Dimension Travelers

Chapter 27

Part Four:

Breaking & entering plus assault

We make camp along a wall that has a small cave-like thing. I find some healing juice in my backpack and make Seth drink it. We can't have him limping around the castle. Once he finishes it, his ankle's as good as new. But he keeps the brace on just in case. We've been here only ten or so minutes when Rick and Firefly appear. They come into the cave.

"You guys ready?" Rick asks.

"You bet." I say.

"We saw you fall. What happened?" Firefly asks.

Seth and I look at each other.

"There's no time for that." Rick says, "We need to get in and out as fast as possible."

"It's not getting in we should be worried about." I say. "It's getting out."

"Yeah, we know what we're about to face here. But how hard this is gonna be, is the problem." Seth says.

"That's why we can't mess up. Everything must be perfect." Rick says and turns to me, "Do you know how many people are imprisoned here?"

"Not really." I say, "But from what I saw, a lot."

"I'm guessing there's no specific number?"

"No."

"Anyways," Firefly says, "You need to defeat Her before you can set anyone free. It's not going to be easy. You'll need to imprison the shadow within."

"What 'shadow within'? Within what?" Seth asks.

"The shadow inside Her?" I ask.

"Yes, what Chloe said." Firefly answers. "I don't know how to do that, but you'll need a lot of light...That's why you need me."

"What're you talking about?" Rick asks her.

"You'll be able to see why they call me Firefly. I know that my 'power' can stop her."

"But how do we 'imprison the Shadow'?" Seth asks.

"Yeah, I thought--" I begin.

"There's only one way to do it." Firefly says. "You--we'll need a glass container."

"But we don't have any." I say.

"Yes, you do." She hands me a medium sized glass jar from inside her small bag.

"Oh. Good thinking."

"I didn't know if you'd trust me, but I brought it anyways."

"Ok, we'll camp here for the night and attack at dawn." Seth says.

"Sounds--" Rick begins.

"No! Not tomorrow!" Firefly says.

"Why not?" I ask suspiciously.

"Because tomorrow She will be inspecting the palace. Like, make sure everything's working properly." Firefly answers.

"How do you know this?" Seth asks.

"While I was trying to find you, I overheard some guards talking. They were saying things like, 'Yeah, she wants to make rounds in the palace tomorrow.' We need to wait." Firefly says.

"So we should attack day after tomorrow?" I ask.

"Not necessarily. We can attack tomorrow night."

"Hmm. Not a bad idea." Rick says, "That way, we'll have enough sleep."

"But this cave that we're in, don't they use it for something?" Seth asks.