Their small world was suddenly jolted and then just as quickly settled back down. Alice and the Lynx exchanged a concerned glance.

"What does this mean?" Sid wondered.

Tina chimed in with a worried expression on her face.

"He needs help! We should open the portal and assist him!?"

The Lynx shook his head.

"No, this was a different kind of shaking..."

Alice interjected, shaking her head in disapproval.

"We agreed that he would open the portal in case he needed help. We shouldn't jump out and create more problems."

"What if he can't open the portal?" Tina pressed.

Alice exchanged another look with the Lynx.

"But it's quiet now.” - she said - “When he walked we could barely feel it."

"It is too quiet, he's not moving at all!" Tina said with a sigh.

Sid offered his opinion, "Maybe he's hiding in a corner waiting for something?"

After another long wait the Lynx sighed and spoke up, "OK, maybe we should get out of here!"

He looked to Alice for agreement.

Alice nodded, "It's taking too long. Something is off... Okay, I'll open it and jump out first; you follow."

Sid interjected, "Shouldn't I first launch a black breath strike?"

Alice shook her head, "No. You might kill somebody who shouldn't be killed. Let us check first!"

However, Sid was still uncertain, "But then how will I know and help you?"

Alice understood his eagerness to help. She came closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder,

"You stay here and listen. You are our backup! If we need help, we'll call you."

He nodded. She turned back and approached the portal lever, exchanged a glance with the Lynx, then opened it.

Just as she was about to step inside, a huge chunk of rock fell inside and narrowly missed crushing her but for her lightning-fast reaction.

"What the hell?" Tina exclaimed.

Suddenly, their cavern started shaking again, and more rocks fell in.

The Lynx yelled at Alice, "Turn it off!"

She turned the portal off and they waited, looking tensely at each other. The shaking stopped after another couple of shudders.

“What the hell?” - Sid repeated, looking at the large mound of rocks that had accumulated in front of the entry.

“Should I open again?” - Alice wondered

The Lynx took a deep breath.

“Let's try... If it's starting shaking again, close it immediately!”

Alice nodded and reopened the portal, and again some rocks fell in at the beggining, but this time the barn did not shake.

The Lynx breathed in relief and turned to Alice.

“Alice, do you have a spear or something? Can you poke through the portal?”

Alice raised a brow but did as he had asked. The spear encountered something hard on the other side. She tried different points with the same result.

“What does this mean?” - Tina wondered.

The Lynx sighed. “That the portal is facing a wall or something... No, a wall would have been broken by the portal; judging by all the stones we got in, we are facing the mountain...”

Tina's eyes widened in shock. “You mean we cannot get out?”

The Lynx nodded.

"How did you know?" - Alice wondered

The Lynx turned to Sid.

"It means we just have to wait for some time. Can you please take care of Tina for a moment? I have a private problem to discuss with Alice."

Sid wondered. "A private problem?"

The Lynx nodded. "Yes, it won't take long. Be a good boy and help me, please?"

Sid rolled his eyes and sighed. "It reminds me somehow of my paps and my ma. OK, OK, if Tina feeds me some sausages, I might be interested?"

Tina smiled happily with the hand already in the magic food bag: "OK, here you are."

The Lynx sighed and walked away. Alice followed him in the darkness until she almost collided with him as he stopped.

"I think we have reached the end of our barn," - the Lynx whispered.

Alice placed a hand on his shoulder and felt it strained. She tried to look into his eyes, but it was too dark.

"So what is it?" - she whispered back.

The Lynx sighed.

"Keep your voice low. If I am right, we are sitting in our tomb. I suspect that the poor boy had dropped the ring, or he may have been killed, and the ring fell. That must have been the shaking. When we opened the portal, it shook and moved the ring, which must have fallen somewhere even deeper with the portal cutting the stone; that's why we got all those rocks in here."

He sighed again.

"We have no way to get out. At the entry, I smelled only stale air. We must be in some narrow gap inside the cavern with not much air circulating through it. We might have only so long to live as the air in here allows. That's not very long.”

Alice's eyes widened in shock.

“What about Cala and White Flower?" - she wondered - "They promised to pull us out of here!”

The Lynx kept silent for a couple of moments, then after another sigh, he answered.

“Unfortunately, they will not be able to do it. The rocks that fell inside when we opened the portal contain a lot of magicore. This is a mineral that conducts magic. One of its uses is to defuse magic spells, and the rocks around us must contain tons of it. If White Flower tries the spell, it will backfire on her.”

Alice kept silent for a moment. “Are you sure?” - she whispered.

He nodded, then realizing that she could not see him, he answered. “I wish I wouldn't be, but it is as I say.”

He raised his head and looked at her. He still could see her even in the darkness.

“What do we do? Should we tell them?” - he asked.

She did not answer. He continued. “Tina is a kid. Sid is a grown-up dragon with a kid's mind. Actually, Spartacius was a similar case, and probably, we condemned him to death when we allowed him to try to save us. It was wrong.”

Alice placed her hand on his shoulder.

“I still think that we should tell them, but not about the magicore problem. They should still be allowed to hope.”

The Lynx nodded. “Agree”