Chapter 4 Scene 5

The native children enter the cave passage carrying their torches and all their tools. Soon Otanve steps on something squishy. He steps back, and realizes it's a mushroom.

""Watch out for these mushrooms!"

Rogula remembers, "Remember that Keruka said to save all those to make Lightfoot Potions."

There are lots of mushrooms of every color to be found along the passageway, and they find four each that are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

After some more walking, the path comes to a steep decline right after a stalagmite.

"Let's tie a rope around this stalagmite so we can climb back up if we have to," suggests Pelubo.

He and Bukela tie a rope as suggested, and Pelubo climbs down into the darkness after handing his torch to Gopumbi. It isn't a long decline before he reaches level ground. "It's only three or four meters long, you can come on down."

The others come down one at a time, careful with the torches and equipment. When they have all reached the level area, they see that they are in a large chamber. Walking around the edge they see six more passageways, and there is also a hole a meter in diameter in the floor by a stalagmite in the middle.

"Which way do we go?" asks Yadifo.

"Why don't we shout into all of the passages and see if anyone answers?" suggests Pelubo.

"Yes," agrees Rogula. "Be careful. Don't go into any of those alone."

They each pick a passage and shout if anyone is there, but there is no answer. They meet up again at the middle, when suddenly a swarm of bats flies through the hole in the floor. They fly around, and after a minute disappear through the passages on the sides.

"The way those bats flew, there could be openings at the end of each of those passages," notes Bukela.

"That is possible," agrees Rogula.

"And they must have come from somewhere," continues Bukela.

It is clear that the next thing to do is to shout into the hole in the floor. They all yell, "Anyone there?"

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