The Man in The Cave

Chapter 2

Valerie stood in front of her aunt, her backpack adjusted in her shoulder as the woman looked at her up and down, focusing entirely on the teenager, and her condition.

"Be careful" The woman said giving the teenager a tight hug. "Don't let the dragons bite you" She grabbed her by the shoulders, smiling.

"Dragon's won't bite me, because they aren't real" Valerie scoffed.

"Who says that?"

"They are fairy tale creatures, and fairy tale creatures aren't real" The sound of a car honk stopped any possible answer her aunt could have.

"Just take care, alright?" There was something behind her aunt's smile Valerie couldn't quite decipher, yet, she still adjusted her bag once again and gave her aunt a kiss on the cheek before running to Gabriel's car where Audrey had already taken the front seat.

"When I got down to help her with her stuff she ran and took the front seat" Jon muttered, eyebrows slightly furrowed in clear discontent.

"Don't be such a crybaby Jonathan, it's not that long of a road anyway" Audrey defended, earning a chuckle from Gabriel. Valerie heard Jonathan grumble something, but it was clearly something that wasn't meant for her, so she decided not to pry on it.

The road to the woods was short, just like Audrey had said, that however, didn't stop Jon from complaining about what a cheater Audrey was for taking advantage of him. Gabriel meddled in once in a while to defend Audrey until they arrived. Then, he left his car at the outside of the woods before the group of teenagers began their journey into the deep.

Amidst the trees, Valerie stared into the cloudless sky, the first clues of the sunset where showing and she knew they had to hurry if they wanted to find the best place before it got dark. The journey between the teenagers was mostly quiet, the only sounds that surrounded them were those of animals or those that came out of the dried branches the teenagers stepped on. Jonathan was the last and every once in a while Valerie had to stop to make sure he didn't get too far behind, this was usually followed by a teasing from Gabriel, and the voice of Audrey scolding him for walking so far ahead of everyone.

At some point Gabriel began to run with a small beetle on his hand threatening the ballerina with throwing the animal at her. This was unwelcomed by the girl who took the first stick she could lay her hands on and told the boy she would hit him with it if he walked closer to her with the bug in hand.

"Five pounds she hits him with it even if he drops it" Valerie leaned over to Jon who was catching up to her.

"Deal" He said. Both of them observed how Gabriel threw the bug to the ground and Audrey hit him with the stick before telling him how he should have known how much she hated insects.

"Looks like you lost five pounds" Valerie said walking as they followed the duo to catch up to them.

"Same thing" Jon shrugged "Not like you're going to actually reclaim them anyway"

Valerie knew he had a point, but she still furrowed her eyebrows and hit him in the arm.

After thirty minutes more of walking they reached the middle of a clearing, it was as dry as it could be due to the rain of the day before. Valerie wasn't entirely sure of how deep into the woods they were but the grass in front of them was as green as it could be, there was room enough for the tents and to put a fireplace. Valerie dropped her bag to the ground careful trying to pay attention to everything about the place, the flowers on the sides and the last song of the birds before they went to sleep. Gabriel made a comment about him and his father having been there before and Valerie paid close attention to it, taking onto his every word.