The Land of Dragons

Chapter 14

After Chapter 13

After some time of climbing, Charles' right hand slipped on the ground which suddenly turned to almost vertical, leaving it to his injured arm to keep him from stumbling down. Charles collapsed on his belly and found himself staring down at the steep tunnel ahead.

"There is a problem," he said. "This is very steep and I don't want to fall down head-first. We should go leg-first."

"So what? Turn around and go!" said Max, who was behind the Monegasque.

"That's the point!" Charles told him. "The tunnel is too narrow! There's no space for turning! We have to go back to the ladder!" he explained.

Lando chuckled. He was the penultimate one until now, with Pierre in front of him and Carlos behind him. Now, he heard Carlos climbing backwards, so he also started moving. After a few steps, he felt his feet hit something.

"Hey! That was my nose!" Carlos objected. Lando chuckled again. This is going to be a long way, he thought. It was a bit irrational how his mood was so good. It seemed as if his mind was so tired of the stress and everything that it could find something funny in anything.

As he stopped, he felt Pierre colliding with him. After that, they managed to find the rythm and moved with considerable speed.

That was, until Carlos noticed something on the ground and stopped to examine it. The line of drivers was pressed together as they couldn't stop in time. Lando managed to trod on the piece of paper Carlos wanted to take a look at. The Spaniard tried to push him forward, only resulting in getting Lando squeezed into Pierre's bottom.

"What's happening there?" Charles asked, not understanding why they had stopped.

"Lando is trying to climb into my bottom," Pierre told him.

"No! Carlos stopped and pushed me back!" Lando commented.

"If you two finished squabbling, we should move on because I found something which looks like a message," Carlos told them.

"What? Where?" Lando looked around. Carlos laughed.

"It was here on the ground. That was why I stopped." he explained.

"Then let's go and see what it says!" Lando said, forgetting about Pierre. The train of drivers began moving again.

The small cavern became very stuffed as all six of them climbed into it. Charles immediately turned around when he had enough space for it.

This time they reached the steep part without any problem. As it turned out, it was only one-and-a-half meters long and was easy to pass leg-first. After that, the tunnel widened enough to allow turning, which made them go a lot faster. Soon, Charles reached a similar dead end that they had faced the previous day. He pushed it with his shoulder. First, it didn't move so he tried again, pushing it harder. This time the "wall" came free and the momentum made him fall forward with it. Unfortunately, his injured arm forgot that it was injured and tried to protect its owner's body by taking the damages on itself.

Charles stood up slowly, visibly in pain and holding his arm. Pierre, who just reached the end of the tunnel, leapt to him, absolutely worried.

"Charles! What happened? Where are you hurt?" he asked. Charles replied by lifting his left arm a little.

"I fell with that piece of wall." he said, his voice strained.

"Guys, let's go in, we can talk there," Carlos said, gesturing to a door on the wall opposite to the tunnel. "This is our room."

He opened the door and they went inside. Charles sat down, Pierre buzzing around him like a mother hen.

"It's OK, Pierre, I won't die," Charles tried to calm him down.

"But you're hurt!" Pierre said.

"Yes, but it will get all right." At least I hope so. He didn't say the last part aloud.

"If you say so..." Pierre seemed unconvinced but he finally sat down.

"We should still take a look at it," Carlos said, taking the role of the senior adult.

Charles held out his left arm and Carlos helped him fold back the sleeve. The boy's wrist had a bluish-purplish colour and the grazed part was leaking blood again.

"That looks bad." Lando summarized his thoughts.

"Oh my God, Charles, are you sure it's not broken?" Pierre asked, jumping to his feet again.

No, Charles thought.

"I don't think it is," he said.

"We should put something cold on it, shouldn't we?" Carlos suggested.

Charles pulled the sleeve of the hoodie and let it hang into the bucket of water they had got two days ago.

"Good idea," Pierre said.

Charles put his arm back in the kangaroo pocket. The cool water helped with the pain but he still felt miserable.

Max was also in a bad mood. He couldn't ignore the terribly empty feeling in his stomach anymore. When you can count the time since your last meal in days, then it is beginning to be seriously distracting, he thought.

Alex was sitting with his back to the wall. His leg hurt but he didn't like too much attention. The quiet part of him was even a bit glad for Charles' injury because it had taken the limelight off him. 

When Charles was finished with the bucket, Alex took off his hoodie and his shirt. He put his hoodie back on and moistened the shirt with the water, wrapping it around his ankle. Lando, seeing the whole action, moved to sit beside him to provide comfort.

"Can we look at that message if you're done?" he asked Pierre who was still fussing around Charles.

"Yes, Pierre, I'm fine, all right? Just sit down please and let us see that paper." Charles said. Pierre shot him a quizzical look but sat down again.

Carlos unfolded the paper. It was a message for sure, written with the same symbols as the previous one. The Spaniard fetched the alphabet papers from the others and deciphered the message, reading it aloud when he was ready.

"Hi! This is the last message. If you've used the amulet against the crows, leave it to charge until twilight! Escape only when it's getting dark! For that, everyone should touch the amulet and someone has to touch the symbols around the socket. Begin at the one right to the hanger!"

"Nothing about what will happen?" Max asked.

"There was no signature at the end. Maybe he didn't have time to finish it." Charles said. Max felt like the Monegasque was being bossy. He thinks he is right every time he speaks, he thought. Somewhere deep down he knew he was unfair but he also felt miserable and it was easier to forget about it when he was angry.

"So we escape when it's dark?" Lando broke the silence that fell.

"I suppose," Charles said. "I'm not sure if we can escape from here by pushing some symbols on a stone..."

I told you, didn't I? This is just another trick those Devils made. But all right, if you want it that much, we can try it. We can't get away anyway, Max thought.

"I don't know how much time we have but we could try to rest for some time," Carlos suggested, holding back the second part of the sentence. We might need it if things don't go to plan..., he thought.

Everyone settled down to wait and try to get some sleep. Lando simply curled up on the ground and the next moment he was asleep. Without anything to take his mind off the pain, Charles' arm was troubling him again. He found it impossible to sleep so he decided to keep watch for the twilight.

If we miss it, then it's done for the escape plan, he thought.

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Hope you liked it :)

I loved writing it :)

Edited 14.04.2024