Chapter 3 Scene 2

Trapped in the cave, Amy is about to freak out when Tom calms her down. "It's going to be all right," Tom tries to assure her.

"How can you know that?" Amy asks.

"Lots of these caves have more than one entrance, and the natives will come find us. And remember that they need the statue Amy found."

Tom taps on the boulders blocking the entrance, hoping for a response. "There's no way anyone is here already. We'll try this later.  Meanwhile we need to explore this cave."

Mike points out, "We should conserve the torches. We might be here for a few days.  Let's keep just two lit at a time so they last longer."

The others agree, so four torches are doused by pressing them against a wall. Mike relights one of them to be sure that he can, and puts it out again.

"Good thing we brought all this food," points out Nicole.

"Yes, but we will also need water," remarks John. "We mustn't overexert ourselves."

"Let's get started," says Tom.

They move slowly along the wall in a clockwise direction, so they start toward the north. After a couple minutes Amy kicks something she didn't see in the dark, but Stefi follows the sound of something bouncing on the floor. Tom holds the torch toward the noise, and Stefi picks up a shell.

You found a Green Plaidy!

"I found a shell," announces Stefi.

"That's nice," notes Amy, "but we need to concentrate on getting out of here."

"Yes, but it is still important to pick up any rarities and idols if we find them," responds John. "Remember Keruka said we need to find all of them in order to be able to leave this island and get home."

Perhaps attracted to the noise, a bat flies at John's head. He ducks and staggers away from the group. When he regains his balance, he notices, "There's something over there." He heads excitedly in that direction.

"Wait for us, John," says Tom, but John is too excited to pay attention. Something is glimmering in the dim light. He reaches for it, but slips on a wet slope into a big puddle. There is a loud splash, scaring some bats away, but John comes up holding a prize.

You found the Statue of Uke!

"This is one of the idols!" exclaims John.

"John, get up out of there and dry yourself by this torch." Nicole is acting like the nurse she is.

Mike notices, "John just found a good source of water. We must keep this clean."

Tom adds, "Right. I forgot to say that a lot of these caves have water running along the floor.  It may just be a big puddle, or it may lead to somewhere."

They follow the water, but it soon ends near a wall. Mike has another observation.

"The bats might know another way out. They can't stay in just this part of the cave forever."

Amy asks, "Do we all have to follow the bats?" She is obviously not enthusiastic about the idea.

"No, Mike and I can do that," offers Tom. "You can go back to the entrance and see if you hear anything."

Nicole leads Amy, Stefi, and John back to the blocked entrance with one lit torch, while Mike and Tom move east along the north wall. Soon they come close to a flock of bats. Tom waves the torch and the bats shriek and fly away, up out of sight.

"Did you see where they go?" asks Tom.

Mike has excellent night vision. "I think they flew over a ledge up there. They're out of sight now."

Tom examines the wall and it is very vertical in that part of the cave with no apparent way of climbing it. "How high is that ledge?"

"I think it's way out of reach."

Quest 48: Determine how high the ledge is.

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