Sealed in

By the time they all got back to camp, it was about 1:00 A.m.

"It's too late to go to sleep," said Rose.

"Well that's what you think, I'ma sleep for the time we have" replied Birk

"Same, what about you Lunar?" Aster asked,

"I'll stay up" replied Lunar

"me too," said Serai

"ok, suite yourself, goodnight!"

"so what do you usually do this early in the morning?" Serai asked,

"Well, we usually hunt or patrol" replied lunar,

"I say we go tree climbing, I saw this really tall tree while patrolling, and it looks perfect for climbing" Rose stated.

"Sounds good to me, what about you Serai?" Lunar asked,

"Sounds good."

When they got to the tree that Rose was talking about, it was huge, the trunk was at least 6 feet wide and it was about 150 tall and it had branches low enough for them to reach.

"Wow, this is the biggest tree I've ever seen!" Serai said.

"I know right! it's huge!" said Rose already pulling herself onto the first branch, and without hesitation Serai did the same and before she knew it, Rose and Serai were both racing up to the top, and after what seemed like no time Serai reached the top and Rose was already resting on the outer edge of a branch

"Wow, you're fast! I'm the fastest tree climber in my family and you still beat me," Serai said, out of breath.

"Yeah I've always been pretty fast at climbing" replied Rose.

After a bit of talking, Lunar finally appeared in the branches.

"Wow, you guys didn't have to abandon me like that. You know I'm not the best climber Rose!" Lunar stated sarcastically before sitting down by Serai.

"The view here is wonderful! much better then the city" Serai declared,

"You've been to the city before I'm guessing?" asked Rose,

"yeah I grew up in the city," replied Serai.

"Oh that's cool," said Lunar.

"ya but not nearly as cool as this place" stated Serai.

After a few hours, they could start to see the tip of the sun start to rise on the mountain which gave a wonderful glow to the silent asleep forest.

"If we start to go now, we could tag along with the dawn patrol, that is of course if you guys want to" asked Lunar.

"Sure! id love to go" said Serai,

"Well I guess I don't really have a choice unless I want to leave you guys so I guess I'll go to," replied Rose

"Great, let's go then!" After they climbed down they waited for the dawn patrol, but while they were waiting the ground started to shake and the tree branches above them started to wobble, and the wind started to pick up!

"W-what's happening!" Serai started to speak but before she could finish, she looked up to see a huge tree falling straight towards her

"watch out!" Rose screamed.

but Serai couldn't move it was like she was paralyzed and she closed her eyes preparing for the tree when she felt something collapse onto her side right before she heard the tree fall just a couple of feet away from her.

"huh? Lunar?!" she was shocked when she opened her eyes to see Lunar on top of her

"cough, cough, cough. Are you ok Serai?" he asked after clearing his throat.

"I'm ok how about you?" she asked,

"I'm fine" he answered and helped her up.

"Thank goodness you guys are ok," Rose said hopping over the fallen tree.

"We need to find shelter, and fast!"

"How bout the cave with the crystals?" Serai asked

"it's probably our best guess lets go," Lunar said as they all started to run towards the cave avoiding falling trees, disturbed ground, and any other things the earthquake may have made.

"it's right here, let's go in!" lunar said, and they all ran in as fast as they could seeking shelter away from the shaking world outside, but as soon as they all were in, the entries to the cave collapsed, sealing the only way they knew how to get in or out.

"Well I guess we'll have to find another way out, they're probably is one in the blue cave."

"Yeah, I hope so, do you think the others made it to safety?" Serai asked

"I don't know, but I do know that as long as there with the older elf's, they're safe," Rose told Serai.

"yea, didn't Moon always say that there was an earthquake and he led everyone to safety when he was first made the leader?" Lunar asked,

"oh yea~ that's when he met mom, I remember that story, you should get him to tell you that story sometime when this is all over," Rose told Serai.

"If we make it out of this cave" Serai mumbled.

"Oh don't be silly, there has to be another way out," Rose told Serai,

"and here we made it to the bleu ca--" Lunar stopped in mid-sentence.

"What's wrong? huh, oh no!" Rose said looking at the once wide-open blue tunnel.

"I-it collapsed!" Serai stated,

"But there's no other way out," Rose said

"Well, there might be one more way," Luar said, looking at the tunnel with the red crystals.

"NO, we cant!" Rose said, "there's got to be another way"

"We have no choice" Lunar said turning towards them, "We have to take the red tunnel"

"But we can't! you know what happens when someone goes in there!" Rose stated, "They rarely EVER come back out!"

"We have to! there's no other place to go! Do you have any better ideas, Rose!" Lunar snapped,

"No, I guess not," Rose admitted after a few seconds of silence.

"Then it's settled, let's go," Lunar said walking over to the red cave. Before entering, he paused and looked back at everyone, and Serai gave him an encouraging nod and started to walk into the cave. The glowing crystals lit up the cave giving it an eerie evil red glow to it.

"This is kinda creepy," as Serai spoke, her voice echoed through the tunnel.

"You don't have to say that twice, the red light doesn't help either," declared Rose.

"Well I'm not surprised with you Rose, you get scared at the sound of a bird." Lunar teased jokingly.

"I do not!" replied Rose. 'I like it when they are like this, it so entertaining to watch' Serai thought to herself before she bumped into Lunar.

"W-why'd you stop?"

"do you hear that?" He asked

"hear wha--" she was about to speak but Lunar held her mouth closed.

"Shh listen," he said. When she listened she could the sound of two people talking quietly to each other, then the talking stopped, and she could hear the people slowly walking. Then it was dead silent once more, and Serai looked at Rose and Lunar to see that they were just as startled and confused as she was.

"I'm gonna look" whispered Serai

"Just be careful ok" Lunar whispered to her.

"I will, don't worry," she whispered back before she walked over to where they heard the noise. But when she looked around the corner she felt her eyes stretched wide in shock.