by Ben Walsh
Chapter Two
Without a second’s thought, Stan turned and fled. He clambered through gold and leapt down flights of stairs, desperately trying to remember the way. He daren’t look back at Gordon, but the occasional roar told him all he needed to know – Gordon was in pursuit.
Fortunately for Stan, the ferocious dragon had been deep in slumber for hundreds of years, and crashed around corners and through piles of gold with the sluggishness of a sloth. Stan was outpacing the beast with ease, but the dragon was becoming more awake by the second. Stan pushed all thoughts of the dragon to the back of his mind, and concentrated solely on escaping.
“Left here Stan, that’s the one, past the big gold wardrobe, down these stairs, round the corner, oh there’s Edgar and Marvin right in front of me, wait WHAT??”
Before Stan had the chance to comprehend what he had seen he clattered into his brother and his foolish best friend, and they tumbled down a set of cold, stone steps, away from the door offering the only escape. The force of the collision carried them further away with every passing second, until after what felt like hours the three boys were flung into a wall.
Groggily and aching all over, Stan and Edgar struggled back to their feet, dusting themselves down. In the background, the chiming of the bell continued, although the sound didn’t seem as loud as earlier – perhaps he had adapted to it.
“I hurt so much, all over,” complained Marvin.
“Come on Marvin, you’re fine, Edgar help me get him up.” Stan and Edgar grabbed an arm each and between them managed to drag him up onto his feet.
After checking that Marvin was ok, Stan took a minute to take in his new surroundings. This new room was darkened and appeared to stretch on for miles either side of him. There was still gold here, but it seemed dirty, and grubbier. Torches on the walls provided the only lighting, but for this the group could be grateful, as what little they could see produced fear enough. Along the wall, stone gargoyles hung, glaring down on the new residents of the room, each managing to portray evil with a different expression. They all seemed to be staring directly at Stan, but one in particular caught his eye; it had a twisted, warped smile, as if thrilled to have the boys in its company. Ahead were the stairs they’d tumbled down, while the lighting wasn’t strong enough to see to the chamber’s ends to Stan’s left or right. Unnervingly, Stan couldn’t help but notice that Gordon had fallen silent.
“Do you think he’s gone back to sleep?” whispered Marvin.
“No, no, he won’t go back to sleep until he finds and destroys whoever dares threaten his gold. We must be deep in the mountain, too far below him to hear him. The question is, can we get out through this cave if we follow it far enough?” replied Edgar, straining his neck to try and look further into the darkness to his right.
“No! That is not the question. The question is why did you use the handle to come in? You were the ones who woke him up. Why were you in the chamber at all?” complained Stan.
“You can blame this idiot you call a friend. He opened the door, literally flung it open!” hissed Edgar, shooting a glance so poisonous towards Marvin that Stan half expected a venomous dart to fly out of his eye.
“You pulled on the rope, you said if you pull on the rope we needed to come in and help you, I promised I would Stan, and I did, I was scared but I ignored that and came for you anyway because you’re my best friend,” Marvin boasted.
“But I didn’t tug on - Eughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” Stan realised suddenly why the doors had opened. By tripping over Gordon the Gruesome’s tail he must have tugged on the rope, causing them to rush in for him.
“Marvin you were supposed to come if I tugged on the rope three times. I fell and the rope pulled after me, once!”
“Oh...” Marvin sighed, his face dropping as he remembered, “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me Stan, I was scared something bad might to happen to you.”
“I tried to stop him but it was too late, and once the door opened there was nothing to be done but come and get you out.” Edgar spat on the floor next to Marvin in disgust. “And now we’re trapped in here with that horrible, boy eating beast wandering round somewhere up there!” Edgar pointed his grubby finger up at the ceiling, and as he did the roof of the cave seemed to shake, almost as if underneath the huge weight of a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon.
Stan waited for the trembling to stop, before interrupting his brother.
“Edgar, stop. Marvin was simply looking out for me, and pointing the finger of blame isn’t going to do any good, we need to work out what we’re going to do.”
“Ok, well we’re trapped under tonnes of rock, with a fire breathing, angry dragon above our heads. May I ask what exactly what it is that you intend to do?” hissed Edgar.
“We distract him, and we run. That’s what!” replied Stan, causing his brother’s face to twist in thought.
Marvin shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his face a picture of discomfort.
“H-h-h-ow are we supposed to do that?”
“There is gold everywhere. We throw it, Edgar you used to throw stones all the way across the Walandik Lake, you can throw all the way to the other side of the lair, I know it. Marvin, imagine you’re in your father’s farm yard hurling pig’s poo out of your field and into Farmer Ashwin’s! Don’t you understand, Gordon will think we’re on the far side of the cave, it’s perfect!”
“Hmm, I guess that could work,” pondered Edgar, “but how will we get all the way down the mountain and back to Oadford without him catching us?”
“Edgar, no one has seen Gordon the Gruesome for hundreds of years! He’s probably afraid of men, otherwise why else wouldn’t he have left the mountain?”
“I was told that he’s been asleep all this time, protecting his g-g-old...”
Stan and Edgar both turned their heads to glare at Marvin, as if his statement was the most ridiculous thing that anybody could possibly say.
“Marvin no body sleeps for a hundred years, I know you love to spend your days sitting on your lardy backside doing nothing but sleeping but even so –“Edgar started.
“That’s enough Edgar! Marvin he’s right though, there’s no chance he was sleeping for that long. This can work; so long as we stick together. Come on everyone, on me,” and before anyone had a chance to complain, Stan scurried back up the stairs they had fallen down, scooping up a handful of gold.
Edgar and Marvin followed, weaving from shadow to shadow whilst also picking up as much gold as their hands would allow them to carry. They crept up to the top step, and Stan held his hand out to stop the others. He peered his neck round the wall, but immediately ducked back again.
“What did you see Stan?” Asked Edgar.
“Gordon, he’s around that corner, now shush, he’ll move on soon, as long as nobody makes a sound,” Stan murmured as loudly as he dared. “If he hears us he’ll know exactly where we are and we’ll be trapped!”
Stan slowly craned his neck to peer back round the corner and to his delight saw Gordon edging away to search for them elsewhere. All they needed to do was wait for him to disappear from sight.
CLANG
Stan turned back in horror, just in time to grimace as a coin tumbled down the stairs, echoing a loud clanging noise with every bounce. Edgar was glaring at Marvin, who was bright red and trembling.
“Put the coins down before you drop anymore!” Edgar hissed.
Stan threw himself back to the corner to see if Gordon had been alerted, but nothing indicated that he had, allowing Stan to breathe a huge sigh of relief. However, the second Stan started to believe they were going to escape unpunished, the ground started to tremble and shake, and all three boys looked at each other with the same terrified expression, screaming as one.
“RUN!!!”
The three of them raced away as fast as they could, too terrified to glance back for fear of what they might see. Edgar led, as he was by far the quickest and most athletic, and as he did so he cle
ared a path for Stan and Marvin. Stan followed closely behind as they headed towards the door, but with every step they left Marvin trailing even further behind.
Stan glanced back to track how his friend was doing and noticed this, and called for Edgar to wait.
“Marvin’s so far behind, he’ll be caught if we don’t help!” Stan said, grabbing his hair in worry and frustration.
“You go on ahead Stan, take Marvin with you, I’ll go and get Gordon’s attention and lead him away, I’ll meet you at Maximus’ hut, he’ll know what to do, there’s no time to argue so just go!”
With that, Edgar sprinted back in the opposite direction, past a panting Marvin and round a corner, shouting and singing as he went.
“Come on Marvin, Edgar’s buying us some time, but we must move now, as fast as we can, you lead and I’ll be right behind you!” Stan urged his friend forwards, whilst jogging a step behind him.
Marvin was spurred on by this, and against the background noise of Edgar chanting, the two boys managed to make for the exit in quicker time. At one point Marvin nearly collapsed, but Stan grabbed his arm and dragged him forwards. Finally, the great door came into sight, still ajar from Marvin and Edgar’s entry.
“Marvin we’ve made it, come on through the door and back through the cave!”
They sprinted past the skeletons they had earlier been terrified by, and after what felt like hours of running, they burst back into the open, stopping for a moment to pant and gasp for air. Stan was proud of his best friend, who previously only ever ran from his bed to the cupboards when he was hungry, and told him as much.
“It’s entirely my fault Stan, I’m so sorry, I panicked.”
Stan put his arm around the shoulders of his companion and pulled him in close to him, sighing, “This was an accident, and to tell you the truth, it’s amazing to know that I’ve got a mate who cares about me so much that he’ll put himself into any danger, just to help me out.”
Marvin whimpered, and wiped his snotty nose on his sleeve. When he pulled away, Stan picked up on the fact that his eyes were watery and red.
The pair sat, watching the night’s darkness, listening out for any sign of Edgar. They sat for hours, but the only sound they heard was the chirping of birds and whooshing of trees in the wind.
Stan grew more restless by the second and begun pacing, but as the sun rose, Edgar still failed to emerge from the darkness of the cave.
“He’s going to be alright mate,” Marvin said, “there’s nothing your Edgar can’t do, he’s like some sort of superhero! Remember that time when he swam all the way across Walandik Lake to find the teddy bear of yours that mean Tommy had thrown in? Knowing Edgar he’ll have done something daft and got lost!”
Stan wished he could share his friend’s feelings, but he was becoming increasingly anxious. Eventually, he came to a decision.
“Marvin, I’m going back in.” Stan saw his friend’s face drop but ignored it. “You stay here, I’ll be back soon, I’m just going to have a peek around to see where he is. This doesn’t feel good at all.”
With that, he gave his friend a pat on the shoulder and stepped back into the cave.
