Jean-

Realizing that something made the cave/tunnel, I looked around more often, now feeling like I was being watched.

I put my light away and kept one hand ready to grab my sword at anytime, and the other hand ready to grab a knife.

'Could a troll have made this?' I thought to myself.

'Maybe.'

'Maybe something bigger.'

'Well I don't know, trolls can get pretty big'

My inner thoughts continued like that for a while.

"Should we split up?" I asked. "Two of us go down each tunnel? Or should we just stick together?"

I didn't like the thought of splitting up, but but maybe doing so wound increase or chances of finding what we were looking for and getting out.

Max-

I shook my head. "I don't like that idea, if someone runs into some monster or gets trapped we'll be unable to help."

"Together then." Macie nodded. "Which way do we pick?" She asked looking at both tunnels.

I shrugged. "Jean what do you think? Left or right?"

Jean-

I nodded, grateful to stay together, and then began to sweat.

Why did I have to be the one to pick which tunnel? I wasn't the leader, not that I think we really had one, but if we did, it sure wasn't me.

I looked from on tunnel to the other. If something bad happened in either tunnel, it would be my fault that we went that way. Then again, the same thing goes if something good happens, I wasn't expecting this kind of responsibility.

I wished this could have been as easy as a little kid's show when they don't know which path to take. They either listened for what they're looking for or they think back to previous instructions.

We had neither.

"Let's go left," I decided, trying to be confident and hoping I wouldn't get us killed.

Max-

Left it is.

We moved forward when the ground started shaking.

Oh no.

"Booby trap?" Macie wondered.

"No." Terrence shook his head. "Somethings moving toward us."

"From which tunnel?!" I asked, looking at the right, left, and the one that lead to the surface it could be coming into the tunnels just as likely as it was leaving.

"I can't tell," Terrence admitted.

I placed my ear to the wall to see if I could hear better.

I was surprised that what I did hear, was water, falling. I hit the wall, it felt thin.

Using my sword hilt I started bashing the wall.

After three hits it cracked after four more I could see a cavern on the other-side. One more blow and the thing crumbled.

"C'mon!" I yelled jumping through.

Everyone quickly followed, splashing into a small stream below. Running water fell from a hidden alcove, then ran down further into the cave like tunnel.

The rumbling grew bigger then something slithered down the tunnel we had just been standing in. A giant, sandy brown snake like, thing that would be able to challenge the basilisk in Harry Potter. That's what had made the tunnels.

I paled as I watched it's long body keep going past, for longer than should be allowed.

"That's a big snake," Macie spoke voice slightly higher than usual.

Terrence shook his head. "That, was a nollworm."

I swallowed, that thing was so big there was barely room for it to slide through the tunnels, if we hadn't moved in time...

The ground rumbled and more rocks started falling.

"Take cover!" Terrence ordered.

I grabbed Jean and yanked her under a ledge, holding tight while the rocks and pieces of cave fell.

When the ground stopped shaking and the rocks were clear I stuck my head out. "You guys okay?!" I called.

Macie coughed. "I'm alright." She stepped out, Terrence and Todd behind her.

I looked down at Jean, then realized for the first time that I was holding her.

My heart skipped a beat. "You okay?" I checked.

Jean-

The ground shook and I drew my sword, not seeing anything to throw a knife at. They were right, the rumbling seemed to come from all directions.

At first I thought Max was crazy for hitting the wall, but when the wall fell revealing another way, I was so relieved and so glad that Max wasn't crazy but was actually genius.

We jumped through and saw the worm slither through the tunnel where we were. It filled the whole cavern. We would have been crushed. Or eaten. Or-

"That was a WORM?!" I demanded.

Suddenly the ground rumbled again. I looked up at the rocks that were falling toward us, frozen in place for a brief second. If Max hadn't pulled me to safety, I probably would have realized that I needed to move too late, and I'd be pinned to the ground under a giant rock.

I closed my eyes tight and clung on to Max until finally the rocks stopped falling.

I opened my eyes realized that I was still in Max's arms. I looked up at him, my mouth feeling dry and my stomach dancing with butterflies.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine," I said, shaking slightly. "Are you okay?" I asked returning the question.

Max-

I nodded with a brief smile. It was kind of nice to have her this close.

I slid out from under the ledge then stood, offering a hand to Jean to help her out as well.

"Quick thinking Max." Terrence complemented.

Macie looked up at the cave ceiling and I was very pleased to see that this place looked much more like a real cave, uneven rocky, stalagmites and stalactites.

That meant our chances of Nollworms were, well, null and void.

Ba-dum tiss

"Guy's," Macie spoke up. "I know where the light was coming from." She commented.

I followed her gaze and found the cave ceiling, was completely covered with golden yellow glowing light, upon closer inspection I saw that the light was little flowers.

"That's a good sign." Terrence commented, pulling out the list Wallace had given us. "Those are magical flowers, which means this cavern is more likely to have the stuff we need."

"Onward then?" I asked.

Terrence nodded. "Yeah, lead the way."

Jean-

I smiled and took Max's hand, sliding out from under the ledge.

The light hadn't changed, still bright inside the cave. I looked up and smiled, the little girl part of me feeling all her fantasy dreams come true. It was so beautiful, The small flowers glowing and illuminating the cavern.

We walked forward down the cave staying close to the group. I kept my sword drawn just in case something else happened. Plus it brought me comfort to be holding something and being prepared.

Now that I actually had a moment to think, part of me wished the Nollworm had been a troll. A troll would be smaller and a little more stupid.

Now we just had to avoid the thing and pray nothing else was in the cave that would want to kill us.

"What are we looking for exactly?" I asked.

I needed to think about a different subject and wanted to keep a lookout for any items on the list.

Max-

Terrence looked at the list. "A Nollworm claw, a plant called a leimonet which looks like a brown flower, two kinds of crystal formations...and a drumnant tail."

Macie paled. "Your kidding right?"

I looked over. "What's a Drumnant?" I asked, Macie's concern making me worried.

"They're like giant tarantulas with tails." Macie informed. "They are aggressive, wield a deadly poison, and can warp light so you think you see them but they're actually several feet away."

I swallowed. "Joy."

Jean-

"Is that all?" I asked, now very much scared for my life. This subject was much worse.

"I think I'd prefer the Nollworm over the drumnant." I pulled a knife from its sheath and held it along with my sword, feeling now more than ever that we were being watched. It could just be my imagination, but I wanted to be safe rather than sorry.

I also kept my head on a swivel mode, looking all around us, watching for anything that moved or anything on the list.

We had been walking for a while now, and I'd lost track of time, but I refused to put my weapons away, I didn't want to be caught unawares.

Max~

The tunnel very gradually descended, twisting and turning as we moved.

Water splashed in an unseen cavern.

The tunnel was sometimes wide enough for two file lines, but mostly it was single file.

I looked around as we walked, waiting for something magical, or deadly...or both.

The tunnel flattened out then widened into a larger room, the glowing flowers keeping the room fairly well lit.

Macie paled. "That's not a good sign." She murmured.

I looked around for what made her say that when I spotted it.

A skeleton, old and brown, lying there propped up against the wall.

Oh geez. That was an actual dead person, not a prop, not a movie...that was someone who used to be alive.

Macie and Terrence moved over to it, and Terrence began rifling through the guys bag.

"We're in luck." He murmured, holding up a long orange curved, something, which was flat at the end kind of like a shovel. "Nollworm Claw, that's an item on the list. There's three of them in here."

Macie looked at the skeleton. "How do you think he died?" She asked.

"Starvation." Terrence responded immediately.

"How'd you know?" I asked curious.

Terrence shrugged standing. "Just do, think it's a Viviblix thing."

The skeleton twitched, then grabbed Macie's hand. She screamed backing away and I drew my sword-until Terrence started laughing.

She shot up face red, storming over and smacking his arm. "Terrence you jerk! "

Terrence's laughter eventually died. "I'm sorry that was way too tempting."

Macie folded her arms and glared...but I thought I saw the corner of her mouth twitching toward a smile.

Jean-

I was trying to control my breathing as the tunnel became smaller and smaller.

I focused on the weapons in my hand and on the ground in front of me. As long as I looked at my feet I could almost pretend that it wasn't as small as it really was. Almost.

We came to were the tunnel opened up and found the skeleton.

I wanted to break one of Terrence's fingers for teasing Macie like that, but I could see she wasn't totally upset at him.

"So we only need the one, right?" I checked. "We don't need any more?" I didn't want any more, especially if this one was so easy to get.

Max-

"The goal was to find at least one, but the more the better, the recipe is a coating that will allow weapons to hit them, otherwise they'll just sail through, basically the more we find of our list the better off we'll be." Terrence explained.

I nodded. "It makes sense though, tornado shelters are underground, opposite of wind and sky is earth, all the ingredients would have to come from caves and rocks."

Macie agreed. "And Nollworm Claws, a magic creature that does nothing but dig." She added.

"Right." I agreed. "So we've got a weird flower and drumnant tails left."

"And two crystal formations." Macie added where I forgot.

Terrence nodded. "We'd better get moving again."

Macie paused. "Terrence what do the other items look like? So we can all be looking."

Terrence flipped the list round so we could see, the flower actually grew on vines the creamy yellow color of dead wood, the round petaled blossom a deep brown. The crystal formation had one that was deep gray, and another that was jet black.

"I'll keep my eyes open." I promised.

Jean-

I sighed to myself. It made really good sense, but I really wanted to leave. Alright then, on to find more deadly stuff.

The flower actually looked vaguely familiar, but not enough that could place where I've seen it. And the black crystal reminded me of the black unicorn horn from my dream, but only a little.

I looked around for the first time and saw two paths that branched off from the room. One that looked like it continued the path we had already been following, and another that looked like it had been made by something crashing into it. I walked over to it and peered inside. This path wasn't lit by the flowers like the others had been. Without the light of the room seeping in, it would have been pitch black. I pulled out my flashlight and shown it in the tunnel. It went forward a few feet, and then dropped, opening up into a huge room. I couldn't tell much else about it, but I could hear water running somewhere inside.

"Guys check this out," I called over my shoulder. "Do you think the crystal formations could be in there?" I wondered aloud. "If some magical creature didn't want them found, maybe they're hidden in the dark, where they can't be seen. Or maybe they just grow where there's no light. We haven't seen any crystal formations at all since coming down path with the light flowers."

I let that stir in their brains a second. I liked having the light flowers, but I was sick of the small tunnel. What I said could be true. Maybe it wasn't true, but we wouldn't know if we didn't look.

Then again, there could be a monster down there, and I would take a small tunnel over a monster any day.

Max-

I walked over to where Jean was carefully as I looked over her shoulder down the tunnel, it took a moment for me to realize I had gotten up right behind her.

My heart pounded a little and I tried to focus my brain. "That could work." I nodded keeping voice low cause I didn't want to shout in her ear.

I stepped back trying to keep my brain straight. This was not the time for me to be...like whatever that was.

Macie cast a longing look at the flowers, and I figured she didn't want to leave the natural light, I understood, we would be at a disadvantage using only flashlights.

Still, Macie nodded. "Okay let's try it." She said taking a breath.

Jean-

Max came up behind me. Like, RIGHT behind me. I drew a sharp breath and tried to calm the butterflies in my stomach when he spoke in my ear. I could feel his breath. It was warm, but it sent shivers down my spine.

He backed away and I let out the air I didn't realize I was holding in. I turned around as Max spoke. I felt bad for suggesting this tunnel to everyone, only because Macie looked like she would much rather stay where there was light. Maybe she was afraid of the dark. I don't know.

I walked up to her and took her hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

"Walk with me?" I asked with a little smile. I wanted her to feel like I was there for her and that we were doing this together.

Max-

Macie gave a soft smile and a firm nod squeezing Jean's hand.

Taking a breath I clicked on my flash light as everyone else did the same, I glanced at Jean.

Who was leading the way?

"How bout I send Todd in there? For booby traps or monsters or whatever." Terrence offered.

I nodded.

"Sounds good."

Todd wobbled ahead of us, walking without a care into the dark descending tunnel.

I glanced at Jean once more, my heart fluttering a moment as I remembered, then followed down into the dark.