‘Linda,’ Virginia walked slowly to the girl who was, by then, on the verge of crying. ‘You’re scared and you should be. We all are.’ Virginia smiled. ‘I mean, we just found out about this very special community and, whether we like it or not, we all seem to be connected to it somehow, even though our parents chose not to tell us about this earlier. I’m going to tell you what my parents told me only yesterday. Give it a try, maybe you won’t find this a bad idea after all. Hozafia could be an adventure as they say. I’m sure we’re not going to regret going on this journey, and perhaps we will if we don’t. Don’t miss out.’ Virginia gently held Linda by the arms. ‘You’ll be okay. Stick with me, I’m sure we’ll get past our fears together.’ Linda didn’t know Virginia, but what she said and her reassuring smile seemed to be exactly what the girl needed. Linda gave Virginia a faint smile and then she nodded in agreement. Virginia put her arms around the young girl’s shoulders to comfort her even though she seemed uneasy herself. Erick sighed in relief and smiled at Virginia gratefully. He seemed glad this was over and that they would finally start the journey.

    Grabbing the tail of his cloak with one hand and holding the lantern with the other, Erick went down the steps leading to the Dark Tunnel first. He walked in to allow all the warriors to get inside. The warriors followed him in silence. Neil and Virginia waited with Linda until they were the last ones to enter before Terri. After they were all inside the tunnel, Alfred locked the gate behind them and waved. ‘Godspeed,’ he said.

    The tunnel was quite confined; it could only allow two people to walk side by side. Guided by Erick’s lantern, the warriors walked in a row. The Dark Tunnel looked more like a cave, it had rocky walls and ceiling. The ground was wet and there was a far, echoing sound of water dripping. They were startled a few times by the sound of flapping wings of something flying near the ceiling that made Ursula shiver and she wondered how Linda must be feeling. Ursula was scared, but with Leo walking right behind her and her friend next to her, she felt safe. They walked quietly, but then, they all jumped when Andy laughed and no one could fathom what was so funny about their situation.

    ‘Amused Field?’ Ursula asked Andy who was walking in front of her and Claudia.

    ‘I was just thinking how funny you’ll both look carrying a sword,’ Andy continued to laugh, ‘you’re scared of the dark, just like the one crying at the back, it’s crazy how you two will only be known as warriors once we step out of this tunnel.’

    ‘I can’t picture you as a swordsman either,’ said Ursula. ‘Anyway, I’m going to be a different warrior, one that refrains from violence.’

    ‘In which case you’ll fail at the academy and be stripped of your gift,’ said Andy.

    ‘Wow, it seems that your grandmother had told you so much about Zodia already,’ said Erick.

    ‘Of course, unlike you all, I knew all about this,’ said Andy proudly. ‘Even before I discovered my gift.’

    ‘OH, this is priceless!’ Leo laughed heartily. ‘Mrs Field is a warrior too. I didn’t think this through, but of course, she’s your grandmother.’

    ‘Actually, she shouldn’t have told you about Hozafia before you were chosen it’s against our rules,’ said Erick.

    ‘She is no longer a warrior,’ said Andy quickly. ‘She can do whatever she wants.’

    ‘But how can a warrior stop being one?’ asked Ursula. ‘Can a warrior really be stripped of their gift?’

    ‘This is a discussion for another time. I don’t want to hear any more of this conversation,’ said Erick.

    ‘So your grandmother was stripped of her gift, huh?’ asked Leo, it was clear that Andy had said something he shouldn’t have revealed. ‘What happened? Did she fail at the academy?’

    ‘It’s none of your business, alright?’ said Andy heatedly. ‘You really like to interfere in other people’s lives, don’t you?’ Leo ignored him and laughed teasingly.

    ‘Now I see how funny it looks,’ Leo said between laughs, ‘Mrs Fields with a sword.’

    ‘Shut up!’ Andy was so angry that he turned to face Leo and pushed his way through the girls to get to him. ‘Don’t talk about my grandmother again, okay?’ Andy shouted and forcefully pushed Leo.

    ‘I’ll do that when you stop talking to my sister that way, okay?’ Leo mimicked and pushed him back. ‘And you really need to change your attitude with me bookworm, if you know what’s good for you.’

    ‘You don’t tell me what to do,’ Andy pushed Leo again.

    ‘HEY!’ Erick shouted from the head of the line—his voice echoed in the tunnel. He left his lantern to Patrick and squeezed his way through to Andy and Leo.  Erick pushed the two boys apart and stood between them. ‘If we’re to reach the academy safely then you two need to get along, all of you. I don’t want any quarrelling on this trip or you’ll start your year at the academy with detention, and I won’t care who started it,’ Erick warned them both. Leo and Andy said no more and returned to their places as Erick returned to the head of the line.

    They resumed their walk, going deeper into the darkness of the tunnel. No one dared to speak after what happened, and they walked in silence again for some time. After thirty minutes of walking in the chokingly narrow tunnel, everyone seemed to wish someone would say something to ease the heavy atmosphere or they would all go insane. It was a relief when Patrick started talking.

    ‘Captain,’ started Patrick hesitantly. ‘I’m curious about the creature we saw at the Rest House. What was that?’

    ‘We call them Dormants,’ said Erick, everyone listened with attention. ‘They’re very honest and proud creatures, and mostly friendly even though they don’t look it. They asked to deliver your clothes this morning just to get a chance to meet you, even though that is not what they do. They work in motels, hospitals and rich people’s houses, anywhere with bedrooms and people who need to rest.’

    ‘What do they do?’ asked Ursula.

    ‘They have this mental ability that allows them to enter people’s dreams. They work against people’s nightmares. They can change them and improve the quality of their sleep,’ said Erick.

    ‘No wonder we could sleep after what happened last night,’ said Virginia.

    ‘No wonder the creature’s name was Feather Pillow,’ said Leo.

    ‘But if they mess up, can they turn a dream into a nightmare instead?’ asked Oliver.

    ‘As far as I know, they can’t because it is not in their nature,’ said Erick. ‘The Rest House hired a highly trained team of Dormants to help their guest feel well-rested. They worked there for years and no one ever complained. Actually, we never heard of people having a nightmare while a Dormant was around.’

    ‘But how do they enter one's dreams?’ asked Oliver.

    ‘All they have to do is live and sleep at the same place we do. You won’t even feel their existence, but while they’re sleeping, they do enter the minds of those sleeping nearby, it’s their mental gift,’ said Erick. The warriors were amazed, clearly, Hozafia was indeed a place of many wonders.

    ‘Erick! I mean captain—whatever,’ said Leo. Erick laughed shortly.

    ‘Try to get used to it,’ said Erick. ‘This won’t do at the academy.’

    ‘Captain Erick,’ said Leo with exaggeration. ‘I have a question. You said we’re the twelve yearly chosen element-gifted warriors, right?’

    ‘Yes, I did.’

    ‘Well, I’ve counted us, many times, and we are not twelve; we’re eleven,’ said Leo. There were murmurs of general agreement.

    ‘The twelfth warrior is already in Hozafia, she lives there,’ said Erick.

    ‘I thought no one should know about Hozafia until they’ve discovered their gifts,’ said Andy.

    ‘There are those who do not come from Curtlane town. She lived in Hozafia her whole life, and this is all I’m going to say about that,’ said Erick. Leo could not understand why Erick didn’t tell them that earlier or why he didn’t seem willing to talk about it in more detail, but he felt relieved that nothing bad had happened to the missing warrior and didn’t care if Erick wasn’t going to say more on the subject.

    More time passed in silence inside the tunnel that seemed endless before they were finally able to see light at the end of it as the tunnel curved to the right. They were about to reach the end of the Dark Tunnel and they could hear the far noises coming from the tunnel network, which the warriors didn’t know how eager they were to see until they were nearly there.

    ‘We’re almost there,’ said Erick, his voice returning was like a call back to reality. ‘I must warn you, the tunnels net is the travel path of the people from all over the cosmic world—’

    ‘For goodness sake, why do you keep calling it the cosmic world?’ Mellissa interrupted. ‘What’s so cosmic about it?’ Ursula thought her question was stupid and indeed Erick felt no urgency to answer it for he simply ignored it.

    ‘What I was saying is that the net is a very busy place you should not let anyone know your identity. You must never speak to anyone you don’t know.’

    Finally, the warriors stepped out into the net of tunnels. They all agreed that it was, by far, the most amazing sight they had seen since this whole thing had started, it was even more amazing than the magical entrance to the Rest House. Those who were still sceptical about the reality of Hozafia became more convinced of its existence by the sight of the huge net of intersecting tunnels.

     The Tunnels Net was a whole world in itself. Erick was right, the place was full of people. The tunnels were far wider than what they had expected, they were more like streets with extremely high, vaulted ceilings that were barely visible. The cobblestone grounds were evenly paved. Huge stone blocks formed the walls separating the tunnels. Just in front of them, there was what looked like a town square. A sculpture of an indefinite shape stood in the centre, and around it, a lot of coaches and coachmen waited for customers with signs carrying their destinations. Around the sculpture, the coaches, the coachmen and the huge roundabout, there were the entrances of nine tunnels. Inside each tunnel, four more tunnels branched left and right. The whole place was bright with the lights coming from a thousand fire sconces hung everywhere. It was noticeable that the tunnels were well aired. Unlike the Dark Tunnel, there was a source-less, gentle current of pleasant air.

     Two men in eighteenth-century military uniforms stood by the entrance of the Dark Tunnel, their job was to check the papers of the travellers going in and out of the cosmic world, but they didn’t ask the warriors for their papers. Erick acknowledged them as he walked out of the tunnel and they seemed to have been expecting Erick and the warriors.

    ‘So this is the Tunnels Net?’ Linda was in awe. Her eyes were fixed up at the far, vaulted ceiling.

    ‘Are we underground now?’ asked Mellissa who looked awestruck as well.

    ‘We are underground, but we are not under Curtlane town of Celavia,’ said Erick. ‘We’ve entered a different world the moment we passed the Dark Tunnel. The Dark Tunnel for non-cosmic people would be an entrance to nowhere. You are now seeing the invisible, miss Grey.’

    ‘So it’s like a parallel universe?’ asked Neil. 

    ‘It is,’ said Erick.

    ‘But if the people of Celavia are unable to come here then why are we keeping this world a secret?’ asked Leo.

    ‘Celavians like you are mostly the ones who shouldn’t know, because even if you are not chosen to become warriors, there is a high chance you’re purely Hozafian and that makes you able to enter the Dark Tunnel, like all non-gifted Hozafians who were born there, but unlike them, you’d be uninvited because you’re also Celavian, does that make sense?’ asked Erick but Leo just shrugged.

    ‘Since the non-gifted Hozafians can also see the invisible, then that makes them gifted in some form,’ said Andy. ‘My grandmother suggested this theory.’

    ‘That over there is called the Dorainium square, it was named after that sculpture,’ said Erick, clearly changing the subject.

    ‘What exactly is that sculpture?’ asked Andy, squinting at the looping, metal object. ‘It doesn’t look like anything really.’

    ‘The Dorainium is a famous comet with twisted tails that infrequently appears in the Hozafian sky, and it has become the Hozafian symbol for several years now. They say it brings luck to whoever is born the night it appears,’ said Erick. ‘Oh Look!’ Erick pointed in the direction of the square. ‘There he is, Chief Josephy, our coachman. By the way, Chief is his first name, not his title, so it’s Mr Chief Josephy to you.’ Leo and a few other warriors could not but laugh at that. A man came rushing towards them. He was thin and wore a late-nineteenth-century black suit, he had a small face that looked even smaller under his top hat and his noticeably big moustache.

    ‘Hello again, Captain,’ the man greeted Erick in a rough voice. He lifted his hat and bowed to the warriors. ‘Is everyone ready?’

    ‘Yes, we are,’ Erick beamed. ‘Where is the coach?’

    ‘It’s around the corner, I’ll bring it now,’ said Josephy before he rushed away.

    Minutes later, Chief Josephy came back with a carriage that they were not expecting. It consisted of two, covered wagons attached together and pulled by four horses.

    ‘What’s this?’ asked Erick. ‘Where is the coach?’

    ‘The general decided that the stagecoach isn’t safe,’ said Josephy.

    ‘Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?’ said Erick.

    ‘Don’t worry about the comfort, these wagons have seats,’ said the coachman. Erick looked sceptically at their ride, he seemed afraid it might not endure the journey, but there was no other choice. The warriors were divided between the two wagons. Oliver, Andy, Patrick, Mellissa and Terri rode on the first wagon, while Ursula, Claudia, Virginia, Neil and Linda rode on the second. As for Leo, he was asked to join Erick and the coachman on the coachman’s seat.