The Adventures of Creech and her Friends Part 1

Chapter 13: Leg 4-India to Nepal

    The fourth leg of the rally was the most dangerous leg of all. Even though it was a short leg, it was also extremely treacherous when it came to flying above the mountains. If you couldn't finish it, you might as well quit altogether. All the racers knew this.

    Earlier, Creech had told the others what Shenzi had told her and the decision she had made last night, and they all agreed to go with it. So during the race, they broke off from the rest of the pack, flew downwards, and quickly found the railroad tracks that Tom had told Creech about last night. But as they followed them through the mountains, the peaks around them got taller and the path got narrower. It was freezing cold, but Creech's wool sweater was keeping her warm. Straining to see through the fast-falling snow that swirled around them, Junior, who was the lookout, suddenly gasped. "Guys! I see a tunnel straight ahead!" he exclaimed.

    They all looked ahead, and sure enough, they knew that Junior was right. Straight ahead was a dark-looking tunnel. Quickly, Dusty pulled up towards the top of the mountains, but just as Creech stated to go up, her sailcraft sputtered to a stop. "Seriously? Again?" she grumbled. "I've almost had enough of this type of nonsense coming from this thing."

    "Maybe it's an outdated model or something," Kopa suggested as Creech checked the engine.

    "It's not that, Kopa," she finally said after a bit, looking up at him. "It's the engine itself that's outdated."

    Just then, Dusty flew down, a little dizzy from trying to fly high. "Come on, guys," he said. "We're going to fly through this tunnel."

    Seeing that they had no other option, they decided to go with it and hope for the best. Creech got on her sailcraft, and after a few attempts got it started up. Once Pocahontas, Cinderella, Kopa, Kovu, and Junior got on, she lifted off, following Dusty as he flew up, turned, and started flying right in the tunnel's direction. Soon, they found themselves inside it, flying fast through the darkness. Switching on the sailcraft's headlights, Creech kept a sharp eye out as she looked ahead at the darkness when suddenly, a scraping sound startled her. The wings to the sailcraft were scraping themselves on the tunnel walls, sparks shooting out of them as if they were grinding stones. At that moment, they all heard an ominous TOOOOOOOOOOOOT! that made Junior look up-and gasp in fright. "GUYS!!! INCOMING TRAIN!!!" he screamed.

    They all looked and sure enough, there was a train coming their way! "Alright, all of you who are on the sailcraft-hang on!" Pocahontas ordered as she took control. "There's no turning back now! WE'RE GOING IN!"

    Creech, who had been shoved down next to Junior by the Indian princess, could only watch in increasing horror in her eyes and hang on tight to handle bars that she installed on beforehand as the sailcraft Pocahontas now piloted pushed itself to its limits, trying to beat the train before it barreled into the other side of the tunnel. The driver, meanwhile, looked out of the engine's cab and saw them coming. He gasped, quickly slamming on the brakes. The sailcraft kept on going, the train wasn't close to stopping, and it looked like a deadly collision would take place. Frightened, Creech closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact-which, strangely enough, never came.

    Panting in fright and trying to calm down, she opened her eyes-only to find herself surrounded by puffy white clouds as if they were in fog. "Wh-where are we?" she asked as she finally started to compose herself.

    "You know," said Kopa, still shaking a little, "I-I really don't know. But the real question is-are you okay?"

    Creech was confused. "Y-yeah. Why'd you ask?"

    "Isn't it obvious?" said Kovu. "You looked like you were gonna have some sort of a heart attack or something."

    "True," Pocahontas added, agreeing with Kovu. "It's a good thing you didn't die of fright."