"What's he talking about, Rachel?" asked Tallulah. "Who Is he?"

"He's a soldier from the war," explained Rachel. "He's going to rescue us from the monster."

"But you can't be the same girl," complained the old man. "It's ridiculous!"

"Are you coining to save us or not, Captain Grumpy?"

"Captain Grumpy? What's going on?"

"There's a tentacles monster bigger than a house breaking loose out of mine shaft. What do we do?"

"We have bury it again."

"Dynamite!"

"It is a good idea, isn't it?"

"No, Captain Grumpy. We can use the mine's dynamite to bring the roof down upon it"

"Brilliant idea, Tallulah! Now, get Rachel and the others to the surface. You can show her, right Rachel."

"Yes, Captain," replied a shaken Rachel.

"I'm not a captain."

"But you sure is grumpy" said Tallulah.

"I am not!" shouted the angry old man. "You need to get them out, now, Tallulah. I have to stay behind and detonate the dynamite. We're too far from the stairs out to light the fuses and get out on time. I'll do this. Now, go!"

"No, you ain't," said Tallulah. "If you do so, I'll stay to. Are you going to kill us both."

"We have to seal its prison again. Oh, my God! Fine. Well find some other way, perhaps using its name in a ritual. I don't know. Let's just go.

"Now, you're talking, Captain. Come on guys! This way out!"

As soon as Tallulah said that, all the captives headed their way.

"This way, " said the old man as they surrounded him.

As they retraced their way to the stairs, and up them, a horrible noise filled the cavern. Rachel grabbed the old man's' arm, and asked, "What is that?"

"It's almost loose," said the old man as they piled into the abandoned house. "Where's Tallulah."

Suddenly the house shook as the sound of an explosion echoed throughout the place.

"Oh my God," gasped the old man. "Tallulah."

"Oh, Tallulah," sobbed Rachel as she buried her face into the old man's leather coat.

A few hours later, in the light of a new sunrise, Rachel and the old man were outside his blue box.

"Must you leave?" asked Rachel.

"I need to be back to the War," said the old man. "People are depending upon me. Tallulah's sacrifice has imprisoned Caddaja again. Good heavens! What is this?"

The old man pulled out a diamond pendant on a gold chain.

"That's Tallulah's necklace," said Rachel. "She's had it since she was a child."

"She was your friend," said the old man holding out the pendant. "You should have this."

"No, she meant it for you. That's why she slipped it in your pocket, not mine."

"I won't forget her," said the old man opening the door of the blue box. "Or you."

Seeing a vast, circular room beyond the door, Rachel gasped, and said, "You are a medicine man."

"Once," said the old man entering his box, "but now, no more."

To Rachel's further amazement, the blue box faded out of sight with a wheezing and groaning sound.

The End.