by Tony Abbott
But more than that, Eric wondered what his stone had to do with Jabbo, or the “lost” temple, or dreams, or the Dark Lands. Was it really a prize for him? Or did it mean something else? Could it be magical, as Julie wondered?
By the time the sun began to set, the small group had traveled many miles.
“Our journey is a long one,” said Galen, stopping to look at the darkening sky. “We’ll sleep here and begin again when first light comes.”
While Ortha and Max strung up vine hammocks under a large leafy canopy, Twee and Woot scampered into the trees and came back with fruits and nuts enough for a meal.
While they ate, Neal explained the rules of baseball until nearly everyone curled up, exhausted.
“I guess we’d better sleep, too,” said Keeah, turning over in her hammock.
So did Julie. Then Neal. Finally, even Galen, Max, and Ortha went quiet.
Eric breathed in the night air. The forest was dark and hushed. But it wasn’t peaceful.
“That Hakoth-Mal is out there,” he whispered to himself. He patted his pocket and remembered the soft voice from his dream. Would he be the one to strike the wolf at noon and earn a secret wish?
Finally, he, too, closed his eyes.
Eric slept a dark, dreamless sleep until just before morning, when Jabbo appeared once again in a dream. He was in the smoky silver room, but he looked different. He still wore his fruit-smudged apron, but now a golden crown sat lopsided on his lumpy head.
He stared into the blue gem, then spoke. “It’s whispering to King Jabbo again. Enemies are coming to take our power away! Rise, Hakoth-Mal! Let’s find them first — even if we have to burn down the whole forest!”
Whoomf! He blew a huge flame from his mouth.
“Noooo!” Eric bolted up. It was morning. “Wake up, you guys! Wake up!”
Everyone roused themselves and rushed to him.
“Jabbo’s even nuttier than before,” said Eric. “He’s calling himself king and says he’ll destroy the whole forest to find us and stop us!”
Ortha gasped. “Then we have no time to lose. Let us be on our way. Hurry!”
The morning sun grew hotter and hotter as the group of nine traveled along the vine roads. Soon the cooling breezes died away. In the distance, a thick bank of low, dark clouds dripped down to earth in a ragged black fog.
And stretching out before them was a single drooping bridge. On the far side, it clung to a black, leafless, ghostly trunk and ended there. All the trees beyond were bare, their branches black.
“The beginning of the Dark Lands,” said Keeah.
“And the end of the wonderful vine roads,” said Max.
“It looks like the end of the world,” said Julie.
Ortha scanned the bridge. “We’ll have to cross, then climb down to the ground.”
“There’s not much actual ground down there,” said Eric, peering down. “It looks like a swamp — a deep one.”
Galen nodded. “Here you see the ugliness of Sparr’s domain. And yet we must enter into it.” He stepped cautiously out onto the vines, pulling his cloak around him. “I weigh the most. If the bridge holds me up, it will support anyone.”
“Master, be careful,” said Max.
The bridge wobbled as Galen crept over it, carefully avoiding the ragged holes in its floor.
When he reached the other side, he called back, “Slowly now, and watch for torn vines!”
Twee and Woot crossed together. The others went one by one until only Eric and Keeah were left.
“Into the Dark Lands …” said Keeah.
She moved alone onto the bridge. When she reached the middle, Eric felt his heart flutter.
Something was wrong. He turned.
A dark blur streaked across the bridge, making it swing wildly from side to side.
“Stop!” said Keeah, turning. “Who’s there —”
But Eric already knew.
The blur whooshed to his left, then slowed and came down on the bridge in front of him.
It was the wingwolf he had seen in his dream, the Hakoth-Mal suited in red armor, its black wings whirring to a stop.
Eeeee! It shrieked.
“It’s the ha-ha-not-funny guy!” yelled Neal.
“And that’s not all,” said Julie. “Look!”
Thwap-thwap-thwap!
Emerging from the clouds overhead was a great green lizard with large leathery wings.
“A groggle!” cried Ortha.
“With him on its back!” said Max.
It was Jabbo, grinning as he pulled hard on the lizard’s reins. “Well done, Hakoth-Mal! You’ve hunted for Jabbo’s enemies — and found them!”
The groggle grunted and hovered in the air above the bridge. Its heavy wings flapped slowly, trapping Keeah where she stood.
Galen narrowed his eyes at the dragon. “Already he has become more like Sparr —”
“Jabbo is not Sparr!” the dragon yelled. “Jabbo is Jabbo, Ruler of Droon! King of … everything! And to prove it —”
Ha-rooomph! Jabbo blew a blast of flame from his mouth. It struck the bridge behind Keeah.
“No!” cried Eric, trying to get to her.
Fwip! Fwip! The wingwolf sprang in front of Eric, stopping him.
With fire on one side, and the wingwolf on the other, there was nowhere for Keeah to go.
“Help!” she screamed, as flames ripped across the bridge toward her.
Eric tried to get to Keeah, but the hunter’s curved claws came flashing out — shwee-shwee!
“Oh, tough, aren’t you?!” said Eric, leaping back. “Well, I’m a hero —”
He faked left, then right, and the wingwolf followed his moves. “Ha!” Eric ducked under the creature’s swinging claw and raced to Keeah in the middle of the bridge.
“Jabbo, call the creature off!” shouted Galen, edging out onto the bridge himself.
“But the Hakoth-Mal is so good at what he does!” said Jabbo, pulling his groggle up away from the leaping flames. “We make such a great team, there will be no stopping us!”
“Oh, we’ll stop you!” cried Julie from the tree.
“Then we’ll see who hunts who!” added Neal.
“Stop my enemies, wingwolf!” called Jabbo, lifting away. “Especially the ones with power. Steal their magic. Then join me to plan our next conquest!”
With that, Jabbo and his groggle lifted away, vanishing into the murky fog of the Dark Lands.
Without warning — shwee-shwee! — the wingwolf leaped at the kids.
Keeah jumped aside, and Eric crouched low, but the warrior’s claws sliced at him.
Shwee — clack! Something fell to the bridge.
Eric looked down. His pocket was flapping open and the silver stone was sliding across the bridge.
“My dream stone!”
But even as he reached for it, the wingwolf lunged at Keeah, its claws outstretched.
“Leave her alone!” Eric shouted. Without thinking, he threw the stone as hard as he could at the warrior.
Flank! It struck the creature in the head, sending it staggering. The stone skittered across the floor of the bridge and fell through.
Eric made a grab for the stone, but it plummeted down through the air, twisting and turning as it fell.
The Hakoth-Mal leaped off the bridge and flew down to catch the stone. It grabbed it, howled once, then streaked away into the withered trees below.
In a moment, it was gone.
“Eric, come on!” cried Keeah, reaching for him.
Suddenly, the bridge snapped, sending Galen, Neal, and Julie leaping back to the far tree.
The flaming bridge sank under the two kids.
“Hold on!” called Ortha. With a mighty throw, she flung a vine to them.
Even as the bridge collapsed, Keeah grabbed the vine and pulled Eric up with her. “I’ve got you —”
Fwoosh! The flaming bridge fell into the swamp below, hissing and sputtering in the dark water.
Kee
ah and Eric swung to the ground nearby.
Julie was the first down from the tree and rushed to them. “Are you guys all right?”
Keeah nodded. “I am. Eric, what about you?”
He frowned as Keeah helped him up. “I’m okay, but, man! I was supposed to save you. In my dream I was the hero. Instead, you saved me, and I lost the stone!”
“But why did the Hakoth-Mal steal it from you?” asked Woot, scampering over to the children.
“It’s magic, of course,” said Twee. “I’ve always thought so. It’s so shiny.”
Eric remembered the voice in his dream and how the mysterious hand had given him the stone.
“Anyway,” he said, “I want it back.”
“We’ll get it back,” said Keeah. “I promise —”
“Hush, a moment,” said Galen, peering into the distance. “I hear … I hear …”
“Jabbo coming back?” asked Neal.
“The Faraway?” asked Eric.
Ortha shook her head. “No … look there.”
At that moment, a strange blue light flashed through the high trees and flitted down to them, singing, “Galennn! Galennnnn!”
“Flink,” cried Max, jumping up and down. “It’s Flink! With a message for my master.”
The light seemed to seek out the wizard from among them and spun over his head swiftly. It spoke to him in strange musical tones.
“Ah,” said Galen finally. “It seems I must go help King Zello and Queen Relna. But I promise to return as soon as I can. You must go on.”
The children looked around. The ground was swampy and the water in it foul-smelling and black.
“If you ask me,” said Neal, “I think we pretty much need you, too. Let’s face it, the Dark Lands are not exactly the fun and games capital of Droon.”
The wizard smiled. “And yet, there is much you can do on your own. I am needed elsewhere. You must continue without me.”
“Are my parents in danger?” asked Keeah.
There was a flash in the old man’s eyes that meant the danger was very real.
“I shall be there before it comes to that. But what you do here may be even more important. Max, stay with our princess and our friends.”
The spider troll nodded firmly. “I will stick to them like my own sticky silk!”
“That’s the fellow,” said Galen. “I must go now. Flink, lead the way.”
Galen waved good-bye, then headed south into the woods, following the sparkling blue light.
Moments later, he was gone.
“And now, we must go on,” said Ortha, scanning the swamp that lay before them.
The vast marshes were studded with the cracked stumps of fallen trees. Thin, twisted branches thrust up from the murky water like pale, bony hands.
“Go on,” said Eric. “But how?”
“We sure ran out of climbing trees,” said Neal.
“And the water is too shallow for a boat,” said Julie, “and a little too deep to walk through.”
“I have an idea!” said Woot. She huddled with Twee for a second. They both laughed, then began to gather fallen sticks and branches.
“What are you up to?” said Ortha.
“Just you wait,” said Twee. “You’ll see!”
For the next five minutes, the two monkeys busied themselves with the branches. Finally, they finished.
“What have you made?” asked Keeah.
Twee showed them. “I took the longest branches and bent them into U-shapes.”
“And I wove some stout green branches into the middles,” said Woot.
Twee handed several of the U-shaped branches to Keeah and Neal. “Try them on!”
Neal laughed. “Are you expecting a change in the weather? These look like … snowshoes!”
“Oh, I see. They are swamp shoes!” said Max, slipping on four pairs of his own. “With these, we can walk right across the thick water!”
“Which we must do at once,” said Ortha, taking command. “Come now, everyone. Jabbo grows stronger by the minute. O — lee — lee! O — lee — lee!”
The monkey queen’s call echoed into the blackened forest, and the small band — smaller now without Galen — set off once more.
The sun’s light was choked by a thick brown haze as the eight friends entered the Dark Lands.
Splog! Kloosh! Plurp!
Tree roots stretched like fingers out over the swamp, making their passage across the water slow and dangerous.
“Steady there!” said Max as they squashed across the surface of the water.
“I can’t even see two steps ahead,” said Eric.
“I can’t breathe!” said Neal. “The air is as thick as a blanket on my nose. A stinky blanket!”
Julie tried to wave away the heavy air. “From a beautiful green forest to this? Very yucky.”
“Quite right,” said Ortha. “If nothing else, this shows you the power of evil —”
Eeeeee! A piercing, eerie sound came from somewhere in the smoky air above.
“Okay, I’m scared,” said Neal. “That wingy dude is officially creeping me out.”
Eric swatted the smoky air. “Creepy or not, I can’t wait to see him again … and get my stone back.”
“We’ll find your stone,” said Keeah. “I have a feeling we’ll see that creature again very soon.”
“When we do,” said Julie, “you’ll grab your dream stone. And boot that wolf out of here.”
Eric smiled at his friends. “Thanks, guys.”
But he wondered if it would really be that easy. If Jabbo kept growing in power, thanks to Sparr’s gem, maybe the little pie maker and the wingwolf really could conquer Droon.
One hour, two hours, they slogged their way across the black swamp. Finally, it gave way to hard, dry land once more. And in the middle of the barren wood, the forest was strangely green again.
Ortha looked up. The sky was still dark, the air brown and thick. “Something, not the land and the rain and the sun, keeps these trees growing — oh!”
A sudden wind wafted across them.
And there, just beyond a bank of twisted underbrush was what looked like a wall of giant stones, now tumbled to the ground.
Twee tugged the sleeve of Keeah’s tunic and looked up at her, his eyes huge with wonder.
“Princess,” he whispered. “I think we have found it. The lost temple of the old legends!”
Climbing over the stones, the small band came into a large clearing. There, they saw the remains of once-tall towers, now no more than crumbled stones, ruined walls, fallen balconies, and stairs that circled high, leading nowhere.
But most remarkable of all was that even in the smoky light, the stones, broken and crumbled as they were, shone like silver.
Eric shivered. “This is where I saw Jabbo in my dream. And this is where my stone came from.”
Ortha cast her eyes solemnly around. “Time has not been kind to this place.”
“It is old,” said Max softly. “So old, it doesn’t even appear on Galen’s map.”
As they passed deeper into the ruins they spied the great central tower of the temple in the distance. Of all the buildings, it alone seemed unhurt by time. Layer upon layer of silvery stone pushed it skyward.
Behind it grew a giant tree, thicker than any other in the forest. Its upper limbs were lost in the fog above.
“It must have taken thousands of people to build this place,” said Julie.
Twee giggled softly. “The legend says that the temple is the work of a giant bird who brought the stones one by one in his great curved beak.”
“Some say the temple was built by giants!” said Woot. “Or else, who could climb that high?”
“And how do you think the temple came to be?” asked Keeah.
“Simple!” said Twee. “It made itself!”
The children wanted to laugh, but the more they explored the ruins, the more they began to think that perhaps the temple had made itself.
Or grown itsel
f.
For here and there the jungle and the temple had become one. There were small trees growing up from the stones, making the structure itself seem in some magical way … like a living thing.
“If Jabbo is here,” said Julie, “I wonder if the Eye of the Viper brought him here.”
“It’s really just a pile of stones,” added Neal.
“And yet, there’s something more here,” said Keeah, her eyes wandering among the shapes of the stones.
“I’m picking it up, too,” said Eric. “But I can’t tell what — whoa!”
When they entered the main courtyard they stopped.
The giant tree they had seen earlier did not grow from behind the great temple spire — it grew from the temple.
It was gigantic, towering over the ruins, and seeming to tower over all of Droon!
“I’ve never seen a tree so — big!” Julie exclaimed. “The trunk must be a hundred feet around. It’s growing right out of the temple!”
The tree’s massive trunk and roots seemed draped over the stones as if a thick gray liquid had been poured from the sky and had hardened in place, snaking down between the stones to the black earth below.
Above, the limbs of the tree twisted up in such number that someone might climb from the very bottom all the way to the top of the forest.
“Now that’s what I call a climbing tree,” said Neal. “It’s even better than your apple trees back home, Eric. And a whole lot taller!”
On the front of the temple where one might have expected a door, there was instead a large face carved from several blocks of stone. It was the face of a woman, and it bore a strange smile.
Eric felt his heart flutter again. The face’s eyes were closed as if it were asleep. As if it might be … dreaming.
He longed, suddenly, to hear the voice in his dream again.
The faraway voice.
“It’s so beautiful here,” said Julie. “So quiet.”
“Too quiet,” said Max with a scowl. “But it’s not as if no one is here. It’s more as if someone, or something, is here, but holding its breath.”
Neal’s eyes widened. “It’s holding mine, too. This place is giving me the major spooks —”