Kai's eyes opened calmly, and he sat up. The room was completely empty, the only light from a Moon pouring in from the window. It was quiet, and neither Nya, Jay, Zane or Cole was anywhere to be seen.
Kai turns his head and jumps when he sees the woman's face merely inches away from his, staring into his brown eyes. "Kai," she said. "Don't disobey me, Kai."
"I told you before, I won't." he replied, throwing off the blanket around his shoulders. He stands up, and turns his back to the fair-faced woman. "I know what I'm doing."
"Do you?" she asked, her image flickering in the corner of Kai's eye. "You are a child, afraid and left behind in a world unknown. You don't know what you are doing."
Kai rolled his eyes, but said nothing. The woman speaks again. "Just remember. Don't go into the woods. It's dangerous."
Suddenly, Kai turned around, facing the woman with an angry face. "What is it that you mean by this?" he asked. "Why is it so important not to go into the woods? Who are you?"
The woman didn't speak for a moment and opened her mouth, but before any noise was able to come out, the entire room began to shake. The glass in the window suddenly shattered, shards scattering the wooden floor. The two immediately crumbled to the floor in an uncontrollable shaking spasm as chaos erupted in the room. Kai's head began to feel dizzy, like his consciousness was being yanked out of him. He felt his eyes begin to open, and Kai heard voices shouting in his ear.
"Kai! Get up! Get up now!"
Kai woke up with a gasp to the faces of a frantic Nya and Jay. They pull him up from the floor, and Kai couldn't help but hear the sound of pounding and rattling, and he knew that it wasn't from his head. Something was trying to get into the Hut. A sense of deja vu entered his mind, and he brushed it away.
"Hurry!" Wu was yelling, pointing to the end of the small room. "There's a trapdoor leading outside in case of emergencies like this. You must crawl through it and get out of here. Now!"
"What about you?" Zane asked, who was frantically grabbing Cole from his bed. "You must come with us."
Kai looked from Wu to Zane, panicked and unsure to exactly what was happening. Who was trying to get in? What did Wu mean by a trapdoor?
Wu nodded and yelled above the noise, "I will come. Trust me. I'll be there. But you have to leave."
Zane nodded, and popped open the trapdoor with the help of Nya. Jay rushed forward and hurriedly pushed Cole down the door first. "Hurry!" Jay yelled at the boy. "Before they come in!"
Cole silently and quickly obeyed his brother and slipped down the hatch and disappeared into darkness.
"What's happening?" Kai asked his sister. "What's that noise?"
"The Turans are trying to get in." Nya explained briskly. "We have to go quickly before they get to us or else they'll tear us apart. Now hurry, get down the hatch."
Kai obeyed and slipped in after Cole. He jumped and landed on a hard ground. Then came three more thuds, and Zane, Nya and Jay were with them, and on their stomachs, army-crawling through the chute.
Overhead, splintering and rattling sounded overhead through the floorboards, and none of them dared to breathe. The wood in the door was breaking apart, and Kai knew it. The Tura were going to get in. It was only a matter of time.
"Come on!" Zane whispered. "We must go before they discover us. Be very quiet, and move quickly."
Kai and everybody else heeded Zane, and they constantly put their hands outstretched to serve as a guide through the dark.
A slam from behind them startles the five, and they turn around. The slam echoed throughout the small shaft, bouncing off the roof and upcoming walls. "Wait." Nya said. "Where's Wu?"
Nya, who was in the back, strained her head as far as she could, looking for the old man. Dread consumed her when she realized that the old man was the one who caused the slam; he had closed the trapdoor and stayed behind to fight the Tura.
Wu was going to die.
"He's...he's not here, guys." Nya called to her companions, trying to keep the grief from her voice. The others remained silent as they continued crawling through the shaft. It was long until Kai, who was behind Cole, spoke up.
"Wait. I feel a breeze. We must be getting close." he said. Cole eagerly reached out for the opening when suddenly there was a loud roar and a thundering stomp from above them. The chute they were in shook violently, and they screamed.
A deafening roar and several stomps powerfully rocked the small chute.
"Go!" yelled Kai. "They've found us! Go! Crawl!"
Cole obeyed, and lead the frantic others toward the breeze that Kai had felt. Cole could feel it too; he could tell that it was narrow by how little air had filtered through.
Jay holds in a yell of pain as he crawled vigorously through the vault. Putting all of his weight on his still injured arm was extremely agonizing, and he was sure he was just insulting his injury. He kept on.
"I see it. I'm going through!" Cole yelled from in front. Luckily, his short nine-year-old body was small enough to easily slide between the opening. He fell on his behind on the dirt ground, and then stood up.
Another roar echoed in the forest, and Cole quickly hid in the shadows. The Turan was close-by, and were obviously not happy. If they discovered the little boy now...
Just then, Kai slid out, startling the little boy. "Shh!" Cole told him, and pointed to the direction of the creature's roar. Kai nodded, and followed Cole silently, and hid with him, back against the wall of the Hut.
In a few minutes, Zane and Jay quickly and quietly squeezed their bodies through the shaft opening. Kai looked in, and saw his sister attempting to get through. "Hurry, Nya!" Kai whispered fiercely. Nya looked at him with arched eyebrows.
"I'm trying, Kai!" Nya whispered back, and held on to the sides again when another roar rocked the shaft. Kai's face paled when he heard the slam of the door again. But he knew that this time, the door had been ripped off and tossed aside by something with strength.
The Turans were going inside the chute.
"Come on, Nya!" Kai yelled, and without question, Nya crawled quickly. Kai grabbed his sister's hands and tried to pull her, but she slips and falls back.
"Nya!" Kai yelled. "Come on!"
Nya tries again, and grabs her brother's hands once more. "Pull me, Kai!" she yells, and Kai uses his strength to pull his sister through the opening. She screams as she falls to the dirt, then she gets up again.
"Thanks," Nya says to her brother, and then immediately takes off running. The other four follow behind her, clipping her heels, away from the danger of the Tura Tribe.