Here's part 3! Hope you enjoy....
We picked ourselves up and brushed off most of the sand. At the top of the slope, Nemo slipped, stumbled into Hybrid, and they rolled all the way down the dune in a spinning ball of slender legs. They hit the bottom in a cloud of sand and Hybrid struggled to his hooves, snorting his distaste. Nemo wriggled around and stood up. Ali stroked Hybrid’s soft nose soothingly, brushing the sand off of his black coat. Hybrid pushed her over backwards with his nose.
“See, Nat, I’m not the only one that they push,” I grinned, helping Ali up. She shook herself like a dog and sprayed sand everywhere.
“Let’s go in!” she laughed, bouncing on the spot, and took off towards the temple entrance. Natalie pause to roll her eyes at me, and we raced after the disappearing figure of our crazy friend.
The temple felt cool and dark after the heat of the desert outside, and we blinked, waiting for our eyes to adjust to the semidarkness. Ali was first to head to the door. She gave it a gentle push, and it swung open. An ominous hiss sounded, and sure enough, out of the dark came a green shadow – a creeper. Like lightning, Sami unsheathed her diamond sword and cut the creeper down. It dissolved into a pile of dust, which Sami kicked at before leading the way into the passage. We followed, unsheathing our own swords, all but Ali, who morphed her backpack into her quiver and pulled out her bow, neatly nocking an arrow. We emerged into a seemingly bare room.
“Stop!” hissed Ali. We paused, looking at her as she stalked to the front of the group.
“Spiders,” she breathed. We looked at each other, puzzled.
“They’re invisible, but I can see their eyes and their outlines,” Natalie put a hand on Ali’s shoulder.
“There’s nothing there, Ali,” she murmured softly.
“Who’s the sharpshooter here?!” snapped Ali, shrugging her off. “Get back!” Natalie backed off, frightened by Ali’s tone.
Ali raised her bow and fired. A spider, invisibility gone, fell from the wall. Fifty more spiders appeared, all around the room. Ali hissed a curse and fired again. A spider exploded into dust. She whirled around and fired three arrows at once, hitting three spiders straight in the eyes. We huddled in the doorway as Ali leaped around, rolling, firing arrows, striking the spiders down. Finally she stood in a sea of black spider dust, her bow hanging at her side, panting. A spider suddenly reared up behind her, at least twice the size of the normal spiders. Ali cringed. I darted across the dusty floor and stabbed upwards into the spider’s hairy body, throwing it aside as it burst into a shower of dust.
“Nice save,” gasped Ali, exhausted from fighting the spiders. We looked towards the far wall, where a new door had opened.
Natalie led the way through, to a stone table set with jars, bottles and dishes of powders. She walked slowly over to it. Prim bounded over.
“I know what to do!” she grinned. “Look, there’s a pickaxe over there, and the door is made of obsidian. We’ve got to make a Haste Potion!” She danced a little on the spot, giggling. Then she started darting around the table, grabbing different jars and bottles, sprinkling powers into the cauldron standing beside the table. Then she lit a fire beneath it with a flint and steel and started to stir. The potion bubbled, and Prim corked the flask with a flourish. She offered it to Cass.
“Do you want to do it?” she asked, making the thick potion swirl in the bottle. Cass nodded and quickly drank the potion. She scooped up the pickaxe and smashed through the door in ten seconds flat.
We bundled through the door to find a series of jumps, hovering over a deep pit.
“Parkour!” groaned Natalie. I shrugged.
“We can do this,” I pointed out, jumping onto the first platform. I sized up the gap and leaped to the next one. Natalie sighed and followed, then Cass, and Ali, with Prim and Sami bringing up the rear. Ali nearly fell on the second jump, but Natalie, Cass and I caught her and pulled her safely onto the platform before leaping across the next gap. There was a ladder spiral near the end. We huddled on the platform before.
“I can’t do ladder jumps!” complained Prim. I sniggered from the bottom of the ladder.
“Let’s take the fast way! Jump across, Prim, and I’ll give you a leg up. You don’t have to do the ladder jump,” Prim made to jump but Cass stopped her.
“Let me go first, then I can pull you up at the top,” she smiled, before leaping over the gap. I linked my hands and crouched. Cass looked up before placing her foot.
“Ready?” I asked. She nodded, and I launched her upwards. She caught the top of the wall and hauled herself up onto the platform. Prim hopped over the gap, and I gave her a boost, Cass catching her by the shoulders and pulling her over the edge. Then Natalie jumped across, and I launched her to the top. Sami followed, and Ali was the last to be boosted up. I threw myself upwards and caught the bottom rung of the top bit of ladder. Cass and Natalie reached down and helped me pull myself up to the top of the pillar.
“Teamwork,” we smiled, all of us in sync, and laughed. Prim suddenly tipped back and fell over the edge. She yelped as she fell.
Cass and I dived. We managed to catch Prim by and ankle each, and she swung, upside-down, suspended over the pit. Straining from the effort, we slowly pulled Prim up and safely back onto the platform. Then we made the last leap to safety and continued along our way, deeper into the temple.
Keep an eye out for Part 4 - The Diamond Guardian!
aww ty south