Dreams Come True

Avance Del Rey Bandido

The Cave Of Souls, as luck would have it, wasn't lying. It was a cave. A dark, damp, hollow, lifeless, empty cave. Fog clouded the floor as we all carefully walked past stalagmites and the occasional puddle. It was eerily silent, with only the sound of our footsteps and dripping water to fill the void.

Manolo took the lead of the group, with me and Carmen (Still carrying Luis' head), then Gladius and Zomboss, the skeleton zombie constantly looking around in fear. The sword sighed at our friend's over exaggerated fear, but I couldn't help but giggle.

"This is a cave?" Luis said in what seemed like disappointment.

"That doesn't mean I'm any less scared!" Zomboss whined, "I feel so vulnerable..."

"Both of you, show some respect", Manolo whispered, pulling out both of his swords. I stayed close to him as I felt a new presence behind us. I turned around, and saw a glowing orange light swerving through the fog.

"That... was...", an excitable voice echoed around us, "Awesome, man!" Suddenly, a large man made of some orange wax and with a white, cloud-like beard suddenly popped in front of us, beaming like a child on christmas. "Look, giant boulders were like boom, boom, boom!" The man began to act out as a book next to him bobbed around, seemingly emoting in its own way. "And then you were like shoomp, shoomp, shoomp, shoomp, shoomp!" We all looked up at him in a mix of confusion and shock. "And then the cave guardian, he came in; He was like 'I'm gonna judge you with this giant sword.'"

"Um, excuse me?" Manolo said, letting out a chuckle.

"And then you... you... you got through", the being ended, giving off a tone of whimsical disbelief. He looked at us, as if expecting an answer to his non-question.

"Excuse me, sir?" Manolo said firmly, gaining the man's full attention. "We're looking for La Muerte?"

"La Muerte!" The book hovered in front of him and opened, the man's happy expression fell very suddenly. "Sorry you missed her, Manolo."

This erected a surprised look from everyone but me. "Wait, you know who I am?" The bullfighter asked in a shocked tone.

"Oh, we know everyone", The man said sassily, "We know Carmen, Luis, and Puddle." He pointed at Manolo's family members, then to a random puddle of water on the ground. "How you doing, Puddle?"

Carmen silently gave him a confused look, Luis voiced his confusion, and Manolo played along in an unsure tone. Meanwhile, Zomboss, having pulled me to the back of the group, faced me with a flat look and did a spinning motion with his finger. I forced myself to not burst out laughing, but I did squeak out a snort. This made the large man give me a very slight look of suspicion, which had me and Zomboss instantly shut up. I could swear he winked at me, but maybe it was just my imagination.

"It's all here in the Book of Life!" He paused for a moment. "Wait, where are my manners?" He raised his arms wide, and the ground below us began to shift. "Come on in, y'all!"

Suddenly, the ground beneath us rose up, and I finally realized we were on a skull shaped platform. Gladius quickly looked around while Zomboss let out a girlish scream and grabbed hold of my arm in fear. We were surrounded by a dense cloud for a few seconds before the platform stopped in the exact opposite of where we were. Brightly lit candles stood tall on any spot that was available, with eight waterfalls just in front of them around us in a circle.

"Welcome to the Cave of Souls!" The man shouted triumphantly, "Mi casa es su casa."

We all took in the beautiful sights, Carman letting out a gasp of wonder. Luis, meanwhile, remarked "Now, this is a cave!", which earned what I assumed was an eye roll from Gladius.