A Journey To The Clouds, Escape From Cloud Castle - Book Two - ✓

Chapter Three

I stare at her, my mouth hanging open. Ally turns to look at me promptly and it's her turn to drop her mouth on the ground.

"Where did you get that?" I look down. She's talking about my sword. Or really the Crew of Doom's sword. One of them at least.

"Over there. There is a 'giant' sword room." I say grinning. I said 'giant' again. Ally rolls her eyes as she trails behind me into the room.

Ok let me just say that the room was in tip top shape. Nothing was burned, nothing was out of order, nothing was out of place. Weird. I voice these thoughts to Ally and she looks equally as confused as I felt.

"Maybe... they left it like this for a reason." she says slowly. I look around again.

"If we're gonna be honest, everything is here for a reason." I reply. She half smiles and shakes her head.

"Not what I meant. Like, they could have left it here for something that they wanted us to do or-" she stops suddenly, the smile wiped off her face.

"Wanted us to..." I press her.

"Trap us." she breathes. I stare at her in shock for the second time as she starts explaining.

"'Trap the young' 'We shall trap you' Connor, doesn't it make sense?" she recites. I nod my head in realization.

"I never thought of that. But that makes a whole lot more sense." I say.

"Too much sense. . ."She says urgently. "We need to be careful. Extremely careful now. There could be traps anywhere."she adds, looking at the ground.

Suddenly, her eyes widen as she looks a few inches in front of us. She snatches a small stone by my feet and throws it. It then explodes, creating a force that results in me and Ally getting thrown backwards into the oak doors of the chamber. Let me tell you that oak hurts. Really bad.

"See? We need to be very, very cautious." She tells me as if I were about to step forward. I nod, too shocked to speak. That was... totally awesome! I, as a child who never experienced anything this dangerous, I can tell you that it was extra awesome! Ally immediately rolls her eyes at me as if she knew what I was thinking. "Boys." I smile and laugh at her.

"Not all boys are interested in danger." I mutter. Ally raises an eyebrow.

"You seemed like it." She replies. She nudges my shoulder.

"Well sure, but doesn't mean I'm super intrigued with it," I remark. I look at her pale face.

"That's a good thing in some ways. At least I know you're safe. Not good in some, mostly because that means you won't be as adventurous." Ally says.

"I can still be adventurous and safe."

"I'm sure you can. Not all people can."

"Why is that?"

"Because I've known you long enough to know that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You've been cooped up inside with your mother for a long time. Your mother always had the dream of coming to America, so she did. That's the best extent of adventure till the journey came along." She says. "I wouldn't be surprised if you were excited about it, however. It was pretty awesome." She admits.

"Wait a minute. . ." I perk up. "I said that at least two months ago. How did you remember what I said?" I ask suspiciously. Ally smiles at me.

"I notice the little things." She says. I try to think of a reply, but I decide to stay silent.

"Follow me, I can find them. You couldn't see that one that made that stone blow up." she instructs as she stands up and starts walking along the perimeter. We take small steps as we sneak around to get to the middle of the room where Ally is directing me. We make it without having to set off any more traps thankfully.

We then reach a room that appears to have an aquarium like structure in it; sort of how the aquarium was that Ally told me about, when she had visions of the mermaids being trapped in it.

"Lets see if there is anything left in these cages." Ally orders. I nod and grunt so she knows I heard her. She starts by climbing like a monkey on the gold carvings that stand out against the aqua blue glass. I follow.

She drops into the aquarium and stands up. It is massive. Or should I say, 'giant'? I need to stop saying that. It's getting old. I climb in after her and land on my face. Warning: glass is as hard as stone.

"Ugh!" I groan. Ally rolls her eyes as she smiles and helps me up.

"So this is where the..." I look to Ally for help. "Mermaids" she offers. I nod and continue. "So this is where the mermaids were kept?"

"Yup. about an entire pod of them mind you. So maybe one hundred." Ally says, knowledgeably. Wow. I think. That's a lot of mermaids.

"How d'you know so much?" I ask , amazed.

"One word. Technology." she says. I nod and act surprised.

"Would you mind telling me how that works?" I ask with fake fascination. She laughs and starts to climb back out but then stops and looks on the ground. It's another piece of paper. She points and I grab it. I skim it quickly.

"It's from Lily!"