Maggie and Tommy tiptoed around the insides of the fortress as they moved along the golden brown floors and placed their hands on the dark tan Stencil-like walls to avoid getting lost. Thanks to the torches, it was a lot easier to walk around instead of stumbling in the dark. So far, neither of them got caught, but they found no sign or trace of Antonio, even when peeking through the many corners and taking the different paths available to them.

Eventually, the sounds of footsteps prompted Maggie and Tommy to snap around and find strange shadows peeking around the corner from a few blocks down.

The two hid behind a wall to avoid detection as they listened in on them talking. As the voices got closer, one of them sounded familiar, so Tommy and Maggie peeked over and saw Antonio with his hands tied up and dragged by two people.

Tommy and Maggie could get a better view of the other figures this time, and they looked almost human, but something about their movements and looks in their eyes seemed unnatural.

“Hey, could you tell us more about yourself, boy?” One human asked.

“Uh, sure?” Antonio replied with a bit of uncertainty. “But could you perhaps untie me first?”

“No way,” The second human replied, with an eye twitch. “You might run away from us, and we don’t want that now, do we?”

“Um, no, probably not?”

“Come on; we’re almost there...”

“Oh, are we now?” Antonio laughed nervously.

“Shoot,” Tommy whispered as he saw his friend get further away from them. “We have to save him! What do you think we should do, Maggie?”

He glanced to ask for the girl’s opinion, but Maggie turned away in a humph, refusing to reply or even make eye contact with him.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Hey, can you stop ignoring me?”

Maggie waited until the time was right and then rushed after the crooks with a light shining in her pocket.

“Hey, hold on!” Tommy cried out as he tried to keep up with her.

One of the humans turned to find footsteps coming toward Antonio. But before he could say anything, Maggie took out the crystal from her pocket and shined a light directly at the man’s face, which made him scream and fall to the ground.

This scream caught the attention of Antonio and the other crazy humans next to him.

“What was that?” The first one asked, exchanging glances.

“I don’t know!” The second exclaimed.

“Go check out where that came from!”

“Ok!”

Before he could do that, though, the man got whacked in the back of the head by a gray object and fell to the ground. The first one bit his thumb in rage.

“Dang, it must be those creatures again...” He muttered, biting his thumbnail.

“Um, I’m a little lost here. What creatures?” Antonio asked.

“The Orso Loobas!”

“The... what?”

“Come on; let’s hurry!” The man ran up the stairs, taking Antonio with him as he tried to get to where he needed to go.

Another rock reached for the crazy man, but he noticed and moved out of the way. He glanced over to see who started the mayhem. The man saw Tommy and Maggie standing and glaring at him from the lower floors.

“Tommy! Maggie!” Antonio called out to them.

“More humans, huh?” The older man muttered with a grin.

“Let him go!” Tommy ordered, standing his ground.

“Afraid I cannot. We need this boy for something important. If you’d like, though, you can always—”

Maggie interrupted him by shining light squarely on his face with the crystal, causing the man to let go of Antonio and cover his face. She then threw a rock at him and knocked him to the ground.

“Nice shot!” Tommy complimented.

“Man, that guy is so annoying...” Maggie muttered, brushing herself off.

“Come on, let’s go, Antonio!” Tommy exclaimed as he ran over to untie his friend.

“But wait, what about that guy?” Antonio asked, shifting his eyes toward the man on the floor.

“What about him?” Tommy raised his eyebrows, not knowing where he went with this.

“I don’t think we should leave him like that...” Antonio said.

“Huh? What did they do to you? Why are you acting so weird?”

“Well, it’s hard to describe, but—”

“Guys now is not the time for chatting!” Maggie interrupted them. “We need to get out of here now!”

As the three ran off, the men from before regained their composure and noticed that they were the only ones left in the room. Two of them took out their walkie-talkies from their pockets and ordered the rest of the group to go after the other humans and not to let them escape.