CHAPTER 10:

THE ANCIENT CITY

Everyone heaved at the rocks that blocked the adventurers' only way out, until they finally realized that it was no use. The boulders were too large, and there were too many of them.

"Well, that's it," Justin said, panting from exhaustion. "Unless one of us just happens to be carrying some TNT with them, it'll take us a month to clear away these boulders. And I don't think we can live that long in here!"

"Well, this can't be the only way out, can it?" Feena wondered. "There just has to be another way to the surface, if we look."

"She does have a point. Okay, everyone! I say we split up and look for another exit. If you find one, just holler, and the rest of us will come. Any other ideas?"

There was silence from the others, so they all split up, just as Justin said.

Justin went with Feena and headed down one chamber. Unfortunately, it led to a dead end.

"Come on," Justin said to her, frustrated. "Let's go back."

All of a sudden, they heard Sue shout out. "Guys! Come here, quick!!"

They all ran to where Sue's shouts were coming from.

"Sue! You found a way out?"

"Well, not exactly. Look." She pointed to the cave wall. Two strange carvings were crudely chiseled in the rock. The first one looked like a circle with light pouring from it. The other one was that of a winged woman with four arms, an Icarian. Her wings were on fire.

"What do they mean?" Justin asked.

"I know," Mullen spoke up, moving closer. "The carving of the circle means that an exit is up ahead."

"Really? That's great!"

"Not so fast, Justin! The carving of the burning Icarian means that there's a curse upon where the exit leads."

"A...curse?"

"Mullen, you don't really believe in curses, do you?" asked Feena, sarcastically. "Icarians have probably lived here thousands of years ago, and put those carvings there to keep intruders at bay."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Justin said.

So, they headed down the chamber and, sure enough, came to an exit out of the cave. But, when they went through the exit, an amazing sight laid before them...an ancient city, completely in ruins. Justin's eyes opened wide at the sights all around him. To him, ancient city ruins only met one thing...adventure. They headed into the ruins. Large buildings, untouched for thousands of years, towered up all around them.

"I don't think these ruins are Angelounian," Leen spoke up. "They seem different."

Justin sort of knew what she meant. Angelounian ruins were usually fascinating and beautiful. These ruins, however, made him feel uneasy, like someone, or something, was watching them from behind. Justin turned to look over his shoulder. He saw nothing. Maybe I'm just imagining things, he thought to himself. But, then he thought he heard something, and looked behind him again. This time, he did see something. But, it was moving to fast for him to get a good look, and quickly disappeared behind a building.

"Justin, what's wrong?" Feena asked.

"I...thought I saw something," he answered, still looking behind him.

"What was it?"

"I don't know. It was moving too fast."

Then, he heard it. It sounded like purring, like a kitten does while being scratched behind the ear, except that it was much deeper in sound than a kitten's purrs. The sound was coming from above him. He looked up, and saw a creature looking down at them from the roof of a building. The creature was truly frightening in appearance. It had a body like that of a lion, stocky and powerful. Its face was like a human's, except for the mouth, which had enormous jaws that spanned from ear to ear and three rows of razor-sharp teeth that looked capable of biting a man's head off. But the weirdest, and most frightening feature was the tail, which the creature held over its head like a scorpion. The end of this tail was spiked with poisonous darts. The creature purred and smiled nastily as it stared down at them, licking its lips hungrily like a tiger does when it sees a deer in front of it.

"Hey, guys," Justin called to the others, looking up at the creature. "I don't think we're alone!"

"What's that?" Leen replied.

The creature backed up out of sight.

"Uh, nothing."

Then, he saw the creature again. It was lying still in the tall grass in front of them. Only Justin could see it, as it watched Leen unknowingly approach its hiding place. The beast tensed its muscles, preparing to pounce.

"Leen! Look out!!" Justin screamed, running up to her.

Leen turned and saw the creature attempting to bring her down. However, it was too late for her to react. The creature leaped at her, with a force that could crush her spine. Fortunately, Justin pushed her out of the way just as the beast was about to come down upon her. Everyone looked at the beast. Mullen readied his sword, but the creature knocked him to the ground with its paw. He looked up and saw the huge jaws of the creature lunging towards his throat. Leen pulled him to his feet just in time.

"Quick! In here!!" Feena shouted, pointing to the entrance of a nearby temple. Everyone ran in and Feena began to pull the huge door shut over the entrance. But then, the creature rushed in and its head was trapped in the door as Feena was sealing the opening. As it snapped its jaws, she pushed it back out with her foot, and shut the door.

"What in Hell was that thing?!" Rapp exclaimed, panting.

"A manticore," Feena answered. "Until now, I've never seen one before. I've always been told that they've only existed in fairy tales."

Justin sighed in relief, and leaned back against the wall. This wall, however, was actually a trapdoor, which opened behind him! As he screamed, he tumbled down a long slide that lead into blackness. The trapdoor closed back up behind him. He kept sliding down for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he hit the stone, cold floor. All that could be seen in every direction was blackness. A musty odor invaded his nostrils. He slowly stood up and tried to walk forwards, keeping his hands on the walls. He stepped on something soft.

"Ow!! Get off me!!" the soft thing screamed. It pushed him off of itself, knocking him to the ground.

Justin formed a fireball in his hand to see what the soft thing was. To his surprise, he had stepped on Saki. Not only her, but also Nana and Mio fell through the trapdoor with him.

"What's with you stomping all over me like that?!" she screamed angrily at him.

"Well, you didn't have to throw me onto my ass," Justin replied irritably.

"Don't you start telling me what to do!!" She looked around the room. "Where are we?"

"According to my calculations, we're in a burial chamber," Mio said, matter- of-factly.

"And how do you know?" Nana asked.

"Because we're surrounded by dead bodies!" she answered in fright.

She was right. In the walls all around them, bodies were lying on shelves. The bodies were fully clothed. Although they had been dead for thousands of years, the skin was still on the bodies. This skin, however, was peeling off on some of the bodies' faces, revealing their bony skulls.

"Catacomb mummies," Justin muttered to himself, noticing the clothing and slight preservation of the corpses.

Suddenly, Nana and Saki seemed to come to some realization.

"We...we're trapped!" Nana squealed.

"We're all gonna die down here!" Saki moaned.

"Girls, don't say that!" Mio told them.

"But, it's true! This burial chamber is expecting four more customers!" Nana screamed.

"We're all going to run out of air and die down here! Then, the rats will eat our bodies!!" Saki yelled.

Both turned to Justin. "It's your fault!!" Saki exclaimed.

"You're the one who opened that trapdoor!" Nana screamed at him.

"Hey, it's not my fault you three just happened to fall in with me!" Justin yelled angrily.

"I'm gonna kill you!!" Saki shouted.

"I'll help!!" Nana added.

They both leaped at him and locked their hands around his neck, shaking him back and forth.

"You know, that kinda hurts!!" Justin shouted.

"Uh, guys," Mio spoke up.

"That's the idea!!" Nana shouted at Justin, taking no notice of Mio.

"Hey, guys!" Mio repeated.

"I'm gonna ring your scrawny little neck!!" Saki exclaimed.

"Guys!!" Mio said louder.

"Quit it, you two!! I can't breathe!!" Justin yelled, gagging.

"SHUT UP AND TURN AROUND, WILL YOU?!!!" Mio screamed at the top of her lungs.

Nana and Saki let go of Justin, and they all looked behind them. The manticore was standing right behind them the whole time! Obviously, it knew its way around these ruins a lot better than they did.

TO BE CONTINUED