Cotton Bear's Castle - Chapter One

Chapter One

It was a dark and stormy night, and our fearless adventurer, Illinois Ben, cautiously made his way up the hill towards Cotton Bear’s Castle. The rain was coming down hard making the ground muddy and slick. Illinois Ben had been struggling with the mud as a river of water came crashing down upon him. Using his trusty whip he threw it out and snagged an extended tree branch. Quickly he pulled himself out of harm’s way, avoiding the water and almost certain death if not a bruise here or there. The castle loomed high above him with only a single light on.

Illinois Ben spotted a narrow stone wall. He scrambled up on top of it and stood up, then carefully he tip-toed along the wall as it winded its way up high. Before long he found himself at the top of the castle wall. The rain beat about his face, the wind howled, and a flash of lightning lit up the castle before him. He jumped down off the wall, bum-bounced off the roof of a tent and landed with a splat on the wet ground. Before he could get his balance, the muddy earth gave way beneath him. Somewhere in the distance a pack of wolves howled at the moon. Illinois Ben plunged into the darkness. The slick mud carried Ben down a chute of water and earth, tossing him from side to side in the underground tunnel. Ben sputtered as mud flew into his mouth. The frothy mess got thicker and thicker until finally he was shot out of the tunnel and onto a big pile of bones.

There were not only bones but tattered clothing as well. Picking himself up off the ground, he felt for his whip. Not feeling it by his side made him feel a little worried. Then a loud hissing noise snuck up behind him and made him stop dead in his tracks. Slowly turning around Illinois Ben saw in the dimly lit cavern a large snake like beast with blood red eyes, long teeth and slimy skin. Slowly it slithered towards him. Slowly, a smile broke out on Ben’s face as he reached for his gun. He removed it from its holster and raised it, pointing straight at the beast. At this time he noticed an unusually large amount of water coming from the barrel of the gun, followed by an unordinary amount of mud. ‘CLICK’ was all that Ben heard when he pulled the trigger. Ben was no longer smiling.

The beast raised its head and curled its body behind itself. Finding his footing, Ben cautiously worked his way among the bones. Reaching down he grabbed a rather large thigh bone. It was a battle of man versus beast.

The beast lunged and Ben dove out of the way, crunching bones along the way. Ben tried to make his way to the far off archway across the large cavern. As he side-stepped a combination of bones and clothes, a thundering blow of the beast’s tail landed in front of him, blocking his way. Ben slammed down on the tail with the thigh bone but he only upset the beast more. With an overly excessive screech, the beast lunged once again at Ben. Ben’s hat was knocked off his head as he barely got out of the way in time. The beast reared up again for another lunge. Ben looked down at his hat and then over to the bone in his hand. As the beast lunged again Ben quickly and expertly rammed the thigh bone into the beast’s mouth, lodging it there with the mouth stuck wide open. With a noise too horrible to describe the beast threw its head back and howled. Ben took this moment to grab his hat, dive over the beast’s tail and make his way to the distant archway and possible safety.

Seeing his prey on the move the beast snapped the bone in its mouth with a deafening crunch and shifted its body to chase him. Jumping over bones and dodging clothes, Ben quickly made his way to the archway. The beast was almost upon him once again and just as Ben reached the archway he spotted his whip hanging off a propped up skeleton. The beast was almost upon him as he reached out and grabbed the whip. The beast just missed Ben as it struck, smashing the skeleton instead. Ben dove through the archway and slid a few feet through to the other side as the beast slammed into it. Stuck hard in the doorframe the beast chomped its mouth and hissed its tongue towards Ben. Realizing he was safe Ben casually got up, dusted off his jacket, straightened his hat and coiled up his whip. Then he made his way down the small corridor, lit only by the light from his trusty flashlight, and into the unknown.

end of chapter one