"Amelia! Amelia!" Karl yelled up at her. Amelia looked down at the platform Karl was hanging off of. He couldn't hang on forever. Amelia took a deep breath and very carefully climbed down the rocky wall to the platform. She carefully inched herself over to Karl; the great height of the ledge was getting to her.
" "Away" he says!" she said as she wrapped her hands under his arms.
"Just help me up," he said as the two pulled and pushed Karl until he was safely on the ledge. They both sat there, catching their breath and rubbing their arms.
"Damn," Karl said looking around and seeing nothing but rocky wall in every direction but up.
"Yea. Did you see what happened up there?"
"You mean when we ran off ledge?" he asked her questionably.
"No, when I was hanging on up there."
"Oh. No."
"He sniffed me."
"What?" Karl asked her raising an eyebrow.
"I thought it was going to eat me, and he could have, but he sniffed me, stood up, and walked away."
"So what, you smell funny?" Karl and her and she shrugged.
"I don't know," she said and they sat there in silence for a few moments. Karl sighed and looked around again. He looked behind him and stood up.
"Hey look," he said. Amelia looked background at him and stood up. The wall connected to the ledge looked different than the rest of the wall. It looked like the pieces of rock had been, placed. Karl grabbed a piece of rock and pulled it out. A lot of the rocks above it fell too and rolled off the ledge and disappeared. Karl and Amelia pulled all of the rocks away to reveal a passageway through the rock. Karl and Amelia looked at each other and then down the dark passageway. Karl reached into his pocket and pulled out a sun stone fragment that lighted the passageway. He smiled at her and led the way.
"Where'd you get that?" she asked him but he didn't answer.
Marion, David, and Zippo were back in Waterfall City. They were in Zippo's house and had maps of Dinotopia spread out on all of the tables. They had sent word to Marion's mother about what happened and that they were unable to come see her. Marion was looking at a map of the area where Karl and Amelia went missing. They had looked for a few hours for them with no luck. David was wearing his Skybax riding uniform and was standing in front of a few other riders. Their bus driver was standing over the map as well.
"I hate to tell you this," he said, "but from what you say about the direction they were chased in, it sounds like they would have run into the Tenax Cliff."
"Tenax Cliff?" David asked him.
"The Tenax Cliff is the largest cliff in Dinotopia. At the top you can't see the bottom and at the bottom you can't see the top," the driver told him.
"It's five mile long, it'll take forever to search," a Skybax rider said.
"Yes well, we will…" David said and left the room, followed by the other riders.
"I've sent out five message birds to look for them," Zippo told Marion and she nodded in response.
"We will find them, alive," Zippo told her worriedly. She looked up at him and smiled.
"I know Zippo, thank you," she said. She looked down at the map in front of her once more before looking up and seeing Earhart quietly looking out the window into the market place. She left the maps and walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder for support.
"How are you doing, Earhart?" she asked him. He looked back at her and forced a smile of his face.
"I'm a bit ashamed of myself, actually," he confessed.
"What for?" she asked him worriedly.
"I'm worried about her. I shouldn't be, she can take of herself," he said and Marion smiled.
"And she's not alone…" she reassured him.
"Oh yes… What if he sees the…" he started worried about the idea.
"Then Amelia will handle it. Relax, it'll be alright," Marion told him and he nodded in agreement.
They were on their second mile through the passageways. Karl was in the lead lighting the way and Amelia followed him closely. Besides their footsteps the only sound was the running of some distant water and the dripping of condensation off of the cool rock.
"Karl," Amelia said and he stopped and looked back at her.
"What?"
"Look," she said and pointed down to his calf. He looked down and saw a cut on his leg that was bleeding onto his sock.
"What do you know?" he said as he lowered the sun stone to get a better look. Amelia kneeled down and unwrapped a long strand of cloth she had wound around her calf and wrapped it around his cut.
"We can clean it if we ever find where that water sound is coming from," she said as she tied the knot and stood up.
"Thanks," he said and they continued farther down the passageway.
"Is it odd that there've been no passageways leading off from this one?" Amelia asked him.
"You're the one who's lived in Dinotopia all your life…"
"Yes but I don't live on the underside of it."
"Do you think this leads to a way out?"
"I certainly hope so…"
"Maybe it leads into the World Beneath," Karl said with a smile.
"You sound like that's what you want."
"It's cool there."
"It's what?" she asked him but he never answered her. They passageway opened to a giant cave. There was a waterfall on one side that flowed around the rim of the cave with plant life growing by its banks. In the cave was what look like a town of houses made from stone. The town had long since been abandoned and desolate but houses must have been in near perfect conditions. At the top of the domed cave was a huge sun stone, lighting the cave like a sun.
"Whoa…" Karl said in amazement. He put his sun stone away and the two carefully climbed down to the town.
David stood near the edge of Tenax Cliff with Free-Fall at his side. David was looking out at the clouds he could see forever in front of him. A skybax rider landed behind David and dismounted. They walked toward each other and the rider gave him her report.
"We've combed the length of the bottom of the cliff and all of the towns by it with in walking distance. No one has seen them. There's a small ledge about fifty feet down from the top about a mile East of this position."
"That's about where they were chased," David said enthusiastic about it.
"The ledge is too small for a skybax to land on so we've sent for some ropers to climb down and check it out. It appears some rocks have been moved to reveal a passageway into the cliff."
"Good," David said smiling with hope that the two might be all right. The rider cleared her throat.
"Some pilots have also said that a red substance has been seen on the ledge. It might be blood…" she told him and his smile disappeared.
"How long until those ropers get here?" he asked her seriously.
"Their ETA is one hour."
"Let's hope they find them…" David said and looked out at the clouds again.
Karl and Amelia walked through the vegetation on the outer rim of the cave until they came to a stone bridge which crossed the stream made by the waterfall. Karl crossed first to test its safety and Amelia followed him.
"This looks like corn…" Amelia said as they walked through more plants. They reached the closest house to them and carefully opened the old wooden door. Inside was a wooden bed frame with an old mattress made of some durable grass, a stone table, a few wooden chairs, and a giant wooden bowl set in a stone basin. The next house was exactly the same only moved around. Karl walked over and sat down on the grass mattress. Amelia ran her hand across the back of a wooden chair.
"This is incredible," Amelia said.
"The legends did say people used to live in the World Beneath…" Karl pointed out.
"Yes but this, this is…" she said.
"Incredible?" he finished for her and she nodded smiling. Her smile faded as she turned to him.
"Karl. Aren't all of the ways to the World Beneath guarded by carnivores?" she asked. He returned her worried glance.
"But we hav-" he said but was interrupted but the head of a dinosaur came through the door of the house roaring and biting with its giant jaws.