A Nasty Shock

"Except for the one at the bottom," Astra pointed out.

"There'a a rope in my backpack, so once it is made fast to something up above the one left behind can easily climb out."

"Don't you think that the dragon's been rather careless in leaving you with your backpack, and in putting two people who are each six feet tall in a pit only ten feet deep?" Astra said.

"Maybe, but it's lucky for us."

But it turned out that the dragon hadn't been careless after all. He had some spell in place so that, whenever Astra stood on Fred's shoulder or vice versa, all three (even Velus) received a painful electrical shock strong enough to knock them out.

After a few attempts, they realised that it would be futile to try again. "What can we do now?" Fred said. "The sides of the pit seem to be perfectly sheer and smooth, and the rock's too hard to dig any footholds with my dagger."

1. "We can't see from down here, but there might be some protrusion on the surface of the tunnel up above that we could lasso with the rope. We'd have to rely on trial and error, though, not being able to see from down here."
2. "Maybe one of us could throw Velus out of the pit. He can't weigh much. Then perhaps he could fetch help or find an artifact that could aid us."
3. "I haven't any ideas, I'm afraid."

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