running with the two gentlemen at her back.
“Guys, faster please… for your godly sake…ahhhhhhhh!!!”She screamed.
The head of the worm suddenly rose from the ground blocking the only light from the
entrance. Elza was almost there to die entering to the vicious mouth of the enigmatic worm.
Suddenly, a push. Jake pushed Elza to the side at the very moment.
“No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Elza cried.
Everything went into darkness. There was neither screaming nor any sign of torturing of Jake
by the huge worm. It was quiet from human voice except for the sound of moving of the worm
like crashing the wall.
“Are… Are you still there? Jake?” Dan murmured as he looked for the glow stick in his back
pack. “Spare won’t be wrong.”
As he lit the room, it seems the mere miracle has happened on the three. The ground the three
standing was surrounded by powder with mysterious lilac color. Elza was lying on a bed of lilac
flowers when Jake pushed her. The room was snowing with the lilac flakes.
“This is the answer,” Jake whispered. “I have read that before… This is the ‘paradise’. Paradise
is not death but the ancient flowers. Huhh. Silly me, how can I forget that.”
Dan hung the glow stick near the twisting head of the worm. The worm was corroded
wherever the lilac touched its skin.
“It is really a paradise…” Elza gaze upon the falling lilac snow, which was extremely beautiful.
She laid an eye on Jake with great smile and hugged Jake.
“You saved my life,” she whispered into his ears.
“Whohu… Amazing. See, you solved the riddles. So, next step. Should be the gold treasure,
right?” Dan was overwhelmed.
“Wait a second, we have triggered the pollen dispersal of the paradise but I don’t know how
long it will last. And I have no idea how long this bloody hell corridor is.” Jake explained and
started collecting a bulk of samples. “ We have to save Jim’s daughter. Let’s get out.”
“Wait. I see something…See, there are carvings on the wall!” Elza said.
“Yaa…I recognized. They are ancient Chinese words. ‘The farer you go, the more dangerous
you are. The worms are the guard with its natural enemy paradise. They are the guards of the
gol(gold) …” Dan stopped and started staring in silence.
Elza asked “the guard of the, what?... Anyway let’s get out of here. I don’t want to see the
worms again.”
“The words are so blur and I can’t read anyway…” Dan explained while still staring. “Good
bedtime story for your children, huh?”
Jake looked at Dan suspiciously. Dan gave him a mysterious smile.
“What children. I am not married anyway.” Elza blushed.
“Bro, you know this tale of the gold palace is my life… I…” Dan held Jake’s hand.
Jake crashed Dan’s shoulder and whispered “ I know.”
Jake and Elza were with their hands held together tight out of the corridor. Dan followed.
“Finally out…” Elza smiled and relieved, “this is probably the warmest sun light I have ever had…”
Jake smiled.
“Where is Dan?” Elza asked.
“I don’t know. I think he is a little busy right now.” Jake said calmly.
This is the story of my grandpa. I asked about Dan. He said he knows nothing but only
received a piece of golden stone ten years later with a mysterious red stain on it.
