Tangled [Hariana]

Chapter 15

Jack and Ariana dashed down the tunnel to the end of the passageway. Suddenly it opened out into a vast cavern, which was dotted with huge stone pillars rising from the earth far below. Nearby was a rickety wooden dam holding back a vast amount of water. Jack took over one look behind him at the stampeding horse and guardsmen. He glanced down at the Sheeran brothers waiting for him at the base of the crevice.

Suddenly he saw Ariana throw her hair across a large divide, lassoing a sturdy piece of stone. Tossing Jack her frying pan, she swung across the crevice, landing safely on the outcrop.

Then the guardsmen were upon him.

"Ha!" Jack shouted as he hit one sword after another out of the guards' hands and knocked them unconscious. Ariana's pan was quite a weapon.

Then Jack saw him: Maximus. The horse grasped a sword in his teeth. CLANG! Pan clashed against sword until Maximus knocked the pan out of Jack's hand. Just in the nick of time, Jack heard Ariana call out to him. She tossed her long hair toward Jack, and he grasped it. A fierce determination welled up inside her. She had done this before, many times, in the tower. It was like jumping from the rafters. Deftly, she looped her hair around an outcropping on her pillar and watched Jack swing out over the canyon. She was aiming for him to glide all the way down the bottom and make a soft landing.

As for Jack, he felt as if he were flying! He had once again escaped Maximus and now was ready to make a landing! Then he saw the Sheerans. He had forgotten about them. They were standing there, right in his path, waiting with swords drawn. Jack felt himself pulled upward as Ariana yanked on her hair.

He soared right over the Sheeran's heads! Jack yelled, delighted—and then crashed right into a long water drain. The wooden contraption served as a funnel for excess water to leak out the dam and wind its way to the base of the canyon. Jack scrambled stop the wooden chute as Ariana prepared to swing down to the ground.

But a furious Maximus refused to give up. Rearing up on his hind legs, he knocked a large board from the dam above. It fell exactly as Maximus planned—making a bridge for him and the guards to run to the next pillar down, a bit closer to Jack.

But the broken board had another effect: the rickety wooden dam loosened and cracked. Water began spurting through the dam's increasing number of crevices, threatening an explosion flood at any moment!

Jack was terrified. The gigantic dam was about to burst, but he couldn't get to Ariana. And the Sheerans were right there, ready to attack both of them. Quickly, Ariana threw her hair again, watching it twirl and wrap perfectly around a sturdy rock. With her hair firmly anchored, she swung down toward the ground, slipping to a landing. She was unharmed, but the Sheerans were racing straight towards her!

Jack jumped into the wooden drainage chute and slid down toward Ariana.

Dashing forward, Jack tried to gauge where she might come to a stop. Then he saw it: she was on a collision course with the rocky floor of the cavern.

Jack raced and dove. At the last possible moment, he caught her!