The donkey boys where aimlessly getting deeper and deeper underground . All of the light of the wonderful world above disappeared in cold darkness . It was so dark and dank that they could no longer see what they were going into . Pinocchio shivered in fear of the darkness surrounding him. The sounds of hooves echoed in the mysterious underground world, fading into the eternal darkness . At first Pinocchio enjoyed the clickity clack of his own hooves against the dirty stone ground of the Catacombs ,. But now he was just annoyed after 2 or so hours .

"Hey Frankie , "Miriam brayed over the sound of her own hooves ."Do you mind moving over just a tiny bit ..."

"I`m not Frankie ,"Pinocchio brayed, sounding annoyed that Miriam couldn`t recognize him.

"Whoops , sorry Pinoke . I thought you where Frankie . " Miriam brayed. Pinocchio clomped sideways only to bump into something fuzzy . "Pinocchio , do mind if you move over just a tiny wee bit?" Fred brayed.

Pinocchio tried he space out between Miriam and Fred, but he couldn`t tell if he had moved far enough .

"Okay let`s go this way ...UMPH ! Nope that is a wall .... Ahh ! A snake just slithered on me !" Lampwick brayed .

"That`s my tail Lampwick ,"Frankie brayed blankly .

"No wonder why that snake felt furry ! "Lampwick brayed , pretending to be cheery . But the darkness of the underground tunnels seemed to suck the life and brightness out of his life. Lampwick was somewhat frightened by the darkness and not seeing the world around him .But Lampwick kept on telling himself to be brave. " Now why don`t we make a turn right ... Ow ! Who put that wall there? "

"Fred ?" Frankie brayed looking out in the blackness .

"What ?" Fred answered .

"What if this place is dangerous ? I mean , I learned the Romans used booby traps in order to keep the burial place safer from grave robbers .... "

"Frankie, "Lampwick brayed , interrupting Fred`s reply " this place has absolutely no traps . Besides , theses bodies are just ordinary people . Why would they ....Ahhhhhh!"

The donkeys , though it was unknown to them. took one step forward into a pit and they fell below . "Umph !" They grunted as the banged again the dirt floor . It was significantly brighter than the other part of the catacombs. Small , but noticeable holes in the dirt wall of the catacombs showed that the wall was weak and could break easily . Speckles of blue and sometimes golden light illuminated the cave of the catacombs. Outside , the donkeys sensed that the dark , overcast storm clouds had let loose and decided to unleash their infamous power of thunder , lighting , and heavy rain.

When each donkey stood up they gave sighs of relief to see the glorious light ."Told ya so !" Frankie brayed brightly with the hint of the great feeling of being right.. "This place is bobby trapped ! "

"We gotta get outta here !"Pinocchio brayed with a panicky look on his face . Jiminy looked around on top of the Pinocchio`s head , looking for a way to help the donkey boys out . Pinocchio then bumped into something ... From the cracks in the wall that sent some light down he saw what it really was .... a dead skeleton of a donkey and a man with their ribs cage and spines interlinked . "Ahhh! " He screamed and ran around , looking for a way out. He banged against the dirt wall , which was weather worn from hundreds of years .Pinocchio banged down and landed in-between the hole he created and Jiminy landed in the pouring rain outside . Pinocchio grunted the slightest bit and shook off the pebbles and rubbish left from the hole.

When Lampwick saw the hole he brayed cheerfully , "Alright Pinocchio ! You found a way out !" The donkeys immediately crawled under the hole and looked out in the blinding and freezing cold rain .It raged against their skin . The rain was somewhat soothing with it cool nature as it b chilled their aching whipping scars.. "

Well who knew ? " Jiminy said , chuckling slightly. "The catacombs where build on a cliff by the sea ! " Sure enough. the blue Ligurian sea swished along the stoney hill and seafoam desloved on the rocks . The maginficentr lace on the crest waves swireled in a furious rage . Pinocchio , Lampwick , Miraim , and the rest where standing on a pathway that stood a good forty or so feet above the angry sea below .

"What`s the plan now ?"Frankie asked Fred as the stood on the pathway looking around .

"Dunno,"Fred admited ."But we just gotta find a way ."

Luckily , the clouds hadn`t covered the wishing star , for it still twinkled in the blackness like a polished diamond . Cloud surround the gem like light , and it seemed to Pinocchio that the Blue Fairy herself had cleared a way to look after the donkeys. Pinocchio then kneeled down to the ground in the middle of the storm mumbling . "Star light , star bright .. .first star I see tonight ..."

"What are you doing ,"Lampwick hissed . "There ain`t time for wishing` on stars ! ..."

Pinocchio stayed focused despite Lampwick`s comments . "I wish I may , I wish I might , have the wish I make tonight ..." And with that it seemed as the sea cove in Italy went silent ,except for the ominous thunder claps and the hurling winds . When Pinocchio rose up from the ground , everyone gave him glares . "What was that for ?" Miriam asked . She did not know such a human action .

"My father always said , If you wish on the wishing star , it`s sure to come true ..."

"What did you wish for Pinocchio ?" Frankie asked . Frankie after all was still a 8 year old child and believed in the power of wishing on stars. Fred smiled a bit , because once, a long time ago, he too had given his dearest dreams to the wishing star . He wished to be adopted , but it didn`t seem that the star had heard him.

Pinocchio shook his head . "I can`t tell . It won`t come true if I did ."'

Miriam smiled at the little boys , seeing the humans inside them . Although they had the appearance of simple donkeys , they had the minds and souls of humans . Miriam not only wished to be a human , but she wished for the donkey boys to be happy , to be back to their true forms . But alas , it couldn`t happen , it seemed impossible . But Miriam was determined to have her dream come true . She also wanted to save Pinocchio`s father so that little donkey boy could be happy once more. Pinocchio had been so depressed as a circus donkey, and now that he was so close to seeing his father again , he spirit soared like it was a bird let finally let out of it`s cage.

"Let`s go save your father . " Miriam brayed , ready to take whatever challenge was in store. The donkeys began to walk along the pathway to get to the sea . The thunder and lighting distracted them and the rain whipped against their back . But the kept looking forward , forward to their goal of saving good Geppetto .

It happened as quick as the lighting in the sky . A thunder clap . A scream . A fall . Miriam was plummeting helpless down the cliff`s side. Pinocchio and Lampwick panicked as she disappeared in the foam on the crest of the waves . Fred, Frankie , Pinocchio , and Lampwick all knew at that very instant what they had to do . They had to save a friend.

When Miriam hit the water , she became a part of another world. A world she had never experienced . Miriam had never been fully emerged in water , let alone the sea . When she was working for a farmer along with her father , she would carry carts to a village by the sea , but that was all . In the world below , strange creatures surrounded her . They had tails , like her`s , but these tails where different .These tails where shiny and had a glitter nature to them and swished as they glided ever so graceful in the chilling waster. They swam around this odd object ,pecking out it to see if it was food. Miriam realized she couldn`t breathe in water .She swallowed sea water in attempts to extract air from the water , but the salt gagged her and made her sick to her stomach. Her longs burned for air as the salty water blinded her eyes .

With her stinging eyes , she peered around . But she could not see anything for the storm clouds had darkened the sea . She closed her eyes fearing the worst . But something that she couldn`t describe , something powerful , over took her . She felt warmth in her hooves and face , the feeling spread through her entire body . Miriam didn`t feel ,through , the urge to breathe . It wasn`t that she could gulp down air in the water , but she felt as though her lungs where full and content . She heard the twinkling of soft , angelic chimes . Miriam also felt as though someone was elongating her hooves and spread them apart in separate pieces. But that didn`t not pain her , in fact she felt an she felt more of a tickling sensation then anything.

When the feeling left her , her chest felt as through all oxygen had been squeezed out . The darkness of the sea blacked and Miriam could no longer see the fish swimming around her. She was going to drown , going to die . She almost let the effort to try to float to the surface go away and let her body sink to the fathoms below . That would be the case , if someone hadn`t grabbed he and brought her to the sought after surface. Miriam took a deep breath , looking at her savoir as she gasped for air .Her salty eyes made it nearly impossible to see and everything was blurry , but she could clearly tell the person who had saved her was a human teenager . But the world faded in nothing but dark ebony and she passed out from lack of oxygen .