Once Upon a Second Chance

(4) - Strange New Land

Ben, Doug, Jane, Lonnie, Audrey, and Chad didn't know what hit them when they were walking across the quad one moment, and the next, by a flash of blue light, found themselves surrounded by rock and dust.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Audrey yelled.

"What happened?!" Jane said

"Where are we?" Ben asked.

"...We're in the mines," Doug answered, inspecting the place. The half-dwarf went to enough take-your-child-to-work days with his father to know a mine when he saw one. Thankfully, his father also taught him how to navigate one. "This way," Doug said, heading in the opposite direction, taking the lead until he abruptly brought his hand up, making his fellow AKs stop. "Watch. your. step," he said, knowing how dangerous mines could be and any wrong move could end with fatal consequences.

As the group was making their way through the underground tunnels, Ben thought out loud, "How did we get here?"

"No idea. We were just in the quad and all of a sudden, we're underground," Lonnie said confused.

"Well it was clearly magic," Chad said obviously.

"It's not me if that's what your thinking," Audrey said.

"That's not what anyone was implying," Jane said sympathetically.

"Than who's magic and why?" Ben asked.

"Do you think anyone came with us?" Lonnie asked.

Jane was about to say something but was cut off by Ben. "Shh... I think I hear something."

Everyone looked at him, none of them hearing anything other than the sound of each other's breathing.

In realization, Jane said, "The heightened senses when you turned into a beast must not have completely faded away yet."

"Wait, hold up? You turned into a beast?!" Lonnie asked confused but immediately regretted her outburst when Audrey avoided all eye contact.

"Shh!" Ben said again, focusing, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, the sound of... metal clanking?

"Let's go," Ben said, taking the lead.

The Auradon children endured many twists and turns navigating the underground maze.

"Ugh, my feet hurt!" Chad complained.

"Imagine walking in heels! Not to mention my dress is all dirty," Audrey said, trying to pat off the mine dust on her dress.

"I think we're almost at the source of the sound. Maybe if we find someone, they can tell where we are and how to get out," Ben assures them, still following where his senses took him until they arrived at a corner where they found seven small men picking away at the rocks.

The group of teenagers decided to observe them for a minute before approaching them.

"Hey, they remind me of your uncles," Chad whispered to Doug.

"There's stuff written on their pickaxes," Lonnie noticed, having trouble making out the words considering how fast the men were swinging the axes. However, one of them had gotten his stuck in the rock and managed to pull it out after the kids were able to read the name that was on the tool.

'GRUMPY'.

They stared wide-eyed at the men, not knowing what to make of what they just saw.

"What the hell is going on?" Audrey said.

No one knew what to answer, but luckily, they didn't have to.

"HEY!" the man with the pickaxe that has the name Grumpy said, realizing their presence. The kids froze in place.