Chapter Three:
All three re-appeared in a room surrounded by stone. In the dim light, neither child could see. Even though, they looked around anxiously.
"Momma, where are we?" Alex asked.
"Well…" she thought of the way to explain, that she couldn't tell. "I can't tell you where, but this is our new home." she said.
They were really in a cave under the pond on which Devin always stood. She had found it trying to sneak up on him, when The Men came again. So she swam under the water, and needed air. She had tried to estimate if she had enough air to get back up, or not. It was not. So, in desperation, she looked around, and her eyes landed in the cave. Once inside the cave, it opened widely, and went up, above the water level. After the first time, she drew a map, excavating all The Cave, to make a home. No one besides her knew about it, not even Devin.
The dim light, suddenly left. All became bright as lights flicked on. Dazed, the children looked around, to see a home-like place. Bedrooms, a working kitchen, etc. Ariel had spent months building the cave up. About 500 yards from their old house was the wood. In which, kept safely guarded, was the pond and The Cave.
Ariel worked around The Cave all night and the following day.
She finally fell asleep. Assuming by her biological clock, hours later, she woke up to a noise. There's nothing here. No one can get down here without machinery, and I would have heard it! she scolded herself. Even though, just to be sure, she got out of bed, and standing in the doorway to her room was a wolf. She looked around startled, grabbing blindly for her blade. When she couldn't find it, she spun with her back to the wolf, and grabbed a small boulder near her bed. Spinning around, she looked again. Nothing was there…