The flume was quickly collapsing. Large chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing Gunny and Spader as they watched Bobby throw a limp Kasha over his shoulders. "Go, shorty, go!" Gunny shouted. He then grabbed Spader's arm and pulled him back through the curtain of hanging vines. Once they were safe from the falling rock, they turned back and watched the rest of the event in horror.

The light of the flume shone bright through the tangle of vines and the wall of falling rocks. The normally dark cave was now washed in the bright, white light. The loud rumble of the collapsing flume was deafening. Spader cupped a hand to his mouth and yelled above the noise, "Hobey-ho, Pendragon!" He wasn't sure if Bobby heard him or not. With a loud shriek and a huge, final boom, the flume caved-in completely.

The rumbling ceased. The sound of the musical notes faded away. The smaller rocks settled into place and then it was over. After a few seconds of complete silence, Spader made the first move. He walked forward and pulled the curtain of vines to one side. What they saw behind it made their hearts sink. The entrance to the flume was gone. In its place was a giant chunk of rock.

"Zadaa!" Spader called.

Nothing.

"Cloral! First Earth!" he shouted desperately.

Again nothing.

Spader began to push on the rock with all his might, but it wouldn't budge.

"It's no use." said Gunny in a grim tone. Spader gave up and stopped pushing.

"How will we get out of here?" he questioned. "We need to get out, we need to go help them!" he exclaimed frantically.

"There's nothing we can do," replied Gunny. "the flume's destroyed. We're stuck here."

After a closer examination of the large stone, Spader knew Gunny was right. There was no way they would be able to get through. They were trapped.

"Aaaarggh!" Spader yelled and pounded a fist on the rock in frustration. That made his hand to throb in pain but he didn't care. Gunny folded his arms across his chest and looked down at the floor.

They sat in silence for while, both in deep thought until Gunny finally said, "It's too stuffy in here. I need some fresh air. Let's head back to the surface." Spader didn't want to leave the flume, but it was getting harder to breath in the musty cave and he couldn't think of anything else to do. Reluctantly, he followed Gunny up the stone stairs.

They climbed back through the caves and up the vines until they found themselves on the balcony atop the enormous tree overlooking the beautiful forest. The sunbelt was peeking over the tops of the trees on the horizon. The sky was painted with color that flowed from red to orange to purple to blue. It made for a very beautiful sunset. Gunny walked to the edge of the balcony, leaned on the support rail, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Spader paced anxiously behind him.

"What now?" he asked. Gunny opened his eyes.

"Well, since it doesn't look like we'll be traveling anywhere for a while, I think we should return to Black Water. The gars still have a long road to recovery ahead of them and we should be there to help out."

"But what about Bobby?" Spader retorted. "He needs all the help he can get!"

"Shorty will be fine." replied Gunny. "He's got Kasha and Loor now. They'll take care of him. Besides, unless there's another flume you haven't told me about we're stranded here. Helping the people of Eelong is our only option now."

At the mention of Kasha, Spader winced. They had both seen the rock fall and hit her head, although neither of them said anything about it. Gunny had to assume that she was okay. There was enough to worry about already without the well being of Kasha on their minds. Spader, on the other hand, was doubtful. The way her head snapped sideways like that...it didn't look good. Spader agreed to go back to Black Water, but he didn't give up on the idea of escape. He thought perhaps the gars had something that they could use to dig out the flume.

"First we need to get ourselves a couple of zenzens." Gunny said. Spader now remembered that they had walked from Leeandra to the flume and unless they wanted to walk all the way to Black Water, they would need some form of transportation.

"To Leeandra!" Gunny declared. And with that the two of them began making their way across the tree bridge toward the klee city.