Editing The Toe Chronicles (section)

=== Bob ===
   Everything was going fine until it wasn’t. We had made good time going up the mountain, although we stopped less than I would have liked. When we finally entered the cave, we noticed several interesting things. First, the cave entrance was made of blue rocks, and the inside was yellow. I felt a shiver go up my spine, and my hands tightened around my fishing pole. We both stepped into the cave at the same time and were waiting for our eyes to adjust to the dark when we heard something move. We looked around but saw nothing. Before I could open my mouth to ask Nathan if he could see anything, the floor moved out from under us, and we fell down a long chute! We slid down it through the darkness for what felt like five minutes. I noticed how colorful the slide was, and then realized that I could see colors because we were getting closer to light! The chute ended a few feet above the ground, dumping us. Our landing was not graceful, but nothing broke. When I got up to look around and see where we were, I saw that we were next to a mountain that looked like the one we came from. Nathan was the first to notice why, and he said, “Isn’t that the mountain we just climbed?” I looked again. It was! That was why it looked like the one we had climbed; it was because it was the one we climbed! Needless to say, we were not very happy. 

They had to sit and think for a moment, if they went back up again, they might fall into another trap, or even down another chute and find themselves on the other side of the world because that was one thing that they had to consider. They were both contemplating what to do next when a sudden familiar voice spoke up behind them, it sounded very familiar, like it could, could it? They looked behind them to the source of the voice, which sure enough, was Charles. He and Nathan were both in awe and both looked shocked to see that the short kid from Liverriver was right in front of them. They both had a thousand questions to ask, but before they could open their mouths Charles started to explain. He first talked about how he used the mountain as a way to see if he could trust them, and that the puzzles is what he will determine to see if they are really worthy of going to the pool of phalanges. He was going to test to see if they were worthy by asking them a simple riddle. He said it would be easy, but it seemed anything but easy. He carefully explained, “I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?” He explained that if they explained the answer to this riddle and gave the answer then he would take them to the pool of phalanges. They had come all this way, and now all they needed to do was think.

I didn’t want to be the pessimist of the group, but we were doomed. Neither of us are that good at riddles and we were tired and dirty. All of this is to find a toe. My life could not get any weirder than this. “I feel like I have heard this riddle before.” Nathan said. He was right! I had heard this before too! My brain raced as I tried to remember what the answer was. Once again, it was Nathan who got to the realization first. “An echo!” Nathan yelled. Charles nodded his head. Yes! We had done it! Nathan and I jumped up and down for joy, feeling like we could take on anything! “Now, you must face The Finger Thiever.” Charles’ statement cut through our joy like a scythe cutting through wheat. “The what?” I asked. “The Finger Thiever” Charles replied calmly. “What on earth is The Finger Thiever?” Nathan asked. “The Finger Thiever, to put it in simple terms, is a dragon that magically steals animal digits. No one knows why it does this, it just does.” Charles replied. “How are we supposed to get my toe back?” Nathan asked. There was no reply. We looked around, finding that Charles had left us. 

They remembered a while before when they were stumped, well now they thought about it and they were, without a doubt, double stumped. Charles had just flat out disappeared into thin air, and they had absolutely no clue how to get to the dragon which they were supposed to face. The moon was now about to set, and they decided to just eat and camp where they were for the night. So, they lit a small fire, warmed up some of the bread that they were carrying in the fire, and then they laid down beside the cozy warmth of the fire. They had not rly any plans for the next day, so they didn’t have too much to worry about. They both quickly fell soundly asleep in the dark sunlight that there now was. In the morning, they both woke up later than they intended to at around two hours past moonrise, and they had a late breakfast of some potatoes and bread. Not having a clue on how to find the Finger Thiever they just decided to do the best they could by going to Liverriver again and asking around. They now began the day’s walk to the town where they hoped to find out more information. 

   We arrived at Liverriver at around four hours past noon. The first thing we did was buy more food, because we had run out of food on the walk back to town. We then searched around for more information. Most of the people we met were not kind enough to give us any help. We met a few kids our age who told us some things, but everything they said sounded super fake, and sounded like they were playing a prank on us. We asked for information everywhere we could, except for the smelly shop that we had entered during our first time in the town. We, I mean, I, finally decided to go into the shop and ask for information, because there was nowhere else, we could find it. Nathan stayed outside and waited for me, because he went in first last time, so I guess it was now my turn. The awful smell punched my nose as soon as I opened the door. I resisted the urge to throw up and continued inside. I tried to hold my breath as long as I could, but I soon realized that the terrible smell is smart, and it waits for its victims to breathe before it attacks. I stumbled through the shop, looking for someone to ask questions, but there was no one there. I almost gave up and left when I heard a sound coming from an open door in the back of the shop. I quietly shuffled over to the door and peeked inside. 

Inside the door was something that he didn’t even know how to describe. It was a weird old-style laboratory with a lot of tubes and beakers and even some smoke was coming from some weird container looking things. At a closer glance, the smoke looked like what was the cause of the unusual smell that had surrounded the shop. In the corner he noticed the shopkeeper dressed in a weird thin plastic poncho-like thing while he looked like he was messing with some beakers and drawings. Bob looked around the room still taking it all in when he accidentally leaned on the door causing it to move forward a little with a loud screech. There was no running and hiding now, and while he was still in the shock of the door making such a loud sound, he felt the presence of something big in front of him. He slowly looked up, and there he was. The big muscular shopkeeper stared down at him with a stern look. There would be no just getting out this time, and the look that the man gave him also told him that there was no escaping or just walking out now. Bob prepared himself to face the old man and raised his head up to look at the man that towered above him.