Quitetly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled himself, preparing to launch the powerful killing blow. Before he could even move, the cat ran up in front of him! Quiggly froze as if struck by an invisible wall. His body went rigid and rigidly fell, hitting the ground with a loud thud. "Ah ha!" the voice echoed off the wall. "Well done. It was so simple!" the mysterious cat said from the darkness. "That was just a hint of the power I possess. Just a taste of what you should have prepared to do. I can help you with your weakness, Quiggly. But not until you're ready to come over to my side." The cat had already disappeared into the dark crevice before Quiggly, still out of breath from trying to run as fast as he could, realized what had just happened. He was no longer afraid of being trapped in the dark. His fears were gone forever. He looked up at the wall. At the glowing red eyes that, like his own, were now lit by the tiny fireflies as well. "It's time to start preparing to save the animals and the world!" the cat said from the darkness, his loud, rich, playful, but threatening voice echoing through the stillness of the night. "Prepare yourself, and then come into the light!" THE END Chapter One # The Cave-in This is the story of two boys who were trapped in a cave. They knew each other at school but knew nothing about their other lives outside of school. But when faced with a cave-in, they had to accept the fact that nothing was what it seemed. # CHAPTER ONE # The Cave-in The morning's light was weak and the sky hazy, almost the opposite of its usual crisp and bright gray on this clear and balmy November day. The youngsters weren't even in their bedroom, not yet awake. Their naps would come soon. It had been an early weekend, but the long sleep still gave them plenty of time to get themselves ready for the day ahead of them. It was a weekend to look forward to. They could sleep in! It wasn't as if they had anything planned for Sunday night, not even for Saturday night. Their new house was a small and tidy two bedroom affair. Their parents had bought it only a year ago. On their first day of moving in, they had noticed an old, empty milk crate on the ground by the curb. "What are you going to do with all that junk?" their dad had asked his son, laughing. The son quickly replied, "Duh! I'm going to collect and preserve all of it!" "Oh, boy!" his dad had laughed. "Your mother should be out of here before the week is out!" They had both loved those days of collecting. The first few hours was easy. It was after that when things got tricky. At times, hours could fly by as the father would spend most of the time with his nose in a book, while his son would rush over to him whenever he thought he found the perfect item to keep. One late Sunday afternoon, about a year into their collecting, they had gone to a used book store to look for some more interesting items. As they were looking through a box of old, torn books, the old-looking ones, the father spotted the cover of a book called The Cave Adventure. "Hey! I want to look through this one!" he said, pulling it out and placing it in his arms. "I do too, Dad," the son replied. It was a big book. There was so much to read in one volume. Their dad slowly turned the pages while his son, who was excited to actually be allowed to touch this new treasure, scoured each page. The father slowed down when he reached the back of the book. "Wait a second, son!" he said. "Look at this." The son joined him on the floor, reading the back of the book. "My, my. Looks like something is written inside. What do you think is written, Dad?" The father turned the pages carefully, and the two of them started to read. "A new cave was discovered recently," the dad read. "It's been given a name... Stonehenge! This is the start of a very interesting story!" The son was hooked. He could not wait to find out what else was said about this new cave. "What are we waiting for, Dad? Let's get going!" After another hour of searching, they were back home. They each took the new treasure in their hands and proceeded to do what they did every time they got home with an exciting new book: They went upstairs, took a bite of bread, sipped the glass of milk that had been left out for them, and lay on their bed to read. Only this time they did not come back down the stairs to say anything about the book. They did not even come downstairs. They were content to simply sit in the bed, in their pj's, for as long as it took to reach the middle of the story. The hours flew by, and when they were about two-thirds of the way through the story, they both had to rush to use the bathroom. "I gotta use the bathroom!" the boy yelled in between pee spurts. "Me too!" the dad replied. By the time they returned to their room, they were both in a hurry. They were not going to miss any part of the book that had just finished. They just wanted to find out what happened next. It took them only a moment to settle back on their bed, side by side, and flip the pages to see if the story had gotten started yet. It hadn't. "Hey, Dad. I don't think we got all the way through the book." The dad was slow to reply. "Nope. Looks like we're missing a whole chapter." "Really?" the son responded. "Geez. You'd think that a story as good as this one, they'd spend the whole chapter telling us about the cave." The dad shook his head and smiled at his son. "I know. I know. I'm sorry." But the dad had to laugh at the thought of how the story was going to go from here. He even imagined what his son's expression would look like as he was reading. "I'm laughing at the absurdity that is the whole thing," he said aloud, hoping that his son would hear him, even if he was asleep. But it was not until almost two hours later, when his son was just about to go downstairs for dinner, that the father's idea of the story started to make sense to him. "We shouldn't be laughing at that! That's the whole story, right there, in front of us." The son agreed and went downstairs to get dinner. It was almost midnight when they were finally about to head to bed. It was a Saturday night, and they were going to sleep in the next day. They didn't have to be at school until ten o'clock. The son was about to place his book on his shelf by his bed. "Hold on," he said. "This is almost all I got." The book was opened to a page in the middle of the book. "Wait," the son replied. "There's a note here." "It says: Dear, Dad and, Darcy, Thank you for picking up our book! We knew you would like to find out what happens next, and we are so happy you liked the story! See you tomorrow! Your Friends, The Crew!" "Whoa!" the son exclaimed. "It looks like we have some friends who are actually friends! Wow! There really are friends for us out there!" The father smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Maybe the rest of the book will help answer some of our questions." The next morning, the boy was very excited to get started with his new found friend. He was eager to read the rest of the story, and he was even more eager to show his dad and the rest of the family. When it was finally time to leave for school, the son could hardly stand to wait. He wanted to get out of his room so that he could read the rest of the book, but there was still one more thing he had to do first. It was a beautiful, sunshiny day and so very humid. The sky was cloudless. Even the weather was too hot to read the book. It was time to get in the car. "Okay, Dad, let's get going. We're going to be late if we don't leave now!" "Okay, son! Let's go!" the father replied, as he opened the door to go outside. The boy was already running out the door. "I can't wait to see the rest of the book!" he yelled. "I have a feeling it's going to be real fun!" The son was almost to the corner when he looked back at his dad. "