Into The Woods(Chapter 10)

Try and Fail

Lía, Aríana, and Christopher planned to escape that very night. They were going to sneak past Maldavo’s bed chambers, which is a risky move, and then they were going to run out the cave and sprint all the way back to the village. 

That night, they crept towards the exit and successfully walked past Maldavo’s room. Little did they know, Maldavo had heard them. Just as they were about to make a mad dash for the exit, a shadow crossed over them and they froze. They spun around to find Maldavo himself glaring at them from across the dark cave. 

“What do you think you’re doing trying to escape? You are slaves, and slaves stay for life,” Maldavo shouted from across the room. They were super surprised and really, really scared. Lía wondered how he had even found them. Had Christopher’s parents told him what they were planning?  She quickly knew this wasn’t true, Chrisopher’s parents would never do that.  

“Uh, we were just collecting wood for the fire,” Christopher lied smoothly. Maldavo looked very convinced for a second, but then got the trick.

“I’m not that dumb, you two are newbies who already tried to escape once,” he gestured at the twins and then he turned to Christopher, “and you’ve always wanted to escape from my dark, awesome cave.” Maldavo had never understood why anyone wanted to escape. His cave was so dark and gloomy, a perfect place to live. He had also never understood why people were so attached to their family. Family’s were weird in his opinion. He grabbed them and put them in the most dark, closed room. Lía sighed and groaned.

“How did we get into this mess?” She asked, “Now we’re never going to get out of here!” Christopher was banging his head against the locked door, making a clunk sound. The cave had one little cold, stone bench, and a little pitcher of water that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. It had a little hanging light that looked as if it were a thousand years old, it didn’t even work! Aríana was the only one trying to do anything to get them out.  They were trapped in the cell for three hours, though it felt like three years to them. Aríana finally had an idea and grabbed a hairpin from her bun and put it in the lock. She twisted, and the door swung open.

“Got it!” she yelled in triumph. Lía and Christopher looked up from their misery. They looked back and forth from Aríana to the door. Then they sprinted out. Aríana explained that Maldavo wasn’t very intuitive, and all you needed was to jam the lock and then push. The girls summoned the magic tent and used the wand to make them and the tent invisible, an idea they hadn’t had before.

While they were sneaking through the cave, Lía whispered to Aríana, “How did you know how to do that?” 

“I do pay attention in class sometimes,” Aríana said. She winked and took the duty of carrying the tent from Christopher. 

“But we never learned…,” Lía trailed off when she saw Maldavo walking towards the fire. For a second Lía forgot they were invisible, and was about to say something like an excuse when Aríana, who had suspected she would forget, put a hand over her mouth. Lía looked down to see who had touched her and saw nothing, she then remembered they couldn’t be seen. But she didn’t need to say anything, because Christopher had a plan.

“Hello, I am your god, the creator of demons and caves. Sit down and pray to me in your room. Close your eyes and walk away. You are a good demon, so I will not hurt you,” he said. Maldavo’s eyes went wide and he quickly grinned and walked away. They heard him kneel down on his creaky bed. Christopher had fooled him. They hurried out of the cave and ran as fast as they could far into the woods. Christopher gasped when he saw the blue sky. They showed him trees, leaves, and grass. The only thing he had seen were rocks, rocks, and more rocks. 

“YAAAAAAA, we did it,” yelled Aríana. They ran through the forest whooping and yelling and laughing. They heard leaves crunching in front of them. They froze. Out of the trees, a battalion of kindergarteners emerged. It was the entire village that had come to rescue them. When the army saw who it was, there were cries of happiness. 

“We were so worried!” one of them said,

“Are you in your right mind,” a little girl asked. Lía shushed everyone and told them all about Maldavo and them getting captured. 

One of the kids declared, “We should trap this beast inside his own home.” 

“Yeah,” someone shouted. There was a murmur of agreement, so they all walked towards Maldavo’s cave, the littlest ones whispering among themselves before the older ones quieted them down. 

“We're going to infiltrate his cave and then trap him inside his own cave with boulders,” Aríana instructed. They all walked to the entrance of the cave, and hid behind the sides of the entrance. Well, some of the older kids gathered really big boulders, others made a clear escape route and found a rock that perfectly fit it. Then, Christopher, who knew the cave like the back of his hand, got all the slaves out. Then they slammed the rocks closed. But one didn’t fit right. They pushed as hard as they could, and heard Maldavo coming. Finally, they pushed hard enough and it snapped into place. They heard a gasp and then demands from Maldavo himself to get him out of there. 

“Slaves, help me! Slaves?” he yelled. He banged on the rocks, but it was no use. He couldn't get out. They all cheered. It was the loudest cheer anyone had ever heard, and it shook the rocks so hard that they almost caved in. They quieted down and hugged Lía and Aríana before turning to Christopher. 

“And who might you be?” asked someone in the crowd. 

“I’m Christopher,” he said.

Christopher explained how he had helped Lía and Aríana and he would love to join their tribe if they would accept him. Everyone cheered and hugged him too. They loved adding amazing kids to their tribe! The whole army walked back to the village and had the biggest celebration ever. There was music and dancing and it was so loud, that people on the ground thought it was a meteor shower. Best of all, the twins thought they had seen their share of the dark forest, but what about the city on the ground that they had seen on the news all the time. What about the big city with all the cars and water and streets? What about the big city of Boston? 

THE END