Yeah, yeah, I know, its been forever, but this chapter is longer than the other ones.

Enjoy!

~~~~~

Alex's POV

I was led into a large, cavernous room. More men wearing black lined a path that stretched across the room, leading to a throne. On the throne sat a man in flowing purple robes, his head adorned with a silver crown.

"Shaneh jues ehy manah?"

What was he saying? "Um, listen, we speak different languages, so I don't understand you."

He looked confused for a moment. "Ketheth maen deot tona?" When I didn't answer he sighed and signaled the guards. They took me by the arms, leading me back to the cells. I was put into Nat's cell, and they locked the door behind me, walking away while muttering things in their strange language.

She ran up to me, grabbing me by the arm. "What happened?"

"Well," I paused for a moment. "We speak different languages, so we couldn't understand each other. Then I think he gave up and they took me back to the cell," I gestured behind me in the vague direction the guards had been.

"Do you think they'll let us go?"

"Probably, but I can't be sure."

She smiled in relief, then stated, "We should find Jasper."

I nodded in agreement.

"JAS-"

I slapped a hand over Nat's mouth. "We don't want them to come back and find us!"

"Yeah, I know, but how else are we supposed to find him?"

She had a point. "Alright, continue."

"-PER," she finished. There was silence.

"He must be in a different wing of cells." I wrapped my hands around the bars on the cell door. I tugged on them experimentally, and they didn't budge. They're made of iron, I realized. That meant that this place couldn't be much different than Earth. We're probably on Earth, idiot, I scolded myself. But if we were on Earth, and if that was a desert, then this had to be some sort of tribe that had found us. But this tribe didn't look as if it was native to the desert. We must have been close to the edge when they found us. The tribe was probably passing through. Then why were there no life signs in the desert? I mean, I get that it's a desert, but-

"Alex?" Natalie's voice broke through my thoughts. "What is it?"

"We have to get out of here." This desert was probably dangerous. Something hunted all signs of life; that was why we hadn't seen any living things. But it hadn't come out in the daytime, or at dusk. It was nocturnal, but it came out later in the night. These people that had taken us, they looked tough and burly, acting as if they controlled us, but they could have taken us for a completely different reason. Why would a clan of nomads have to capture a few travelers? What use would we be, and why did they take us if we were just passing through? They were trying to protect us. No one in their right mind would walk through a dangerous deserted desert unless they knew it wasn't safe. They probably saw us, saw our naive-ness and took us, trying to act strong and everything. But, now that I thought back to it, there had been traces of fear on their faces.

Whatever it was, they were scared of it.

Which meant that we should be too.

"Okay, wow."

I said that out loud, didn't I? Of course I had. Whoops. Oh well, it was probably for the best that she knew, anyway.

"So, we shouldn't get out," she realized, coming to stand beside me. "Oh. Jasper doesn't know," she whirled to face me. "He'll probably be fighting to get out."

A note of realization struck me. This wasn't good. "It's just not our week," I sighed.

"No, it's not."

Then alarms began to blare. Guards raced past us through the halls, yelling in their indistinguishable language.

"What's going on?" Nat yelled. One guard stopped to look at her, then pointed up.

We must be underground.

"What's up there?" I asked, pointing toward the ceiling. It took him a moment, but he seemed to finally understand me.

"Quetalzillion!" Then he ran down the hall to join the other guards.

"So, a Quetalzillion," Nat groaned. "It's really not our week."

"We don't even know what a Quetalzillion is!"

"Yeah, but it doesn't sound good."

Again, she had a point.

"Good thing I snagged these," she held up a ring of keys.

"I thought stealing was Jasper's job?" I moved out of the way as she unlocked the cell door.

"Yeah, and I thought you didn't like him stealing?"

"We'll talk about this later."

And now it was our turn to run. Through corridor upon corridor, through twisting tunnels, stopping to look in cells for Jasper along the way. We finally found him and unlocked his door as well. I dashed into his cell and bent down next to him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," he put a hand to his head. "But I probably have a concussion."

I turned to Nat and she bit her lip in worry. "I'll be fine," he added hurriedly, standing up. We had to trust him. There wasn't any time to stop. I shot to my feet.

"So, what's going on and what's the plan."

"Monster, big, we're underground, and," she looked at me.

"We're gonna fight it." I filled in, grabbing Jasper's hand and running out of the cell.

"Oh of course we are," he muttered as we ran. "So, what do we know about it so far?"

Nat and I filled him in as we ran. Prisoners wailed at us to let them out, but we couldn't waste any time. That's ironic, seeing as time is the only thing we have a lot of.

"What the stars is a Quetalzillion?"

"That's what we're about to find out. Also, watch your language," Nat warned Jasper as we reached the end of a tunnel. The last of the guards were exiting through a doorway up some stairs, probably going to fight. A roar sounded from above our heads, and fainting shouting ensued. There was a weapons rack, and we grabbed some swords off of it, seeing as they had taken our other ones.

"I'd prefer my dagger anyday," Natalie muttered, but swung the sword experimentally. We cautiously climbed up the stairs, poking our heads out of the door in the ground. A huge snake-like beast slithered across the sand, causing tiny grains to spray up in its wake. Guards yelled as they ducked to avoid its massive tail as it swung over their heads. A few guards lay on the ground, blood spattered across them, spikes sticking out of their armor.

"Where on earth could it be getting those spines?" I frowned, watching the monster with hawk-like attendance. Suddenly, it opened its mouth and small projectiles shot out of it, impaling a few more guards. They fell to the ground noiselessly, and lay there, unmoving. "Oh. That's where."

"Wait a minute, does that mean that those are teeth?" Jasper's eyes widened in horror.

"I guess so. Alex, are you sure you want to fight this? It's huge!" Natalie asked me skeptically.

"I'm sure."

Its blue-green scales shimmered in the pale torchlight from the trapdoor where they were. It turned around and they could see it's face.

"Oh stars," Nat whispered, not caring that she had previously told Jasper to watch his mouth. And I agreed. Profanity didn't matter right now.

Its head was lined with frills, its mouth stretching the entire length of its face. Its eyes were light the sun, making us squint to see. And there, in the middle of its forehead, was a small glowing sphere. The Time Orb.

Oh we were so screwed.

This couldn't be worse, I thought.

But of course, it could. The beast saw us, and roared. The sound was deafening, sand scattered in front of it. And it began to move toward us. It reached us at a blinding speed, and we barely had time to get out of the trapdoor and roll onto the sand in order to get out of the way. This isn't good, this isn't good, this isn't-

The monster roared again, its toughened body slithering past, only a few meters away. I jumped to my feet, spitting out sand. Oh, that's disgusting.

"What do we do?" Jasper yelled to me, backing away from the scaley figure.

"What? You think I have a plan?"

We hit the ground as a wave of sand spilled over us. I sat up, rubbing it out of my eyes. It stung, but I didn't have any time to dwell on that factor. I narrowly avoided a storm of the monster's teeth; they hit the ground behind me.

Swords won't help. But it would be any better if we got rid of them.

Jasper, Nat and I found our way back to each other and huddled together, staying low to avoid its gaze.

"Its got the Time Orb!" Natalie hissed, pointing over her shoulder at the beast.

"Oh no."

"What is it?" I asked Jasper. He turned to me.

"I have an idea. It's a bad idea, but it might work."

"Please tell me we're not getting onto its back," Nat groaned.

"You guessed it."

I turned toward the monster, ignoring Nat's moans of disappointment. She tapped me on the shoulder.

"Couldn't you just do the magic-y thing that you did in the kingdom?"

I glared at her. "I can't just do that on command. Besides, I have no idea what triggered it." She sighed and slouched away.

"Well, someone will have to distract it," Jasper pointed out.

"I vote him."

"Hey! No voting! But if we can vote, then I volunteer you, Nat."

"Wh-"

I pulled them out of the way as the snake zoomed past. Now we are all spitting out sand.

"Okay, how about you both distract it," I sighed, turning to them.

"What!"

"No way!"

"Then follow me." I jumped onto the end of its tail, Nat and Jasper following suit. It was slow going, but we eventually worked our way up to the head. We pried the Time Orb out, and it all seemed to stop. The monster halted abruptly, throwing us off the head and into the sand. The breath was knocked out of me, and sand was thrown over my face. Black spots danced in my vision and my head pounded violently. But it faded away and I sat up. It was silent. I saw Nat and Jasper sitting up as well, shaking sand out of their hair and brushing it off their faces. The monster was frozen in front of me, its mouth widened in a last futile attempt to get rid of us. Guards lay in the sand around it, buried halfway or squashed flat from being run over. I quickly checked myself for injuries.

Head? Sore, but I'd be fine.

Arms? Intact, a little scratched up, and the same went for my legs.

I was sitting up, so my back was fine.

I wriggled my ankles and wrists. They were fine too.

But that reminded me. Jasper had had a small concussion before heading out here. I looked over to him again, rubbing my eyes one last time to get the sand out. He looked fine, but one hand was pressed to his forehead. We all stood up and I grabbed the Time Orb out of the sand.

We walked in silence all the way to the trapdoor when Nat asked hesitantly,

"Alex, if these people are nomads and just passing through, why do they have a dungeon?"

I thought back to all the people we had passed in the other cells, begging to be let out. "I think they overtook this place. All the people in the cells looked more accustomed to the underground area. These people threw them in the cells. It looked recent. They probably discovered the monster but the people wouldn't let them into their establishment, so they conquered it and threw them in jail." I gazed at all the broken bodies in the sand. "We need to let them out of the cells to give these guys a proper burial."

And that's what we did, finding the keys and releasing them cell-by-cell. They thanked us, and I was grateful that we spoke the same language.

After an hour or two of being fussed over by the nurses, we got away. I brought out the Time Orb and held it between us.

"It's time to leave."

~~~~~

Nat : so no Jalex in this chapter

Alex : Jalex doesn't exist, Nat

Nat : not yet, at least

Jasper : no, it NEVER will exist

Jasper : ever

I should probably intervene before they start arguing.

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter!

Drop a comment and vote, thanks for reading!