Phoenix Rising

Cave, Bats, and Ice

"Screech, screech, screech.'

"What was that noise?" Rose asks frightfully.

"It was the sound of thousands of hungry little mice, that have butterfly wings, and that want to eat your soul." Josh says and then ends with an evil cackling laugh.

"Not the time, Josh. This is serious." Emilea states.

"I know what it is," Kaela says. "It is the sound of bats. These bats can swim, fly, tunnel, and run. They are also three feet tall. They are called Giant Man-eating Bats. Many people who travel through the blue territory end up being eaten by these creatures."

"Screech!" One bat cries out and the rest of them go silent.

"What happened? Why are they silent?" Rose asks.

Kaela suddenly looks pale.

"They are getting ready to attack, that is what it means." Kaela answers gravely. Just as she finishes, the cave starts to rumble and hundreds of bats rage toward us. Josh grabs our floating light, and starts to incinerate bats from the inside out. Kaela absorbs all of the water dripping from the ceiling and floods the ground and starts freezing bats solid. Emily and I start to help out, but Rose says her one word and we didn't need to. This one word kills them all.

"Die!" she roars at the bats and they all fall on the ground dead. This one act proves to me how powerful this little girl is.

We all stand still for a moment, still in shock on what she has done. Emilea breaks us out of our stun by saying, "Come on guys, we better hurry before more come."

"She is right. These bats usually infest cave and tunnels like this. There are most likely thousands more." Kaela says.

"I am feeling a little weak." Rose says sickly.

"I will help you." I say as I grab her arm to steady her. We all run through the tunnel without looking back. Emilea keeps us going by commanding us to run over and over again. She also exerts orange dust to strengthen our endurance. We hear the rumbling first. They quickly catch up with us and are clawing at our backs. One grabs my leg and starts to pull me back deeper into the tunnel. Emilea opens the door and helps Rose out onto the snowy mountain. Kaela holds the door open. Josh notices me on the floor being pulled away and burns the bats off of me. He pulls me off the floor and helps me out of the cave. Another horde of bats come to attack but I slam the door shut before their ripping fangs can reach us. The silence of the mountain is so peaceful compared to the mess that just happened.

"Let's get ready to kill Chraal." Emilea objectively states. Before we even could start to rest, the beast jumps down in front of us and roars.

"I haven't seen another human in quite a while. No thanks to those pesky bats. I think I want to add you to my frozen collection. I will have to since you came to kill me." He says remorsefully. He takes a deep breath, and then blows shards of ice at us. Emilea and I make a shield that protects all of us.

"Good luck with that. I think I am too hot for you to freeze. Hahaha." Josh teases.

"Let's see about that." Chraal manically laughs. I pull out my silver cylinder and twist the first twist. The small tube turns into a staff. I twist the seventh twist and it turn into a scythe. We all attack him and he is quickly turned into ice cubes. We stand back and chuckle. That's funny, we thought it would be harder than this.

As we are turning to leave, the beast's body reforms and he looks perfectly fine.

"I'm not as easy to kill as you thought, am I?" He laughs.

"How do we kill him?" Josh asks.

"You have to use fire..." Kaela says. Josh catches on fire and run towards Chraal. Josh takes out his sword, (which is also on fire) and stabs Chraal in the heart. The Chraal looks stunned at first, and then he laughs.

"You have won. Bravo. But the joke is on you. You can't kill me without a price. Once you kill me, I explode..." Just as he finishes his sentence he burst into a wave of killer ice. I duck instinctively. When I stand back up I look over and notice that everyone was ok, until I see Josh. He is frozen into a statue.