"With her staff in hand, and without a sound, Minnie slowly
moved to the far side of the mountain, keeping herself very low to the ground.
When she was within a few meters of the edge, she lay down flat
on her belly and listened for any noises.
After a few minutes, she
realized that Chung had either left or gone back inside the cave, although
she could not hear the deep snores she had heard earlier.
Doing an army crawl along the ground, she moved to the edge
of the mountain and gradually raised her head.
She was extremely careful not to bump any of the rocks sitting precariously
in front of her.
She saw nothing except for the remains of past
meals lying at the entrance to the beast’s cave. A horrid stench
wafted up from the entrance to her nostrils.
Minnie searched the
base of the mountain and the surrounding trees for some sign of
Chung. It didn't take her long to spot his immense, loping figure
heading in the opposite direction with his head raised in an attempt
to sniff out some prey.
When Minnie had lost sight of him, as he headed into a thick
clump of trees, she sprang to her feet and slid down the slight
incline beside the cave entrance to a big rocky platform below.
Without any thought that maybe Chung had a brother sleeping
soundly in the cave, she entered without hesitation. However, she
stopped only two steps in, with her staff held out in front of her
defensively. There was an extremely rank odor emanating from
deep within the cave, but it was the lack of light that caused her to pause.
She wanted to let her eyes adjust to the interior of the cave,
before rushing too far in.
Slowly, she began seeing shapes of rocks
and bones, but there was no sign of the boy."
