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The road to the forest was very gruff and rocky. It was tiring, especially after trekking through a wet bog.
“I cannot go on like this,” Ballard panted. “We need to rest.”
Thaddeus nodded his head in agreement, and sat down on a large boulder off the side of the path. Observing his surroundings for the first time, Thaddeus noticed that the grass around the path was very tall. It stretched some six feet off the ground, blocking the view for miles. Thaddeus had never noticed the change of the grass size. Sorry to seem so abrupt, but how could he not have noticed? The grass was six feet tall! He was so used to the acres of land outside the castle that had such short grass; it was hard to imagine grass could grow so tall. The wetlands did not even seem to show a gradual growth in grass; they just ended and the grass shot up all at once. Scattered in the grass were boulders and rocks. Some large enough to be seen, some covered in the immense field of grass. The forest was in clear view, and Thaddeus knew it could be reached within an hour.
“Rest?” yelled Truman, interrupting Thaddeus’ thoughts. “We have no time to rest! We must get to the shrine before midnight, and we cannot just sit and nap all afternoon. We may not make it!”
“Completely ignoring Truman, Ballard said lazily, “The forest is only a small distance away. It is in plain view. We have time Truman, for once take a break.”
Sighing, Truman gave in, but only because he thought that he would waste more time fighting with Ballard than taking a small ten minute rest. As Truman closed his eyes, he fell asleep, along with Truman and Ballard. Time began to pass.

********

Thaddeus awoke first. As he tried to sit up, he noticed he could not.
“What?” he wondered, confused. Then his senses came to him. A dank smell was in the air, and no longer was there soft grass underneath him. He was lying down on a strange, sticky brown substance in the ground. This must be what was left behind at the river! Thaddeus thought. It was just mud! Excited, he observed the muck once more, and realized how foolish he had been. This was no mud.
He slowly rolled his head to his left, barely able to move it at all.
“AHH!” he shrieked as he came face to face with a most horrible sight. Lying right next to him was a body…a body with light brown hair, a woman. A shout came from somewhere in the cave, but Thaddeus neglected it. He felt like a fly trapped in a spider web.
“Julia,” he whispered. All that was left of her was a skeleton with hair, and her clothes where scattered all around the mud. So, this is what became of her. I'd say, make it seem so that he didn't know who it was, until he reconized her close. You can't just tell who someone is by their hair. :) I would have never guessed.
The shout came again. Thaddeus blinked, and realized that it was Ballard’s voice. He was nearby.
“Ballard? Is that you?”
“Thaddeus!” Ballard yelled, “Truman and I thought we would never see you again!” “Hurry, get over here!”
Thaddeus struggled to move, but to no avail. “I can’t get up!” he shouted back, wondering how Ballard managed to move.
Truman abruptly broke into the conversation. “Spit on the mud!” It somehow dries it for a few seconds!” My brother was reading over my shoulder at that part, and he thought it was funny. ;)Thaddeus did as he was told, and eventually was able to stand up, amazed that such small amounts of liquid dried the mud-not only that, but the dryness spread about a foot. He felt the mud slowly moistening again, so he started to spit a path to the frantic voices of Truman and Ballard. It wasn’t easy, for occasionally the mud would become wet again before Thaddeus had taken another footstep. Finally, he reached a small, flat stone in the ground. As Truman helped Thaddeus up the rock, Ballard erupted in laughter.
“Who would have thought that spit would save your life?” “No one! It is ridiculous, yet here we are, safe and sound because of it!” Ballard continued laughing, unable to control himself. His laughing abruptly stopped as a gurgling roar broke through the air.
“We must get out of here,” Truman whispered, frightened that somehow the beast would hear. Dimly, he made out a long ladder, leading to the top of the cave. “There!” he yelled as he pointed it out to Ballard and Thaddeus.
In an instant, they climbed the ladder, and finally reached the ceiling. Ballard gave a big shove, and something was removed from the ceiling. A small gap of light shone in, just big enough for the three to fit through one at a time. They quickly climbed out of the hole, and covered it with the large rock that had once been over the gap. They were free.
Happy to be free, Thaddeus took in the fresh air, but saw that something was different. He looked up at the sky, and noticed something was wrong. Something was not there. The sun had set.
Quickly, the men broke out into a run. I like that part, started with"Happy to be free,"