Hmm, I thought it was just me still having problems with that drug.  I hold Muffin up to both of the fresh air vents.  Meow, meow.=Both not work.  I put her down and blow out all the candles right away.  Now we are really in trouble, trapped in here and no fresh air, which means we will run out of air fairly quickly.  It is a big room fortunately, but that still only gives us a limited supply of oxygen.  Better that the girls sleep right now, so I move around quietly looking for a way out of here.  Meow.=I’m hungry.  Okay Muffin, I did bring a lot of food for you at least and you deserve it after all the help you have been.  Meow!=Cats are great!  Hey now, don’t get carried away.  Meow.=Hehe. I won’t.  We still have a couple problems, getting out of here alive, then getting off this island alive.  I whisper to Muffin, she whispers a meow back.  Okay, we agree on that.  Meow.=Right.

I make some changes to Muffin’s backpack and make sure her slingshot is ready.  Unfortunately Rossana wakes up right then.  Why are all the candles out?, she asks.  Well, for some reason the fresh air vents have closed, I said.  What?  We don’t have air?  Sure, nice and loud which wakes up Sophia.  So I tell the news to Sophia as well.  Great, any idea how we are going to get out of this mess?  Not really, I replied, this room seems to be a real dead end, I just don’t see any way out.  Maybe we can go back the way we came, but I doubt it.  Besides, I can’t get this stone to open anyway.  We’re going to suffocate, we’ll die, yells Rossana nervously.  Oh grow up, says Sophia angrily.

Sophia, you’re lucky I don’t tie you up and leave you here.  Both of them seemed quite shocked that I would say that.  I turn to Rossana, Sophia drugged me just so she could search my backpack.  But why?, asks Rossana.  Sophia is not related to the princess like she told us.  That’s a lie, yelled Sophia, I have papers to prove who I am, I showed them to you!  Well, you didn’t actually show us, we took the papers from you.  But now I have something to prove otherwise, you’re just a thief released from prison only 3 months ago.  Sophia starts looking through her bag.  It isn’t there, I have it now, and I also have the drug you used on me.  She turns to me, red with anger.  Oh, and a word of warning to both of you.  I have instructed Muffin to use her lethal steel muffins if anything should happen to me again.  And she won’t hesitate to do so.

Now, I would suggest we work together to find a way out of here and soon.  And stop unnecessary talking, move slowly to conserve what little oxygen we have left.  We search around for an hour, but nothing.  Already the air is getting bad so I tell the girls to lie down for now.  This is not looking good.  Sophia asks, how is lying down going to help get us out of here.  We’ll let Muffin look around for now, she can see better than us anyway.  I turn on her mini headlamp so she can see any colored stones more easily.  After about 15 minutes I hear her scratching quietly at something.  Then she comes back to me with…

To be continued.

Steve and Muffin.

© 2020 Steve McLeod.