CHAPTER 4

Milla saw the Merwin Horn Sword and walked over to it. Milla picked it up and ran it along her hands. It was fresh; the horn still had its natural glow.

Tal continued walking and went down a right corridor, Milla quickly caught up.

They walked along various corridors until they reached a dead end. They turned around but Tal stopped and turned back to the wall.

There were two shadows on the wall that were moving, just like free spiritshadows!

"Duck!" Tal yelled and pushed Milla to the ground as the two shadows jumped over them.

"What did you do that for?!" Milla yelled back.

Then the shadows turned back and scuttled over. They were like a cross of a spider and a grasshopper. It had the body and abdomen of a grasshopper and it had giant fangs like a spider and had four legs and six arms that were spider-like.

They scuttled over and Tal and Milla started to run, but they were too fast.

The shadows caught up. Milla then remembered the sword; she brought it out and turned around.

The blade came slicing down, cutting one of the shadows in half. The other chose that moment to attack, but Tal sent a Red Ray of Destruction and the shadow was thrown back into the wall. Milla leapt to her feet and sliced the shadow in half.

Tal quickly checked the space where the shadows were killed, and on the ground were a red key and an orange key.

Then a sucking sound alerted Tals attention to the wall, which a red door had just appeared on.

Tal walked up to the door and inserted the red key into the red keyhole, and it swung open.

Inside was a long corridor, the whole room was bathed in an eerie red glow from the lava that covered the floor, it looked to be a lot of lave so the floor seemed to be deep. The only way across was a cleverly designed path that was broken up into platforms of steel pushed together about a stretch square made of steel, it had long jumps and narrow paths, so one slip could end in death. Tal put his foot on the first part of the path and hesitated. Maybe there was another way across, so he looked over his shoulder, but the door was gone, Milla was standing there impatiently.

"Hurry up!" She said.

Then the platform of steel Tal was standing on dropped into the lava. Tal nearly fell forward but managed to throw his legs forward so he staggered back.

"We'll have to jump" Milla said. "I'll go first."

Milla walked back a bit, then ran up and easily jumped the gap. Tal thought this meant he could also jump it because back at the hole in the mountain he jumped further than Milla had.

So Tal got a run up and leapt high in the air. Tal saw the next platform coming, but then he was grabbed by a hand that popped out of the lava that started to drag him down.

Tal screamed as the platform he was on started to fall.

Just as he was about to plunge to his death Milla grabbed his hands and wrenched him away from the lava and the hands.

Tal quickly scrambled to his feet and he and Milla started to run along the platforms.

Milla was just a bit ahead of Tal and she tripped. Tal stopped to help her up and noticed this square had writing on it, Chosen and Icecarl writing, which read, 'rest stop'.

"We can stop here" Tal told Milla and sat upon the surprisingly cold metal.

Milla stayed standing after getting to her feet. Tal looked at his ankles and noticed they were burned. The lava hands had burned him.

After a minute or so Tal stood up and he and Milla started running again. They jumped large gaps and dodged lava that had started to spit up. Then they reached another rest platform right next to a bright orange door. The door may have been in a room that was bathed in red light, but it glowed orange. Tal put the key in and turned the lock, pushing open the door.

What was inside shocked Tal and nearly made him start running in the other direction.