Part Thirteen:

Zoe would recognise Sammy's voice anywhere. It had a distinctive deep rhythm to it, and it was now resonating throughout the hole that Zoe, Jaz and Charlie were climbing down into. But Zoe was also weary of the fact that they had no idea what was down the hole. There could be a monster army waiting for them, and they could fall right into a trap.

"How far down is it?" Jaz called from somewhere above Zoe. Zoe had gone down first, so Charlie was hovering about her and Jaz above him.

Zoe glanced down the deep pit below her. She squinted, but couldn't spot a bottom. "I can't see that far," she admitted.

Above her, Charlie's foot hit a rusty rung and snapped off. The metal bar almost hit Zoe's head, but she ducked just in time. "Sorry!' he called.

"That's okay," Zoe replied, shivering slightly in the cool air of the pit. They made their way down for ten more minutes until Zoe's foot hit nothing. She gasped and looked down. Luckily the ground was only two metres below her, so she jumped the gap and hit the floor.

"I've reached the bottom!" She called up to the others. "But you'll have to jump down a couple metres." She surveyed her surroundings while waiting for the other two.

Around her were rocks. Heaps and heaps of them. Zoe stuck her hands out and found that the ceiling wasn't much higher than her head - besides where the hole was. The floor was also rocky, and the rest of the walls were as well.

When Jaz came down, she lit her palm on fire. Zoe scowled. Ever since they had rescued Jaz from Tartarus, she had been acting ... different. Her personality had changed and she was a lot more arrogant as well. It was as if she could only focus on herself and not others - maybe one of the reasons why she had gotten into the fight with Alex.

"Whoa," Charlie murmured. Zoe snapped her head up to look where he was pointing. On the furtherest side of the room stood a doorway to a tunnel. It looked like an entrance to a mine; rocks bordered with wood. Zoe heard Jaz gulp.

"Looks like we're going this way." Zoe said, and started towards the doorway, Charlie right behind her.

Just as they were a metre away from the door, a blood-curdling scream echoed from the tunnel. "Sammy!" Charlie and Zoe cried at the same time. Together, they plunged into the darkness

•••

"Stone," Ethan murmured. "Ask yourself where there is stone."

Alex, Silena and Ethan had been trying to figure out the clue for at least an hour by now. Ethan was doing most of the work while Silena and Alex gave 'helpful' tips while they ate chicken sandwiches on an overturned log.

"Ask yourself!" Silena cried in a mocking tone to Ethan. "Where is there this stone?"

"Not funny, Silena." Ethan snapped as Alex as Silena burst into laughter.

"Like I said before, it could be anywhere, though." Alex said in a 'serious' tone. Silena snickered. "Underground, on mountains, undersea..."

She burst into fits of giggles and high-fived Silena. As the two girls laughed, Ethan stared at them like they were crazy. Girls are weird. He thought to himself. Though Silena is cute when she laughs. Ethan's cheeks briefly heated up. He turned back to look at the clue and sighed.

"You're right, though." He said and the girls quietened down. "It could be anywhere. Well, the nearest place on the map from here where there is stone is what looks like a large rock pile." Ethan traced his finger across the map. "And it's in the other boxed area!"

"Then lets go!" Silena jumped to her feet. Ethan momentarily considered high-fiving her and jumping onto Festus again, but he had other problems.

"But... there's also another rock pile in the same area."

"So what? If the first one isn't what we're looking for, then we can go to the second one!"

"Good idea." Alex replied. She climbed onto Festus and he shook his head, as if coming out of a deep slumber. Ethan sighed and got on after Silena. They took off into the air.