8.

They wandered, small and lost, through the strange stone city.

"I'm thirsty," Luz said. Nowar realized that he was thirsty too, his mouth was as dry as dust. "I know where we can get a drink of water," Luz continued. "Follow me."

She led Nowar around a corner, and down a long narrow street, past a row of tall, blank, faceless buildings that looked sort of like office towers. "It's just past this bridge." Luz said. A dizzying arch spanning the street high above them joined two buildings on opposite sides of the street. Just past the bridge, the street did in fact open up into a square, almost a small park, with low benches and cobblestones, and a little well with a bucket and rope at it's center.

The water was clear, sweet, quenching, and impossibly cold. They drank until their heads hurt from the cold, and then they paused and drank some more. Nowar hadn't realized just how thirsty he was. Finally, they both had enough.

"What's that?!" Luz exclaimed. Nowar looked in the direction she was pointing. He saw a flash of movement in the entryway to one of the tall, narrow building on the edge of the square; a glimpse of something red: his very own backpack.

The deep-down throbbing rumble had been building in intensity while they sat and drank. It suddenly surged, booming so loud that it shook Nowar's teeth and made his eyes hurt and his ears feel thick and tender. He felt the mechanical vibrations all the way through his bones. Then there was a different noise, crashing sound and the sudden acrid smell like fireworks, and a large section of the high bridge fell off, exploding when it hit the street, raising an enormous cloud of dust and pulverized rock.

When the dust had mostly cleared, Nowar saw a small creature pinned under a large piece of rubble in the street. It was a little smaller than a human child, but it was clearly not human. It had short stalks on it's head holding big eyes, grey rubbery skin, and long flexible tentacles where a human's arms and legs would have been. A heavy stone was pressed down on one tentacle, keeping it from escaping. Nearby, on the street, was Nowar's red backpack.

7.

As Nowar stood, hesitating in front of the partially open door, he heard the sound again, a low wet, croaking, noise, almost like someone stifling tears. Nowar took a deep breath, counted to three, and pushed the stone door all the way open, stepping into the shadowy room within.

The place might once of been a restaurant or a meeting hall. There were a number of low, round tables, carved out of what looked like smooth white marble, scattered throughout the room. Stone vessels, cups or vases or goblets, stood on some of the tables. There were no chairs.

A small figure, a human figure, cowered under one of the tables. The child, because it was a small child, small than Nowar, crouched under a table near the center of the room, it's face covered with it's small hands, shoulders quivering.

"Luz?" Nowar recognized the little person. Luz was one of the few kids at Budsurry School who was both younger and smaller than Nowar. She looked up, brown eyes wide and red from crying. Tears had left salty tracks down her flushed cheeks.

"Nowar?" she asked, as if she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. Her face brightened visibly. "I came down here, and then I couldn't find the tunnel back up, and I got scared, and I'm really hungry." Luz came out from under the table and gave Nowar a big hug. Her cheeks felt wet against his shirt.

"Do you have any food?" Luz asked.

"Something stole my backback that had my lunch inside."

Luz nodded understanding, but Nowar could tell that she was really disappointed. He reach into his pocket and pulled out the ziplock baggy with the three slightly smooshed fig bars inside.

"Here you go," he said, handing the bag to Luz. Her eyes lit up, and a big smile appeared on her face. She hopped happily atop a nearby table and set about cramming fig bars into her mouth.

"Thank you!" Luz finally exclaimed , wiping crumbs from her lips. "Thank you so much Nowar! You're my best friend!"

Nowar felt good. He'd never been anyone's best friend before. But his stomach was still empty, and he wondered where they would find something to eat and to drink, and where the tunnel back up to the surface was.