Adam's Apples
Having tiptoed one by one out of the cell and past the snoring muton, the children moved quietly, one behind the other, against one darkened wall of the tunnel. Adam, who led the way, put up his hand and stopped. The other children stopped, too. They heard shouting and shrieking behind them. Several evols were screaming at the muton who had let the children escape. Then they heard heavy shuffling sounds when a number of mutons rushed by them just outside the tunnel after being called to the cave cell by the evols.
"Now they are looking for us," Adam said in a whisper to Zonia, Enoch and Seth, who crowded around him. "I've got to find the dream doodler. It's our only chance."
"But how?" Zonia asked in an excited whisper. "There's no telling where those evols hid it."
"There's got to be a way...there's just got to," Adam said.
"Let's ask the Great King to help us," Zonia said. "He will help us."
Enoch said in a whisper, "Who is the Great King?"
"You call him the Maker of All Things," Adam said.
"The Maker of All Things!" Seth chimed in. "He is your Great King?"
"Ssshh!" Adam tried to quiet Seth.
The shuffling sounds grew louder and louder while the mutons searched everywhere. The evols, too, flew about the caverns, desperate to find the children. Although the small, dark tunnel for the moment hid them from the evil ones, it was just a matter of time. Adam determined that it was indeed time to call upon the Great King.
He shut his eyes and thought of the great, majestic King who was always with them no matter what, no matter where.
Zonia, too, joined him in his thoughts while together they called out to His Majesty, who heard from across the vast ages. Yet at the same time, he answered from within the children's own minds.
"Push the button you will find just inside the buckle of the belt around your waist. Press the button, Adam."
Adam, as did Zonia, heard the voice clearly. Adam quickly opened the clasp of the belt. Yes! There it was!
Adam pressed the button and instantly felt a thump against his right leg.
"The dream doodler!" he said, much louder than he meant to.
He pulled the dream doodler from its holster and held it tightly. The Great King had answered! Now they must find Toby and the seven apples.
The shuffling sounds grew louder and louder. The evols and the mutons had found the tunnel and were coming after them!
"Hurry! Let's go this way!" Adam shouted to the children who followed him while he moved quickly through the tunnel toward the red glowing light ahead.
A few seconds later they stood at the tunnel's opening. A large flow of red-hot lava moved along the floor of the cavern into which the tunnel led. The lava's glow gave off enough light so they could easily see to walk safely through the cavern. There was no time to move slowly. The approaching giants were closer behind them than ever.
"They are going to catch us!" Zonia shouted to be heard above the muton's movements and the boiling, steaming lava noises.
"I'll take care of that!" Adam said, pointing the dream doodler toward the tunnel opening he, Zonia and the children had just left. He shut his eyes, pressed the "DREAM DRAW" button and waved the dream doodler at the cave opening. The wall around and above the tunnel began to crack and rumble. Within seconds, the cave opening crumbled and fell, covering the exit.
"That ought to hold them," Adam said, leading the children farther into the cavern.
"There's no way out of here," Enoch said, examining their surroundings.
"Yes, there is," Adam said, grabbing Enoch by the front of his robe and pulling the boy close enough for Enoch to hear over the boiling noise.
"I'm going to dream draw you and the other kids to the outside of this mountain to the place where we found the sack when the evols went through the mountain. You and the others stay right there until Zonia, Toby and I come for you. You and Seth take care of the other children ... keep them there...okay?"
Enoch nodded yes.
Adam shut his eyes, then imagined the exact spot where the empty sack had fallen to the ground just outside the mountain's rocky wall. A Dream Door painting appeared and Adam imagined all of the children except he and Zonia standing in that exact spot.
He pressed the "DREAM DRAW" button again and the children vanished from the cavern. They instantly appeared then in the dream drawing. A few seconds later, the Dream Door portal closed and then the scene disappeared.
Within moments, three evols materialized near the tunnel's collapsed opening. They flew toward Adam and Zonia, their white, bony fingers outstretched from beneath the sleeves of their black hooded robes. They shrieked a loud, high-pitched shriek while they flew closer and closer.
Adam pressed the "DISAPPEAR DAZZLER" button on the dream doodler's handle and he and Zonia became invisible.
The hooded evols were furious, and flew back and forth across the cavern, desperately searching for the vanished children. Now the mutons broke through the rocks that covered the tunnel's opening. They hurried about the cavern, grunting and howling because they could not find Adam and his sister.
Adam and Zonia crouched against one wall farthest from the desperately searching evols and mutons. Adam shut his eyes, then imagined Toby in the semitransparent cage. He pressed the "DREAM DRAW" button and he and Zonia, still invisible, passed through the portal which had instantly opened and which just as quickly shut behind them.
The children were still invisible when they stepped through the Dream Door into the room where Toby lay inside the yellowish semitransparent cage.
Adam pointed the dream doodler at Toby and imagined him outside the cage. The tiger vanished, then reappeared just in front of the children. He growled a growl of approval and nuzzled the children, extremely happy to see them again.
Noises from behind Adam, Zonia and Toby startled them. They turned to face a group of angry mutons, who raced toward them. The giants' long, hairy arms helped them lumber toward the children and the tiger, their knuckles dragging them along in ape-like fashion.
"Quick! Do something!" Adam's sister yelled, watching the monsters rush ever faster toward them.
"Watch this!" Adam said, pointing the dream doodler at the gigantic creatures. He shut his eyes and pressed the button. Zonia watched all six of the beasts disappear. The children then heard grunting, growling and howling coming from behind them. They turned to see the commotion. All six of the mutons were within the cage Toby had been just seconds before.
The mutons beat on the side of the cage, their red eyes bulging, their tongues thrusting between their gnashing, knife-sharp teeth.
"Now let's get out of here!" Adam said.
"What about the apples?" Zonia reminded him. "We've got to find the apples!"
Adam, Zonia and Toby stepped through the portal of the dream drawing, but not before Adam first pressed the "DISAPPEAR DAZZLER" button, making himself, his sister and the tiger invisible.
"The apples! ...They are inside a strange glowing ball!" Zonia whispered in amazement as the three of them approached the seven apples. The apples were indeed arranged in a circle on top of a large pedestal and surrounded by a ball of yellowish light.
The cave room into which Adam had dream doodled them was very dark except for the ball of light around the apples. A humming sound seemed to come from the glowing globe.
"I think it's a force field of some kind," Adam thought out loud.
"Let's just get the apples and get out of here..." Zonia whispered, looking around at their darkened surroundings.
Adam pulled the dark sack from his belt where it had been since he picked it up just outside the mountain. He held the dream doodler toward the glowing light. He imagined the seven apples being inside the sack he held with his other hand.
But when he pushed the "DREAM DRAW" button, nothing happened! He tried several more times, but still nothing happened. The seven apples remained on the pedestal tabletop surrounded by the glowing ball of light.
"What's wrong?!" Zonia said.
Toby growled a curious growl.
"I ... I don't know...I guess that force field or whatever it is won't let the apples pass through it."
"What are we going to do?" Zonia asked after several seconds of silence.
Adam started to answer, but noises that grew louder and louder from within the cave room stopped him. Adam pulled on Zonia's arm, urging her to come with him into one dark corner. Toby followed them and they watched while several evols suddenly appeared near the glowing ball of light. They floated in the air and talked angrily to each other, their evil voices echoing from the walls of the cave.
"The Magnificent One is most displeased. He will not deal lightly with us for allowing the earthlon children to escape!" one of the evols said.
The yellowish light given off by the force field surrounding the seven apples made the hooded figures appear eerier than usual. Several more evols materialized and floated nearby.
"His Magnificence does not understand that the children of the Future Time have some great power given them by the Maker of All Things," the evol said in a whiny, echoing voice. "His Magnificence will just have to be made to realize..."
The cave room suddenly became blindingly bright. Adam, Zonia and even Toby had to squint to keep the light from hurting their eyes.
"His Magnificence will have to be made to realize what?"
The deep voice that asked the question made the whole cave room quake. Chunks of stone cracked and broke, then fell from the ceiling and walls.
The light became less bright and shrank until it became the form of a huge fan-shaped being.
"A lighton!" Zonia said in a whisper.
It was a lighton, Adam thought. A lighton like none other he had seen in New Eden.
This lighton was gigantic. His eyes were golden in color and pulsed with sparks of bright light when he spoke to the evols, who were now on their knees and faces bowing before him.
"You cannot be trusted to guard even small children," the lighton said, his booming voice shaking the cave room. "Should you be trusted to keep the apples from fulfilling their purpose?"
One of the evols raised his hooded head from its bowed position. "Your Magnificence, we shall find the children and they shall never have the apples."
"Silence!" the huge lighton said, his iridescent eyes flashing like lightning.
More broken pieces of rock tumbled to the floor as his words shook the entire cave room.
"Do you fools not know that the children of New Eden are right here among you?" the lighton said in a calmer voice.
The evols lifted their heads from their bowed positions and looked around the room.
"Uh-oh!..." Adam said, putting his arm around his sister to protect her.
Toby snarled an angry, protective snarl.