Caracus and all the others woke the next morning, with pains from the journey. It was a lovely day outside; the first day of summer. Caracus stretched and yawned. He went down the stairs and into the bar, where the others were sitting, at a round table.

“Morning” they all said dully “Come on” Nargeg urged, “We must go”. They all thanked Ramser for his kindness and left Menzell behind.

They were all sweating for it was very hot. Soon they entered a small forest and got away from the unforgiving sun. “It’s very hot” said Juimar as he sipped his water. “I’ll be lucky to make it through the day!”
“I’m used to it,” smiled Leeron, “but it’s never been as hot as this”.
“Yes!” agreed Nargeg. Caracus remained silent. The sun was still blaring when they returned walking. On and on they walked, for miles and miles, the sun continued to shine, just as strong as ever. A couple of miles on and the footpath led to some caves. “Proceed” Nargeg directed, when Caracus (who was leading) looked back, unsure whether or not to go in.

The caves were dark and gloomy inside. Thick, green slime covered the walls and ceiling of it. Nargeg muttered some words, and magically they all had hand made torches. (Just in case you’re wondering these torches were of course, like the Olympic torches, made of wood and with a natural flame.) On they went, all the time in silence. Suddenly, out popped a little goblin, with pale, waxy skin, golden eyes with black pupil, that stared at them.
“Go away” it said in its croaky voice. “These caves belong to goblins”. Even though the goblin was dressed in shabby armour it still managed to cause a shiver, right up the through Caracus. Caracus, froze, he had a flashback, a flashback of Zonu a flashback of goblins bossing him, and hitting him.

“O,Oran” shouted Nargeg, and the goblin was pinned against the wall. They walked on. The caves were huge; they must have been travelling for an hour now. Apart from a bat that flew over their heads nothing disturbed them. They all had their weapons at the ready, as they couldn’t trust the caves, uncertain of what lay ahead. Stalagtites hung down from the roof, and in the corners, the darkest corners, little red eyes watched them. Two big, green eyes now looked at them from the darkness, and the next thing they knew they were surrounded by about one hundred armed goblins. One of them mocked “Look it’s a dwarf” and began to poke Juimar in the belly. Leeron spoke up:” Don’t do that to my friend” and he sliced the air with his sword. Thankfully they were rock goblins, because they were known to be cowards, and with that they fled.

“Let them run” said Nargeg “they were in our way anyway”. They continued to pass through their dark tunnel. They didn’t know whether it was day or night in the cave, as it was dark all the time. They walked miles and miles, but the caves seemed to go on forever. They became hungry as meal times came and went but Nargeg persuaded them to press on.

“The caves are too dangerous. There’s worse than rock goblins here!” he said sternly. Nargeg was right, because after a few more hours of weary travelling, a big, gargoyle blocked their path. The Gargoyle picked up Juimar by the scruff of his neck” Well!” it said in a deep, sneering voice. “This plump morsel will do well for dinner!”
“Plump?” said Juimar angrily, and with that he whacked his axe, blade off the Gargoyles leg. It howled and released Juimar.

“Now” commanded Nargeg” You’d better let us through for we can do far worse”.
“So can I” threatened the Gargoyle, and then they saw six other Gargoyles around them. The Gargoyles had blue skin; they were huge, and they had evil spaces of white where eyes usually are( but they could see very well). All except Nargeg looked worried. They had their weapons at the ready but they knew it would be no use against seven Gargoyles. Nargeg had a plan. He closed his eyes and pointed to the roof. It cracked, and a huge, gaping, hole appeared. All that was heard were the roars that echoed through the caves. Nargeg had saved them all. The Gargoyles were turned to stone. They thanked Nargeg and continued on in the darkness. Eventually, they could go on no more, and were forced to stop, for the first time in days for a break.

“We cannot sleep” Nargeg told the others, “for I have just realised that these are the Gallir caves. If I had realised before we entered, we would have avoided them, but the good news is we’ll be out in a about another days travel” the others continued to eat in silence.

So on they went, through the Gallir caves. It was dull and boring as they walked. The only thing Caracus liked was that if you threw a stone or anything like that you could hear a nice echo. Sometimes Juimar would sing, but songs only lasted minutes and walking through the vast caves lasted hours, even days. They slumped along, quite slowly, and the tiredness seemed to show. What didn’t help their cause were their back packs, which seemed to weigh a tonne on their shoulders. Their water supplies were low, and once or twice they came across a stream, but they couldn’t allow themselves to trust anything about the caves, as experience had shown them. Leeron led the way for he had very keen eyesight; all of a sudden he turned his head back, excitedly.

“I can see the end” he remarked happily, “It’s about five miles away, which is the extent of my range of vision” (That’s pretty good long sight I should say.) This gave them all great joy, and on they went, almost jogging along despite their extreme fatigue. Leeron was right, because the cave was getting brighter now. Within half an hour, they were three miles away. They kept on walking, without taking a break, two miles……………. One mile……..

Soon they could see the light to show the end of the Gallir caves. Caracus’s heart rose. They walked on, when suddenly, there was a big bang, and a massive boulder was hurtling towards them.

They all began to run. The boulder was catching up all the time, gaining ground on them. As they just emerged from the cave, the boulder would have crushed them only that it was too big to fit through the entrance.

Caracus was the only one to fall to his knees, but he wasn’t the only one panting! They had done it. They had completed the toughest part of their journey yet.