Welcome to Chapter 8 of Temple of the Fox! This is where things really start to go down, and it was a very enjoyable chapter to write, especially the second half of it. You'll see why when we get to it.

There is a reference to Big Mouth hidden in this chapter somewhere. If you can find it, I'll give you a gyro. Although there are no more gyros now...okay, put your pitchforks down.

This is the longest chapter so far, and I hope y'all enjoy it (even though I'm a Northerner, I can still say that).

BRADLEY CLARION

The big day had arrived.

To me, today was more important than the day before yesterday, when we'd left civilization and begun rumbling through the jungle. It was even more important than the day not long ago when my father and I had made the decision for me to come.

Was it really only a few weeks ago? It feels like a lifetime ago.

Even though it had only been two days since we had departed the city of Atticus and begun journeying inland, I felt as though I had lived an entire lifetime in the Alolan rainforest. So much had changed during that time.

As I heard the Chelan twins calling for us to get out of our tents and head over to get breakfast, I took a glance at my left arm.

The good news was, it didn't hurt to touch it anymore. It didn't feel hot, or even warm, in the least. However, it was clearly still infected, and the antibiotics I'd been taking since yesterday had not seemed to have much of an effect.

I feel so much better, though.

Even though I couldn't remember having ever taken antibiotics during my childhood or teenage years up to this point, I'd read that you should always finish the full course of medication, even once you start to feel better. Perhaps this was the reason for the infection still being in my arm.

"All right, guys! Who wants some grits?" Matt exclaimed from outside the tent.

I looked over at my father, who didn't seem particularly excited at the prospect of having such a boring food for breakfast. However, he clearly wasn't going to complain; he was presumably too happy for that.

If all went according to plan, we were going to arrive at the Temple of the Fox today, and I could hardly have been more excited for it. And, judging by the way my father acted around me, he was excited as well.

"Bradley…" he said to me as I was unzipping the tent flap so that I could climb out.

I turned to face my dad. "Yes?" I asked him.

"I just want to tell you how proud I am of you. I know I'm a bit of a broken record here, but it's pretty amazing that you've had such bravery on this trip. Not everyone can handle a trek through the jungle, especially with a fever".

As he was saying those words, I felt my face flush. Not from embarrassment; what he was telling me was nothing to be embarrassed about. It was more from a sense of pride; I could take a certain degree of comfort in the fact that my father was proud of me.

"Thanks, Dad," I replied, looking at him and putting on a smile. The latter part wasn't hard, since I was in a good mood today in general.

"No problem, buddy. And the other day, when you saved that Alolan Vulpix in the middle of the jungle...I know that you got chastised for it, but that made me even more proud of you. You were willing to risk it all for a Pokemon you had only just met".

"Yeah, that's how I got this" I responded, brandishing my left arm to show that it was still infected.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. If you hadn't gone to save Jacob, you wouldn't have gotten the fever from your wound".

I laughed; I couldn't help myself. Now that I no longer felt feverish, it seemed so much funnier when he said it.

"It wasn't directly because I helped Jacob that I got the wound. It was because I accidentally disturbed a Rowlet nest...that's something you don't want to do. Not unless you wish to pay the ultimate price".

My father was evidently about to respond, but any words that were about to come out of his mouth were interrupted by the clanging of a stick against what sounded like a cowbell.

"Last call for breakfast!"

I climbed out of the tent and into the line for grits. Even though I was wearing nothing but flannel pajamas, I didn't care about being seen as too informal or childish. I was too excited to see the temple to even care about it.

As I stood in line, I saw that the other men were already up. Once again, we were the lazy ones, a realization that brought me a small amount of embarrassment.

Oh well, By the time we get to the temple, it'll all be forgotten. I'm going to help them with taking down camp more than I did yesterday.

Holding out my bowl once I reached the front of the line, I received a large scoop of grits. Even though I no longer felt sick in general, the sight of the grits wasn't particularly appetizing. But today was a big day, and I needed food to sustain myself, so down the hatch it went.

While I ate, I thought about the dream I'd had last night. I tried to puzzle through as many possibilities as I could, because, simply put, I had nothing else to do. Everyone else was either engrossed in a conversation with another expedition member, or else they were giving off strong social cues that they didn't want to talk at all.

I could hardly believe that Arceus had sent me a vision, if that is indeed what it was. I'd never considered myself important enough to actually get an audience with the Creator, particularly since I hadn't asked for it.

Then again...how do I ask for it?

I shook my head. I could worry about that later. In any case, Arceus had told me that I would soon have to make a difficult decision, and that I shouldn't panic when I did so.

There's only one reason why he would tell me not to panic. He sees reason to believe that I WILL panic.

There are, in my experience, two types of fear. One is fear of the known, when you are confronted by an immediate, very specific threat. The other is fear of the unknown, which is when you're not sure exactly what the threat is going to be, but you have a vague worry that something's going to go wrong.

As you can probably guess, my current fear was of the second type. I figured that it would be the first type when I arrived at the decision, but I tried not to worry about that right now.

Arceus had also said one more thing to me before I'd woken up, and it had made little sense. Did all deities speak in such confusing terms?

It is vitally important that you stop Matamoros, the Conqueror.

At this point, my head was starting to spin. Not in a dizzy way, mind you, but more in a "my brain's about to explode from thinking too hard" way.

I finished my grits and put my bowl and fork back in my duffel bag. It was easy to forget that after exploring the temple, we'd still have to head back on the same trail, and therefore we'd still need our supplies for a few more days.

It would still be a few more days before I could sleep in a real bed. Before I could take another shower. Before I could use the Internet again. That last one is just as much of a necessity of life as the other two.

As soon as he had finished his conversation with Ken Weldworth, and I had finished taking my morning dose of antibiotics, Chris Ruby turned to me. He was visibly smiling.

"Are you looking forward to seeing the temple, Bradley?" he asked me, scratching his dark brown beard as he looked at me.

I nodded. "It's pretty exciting. I just really hope that…".

Chris gave me a funny look, and I had to resist the urge to slap a hand in front of my mouth. I don't want to tell him about Braixen's Curse. I really don't.

I might have trusted my father with that information, but I'd known him for eighteen years. By contrast, I had only met Chris three days ago.

Has it really only been three days?, I wondered for the umpteenth time.

Despite being one of the last people to receive my serving of grits, I was the first one done, owing to the fact that I'm a pretty fast eater. While I waited for everyone else to finish, I went back into the tent and picked out my clothes for the day.

I selected a pair of black sweatpants and a gray Lucario T-shirt. Since Lucario was one of my favorite Pokemon due to looking so badass, I felt that it was fitting for visiting an ancient temple in the middle of the jungle.

After quickly donning these clothes, I opened the tent so that my father could get in and collect his duffel bag.

"All right, buddy. This is it, we're heading to the temple today. Hard to believe, isn't it?"

It was hard to believe. After all those years of anticipation, all those years of watching my father go off on cool adventures and hoping against hope that I'd one day be able to accompany him on such an adventure, it was finally happening.

Bring it on.

We broke camp in record time. I like to think that I was a big help here; due to feeling a hell of a lot better than yesterday, I was able to do a lot more in this regard.

Of course, this wasn't the only factor. I was clearly not the only person on Expedition 33B who was anxious to see the Temple of the Fox. The other men were also working at a feverish pace so that we could get moving as quickly as possible.

When we had packed everything up, we wasted no time in departing the campsite. By now the sun had risen, and it was now fully visible over the horizon. By the time it set once more, I hoped that I would have experienced something that very few people ever experience.

It was about forty-five minutes into the day's trekking that I began to feel slightly nauseous. I tried to burp, because that often makes me feel better than I feel sick to my stomach, but that didn't help.

Oh no, here we go again. Was it the fever, coming back to bite me in the ass? Or, more accurately, the arm?

It didn't quite feel the same as the fever had, but I was still pretty worried about what it meant. The last thing I wanted was to get sick again before I even got the chance to see the temple.

About fifteen seconds later, I doubled over. I was hit in the chest with a sudden pounding sensation, as though someone were hitting it with a small hammer.

"Bradley!" I heard my father shout, but the pain was pretty bad, to the point that I could hardly hear him. He threw his bag down and ran over to me.

"I'm fine, Dad. I really am" I insisted, but he wasn't having any of it.

"What's wrong, buddy? We're here to help".

I shook my head. "Really, Dad, it's nothing. Just a dizzy spell, that's all". I probably shouldn't have used the words "dizzy spell", because that got the others worried again.

"You should probably drink more," Matt told me. He was at the front of the line today, and he turned to face the rest of us. "In fact, now's a good time for a water break, I should think. A standing water break; no sitting down for this".

I reached into my duffel bag and pulled out my canteen. After two days, this task still felt awkward, but it was getting easier the more practice I had with it. I suspected that it was this way for just about all trekking skills.

However, I wasn't thirsty; I'd taken a few sips of water that morning after breakfast, right before we'd left on the trail. We were about to come across the Phoenix River one more time, fill out water bottles, and make our way uphill to the temple. That's what the Chelan twins had told us.

More to the point, I knew the type of dizzy spells that came with dehydration. This didn't feel like those; rather, it was one of pain.

The way I'd doubled over when the pounding sensation had hit...could it be…

I tried to block that out of my head. Don't even think about putting that into the air, Bradley Clarion. Even so, it wasn't easy to get it out of my mind.

Once we had continued, I found that the pain subsided for a while, but then came back every fifteen minutes or so for about fifteen seconds. The pain became more of a sharp one, the kind normally associated with a heart attack.

Ow! I'm not having a heart attack, am I? I'm only 18, for crying out loud!

The third time this happened, I audibly groaned in agony, and I saw Chris rush to my side. He looked very concerned and not at all like he thought I was faking it. (That was a worry I had, that the guides might perceive my chest pains as me trying to force the group to take another water break).

"Are you sure you're okay, Bradley?" Chris asked me. "You keep doubling over in pain, just want to make sure you're alright".

"For the last time, I'm fine. You guys can stop worrying about me now".

I was hoping that they would stop pestering me about this. I was hoping that they would realize that we had more pressing matters to attend to, like making sure we reached the temple with plenty of daylight left to explore it.

Unfortunately, I was not so lucky as to have this actually happen.

Instead, Mike came running over from the back of the line. At this point, the "line" was more of a clump, because it was getting very disorderly indeed. We weren't even close to single-file.

"What's going on? Are you feeling feverish again, Bradley?"

I shook my head. "It's not that...just chest pain. Not too bad".

The last three words were a lie; every time the pounding sensation returned in my chest, the pain was more intense than it had been the previous time. It wasn't going to get better; it would just get worse.

And then, almost as quickly as it had started, it went away, and I felt normal again.

Mike scratched his chin. "I guess it could be just a side stitch. Keep an eye on it, will you?"

I nodded. "You can always count on me to do that".

After that, the pain kept returning every fifteen minutes or so, each time somewhat worse than before. However, I was getting better at hiding it than I had been before, so I was able to avoid groaning or otherwise making the other men aware of the pain.

We reached the Phoenix River, by which time I had started feeling thirsty again. As I scooped water out of the river into my canteen, I was acutely aware of just how unpleasant the next thirty minutes would be. And it was even worse than that, because we were out of iodine and so I had to use bleach.

Still, though, I kept reminding myself that it could be worse. At least I no longer seemed to have a fever; that would have made things even more miserable.

Once we had filled up our water bottles, the trail went on for another couple hours. We stopped for lunch at one point, more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I'm getting sick of PB & J and grits, I remember thinking to myself. Is that the only food they have here?

I sincerely hoped that the guides would provide more varied fare on the trip back from the temple. Little did I know, I wouldn't be on it.

After lunch, we walked for two or three more hours up a steep incline. The best thing you could say about these hours was that the ground wasn't muddy; we were out of the Mud Flats until we had to cross through them again.

At a few points, I did slip, but I was able to grab nearby trees in order to stop myself from falling all the way down. While I did feel significantly stronger than I had yesterday, I by no means felt strong enough to climb back up with the duffel bag on my back.

It was hell, climbing upwards at such a steep angle during the hottest part of the day. If it were even possible, it felt even hotter than either of the last two days on the trail. Of course, part of that had to be due to the very high humidity.

By the time we reached a clearing at what I was convinced must be the top of the mountain, I was sweating so hard that my shirt, normally gray with a blue Lucario on it, was now almost black.

In addition, I was very short of breath and my legs felt like jelly. Even so, I felt jubilant as I saw it in front of me.

The Temple of the Fox.

If I tried to describe it to you in one word, or even in a couple of words, I would not have been able to do it justice. For what it was, it was pretty freaking amazing.

I'd been picturing a pyramid, or else a building rather the size of a small-town church. I had not been expecting a golden-brown stone complex the size of a small village.

I mean, the temple was at least a quarter of a mile long, stretching downhill for quite the distance. It was quite an impressive feat of engineering to build such a complex on the side of a mountain, and even more impressive when one considered that whoever built it had only primitive technology to do so.

"Wow" my father said.

Matt turned to my father, looking mock-angry. "You're telling me that when you're at the Temple of the Fox, one of the most incredible archaeological marvels from Ancient Alolan history, and all you can say is Wow? Brendan Clarion, you're in for quite a treat".

At the end of his last sentence, Matt smiled again, so I could tell that he wasn't really mad at my dad.

The complex was surrounded by six-foot walls on all sides that I could barely see over. It looked as though there were many smaller "buildings" within the Temple of the Fox, all of them hidden behind a wooden gate.

"That gate looks pretty sturdy" I said. "Pretty amazing that it's survived for thousands of years".

It was true; there was no sign of the wood rotting or anything like that. Much like the rest of the temple that we could see, there was no evidence of decay. It looked pretty good for its age.

Matt nodded. "Yeah, it's been preserved through the millennia. Fortunately, the gate is not locked; we can gain entry, and I think it's safe to leave our bags behind while we explore it; just bring your water bottles with you".

I did as I was told, digging into my duffel bag and pulling out my canteen. Taking a sip, I removed the shoulder straps at the same time as I was doing so. It was then that I heard a sound behind me.

Is that a wild Pansage?, I wondered. I'd never seen one in person, but I'd seen videos of them, and I knew what their calls sounded like.

Turning around, I found the source of the sound. Sure enough, it was a wild Pansage, looking like a son of the Simisage who was leading it through the treetops.

Even though the monkey Pokemon weren't predators, at least not against us, I still felt more than a little uneasy when I saw them. Perhaps it was just because I was shocked to see wildlife; we'd come across surprisingly few wild Pokemon during our expedition.

Wow, this is pretty incredible. I just saw a bunch of wild monkey Pokemon, and now we're going to enter the Temple of the Fox. Am I lucky or what?

Matt gently pushed the gate open; it did make a creaking noise, but that was the only sign of its highly advanced age. In a single-file line, with me right behind the leader, we entered the complex.

"Oh my God, this is pretty amazing!" I exclaimed, trying to take everything in.

As soon as we'd entered the complex, we were in what looked to be a town square. It might not have been located in the most geographically convenient place, since it was at the edge of the town rather than in the middle, but it was still quite a sight to behold.

Several smaller buildings were arranged around the square, all in the same golden brown stone that the town walls were made of. That wasn't the most impressive part of it, though.

The most compelling structure in the square was, to me, the fountain in the middle of it. There was no water inside (which made sense if it was really thousands of years old), but it was unmistakably a fountain.

This fountain had a radius of ten feet or so, and at the center of the fountain was a statue of a Delphox, standing a good ten feet above the bottom of the fountain. On top of the Delphox's head was a Magikarp with its mouth open. I figured that, in ancient times, this Magikarp had spewed water into the fountain, but now it was bone dry.

Even though I was in awe at the sheer scale of this place, as well as how it had managed to endure through the millennia, I was still aware of what the tour guides were saying.

I saw Mike look at his watch. "You guys have two hours to explore the ancient village. We will wait here at the entrance, and if you're not back by then, we will leave without you".

I sincerely hoped that this was an empty threat; I had no expectations that I'd be able to experience all that the complex had to offer within just two hours. At the same time, I understood that there were only so many hours in a day.

"Time starts now".

The first thing I did was to head along the nearest alleyway. As far as I could tell, the Temple of the Fox was a maze of alleys, streets, and small squares, but so long as I stayed oriented and aware of which direction I had come from, I should be able to make it back with no problems.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long to become disoriented. That's what happens when so many of the buildings look similar to one another, and the walls are all the same color. What this means is that there aren't any landmarks to pay attention to.

This became clear as soon as I entered a thirty-yard square and wasn't sure if I had been there before or not. It looked almost the same as any other square in the town.

There was, however, a distinctive building facing to the north...at least, I was pretty sure it was the north. As I looked at it, the sun was to my left, which, since it was afternoon, would be towards the west.

At any rate, this building looked like some sort of chapel or other house of worship. I was curious to see what this place might hold, so I entered.

Perhaps it was against my own better judgment to do so; perhaps my goal should have been to simply find the entrance to the ancient village once more, where everyone else was waiting. But I was sure that it hadn't been even close to an hour, let alone two, since we'd been set free to explore the ruins.

Not ruins. The word "ruins" implies that they're ruined, which this place clearly isn't.

Before we had broken camp that morning, Matt and Mike had given each of us a mechanical pencil and a notebook, on which we were supposed to write our thoughts about the Temple of the Fox and anything related to it.

I sat against the wall of the building I now found myself in. After surveying my surroundings, I saw that Dr. Saint Lawrence had entered as well.

At least I'm not alone here, I thought to myself. I didn't want to disturb the doctor from whatever he was writing; that's another thing the Chelan twins had told us not to do while in the temle.

The building was probably the size of my living room back at home in Sinnoh. There was even a fireplace there, next to what appeared to be an altar.

There were no religious artifacts there, so, while I had a very strong feeling this was a house of worship back in the day, I had no proof of this.

On second thought...maybe that IS proof.

I looked at the wall and saw that there were several oil paintings lining them. They were made in a very similar style to the paintings in the lobby of the IRAA headquarters, only a little less colorful and a lot less fancy.

Even so, there was no mistaking one of those paintings.

Braixen's Curse. It's Braixen's Curse! What is it with me and Braixen's Curse?

Seeing those yellow ears...and that man looked a lot like me, too. He was probably anywhere between 17 and 20 years old, and about my height and weight.

I shook my head. A lot of people look like me. This painting really doesn't mean anything, not unless you want it to mean something.

After a minute of trying to steady my breathing and not have a panic attack, I turned my attention back to my notebook. I wrote the following words:

July 9

Bradley Marcus Clarion

Here I am at the Temple of the Fox. It's really quite incredible being here; never thought I'd ever get to go on an expedition with my father and his friends!

Anyway...the temple. It's the size of a small village! How the hell did they build it this big back then; isn't it a bit overkill for just a temple?

The fountain is really incredible...and I trailed off after that, trying to think of more to write.

I realized pretty quickly that my writing didn't sound academic at all. It probably stood no chance of ever being featured at the museum my father worked at, let alone in the Saffron Museum down in Kanto, the largest museum in the world.

No...who am I kidding? I'm basically just a nobody in terms of archaeologists. I'm just an ordinary guy with an extraordinary dad.

Over the last few days, I'd been pushed to the limit. Little did I know, the events that would transpire after today would make this trek look like a cakewalk by comparison.

I leaned against the temple wall, satisfied with myself. And then I did the worst possible thing.

I was only vaguely aware that Dr. Saint Lawrence had left the chapel before I fell asleep while sitting against the wall.

My bach began to ache from being pressed against the wall, and the ache woke me up. That, and the bright rays of the sinking sun shining right into my face.

Wait...sinking sun?

It took only a few seconds until I was wide awake. I realized exactly what had happened.

It's been AT LEAST two hours. Hopefully they waited for me!

I leaped to my feet and began running, out of the chapel and through the ancient village. Twice I tripped over tree roots that were embedded in the stone, but I didn't let that deter me.

It wasn't long before I became hopelessly lost. All the squares of the village looked the same to me. Besides, when you're as panicked as I was in that moment, it's really hard to have any sense of direction.

As I was sprinting through the village as quickly as I could, the sun finished setting behind the walls. It was getting dark, and that only increased my panic level.

Eventually, when I became too tired to continue running, I collapsed into a sitting position on the steps of another small chapel. It might have been the same one that I'd fallen asleep in; I couldn't even tell you, since so many of the squares and buildings looked alike.

I didn't even have the strength to stand up. Not without divine intervention, and that didn't seem to be forthcoming. It was then that I came to a horrifying realization.

I was going to die here. Alone, with nobody even knowing it. And then my corpse would be feasted on by Mandibuzz and other vulture-like Pokemon.

Arceus had told me, just last night, that I would soon have to make a difficult decision. The way it was going, though, it looked like I wouldn't even get to make that decision.

Life is a fucked-up mess.

I sat against the wall and closed my eyes, falling asleep almost immediately. I didn't even have the strength to cry. Perhaps this would be it, my final resting place in the Temple of the Fox.

And then I was nudged awake by something that felt very soft. It felt like a dog petting me instead of the other way around.

I opened my eyes to find that it was a fluffy white Alolan Vulpix. He was looking at me, smiling. His eyes had the unmistakable air of recognition within them.

This could only be one Alolan Vulpix; after all, I'd only seen one in my life, and would never see another, not if I died here.

"Jacob!" I shouted. "You're okay!"

The cute fox-like Pokemon laughed, a sound warm enough to melt glaciers. It was a sound as clear as a bell; there was no way you could hear it and not instantly be reassured.

"Of course" Jacob told me. "I'm here to help".

"I don't understand...how did you get up here?" That was all I could think to say.

"Just follow me, and I'll explain" the Vulpix replied.

I didn't think that I could summon the energy to get up, but somehow I did. By now the sun had gone down fully, and the stars were starting to come out. There were so many of them; entire constellations were visible, not that I knew all their names. My father might have, but it was unlikely that I'd ever see him again.

"What's going on?" I asked Jacob as he led me through the village; there was a clear downhill gradient, and the Vulpix wasn't moving very quickly, so I had little trouble keeping up with him.

Jacob shook his head; clearly, he didn't think right now was the best time to explain. Or perhaps he wanted me to save all my breath for walking.

He led me to the lowest edge of the village, and then inside one of the houses. All of the houses were very simple stone structures, and would most likely not have passed any building codes in a city. Even so, they looked decently stable to me.

Once we were inside what might have been the living room, Jacob turned to face me.

"The place I want to take you is in the basement of this house" he told me. "But first, I must tell you some things".

"Like what?" I asked him. "Please just tell me, I want to know!"

"For one", the Alolan Vulpix replied, "you're not going to recover from your infection. I know you feel better, but it's not going to get better, if you know what I'm saying".

I gasped; my heart fell and then caught itself, much like a rope does when a rock climber is harnessed into it. I tried to make sense of what Jacob was telling me.

"Bradley Clarion, you are a dead man walking".

Jacob's fun-loving demeanor was no more. His expression was now deadly serious. Literally deadly, I thought. He's telling me I'm about to die!

I looked down at my arm and saw that he was right. A small amount of pus was leaking out of the wound, and it looked very red and inflamed. I'm not going to get too graphic, but it certainly looked a lot worse than it had this morning.

"But I'm on antibiotics" I replied. I probably sounded naive and in denial, but I didn't really care.

Maybe I'm just hallucinating. Maybe Jacob himself is a hallucination.

Jacob shook his head and gave off a humorless laugh. "Antibiotics aren't going to work. Not well enough. Once this jungle catches ahold of you, it does not like to let go".

Once this jungle catches ahold of you, it does not like to let go. What an ominous sentence.

"So what do I do now?" I asked, slightly exasperated. "If I'm just going to die, then what was the point of coming here?"

"Follow me" Jacob replied simply.

I followed Jacob into the basement of the house, a room that felt slight damp. He led me down a long, dark, narrow hallway.

"There is a way you can survive, though" the Alolan Vulpix told me as we were making our way down the hallway. By this time it had been a good minute, and I was beginning to feel as though I were walking into my own grave.

"What is that?" I asked him, trying to stop my voice from breaking. I was completely unable to banish the thought of never seeing my parents again; they loved me very much, and would be extremely distraught at my disappearance.

As we walked, I had to be very careful not to fall; the tunnel was extremely slippery, much like an ice rink.

Eventually, we arrived in a chamber the size of a cathedral. It was large and circular, and ringed by a walkway about ten feet wide.

"This hole is called the Shaft" the Alolan Vulpix told me. "And the only way you can survive is by jumping in".

Wait...what?

I was pretty afraid of heights; I normally felt dizzy when I was on one of the higher floors of a building. Being on the edge of a hole that led to seemingly nowhere was worse by a couple orders of magnitude.

"You're crazy!" I yelled.

Jacob looked at me, his facial expresssion showing that he was very skeptical of what I had to tell him.

"On the contrary, since you're a dead man walking, it might serve you well to listen to me. Also, leave behind your notebook. You can't carry it with you if you want to survive".

"Why should I believe you?" I asked him incredulously. "After all, you're just a kid!"

As if in response, Jacob ran to the edge of the Shaft and took a flying leap over the edge. There was just a white blur that got smaller and smaller...and then he was gone.

"NO! YOU CRAZY MANIAC!" I shouted after him, even though he was by this time way too far away to hear me. I didn't really care, I just felt like letting it out.

I peered into the hole. There were several pulsing scarlet gemstones on the sides of the Shaft, and they seemed to give off a heat haze. Are they lava?

Unfortunately, I got a little too close. Not only that, but I forgot just how slippery the ground was.

It was even worse than that, because I realized just a little too late just how close to the edge I was. Somehow, I was leaning forward even though I meant to lean back…

Before you could say the word "shaft", I had toppled forward and begun plummeting through the massive hole.

I intended that last scene to be a reference to one of my favorite books that I read when I was 14: Freefall by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. Good book.

I'll see you guys for the next chapter. I hope you guys will review this one to tell me what you think, as that is the best way for me to improve my writing.

Take care!