sand was noticeably different than before. It felt the same, but the color was totally different.
Stopping in my tracks, I knelt down on my knee and scooped up a handful of sand.
‘What’s the matter?’ Nina asked, stopping as well.
‘The sand here is different.’ I murmured.
‘You’re right!’ Mason gasped. Before we could speak again, I felt my body sinking into the
sand.
‘Is this quicksand?’ I asked loudly. By that time, the sand was already over our necks.
‘I don’t know! Hold on!’ Nina called out in despair. Then, total darkness approached us.
‘Derek! Derek! Get up!’ Nina shouted desperately.
I quickly opened my eyes and saw Mason lying on the ground unconscious. Both Nina and
I were chained to a rusty bar. I looked up and saw a guy who looked slightly older than us. His
brown hair was highlighted in silver. One of his eyes was covered by an eye patch. His cold stare
gave me shivers down my spine.
‘Are we in trouble?’ I asked Nina, lowering my voice.
‘What does it look like? Of course we are!’ she answered with a hiss and tried to free herself
from the chains.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.
‘He just said something about hope. I don’t understand what he’s trying to blabber about! He
punched mason in the face and now he’s unconscious!’ Nina said in panic.
‘What do you want from us?’ I asked the guy.
‘One of you has something I need. I’m not letting you go before I have it.’ the guy said
‘What is it?’ Nina asked anxiously.
‘Hope. I heard that it’s a legendary thing that can help people reach success. Where is it? Hand
it over!’ he said.
‘Hope isn’t even a thing! It’s a feeling! You weirdo!’ I smirked at him.
‘I’m not a weirdo! I have a name, Greyson!’ he snapped.
‘You can’t obtain hope. You have to feel it! So please let us go.’ Nina said as nicely as possible.
‘No! I’m not letting anyone leave until I have it!’ Greyson shouted furiously.
‘Stop being unreasonable,’ I murmured and rolled my eyes.
‘We can teach you how to feel hope, but do you promise to let us go after that?’ Nina offered
politely, trying not to anger Greyson anymore than he already was.
‘Fine!’ He grumbled in annoyance. We tried to help to help him understand what it feels like
to have hope, but nothing worked. Suddenly, the map in my pocket started to glow and started to
heat up to the state that my skin couldn’t stand it. I immediately took it out and threw it down on
the ground in panic. When I thought nothing else would happen, the map glowed even brighter
and burst into flames. The flames swirled around the room and slowly combined into one, forming
a shape of a gigantic dragon made of sand.
‘Greyson! Let us go! We’re going to die if you leave us here!’ I shouted, pulling on the chains
with all my strength. The dragon was looking down at us and bared it’s teeth hungrily.
‘It’s blocking the exit! We won’t make it!’ Greyson shouted back, eyeing the dragon in fear.
‘Just untie us and we’ll work together to get out of here!’ Nina demanded, pulling on the
chains again.
‘Wait, where’s Mason?’ I asked, realizing we forgot all about him.
‘We have to carry him out of here! ’ Nina shouted, her face red with anger.
