Lost and Found

Chapter 7 - Cave Maze

This was it. It was now or never. Under the ground on which Nya stood, the blackest magic in Lar was trapped. And maybe also her mum. 

Nya couldn't believe she had forgotten about her mum and the lucky stick. But then, they had met a talking bear. She slipped the stick out of her jeans and held it against a tree. 

The wood has exactly the same. This stick had come from Lar, and somehow ended up inside Nya's mum's favourite jacket. That settled it. That memory wasn't a dream, something her brain had made up.

Her mum was here. She was most likely the stranger from the story, and was stuck inside the cave among the shadows. Dead or alive, Nya didn't know.

"Okay. I'll do it. But first I need some information," Nya said to Berny. Pat stared at her. 

"Are you sure, Nya? I mean, even if we could get in there, we don't even know a thing about defeating the shadows! How are we supposed to save Lar if we don't know how?" Pat's face was clouded with worry.

Nya knew the words he didn't voice aloud, because she was thinking the exact same thing. Why us?

But that wasn't the point at the moment. She needed to find her mum. She turned to Berny.

"First thing; how do we kill the shadows?" Nya said 'kill' with a slight flinch. Even though these were evil magic that wanted to burn Lar to the ground, didn't mean that saying the word 'kill' aloud sounded any better.

"Well you have those little daggers your carrying, don't you? Use them. It's quite simple," said Berny. Nya gripped the small knife Al had given her before they left. It was in the opposite pocket to her lucky stick.

Al hadn't wanted her and Pat to go alone, but he had other things to do, helping the village. So, just as a precaution, he'd said, he gave her the dagger. Pat already had his own. 

She couldn't help noticing that her's had little engravings of bears on wooden handle.

"Okay, how do you know my name?" Nya asked, not wanting to talk about their weapons anymore, let alone how Berny had know about them.

The bear looked a little surprised, but kept an innocent face. "Why, I haven't said your name at all. What do you mean?"

"I mean, that when we first met you, I couldn't understand your growls, but later in the walk I could. You must've said my name at one point," said Nya.

"Well, Nya Aquas, let me tell you that I can growl when I want to, and I can talk when I want to. I don't need no special name magic! You don't hear your friend Pat growling back to me now do you? It just happens that I understand a little human language. What is it you speak, Italian?
Anyway, you're the only one that growls back, little Nya. Don't ask me why. But I can smell bear on you, child. Now, enough questions. Off you go to save the world, human children! Toodaloo!"

And with that, Berny bounded away into the forest. Nya watched him go with her mouth open.

"And he's just going to leave us? Just like that?"

"Yep," said Pat, "What do say we go down that cave and fight some monsters?" He had a slight smile on his face but his hand gripped his dagger so tight his knuckles were white. 

Nya was scared too. She had hardly been in Lar for a day and already they were being asked to rick their lives for the forest. But looking around the trees, Nya wondered how many had given their lives so humans could have roofs over their heads. 

Berny was right. If they don't at least try, there's a lot of wood to burn in the forest. She stepped towards the cave entrance.

"Those shadows are going to wish they had never crawled out of the ground 200 years ago."