Nightmares Cave.

My First Novella (pt 4)

To my dearest friends and followers,

Thank you for reading my first novella and for coming back to finish the story. It just keeps getting more and more bizarre to say the least. XD I would love to hear from you and what you think of the story so far!!

In case you missed it...
Part 1 (chapters 1-3)
Part 2 (chapters 4-6)
Part 3 (chapters 7-9)

CHAPTER 10
"Nightmares Cave"

"Alright!" said Star. "Let's go to Worlds Grove next."
"Um, shouldn't we go to Nightmares Cave first? It's on the way," Elina said.
"I think we should go there last," Star said. Pale though she was, she became more pale.
"Star, what's wrong?" Elina asked.
"It's too horrible to speak of!" Star shuddered from the thought.
"It's ok," Elina soothed. "You can tell me."
"Well," Star began, "When I was a foal..."
"You were a foal once?" Elina asked. It was hard to imagine Star when she was a baby.
"Believe it or not, I was. Me and my sister..."
"I didn't know you had a sister!" Elina interrupted.
"Yes. I had a sister. We were very small and we were still taking flying lessons..."
"You had to take flying lessons?" Elina said, baffled. "Aren't you born knowing how to fly?"
Star rolled her eyes. "Were you born with legs?"
"Yes," Elina answered.
"Did you know how to walk?"
"No."
"Exactly. You had to go to walking school..."
Elina laughed at the idea.
"...And us winged horses have to go to flying school. One day my sister decided to skip school and took me with her. We went to Nightmares Cave."
"Why?"
"It was my sister's idea. She was always getting me into trouble. Inside the cave, it was dark and cold. We could hear bats in the distance. Then we heard something on the ground. It was a huge snake!"
"How huge?" Elina shuddered.
"Too great to say," Star answered. "It slithered to us with its green glowing eyes. My sister and I were frightened by the beast. She helped me escape. That was the last time I saw her." Star lowered her head.
"Oh, you poor thing," Elina said as she rested her hand on Star's head. "Still though," she said, "mustn't we still look for the boy?"
"I suppose you're right," Star said.

On they went towards the mountains, until they came to the entrance to the cave and they both stopped.
"We made it all this way, don't get scared on me now," Elina said.
"I'm not scared," said Star.
"Then why did you stop?"
"Why did you stop?"
They both smiled at each other. Elina put her arm around Star and they walked cautiously inside.
As Star said, it was indeed dark and cold inside. They could both see by the light that emitted itself from Star. They could hear the sound of bats chirping in the distance. Surprisingly, there were several plants that grew in the cave. But they didn't see any Belladonna plant. 

Elina suddenly heard the sound of something moving on the ground. Then she realized she saw a light ahead of them that wasn't Star. Two faint glowing lights.
"What is that?" she asked, a quiver in her voice.
"I don't know," Star said slowly in a whisper.

The light kept coming closer to them until they could see plainly that it was a snake! The width of the serpent was about that of Elina's body and the length was too great to see the other end of it.
Elina screamed, "A SNAKE!"
"Sssomething wrong, Sssweetie?" asked the snake, coiling up and opening it's mouth wide.
Elina jumped on Star's back and she flew out of the cave. The snake suddenly had wings and looked more like some kind of dragon than a snake.
"Ssstop!" Yelled the snake, flying after them. "It'sss not often I get visssitors. I'm ssso hungry!"
Elina looked back. "Hurry! It's gaining on us!"
"I'll go as fast as I can! Hold on for dear life!" Star was flying very fast and was heading for the ground.
"Ahhh!" Elina screamed.
Star landed. She collapsed and panted in exhaustion. Elina looked around. The serpent landed next to them. "Ssso hungry," it hissed.
Out of nowhere, Princess Bella's unicorn came to the rescue. "Ooh!" Elina said at seeing Crystal. 
"It's ok, I'm here!" the unicorn shouted happily. She ran 10 times as fast as the serpent could move. Just by poking the serpent with her long horn, it burst into dust and fell to the ground.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" said Elina. She tapped Star's head. "We're safe now."
"Hmm?" Star moaned and lifted her head. "Oh, oh!" She stood up and looked at Crystal. "Yes, thank you. I thought we were done for!"

CHAPTER 11
"Worlds Grove"

"I guess we can put an X on Nightmares Cave," Elina laughed. "Next, Worlds Grove."
As they approached Worlds Grove, Elina knew she had been here before when she met the old woman. She and Star walked up to a tree and opened the door attached to it. Inside was a small boat with a tropical island a short distance away. They got into the wee boat and without paddling, without oars, or a breeze of any sort, the boat moved towards the island.

Finally they arrived and got out of the boat. On the island were hundreds of different kinds of animals, like birds, turtles, lizards, foxes, deer, only to name a few. There were also a lot of plants. "I bet we can find what we are looking for here!" Elina exclaimed. Star smiled at her in agreement.

They came to a young boy sitting on a stump. He was playing a fiddle and put it down when he saw them. He picked up what looked like a spelling test. "How do you spell Mississippi?" He asked.
Elina answered, "M-i-s-s-i..."
"Too slow," said the fiddler. "You lose. Thanks for trying anyway." he waved them on.

Elina lifted her brow in confusion. She and Star walked on. Next they came to a cottage similar to the one the Old Woman lived in.
"Let's go there," suggested Star. "Whoever lives there might be able to help us."
Elina agreed.
They knocked on the door. A couple answered. It was Elina's parents. Her father, a tall thin man with a light complexion, brown eyes and a head of hair to match, answered with a crooked grin. Her mother, an petite attractive woman, more pale than her husband, bold haired and blue eyed, stood beside him with a sweet smile on her lips.
Elina also had a dog. A yellow-ish weenier-dog to be exact, named Winkster. He was chewing on his bouncie-ball, and then jumped up and greeted Elina. He then went back to chewing on his toy.

"Are there any Belladonna plants here?" asked Elina.
"There might be," her mother said.
Elina's eyes got really big and a smile spread across her face. "Would you tell me where please?" 
Her father gave her directions. So the two left the cottage and crossed a little arched bridge over a stream and came to a field of wildflowers as far as the eye could see. They looked and looked and found nothing. "Oh Star," Elina pouted and slumped to the ground.
"Don't give up!" Star encouraged. "There are still more places to look!"

Elina and Star left that world and went to another. It was somewhat the same as the first, but slightly different too. There was an island with a layer of snow that covered the ground. Thick ice was between them and the island, instead of water. Elina, wearing a perfect outfit to go skating in, stepped onto the ice. She found she was wearing ice skates. Star followed close behind, also wearing skates. Elina giggled and smiled all the way to the snow-covered island. Once there, Star's shoes were gone, and Elina's shoes changed back.

They walked to the same spot where the cottage was, only in this world, there was a log cabin with smoke coming from the chimney. 
Elina and Star walked inside. "Hello?" Elina called out. "Mom? Dad? Winkster?" she turned to Star and shrugged. "I guess no one's home."
They left the cabin and came to an area where a crowd of people stood on either side of a snow-beaten path. Above the path was a sign that read FINISH in big red letters. In the distance Star and Elina could see dogs - it was a sled dog race!

In one of the teams, Winkster was the lead dog. "Go Winkster, go!" cheered Elina, standing next to her parents.
Winkster had his tongue hanging out of his mouth as he raced to the finish, his tiny legs moving as fast as lightning.
Winkster ran in front of all the other teams and won the race!
"Woo! You did it Winkster! You did it!" Elina and Star cheered. The two ran to greet Winkster with Elina's parents. They took the dog to the cabin and held a feast in his honor. It was the greatest feast ever held for a dog.
Winkster was put in a chair at the table with a cone-shaped party hat on his head.

"Doesn't he look cute?!" Elina giggled. The feast done and over with, Elina asked her parents if there was a Belladonna plant in that land.
"I've never seen one," her mother answered. 
"Anyway, I doubt if there was that it would have survived this harsh storm," her father added.

Elina and Star left and went to another world. There was a dark sky filled with stars and planets that could be seen with the naked eye. Desert mountains covered the area. There wasn't a single plant in sight. They climbed and looked right and left, up and down, but all in vain.
They came to a ledge with a great big eagle sitting on a nest.

"Is there a Belladonna plant around here?" asked Elina.
"Do I look like I know?" The Eagle said rudely.
Elina and Star walked away and found a large white goat asleep on another mountain with her baby next to her.
Elina gently touched both goats. "Wake up," she whispered.
The baby woke up first. "Ahhh! Maaamaaa!
"Shhh! I'm not going to harm you!" Elina tried to calm the little goat.
The mother awoke. "What's going on!" she demanded.
"Maaamaaa! Maaamaaa!" The baby goat cried out, pointing to Elina. "She, she..."
"What? Did she hurt you?"
The baby goat shook her head. 
"I'm sorry to disturb you," apologized Elina. "Are there any Belladonna plants here?"
"I can assure you," said the goat, "There are no plants here that I know of."
Elina and Star left that world and went to about a dozen more. All in vain. Elina put an X on Worlds Grove.
"Next to None Asea Woods," Star said.
"What does that mean anyway?" Elina asked.
"Asea means, from the sea," Star answered. "So None Asea means not from the sea?"
"Oh," Elina said, wondering why it was called that.

CHAPTER 12
"None Asea Woods"

"I've been here before," Elina explained. "Just before I met the Princess. I didn't know about the Belladonna plant at the time."

Elina and Star entered the woods and walked past the same stone Elina had seen before, only this time it was blank. They made it past the area that held Elina back last time. Both had gone some distance without seeing a Belladonna plant. Finally the two came to the edge of the woods. Beyond that was nothing but a sandy beach and then the ocean. No plants. "Do you suppose we passed it?" asked Elina.
"Perhaps," replied Star.
"Wonder how we missed it," said Elina.

Elina and Star backtracked their steps and looked as they went. Elina spotted a bush with small round black berries. She had not noticed it before. In fact, she was sure it wasn't even there before. 
"Star," she called, pointing. Star looked at it with eyes wide. "Belladonna! That's it!"
"What do we do?" Elina asked.
"We dig!" Star replied. She started kicking away the dirt with her hooves. Elina used both of her hands to dig like a wild dog. The dirt gave way and collapsed underneath them. An Underground cave!
They headed left and after a short distance, they saw a boy, about fourteen years old! he had brown hair and blue eyes. He resembled Elina's brother. Actually, he looked just like him!
"Oh, Tyler!" cried Elina, throwing her arms around him. "We found you! Star, we found him! We found him!"
"Have you been looking for me?" Tyler asked, pushing Elina from him.
"Have we?" Elina quipped. "We've been looking everywhere! How come you've been here so long, couldn't you find a way out?"
"Actually no, I haven't," he said slowly.
"Well, we did!" Elina said proudly.
"Yeah, but you came from the top," Tyler said pointing up. "From here, I can't even touch the top of the cave with my fingers. And I'm pretty tall," he added.
"It doesn't matter how we came in. At least we did," Elina said.
He just smiled and said sheepishly, "thanks."
Elina smiled. "No problem. I couldn't have done it without Star."
Star smiled and took a bow, extending her front leg and bending forward.
Elina drew a big circle around the woods then said with a sigh, "Now that we've found him, can we look for Shellie's treasure?"
Star nodded and said, "I can fly us out the way we came in." And the trio were on their way.


**Thank you!! Next week I will be posting the final chapters!! Ahhh!! :D

Yours truly,
Me