The book of clues

8 - The Pit

"Can we please stop running for a while Alex? I can't run anymore." Lilly sighed out. She was tired and hungry, she was always hungry.
"You shouldn't have eaten all those cookies so fast." Alex laughed, he kept on running, "I think we're close, just a little bit more sis." He encouraged her, he glanced at her over his shoulder and saw she really was exhausted. "When we cross that big tree over there, we'll walk." He promised, pointing at the tree in the distance. They had been running for a while now in the direction that thing went. The house was far out of view, it must be kilometers away. It was scary dark in this part of the forest, they would believe it was evening already. But that wasn't possible, they just left like an hour ago.

"Okay, let's walk." They crossed the big oak. Lilly was glad she could finally stop running. She didn't have the best condition. In school, she hated gym, like mostly every other girl in her class. "How far would it still be?" She asked Alex. "I don't really know, it's possible that it took a few turns, but I have a feeling that we're close." They walked through a few bushes, and some dirt. This adventure was a little more boring that Lilly hoped it would be. Always the same trees, the same boring leafs on the ground, the same bird singing their songs, ...

"Do you smell that too?" Alex asked suddenly when he stood still. Lilly sniffed in the air, something smelled burned. "Yeah is do, it smells like burned chicken!" she answered. ''Lilly, I know you're hungry, but don't be rediculous,'' Alex laughed." ''Smoke!'' Lilly whispered loudly.  Alex looked quickly around. "There,'' she pointed in front of them, "behind that hill over there, can you see the smoke?" Alex now saw the smoke. Without another word they both ran in that direction. Climbing on that hill, they stopped, crouching quietly.

"What the-"

Alex looked down from the hill, there was a huge campfire in the middle of a giant pit. It had to be at least ten meters deeper then where they were standing. There was no one down there. The only thing Alex could see was something big covered with a dirty blanket and a chicken being grilled on the campfire.
"Told you I smelled chicken, what is this place?" Lilly whispered. "I have no idea, this is very weird. What would this be doing in our grandparents' their domain, well, our domain.'' Alex frowned, ''We should be careful Lilly. If there is a campfire, there's probably someone here, so keep your eyes open." Alex said when he checked if the coast was clear. Even though there weren't any trees placed it the pit, this was the darkest place in the whole forest. There was almost no sunlight in this area. "That blanket," he said somewhat louder, "it's covering something. You should stay watch, I'll go check it out. Warn me if you see or hear something." Lilly widened her eyes, "No! No way! Why should I say? You can't leave me alone, who knows who or what lives here?!" Alex smiled proudly. "What the heck are you smiling about?" She asked looking at him like he was crazy. "So you do believe me," Alex smiled, "you said 'what' lives here." Lilly stared at him for a moment, but ignored the conversation, "We'll go together, or neither one of us goes." She said.

"Not so fast!" Alex whispered. Lilly took the lead. She was climbing down the pit, slowly. she made sure she took good grip in the dirt, so she wouldn't slip. Alex followed her closely. He had his Swiss pocketknife in his right hand, just in case. Lilly had almost reached the bottom, she jumped on a big round rock that was leaning against the wall of the pit. The rock moved a little when she landed on it, "watch out, this one is not very stable." She warned her brother. When she jumped off and landed on the bottom Alex also jumped on the big rock and then the ground. "Still nobody here," he said surprised, "Let's move before someone does come back." They headed for the shape covered with the dirty blanket. From this close, it didn't seem bigger then 2 meters what was underneath. They stopped right in front of the shape. "You take it off," Alex said. "No, you take it off!" Lilly replied. "No, you!" "You!" "Screw it." Alex grabbed the blanket and pulled it off.

It was a cage, a man sat inside. He sat down, resting his head on his knees. His back was turned in their direction. "Hey sir," Lilly said scared, "are-are you okay?" She poked him on the shoulder. The man mumbled something, but she couldn't understand him. His head moved a little. "Ww-wr," the man mumbled again, "Www-a-er." "Water!" Lilly said and gave a quick look to her brother, "he needs water!" Alex took his bottle of water out of his backpack and pushed it through the cage. The man moved quickly, grabbed the bottle and drank it in a few seconds. "T-thanks," he sighted out and looked the two. Now that Lilly saw his face, she noticed it wasn't an older man, it was just a boy her age. "Who are you?" She asked while Alex tried to picklock the lock with some pins he got from his backpack. The boy had long brown frizzy curly hair, warm dark eyes and an uncleaned beard. There was dirt all over his face. He must have been in here for some time. "My name is Charlie." Alex managed to open the cage. He reached his arm out and helped Charlie get up. "Thanks man!" He said trying to put on a smile. Charlie looked exhausted. He turned to Lilly. "You too, thank you!" He smiled. "What happened to you, Charlie?" Lilly asked. "I want to tell you guys everything, but I would kill for something to eat!" Charlie rubbed his belly. ''That chicken smell has been killing me for days, I believe it's cooking for longer than a week.'' ''That explains why it smells burned.'' Alex agreed. Charlie ran toward the burned chicken, he tried to rip a leg off, but the chicken was hard as stone. ''Yes, I'm afraid it won't be eatable,'' he said sadly. "Let's get you home. You can clean yourself up there and we'll get you something to eat!" Alex said. ''Sound good to me!'' Charlie smiled.