The League of Doorways (A Book of Vampires, Werewolves & Black Magic) (The Doorways Trilogy - Book Two) by Tim O'Rourke Page B

into the light. She could see Fandel, and he was in trouble.

Chapter Fourteen
     
    Willow followed Wally Willabee down into the hollow. The mist swirled around her giant flanks like dry-ice. She watched as Wally scraped away a mushy pile of wet leaves to reveal a metal grate. Gritting his teeth, he hauled it up to reveal an opening that spiraled deep into the ground.
    “Follow me,” he grinned back at Willow and climbed into the hole.
    Willow looked back one last time at the woods, then guessing it was safe to follow Wally, as he had once been a friend of Warden’s, she scrambled into the hole. She found herself teetering on a ledge, and using her giant paws, she steadied herself. Wally stood beside her, and reaching up , he closed the grate back over the hole, throwing them into darkness. She heard Wally rummage through his pockets. There was a clicking noise and then a white beam of light. Willow yelped as the light from the device he held in his hand shone brightly into her eyes.
    “Sorry,” Wally said. “I guess this is the first time you’ve ever seen a flashlight.” He pointed the light away to reveal what appeared to be a slide that coiled around the inside of the shaft Willow now found herself peering into. However bright the light from Wally’s flashlight, it did nothing to penetrate the deep well of darkness beneath her.
    Wally sensed her fear and said, “Don’t worry, Willow Weaver, you haven’t got to climb all the way to the bottom. There is a quicker way.”
    Wally bounced the beam of light off the muddy ledge they stood on and down the length of the slide. It was green and covered in what looked like silky lengths of grass and patches of moss.
    “This is the Green slide,” Wally beamed with excitement.
    “Is it called that because of its colour?” Willow asked, watching the way the long blades of grass seemed to wave back and forth like thin fingers.
    “No,” Wally said. “It’s named after its inventor. Her name was Jennifer-The-Martian-Green.”
    “Where is she now?” Willow asked him.
    “She went through a doorway and never came back,” Wally said with a sense of sadness.
    “So how can she take credit for inventing a slide?” Willow asked. “I thought they had been around for hundreds of years? We have them back in Endra.”
    “This is no ordinary slide,” Wally exclaimed, his eyes suddenly burning as bright as his flashlight. “This slide doesn’t just carry you downwards – it carries you back to the top! Jennifer-The-Martian-Green was a genius!”
    “Carries you back up?!” Willow barked.
    “Let me show you!” Wally beamed, lowering himself onto the slide.
    Willow watched as Wally settled on the blades of grass covering the slide. Then the blades of grass lent forward as if caught in a breeze, and carried Wally a short distance down the slide.
    “See? Isn’t it incredible!” Wally exclaimed. “Now watch this!” 
    Wally stood up and turned around so he was facing the top of the slide. Again, the silky blades of grass lent forward, carrying him back to the top.
    With a wide smile spread across his face, Wally howled, “Incredible! I’m telling you, the girl was an utter genius. It’s such a shame she left and never came back.”
    Watching Wally going back and forth on the slide like an excited child, Willow couldn’t help but sense that he was lonely somehow – that he missed his friend. “Do you miss her?”
    Wally stopped sliding up and down, and with a sorry look on his face, he looked up at Willow and said, “Yes. She was my friend. She was a bit cheeky at times for my liking, but she was a dear friend.”
    “Maybe she’ll come back one day,” Willow said.
    Wally sat quietly for a moment as if remembering his friend. Then, forcing the look of sadness from his face, he smiled up at Willow and said, “I’ll race you to the bottom!”  Then he was gone, whisked away into the darkness, carried on those blades of grass.
    Willow gingerly stepped onto the