that we've stopped walking, yes." he replied with a wan smile.

"All right. I guess we can't do anything else than wait a little." Carlos said.

"Charles, what about you?" Pierre said. "Were you hurt?"

Charles looked at his left wrist.

"I hit my wrist." he said. Pierre came closer to take a look at it.

"It seems like it has been bleeding," he said. The hard steps had grazed Charles' arm and it had some dry blood on it.

"We should cover that with something," Carlos suggested and looked around. Pierre had an idea.

"Here, take my hoodie!" he said, taking if off. "The sleeve will cover the wound."

"I don't want to ruin it," Charles said, afraid that blood would stick to the cloth.

"Don't worry, I have one that's exactly the same at home." Pierre smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

Home. That seemed a far, too far away. For a moment, all of them stopped, thoughts flying back to the track.

"I want to go home." Lando whispered, feeling very small. Carlos patted him on the shoulder, trying to reassure him.

"Let's go then!" Max pointed to the door they hadn't gone through yet. He wanted to distract himself from the depressing thoughts that wanted to invade his mind, no matter how hard he tried to hold them back.

"Alex?" Carlos looked at the Thai for comfirmation that he is ready. He replied by standing up, although he was still holding on to the wall for support.

This time, Pierre was the one who led the way inside. He was followed by Charles. Alex tried to get some support from the rocky wall in the one-man tunnel. Carlos was close behind him in case something happened but he couldn't actively help him. Max was perfectly all right with being last, so when he saw Lando's face as they entered the tunnel, he let him go ahead.

Max stepped into the tunnel and let the door go. He had the same mistake as Carlos and he cursed under his breath.

"No problem, Max. We wouldn't leave anyone here to guard it." Carlos said.