Chapter Ten
Ben ducked and rolled. He heard the whistle of the Bear-Thing’s claws slicing through the air above him, then the sizzle of his skin as his bare arm brushed against the searing floor.
“Ooh, ooh, hot, hot,” he yelped, then he hurled himself sideways as a huge paw cracked the rock where he had been standing.
Ben looked up and saw a flash of a cold, dark eye. He stumbled backwards as the monster’s jaws snapped shut with a clack that echoed around the cave.
“Can’t we talk about this?” Ben asked. The monster made another dive for him. It brought both arms up above its head then slammed them down. Ben barely managed to scramble out of the way before the paws crunched against the stone. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’,” he yelped, then he ducked again as the monster’s claws slashed at him.
The heat in the cavern made the air shimmer. Ben could feel sweat trickling down his bare legs and into his boots. He squelched as he turned and ran, trying to put as much distance between himself and the monster as possible.
He spun, pulling out his catapult and taking aim with a chunk of volcanic rock. He let fly with the stone. There was a twang and a swish and a soft thup as it bounced harmlessly off the Bear-Thing’s shark-head.
Dropping the catapult, Ben turned and ran again. The ground beneath him shook, and he knew the thing was on the move, chasing him, catching up.
He dodged left. A shadow passed over him and the Bear-Thing snarled as it rolled and thudded against the jagged cavern wall.
“And stay down!” Ben warned. The monster flipped itself back up on to its feet. “Or don’t. It’s up to you,” said Ben, and then he was off and running again.
There was no way he could fight this thing without ending up as a lumpy paste on the floor. He had one chance, though. One chance to escape. One chance to survive.
Ben turned towards the river of lava, lowered his head, and charged. At once he felt the sting of the heat on his face. He pushed on. The air around him seemed to bubble and boil. The hazy black smoke swirled up his nostrils and reached down into his lungs.
Paradise’s voice echoed around the cavern, screaming at him from every direction at once. “Behind you!”
Ben hurled himself sideways, throwing up his hands to shield himself from the searing heat just as the Shark-Headed Bear-Thing sailed past overhead. Rolling to his feet, Ben watched as the monster tumbled down. Its brutish limbs flapped frantically as it tried, for the first time in its life, to fly.
And then failed spectacularly.
SPLOONK!
The Bear-Thing performed an almighty belly-flop into the lava, spraying droplets of burning orange in all directions. It let out a final angry hiss, then it half-sank, half-melted into the mass of molten rock and was gone. Ben stared at the spot where the monster had vanished, half-expecting it to come leaping back out.
It never did. Wiping the worst of the soot from his face, Ben allowed himself a shaky smile.
“I did it,” he mumbled. “I fought a monster.”
“Told you, now hurry up!” Paradise’s voice rang out again. Blinking in the heat haze, Ben scanned the other side of the cave until he spotted Paradise and Wesley in the mouth of another tunnel. “This way,” Paradise said.
“The mayor’s somewhere along here.” Ben tried to speak, but it came out as a series of hoarse coughs. The sooner he got out of the heat, the better. With a last glance at the Bear-Thing’s final resting place, Ben scampered across the bridge and followed the others into the cool dark tunnel.
“That was really quite impressive,” Wesley told him. “Really quite heroic!”
“Yes, the way you dropped your sword and ran for your life like that. Amazing,” Paradise said.
“I didn’t drop my sword,” Ben told her. “It caught fire.”
“And then you dropped it and ran for your life,” Paradise said, but there was a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “You did good. Now let’s move on.”
“I did do good, didn’t I?” he said. “I actually fought a proper monster!”
“Yes, but don’t keep going on about it,” Paradise said. “We still need to rescue the mayor.”
Ben cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted into the darkness ahead of them, “Maaaaaayor! Yoo-hoo! Can you hear me?”
“What are you doing?” hissed Wesley. “Something might hear us.”
“That’s the whole idea,” Ben said. He puffed out his chest. “You don’t have to worry about the monster any more. I took care of it. Did you see me?”
“We don’t need to shout,” Paradise said. “I can find him. Follow me.”
They moved on. Ten paces later, they stopped again.
“It’s quite dark, isn’t it?” Ben said.
“Can’t see a thing,” Paradise admitted.
“We’re going to die!” Wesley whimpered. “Oh no, wait, hang on,” he added, then there was the sound of him rustling around inside his gaping sleeves.
A moment later a blinding light lit up the passageway, forcing Ben and Paradise to cover their eyes. “Sorry everyone, sorry,” Wesley said. “Here, let me just adjust…”
The brightness dimmed. Ben and Paradise blinked away the spots behind their eyes, then turned to Wesley. He was holding a small glass jar by a length of string that was tied to the top of it. The glass was a smoky shade of black, but whatever was inside the jar was powerful enough to still be lighting up thirty metres of tunnel in both directions.
“It’s a sun,” Wesley explained.
Paradise frowned. “The sun?”
“No, not the sun,” replied Wesley. “A sun. Just a small one. I won it last year in a contest with a level-three trainee.”
Ben looked impressed. “A magic contest?”
“Tiddlywinks,” Wesley said.
“Oh.”
“I’m really rather good.”
Paradise rolled her eyes and set off along the passageway again.
“So you just walk around with a sun up your sleeve?” Ben asked.
“Among other things,” Wesley said. “It’s amazing what you’ll find up a wizard’s sleeve. There’s stuff even I’ve never seen before. I had a whole family of badgers living up there for six months. Didn’t know a thing about it. Nice glove, by the way.”
Ben held up the hand with the gauntlet. “What, this? Thanks. It was my dad’s. Or my mum’s. Not really sure which. It’s magic.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Not sure what it does, but back at the bridge, when I caught you, I think it made me stronger for a few seconds.
I’ve been fiddling about with it since then, but it hasn’t done anything else.”
A flicker of recognition darted across Wesley’s face. “It looks familiar,” he said. “Here, could you hold this?”
Wesley passed the jar to Ben. “Don’t drop it,” he advised.
“No idea,” Wesley said. “But I’d rather not find out.”
He thrust a hand back inside a sleeve again, then pulled out a book. This book was smaller than the other one, but with just as many pages.
“What’s that one about?” Ben asked, but Wesley was already too engrossed in the book to hear him.
They continued on.
And on.
And on.
The passageway twisted and split off into dozens of different tunnels. Paradise guided them through the maze, barely pausing at each junction they came to.
“This way,” she said, as they took yet another left along yet another corridor.
“I’m hungry,” Ben said. “Is anyone else hungry?”
Without taking his eyes off his book, Wesley produced an apple from up his sleeve and passed it forwards.
“Thanks,” said Ben. He raised the fruit to his mouth, but Paradise caught his arm and held it. She stopped walking and pressed a finger to her lips. With a tilt of her head she gestured towards the corner just ahead of them.
“We’re almost there,” she said. “He’s just up ahead. We should stay quiet.”
“Why?” asked Ben, taking a big crunchy bite of the apple. “I took care of the monster, remember? The Shark-Headed Bear-Thing is history. We don’t have to worry about it any more,” he said, and he stepped around the corner, holding the sun in a jar out in front of him.
He stopped again almost immediately. The grin fell from his face and his apple fell to the floor. He thought about taking a backwards step, but he knew it was already too late.
Behind him, he heard Paradise and Wesley both gasp.
Ahead of him, a whole gang of Shark-Headed Bear-Things turned their black eyes in his direction.
“But,” he mumbled, “we should probably start worrying about these ones.”