The Magic Rings and Mammoth Cave

It was a dry autumn day. Outside, night was falling, casting the half-bare trees into darkness, along with a few latecomers who had not yet got home and sat down to their dinner.

“I’m going to turn on the light so we can see our food,” said mum, getting up from the table. But no sooner had the light spread through the room than there was a soft crackling noise and they were plunged into darkness again.

“Hey, what was that?” screamed Annie.

“It’s probably just a power cut,” said dad. “I’ll check the fuses and you two can find some candles in the meantime,” he said, with an encouraging smile.

Ellie grabbed Annie’s hand and they both groped their way through the darkness into the hall. There were sure to be some candles in the cupboard.

“It’s pitch black down here,” complained Ellie.

“It really is,” agreed Annie. “It’s as dark as... as in that cave in the film dad showed us!”

“You mean the Batcave? That was great, wasn’t it?!” Ellie exclaimed, remembering the weekend. She squeezed Annie’s hand.

“Brrr,” Annie blurted out, shivering, “it’s got quite cold, hasn’t it?”

“Yep,” Ellie agreed, “and I don’t think it’s just because of the power cut.”

Just then, something whizzed past their ears. And again. Then they heard a high-pitched whistling sound too, and both said at once: “Bats?”

“Yes, yes, bats,” they heard from somewhere above them. “I’m Echo,” chirped the voice again.

Ellie and Annie’s eyes finally began to adapt to the darkness and they were just about able to make out the small creature. It looked like a winged mouse.

“There are thousands of us here! You’ll like it here too,” Echo whistled, fluttering gently down to perch on…