Chapter 9 - No Turning Back
 
While looking at the globe, he slowly came to him.  He couldn't swim
across the oceans, but that wasn't the shortest way to China anyway.
The fastest way to China would be straight down.  He could DIG to
China!  Besides he had heard that the earth was hollow.  All he had to
do was find the right cave, or maybe dig for a little while to get
inside the world.  From there, surely he could find his way to China!
 
The more he though about it, the more perfect it sounded.  The next
morning he smuggled himself back to shore on one of the long boats.
He spent most of the next couple of days searching for a cave.  The
best he found though was a dry sinkhole.  Time to fall back to plan B
he thought.  Tomorrow he decided to start digging.  That night he
returned to the human fort.  He saw that the two ships had departed
for Spain that day, so he knew that he was now trapped on this island
for a long time.
 
The following morning Christofert returned to the deepest sinkhole that
he had found.  He went to the center and began digging down at a steep
angle.  At first he was digging through old moldy leaves and mosses.
Eventually he reached a layer of sandy rubble.  While he was moving a
larger piece of rubble, the sand at his paws began to sink.  He started
to back up and WHOOSH, the rock he was moving disappeared.  A small hole
appeared in its place.  Quickly the sand and rubble around his paws
started flowing into that black hole.  He desperately scrambled
backwards, but it was useless and he slid downward with all of the
debris.
 
He found himself in complete blackness sliding downward, when suddenly
the ground disappeared from below his paws and he was falling.  It
wasn't much of a drop, but when none of your senses are working, any
fall seems to take forever.  With a thud he landed on a pile of sand and
rocks and slid downward a few ferret lengths before coming to a stop.
 
He lay perfectly still.  He didn't seem to be injured, although his
delicate nose had received quite a bump.  The only sound he could hear
was that of sand and pebbles hitting the pile above him.  He could see
nothing except a small dim light from the tunnel above.  He tried to
judge the distance, but it seemed like it was as high as the masts on
the Pinta.  There was no way he was going to get back up to the tunnel.
He was trapped, and couldn't see a thing.  Christofert was on the verge
of panicking.
 
(to be continued)
 
            Bryan P. Coffey - Boston, MA
      Weasel Warriors - Albi, Esef, Merri, and Mint
        http://www.gis.net/~bpcoffey/furball.html
[Posted in FML issue 2825]