The Ball of Balls

Chapter 16

''Three done, two to go,'' Miles said happily. He looked at the three artefacts for a moment and put them back in his pockets.

''Nice!'' Rey said and she gave Miles a high five. A little bit further, Rey and Miles entered a room with a table that had two bottles on it with the text 'drink me'.

''I would wait with drinking those for a moment,'' Rey said.

''Too late,'' Miles said, who had already drunk one of the bottles.

''Ugh, alright then,'' Rey answered, while she drank the other bottle in one gulp.

Miles and Rey shrunk till they were just the size of a little mouse. Once shrunken, they saw different little doors.

''Which door are we going to open?'' Miles asked Rey. ''I don't think that I have a lot of input.''

''You may choose this time,'' Rey responded.

''That's sweet.'' Miles passed all the doors one by one. Only one was open. ''Ofcourse, only if I can choose...'' Rey giggled behind her hands.

''Hihi, let's go,'' Rey said.

''Let's a go!'' Miles said with a Mario voice and he opened the only door that wasn't locked.

They entered a new space with undeep water that reached their knees.

''Ew. Now my socks are wet,'' Rey said.

In the middle of the cave space hung a cage, but it was too high for Rey and Miles, who were very small now. Bats flew around the cage.

''How do we get up there?'' Miles said.

''Hmm... If only you were a spider, indeed,'' Rey said, while thinking hard.

In the corner of the room stood a little jar with cookies and a text 'eat me'.

''Look! There are cookies!'' Miles noticed.

''Don't eat them!'' Rey said strictly. ''If we become larger again, we can't exit the room. And we have to reach the cage first.''

''Jesus, how do you know these things... Hmm.. we could have used Taytay right now...'' Miles said, while he walked through the undeep water to the cage.

''No, we don't need him. Watch and learn.'' Rey whistled in her fingers and a bat flew towards the sound. It bit in Rey's arm and she tapped on the bat's nose. She grabbed a little donut from her pocket and fed it to the bat.

''Hmm.. a flat donut. Delicious,'' Miles said sarcastically.

The bat seemed to become friendly after eating the donut. Rey stroked the bat that purred in return.

''Get on board. SS Bat is departing in a moment,'' Rey said while climbing on the back of the bat.

''Wow, you are great with animals,'' Miles said and he climbed on the back of the bat. And like that, they flew up to the cage. In the cage was a golden tiara. Rey joked that it would look great on Miles. Only the tiara was human sized and way too big for our little friends.

''How are we going to take that with us?'' Miles asked. Rey pinched the neck of the bat which made the bat scream a sound that made all bats react. The bats were massively attacking the cage to open it. Miles watched how this happened and started to wander how Rey knew all these things about bats.

Miles saw that the bats couldn't get the cage to open, so he went to the cage door himself to move a few pins from the keyhole. The door now opened. Miles walked towards the golden tiara, but it was too heavy to carry, so Rey signaled the bats. And like that, Miles and Rey flew down with the tiara to the entrance of the room.

''Get the cookies,'' Rey told the bats and they retrieved them for her.

''How are we getting through the door with the tiara?'' Miles asked. Suddenly the wall was shattered by an arm of a (relatively) enormous gingerbread man and they heard the sound of a mean witch's laugh.

''Huh, what the fuck?'' Miles said. ''Thanks for the solution, I guess.''

''Polyfemos? Not Polyfemos,'' Rey said, realizing who stood there.

''Who is the little one now?'' Yannick said, while standing intimidatingly before Miles. He tried to grab Miles and Rey, but they dodged him.

''Nibble nibble little mouses!'' Rachel shouted.

''I would love to eat a few little mouses!'' Amy said, while turning into a snake and licking her lips. Right then, the bats dropped the cookies in Rey and Miles's hands and they both took a few bites of the cookies.

Yannick grabbed Rey and Miles, but suddenly they grew to their normal length and they jumped out of Yannick's hands. Rey put the tiara on her head, ate a bite of Yannick's gingerbread hand and ran away.

''DON'T LET THEM ESCAPE!'' Rachel yelled. Her scream echoed through the cave.

Miles shot an arrow at Amy and ran after Rey, before they both tripped by one of Rachel's spells. Miles and Rey lay on the ground and were slowly tied up by licorice laces. Miles gnawed himself out of the laces with full confidence.