Chapter 3 

Two days later and we are in Kari’s flat by the beach. We sit in silence, taking small slurps of tea, my favorite drink. Outside, fog was seen covering the beach and the town. Inside, we are warm by the fire place all snuggled up in blankets. However, Kari has ideas, big ones. ” Jack, come on, you have to help me!” Here we are, arguing again. I think. ” I reckon I know where it lives.”

It turns out that Kari has spent the whole night searching in the bitter cold, hanging around the beach looking up and down the whole beach. She claims to have seen claw marks on pieces of wood, and interesting footprints on the damp sand, just like the exact ones we found at the forest.  

I secure the museum and make sure that all the windows are shut and curtains are closed and that the lights are off before I finish my shift. This time I make sure that we have head torches and that I’m wrapped up in lots of lairs. The fog gets thicker and thicker across the town and the beach. Its rather like being trapped in our own horror story. We follow the paths to the beach, till we find a sign that says do not go any further than this, please turn back! For Kari that just seems to just carry on walking and forget about the sign. I know that I can’t leave her alone on a beach, she could get loosed, and I would be blamed for it, so I find myself following her. She’s very brave in a good and bad kind of way. Carefully, we made our way round the beach, encircles by fog. 

I hadn’t believed Kari, but the footprints are quite obvious. There are two sets of prints, one leading across the sand and into the entrance of a pitch black cave. The other set of footprints lead to the sea. “Come on! Let’s seize the moment!” Said Kari quietly encase the cave had something inside, which it obviously has. They were both clicking on their head torches. I’m not really feeling to seizing anything right now, but once again, I have a bad feeling that Kari is leading me into danger! 

The cave was pitch black. Totally dark. It smells of rotten sea weed and crushed bones. Big stone walls where shining in the torchlight with big deep claw marks on each wall. My heart was thumping so fast as if I was going to have a heart attack., looking side to side for anything suspicious. Just as I’m wondering that there is nothing and starting to feel a bit calmer, but at that moment it is then that Kari finds it. There, in a little nest, built out of fisherman’s bones and sticks and feathers, is a large shining egg. We stop and gaze at it. The daggermander has an egg. 

In that moment, I feel a shiver of guilt. We should not be here. “Let’s go now, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” I whispered, tapping Kari’s shoulder and turning to make my way to the beach. But our way was blocked. Something is moving through the darkness from the entrance of the cave. It doesn’t sound pleased. We’ve heard it in the past, the low growl, a purr kind of throat, the steady, heavy footsteps. We both shine our torches forwards and there it is. The daggermander! Kari steps forward; and step  back.