Chapter 6: The Cave of Bad Dreams

Bzzit dropped Rayman off, back at the Marshlands. Then Rayman went back over to the path that led to the giant hollow oak tree. Since he now knew the name of the cave-like room inside the tree, he could be granted access into it.
He approached the creepy cave guardian, the round one-eyed monster with the white skull sceptre, who looked like an evil look-alike of Polokus, and guarded the cave where Polokus had hidden away all his nightmares.
The Cave Guardian spoke: "I can read your mind. You know the name of this cave...but I'm still reluctant to let you enter my cave because you called me "stupid and ugly" last time..."
"Oh, c'mon, you have to let everyone in who knows the password," protested Rayman.
"But I don't like you!" roared the Cave Guardian. As he yelled, his mouth opened really wide, and Rayman could see his dirty green teeth. Also, the ground shook.
"Well, I won't like you either, if you don't let me enter the cave already!" said Rayman. "And...I'm sorry for calling you stupid and ugly last time..." --though really, he still thought the Cave Guardian was ugly.

The Cave Guardian sighed. Rayman knew the password to the caves, and so the Cave Guardian had to allow him in. He spoke: "All right. I guess you are now ready to enter the Cave of Bad Dreams. But, before you come in, I must tell you something..."
"Oh?"
"I have hidden a precious treasure inside...you may keep it for yourself if you beat me to it. I'll give you a head start, but don't waste any time, because if I catch you, I'll show you no mercy..."
He then began to wave his magic sceptre around, to teleport Rayman to the inside of the Cave of Bad Dreams. Rayman stared at the sceptre which had a skull face on the end of it. The eyes of the skull started glowing a bright evil red colour... Rayman was slightly scared... Then Rayman got teleported...

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*if possible, download the Cave of Bad Dreams music from another website and play it while reading this*
...into a strange, new room with dark purple cave walls. Rayman was standing on a bridge that was made out of a long, white skeleton bone. Thick, purple smoke was floating through the cave, and white, ghostly figures kept rising from the purple slime below..... It was a very dark, creepy, cold atmosphere.
Rayman proceeded down the bone bridge, still feeling extremely frightened. His bravery was disappearing. Slowly, he put one foot in front of the other, and he walked to the end of the bone bridge. He knew that a lot of creepy things would happen on his way through the rest of the cave. He shivered with great fear.
"The treasure he said was hidden at the end of this cave," Rayman thought, "that must be the elixir that Clark needs!"
He walked all the way to the end of the bone bridge and looked down. Floating around in the purple, slimy water below was a platform, shaped like a skull. Rayman glided onto it, landed on it, and stood on top of it. Then three more platforms, also skull-shaped, rose from the water in front of him. He hopped across them, using them as stepping stones to get across part of the slimy water. They felt hard and bony, and cracked a bit as he stepped on them.
While standing on the fourth skull-shaped platform, Rayman could see a ladder on the wall on the right, made of bones. He jumped off the skull platform he was standing on, grabbed onto the bone ladder, and climbed up it. He climbed to the left, and at the end of the ladder, he glided down to an area where there were two more skull-shaped stepping stones floating in the purple slime. He hopped across them, too.
The rest of the path through the cave was an arduous gauntlet--very long, spooky, and treacherous. There were many more platforms, bones, and some hands that popped out from holes in the walls and tried to grab Rayman! If only there was an easier way for Rayman to get an elixir... He really hated this horrible place... The purple smoke filling the cave made it slightly difficult for Rayman to see where he was going...and Rayman was shivering with cold too. Could it get any creepier?...
Eventually, he entered another room of the cave, where he was standing on a high ledge overlooking a large room full of slimy, purple water. There was some ground down below, on the other side. Rayman glided down to there. There was a golden Magic Base lying on the cave ground here- -but no golden sphere to go on it! And he couldn't even see a door that it might open! So here Rayman was--stuck in a room with a magic base but no magic sphere in sight. What could he do?
Then, suddenly, the whole cave started shaking. Rayman felt the vibrations underneath his feet. It was an earthquake!!!!! Several stallactites started to fall from the ceiling at a high velocity. Rayman almost got hit on the head by a falling stallactite! He dodged them. Rayman was stuck on a small area of ground surrounded by purple slimy water, and there wasn't a lot of room to run around, so it was fairly difficult to dodge them. The stallactites kept on falling for at least a whole minute...and then they stopped.
"Phew," said Rayman.
However, some ghostly chickens then raised from the ground! They all swarmed towards Rayman, who hated ghostly chickens! With his mighty fist, he cast a bunch of silver energy balls in their direction, which hit them. He got rid of them as quickly as possible. Then, a pair of small round one- eyed creatures then popped out of the cold ground. They looked like miniature versions of the one-eyed Cave Guardian! They had branch arms, but no top hats. They also had very huge mouths--and they started spitting bright, orange fireballs! Rayman quickly shot some balls of energy from his fist at these small pests, seeing if this would defeat them. Luckily, it did. The small monsters fell back and disappeared--but then, more of them emerged from underground! They hopped towards Rayman, and they spat fireballs at Rayman again.
"How long will this go on?" wondered Rayman, as he shot more of these creatures.
When he defeated the last one, it disappeared...but then, suddenly, another, much huger one-eyed monster emerged. This one had a big red eye, was dark brown in colour, and did not have a top hat either.
"Oh, no, not ANOTHER one!" frowned Rayman.
"Grr...my name is Adam," it spoke.
"Well, Adam, you ain't gonna defeat me!" said Rayman. He shot a silver ball of energy at the monster named Adam. Then Rayman kept on firing several more balls of energy at him, to knock him into the purple slime below. Before Adam fell into the purple slime, he dropped a golden Magic Sphere!
"Wow!" yelled Rayman! His yelling echoed loudly through the cold, nearly-empty cave. He quickly placed the sphere on top of the small, triangular-shaped golden base. Then, suddenly, the magic base started magically rising up, out of the ground... revealing a tiny, round hole that was underneath the base. The Magic Base floated in mid-air, allowing Rayman to go down through the hole, which the base had previously been blocking.
When Rayman dropped down through this tiny hole, he landed in a huge, round room. There were a whole bunch of flying eels that were made up of black, fuzzy segments. They flew closer to him, threatening to eliminate him. Quickly, Rayman shot silver energy balls at them, causing them to collapse. Then, at the far end of this room, Rayman saw a closed doorway, which was shaped like the Cave Guardian's mouth, and on the ground in front of it, there were two more magic bases, one purple and one blue. Rayman figured that he would have to locate two similar-coloured magic spheres, probably in other rooms of the cave, and bring them here.
Off to the left, there was another hallway, which Rayman walked through. The hallway split into two separate corridors. Rayman took the one on the left. It led to a room where there was a blue Magic Sphere. Rayman picked it up, carried it back to the room with the Magic Bases, and placed it on top of a base. Then he ran back through the hallway where it split into two corridors, but this time he took the one on the right. This probably led to the purple Magic Sphere!
But first, he had to navigate a tunnel full of purple slime. At the beginning of this slime tunnel, there was a dead hand sticking out of the slime, and it was holding a skull-shaped platform, which Rayman hopped onto and stood on. Then, while Rayman was standing on it, the hand suddenly began to rise up higher! When it rose, this allowed Rayman could reach a high-up ledge nearby. From this ledge, he saw a long row of purple flying targets floating in front of him, above the slime up ahead. Rayman shot at the first one, grabbed onto the rope that appeared, and swung from it, and from there, grabbed onto another flying target, then the next one... Beyond the last flying target, there were two walls that kept opening and closing. When Rayman swung from the last flying target and jumped off to ground on the other side, he timed it so that he landed on the other side when the two walls were open. When he landed on the path on the other side, he turned a sharp right corner. From here, the rest of the tunnel was a repetitive gauntlet of more skull-shaped platforms that were floating in the slime, more small ledges that were sticking out of the slime, and even more flying eels, then one more dead hand holding a skull-shaped platform, which Rayman hopped onto. It rose up higher, while Rayman was still standing on it, and from here, he could reach one more ledge, and on here, there was...
...the purple Magic Sphere!
"I made it!" yelled Rayman. Oops. He yelled so loudly that it caused the cave to shake, and some stallactites fell from the ceiling.
"Owch!" yelled Rayman as one of them landed on his head.
Apparently, this slime tunnel had led around in a circle, and the ledge that Rayman was now standing on was high-up above the doorway that he had gone through to enter this room! He tossed the purple Magic Sphere down to where that doorway was below, then glided down, picked it up again, and carried the sphere back to the room with the two bases. He placed the purple sphere on top of the second base.
...now, both bases were on top of both spheres. But the door STILL wouldn't open! Why not?
Then Rayman realized, "Oops, I put the purple sphere on the blue base, and the blue sphere on the purple base!" He blushed in embarrassment. He took the spheres off the bases, and placed them back on the correct coloured bases. And he watched as the door slowly opened. A lot of green smoke came billowing out of the doorway, and when the smoke cleared, Rayman walked through the doorway...