The Ball of Balls

Chapter 20

"Airpods?" Miles picked up the airpods and Rey picked up the torch.

''Oh no, my hand is stuck because of all the lemonade,'' Rey said, while getting her hand off of the torch. Literally everything was covered by lemonade because of the witch's spell, so it was a little bit hard to do.

''I assume that these airpods aren't an artefact... Where do they come from?'' Miles said, while studying the airpods.

Rey finally got her hand free from the torch and threw it away. The torch rolled on the ground and suddenly a fire started burning.

Miles looked up in surprise and saw that the torch had set a rope on fire. The rope slowly got shorter.

''Watch out! Don't set the whole cave on fire,'' Miles said.

''Hmm wait a minute.... walk with me, Miles,'' Rey said, who was curious about the rope. Rey and Miles followed the rope to a place where it split up in two. They followed it to the left. The fire burned the rope faster and faster until it stopped. It went completely dark. Miles had laid his torch aside when he picked up the airpods and regretted it now.

Through the cave sounded and echo of something unknown and a moment later Miles and Rey heard: ''H...E...L...P...'' For them the voice was still unknown, but the attentive listener should have been able to tell that this was really the voice of Richard the Fashionista, also known as Taytay.

Miles felt the cave wall with his hand and said: ''Let's continue going left. I think the sound came from there?''

''How? I can't see anything,'' Rey said, bumping into Miles.

''Place your hand on the wall,'' Miles responded.

''Ah, smart.''

The two brave birds walked blindly through the corridors of the wall on solely their touch and sounds. A monster like sound echoed through the cave and after that they heard a high pitched scream.

''Oh shit, I think Richard is in danger!'' Miles shouted and he tried to run to the sound without bumping into something.

''That voice could only belong to one person,'' Rey confirmed, while carefully following Miles.

Miles and Rey arrived at a part of the cave where a lit of candles were lit. Blinded by the sudden amount of light, Rey held her hands in front of her eyes and said: ''Aah, light!''

''THE FAIRY TOLD ME ABOUT YOU,'' a demonic voice said. The big Minotaur appeared and while Miles and Rey's eyes got used to the light, they saw Taytay locked up in a cage.

''HE TOLD ME THAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR THE RING,'' the Minotaur said. ''BUT ONE OF YOU WANTS TO DESTROY IT AND I WILL NOT LET YOU!''

Miles gave Rey a questioning look and she looked back with the same confused look. ''Huh? Why would we want to destroy the ring?'' Rey asked innocently.

''SILENCE, MORTAL! YOU ARE IN MY CAVE NOW! AND I-'' the Minotaur was interrupted by Taytay's crying: ''Miles, you have to listen to me! I have discovered something about Rey!''

''What... HOLY FLIP!'' During this sentence Miles was grabbed by the Minotaur. Miles struggled to escape his hands, but failed.

Rey ran towards the Minotaur with her sword, made a somersault to dodge his fist and slit his leg. The Minotaur screamed and threw Miles against the wall. Rey now stood on the other side of the room, next to Taytay's cage and hissed: ''Ssssst!''

''Go way, you! I don't want anything to do with you,'' Taytay said. Like a rebellious child he turned his back to her.

''What do you think to know about me?'' she whispered, while studying the keylock.

''Uhhh... pictures... walll... bad! You bad! You bad ring destroy want,'' Taytay said in a childlike manner. When Taytay was frustrated, his sentences always became worse. Rey didn't mind this at all, because she didn't want him to tell Miles the wrong thing.

''You don't know the whole story, but if you act like this, I don't want to help you get out of this cage. Why don't you just teleport out of this?''

''Like I didn't think of that! Think about that, hm?'' He growled angrily.

Miles stood up slowly, saw that the Minotaur had walked to the cage, and shouted: ''Rey! Watch out!''

Rey turned around quickly, made a frontflip down and slit the Minotaur's leg again.

''Nice,'' Miles said, while shooting his penultimate arrow in the back of the Minotaur. Rey cut and sliced and Miles shot his last arrow, but it didn't seem to work.

''What now? We can't leave Taytay in that cage,'' Miles said.

''I think we will have defeated the Minotaur when we have found the artefact. But what is it?'' Rey asked and she dodged the fist of the Minotaur again.

Taytay screamed: ''There is a magic key!''

''Key?'' Miles responded and his eye fell on the nose ring on the Minotaur's face. A little key was dangling from it. ''Look, the nose ring,'' Miles said to Rey, having the tendency to puke.

Rey suddenly had a cunning look on her face and you could see that she had thought of a plan. She ran to the Minotaur and while she jumped to pull on the nose ring, she was captured by the Minotaur. The Minotaur held Rey close to his face and Rey said: ''Ha! I got you!'' She pulled on the nose ring with all her weight.

''Cringe,'' Miles said dryly.

The nose ring came off and the Minotaur fell down in front of Taytay's cage. Rey grabbed the key from the bloody nose ring and opened the cage. Next to lemonade, there now were blood stains on Rey's shirt.

Taytay was still angry and didn't look at Rey while stepping out of the cage. Miles didn't have enough interest to ask him what was going on.

Rey handed Miles the last artefact and together they walked back to the devil's trap, with full confidence.