The Magical Quest

Chapter 15

In the morning, Jess seemed groggy and irritable, as if she hadn't gotten enough sleep. Then again, none of them had. As usual, Thundra was sulking, Maia was irritable, and Jess looked like she would gladly punch Chris in the nose. That was relatable, though. As they hiked along, they started ascending the mountains. Pretty soon, Thundra was loudly complaining about her feet hurting. Luke was still mad at her for her insult the day before, and he finally yelled, "For crying out loud, would you shut it?!" Everyone watched in fascinated horror as Thundra shot him a menacing glare, and yelled, "Wow, I'm amazed you could come up with that! Besides, your brain is about the size of a mustard seed!" Everyone burst out laughing. Luke scowled back. He wasn't about to lose an insult contest. He had plenty of experience from arguing with both his sister and his friend, Han Solo. "Well, you're so ugly, even a rancor is afraid of you!" Luke retorted, and everyone screamed with laughter at Thundra's stunned expression. She responded with "Well, I can't tell if I'm looking at your butt or your face right now. They both look roughly the same." Fircone was rolling on the ground, holding his stomach, and everyone continued to laugh hysterically. Luke decided to use his best insult yet. "Yeah, you look like you fell in the Death Star trash compactor and didn't make it out." Everyone continued to howl with laughter. "Ah, well, the-the same to you!" Thundra stuttered, too flustered to come up with another insult and shaking with rage. Luke just laughed. Eventually, they were in the craggy cliffs. Far below were deep pits that could contain who knows what. The mood abruptly changed, and Luke could tell by the tension that everyone was mainly focused about not falling to their doom. One wrong step and you'd plummet to your death. Several times, someone stepped wrong and had to be hauled back onto the narrow path. Suddenly, Luke felt a small rumble in the ground. He wondered if it was just his imagination. Suddenly, he felt it again. A small pebble fell off the cliff above him. Luke extended his senses, trying to find the location of the rumbling sound. Apparently, no one else noticed. A few more pebbles fell from above, but not enough to catch someone else's attention. Luke looked up, and saw a boulder holding up a pile of rocks a good 50 feet above them shift almost imperceptibly to the left. "MOVE!" Luke yelled at the top of his lungs. Becka, Maia, Harriet, Chris, Raj, and Fircone must've gotten the message, because they whirled around, and ran for safety. Maia, Jess, Matthew, Lily, and Thundra turned around, confused. That was enough time for the boulder to fall. Thundra was the first to see it, and let out a yell, and grabbed her brother, yanking him to safety. Maia, Jess, and Lily weren't as lucky. The rocks tumbled down, and Maia escaped the falling rocks by the skin of her teeth. Jess, however, lost her footing and slipped over the edge, but grabbed on at the last second. The rocks continued to fall, and Lily was leaping from rock to rock, her eyes wide with fear. Finally, she was lunging for the edge. Unfortunately, she was just short. Luke, being the closest, dove forward and grabbed her hand. Ignoring a stone about the size of a grape bouncing off the side of his head, Luke helped Lily climb back up. "Thanks--oof--that was--terrify--ing." Lily gasped. "Hold on a second." Luke said, suddenly terrified. "Where's Jess?" "HELLO?! REMEMBER ME?!" A voice shouted. They peered over the edge. Dangling from a ledge about 10 feet below them was a beat up-looking Jess, a large bruise forming on her cheekbone. She was glaring up at them. "Ah, sorry!" Luke yelled. "I was--er--preoccupied!" "YEAH, I KNOW, YOU WERE SAVING LILY!" she shouted irritably. "Okay, okay. No need to shout!" Chris called. "Good thing I brought a rope." Maia sighed. She always came prepared. "Hey, Jess! Do you think you can grab the rope and climb up?" Maia yelled after tossing it down. "Well, my arms are bruised, but I can still climb." she yelled back. "Alright, we're ready!" Maia yelled, after they were all holding the rope, waiting to pull Jess back up. Suddenly, something heavy caused the rope to slide forward a few inches. Slowly, they managed to pull Jess back onto the trail. "Well, one thing you overlooked was how we're gonna cross that." Luke told Maia, who scowled at him, and then the ravine that had been created by the rockslide. "Hold on, I think we can use this rope." Maia said, handing it to Thundra. "Fly across, will you?" Thundra rolled her eyes, but to Luke's surprise, she grabbed the end of the rope, and flew across the gap. Then, she tied it to a boulder on the other side. "There! Rope bridge! Just go hand over hand." Maia explained. Everyone but Luke went across easily, but when he tried it, the rope sagged under his weight, threatening to break. Nervously, Luke continued to cross, but suddenly, there was a loud snapping noise, a couple people screamed, and Luke was falling. The rope broke! One half of his brain screamed. The other half retorted, Thanks for that, Captain Obvious. He slammed into a scrubby tree and the last few feet of his fall was broken by the branches, but he landed hard  on his right shoulder. Luke lay there for a moment, catching his breath. He managed to crawl to his feet. "IT'S OKAY! IT'S ONLY ABOUT 60 FEET DEEP!" Luke yelled, stood up, and then winced. Agony filled his right arm when he moved it, and there was a cut on his temple. His head throbbed. Luke was able to pick out the figures of his friends standing on the cliff above, arguing among themselves. He gazed around the pit he'd landed in. Apparently, something big lived in here, and it was carnivorous. The body of a half-eaten gazelle was lying against the far wall, and the floor was littered with bones and rotting carcasses. Holding his nose and attempting not to move his aching shoulder, Luke examined the pit. He guessed that whatever lived in here had fallen in, and then had been too big to climb back out. Possibly it was living on whatever was clumsy or stupid enough to fall in, and judging by a pile of fresh scat that Luke almost stepped in, it still lived here. There was a cave in the back, and Luke cautiously approached it. That was a big mistake. A snarling noise echoed from the depths. He frantically looked around for anywhere to climb, but the walls were very rocky and would've been very difficult to climb, even if Luke's shoulder wasn't wounded, maybe even broken. He decided to back up against the far wall and hope for the best. He unsteadily reached down and picked up a bone with his good hand, which was, unluckily, his non dominant hand. The snarling started again. This called back the unpleasant memory of Jabba's palace, where Luke's friend, Han Solo, had been frozen in a block of carbonite as a wall decoration, Luke himself had been tossed into a similar pit to be eaten by a rancor, and Leia had been forced to wear a metal bikini. Luke still teased her about that. He squinted, and was able to make out a hulking shape moving out of the cave. Then whatever it was sprung. Luke recognized it as one of the things that had attacked them on the first day. Maia started yelling, but her shouts were drowned out by the creature's roars. He clubbed it in the muzzle as hard as he could, and it flinched away, giving Luke time to hobble away as fast as he could. However, the Storm didn't give up, and pounced. Luke yelped as its teeth snapped shut on air behind him, where his leg had been moments before. Something hit the ground inches from Luke's head. It was a knife. He glanced up, and the look on Jess' face couldn't be clearer. Snatching up the knife, Luke stabbed the Storm in the paw, and crawled into a crack in between some boulders. Agony flooded through his arm as it banged against the rock. Luke winced and thought, Yep. Definitely broken. Reaching for his lightsaber, Luke groaned in frustration when he realized it was in his pack, back up on the trail. Suddenly, a rock hit the Storm in the head, giving Luke just enough time to get out of the crack and give him the advantage. More rocks went flying down, hitting the Storm and distracting it. Luke rushed forward to stab it with the knife, but its massive paw connected with his cheek, and he faceplanted in the dirt, his arm throbbing with pain, and his nose began to throb shortly after it came in contact with a large rock. Groaning, Luke reached up and touched his nose. It was roughly the same size and texture of a water balloon, and his fingers came back covered in blood. He almost laughed when someone chucked a rock the size of a loaf of bread into the Storm's face, knocking it down. It gave Luke the perfect opportunity. Lunging forwards, while it was still stunned, he stabbed his knife as hard as he could into the beast's windpipe, and promptly fell over. It let out an agonized howl, and collapsed. Luke was vaguely aware of  his friends climbing down into the pit, asking if he was okay. Luke saw a blurry image of Becka asking how many fingers she was holding up before he passed out.