He brought us to the far edge of the inner cave, as he looked up towards the top, " Up there," he pointed.

There before me was a barely visible, very small crack, that lined the rock face. " I have been up there before, I know the route well. " He said. As I stood there, looking in almost freight at how small the space was, not only that, the climb itself didn't look very attractive. I pondered over the situation for a few minutes, before Fledgling had taken it upon himself to scour the rocks. With that of another beep breathe, I began to follow him up, with Corcoran not far behind.

As we climbed higher, the rocks began to crumble away beneath our footing and the icy water that dripped down from the spaces between the tightly wedged rocks, didn't help our quest to reach the small entrance, into, what appeared to be, the unknown. The climb itself was uncomfortable and I started to become more aware of the increasing height, as we was reaching our destination.

Fingers freezing from the icy water, my grip wasn't as tight as it should have been, and I had to take a rest on a boulder that was wedge out from the higher part of the climb. After some time, Corcoran and Fledgling had already reached the crack and was awaiting me to catch up with them, barely able to see them from where I was sitting I gathered myself together, to continue.

38.

I gently reached down and stared straight into the boys' face, " What is your name ?" I asked, as he stared back at me. " My name is fledgling, I was given that name after my family disappeared from the field maze set in the center of town. They just vanished as the story has it, that's all I know." He said , depleted, with a slight sense of grief. " You cant' send me back to the treachery of working in there, amongst those criminals". He said, as he looked down towards the cave bedded, rock floor, with slight disappointment in his posture.

" Right, " I said, as I looked at Corcoran, " Your coming with us, do you know another way out of here ?, is there another exist ?, I asked the young boy in haste, as we stood there in the darkened light, of the cave's grove.

" I do. " He said excitedly, looking towards his own images of inner freedom. " Follow me, I will lead you to the most deepest part of the city, that will lead us to the path of the upper world." He said, with increasing excitement.


So he tock me by the hand, I pulled him back and said " We are not looking for a way out yet, we are looking for something that is hidden in the depths of the city, something so important that the whole of the upper world depends upon it." With that he continued to pull at my hand, so myself and Corcoran followed him, in gentle stead.

The path of the cave was very Sharp and the rocks pushed in towards the skin of our feet, hard and cold, we could feel the slashes of our skin as we followed the young boy along his path....

37.

Approaching the young boy that we faced earlier, we looked at each other, as I reached out to tap him on his shoulder. The young boy stirred in his sleep, as he began to open his eyes', he looked up at us from beneath his rough sheet, blanket. We grabbed his arm and pulled as hard as we could and made a dash for the far exit, back through the path that we had taken. We had to be quick as not to wake the co workers.

Me, Corcoran and the young boy faced each other, in the darkened cave that we had left earlier. Phoenix wasn't in sight.

Corcoran spoke first, "We need to know what you are working on, down here."

The boy looked up at both of us with his hard dusty, tired eyes, " I only know the pieces I work with fit into a much larger object, I really don't know any more than that.

In deep disappointment we looked at each other, what was we to do now ?...

" Go back, ordered Corcoran, we have to leave now ".

The boy looked unhappy with the decision and started to shake his head furiously, " I don't wish to stay here, I was enslaved from the upper part of Ryon, after I was caught stealing from a wealthier inhabitant, I wish to be free."...

36.

He stopped what he was doing and began to walk over to us in a slow manner as to give nothing away. He knelt down by the side of the huge boulder that we was crouching behind and went to pick up his material. Corcoran grabbed the boy's arm and said to him softly, " what is this place? What are you doing here?"

The boy looked at Corcoran and shock his head without uttering any words'. He grabbed his material and pulled away from the grasps' of his clutches'. The boy backed away in a shy manner and started to work once again. Corcoran was set on questioning the boy, as to what was being established in the room. " I have to talk to him, I need to know what is happening down here." He said. We sat down for a while behind the rock face until the workers' became tired.

The dwelling, lit by flamed candles around the rough walls, dimmed and the room fell into a shadowy light. The workers retreated backwards into the cave space, where they had a basic living quarters but nothing was more than knee height in standard. Collapsing down onto the floor bedding, one by one they started to drift into sleep. We waited until there was no noise to be hard. We began to creep on towards the sleeping bodies....

35.

The bird gently moving into the deeper circles' of the cave . We drifted for sometime into the shadow of the rocks', moving around the sharp edges'. The atmosphere had calmed. As we approached a new opening, we heard some faint voices', uttering outwards'. We dismounted from the bird's saddle of beautifully embedded feathers'. Corcoran ordered the bird to stay; as we crept onwards', by foot.

Coming up to the opening, we knelt down on our knees', to see into the dwellings' of the cave. From there, we saw a whole set of abandoned people, small in height and dressed in rags'. They were working on heavy machinery; far superior than what I had ever seen.

The people seemed tired and helpless of the situation, famished from food deprivation and struggling to live on cauldrons of broth like soup. We entered unnoticed around the edges' of the room, ducking and diving behind any available cover that came our way, making a safe path through the rocks.

Eventually, we was seen by a young man, he looked at us from the corner of his eye. He continued to work; as if he hadn't even noticed us. Corcoran called him over; waving his hand behind the rock. He ignored us at first and continued to work, Corcoran continued to call him. He looked at us nervously from under his brow. He threw something our way, as we was crouching down. Looking around at the other people in the chamber, he put his work down and made his way over.

34.

We scrambled up the small rocks', tired. Sitting - shivering, the bird shook out his feathers' and wrapped us up, warm. As we drifted into a gentle sleep, we woke up a few hours' later to find ourselves' nice and dry and ready to embark on our quest.

There was some nice daylight floating in from the top of the entrance, though extremely high, we was glad to have the company of sunshine. Corcoran opened the book to find our position. " It's no use " He said, handing it back over to me. I studied it closely finding the route that we had taken from the half flooded cavern. I tried my best to read it; before we took flight again. We ate from some food that Corcoran had bought with him. I had fought so much through the whole experience, I didn't think I could go on. Corcoran grabbed hold of my hand and with a brisk undertaking; we took flight again.

I sat down, half engrossed in self pity and acceptance, still unable to control the urge to give up the fight. I had been weakened from the journey and I had no choice but to hold onto the last strings of hope. Trying to get my head round the whole situation, really fed up, I knew I had to proceed to complete my quest.

33.

As phoenix flew through the turning tunnels,' mechanical doors' shutting down, one after another behind us.

We began approaching a light at the end of the tunnel, we could feel a gush of strong air as we felt a pull; dragging us into a new chamber. With a sudden burst, we found ourselves in the next chamber, half filled with very deep water. The bird stopped in midair, and with a heavy jerk, we was thrown forward.

Myself and Corcoran looked around at the new chamber; we could see no other exit. With the last exit now closed off, we was trapped. We looked down at the water, it seemed the only way forward. So with the pulling up of the reins' and the covering of the book, we headed straight for the dive.

We swam deep into the depths' of the water, before we found the connecting hole, we had to resurface again, for air. The water was bitter cold and shaking with shock; we had no time to waste. We inhaled a deep breath and went in for the dive again. we searched down into the depths' of the water and eventually found the hole. Leading through; it was a small narrow tunnel. In desperation, we found ourselves' squeezing through, in hope that we would find something on the other side.

The water was much warmer as we swam through and it didn't have much depth, so we resurfaced very fast and with that we found ourselves gasping for air. When we managed to get our breath back; we swam over to a small mound of rocks', that lined the water's edge.

32.