Soon they were back on their way to Turkey.
As they were walking along the path, they found a trapdoor. They lifted it and found atunnel and went in. There were steps leading down into a chasm where something shining golden was down in it. "I have a bad feeling about this," said Icsis.
Something stirred. 30 seconds later they were at the bottom of the steps. It was then the serpent struck. It bit Icsis in the thigh! He spun around, but it was too late! The venom was spreading. "Run, Icsis! Run to the trapdoor!" shouted Disilis. The trapdoor slammed shut and suddenly the whole scene disappeared. It was then that they found the chest of emeralds. And Disilis found something else. It was a pike and a complete suit of armor! Then they went on for the trapdoor was locked.
They continued on into the next chamber. It was extremely bright compared to the last one they had been in. The candles lit the whole chamber, which was extremely big. Paintings covered the walls. There were pictures of people hunting, people farming, and then there were nature scenes, most of which were set in the woods. They walked through, admiring the paintings. They began to notice that there were creeks running on either side of a path in the middle of the floor. They walked on and on. The chamber seemed to never end until they reached an open door.
They walked into a less-lit chamber where the creeks ended in little pools. The shadows seemed to jump out at them. Suddenly there was a roar! Then there was a bright light that came out of the dim chamber, and a dragon flew into their sight! It was red with yellow-tinged wings. Then Icsis roared back.
“Does Icsis know dragon?” Aurelius said to Disilis.
“Yes, he does, very well in fact.”
Icsis translated. “He says hello.”
“What?” said Aurelius.
“Tell him he is welcome to join us,” said Disilis.
“He says 'Thank you',” said Icsis.
Then they walked on, the dragon flying behind them. He told them that his name was Drake Firestring. They walked on and on; finally the chamber ended. The door was barred and locked. They could not get through it. Drake blew fire and burnt the door down. There was a hissing, and the fire stopped. There was a great length of water ahead.
“I guess we will have to swim,” said Icsis.
“Or you could ride on my back,” roared Drake.
So they hopped on to Drake's back. Occasionally he would blow fire to light their way ahead. Finally, they found a landing island, sort of like a sand bar in the ocean. There they landed and rested, filled their casks with water (for it was fresh water they had been flying over), and slept. They overslept, however, for they could not tell morning from night. In what they thought was the morning, they continued.
They flew on, and the tunnel began to rise and the water dropped off into wet dirt.
“Ahhhh, dry land at last,” said Icsis.
They jumped off the dragon's back and ran all the way up to another trap door, similar to the previous one but not locked. They opened the trap door and sunlight filtered inside. They saw that there were actually fish in the water. They walked out onto dry land overlooking Loch Ness. The water of the loch stirred.
“Some people say there's a monster down there,” said Icsis, suddenly realizing where they were.
“Oh, I never knew that,” said Aurelius.Suddenly, a serpentine head reared up from the water.
“Aaaaaugh!” said Icsis. It began to swim toward them. Soon, they realized that it could slide on land as well as it could swim! It began to slither toward them. Disilis took out his pike and thrust it at the serpent. It reared its head when the pike struck, although it did not fall. It started again to slither toward them. Icsis took out his bow and notched an arrow to it. “This monster seems invincible!” he said.
“Not to my magic,” said Aurelius.
Suddenly, the monster disappeared and all that was left were a few ripples in the loch. Soon they found another trapdoor. They opened it and found that there was extremely soft soil on the left wall. “There must have been a cave-in, and someone has created a continuation of the other tunnel from a different spot,” said Icsis. They hopped on to Drake's back for faster travel, and set off through the trapdoor.
This tunnel was flooded, too, because groundwater from the other tunnel had seeped in through the loose soil and filled this one. Eventually, they found a wall of stone where they landed and slept for what they thought was the night. When they woke up, they could travel on land again, because the water could not get through stone. Suddenly, there was a door ahead with torches on either side. It was unlocked. They went through and found themselves in a brightly lit chamber similar to the one where they had met Drake. They walked on. Later, they encountered a serpent which was considerably hard to kill because the tunnel had become narrow.
When they found another door, they opened it. To their surprise, they found themselves in the bottom of a castle tower. They climbed to the top and looked out. They found themselves in a large castle! They decided to explore the castle. They climbed down into the courtyard then decided to investigate the dungeon. Suddenly, they found themselves going down the steps into a very dark series of chambers. There were many doors leading off to both sides. They opened one and found themselves face to mandibles with a gigantic spider!
