Playing the above given music will help you immerse into the story a little more....
Adviced if you like fantasy music with your story...
Enjoy...
Sincerely: Lady LightSword

Song: Lumina

I never believed in the fiction and magic that were written down in books. Emily on the other hand due to her vast curiosity and imagination had to go to the cave.

The brambles were thick and strong, not to mention the sharp thorns. Emily started kicking and stomping the vines with her boots which surprisingly started to break away. I started to do the same thing. My legs were tired but Emily still seemed determined to get in.

'Hurry up I see an opening' she said out of breath. It was true, deep through the brambles there was dark opening. God knows what's in there. We started to give all our might in kicking down the thick vines. And after hours of work we got into the cave.

Well there was nothing much in the cave. Dark, damp and slippery cave. I heaved the sigh of disappointment. I guess I did expect to see something more after all the hard work.

I tapped on Em's shoulder and said 'Well nothing here so how bout we take the picture of the dying dragonflies hmm?'.

Emily was still looking at the cave. 'We can still go inside' she said without looking at me.

'Are you out of your mind?! We don't know what's in there...There could be some wild animals or something' I said hysterically.

Emily looked at me and said tugging at her camera which was around her neck 'Fine. Cower away. You'll be gaping at me when I win the prize for best photographer'. Saying so she started walking into the cave.

I had half a mind to leave her behind. But I couldnt. I breathed with frustration and made my way towards her.

Suddenly we heard a noice behind us at the entrance. The broken brambles were regrowing fast.

'NO!!!' I screamed and started running towards the entrance but I slipped. By then the brambles had covered the entrance pretty thicker than before.

Emily helped me up and said 'Well onwards it is'. I stared at her angrily. But I don't think she'd be able see me in the dark anyways. I held her hand and started walking.

I don't know how long we been walking deep in the cave. Our footsteps were echoing the cave walls. The floor was wet and quite smooth for a rocky cave. I could feel Emily's hand going colder by the minute.

'Hey. Do you think we're lost' I said as cooly as possible. 'I- I don't know' said Emily while I heard her voice tremble.

Suddenly I lost my balance hitting my leg on a rock or something. I sat down and touched the thing I had hit. Definitely a rock.

'I don't know about you but the floor hadn't seem to had consisted of not even one rock before' I said to Em. 'My thoughts exacly' she said which I think she was lying, ' Do you think there's somewhere other than this dark place forward?' she asked hopefully.

'Maybe...' I said and then whispered silently 'Maybe not....'.

We collected our remaining courage and walked forward and to our surprise and delight the floor was getting somewhat less wet and more rocky.

We were walking faster, not even minding the water splashing on our pants. And then the passage was getting narrow.

But to our extreme joy we saw a twinkle of light coming straight ahead. We walked faster and we reached a more spacious...rocky room. Atleast there was a bit of light coming from an... unknown source.

It took awhile for our eyes to adjust to the light after that we started to look around the room.

'There's nowhere else to go' cried Emily without hiding her huge worry and disappointment.

"No....I can't give up now. There must be some way" I thought. 'Where do u think the light's coming from?' asked Emily, 'I'm not sure' I said trying to stay calm. Emily ran to the walls and started banging.

There wasn't a room or anything on the other side as the walls as it did not sound hollow from the bangings.

There's got to be a way out.

Emily got so frustrated she pulled her hair and stomped on the ground so wildly that the dust began floating like specs of tiny atoms.

'Josie...look' she said pointing at the wall.

I looked and saw a noticeable denture at the rocky wall.

'Its a keyhole!!' said Emily overjoyed.

'Emily it's just a broken part on the wall' I said heaving sadly.

Emily ignored me and rushed to the wall placing her hand and checking it and said 'Looks definitely like a keyhole'

'Well it does resemble a keyhole yes' I said checking it.

'I told you' she said triumphantly. 'But its not a keyhole Emily' I said quite upset 'Keyholes don't look like this'

'True... What does it look like then?'

She started to feel the shape and said somewhat unsure, 'I think it looks like a....cat or something'.

I knelt beside her and looked at it myself. 'It looks more like a bird' I said more confidently. 'Yeah I see it now' agreed Emily 'It looks like it's sitting on a branch or something'.

I agreed. 'Now tell me Em, where do we find a bird sitting on a branch piece?' I mocked at her, feeling down myself. Well I guess I shouldn't have said that because Emily looked crestfallen too.

But something clicked in my mind. I tapped my pocket and found what I was looking for. I extended the needed piece towards Emily. Emily looked at it and bounced with happiness.

'Why didn't you tell me sooner?' she asked while inspecting the souvenir we found at the lake carefully. 'I myself remembered it right now' I said quite pleased.

Emily slowly placed the souvenir, gems facing outwards, in the shallow empty space. It fits perfectly. We waited. And waited. Nothing happened for a long while. 'Its not working' cried Emily. I massaged my temples with my finger. We sure weren't going out anytime sooner.

Emily removed it and inspected the shape more closely. 'Oh look there's more space if we fit it like before' she said. And it was true. We crossed our fingers and turned the brooch and placed it in the shape.

Suddenly the whole place started to tremble. The rusty souvenir suddenly exfoliated all the rust and turned back to a jeweled bird. It's red eyes glowed.

'Oh my God...What'd you do?' I asked alarmed. 'I- I don't know' she said out of breath. The whole cave was about to engulf us I thought. But that wasn't happening. Instead the rumbling started to shift to our feet. Beneath the floor.

A big door appeared on the floor. There was an ancient door locker. I tugged at it. But it was too rusty to open. Emily knelt down and helped me open it. Yes. It's finally opening. We pulled harder and threw the door open. And we were not back to our place.

There was several steps leading us to a more garden looking place. We slowly mounted down the stairs and down to the ground. It certainly didn't look like a garden. 'Ooh lala baby' exclaimed Emily. 'I know right....we are in a lost city I think' I said gaping.

'NO....more like a lost kingdom' corrected Emily.

We were looking at a massive kingdom downhill. Ah yes...we were above a small hill. And from here....it looked magnificent. It was huge and with a breathtaking view. We just unveiled a lost kingdom.