Chapter I

It was nearing dark. They were hoping to find shelter somewhere nearby. Fortunately, they saw a cave. It looked dangerous, but welcoming at the same time. They went in and took out blankets. Then after a few breaths, they were fast asleep.

Suddenly, they woke up, because of a slithering sound they had heard. They had dreamed that tiny, tiny, monsters were slithering across the cave floor toward them. When they awoke, it was true!

They were tiny, leech-like creatures. Their length was at most one foot. I’m going to try to describe them. For one thing, as I have already told you, they were one foot long. And instead of purple, they were a sick yellow. They were called redetsas.

Icsis lit a torch. Suddenly the redetsas started shrinking. When the flame touched one, it instantly shriveled up. He did this with every single redetsa until they were gone. And then they left the cave.

They found an outcrop of rocks where they slept for the rest of the night.

In the morning, they went back to the cave. They hadn't gone very far, when they rounded a corner. as soon as they were past, the wall from the corner came sliding after them. Suddenly, there was a dead end in front of them, with footholds on its wall. They ran to the dead end and climbed up. Apparently, there was a trap door. They climbed outside just in time as the moving wall slammed into the dead end, smacking it right out as if it were a door. They jumped back down onto the cavern floor, and walked into the chamber it had opened.

It had great golden arches, with paintings on the walls. “It must be the home of an old civilization that left a long, long, time ago,” said Icsis.

“It must have been abandoned for a long time, but I see shedded skins of snakes on the floor,” said Disilis.

Then they left the cave. “The civilization must have been chased out by serpents . We must help them,” said Icsis .

“Ah, but what happend to the serpents? They are very powerful,” said Disilis. There was no sign of them.”

“ Oh, no!” said Icsis, then somewhere nearby a serpent was stirring. Then it attacked them. Icsis notched an arrow to his bow and the serpent reared up and bared its teeth. Icsis drew back and let fly. The arrow's aim was true; it hit the serpent in the eye and it fell back never to harm human kind. Then they left the place of the battle. While they walked they took note of the crumbled houses. There was even a temple. Icsis even went in to touch the sculpture and as soon as he did it crumbled away to reveal a human skeleton. Icsis gasped in horror. ''But how?" said Disilis. To Icsis' horror, the skeleton walked away, leaving them in the temple speechless. Then they walked out of the temple. On their way to Turkey later... finally they made it to the sea just to find that they had no boat, so they began to gather some driftwood to make a raft. They went to sea….

81 miles later…

They were nearing the Mediterranean Sea where they would begin to walk across dry land until they reached Turkey. When they finally landed in Italy, their food supply was nearly exhausted. They walked over to a nearby fisherman. Disilis said, "qius es." He replied, "Oralios sum pater sum."
"Oralios, I am Disilis and he is my partner Icsis. Can you help us? We are hungry. Surely you have a home."
"Yes I do have a home and I am willing to feed you," said Oralios.
"Then lead on, we need rest."
When they reached his home they were too tired to eat or drink so they fell asleep. When they awoke, he was gone. They went to the market and quickly found him selling the fish he had hooked the other day so they went back to Oralios' home to wait for him.

Soon he was back ...