Chapter 4: Secret Door

  She fell asleep quickly, due to being so tired from the day’s activities and travels. She had been sleeping for just a short time when she was woken up. Kaz saw a light coming from a crack in the floor. She got out of bed, wearing the light dress, which Su had referred to as pajamas, some kind of clothes one wears to sleep in.

  She inspected the crack and noticed that it actually formed a square. Kaz heard a noise that sounded like metal hitting metal coming from under the room’s floor. She put her ear against the floor to see if she could hear something. She heard some kind of chatter that she did not understand.

  She decided to take her ear off of the floor. It was a good thing that she did, because shortly thereafter a small square door in the floor opened inward. More light entered her inn room.

  A mysterious blue flame came into her room. It would go back and forth between Kaz and the door. It looked like it wanted her to follow it. When she was much younger, Kaz remembered something about mine spirits called bluecaps. Legends had spoken of bluecaps helping miners, but the help always came at a cost.

  The curiosity got too strong and Kaz could not resist following the little blue flame. She was able to get close enough to see what appeared to be a little four inch being within the flame. It looked like a tiny dwarf. Its face appeared somewhat cheerier.

  There was a tiny tunnel under her room. To move through it by crawling. She was too tall to walk in it. It was about three feet high. The bluecap provided enough light to see.

  The bluecap led her to a small ten foot by twenty foot oval chamber that was over six feet high. It was full of two to three inch mushrooms. Kaz had never seen any mushrooms like those. They were midnight black with bright orange spots.

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  The caps circled one of the taller mushrooms multiple times. Kaz asked, “Do you want me to eat it?”

  Surprisingly it answered, in a light voice that sounded like a normal dwarf, “Yes.”

  “What will it cost?” inquired Kaz.

  “Nothing,” answered the bluecap.

  She thought for a few seconds about what the stories had said. There was always a cost with dealing with a bluecap. Regardless, she decided to eat it. It was not bitter or flavorless. The mushroom had a slight sweet flavor. It was a flavor that she never tasted before.

  After a few minutes, Kaz noticed that the chamber had gotten larger. It appeared to be larger. The mushrooms appeared to be larger. She went up to one and it was a little higher than her knees, but within a few seconds, it was up to her waist.

  She realized that the chamber and mushrooms did not get larger, she had shrunk. The bluecap motioned between her and a previously unseen tunnel. Now, she could fit in it.

  Kaz could not judge how far she had walked. They entered a large cavern. It was breathtaking. There were sapphires, yellow diamonds, and red diamonds. They were large. At her current size, it would take both hands to carry one.

  If she could keep just one of the cheapest gems, she could retire if she wanted to. Most of them were flawless. Just a few had minor imperfections. With the bluecap’s flame the reflections were amazing.

  Kaz was touching one of the red diamonds, and she heard a tapping coming from within the cavern’s wall.

  She heard, “Sergeant Kaz?”

  Again she heard, “Sergeant Kaz.”

  Kaz woke up. It was a dream. She was in a soft bed, within her inn room. She recognized that it was Zilphnod’s voice. It was just a dream.