Preston fell for what felt like exactly twelve feet, and landed square on his butt. His backpack full of checks fell a second later, and landed on his head.
"Ow! My head and butt!" yelled Preston. His voice echoed in the pitch black underground cavern. He dug blindly through his backpack, in hopes of something that would make some light. Anyway, the chapter title gave it away, there are mole people. Here they come.
"Hey, we're the mole people! What are you doing in our cavern?" one or all of them demanded.
"Ow! My head and butt!" came Preston's echo. How embarrassing!
"I fell down, when I was digging my way out of…" Preston paused. He didn't want to tell them that he had been in prison.
"Prison!" Preston finished. Oops.
"Oh, you must be cool!" said Gus, the littlest and most impressionable mole person. Gus threw Preston a headlamp.
Preston put on the headlamp, and now nobody was having trouble seeing. "So you guys live down here, then?"
"Yup! It's cozy." said Gus.
"Gus, honey?" said Gus's mom. "Since you're talking to the human, why don't you just be our king?"
"Okay, Mom" said Gus, and he became the King of the Mole People.
"I was a king once!" said Preston.
The mole people gasped. "King of where?"
"Ow! My head and butt!" Preston's voice echoed again.
The mole people giggled. Once they stopped, Gus's mom asked again, "King of where?"
"I had a really big bounce house, shaped like a castle!" said Preston, and pulled it out of his backpack. Remember, he ripped it apart with his kid hands, so the fabric was pretty thin.
"That's so cool!" said Gus. "I've always wanted a bounce house!"
"Actually, I think I want you to have it." Preston said, and he patched up the rip with some checks and bubble gum, and reinflated it.
The mole people could barely contain their excitement, and they all ran inside, and became stuck.
"The perfect crime!" Preston said to himself, as he walked out of the cave. He twirled his shovel and snacked on some checks.