Jake & The Giant (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 2)

by E. G. Foley

“Red! Not now! Stop fooling around. Yes, yes, you’re a good Gryphon, but we’ve got to save Archie. I don’t know… I don’t see or hear any more giants around here, do you?”

  Red scanned the area, then sniffed the air through the nostril holes high on his leathery, golden beak. He snuffled and shook his head in the negative.

  “As I thought,” Jake murmured, crouching behind the mossy log. He studied the situation before him, then nodded slowly. “I think I’ve got a plan.”

  Red cocked his head to the side and looked at Jake for his instructions.

  “You fly around outside the cave and make some noise,” Jake whispered. “See if you can get the giant to chase you. Stay high enough that he can’t get hold of you, but try to lead him off a-ways. While you’ve got him distracted, I’ll slip into the cave and rescue Archie. I’m betting the other missing scientists are in there, too. I’ll free them all—if they’re still alive,” he added grimly.

  “Caw,” Red confirmed with a nod, getting a serious look in his golden eyes again.

  But as the Gryphon pushed up onto all fours, ready to lift off for his part of their rescue mission, the giant suddenly reappeared, stepping out of his cave.

  “Get down!” Jake whispered. He and Red instantly ducked down behind the log again and listened.

  They could hear the giant singing to himself. “More brains, more brains, I’m gonna git me two more brains!”

  Jake furrowed his brow and slowly peered up over the top of the log. “He’s leaving! Well, that’s odd. It looks like he’s heading back down the mountain. Wonder why.”

  There wasn’t time to ponder it. He turned to Red. “I’m going in.” There was no time to waste. He cast his fears aside with a mental heave of effort. “You stay here and keep watch,” he instructed. “Caw to warn me if you see the giant coming back. Otherwise, save your strength. Once I get Archie out of there, you’ll have to carry two of us back down the mountain instead of just me.”

  “Becaw,” Red answered fretfully.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” Jake mumbled. “You do the same. Those missing scientists are probably here, so it’s important that you stay out of sight. If they were to see you, well, I don’t trust that bunch not to try to capture you—or worse.”

  Red’s eagle eyes gleamed like he’d like to see them try it.

  Jake nodded to him, their plan confirmed. Then he stole off through the woods, while the boom-boom of the giant’s footsteps faded down the mountain.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Giant’s Lair

  Jake stayed low, crouching as he hurried toward the tall, tapered entrance of the cave.

  It was times like this, when stealth was needed, that he was glad of his years of experience as a pickpocket.

  Sneaking up to the edge of the cave, he stole a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure the giant was still nowhere in sight. Then he braced himself and ventured in.

  Drip, drip…

  Water fell from the stalactites that hung overhead like dragon’s teeth. He wiped a droplet off his forehead with a nervous scowl. His eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness.

  The cave was extraordinarily quiet. It opened before him into a narrow tunnel, pitch-black.

  He did not want to go in there.

  A shiver of awful memories from his brief stint as a coalmine boy at age nine sent a wave of queasy coldness through him.

  The orphanage had sent him off to several different apprentice masters, factories, and such, before he had finally run away for good to fend for himself on the streets of London. But between the coffin-black darkness underground, the constant threat of exploding gases, and most of all, the cruelty of the older boys with their initiation pranks, the coalmine had been his worst experience by far. Worse than fighting Fionnula Coralbroom.

  In short, Jake did not like caves or underground places. But if that blasted giant had stashed Archie in there, then so be it. He had to rescue his cousin and the other scientists as well, if they were in there.

  Somehow he forced himself to take another step, and another. He did not dare call out to Archie for fear his cousin would yell back; the giant might hear them and return.

  Jake crept deeper into the rough, black tunnel, choosing every step carefully, ducking and biting back a shriek when a bat swooped overhead. “Charming,” he muttered, his heart pounding, his hands clammy.

  But he thought first of Derek Stone, and then of Red waiting faithfully outside—the two bravest beings he knew—and he kept going.

  At last, some thirty yards into the cave, he saw a faint, flickering glow ahead. Light! Thank goodness.

  As he went closer, he found that the tunnel opened up into a large limestone cavern, tall and round.

  A perfect hideout for a giant.

  The cavern was dimly lit by a few torches, and Jake’s eyes widened at the sight of the gigantic woolen cloak spread out like a makeshift bedroll over by the wall.

  “Boy! Psst! Over here!” someone whispered as he stepped fully into the cavern.

  He whirled around and didn’t see anyone at first.

  But then came Archie’s voice.

  “Jake! Up here!”

  He tilted his head back and gasped. The giant had put them in man-sized birdcages!

  “Hurrah, coz! I knew you’d come! Didn’t I tell you fellows he’d find us?” Archie asked the other scientists in his usual cheerful tones.

  The flickering torchlight revealed the geniuses locked up in four wooden cages crudely fashioned from branches and twine.

  They were suspended from the ceiling at rooftop height, some twenty or thirty feet above the cavern floor. No doubt that would ensure the captives broke their necks if they tried to escape. The giant had left them with no way down.

  As Jake’s stunned gaze traveled over the scene, assessing the situation, he realized that the giant had jammed a slender tree-trunk between two rocky outcroppings high above the cavern floor.

  This he had used as a beam off which to hang the cages like so many Christmas ornaments, stringing them up with forest vines for rope. There were two captured scientists in each of the three lower cages, while Archie hung from the highest one, imprisoned by himself for now.

  Right. Between the welcome light from the torches and the presence of people who needed his help, Jake forgot all about his hatred of underground places. Instead, he shook off his astonishment and got right to work. “Hang on, everyone!” he called, careful not to speak too loudly. “I’m going to get you out of here! Is anyone injured? Archie, are you all right?”

  “Not happy,” he answered in a flat tone. “That big idiot broke my Pigeon and I got a gash on my leg when he dropped me. But it’s not too bad. I’m all right. At least I also found Dr. Wu!”

  “Ni hao,” the Chinese physicist greeted him with a polite bow from another cage. “Thank you to come for save us!”

  “Don’t mention it,” Jake answered.

  “A giant, Jake! An actual Norse giant!” Archie exclaimed.

  “I noticed.”

  All the geniuses, some still wearing their white lab coats, started talking excitedly at once. Jake heard them referring to their kidnapper as a “spectacular find,” but he hushed them, bewildered at how they could be so smart and yet fail to miss the point entirely. For example, that they could die a gruesome death, become this giant’s supper.

  “Quiet, you lot! Is anyone else hurt?” Broken bones would make getting them down even more difficult.

  The scientists shook their heads. “No, no.”

  Whew. “Are any of you Professor Langesund, by chance?”

  “Here!” A bearded man with spectacles peered through the bars of the middle cage, to Jake’s relief.

  “Glad to see you, sir. Your daughter’s very worried.” Then he glanced back to his cousin. “Archie, how bad’s your leg? Can you walk?”

  “Affirmative!” he answered, pulling off his jacket. “I was able to grab my tool-bag when he caught me, so I have my poc
ketknife. I’m making a bandage now.” He unfolded the blade out of the knife’s handle and then sliced off the sleeve of his coat to wrap around his hurt leg.

  “Good.” Jake nodded. “When you’re done with that, cut the ropes holding your cage door shut. Then pass the knife on to the next; you gentlemen will have to do the same. First order of business, everyone needs to work on getting their cage doors open while I figure out a way to get you down.”

  Hopefully without having to use my telekinesis, Jake added silently as he hurried around the dark, shadowy cave searching for something to use as a ladder. Great-Great Aunt Ramona’s warning not to let the scientists find out about his abilities was still ringing in his ears.

  Heaven forbid they decide that he was a “find,” like the giant—to say nothing of what they might do to his gryphon.

  Just then, Jake spotted another half-finished cage over by the cavern wall. Beside it lay a coiled length of the vine that the giant had been using as rope. He ran to get it, gathering it up while the geniuses used various methods of getting their cage doors open.

  Archie sawed away at the vines with his knife; Professor Langesund struck a lucifer match that he must have carried at all times to light his tobacco pipe. He used the match to burn away a small spot of the rope, severing it with the little flame. Then he pushed his door open.

  Dr. Wu and the man locked up with him worked on plucking the knot free as Archie pushed his door open.

  Folding his pocketknife again to tuck the blade safely into the handle, Archie began shifting his weight to make his cage swing back and forth, until he was safely able to hand off the pocketknife to the men in the next cage.

  They, in turn, began hacking away the knots.

  Jake ran to the cavern floor beneath Archie’s cage and hurled one end of the vine up to him. His first throw didn’t go high enough. The vine-rope fell back to earth; he gathered it up and threw it again.

  This time Archie caught it.

  “Don’t tie it,” Jake instructed. “Just loop it over one of the bars of the cage. That way, we can pull it back down and use it again after you climb down.”

  Archie did as Jake had said, feeding one end of the vine-rope through the bars, creating a double strand. Jake twisted the two strands into a single, coiled cord then stood at the bottom, holding it steady, as Archie carefully climbed down.

  When his feet touched down on the cavern floor, Jake immediately noticed his cousin was limping a bit. “You’d better head out of here now,” he advised. “No need to wait for us. You’ll take longer than we will, walking on that hurt leg.”

  Archie nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks, Jake. I knew you’d come.”

  “Of course! By the way, our ride is waiting outside in the forest.”

  “The Red kind?”

  “Exactly.”

  Archie nodded and started the trek back up the tunnel alone while Jake untwisted the vine-rope and pulled it back down to earth. When he had retrieved it, he ran to toss the end of it up to the two men in the next cage.

  One by one, the captured scientists shimmied down the vine in the same manner.

  Professor Langesund gave Jake a hearty pat on the back when he had reached the ground. “Well done, lad.”

  “Thanks. Get out of here, you lot!” he ordered. A few of the freed geniuses were wandering around the cave marveling over the giant’s personal effects. “Go on! He could be back at any moment!”

  “Oh! Yes, yes, of course.” They snapped out of their scholarly daze and hurried up the long, black tunnel toward safety.

  Jake waited tensely for the last captive genius to climb down the vine-rope from his cage. But just as the fellow’s feet touched the ground, Jake heard a desperate eagle-cry echoing frantically from the far end of the tunnel.

  “Caw! Caw! Caw!”

  “What was that?” the scientist cried.

  A warning from Red. Jake paled, pushing the scientist toward the tunnel. “Hurry! The giant’s coming back! Everybody, run!” he hollered up the tunnel at the top of his lungs.

  But it was too late.

  Boom-boom-boom-boom!

  As they raced up the rocky tunnel, stumbling on the jagged, slippery rocks, the giant’s pounding footfalls shook the earth.

  In the next heartbeat, the light at the end of the tunnel was blocked by a gigantic, man-shaped silhouette.

  Too late.

  They were trapped.

  The giant had returned.

  And he was blocking the only exit.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Blockhead

  Everyone in the tunnel screamed.

  The giant roared back, his hot, stinky breath whooshing down the tunnel to riffle their hair and fleck them all with spit.

  As Jake grimaced in disgust, the giant ducked his head and charged.

  Archie had the good sense to fling himself behind a stalagmite jutting up from the cave floor. For once, his smaller size worked in his favor, helping him to hide. Still, Jake was desperate to reach his cousin so he could protect him. With Archie slowed down by a hurt leg, Jake knew his cousin would need his help if they were going to make a run for it.

  As he ventured forward, he could see the white-coated scientists ahead of him in the tunnel running to and fro around the giant’s legs. They were trying to dart past the towering beast to freedom, but no one had succeeded in getting very far yet.

  Their shouts of terror echoed off the stone walls of the cave as the great hulk swiped at them with his mighty arms.

  Jake looked on, aghast, as the giant scooped up Professor Langesund; another scientist, thankfully, came to his aid, poking and beating the creature in the back of the leg with a large stick he had found lying near the cave’s mouth.

  Distracted by the whacks on his calf, the giant must have loosened his grip; Professor Langesund managed to pry back the massive fingers wrapped around his waist. The professor sprang away free, then the scientists started throwing rocks at the giant from all directions, confusing him.

  The chaos gave Jake cover as he crept up the dark tunnel to join Archie, who was still leaning with his back against the stalagmite. Having lent his pocketknife to the other men to get their cages open, he had resorted to wielding a screwdriver from his tool-bag for protection. He offered Jake a wrench for the same purpose, but Jake shook his head, staring toward the cave’s mouth. “Look! The fight is moving outside!”

  Some of the scientists had reached the clearing outside the cave’s entrance. The giant had turned to chase them. Others were still running every which way.

  “C’mon, we can slip out while they’ve got him distracted,” Jake said. “All we have to do is get to Red. Can you stand up? Here, lean on me.”

  “Thanks.” Archie stood with a slight wince and slung his arm around Jake’s neck, leaning on his shoulder.

  The two cousins hurried up the tunnel as fast as Archie was able to hobble, with Jake supporting him. As the boys neared the mouth of the cave, they had a clearer view of what was happening just beyond the arched stone entrance.

  “Back in your cages, you brains!” the giant boomed. “Get back here, I say!”

  The geniuses were running around trying to escape the giant, but none attempted to leave the scene.

  “Why won’t they go?” Jake asked in worry. “Are they waiting for us?”

  “I doubt it,” Archie said. “Before you arrived, some of them were discussing how to capture the creature.”

  “Are you joking?”

  “No! They said a real, live giant would be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the age.”

  “Perfect,” Jake muttered. Why was nothing ever easy?

  At least Red had obeyed him, staying out of sight—except for his lion tail, twitching angrily from behind a nearby boulder. Thankfully, the Gryphon continued to heed his warning.

  Meanwhile, the earth shook as the giant ran to and fro, chasing the scattered scientists. The grown men were only up to his knees, but they mo
ved much faster than the lumbering giant.

  “Just a bit farther,” Jake urged Archie. “Almost there…”

  The giant, frustrated with his inability to catch all the little scientists running around him, twisted around, waving his arms wildly to try to grab them.

  That was when he turned and spotted the boys, lagging behind, but nearing the mouth of the tunnel.

  Jake and Archie froze as his stare homed in on them.

  The giant seemed to realize that while the men might be too fast to catch, the boys, slowed by Archie’s injury, should be easy prey. He came stomping toward them down the tunnel.

  The boys were only as tall as his shins. They backed away as the giant approached, but there was nowhere to hide.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” the giant thundered as he ducked his head, coming back into the tunnel.

  “Ah, Jake?” Archie sent him a panicked glance. “Any ideas?”

  “You’re the genius!” he retorted as they backed against the rocky wall in dread.

  “I’ve still got my tool-bag, but–whooooa!”

  “Nooooo!” Jake yelled in unison with him as the giant angrily grabbed the boys, catching one in each hand.

  “Jake!”

  “Archie!”

  “Bad brains! Back in your cages!” their towering captor scolded.

  Feeling the iron grip around him, Jake realized that all the giant had to do to kill them both was squeeze.

  Archie was yelling his head off in a most ungentlemanly fashion, but Jake was already plotting his next move.

  “He’s taken the boys!” one of the scientists yelled to the others who had managed to get out.

  Jake was racking his brains for a solution.

  His options seemed limited as the giant marched back down the tunnel to the cavern. There, he shoved both boys into the cage where Archie had previously been trapped by himself.

  “You are very, very bad!” the giant scolded them. “Stay in your cage now!”

  “I don’t wanna stay in the cage!” Jake yelled back in the giant’s face. This was now possible because the cage was suspended at about the creature’s eye-level.