Category Archives: Sci-Fi

A Taste of "Dragon's Tear: Denicalis Dragon Chronicles – Book Three"

** Author’s note – This is the third book in my series and is currently in production. It is due to be released in April, 2008!

The first thing she realized was she was alone and it was no longer dark. Instead of sleeping beneath a black sky filled with tiny, glittering stars, she was now surrounded by a gray light with thick clouds overhead. Was it almost morning already? She felt like she’d barely slept at all!The next thing she realized about her odd situation was she was also surrounded by silence. Where were the crickets that had so quickly put her to sleep with their songs, which her mind refused to believe happened any longer than just a few seconds before?Her worried eyes darted left, then right, as she looked for her friends, but they were nowhere to be seen in the gloomy, pre-dawn light. In an instant, she was on her feet, her sword drawn. The little voice that had been whispering to her just seconds before that something wasn’t right was now nearly screaming in her head.

She took a few steps forward, dried leaves audibly crunching beneath her feet as she did so. She heard this sound as if was a vague, distant noise, almost ignoring it as she carefully looked around for any signs of her friends.

A swarm of nervous butterflies filled her stomach, threatening to assist her with the complete loss of her dinner from a few hours before. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath, counting to ten as she did so. When she opened them, she was still nervous but at least felt as though the nausea was at bay…

For now.

She looked around her gloomy surroundings once again, suddenly noticing shadows passing across the countless leaves scattered everywhere around her. She looked up, half expecting to see the sun trying to shine through the clouds, creating the dancing shadows on the ground. The sun, however, was well hidden behind the thick cloud cover.

She looked back at the shadows on the ground… they continued to dance as if they were alive, darting across the leaves and each other in an effort to get wherever it was they were going to. As she watched, they slowly faded away until there were no shadows left on the ground at all.

She shrugged to herself, unconcerned about the shadows. Instead, her thoughts took her back to her sleep, and her body reacted by working up a yawn.

She rubbed her eyes in an effort to wipe the sleep away, hoping when she opened them again, her friends would be nearby.

She wasn’t surprised when she opened them to a disappointing sight… nothing had changed.

Gone were the grassy area where they’d stopped for the night, her friends, and her backpack. Instead of the tall, brown grass she had fallen asleep in, she now saw many unfamiliar tall, dark shapes all around her. Her first thought was that these shapes were people, but as she blinked the sleep out of her eyes, she saw they weren’t people at all… they were trees. Dozens of tall, leafless trees littered the area around her and on the horizon, with branches jutting outward as they reached both for each other and the sunless sky.

She scolded herself for her growing fear. They were just trees! Wouldn’t Micah laugh at her for being afraid of silly old trees! She smiled as she thought of her joke-loving brother.

Dragging herself back to the present, she lowered her eyes to the ground in search of any sign of the others. Instead, she only saw countless shapes and sizes of brown leaves everywhere.

She wished she had her bag. If she did, the first thing she would do would be to pull out a torch and light it with a pair of rock sparkers. Sure it might be a danger to have a fire, especially because she was surrounded by an unending horizon of dried leaves, but she would feel a whole lot safer here in this eerie place if she had a fire, even a small one!

“Diam?” she whispered.

Silence.

“Kaileen?”

No sound answered her questions, not even that of a curious insect. Her friends and her things were nowhere to be seen.

She remained where she was as she struggled with questions about what had happened and what she should do.

Where had the others gone, and how had she gotten here?

As the gloom surrounding her began to lighten up a little, she finally decided to walk around and explore the area. Although she appeared to be surrounded by nothing but crunching leaves, maybe she would get lucky and find some sign, any sign, of her friends.

After surveying the area, she decided to head toward two clusters of trees over to her right, thinking it was possible that Diam had gone behind one of them for some necessary private time. She didn’t like the thought of interrupting her friend, especially during personal times, but she was starting to get a feeling in the pit of her stomach that she didn’t like and finding Diam was quickly becoming more important to her than her friend’s modesty.

As she approached the trees, she called out quietly, “Diam? Are you over here?”

Silence once again. Tonia looked around and shivered. As the seconds passed, she grew more and more uncomfortable about not seeing any signs of life at all.

She could see no birds anywhere in the trees and could hear none of the usual insect sounds she was used to hearing. It was almost as if she had been mysteriously thrown into the middle of a ghostly, deserted forest.

She looked upward, into the tops of the cluster of trees closest to her. Some of them grew so close together that their long, leafless branches intertwined wildly as if they were trying to hold onto each other. Many of the trunks appeared to be solid, not even offering any hint of shelter to birds or squirrels.

About ten feet away was another cluster of trees. These were smaller than the first but they were so close together she could see no signs of a gap between them and formed an odd-looking, natural wall.

And a wall would be a good place to hide from your sleepy friend…

She began making her way toward it, not watching where she was going. Without warning, she stepped on a raised object on the ground that was quickly followed by an awful crunching sound.

“Uh, oh,” she thought…Had something broken?

She immediately raised her foot and stepped aside, then nervously looked down to see what she had stepped on.

Lying partially covered by leaves was the gray skeleton of a bird. She bent down to take a closer look at it, brushing the remaining leaves covering it away from the decayed body as she did so.

She bent down and examined the damage created by her careless step. As far as she could tell she had stepped on the brittle, dry bones of one of its wings and part of the lower section of its body. The head, with its hollow eyes and empty, black nostril holes, was completely intact. The entire skeleton was about a foot long but she was unable to determine what kind of bird it had been or what had happened to it.

She surveyed the area around the lifeless creature and could see no signs of feathers or skin. It looked as though it had been quite a long time since the bird had breathed air.

Suddenly she heard a noise. It wasn’t a voice exactly, but sounded more muffled, as if someone might be trying to say something quietly behind their hand.

She quickly stood up and looked around, almost expecting to see Diam standing next to a tree, watching Tonia do what she loved, exploring wildlife. Her friend could be a prankster at times, much like her brother Micah, but not quite as bad. She could picture Diam standing there, laughing at her, half-heartedly trying to hide her laughter.

Diam, however, was still nowhere to be seen.

“Diam, Kaileen, come on,” she said in an exasperated voice. “I don’t feel like playing games right now. Come out, please?”

As she expected, she received no answer.

She continued making her way towards the wall of tree trunks, almost certain now that this was where her friends were hiding. As she walked, she realized it didn’t really make a difference about how carefully she stepped… the leaves on the ground continued to crunch loudly beneath her feet every time.

So much for a quiet approach…

She stopped for a moment and just listened. Sure enough after a few seconds, she heard the sound once again. Her eyes scanned the trees around her but she was unable to determine what direction it was coming from. Because of the amount of time she’d spent during her lifetime playing in the woods, looking for wildlife and tracking animals with Uncle Andar, this surprised her.

For now, however, she had more important things to dwell on.

“Diam, I’m not kidding,” she said nervously as she continued holding her sword out in front of her. The last thing she wanted to do was stab her friend if she jumped out at her from around the tree.

“Seriously, Diam! Come out, please?”

Diam liked to play around, just like they all did, but she knew Tonia very well, and could usually tell whether Tonia was serious or joking.

This time she wasn’t joking.

Hoping to avoid accidentally hurting her friend with her sword, Tonia began walking toward the wooden wall again, making a wide arc around the cluster of trees as she did so. When she finally got to a place where she could see around the barricade of nature, she began to see a shape in the shadows.

She quickened her pace around the wall, a little smile creased at the corner of her eyes. Her expression, however, changed quickly when she realized just what she was looking at.The dark shape behind the wall was not her friend, crouching in an attempt to hide from her… it was a large, leafless bush.She stopped where she was and closed her eyes in frustration. She had been sure she was going to find Kaileen and Diam hiding there!

She opened her eyes and sighed, then looked around. There were a few other small bushes in the distance, but whatever place this was that she found herself in consisted mostly of dark, tall trees. Her friends, however, were nowhere around. They had completely disappeared.

Her roving eyes slowly brought her back to the bush behind the wall, where a sudden movement among the cluster of long, thin branches caught her attention. She strained her eyes in an attempt to see just what had moved, but stood too far away to tell. She waited, and sure enough in a few seconds, it moved again.

With nervous caution, she slowly began making her way towards the bush, her right hand gripping her sword tightly.

The bush measured about five feet wide at its widest point with branches jutting out in all directions, tangled amongst themselves like a cluster of children all grabbing for a single piece of pie back in the village. Each slow, nervous step took her closer to it until she was finally able to make out just what it was laying among the branches that had caught her eye.

She stopped, still a few feet away from it, as a knot began to form in the pit of her stomach.

There, strung craftily among the innermost branches of the leafless bush, were tiny, thin tendrils of white lines. They extended from this branch to that, left to right, up and down, and were connected to each other by one narrow circle after another. The outermost of these circles was large and round, but they became smaller and smaller ringlets as they wound inward and approached the center of the artist’s creation.

The creation that was built among the branches of the dead, leafless bush was exactly that which she’d first suspected, a giant spider web. As she stood staring at it with nervous silence, movement in one area of the web caught her attention. There, trapped forlornly within the sticky strings of gossamer, was a large insect.

For a moment Tonia stood frozen, unable to move. As her mind reacted to the web, her palms began to sweat and her hands shook slightly. Her eyes ignored the struggling creature in the web for a moment as she nervously inspected the branches of the bush, looking for the owner of the silky trap. She was only slightly relieved when she could see no sign of the creature that lived there, knowing from experience that it could jump out at her at any time from any number of unknown and unseen hiding places.

Her experiences from exploring the woods near her home had also shown her that all wild creatures, insects included, could be sneaky when they wanted to be, especially in regards to a potential meal. She had no intention of approaching the bush until she was absolutely certain it was safe for her to do so.

Warily, she turned her eyes toward the thick wall of tall trees in front of the dwarfed bush. If the web’s owner wasn’t in its home, surely it must be hiding expectantly in one of the nearby trees, just waiting for her to try to rescue the trapped insect. She was almost certain that the web’s creator must know the insect lay struggling within its creation and wouldn’t venture far…

But as her eyes passed slowly over the nearby wall of wood, she detected no movement or evidence of life.

Slowly her eyes returned to the still struggling green insect.

“Mmm, mmmmmmmmm!” it mumbled as it continued to exert itself within the glistening strands of web, becoming more entangled by the second.

Tonia stepped around the bush and away from the trees, slowly making her way toward the web. When she was less than a foot away from the edge of the bush, she stopped.

On first glance, the trapped bug appeared to be just some unfortunate insect that was struggling to release itself from its entanglement. Now, however, she could see more than that.

The trapped creature had somehow maneuvered itself so that it was lying on its back. Its wings were stuck in a fully opened position behind it as if it had been blown by a gust of wind into the trap, freezing it while in mid-flight. The few areas of the unfortunate insect’s body she could see were a pale green color, but other parts had been covered with thick, clusters of webbing. As she looked at it more closely, she could see that the lower abdomen area had been wrapped up in much the same way as the bat had been in the cave where they’d found the turtles, magical stones, and red amulet.

Her eyes slowly made their way up the insect’s body moving towards the head, but suddenly widened as she got her first close up look at the struggling creature’s face…

It was Diam.

excerpt from "Many, But One"

Below is the Introduction and first chapter of Hidden Secrets of “Many, But One”…see my profile for more information or see www.drryles.com

Introduction/Preface

The book you are now holding and the findings of this book may seem to be an incredible work of fiction but I assure you it is all shockingly quite true . A copy was fully registered and on file with the U.S. Copyright Office 4 years before the events took place…

In 1997 I was guided in what I call “Connected Channeling” to write and then copyright a manuscript. After the September 11th 2001 terror attacks on America I was guided to take a closer look at this book and that is when I found it to contain many startling messages, warnings, and direct connections to the actual plane numbers (11,77,93,175) used in the attacks and what the future would hold following the attacks . These messages were mysteriously numerically encoded into the work itself in a style similar to “Bible Codes”. The messages are too numerous and precise to be considered coincidence as you will find as you read
The book I speak of is known as “Many, But One” and is a collection of primarily rhythmic quatrains of poetry. Some have considered this book as a “Hidden Nostradamus”.
“Hidden Secrets of “Many, But One” is basically 3 books in one that will take you on a 3 part journey. A true , incredible, and sometimes frightening journey. The journey begins with my first contact with the supernatural at a very early age, through my early years of clairvoyance and sometimes bone chilling fear and terror growing up in a “haunted” house, through to the writing of “Many, But One”, and an extremely vivid fairly recent account of physical contact with the unknown.
The journey then continues with the amazing and numerous findings of “Many, But One” described in detail, numerological oddities throughout my own personal life, a very interesting and thought provoking look at the numerous numerology oddities and anomalies connected to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, September 11th and 9-11 throughout history, and of course a complete and unchanged copy of the actual poetry collection itself.

I have been asked countless times…What is “Many, But One” and why was it sent? My best and most heartfelt answer is that it was sent through me to help us…all of us… regardless of religion, race, beliefs, etc.. It is meant to be read, enjoyed, studied, and above all heeded. I feel the messages, both hidden and in plain view, are of extreme importance and that many, many more messages and meanings will be found in the pages of “Many, But One”.
I also feel very, very strongly that “Many, But One” is meant to be a journey within itself, individual to each and every person who reads it. A journey of reflection and contemplation. Personal and powerful to each person.
__________________________________________________

PART
1

AS THE WRITING BEGAN

In 2005 I was once again clairvoyantly prompted. This time what I wrote was not guided through me, but I was more in a sense “told” to write and chronicle my life story, at least the paranormal aspect of it. Few people, including my very close friends and family, know much about my experiences, or at least they aren’t aware of the true depth of them. The stories I have written are of course a very condensed version. I have had many, many more unusual events throughout my life, but for the scope of this book, which I feel the primary importance is the messages of “Many, But One”, I have included a few of the more extreme cases.
As I began to recall and write my memories down for the first time in my life, I seemingly reawakened the ghosts and demons of my past. Both figuratively and literally. Paranormal activity around me peaked higher than it had in many years. Many times as I wrote I had a feeling of a strong presence near me. There were also 3 incidents of the front door of my apartment, which is a few feet from the computer I wrote on, flying open extremely violently. To the point of banging into the wall and bouncing back three quarters closed. All 3 times there was no one near the door either inside or outside and the wind outside was dead still. On at least one of those occasions I am quite sure that the door was both locked and hinge latched at the time. Another instance occurred as I was on my evening walk and I saw the back storm door of a house I was passing violently fly open just as I glanced at it. Once again no one was near it and the wind was still.
I also experienced multiple incidents of unexplained electrical and electronic equipment malfunctions and breakdowns. Especially at times when I was working on the book itself (computer, printer, software, etc.). Some cases seemed malicious and designed to slow my process, while at least one was, still to my true amazement, designed to help me.
One of the programs I was using strangely reported that I had made an error in a calculation I had thought I had verified. I redid the calculations 3 times more and every time the program reported back that I was in error. As I began to examine my work more deeply I found a new and very important fact and update concerning “Many, But One” that I had overlooked. Once I found this fact the software returned to normal and showed that my original calculations were indeed correct.
FIRST CONTACT

My experiences with the supernatural and paranormal began very early in my life. The first event I can still vividly remember is of being a child of about 3 years old and standing in the kitchen of my Great-Grandmothers’ house one hot summer night.
The rest of my family, by family I mean my mother and father, I am an only child, was in the living room talking to my Great-Grandmother and I had wandered off to explore the house. It was my first time to be at her house and I was always naturally curious. For some reason I was drawn to look out of the window in the top section of the kitchen door. As if I almost felt like something was out there. My eyes were barely high enough to see out as I slowly pulled back the curtain and looked out into the yard. Her house was in a small country town and this was almost 40 years ago so the houses were few and far between and there were few lights at night in small country towns. At first I saw only total darkness, but then suddenly a light caught my eye. It seemed to just appear out of nowhere. As I watched it I realized it wasn’t like anything I had seen before. It seemed to just be a ball of light attached to nothing or no one hovering about 3 feet off of the ground. The ball seemed as if it was going to float through the yard and then into a wooded area behind her house when suddenly it stopped midway through her yard. As I watched it, mesmerized by it, and of course being 3 having no fear or apprehension, only curiosity, it began to float slowly toward the kitchen door. It floated closer and closer to the window, until it was only a few inches from me with only the glass between. I could now see clearly that it was not attached to anyone or anything, but truly was just a ball of medium bright white light about 3-4 inches wide. It floated before me for maybe 15 seconds as if it was looking at me. As if it was as curious about me as I was of it. Then slowly it drifted back to the center of the yard and moved into the woods. As I watched it disappeared into the trees and once again the yard was dark.
Not understanding what had happened, but being very excited about it ,I immediately went into the living room and began to tell everybody what had just happened to me. They all looked at me and smiled as I described how a “ball of light” had come to “visit” me at the kitchen window. They all acted excited about it as you do with a child when they tell you an incredible story, but they of course didn’t believe me. I never forgot what happened that night though.
Years later I found out that my Great-Grandmother had been in the Eastern Star and that my Great-Grandfather, who had passed away before I was born, had been a 33rd degree Freemason. After doing a little research into the beliefs of the Eastern Star and Freemasons I discovered that they believe in the paranormal or supernatural maybe more than most people. I began to think maybe she believed me more than she said that night and just didn’t say anything since at that time my parents had little or no belief in anything supernatural or paranormal.
I only saw my Great-Grandmother a few times in my life but we always seemed to have a very close connection and bond to each other for some reason.
My young years after that night were filled with many paranormal and clairvoyant type events as if maybe the mysterious light had started them to happen in some way or had in some way opened a part of me. Many of the events were fairly minor ones like knowing who was on the telephone when it rang or who was at the door before you open it. Some were of a more major type such as strong intuitive feelings. Such as sensing things I shouldn’t do or places I shouldn’t go. Some of the messages and feelings were of a more major type, but were closely personal so I don’t wish to go into them in this book at this time. Some are still affecting me today as I write this.
By the age of about 9 years old I had lived in 2 rent houses and 2 apartments when my family was finally to settle in a small rent house where we would spend the next 8 years. The first truly permanent place we could call home. We were all overjoyed, especially me. Having lived in 2 different apartments over the last few previous years I was in heaven to be moving into a house with a huge yard to play in, and even bigger field behind the house, and an old horse barn as my private “clubhouse”. The house was located at 1519 _____ Street and we nicknamed it “1519” and called it that from then on.
As we became better acquainted with our new neighbors over time they began to tell us terrible stories of past events that had happened in our new house before we moved in. I heard terrible stories myself, and I’m sure when I wasn’t present my parents were privy to much worse. Stories of the mistreatment and abuse of people and of mistreatment, abuse, and even mass killings of domestic animals within the house.
My parents, as did I at the time, held a view that what happened in the past stayed in the past and that you should “let sleeping dogs lie” so to speak. Since my parents never pursued or verified any of these stories I will not present them or elaborate further on them here. I can however verify one thing. The room that was my bedroom at the time was supposedly the site of many of the events and deeply etched into the ceiling and covered with several layers of paint were strange symbols and cryptic words.
When we moved in and for about the first year all seemed normal but that was about to change. What was to happen one innocent night changed us all forever.

See more at www.drryles.com

A Taste of "The Prisoner: Denicalis Dragon Chronicles – Book Two"

The monkey surprised them when it suddenly moved back a few branches. As it settled into its new location, it once again held the ring out in its opened palm. As before, the rest of the creatures in the tree fell silent. They watched their leader as it held the ring, still mesmerized by the small piece of jewelry.

The monkey with the ring looked at the girls below with a gleam in its beady eyes.

“You want this ring back?” it asked teasingly.

“Yes!” Diam answered from where she stood once again next to Tonia. The coins she had retrieved were now safe in her pocket.

“Please give the ring back to us!” she said in a frustrated voice.

The monkey protectively closed its hand over the ring. After a few seconds, it brought the closed hand that held the ring up to its chest in a possessive gesture.

“What will you give me for it?” it asked them. The rest of the creatures in the tree remained silent yet fidgety, as though they could sense something in the air.

The girls looked at each other as they tried to think of any item in their possession they could use to barter with the monkey.

They had no food, except for some bruised, old chickleberries… the gold coins they had retrieved from the dirt beneath the tree were obviously worthless to the creature… and relinquishing their weapons was absolutely not an option.

“We have nothing to trade, except for this,” Diam said.

She pulled her bag off her back, set it on the ground and began going through it. In a few seconds she withdrew a pia bottle which was half filled with water. She held this out to the monkey.

“Bah!” the monkey shouted, obviously unimpressed with her offering. “I have no use for that!

“You should go and continue on your way now,” it said disgustedly.

With that, the monkey turned slightly to his right. His left side now faced the girls as he looked with pretend interest at an apple that was hanging near his right arm.

At the same time, the other monkeys in the tree began to screech and jump wildly on the branches. They carried on this way for several seconds before they finally settled down once again.

“What?” Tonia asked, not understanding. “We need the ring. Just give it back to us and we’ll be on our way.”

“Ahh, young stranger, but you have nothing which to trade for it,” the monkey gloated before continuing. “I will, however, make you an offer.”

The girls listened silently, unable to entertain the idea that they might not get the ring back.

“Because you have so generously given me this small item, I will reward you by allowing you to take some of the fruits of my home,” it continued. “You may take whatever apples have fallen to the ground. Once that is done, you may leave without any more trouble from me or my clan.”

“We’re not leaving without the ring!” Diam shouted up at the monkey.

She gestured towards the creature in a stabbing motion with her sword as she fervently wished one of the boys had given them a bow with some arrows. If they had, Diam knew without a doubt she could take this crazy creature out with one shot! As it was, however, they only had their swords, not to mention the fact that they were very outnumbered.

A Taste of "Dragon's Blood: Denicalis Dragon Chronicles – Book One"

Nicho held up his hand to have the others stop behind him then cautiously walked over to the hole, carefully stepping on the rocks, wanting to get a better look down into it. When he got a step away from the edge, he stopped and leaned over slightly as he peered into the darkness below.

“Nicho, I don’t think…” Tonia started, but before she could finish, there was a tremendous rumbling as the floor beneath them suddenly began shaking violently.

Nicho realized too late that he was standing too close to the edge of the gaping hole and before he could step back, the loose rocks beneath his feet began to crumble.

Instantly a look of surprise and fear clouded his face. Before he could regain his footing, his feet began to slip over the edge of the hole as the torch he was holding fell from his hand into the depths of darkness. It hit the outer edge of the hole before disappearing, out of sight.

“Noooo!” Nicho yelled, looking helplessly at the others, fear filling in his eyes. They jumped forward and tried to grab his left arm as it flew up into the air.

Their reaction, however, was too slow and Nicho slid over the edge of the hole, falling into the darkness. Seconds later they heard an audible thump!

Immediately Micah, Diam and Tonia were lying on their stomachs, looking into the dark chasm. They could see and hear nothing.

“Nicho!” Tonia shrieked, lying on her stomach at the edge of the pit, trying to see her brother.

The tremors that caused Nicho to lose his balance ceased as suddenly as they had begun.

The tunnel was silent except for the whimpers from Tonia. She looked at Diam and Micah in disbelief, seeing the same look on their faces reflected back at her.

Down in the depths of the abyss, they could vaguely see the flickers from the torch as it struggled to stay lit in the surrounding dust. It appeared to have fallen into a spot that was under an overhang, or bounced partly into a tunnel. As the dust began to clear, she could vaguely see Nicho in the nearby shadows, lying motionless in the dust.

“Nicho!” she yelled frantically. “Nicho, answer me! Are you okay?”

They continued looking over the edge of the abyss down into the darkness, feeling completely helpless.

‘This can’t be happening’, Diam thought to herself.

Micah got back up on his knees and crawled back a few feet. He removed his bag from his back and
started hastily rummaging through it.

Diam looked back at him and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Did we pack any tarza vines?” he asked the girls. “I can’t remember.”

He was trying hard to maintain his control, but both of the girls could hear the uncertainty and fear in his voice.

“Nicho?” Tonia called, starting to cry. “Nicho, please answer me! Are you okay?”

Diam scooted back next to Micah and began doubtfully going through her own bag. She was almost sure that tarza vines, especially long ones like what they would need in this situation, were something that none of them had thought to pack.

Unable to find anything of use, she put her bag on the ground and crawled back to Tonia, who was now crying unashamedly.

“Tonia, come on. We’ve got to keep ourselves together if we’re going to be able to help Nicho. Come look through your bag. We’re looking for tarza vines, but I don’t think any of us packed any. It’s worth a try though. Come on,” she said, encouraging Tonia to scoot backwards towards where Micah was still sitting.

Tonia looked up at her friend with smudges on her face from the dirt and the tears. She reluctantly dragged herself away from the edge of the abyss after one more shocked glance down into the darkness.

She crawled over to where Micah was sitting, still riffling through his bag with no luck, then Diam helped her pull her bag off her back. After gently placing it on the dirty floor, Tonia used her shirtsleeve to wipe tears away from her eyes.

“What are we going to do, Micah?” she asked, looking up at her brother who was now in charge.

“I know we didn’t pack enough tarza vines to be able to reach that far down into the hole. We don’t know where we are so we can’t even go back the way we came to try to make it into the forest to find some vines that we can use!”

She could feel herself beginning to panic but felt helpless to stop it.

Diam put a steady hand on her friend’s shoulder.

“Tonia, take a deep breath! We’re not going to do Nicho any good if we fall apart! Get control of yourself and help us figure out what we are going to do!” she admonished her friend.

Tonia looked at Diam and nodded her head. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and said, “Okay”.

A moment later, they came to the expected conclusion that indeed they did not have what they needed to rescue Nicho. Even if they did, Micah thought, they didn’t know if Nicho would even be able to climb out on his own. If he was seriously hurt…

Tonia interrupted his thought when she began crawling back over to the hole. She got to the edge, looked over, and called out, “Nicho? Are you all right? Please, answer me!”

While they were looking through their bags, the torch that had fallen into the hole had gone out. Tonia’s question was answered by both silence and darkness.

Tonia sat up, about to cry again.

Suddenly, the rumbling in the tunnel surrounded them once again, like before, without warning. Afraid of falling down in the hole with her brother, Tonia immediately backed up and joined the others.

In addition to the tunnel shaking around them, they now heard another sound, indistinguishable at first. As the rumbling subsided, the other sound increased, and soon they all recognized it for what it was… an evil, guttural growl.

“Who has the nerve, the absolute gall, to wake me from my sleep!” an angry voice cried out from the darkness of the hole.

The explorers looked at each other in shock. Who or what was the owner of this angry voice?

“My slumber is NOT to be interrupted, under ANY circumstance!” the infuriated voice boomed.