All: Falls down

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“There’s no more traps in this corridor. Run with me All!” Double-

dude vanished from sight again. “Come on!” He yelled back, “Catch

up!”

Putting her faith in him, All ran as fast as she could towards the end of

the hall. Sweat dripped down her forehead in buckets, and smoke

started to fill the hallway. The warm air grew more humid each step she

took, until the heat became so overwhelming to the point where All

had to stop running to look ahead and seen a hazy opening within

walking distance.

Double-dude walked up to All, and his tone of voice was more serious

this time when he said, “put the red dress that Rabbit packed for you

on… It’s been imbued with magical flame resistant properties, and

you’ll need it to be able to withstand the heat.

All quickly changed clothes in the hallway, and the softer, silky material

of the red dress was much more comfortable. Breathing became easier

and she barely even noticed the heat anymore!

“Come on… we have a long way to go still.” Double-dude said, as he

started walking towards the doorway.

All followed close behind Double-dude as he led the way. Squinting,she could see someone else waiting for them at the opening. Only a

silhouette of the creature could be made out at first, a short man

possibly, with glowing eyes… Its eye’s shined as bright as the fires

behind it.

“You made itt!” It hissed.

“Ssup Ssserpant!” Double-dude hissed back jokingly, while confidently

strutting towards it… All cautiously followed behind, while listening

attentively as the two creatures conversed.

“Sso we meet again Double-dude! Sshall I escort you and your

aquaintancsse to the Sssearing Ssstairwaysss?” It smiled as it hissed the

words.

Double-dude chuckled and said, “We would appreciate it! Seems

pretty easy to get burned around here! Tssss!” Double-dude bobbed his

head, making a sizzling sound to mock the creature and laughed!

All busted out laughing, but covered her mouth to contain herself, the

she slapped Double-dude on his shoulder and said, “Stop!” while still

giggling.

The creature tilted it’s head past Double-dude to look at All and said,

“hello missss, What’ss your name?”

All went to shake his hand and said, “All…How about yours?”“Sauce...Nice to meet you… All!” Sauce extended his hand to shake

All’s, and she found his hand to be dangerously cold! She noticed his

hand was covered in scales, and that he was reptilian! She studied the

lizard for a moment and it made sense to her that he was cold-

blooded… Warm-blooded animals probably couldn’t survive very long

around the scorching flames… Yet here she was, and was grateful for

her red dress, without it she would be done /for.

Sauce’s scales seemed black at first, but All noticed sometimes they

were red, green, purple, blue, yellow… Switching colors constantly!

Even the lizard’s eyes, mouth, tongue, and fangs rotated the rainbow…

The only thing on Sauce that didn’t change colors was his red robe,

which camouflaged him with the flames.

Sauce smiled and said, “Well come on All! Don’t just sStand there

ssStaring… Ssshall I sShow you the Ssstairway?”

All smiled and said, “Well I guess!”

Stepping out past the passage, the sight was spectacular! It was a

blazing inferno! A raging fire with mile high flames, fireballs were

exploding out of the lit pit randomly. All searched the room for a

stairway, but she seen nothing of the sort… Just flames!

Fire engulfed the entire room… There were no walkways or paths. All

there was, was the ledge that the party stood on. Trying to look ahead

was hurting All’s eyes, so she shielded them and looked to Sauce.“Follow me!” He said.

Sauce leaped into the air, and latched onto some rocks above the

passageway. Sauce started scaling the wall, moving fast, wriggling his

body awkwardly. Cranking back his neck at almost a hundred and eighty

degree angle to look at Double-dude and All, he flickered his tongue

and hissed “Come on!” Then twisted his head the remaining hundred

and eighty degrees, completing the full circle with his neck! Then he

continued slithering his way up the wall.

All scrunched her face and shivered, then looked at Double-dude with

a gaping jaw. “Disgusting!” she said, “Did you see that?!” Grabbing a

hold of her own neck, in the back where the spine attaches, goose

bumps popped up all over her arms.

Double-dude laughed at All’s discomfort while holding out his hands to

offer her a boost. “Ladies first!” he said.

All placed her feet on Double-dude’s hands, and he launched her up

the wall with a shocking amount of strength, sending her flying and

screaming. She reached out to grab the wall, but couldn’t catch a grip!

She closed her eyes as she started to fall back down helplessly.

Hanging in the air, she opened her eyes back up to see Double-dude

hanging onto her arm while smiling. “Get a grip and start climbing!” He

said, “I won’t do all the work for you.”

All grabbed a hold of the rocks, and began her ascent. Struggling tomaintain, she managed to pull herself up one rock at a time. Her

muscles throbbed, and her fingers were cramping up… But she did her

best to keep up with the other two.

Looking down made All nauseous… The red hot flames below were

becoming distant. She wasn’t able to look down very long when she

tried… The thought of falling was unbearable, and made her dizzy.

Looking back up, she lost sight of both of her companions that were

just above her a second ago. Not being able to see them made All

nervous, the fear of being abandoned in this place weighed on her

heavily. Until Double-dude’s head poked out from the wall up ahead.

Seeing her mischievous friend made her smile, and she let out a sigh of

relief as if the huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

When she was finally within arm’s reach, Double-dude stretched out

his hand to help All over the edge. All grabbed a hold of Double-dude,

and he swung her over his head into the tunnel with ease. She landed

softly on her feet.

More fire awaited on the other side of the ledge. Spiraling from the

floor to the ceiling, like a tornado. Sauce waited for the rest of the party

on the first step of the searing stairway. His robe flapped violently in

the winds of the giant fire tornado.

All looked up in awe as the flames circled the room, intertwining with

the stairs reaching up to the roof.“Almost there!” Double-dude promised, as he walked up to Sauce. All

decided to stay as close as possible to her new friend as they all began

their long walk up the stairs.