Head in the Clouds

Chapter 4: Secret Tunnel

"Wait up!"

The light was revealed to be coming from the three people she had just instructed to stay outside. Relief settled over her as she noticed the lit torch in Allioni's hand, then discomfort took over realizing they may have been unsafe.

"I thought I told you all to stay outside," she said sternly.

"We were but-" Valery seemed to be cut off as she looked over Deidre's shoulder.

Deidre turned around and was shocked to find a large, heavy door seemingly made of silver and gold right behind her. She herself was even shocked looking at the intricate designs and writing along the golden door frame that didn't quite seem like English. The door seemed to be as tall as the ceiling and knocking on it proved it to be as thick as ten regular doors.

"What even is that thing?" Asked Indigo more to herself than the group. For her, this whole adventure was pointless and getting increasingly uncomfortable.

Allioni's nerves began to take over, "Maybe we should head back," he suggested.

Deidre grabbed the torch from his hand and held it near to the doorframe. The words written didn't seem english at all, but they looked somewhat familiar. The letters strongly resembled English letters, but some of them seemed backwards or misshapen. It must have been an ancient structure, one before the English one. Then why did she recognize it?

She thought of all the languages she knew. Mostly, it was just English, Dolie and Henne, but this wasn't any of these. Where would she see an old language similar to English?

"The palace," she decided, "I must have heard it from Queen Avina. Yeah, she must have read to Clyde, Carter and I in that language. She may have even tried to teach us a few letters. Let me see."

She looked at those letters with no lack of seriousness to the task. For some, she was able to understand, but others took some time. This was obviously a very old seal which only made her more curious to open it.

"Qui primus rex Hiericho?" She finally decided, "Primus- prime- first. Qui, what ? What was the first city in the hierarchy? No, 'who' sounds better. Hierarcho sounds like hierarchy- or Jericho. That means Rex is-"

"King," interrupted Indigo, "This is Latin, and in Latin Rex means king!"

"I was just gonna say that, but alright," mumbled Deidre.

"Who was the first king of Jericho?" Dedeuced Valery.

"You're right," Indigo agreed.

"Fine, go ahead and take all the credit," Deidre said under her breath.

The other three didn't seem to notice Deidre's grumbles only focusing on the door. While Deidre tried to remember who the first King of Jericho was, Valery was busy being awe struck by the door. Indigo was just itching to go home and Allioni was already regretting his decision to tag along.

"What makes you think this guy can get through that thing?" Asked Allioni. Though it may seem like he was concerned about the futility of opening the door, he really just wanted to get back home.

Deidre lowered the torch to the ground then looked at the glossy eyed boy.

"Footprints," she simply said before turning back to the door.

She looked around the large structure and found something strange. There were a series of buttons pertruding from the door with various letters on them. She stood over it unsure of what to do with it at first, but was quickly able to put two and two together.

"King Lionel Woodrow," she touched each letter to spell out the name of the first king of Jericho.

Much to the surprise of the four trespassers, the buttons lit up with a humming sound unlike anything any of them had ever seen. There were loud sounds of locks turning and metal clicking before the giant door as though someone was unlocking it, but when the door creaked open no one was standing on the other side. No one dared make a sound.