Two Worlds (Written by a 10-year-old author, 62,000 words, 72 chapters)

Chapter 19: The secret entrance

Lily staggered across the ground, her eyelids half closed. How long had they been walking? Next to her, Tara and Stacy trekked across the rock-hard dirt. The dark line in the distance didn't seem to be getting any closer. In fact, it seemed to be moving away from them. Lily kicked at a bush hard in frustration. She expected it to turn into dust, but instead her foot connected with a metal clang. She hopped away, cussing as she grabbed her sore foot. Stacy and Tara leaned over the bush with interest. Stacy nudged the metal shrub. It didn't budge. A thoughtful look came onto her face. "I remember reading something about a metal shrub in a dried-up place ... ," she said. She leaned over and started to count the leaves. "Oh, get out of the way," Tara said. Her eyes flickered over the metal leaves. She grabbed a single leaf and pulled it out of the bush.

CREEAKK! Everybody covered their ears as the bush crumbled into a pile of dust, rust, and nails. The debris spilled into a hidden shaft and disappeared. Tara ran forward and inspected the hole. There was enough wriggle room for all three of them to go down in single file. "When did that hole get there?" Lily asked. "I don't know," Stacy said. Her tone began to get more excited. "Perhaps this hole was built in the ancient times, when Yedwab the elf ruled the city. They must have made a secret entrance, a tunnel, by placing a plate over the hole and a metal bush on top of the plate. When Tara pulled out the leaf the bush crumbled, but the plate disintegrated along with it. But why would they build a hidden tunnel in a place like this?" Stacy waved her hands expansively at the landscape around her.

Lily, who hadn't been paying attention much, nodded like she had understood whatever Stacy had just said. She asked, "Who wants to go down first?" The three had a silent but fierce staring contest and when Stacy won, Lily had another contest with Tara. Unfortunately for Tara, Lily won. "Oh, all right, I'll go," Tara snapped. She pressed her arms to her sides and jumped through the hole.

Tara slid through the hole and kept going down at a fast pace like friction didn't exist. Before Lily could yell a warning, Tara had disappeared into the depths of the dirt tunnel. "We have to see where the tunnel leads," she said. Lily suddenly had a fear of being left behind. "I'll go next," she said. She pressed her arms against her body and jumped into the hole.

Tips for jumping down an unknown tunnel: don't. The dirt shaft stretched on forever. There wasn't enough space for Lily to move her arms, so she was getting quite cramped. She zoomed down the dark tunnel. Just when she thought that the shaft would never end, it did. Lily shot out of the tunnel opening and landed face-first in a pile of dirt. She climbed to her feet and spat out a mouthful of dirt. Nearby, Tara scowled. "Where were you?" she asked. "I've been waiting for ages."

Lily opened her mouth to reply, and an inhumane scream pierced her ears. She clapped her hands over the sides of her face as the noise got louder and shriller. Tara stared at the tunnel opening. With a very loud shriek, Stacy flew out of the hole that was the tunnel opening. For two seconds she froze, suspended in mid-air. Then gravity took hold of her, and Stacy crashed to the ground, flattening Lily. "Ow," Lily muttered. Stacy rolled off her and stood up. "Well," she said, "now that we're down here, what do we do now?"