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Using the cave wall as a reference, Crush and Simon kept trudging through the dark toward the mouth of the cave. Though daylight had disappeared, they could still see a contrast between the twinkling of stars in the open night air and the utter darkness of the cave, and when they rounded a corner and saw the huge semi-circle opening to the outside, they both sighed a single breath of relief in unison. Together they headed toward the portal to the outside, and when they were within a few feet of the doorway, they began to creep gently to the edge.
“Should we wait for Boulder?” Crush thought as he hesitated for only a moment. Then the mountain rumbled and a great crash followed from within the cavern, rolling like thunder throughout the bedrock of the foundation. Great mounds of rock, boulders, and loose dirt collapsed down the sides of the peak and tumbled before the mouth of the cave, and Scalus mountain shook with the quaking of disaster. The shockwave of some great tragedy undulated through the cavern. There was no time for thought, no time for reasoning, and no time to save oneself in the gloom of the quake. Those who survived would be lucky, Crush imagined as he stood at the doorway between an avalanche of shifting rock on the outside and a collapsing ceiling on the inside of the cave. Dust filled the air as Crush held the little monkey tight in his arms and waited for what would come next. Closing his eyes, he prayed for protection, and he determined that if he survived, he would find the way safely back to earth. The shaking of the ground slowly receded to a faint quiver and then fell silent. Dust poured down from the ceiling and covered his face just as he was taking a breath, and his sinuses burned with the itch of irritation. Before he could do anything to stop it, Crush sneezed in the silence of the aftermath. The sneeze echoed down through the cavern, and with his eyes still closed, Crush silently cursed himself for making such a loud noise in so vulnerable a place. When he opened his eyes, the veil of dust that paraded through the air was as thick as soup, and as he looked high into the night sky, Crush was surprised to see the outline of a giant standing between himself and the exit. The giant reached down with a hand and picked them up before they had a chance to flee, and the hand then lifted them high up to the face. Hiding the dragon’s tooth behind his back, Crush set Simon down on the palm of the hand as the face began to materialize.