I have a favor to ask you guys. Two of my sisters and I entered the ‘Hoedown Throwdown Showdown’ contest (‘Hoedown Throwdown’ from Hannah Montana the Movie) and I’m asking my readers to go to the website and rate our video… honestly. We’d love to have a high rating, but rate us according to how much you like the video. You don’t have to of course- I have no way of knowing if you do or not. The site is www . disney . com / hoedown (without the spaces). Look for the video by Melanie, age 11, CA (my sister). Thank you so much, it really means a lot to my siblings and I! :)

Chapter 10

Fire

We put Queen Christine’s plan into action right away. It took us the rest of the day as well as the next day to round up a good sized group of people to help us take on Terra and get to the area near the castle. The day after that, we hid in a cave close to the castle until the sun went down. When it was completely dark, we stealthily made our way to the castle.

The group of us made our way through the front doors of the castle. Queen Christine quietly instructed us to split up and wait in the many rooms downstairs.

“Luke, Melissa, Marie, and Riley, wait in the library. Elliot, Elizabeth, Angela, and Isaac, go to the kitchen. Aaron, Shannon, Emily, and Dustin, hide in the music room. Ed, Abby, Olivia, and Logan, go to the theatre. Josh, Mel, Alex, and Daniel- parlor. Ethan, Katie, Ally, and James- dining room. Chris, Samantha, Mary, and Collin- spare room on the right. Buddy, MJ, and Mitchell, spare room on the left. The rest of you, come with me. I’ll station you along the way. Don’t go anywhere until I come and get you guys. Terra has a very bad temper and is highly dangerous when she’s angry. If it’s an emergency, use the vents to get around.”

I led Luke, Marie, and Riley to the library. It was a lot more comfortable to get there by walking through the hallways instead of using the vents like last time. I opened the door and put my hand on Marie and Riley’s backs to move them along into the room. Luke held the door open and followed me inside once the little girls were in. He shut the door quietly and locked it behind us.

“It’s too dark!” Marie whispered nervously.

“Ssh, it’s ok,” I whispered back, reaching out to find her and Riley in the dark and then hugging them.

Luke lit a candle, and a soft glow slightly lit up the room. The little girls let go of me and wandered off to one of the couches. Luke and I looked at the book-filled shelves, trying to find something interesting to read to pass the time. My eyes landed on a copy of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” I had always enjoyed the Narnia series. My dad used to read them to Matthew and me before bed in our old house. I slid the book off of the shelf and curled up on a chair. I opened the book and began to get lost in the world of Narnia.

“’The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,’” Luke read off of the front cover. “Nice choice.”

I looked up and saw him holding another book from the series, “Prince Caspian.” I laughed.

I glanced over to where Marie and Riley were lying next to each other on their stomachs on the floor, looking at a Dr. Seuss book. I smiled to myself.

“They’re both so cute,” Luke commented.

I raised an eyebrow at him. I usually didn’t hear teenage boys talking about little kids being cute.

“What?” he asked, confused as to why I was looking at him the way I was.

“Nothing,” I shook my head. When his questioning look didn’t go away, I continued, “It’s just that I haven’t really heard teenage guys talk about how cute little kids are. Usually it’s the girls that say that.”

Luke playfully rolled his eyes and then pointed a finger in my direction. “That, missy, is a prejudiced comment. Boys are as soft-hearted as girls are… maybe even more.”

I just shook my head and laughed again before returning to my book. Only a few seconds later, he pulled the book down.

“Hello! Trying to read here!” I exclaimed, pretending to be angry.

“Trying to talk here!” he said in the same tone I had used.

“About…?”

Luke shrugged. “I don’t know.” He let out a slow breath. “Just… so many things have happened lately. Almost every minute of every day has been filled with action, adventure, and drama. This is probably the most relaxed time we’ve had in the last week. And…” he stopped and looked away for a second, “that talk we had the other night… I enjoyed it.”

I ducked my head for a moment and tried to hide a smile before looking back up.

“So, what do you want to talk about?” I asked, shutting the book and setting it down next to me.

“Um…”

“Earth, great choice! Let’s talk about Earth!” I decided for him.

“Ok,” he laughed slowly. “So, what country are you from?”

“The U S of A,” I answered proudly. “You?”

“Same. Hey, do you want to play twenty questions?”

I gave him a confused look. “I don’t think they have that here…”

“No, not the little round electronic thing. The real way. You know, I ask you a question, you answer, you ask me a question?”

“Oh. Sure.” I agreed, feeling stupid for not knowing that. “You go first.”

“Alright. What’s your favorite color?”

“Green. Yours?”

“Same. Favorite ice cream flavor?”

“Mint chocolate chip. Favorite sport?”

“Basketball. Favorite sport?” he asked, repeating my question.

“Same. Favorite ice cream flavor?”

“Rocky road. How old are you?”

“Thirteen. You?” I copied his question.

“Fourteen! What state do you live in?”

“California. When’s your birthday?”

“December tenth. Yours?”

“January first.”

“Ah, New Years baby. Cool.”

“Yep. Your home state?”

“Born and raised in Oklahoma. My parents are thinking about moving out to Cali though. My cousin lives there. Ethan.”

“What part of California?”

“Chino area,” Luke replied.

I was suddenly very interested. “Really? I live in Chino Hills.”

“I’m assuming that’s close to Chino?”

I nodded. “Shannon and Samantha live in Chino. Mel lives in Carbon Canyon, and the rest of us live in Chino Hills.”

“Same with Ethan and all of his friends. Most of them live in Chino, the rest live in Ontario or Chino Hills,” Luke stated.

I nodded. We fell into silence, and the only sound in the room was the whispers and giggles of the younger girls and the barely audible crackle of the candle flame.

“They’re both so cute,” Luke repeated his earlier comment.

“Oh, we’re not starting this again!” I giggled.

“Alright, Miss Prejudice,” he teased.

I laughed, and he soon joined in. After a few moments of laughing, we calmed down.

Suddenly, the door knob started rattling violently. Everybody in the room jumped. I gripped the sides of the chair. Marie and Riley gasped, and I tried to hold in a scream.

When the door wouldn’t open, whoever was on the other side gave up. I let out a sigh of relief, only to hear the person or people start ramming something into the door a few seconds later. I tensed up once again and stood up. Luke took Riley and Marie by their hands and moved his head, motioning for me to come to the other side of the room with them. I blew out the candle and joined the other three on the far side of the room, where the vent was. Luke carefully removed the cover, and we helped the little girls through- first Marie, then Riley. Just as Riley’s feet disappeared into the vent, the door broke down, and the room was flooded with light and noise. There wasn’t enough time for Luke and me to get through. I frantically replaced the cover of the vent, and Luke and I ducked behind a bookshelf.

“Melissa!” I faintly heard Marie yell from inside the vent.

“Someone’s in here!” a soldier announced, moving quickly across the room.

I pressed myself farther against the wall and tried to stay as far away from the light as possible. The area of the room I was in was shadowed by the tall bookcases.

“Melissa, come on!” Marie continued.

I could tell by her voice that she was very close. I scrunched my eyes and prayed that she wouldn’t say anything else.

“Melissa,” she called again, holding out the ‘i’.

I opened my eyes and saw her face looking at me from the vent. I put my finger to my lips to silence her. She looked first at me, then at the soldiers who were now just on the other side of the bookshelf. Her eyes got wide and she backed up into the vent. She disappeared from my view, and I let out a silent breath of relief. I heard the soldiers stop moving.

“Search the room. Don’t leave a single spot untouched,” one of them ordered.

I could hear feet scurrying throughout the room. My heart started pumping double-time, and my stomach started feeling queasy. I started shaking slightly as a set of footsteps got closer and closer to where we were hiding. A head emerged from around the corner of the bookshelf.

“Over here!” he called to the others before commenting to us, “You’re toast.”

I bit my lip and got ready to stand up. The rest of the soldiers rushed over to where we were. They rounded the corner.

“Ah, Luke and Melissa,” one soldier, who appeared to be their leader, smirked. “Two down.”

“And how many more to go?” I shot. They had only caught two of us. The rest of our group was still out there.

The lead soldier ignored my comment. “Stand up,” he ordered. We did. “Come with me.” He then addressed his helpers. “Scatter!”

The rest of the soldiers left the room. Two stayed behind with the leader. One stood next to me, and the other next to Luke. The leader exited the room, and the other two soldiers followed behind Luke and me. I said a silent prayer, hoping that Marie and Riley would find one of the other groups and be safe from the soldiers.

The soldiers lead us down long hallways. I expected Queen Terra to jump out at any second and order them to let us go. Or at least some of her ‘army’ to stop the soldiers from taking us to wherever we were going.

But we had no such luck. We descended a long winding staircase. It was almost completely dark- the only light was the light coming from the few torches mounted on different parts of the walls. The stairs were steep and narrow, and I almost tripped a few times.

When we finally got to the bottom, the leader placed his hand on the handle of an old wooden door. He pulled, and it creaked open. He motioned for us to go inside. I didn’t budge at first; instead I stared into the room. I could tell where we were.

“The dungeon,” I said quietly to myself.

A soldier pushed me into the room, and the other did the same to Luke. I looked around at the rows of cells. We were the only ones in the dungeon as of then. The leader took us down to the end of the row and put me into the cell on the end and Luke in the one next to mine.

The doors and walls were made only of bars placed close together. I looked at them, trying to figure out if we’d be able to somehow squeeze through them. I decided that I’d probably be able to fit a leg through, but that was about it.

The leader locked the doors of the cells as the other two soldiers exited the dungeon. After checking both doors to make sure they were locked, the leader gave us one final smirk before leaving as well.

The door slammed shut and I rolled my eyes. I turned around and began knocking on one of the walls.

“What are you doing?” Luke asked, looking at me strangely.

“When Elizabeth and I were in here before, we found loose stones and an entrance to the vent system,” I explained. We had been on the opposite side of the dungeon, but if one cell lead to the vents, I figured the others probably did, too.

I worked my way across the wall until I got to the corner. I frowned. There were no hollow spots. I went back and knocked on each stone again, hoping I had just missed one. I knocked on the last stone, hoping that it would be the one with the hollow spot behind it. It sounded the same as all the others. I sighed in defeat and sat down with my back against the wall. Only then did I realize how exhausted I was. I hadn’t slept in twenty four hours at least. I laid down on the floor and tried to get comfortable, which wasn’t really possible considering the floor was made of cold dirt, and it stunk badly. I moved from position to position, trying to find the most comfortable way to sleep. I was about to give up when I felt something soft against my arm. I turned my head and saw Luke’s sweater on the floor next to me. I looked over at him.

“Thanks,” I said, bundling it up and putting it underneath my head.

“No problem,” he replied.

I barely heard him. I closed my eyes and was out like a light.

***

I woke up to a strange smell. I opened my eyes a crack and took a sniff. My eyes widened and my heart rate increased dramatically.

Fire! I concluded fearfully.

“Luke!” I whispered urgently. He moved but didn’t wake up.

“Luke!” I repeated, a bit louder. This time he rolled over.

“What?” he asked, still half asleep.

“I smell a fire!” I informed him.

That got him to wake up completely. He sat up and took a whiff.

“This can’t be good,” he murmured. He looked over at me. “We have to get out of here!”

“How?! We’re locked up in the dungeon! We can’t get out!” I reminded him.

“There has to be a way!” he insisted.

We both looked around, trying to find a way out. I couldn’t find one. The bars were too close together, there was no hollow spot behind the stones, and the windows were too far up and covered with bars.

“There isn’t,” I whispered, scared to death.

Since we had arrived in Medige, I had been in many near-impossible situations. Somehow, I had always managed to get out of them. But this one was different. I wasn’t sure if anyone else even knew if we were down there, and there was absolutely no way out. The smoke smell was getting stronger and stronger. At any moment, the roof of the dungeon could collapse, and we’d be gone. Or, worse, the fire would trap us inside and we’d burn to death.

Seconds later, I could see smoke coming into the room from under the door.

No… I thought. My body went cold as I watched the door slowly catch on fire.

“Luke?” He turned and looked at me. “Are we still playing twenty questions?”

He looked confused. “Sure..?”

I took a breath. “What do you think the chances are of us getting out of here alive?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Honestly… I don’t think things are looking to good for us right now.”

“I really, really, really strongly dislike Terra right now,” I said angrily.

“Same here,” Luke agreed.

He started rambling about something and kicked the wall. A loud scraping noise filled the room. I whipped my head around, thinking it was something in the room. The only thing I saw was what was left of the wooden door.

I turned back to face Luke’s cell again. He was staring at the wall he had just kicked. He kicked it again, and the noise repeated itself. He kicked and pushed until the stone fell out. A beam of light streamed in from the hole in the wall. On the other side was the castle yard!

“Kick the stones, we still have a chance of getting out of here!” Luke exclaimed.

I kicked, hoping that the stones in my cell were as loose as the ones in his. The stone moved a tiny bit. I tried the ones around it. None of them were any easier. I set to work kicking stone after stone, time after time. By the time I had knocked out three stones, Luke had already formed a hole big enough for him to get out. The fire was getting closer by the minute. I started panicking. What if I didn’t make it in time?

“Keep kicking! I’ll pull from the other side,” Luke said.

I nodded and continued kicking. Once he was outside, he reached in through the small hole I had made and pulled the stones toward him. I was starting to have trouble breathing because of all the smoke. My asthma started acting up from exercising in the smoky air. I started becoming weaker. I gathered up all the strength I had left and delivered a final kick before collapsing.

“Keep trying, Melissa! You can’t stop now!” Luke encouraged me.

I tried to get up again, only to fall back down. I was really struggling with breathing by then. I was gasping, trying to get a breath of fresh air through the thick layer of smoke. The ashes were making me cough dryly. Slowly, I felt my body sink to the floor and my eyes started closing.

“Melissa, stay with me!” I faintly heard Luke’s urgent voice call out to me before everything went black.

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-Melissa