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keys!” she said.
    “Where are the
keys? Who has them?” he asked looking into the girl’s eyes as the
rest of the children gathered behind her, all looking weak and
feeble.
    “With the witch
down below!” the children responded.
    “With the witch
down below?” he asked.
    The children
shook their heads.
    “What’s your
name little one?” he asked.
    “Aaricia!”
answered the little girl.
    “Lovely name!”
he smiled, “I’ll get you out of here! All of you!”
    “Otheris! Come
on we’re running out time. Let’s go, we can come for them later!”
suggested Zuka, Otheris stood to his feet.
    “Please don’t
leave us Mister! Mister please stay with us!” the children
cried.
    Saddened by the
unpleasant situation, Otheris exhaled audibly and said, “I’ll be
back for you! I promise! Just stay quiet okay?” he ran his hand
through the little girl’s dusty hair, “stay strong, I’ll be
back!”
    “Come back with
food and water! We are all hungry!” said Aaricia.
    “We’ll bring
something better than that Aaricia, we’ll bring freedom!” he
answered. The children smiled and some in tears as they felt a
glimpse of hope.
    “Otheris!” Zuka
yelled.
    The men planned
to split in order to comb the old house and after a long otiose
hunt they all came down and gathered in what appeared to be the
living room.
    “I don’t think
they are here!” said Zuka.
    The men saw old
paintings dating more than a century old,
    Otheris
approached one of the big paintings hung on the wall above the fire
place, “I know this face!” he raised his torch higher revealing
what appeared to be the portrait of the great witch of
Moughdug.
    “Who is it
then?” Zuka asked as he admired his beards in a dusty mirror on the
wall, “Hmm I think my beard would soon look like Karim’s! Maybe
even longer, and finer!”
    They heard a
horrible laughter from the rooms upstairs that echoed throughout
the creepy-old house, all went on alert and drew their swords
pressing their backs against each other, then something began to
roll downstairs like a crystal ball. It bounced its way down the
big old wooden staircase, emitting smoke as it landed on the floor.
The men watched it roll to the centre of the room.
    “What’s this?”
asked Zuka as he lowered his torch down walking towards the crystal
ball. There seemed to be something shiny in the crystal, it
glittered and dimmed continuously, Zuka turned away from the
crystal ball and looked up the stairs.
    “I think we
should stick together!” said Fakal, “come and see what’s inside the
crystal!”
    The men stared
down at the crystal ball as their reflections stared back at them,
they saw something like a golden scaled serpent raising its head in
the crystal ball. Unknown to them, it was the reflection of what
was hanging on the big chandelier above their heads.
    “Yes! You
should!” hissed the golden scaled serpent as the crystal ball
shattered to pieces breaking the floor beneath their feet, exposing
what appeared to be a big conical opening about fifteen feet in
diameter. The golden scaled serpent dropped itself upon them as
they all slid along into the hole and down below into a cavern; the
men screamed and yelled as they fell, then plunged into a slimy
pool filled with human skulls and bones. The golden scaled serpent
disappeared under the slimy pool.
    The men got out
of the slimy pool and laid on the rocks, and as they panted, they
heard a sound, then looked around the cave and saw an old woman
seated naked on a big rock humming a song.
    Otheris left
the others and walked a little closer to see her face, he saw her
gently sponge-bathing something between her thighs so he stopped
and wondered whether he should go ahead or not, the old woman then
turned; the sight of her sent chills down his spine.
    “Otheris! Son
of Delial…I told you no one would burn me that night, didn’t I?”
she said as the cave shook a bit over the sound of her
laughter.
    “Melnourat!?”
he said in