Max yawned as he woke up. He was shocked when he discovered where he was. He was in a cave. A dark, damp, cool cave. By cool, he meant the definition of coldness, not awesomeness because it wasn't. As he looked around to find out more about this place and why he was in it, he noticed light his right. He saw it was moonlight in the night sky and it was entering through a giant hole. He got up and ran towards it. But when he reached the hole, he started to lose his balance when he went over an... edge? He nearly fell from the edge, but he grabbed the nearest rocky wall on his right to regain his balance. He looked down and saw that he was twenty feet high in the air.
"That's not the exit. That's the window of this hotel room."
"Hotel room?" Max turned to see who said that. Then a light on the rocky wall came on and he saw a king-sized bed and no one was on it except Cy-Croc. He frowned at her. "You! Why have you brought me here?"
"I did it for your safety," Cy-Croc said.
Max was confused. "My safety? What do you mean? Have I got an illness?"
"No," Cy-Croc said. "Well, not a physical one, but as for mental –"
"You kidnapped and dragged me all the way to this 'cave hotel' because you're a psychologist and you can cure my mental illnesses?" Max asked. "Which I don't even what that is!"
"No, I didn't kidnap you," Cy-Croc said. "If I kidnapped you, I would tied and gagged you in here. I saved you from those flaming monsters because they wanted to kidnap you."
"What do they want with me?" Max asked.
"It's who they serve that wants you," Cy-Croc said. "I can't tell you any more information than that. The less you know, the safer you are."
"So I have to trust you? I have no other option?"
"Well, the only other option you got is the let those flaming monsters find you, take you to the one they serve and see what disasters they will unleash on not just for yourself and me and the hotel staff here, but to your whole family, all of your friends and the whole wide world."
"That bad, huh?"
"Unless, of course, you have more knowledge and experience about those flaming monsters and who they serve than me."
Of course, Max didn't so he decided to surrender to Cy-Croc's protection.
"Oh, and speaking of which, for the safety of your family and friends, you can't communicate with them at all, not even to let them know you're okay. Because if you do –"
"Yeah, I know. I'll only get them in trouble."
"You can't call anyone, you can't text anyone and you can't even reply to anyone on social media, expect me. I'm the only one who can call or text you. No one else. Got it?"
"Got it." Then Max had a thought. "What if someone I know finds me by accident?"
That got Cy-Croc thinking. Then there was a knock on the other side of the cave. She walked towards it and moved something which was a giant boulder. It was more like a door. Max jumped in horror when he saw a bear there.
"Relax, Max," Cy-Croc said, smiling. "It's only room service and served by none other the hotel manager himself." Then her smile fell when she saw the bear, who was wearing a black bistro vest and a black bowtie, behind a wooden trolley on wheels. "Or, probably due to staff shortage, the toilet cleaner will do. Please do come in, Humphrey."
The waiter, Humphrey the Bear, entered the room, pushing the trolley which contained two metal serving dishes with lids. He stopped the cart, put the dishes on the table and took the lids off.
Max and Cy-Croc were amazed at what they saw and smelt on the metal plates. One plate contained a cheese pizza and the other contained spinach and ricotta cannelloni.
"Here is your tip, Humphrey." Cy-Croc gave the bear a small jar of honey as tip which he thanked in his bear language. "No problem. And give the chef my compliments."
Humphrey replied through his bear noises and waved to Cy-Croc and Max as he walked out of the hotel room and Cy-Croc closed the rocky door behind him.
"Enjoying your pizza, Max?" Cy-Croc asked, as they ate their food.
"Yeah, this is totally delicious." Then Max had an alarming thought and put the slice he was eating down. "How do you know I like pizza?"
"I didn't. I just guessed. And enjoy it while we can because we could only afford one night here tonight. So, after breakfast, we must check out."
"And where are we going tomorrow?" Max asked.
"Somewhere to hide from those flaming monsters," Cy-Croc said. "And I have tents and camping stuff if we need to camp out. Now, finish off your pizza and get a good night's sleep because we must check out by ten o'clock."
After finishing his delicious pizza, Max got into his bed quite early like he was told to do. Even though it was big and comfy, he struggled to fall asleep. Despite knowing he had no choice but to trust Cy-Croc, Max felt he was going to have issues with it and he was sad that he couldn't tell anyone he knew that he was still alive, even his dad. Probably for the first time in his life, he really wished his dad was with him and see that he was okay.
Max looked at his phone to check if anyone called him, texted him or left him any notifications on social media. Cy-Croc told him not to engage with them, but she didn't tell him not to look at it. As he suspected, he got a lot of missed calls and a lot of text and social media messages saying stuff like, 'Where are you, Max?', 'Are you okay, Max?', 'We're very worried about you, Max!' and 'Wherever you are, Max, we hope you're okay!' Among his many friends who tried all three forms of communication was his dad Goofy and his friends PJ, Bobby, Lisa, Sasha, Charlotte, Annie and Lola. He knew the consequences would be bad if he replied to one of them, but he couldn't help feeling guilty about not being able to do it because he knew how much he meant to them and he never forgot how much they meant to him. He just hoped this business he had to do with Cy-Croc would be worth it and be finished as soon as it could be.
In a camping area in the Nantahala National Forest stood a figure wearing a brown hood and cloak next to a rock boulder fire pit. The pit was soon filled with flames. "Well?" the figure asked, who had a female Welsh accent.
"Lady Penny, we found both your sister and Max Goof," the flaming leader said. "They are in a nearby cave hotel run by bears and they are only ten minutes away."
"But your sister could only pay for one night and they must check out the hotel by ten o'clock tomorrow birthday," the second-in-command added.
"Excellent," the hooded figure said. "We got them now."
"So, what's happens now, My Lady?" the flaming leader asked.
"We wait after the day after tomorrow."
"Did I hear you correctly, My Lady? The day after tomorrow?"
"Correct, Flaming Leader," the hooded figure said. "We will let them check out of the cave hotel tomorrow, let them think they're winning and then, when they think they've lost us, we'll give a good roasting!"
Then the hooded figure and the flames laughed evilly.
"Take that, you goofball! Is that all you got, you half robotic freak? You bunch of losers ain't got nothing on us!"
"Flame Number Three, what are you doing?" the flaming leader demanded.
"Practicing my roasting when we greet our enemies," flame number three replied.
"Not that kind of roasting, you moron! Lady Penny meant physically burning them!"
The figure rose. "Flaming Leader!"
"Yes, My Lady!"
"Shut up! Flame Number Three has a good idea. We can roast them – by both burning and criticizing them as we do it. That will actually be more fun. But remember My Lady, the one I serve, only wants Max Goof. She doesn't care about my sister. And neither do I. If she must be burnt alive, then so be it. But Max Goof must be alive, harmed or unharmed. Is that understood?"
"Yes, My Lady," all the flames replied.
"Excellent."