Hannah screamed. Chloe prayed to God for her life.

It had gone completely dark in the tunnel. But to their surprise, the crashing and rumbling of falling rock had stopped. It seemed as though the tunnel had finished collapsing. Everything went quiet. They could no longer even hear the shouts and cries of their teacher and classmates beyond the fallen earth.

Chloe and Hannah lay where they were for a moment in the dark, scared stiff. All they could hear now was the sound of each other breathing.

After a while, Hannah said “Chloe?” For some reason she said it in a whisper, as if she was afraid a louder noise might make the tunnel collapse in on them further.

“Yes?”

“Are you alright?”

“I think so. I scraped my arm a bit but I’m okay. You?”

“Yeah, same. But I’m fine.”

“What should we do now?”

“I don’t know. I suppose we just have to wait for someone to come and rescue us. They saw us get trapped in here, didn’t they?”

“Yes. But they could be ages. What if they never find us? What if they don’t get to us in time? What if there’s too much rock to m-m-move?” Chloe’s voice was quivering.

“Don’t worry! I’m sure it will be fine…” said Hannah. She clasped Chloe’s hand in hers in the darkness. She wasn’t sure that they would be fine but she didn’t know what else to say. She was the braver one; she had to be the braver one. And she was younger than Chloe, but only by a couple of minutes.

They lay there for a few more moments, as if expecting someone to appear to rescue them very soon. It soon became apparent that this was not going to be the case.

“Do you want to play a game or something to pass the time?” said Chloe eventually.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. ‘I Spy’?”

“’I Spy’?!” Hannah snorted. “It’s completely dark!”

“Good point.”

“I Spy With My Little Eye, something beginning with ‘N’. Nothing!”

“Well, have you got a better idea, Han? Do you know any other games that work in the dark? Or riddles or something?”

“I do kno—Wait a second.” Hannah stopped.

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“What is it? Why have you stopped?”

“I just put my other hand out in front of me and…there doesn’t seem to be any rock here anymore.”

“That’s weird.”

“Hang on a minute,” said Hannah. “There’s some space to move here now!” She let go of Chloe’s hand and Chloe felt her push herself up onto her hands and knees beside her and crawl forward into the tunnel.

“Hey, wait for me!” said Chloe.

They crawled forward together in the dark, Hannah in front and Chloe behind.

“There’s no more rock in front of us anymore,” said Hannah. “I can feel it on either side, but not straight ahead. It’s like it’s just disappeared.”

“That’s strange. Keep going, maybe we can find a way out!”

“Did the tour guide mention anything about another tunnel connected to this one?”

“I wasn’t listening because you were talking to me. But we could see straight down the whole of the tunnel before, there weren’t any more tunnels off of it.”

“Hey! I can see a little bit of light up ahead of us!”

“That’s great! Keep moving!”

The two of them continued to crawl forwards towards the light, which changed from a pin-prick, to a circle, to a wide glow that even Chloe could see from behind Hannah. It lit up the walls and floor of the tunnel, which had changed as well. The blue and white panels had gone, replaced by gray stone. After a little while, the gradient of the tunnel got steeper and they found themselves crawling upwards slightly. Soon they could see that there was enough room to stand up in so they got to their feet and continued walking towards the light. The opening was much more visible now as well. But what was a little odd was that, where they expected to see more of the library through it, instead they could see only the open sky. And snow.

“This is getting really weird now,” said Hannah.

“Why is it snowing in the middle of Summer?” said Chloe.

A gust of cool air blew through the opening. The girls started to run towards it, desperate to be out of the tunnel and also puzzled as to where they were coming out.

As they emerged, they came out into a city made up of buildings built out of white stone and coloured marble.

“Where are we? This doesn’t look like Oxford,” said Chloe.

“I don’t think we’re in Oxford anymore, Chlo,” said Hannah.

She was looking behind them, at where they had just come out of the tunnel. The opening lay at the foot of an enormous mountain. Either side of it more mountains shone majestically in the sunlight. Chloe turned around too and took all of this in, her jaw dropping.

“Greetings!” came a voice from behind them.

They turned to see a tall lady with white hair tied back in a waist-length plait, wearing a white hooded robe interlaced with a swirling blue pattern. It was hard to tell if she was very old or very young; although her hair was white, her face was very youthful, though from time to time you thought you could notice a few wrinkles as she turned her head a certain way. All in all, she did not look very normal.

“Er, hi there?” said Chloe.

“Hello lady,” said Hannah. “Excuse me, but who are you and what are you doing here and where is here?”

“I am called Katetheuna,” said the woman. “What are your names?”

“I’m Hannah, and this is Chloe.”

“Well, Princess Hannah and Princess Chloe, welcome to Ayin, capital of the Kingdom of Larakia, greatest of the Kingdoms of Mashal!”