Chapter 14: Spelunking Adventure

The town of Qora is our next goal and it is just north of Oora. We used the Oora Gem to get close and continued from there. Qora was built around a mine, but it has long been abandoned. There were several mine cart tracks leading into the mine. Whatever the mine was used for before was clearly not needed now. We knocked on Qora's house and he let us in. We introduced ourselves and Qora began to speak,

"You know, Stephan, your ancestor helped us out in this mine all those years ago,"

"Really?" I asked. "What happened?"

"Many of our workers were trapped inside during a cave-in," Qora continued. "Kyle raced against time and rescued all of them. Well, him and his girlfriend."

"Merlina?" Helen asked.

"Yeah, that's her name,"

"Forgive me for getting straight to the point," Andrew said. "But we need to know if you have the Gem."

"Oh, yeah, I've got it back here somewhere," Qora left to the back room. We all cheered, clapped, or struck victory poses as he left. He was gone for a bit and we all took a seat where we could. After a number of minutes had passed, Andrew and I decided to go see what's taking so long. We found a big hole in one of the back rooms and it was smoking. Looking outside, we saw Qora getting dragged off into the mine!

"It's always something," Andrew groaned and we headed back to the main room and rounded up our team. We then headed into the mine as well.

It was dark inside, so we all lit up what we could.

"Hey, it's dark in here, Jennifer," Stan teased. "You wanna wait outside?"

"Oh, shut up," Jennifer said. "I don't mind it too much now, especially since we have weapons that glow now."

"There's nothing wrong with being afraid of the dark," Octavis said. "You only have to be afraid of the things in it." Jennifer just remained silent and we continued deeper into the mine. We followed the mine cart tracks until they split into three different directions.

"Just like in Mora Mountain," Matt said.

"I just hope there's no large bat this time," I said.

"What, you don't want to see your future son, again?" Matt teased.

"Alright, stop it, you two," Andrew said. "Let's go left." So we went left. We all stayed as close to each other as we could. Jennifer stayed close to me, but she was leading with her fire arrow. We walked for a while, and then I heard Jennifer scream as I saw her slide down. Quickly looking down, I found Jennifer hanging onto a rock in the cliff. I reached my hand down trying to grab her. She reached up and grabbed my arm, but her hand slipped and I quickly grabbed it with mine. I felt a slight shiver as I tried to pull her up. Andrew grabbed my other arm and pulled with me.

"That... was not fun..." Jennifer gasped.

"Looks like this way's a dead end," Andrew said. "Let's turn back." I helped Jennifer back to her feet and we turned back. The entire time back, I looked at my hand. Andrew asked me if I was alright and I said yes. We headed down the middle path next. We continued until we found a cave-in with a derailed mine cart.

"Think we could all fit in that?" Chris joked. Andrew and Stan walked over to it and pushed it back onto the track. "I was joking!"

"I know," Andrew said. "But we might as well see if we can use it for the next path. Those of you that don't feel like walking back can jump in." Chris hopped in but everyone else remained out of it. Stan pushed the cart back to the entrance, following the rest of us. Andrew switched the track at the entrance to allow the cart to go down the final path. We stopped when we found the mine go down deeper, but only with the mine cart track.

"Looks like we're all gonna have to ride the cart, anyway," Octavis said.

"Here, I can turn into more," Lacey said as she was starting to transform. Two more green mine carts appeared on the track with the front one having Lacey's face on it.

"This journey just gets stranger and stranger," Octavis said. Lacey connected her back cart to the one we found earlier. Andrew, Kyra, Stan, and Sobie hopped into the front one; me, Jennifer, Helen, and Matt jumped into the second one; and Octavis hopped in the back with Chris. Lacey strapped us to herself to keep us safe, but Chris held onto Octavis as he steadied himself. Lacey slowly inched forward to the top of the ramp then pushed. It was like a roller coaster ride, we were all at the mercy of the mine track, going through every bend that was in front of us. Then we saw something that made our hearts sink, the track was out ahead! We couldn't see the other side of the gap. We could feel Lacey pick up speed as the ramp continued downward and went off the ramp! Lacey grew what looked like wings and we slowly drifted down to the ground, landing on the other end of the track. Lacey let us all go while saying some airplane joke. We all looked at each other and everyone's hair was a blown backwards, with Helen's going the farthest back. Kyra lost her hair bow on the way and her hair went wavy as she tried to put it down.

"I like your hair better like this," Andrew said, his hair blown back as well. Then we heard a high-pitched scream. We turned and saw Matt, trying to fix his hair. His hair had completely "poofed" out into a slight afro. We all laughed as the rest of us tried to fix our own hair. I didn't care about mine much, just rub my hair around and it'll be back to its spiky-ness. Jennifer's ponytail was gone and her hair flowed down almost to her feet.

"Now you see why I wear the band," she said, pulling another one from her pocket. I tried to tell her I liked it down, but no words came out. I just sort of stood there with my mouth open. Lacey lead us forward and the rest of us followed. Stan patted me on the back and nearly knocked me down.

"You alright there, lover boy?" he teased. I just held my back where Stan hit it and continued walking.

Farther down, we started to hear muffled screaming. We rushed forward and found Qora tied up. Kyra cut the rope and Andrew helped him up.

"What happened?" Andrew asked.

"We need to get out of here now!" Qora yelled. Then we heard a loud boom come from in front of us. A large, round figure came toward us. It rolled at us; we had to dodge out of the way to avoid being smashed! Then the creature grew arms and legs. It used them to turn around, and then it continued bowling at us. Jennifer and Stan both fired fire blasts at the creature and, when they hit, the creature exploded! We were all blown back as the mine rumbled. Rocks and beams fell on top of us and blocked the way out. I got up and looked around, only me, Andrew, Helen, and Jennifer were conscious. I reached down for the Gems, but they flew out! I yelled at the others to find the Gems. They started looking around and Jennifer found one, but the mine collapsed and separated all of us from her! I called out to her, but I couldn't hear anything. Andrew found the other four Gems and used one to warp us all to Gora.

Everyone was lying on the ground; most of them face-down. I saw Jennifer squirming and holding her leg. Andrew and I helped her up and brought her to the Inn. Good thing we were welcome here anytime. We laid her on a bed and went out to bring the others in. Jennifer had a broken leg, Chris was barely breathing, Sobie was almost completely split apart; this was a nightmare. Stan and Matt were in the best condition out of all of them, but they were still suffering from pain.

"How are we supposed to continue like this?" I asked Andrew. "Even the guardian, Qora, is in no condition to do anything!"

"A night in the inn is all it'll take," he answered. "That's how these places work. Don't ask me how, I never understood it myself, but I'm not gonna argue with it."

"I've heard of many legendary heroes riding mine carts," Helen said. "I even heard of plumbers and gorillas riding them! But now that we done it, I don't want to again."

"Agreed," Andrew acknowledged. "We should let them be. Tomorrow, we'll bring Qora back home and head for Rora." We started to head out, but I heard Jennifer call my name. I walked over to her.

"How is everyone?" she asked.

"They'll all be fine... I hope," I answered. "You're probably in better condition than most of them, except for maybe Stan and Matt." Jennifer chuckled then winced as she reached for her leg. "Don't try to move. According to Andrew, you just need to spend the night here and everyone will be alright." Jennifer reached over and grabbed my hand. I felt the same shiver as I did in the mine.

"All I wanted to do was make this place safe for my sister when she comes home," she said. "I didn't think I would die in the process."

"This... journey is getting tougher," I said, holding her hand. "But the thing is, so are we. The farther we go, the stronger we'll become. Not just in strength, but with friendship as well. I mean, just look at Stan and Sobie, Andrew and Matt..."

"You and me?" Jennifer asked. She had a slight smile on her face.

"You and... me, yes," I said. "I'll never leave you alone, Jennifer. I will protect you, just like Andrew does with me." She smiled even more.

"It's strange, though," she said. "I never thought I'd be on an adventure with the guy who was going through my things like a thief,"

"I'm not a..." she let out a slight laugh. "But you know that now, don't you?"

"To be honest, I knew you weren't a thief. I just didn't know how to react when I saw two boys in my room looking for me."

"Yeah, I suppose it was a little... sudden, wasn't it?" Jennifer chuckled and dazed off, mouth open. I let her hand go and started walking out of the room. I saw Matt try to get up, but ended up breaking the bed's legs and he plopped back down onto the mattress. Laughing, I left the room and rejoined with Andrew and Helen. We only had four Gems right now, Gora's, Eora's, Oora's, and Pora's and collecting the rest is only going to get harder.

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