Three boys descended into the cave entrance. One of them, wearing a pair of goggles on his head, took a rope from his side bag and handed it to a taller guy with longer hair. The latter unrolled it and passed it to a third guy, who threw it upwards.
"Tie the rope!"
Not even a second later, the guy with the goggles turned around, holding his ears, as did the long-haired guy.
"Don't shout here! Sound bounces back!"
The guy with the goggles said as the second guy pulled the rope.
"But they won't hear me otherwise, Floppa."
He hadn't finished speaking when the second guy cut him off.
"Yeah, but no need to scream like a banshee."
Floppa laughed.
"XD"
After tying the rope, a girl and three other guys came down. Floppa glanced at the second guy as he grabbed the rope and began lowering himself into the cave.
"Make sure no one pulls the rope, or I'm gonna fall, Pope."
Then he descended further with a lamp at his waist.
"Why are we in a cave in the first place?"
Pope looked at the guy who spoke, someone of average height but a bit overweight, slightly flamboyant, but overall a good person. Oh, and drunk—very drunk.
"First off, Floppa needs some sample from a plant around here, second, we need to sober you up, and finally, we need some fresh air."
Another guy chimed in, generally pretty normal, except he outdid everyone in skin tone—he was even darker than Floppa.
"Yeah, the fresh air's mainly for Dream, the greasy one."
"AND, what Oka said."
Dream, the one in question, was another guy in the group. They were all brown-skinned (or black, as Pope, Fossil, and Floppa liked to say—the latter being the darkest), except for Fossil, Bee, Pope, and Alex. They were the only white ones.
"What's Floppa doing?"
Bee asked as she saw the rope stretching into a larger hole. When she peeked down, she could see Floppa climbing, gripping the rocks while holding a glass tube. He looked small due to the hole's depth, but you could clearly see what he was doing. When he seemed to find what he was looking for, he approached an edge and extended the tube toward the wall. Fossil peeked over behind Bee and saw Floppa reaching for a plant. His eyes followed the path of the rope, which was tied in several spots, but Pope was holding it to prevent Floppa from falling into the void. Everyone was peeking into the hole, and then the sound of a branch breaking echoed.
"THE ROPE, NO WAY!"
Dream's shout pointed out the obvious too late. As the rope loosened, it slipped from Pope's hands, who let go instinctively as he felt his palms starting to burn. The next thing they all heard was Floppa's scream as he fell to the bottom, and Bee and Fossil saw his light descending until they heard a dull thud on the ground, followed by groans and curses.
A moment passed before everyone recovered from the shock and remembered that one of them had just fallen about 3 meters into the hole. They peeked down to where Floppa had disappeared. The man in question was still visible—the hole wasn't too deep, fortunately, maybe 8 or 10 meters—and Floppa was roughly halfway down, where the plant he was after was still glowing, so the fall wasn't too bad.
"Are you okay?!"
Oka shouted as Floppa stood up, holding his side.
"Did you let go of the rope?!"
Floppa's shout and tone made it clear that, while the fall hurt, he was more concerned about cursing whoever had let go of the rope. Pope quickly jumped in to clarify.
"No, the branch that Jura tied it to broke, and that's when you fell. Are you okay?"
Floppa just swore.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll see if there are more plants here... Oh, damn it."
When he put his hands on his waist bag, Floppa felt many broken pieces—his sample tubes had all shattered.
"Damn... these tubes are almost impossible to get now. Good thing I didn't bring too many."
Setting the situation aside, Floppa emptied his bag to confirm that all his tubes had indeed broken. He sighed and looked up. The glare he gave those above made them laugh.
"Want us to come down and get you?"
Fossil asked after laughing for a while at Floppa's expression, though still trying to stifle his laughter.
"No, not here. I think there's another way on the other side. But be careful, some parts of this area are already disintegrating. Remember not to touch them, or you'll disintegrate too. I'll try to find you guys so we can head back. Anyway, it's not like I can get the sample now."
Floppa signaled to them, grabbed his lamp, and started walking toward the dark part of the cave, searching for a new path that would take him back to the surface, while Pope gathered the others to leave the hole and look elsewhere.
When they emerged, they were greeted by Dann, Pope's partner, and Samu, another guy who got along well with Jura.
"What happened? The last thing we saw was the branch breaking and then Floppa's scream."
Dann asked as Pope climbed out of the hole.
"Well, basically, he fell, and everything he was carrying broke, so now he's trying to climb back up."
Pope pulled out a map from his backpack, spread it out on the ground, and several areas were crossed out. Some names and parts were blacked out. With his finger, he found another cave entrance not far from where they were. Apparently, it could be accessed in a conventional way, so they wouldn't need any equipment to find Floppa.
"Alright, let's go to this entrance. We need to find Floppa before he runs into a contaminated area, get him out, and return to the village."
Everyone grabbed their backpacks and set off for the alternate cave entrance.
"I miss the cities. After this, we could go home, waste time, or rest."
Bee looked at Jura with a half-irritated, half-agreeing look. She moved closer to Fossil to walk alongside him, then responded to Jura.
"Maybe cities don't exist anymore, but at least you still have your family. We all have our families. Some people in the village don't."
Jura replied,
"I know, and that's exactly why we came here in the first place—to stop that family's kid from dying."
Oka looked at Jura and continued the conversation.
"That's the downside of cities no longer existing. There are no medications for something as simple as a cold. At least there are still people who know how to handle it."
Pope glanced at them for a second.
"Yeah, and if we don't find Floppa, we'll have serious problems getting someone to make medicines for us. I don't know why he had to come all the way out here for that plant; he could've used something else."
Dream chimed in.
"Floppa told me it wasn't a cold. He said it was pneumonia based on whatever he took from the kid's throat. He couldn't use anything else; he absolutely needed that plant."
Pope took a deep breath and released what seemed to be a long-held sigh.
"Alright, let's find him. We don't need someone else dying from disintegration."
Silence fell over the group for a while as they all remembered how they had ended up in a village in what was left of the once-great Eastern Mountain Range. It had all happened so fast.
About three years ago, a region in northern Europe and Asia began to experience what the world called "the disintegration." Large blocks of land started dissolving into what looked like massive gray clouds. Anyone who came into contact with those clouds without proper equipment developed a disease called "ash disease," as their bodies began to dry out until, at a certain stage, they would simply turn to dust upon contact with anything. It started small. Not many people paid attention to it, considering it part of Earth's natural cycle, thinking it would stop eventually, and everything would return to normal. But when the phenomenon began spreading to cities and eventually destroying them, people finally acted to stop its spread. The manpower required for research was so immense that all schools involved in any kind of research were forced to direct part or all of their efforts toward solving the problem. Despite the combined efforts, no solution was found, and the disintegration eventually consumed what remained of the cities. People retreated to higher elevations and settled in existing villages or created new ones, hoping to live a little longer before the disintegration consumed the planet entirely. They had all experienced the event in different ways. For instance, Pope had been part of a team of psychologists who helped people cope with the shock of losing everything and enabled them to start over. Jura, studying gastronomy, worked in camps that housed relocated people, managing many kitchens across the country. Samu, Dream, and Oka had been volunteers in those camps, with Dream starting in his home country but eventually being relocated to one of the camps where they all were. Fossil and Bee had helped expand the villages to accommodate more people, and Floppa had participated in the investigations trying to solve the problem. Over those three years, both he and Jura and Pope had been relocated several times to fulfill their roles correctly. While the last mentioned were staying behind to help in the fields or in the villages, Floppa and a somewhat large team of researchers were going to collect samples from the dead zones. There came a point when Floppa stopped going and instead focused on helping the sick. In the absence of medicines, he started making them with whatever he could find, which were usually herbs. About six months ago, during a meeting in the village, Floppa told them that the reason he had stopped going was that they had discovered that everything was disintegrating at a molecular level, so there was no way to reintegrate it. They tried everything, but nothing worked, so he simply decided to live as much as he could. Fortunately, the families of everyone had remained intact, except for Floppa and his brother, who where the last ones of their family, so they could spend time with them in the village. However, they still liked to go out; while it was desolate to see the columns of gray clouds in the distance, they still enjoyed going out into the fields to relax, bringing old CD players or anything else that helped them entertain themselves. It was not uncommon for Floppa to go out searching for medicinal plants in the vicinity, so everyone took the opportunity to stroll through the fields. It was also not unusual for something to happen to one of them, which is why they always ended up looking for each other, or in the worst case, Floppa ended up playing doctor wherever they found themselves. Despite everything, they had adapted well to life, but it seemed that everything was going to end soon because the last time they went out, Samu found an area that was disintegrating, so they estimated that they didn't have much time left.
"I still can't believe the world will end in 3 years."
Bee sighed and pressed closer to Fossil.
"It's not over yet; this area is the one that's ending."
Oka and Dream spoke at the same time.
"Which is the same thing."
"Well, yes, but at least not everyone will die; some still have more time."
Pope and Fossil let out a breath.
"More time? Ha, eventually it will run out for all of us, but yes, at least we can make the most of it."
Pope, Dann, Fossil, and Bee were the only couples in the group, and since the whole incident, they had stayed together, which helped them adapt a lot. It was good to have someone to lean on besides family.
Before they knew it, they arrived at the entrance of the cave. They all secured their lamps to the straps of their backpacks and prepared to descend. They walked for about 10 minutes until they saw another light approaching.
"Floppa?"
Everything fell silent as the figure of the aforementioned appeared in front of their lanterns. He had his headphones on, connected to his CD player. He took off the headphones and turned to look at them.
"Yeah, it's me. Who else would it be?"
Everyone looked at him with sarcasm; they certainly weren't the only ones out. There were other groups of kids coming out into the woods.
"For us, it could've been Jupiter, Fancy, or Alexa—people we don't want to run into, or it could even have been Alex, you know he likes coming here to pick up little rocks."
Jura said. Floppa then turned around, and behind him appeared a tall guy with glasses. He was wearing a brown vest and carrying an oil lantern.
"Hey! It's great to see you all here!"
Everyone recognized the tall, steadfast yet friendly figure of Alex and approached to greet him.
"Why didn't you let us know you were coming? We could have come together!"
Bee asked. Alex shrugged.
"I come here because there are minerals; the plants grow on the other side, so since we were going different ways, I didn't think it would matter much to tell you I was coming here, but I ran into Floppa in the middle of the cave. I was surprised to see him so dirty. Then he told me he fell in the hole at the cave's exit."
Alex finished recounting his encounter with Floppa when Dream interrupted them.
"Well, if we're all here, I suggest we get going. I'm hungry, and it's almost..."
He looked at his watch.
"5 PM. They should be serving dinner in the dining hall, if they haven't finished already."
Alex quickly interrupted him.
"No! Wait! Floppa and I found something that might interest you!"
Floppa then spoke.
"Yeah, it's not exactly something that can help the guy, but I think you'll like it. Follow us."
Then Alex and Floppa turned back, and the others followed them. Floppa disconnected his headphones and swapped them for a small analog speaker so that their music—a CD they made with everyone's music—could be heard as they walked.
"Oh, yes, you mentioned Jupiter and his group earlier. They disappeared about three weeks ago; they sent a team to look for them."
Everyone turned to look at Floppa.
"And how do you know that?"
Floppa simply replied.
"Because one of the guys who went to look for them came back with a sprain, and I had to treat him. That's how I found out."
They continued walking in silence, letting the music play until they reached a small entrance formed by what appeared to be a kind of arch.
"It's a shame someone didn't build this..."
Bee said. Yes, it might have been very disorganized and even eroded, but it was clear it had a human origin, at least just that arch.
"And wait until you see what's inside,"
Alex said as they passed under the arch. Upon entering, they found what looked like a small cave. There were drawings on the walls, which, judging by their appearance, seemed quite old. They could see what looked like letters in a language none of them knew. Regardless, Floppa took his camera and started taking pictures of everything. The inscriptions featured drawings of 9 kids, none of whom appeared to have traits that identified them as one gender or another, at least not ones they could see. They all wore clothes of different colors, but the one in the center appeared to be wearing golden clothes. Well, actually, there were two people in the center, and on their backs were what could be described as halos, glowing brightly. They all seemed different, but for some reason, they were there.
In contrast, on the other side, there were 9 other kids, except instead of being dressed in different colors, they were all in black. Their faces looked white, and that was all that could be seen. In the drawing of the kids in colored clothes, they were all connected by what seemed to be a thread of light that went from one to another, but in the other drawing, there were only black threads connecting them to what was evidently the most powerful one, making it seem like he was charging with them or that the other kids were obedient to him.
"Well, if we were still living normally, we could have sold this to the government for a lot,"
Dann turned to Oka.
"No, this would have been expropriated. At least we can see it clearly since we're the only ones here."
Floppa and Alex then removed a large rock that covered what seemed to be an entrance.
"And that's not all; come in."
They entered what looked like a hidden room. There was a green glass door that looked as if it were made of jade or something similar. There were also two tables. One table was dark in color. Alex said he would bet it was basalt. It had red inscriptions carved into it, and on the table itself, there was a drawing of a being with 8 arms, with the same halo as the boy in the glowing clothes, but red. There was nothing on the table, but on the other table, there were 9 crystals organized on hooks, unprotected by anything. Their strings were made of what seemed to be a plant, and each crystal was a different color, or in some cases, two colors. There was a red and blue crystal that Floppa immediately took.
"Hey, wait, aren't you supposed to do that? What if this is important?"
Samu and Dream asked Floppa, who had the crystal in his hand.
"I don't know; I don't think it's important, and if it ever was, it must have been for some sort of ceremony. These deposits containing jewelry usually have pieces that..."
Pope couldn't hold back and interrupted him.
"Shut up, Floppa"
"Okay."
That was the only response Floppa gave, as if his action had triggered something bigger. Pope approached two crystals, one white and one gold. He placed the gold one in his hand and approached Dann to give her the white crystal.
"Clamming isn't that spontaneous, and you've seen it here, but I hope you like it."
Dann smiled at him. When he handed her the white crystal, it seemed to reject her, as did the gold crystal for him because the crystals exerted an inexplicable force and slipped out of both of their hands, only to change carriers. Dann just laughed.
"It seems they're picky; I don't mind the gold one."
He said as he placed the crystal around his neck. Fossil took a yellow one and handed Bee a purple crystal necklace in almost the same manner. After telling him that his idea was a bit unoriginal, she laughed and took the crystal, hugging it afterward.
"In my defense, I thought of it first, but he did it first."
"Shut up."
Oka approached a pink crystal, which jumped into his hand without him even touching it. A brown crystal hit Samu in the nose, Alex calmly took a turquoise crystal, and Oka took an orange crystal. Finally, Dream took a green crystal.
After each crystal found its owner, they adjusted themselves according to how they felt best on the carrier. The plant holding Floppa's crystal jumped from his neck to his wrist and wrapped itself like a bracelet. The crystals of Pope and Dann adjusted around their necks, like a choker for Dann and a slightly smaller necklace for Pope. The crystals of Bee and Fossil quickly moved to their ears and turned into a kind of earrings. The crystals of Jura and Samu split and mixed, then adjusted themselves as a kind of bracelet near their ankles. Oka's crystal turned into an earring, Alex's crystal took the shape of a chain, and Dream's crystal jumped to his neck as well. All the crystals were glowing, each with its respective color.
"This is really pretty. Too bad there aren't more because otherwise, I would have brought one for my mom,"
Dream said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. Floppa, who was closer to the door, noticed something: the crystals seemed to shine brighter each time they approached that door. Secondly, the door had some sort of disk; one side was destroyed, but the other was white. Slowly, and pinching Oka to help him, both opened the door. On the other side, there was a kind of tunnel, and for some reason, it was very cold. At the end of the tunnel, there was a kind of white glow. As Floppa peeked his head in, he felt himself being pulled inside—not enough to take him away, but just enough for him to feel a tug. He immediately pulled his head back and looked at the others, who had not noticed the existence of a strange tunnel at the end of the door.
"Well, that was what we wanted to show you. This place is going to be consumed by disintegration soon, and since there are practically no museums left, we can keep this. Anyway, we fix things by vote in the village."
Everyone turned to look at him and nodded in agreement. That was the signal they needed to leave the chamber. Alex stayed behind to close the door that had initially let them in. Once he closed the door, he hurried to catch up with the others.
Then multiple cracks opened in the walls, and everything started to turn into black clouds.
It was almost 7 PM when they arrived in the village. The welcoming arch greeted them, illuminated with oil lamps and some electric lights, although some were already failing.
"We need to check the lights; they're failing again."
"Yeah, but tomorrow. I'm hungry right now," Oka said. Everyone headed toward the dining hall, located in the center of the village, hoping to find food available. The route was beautiful, even at night. The ravine visible on one side of the village provided a view worth stopping for; the waterfalls reflected the moonlight and seemed to shimmer. In the distance, they could see the entrance of the cave where they had been just two hours earlier, a small light flickering there. Alex decided to stay behind to see what else he could find. Floppa said he would catch up later, and ended up finding the plant, returning to the village with them. After performing the necessary procedures, he would head to the cave. They were all lost in the view until a voice interrupted them.
"Where the hell were you, Floppa?"
Everyone turned to see a short boy. Despite being only 16, he looked a bit older and resembled Floppa, though he was different.
"I fell at the entrance of the cave north of the village, Poch. Thanks for asking how I'm doing in case you didn't see that it looks like I was dragged."
The boy was Floppa's younger brother. Unlike Floppa, who focused more on creating medicines and researching things, he was more skilled with people. While Floppa did the heavy lifting, he just limited himself to playing doctor, repeating his brother's words.
"The kid got worse while you were out with the group, At least you brought the plant?"
Floppa pulled the plant out of his pocket. It wasn't in the best condition since it had no tubes to isolate it, but it could still be used for its purpose.
"Alright, I'm going to make the medication; you all go eat, and I'll catch up with you later."
Floppa then walked behind his brother.
"If Mom heard you, she would probably scold you."
"Yeah, but both she and Dad haven't been around for a year, so she's not going to scold me. Now hurry up; I'm tired of babysitting; I had to go see Mira about two hours ago."
The conversation faded into the distance as they walked down the street toward the building that served as a hospital. The others watched them both.
After a while, everyone headed to the dining hall. Luckily, they reached food that was about to be stored for the next day. No one had a problem taking their portion and reheating it again; the microwave that Dream, Oka, and Samu managed to get working was a great help to everyone.
After eating, they all went their separate ways home. They wouldn't see Floppa again for a while, or perhaps they would never see him again.
At 3:00 AM on October 8, 2027, a scream echoed throughout the village. Everyone rushed out to see what was happening. One of the watchtowers, which served to detect animals or hostile groups of people, set off an alarm. The next thing they saw was the entire southern side of the village and the mountain range beginning to disintegrate at an alarming speed. This had never happened before. Pope and Dann came out and saw the black clouds advancing at a terrifying speed. The habit of sleeping dressed in clean clothes on top was very useful, not just for them, but for all the people who quickly began to evacuate the area. The people who stayed behind quickly began to disintegrate before the terrified gazes of everyone. Just breathing that air was deadly. Dream, Samu, Oka, and Jura, who lived in the same part of the village, rushed out and saw the black clouds in the distance. They then saw Pope and Dann coming with their families toward them. They had to evacuate, but they weren't complete. The three of them grabbed as many family members as they could and started moving them to the northern part of the village. The alarms resonated throughout the settlement. Bee and Fossil appeared later, leading another fairly large group of people; almost all from the southern and eastern areas had been consumed by the mist. They all looked at each other and together began moving the people toward the higher grounds, where the cave was. Halfway there, Pope remembered that Floppa existed.
"He must still be in the hospital, unless the mist has already consumed him."
Floppa lived with his brother in the southern part of the village, where the ravine was visible. The hospital was in the eastern part; with a bit of luck, Floppa would be there and have had enough time to get out. In any case, he had equipment to protect himself if necessary.
Setting those thoughts aside, Pope took charge of the group and began leading everyone toward the cave. On that side, there was disintegration, but not as much; at least it would buy them some time. Everyone continued climbing. Fossil turned to look back at where they had passed and saw someone running among the floating stones. Floppa and his brother were barely escaping the mist. When they reached the rocks that were breaking loose, they both grabbed the edges and started running toward where everyone else was. As they were leaving the village, it began to disintegrate completely. When Floppa and his brother caught up with them, Alex was already removing one of the entrances to the cave to let everyone pass. The emergency protocols had worked; maybe they could still hold out a little longer, perhaps even call for extraction. They were okay! They had managed to escape.
Then a crack in the ground was heard.
The ground beneath all the people began to crumble. One by one, they fell into the mist and disintegrated in the process. Pope's scream, urging everyone to run, came too late. While they had already started running, not everyone had made it. Behind Floppa's brother, there was no one left, not even the people who had come out with them; their families had fallen into the void. The ten kids standing at the edge of what was now the black ravine looked in shock at the depths and the hole that had once been the village that had sheltered them for almost a year and a half. They didn't even have time to breathe because the ground beneath them also began to crumble.
"RUN!"
Dream shouted as everyone ran from the collapsing floor. Upon reaching the entrance of the cave, Alex entered behind them. They ran through the tunnel all the way until they reached where they had been before. Quickly, Jura and Alex opened the door, and everyone entered—except for Floppa's brother, who tripped over one of the stones that were beginning to float, and the void pulled him in. Although Floppa tried to pull him back, when he touched his hand, it disintegrated, and then the rest of his body followed. Pope grabbed Floppa by the collar of his vest and pulled him into the chamber. The disintegration seemed to stop at the entrance; even though it had cracks in the walls, it didn't seem to be crumbling. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and then everyone exploded. With the shock now passed, all the emotions they felt seeing their families vanish into the void hit them suddenly. There were reactions of all kinds; while some cried, others simply stared into space, still trying to process what had happened.
None of them knew how much time passed; they only knew that at some point, in that dark place, their crystals began to glow and float. The first to notice was Jura; his crystal shone with a pink and brown light, pointing toward the door from where they had obtained them. Little by little, everyone realized. None of them spoke, but they all stood up to head toward the door. Inside the chamber, both pedestals from which they had taken the crystals were glowing. The pedestal of their crystals shone in a light of various colors, while the other seemed to absorb the ambient light. The green stone door also glowed, with a stronger intensity than both pedestals.
Floppa approached the door and tried to open it, but he couldn't. Pope went to try with him; together, they moved the door, revealing the tunnel that Floppa had discovered before nothing had swallowed their home.
Their crystals floated into the void, and everyone remained silent; somehow, unconsciously, they all knew the crystals wanted them to enter, but they didn't know why. What was on the other side? No one knew, but no one dared to find out.
"What the hell do we do now?"
Samu said after a while. The suction from the entrance was noticeable to everyone, but they all chose to ignore it.
"I don't know..."
Pope replied after some time.
"We have to go in,"
Dream said.
"No... no we don't,"
Floppa interrupted.
"So what do we do then? We can't just walk out of here, unless we want to die,"
Bee spoke.
"And what difference would it make? The village no longer exists, nor do our families,"
Floppa looked down, then took a breath.
"Maybe this will take us to another place, one where we can help prevent this from happening,"
Jura interjected.
"What if it doesn't?"
Fossil spoke.
"Bee is right; there's no difference between stepping out to disintegrate or going into whatever this tunnel is. Honestly, I doubt what Floppa says is possible, but what options do we have?"
Everyone stayed silent for a while, then Pope spoke again.
"You're right; going in here is the same as going outside again. At least we're all together..."
He moved closer to Dann and took her hand.
"At least if we're going to try something, we'll do it together and stay close."
Everyone then walked toward the entrance, hesitant at first, but then with a bit more resolution. They all held hands before entering the tunnel.
"Ha, well, let's do it. It's not like we can lose anything, except for ourselves, of course, but here we are, all together. If we're going down, let's go down together!"
Samu's comment managed to elicit some laughs from the group.
"On the count of three,"
Pope said as he tightly held Dann's hand, the same reaction Fossil had with Bee.
1
2
3
They all took a step forward into the tunnel and were then drawn toward the light.
Floppa saw that he was falling freely after being blinded by a white light. He tried to stabilize himself but couldn't; his head was spinning, and his ears were ringing. The speed at which he was approaching the ground was too much for his liking. He saw that he was close to a mountain range, with an extensive forest of pines. Beyond the mountains, he could see a kind of jungle that appeared blue in the distance. Below Floppa, he could see windmills and houses, all connected by small paths. In the distance, he spotted a child who stared at him as if he were a star. The next thing he felt was his body hitting the water repeatedly, as if bouncing off it. Then, through his blurred vision, he saw a tree approaching him. Unconsciously, he extended his hands; they glowed red, and then Floppa vanished and reappeared in front of a rock wall, against which he crashed. He felt his nose beginning to bleed, but almost immediately, it stopped. He also felt many parts of his body out of place and some broken, but like his nose, they slowly began to heal and repair themselves. He managed to look up; the full moon was visible through the clearing filled with pines, then it was blocked by a bearded figure. At the same time, a question flooded his mind.
"Where are the others?"
A man in a kind of tunic, with a hat and beard, lifted him and carried him; that was the last thing Floppa saw before he fainted.