Clare and I went to where the others were to show them what I had caught and eat it, which we did in just a few minutes after cooking the fish. By the time we finished, it was already getting dark, so we went straight to the cave to rest after that day.
In the middle of the night, I was awakened by loud noises outside the cave. I got up half asleep and was surprised to see everyone looking at the entrance where all the noises were coming from.
"Be quiet, Conan," Ghislaine whispered, putting her hand on my shoulder as we both looked at the entrance.
One of the boys, named Ellis, who had black hair tied back, went to check it out. I saw him take small steps until he reached the entrance and looked outside. When he poked his head out, I saw him become alarmed and return to us at incredible speed, still making no noise.
"There's a huge snake outside," Ellis told us, looking terrified after seeing the creature. "That thing was enormous. It even knocked down some trees as it moved," he said, gesturing with his hands, exaggerating the size of the snake he saw as much as he could.
"It must be another magical creature from the forest, but we've never seen one so big," said Oswin, who seemed attentive to the sounds outside.
I remember how we had encountered other magical creatures during the year we have been here. Once we saw two creatures fighting. The first was a huge fish that shot powerful jets of water created with magic. The next was a red bear that destroyed several large rocks before pouncing on the fish and biting its head off. Then there were some small, fast insects that the wizards incinerated with their fire magic, and several other magical monsters.
"I don't think it's here just to wander around, it's most likely looking for food," whispered Anna, getting up quietly before saying to us, "Let's go to the tunnels in this cave, we'll be safer there." She began to help children like me and lead us where she was pointing.
"Anna is right. If it's as big as Ellis says, it won't be able to get through the tunnels," Ghislaine agreed. She also helped us and led us with Anna and the others.
Although we had no trouble reaching the tunnels, everyone was scared, and I was too, but I was more curious to see the creature than afraid. As we made our way to the deepest part of the tunnels, we could see several insects beginning to walk along the walls, which disgusted everyone. To calm them down, Oswin began killing them with magic.
When his attacks hit the wall or the insects, they made a noise, which alerted the others, and they beat Oswin until they decided we should keep walking.
We had never explored the tunnels before, mainly because they saw it as unnecessary, given where we were, so we were paying attention to everything we saw. After a few minutes of walking, we reached what would be the deepest part of the tunnels, where we could see a strong blue light. As we arrived, the cave sank down and extended impressively. When we looked out, we saw a huge crystal-clear lake below the ground.
"Hey, what is this?" Claire asked as she looked curiously at the water below us.
"I don't know, but this was definitely not made by goblins," said Oswin, and we all turned to look at him because of the obviousness of his words. Although this time they didn't hit him, they almost pushed him down as punishment.
We looked around and saw some rocks protruding next to where we were, so many of us approached with the intention of going down and exploring further. But at that moment, Ghislaine lunged at the boys who were about to climb down, dragging them all back to where we were.
"Damn it, Ghislaine!" one of the boys shouted angrily as he pushed Ghislaine away. "I almost fell because of you!" he said, approaching him and raising his fist to hit him.
"Look up," she said, pointing with her finger, and we all turned and were alarmed to see hundreds of what we could only describe as bats, huge and white, hanging from the ceiling above the lake as if waiting for something.
Unfortunately for us, we saw something moving below. When we looked, we saw a huge yellow turtle with a large pointed shell heading toward the lake to drink water. The loud sound of its footsteps woke the bats one by one, causing us to freeze in place as they looked at us.
Luckily for us, none of them looked at us, and they focused directly on the turtle, staring at it while it didn't even look at them and continued drinking the water. After what seemed like hours, all the bats closed their eyes and went back to sleep.
None of us thought twice and we started walking backwards, with the aim of getting away from that place as quickly as possible.
"Hey, create a rock or something to seal this place off," whispered Anna as she kept her eyes fixed on the bats.
The trio of magicians approached the entrance and began to create a huge rock, which slowly began to block the path to that place.
"Let's not go back there," I said, terrified after seeing the blood-red eyes of the white creatures.
"We won't," said Anna, taking my hand and leading me away from that tunnel with the others.
When we finished leaving the tunnels, we stopped hearing the noises outside. Ellis went to check and apparently the huge snake was gone, which reassured us and allowed us to sleep again. Although this was difficult because after seeing all the creatures we saw in just one night, sleeping was impossible...