by Greyson Mann
Will dropped to his knees, exhausted. “It’s okay, Shadow,” he whispered in between gulps of air.
But the cat had his back turned. He was staring into the corner.
Will wiped his eyes and tried to see through the darkness. “What?” he whispered. “What’s over there?” His heart raced, but then he realized something. Shadow wasn’t scared. It seemed more like he was curious.
“Well, don’t pay any attention to me over here,” said Will, sitting back down. “I just killed a spider jockey and saved your life.”
Something about those words niggled at Will. Then it hit him. He hadn’t actually killed the spider jockey. He had only killed the skeleton. That meant the spider was still out there!
It came fast—so fast that Will didn’t have time to load an arrow into his bow. He heard the scuttle of legs up the tree trunk, much quicker than before. He saw the glowing red eyes as the spider thrust its first few legs through a gap in the vines. And as Will grabbed his bow, he suddenly remembered.
He was fresh out of arrows.
CHAPTER 9
Will whipped his bow at the spider—it was all he could do! Then he fumbled around in the dark for his sword.
Just as his hand gripped the handle, he heard a snapping sound overhead. The vines were breaking. The spider was crawling into the shelter.
Will jumped out of the spider’s path and tugged his sword hard from its sheath—too hard. The sword flew from his hand and skipped across the tree house floor. He watched with sickening horror as the sword slid through a gap in the vines and disappeared into the darkness.
As the spider hissed and crawled toward him, Will’s arms flailed, searching for weapons that he no longer had.
Run! he told himself. But where?
He teetered on the edge of the platform, wondering if he could survive the fall.
Then the monster stopped and scurried sideways—away from Will. Cool relief washed over him, until he realized what had distracted the spider.
Shadow.
The cat growled from a far corner of the tree house. Would he fight the spider? Will didn’t wait to find out. He felt a surge of anger and rushed toward the creature, pounding its furry body with his fists.
The spider hissed, spun around, and flung Will to the ground.
Then it was standing over him, surrounding him with its legs, glowering down at him with fiery red eyes.
This is it, thought Will, closing his eyes. This is how I die.
Then he heard the whiz of an arrow and the grunt of the monster being struck, square in the heart.
But it wasn’t Will’s arrow. It wasn’t his bow.
“Who’s there?” he shouted, sliding his body backward just as the dying spider toppled to the floor.
A familiar voice rang out in the darkness. “It’s me. It’s Mina.” A lit torch suddenly bobbed into view. But no one was holding it.
Will whirled around. “Where are you?” he hollered. “I can’t see you!”
“I drank a potion of invisibility,” Mina explained. “Now stop moving around or you’ll fall off the edge. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Will squeezed his fingers against his forehead, trying to figure out what had just happened. “I’m okay—I think. But how long have you been here?” he asked.
As Mina slowly reappeared, she shrugged. “Not long. I mean, I was following you. But I didn’t come into the tree house until just a few minutes ago. It was safer in here than out there, with all the mobs.”
Something clicked in Will’s mind. “So the cat was looking at you!” he said. “That’s why he was acting so weird….” His voice trailed off to a whisper as he sat back down. Suddenly, he was feeling pretty weird himself.
“What’s wrong?” Mina asked. “Are you mad that I followed you? Did you not want my help killing that spider?”
Will felt a wave of tiredness. He was too sleepy to respond.
“I wasn’t only trying to help you,” Mina went on. “I was also trying to collect more of these.” She bent down to pick up two spider eyes, all that was left of the dead spider now. “I use them in almost all of my potions.”
Will wanted to say something to Mina, something really important. But he couldn’t remember what it was. As the room began to spin, he fell backward. He heard a thunk and felt a stab of pain as his head hit the wooden floor.
Then Mina was beside him, lifting his head. “What’s wrong?” she cried. “Are you weak? When did you last eat?”
I can’t remember, thought Will. But he couldn’t speak.
“Eat this,” Mina said, pushing something into his mouth.
It felt warm and moist. Round and squishy. It slid down his throat like a slippery fish.
“It’s a spider eye,” she said. “It’ll poison you for a few seconds, but then you’ll feel better—I promise. Here, drink some milk, too.”
A spider eye?! Will gagged and sat up. As Mina handed him the bottle, he chugged it down—every last drop. But he couldn’t wash away the memory of that squishy spider eye in his mouth.
“Gross!” he said weakly. “I can’t believe you made me eat that!”
Mina smiled. “But you feel better, right? I can tell.”
Will couldn’t argue. At least he had the strength to sit up now. And he finally remembered that important thing he had to tell his friend. “Mina,” he said softly. “I did need your help with the spider. It’s a good thing you showed up when you did. I made a real mess of things here in the jungle.”
Mina cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
Will sighed. “My brother was right—I didn’t have a plan. I wanted to have an adventure, but I almost got killed. And I put you and the cat in danger, too.”
“No, you didn’t mess up!” said Mina. “You fought off a ton of mobs before that spider jockey came along. You built this cool tree house, which gave me a place to hide tonight. And best of all, you kept your cat safe.” She reached out and scratched the cat under the chin.
Will smiled. “His name is Shadow. And I think he kept me safe, too. I haven’t seen a single creeper since that cat came along.”
“I told you!” said Mina, punching Will playfully in the arm.
He laughed. “You were right,” he said. “Having a pet cat is pretty cool.”
“And you were right about something,” said Mina. “It’s good to have adventures. But maybe it’s good to plan ahead a little, too.”
Will made a face. “You mean like plan to bring enough food so that you don’t have to eat spider eyes?” He grimaced.
Mina giggled. “Yeah, like that.” As a shaft of light spilled across the tree house floor, she pulled aside the vines to peek outside. “The sun is up. Do you want to make a plan for today? Maybe we can find that jungle temple.”
Will didn’t have to think about it. He shook his head. “I want to see the temple someday, but there’s somewhere else I need to go first.”
“Where?” asked Mina.
As Will said the word, he felt something warm burst inside his chest.
“Home.”
CHAPTER 10
“Which way?” asked Will. He had followed the sun to get to the jungle, but he couldn’t follow the sun to get home. He couldn’t even see the sun through the leaves of the jungle trees. They were too thick and tall!
“Follow the arrows,” said Mina. She pointed to a nearby tree trunk, which had a small arrow scratched into its side.
“Who did that?” asked Will.
“I did!” said Mina. “On the way here. I always mark my trails when I’m exploring.”
Will grinned. Have adventures, but have a plan too, Mina had said. And she sure knew how to plan ahead.
They followed the arrows all the way to the edge of the jungle. This time, Mina led the cat parade, and Will and Shadow brought up the rear.
When they reached a familiar-looking lake, Will shaded his eyes and searched from one end of the lake to another. “There!” he said, pointing toward the wooden ro
wing boat. “Let’s take that across.”
Mina shrugged and climbed inside. Will was relieved when Shadow leaped into the boat, too. They pushed off from shore, rowing with the wooden paddle.
“Hey, is that a skeleton’s arrow?” Mina asked, looking over the edge.
“Yup,” said Will, remembering his long, chilly night on the water. This wooden boat had saved him from drowning—and from a gazillion arrows.
He handed Mina the paddle and then reached over to tug gently on the arrow. It’s a souvenir of my adventure, he thought as he pulled the arrow free. But something else broke free, too—a plank of wood. Uh-oh.
As water poured into the bottom of the boat, the cat yowled and started to pace.
“We may have to swim,” Will said quickly. “Can Shadow swim too?”
Mina nodded. “I think so. But wait! I have an idea.” She dug through her bag and pulled out a glass bottle, which held a splash of golden yellow liquid. “A potion of water breathing,” she explained. She took a quick sip and handed it to Will.
He started to say no. He could probably swim to shore without help from the potion. And besides, the liquid was almost gone. “You should save it!” he said.
“You gave me a pufferfish so that I could make more, remember?” said Mina. “We make a great team.”
Will couldn’t argue with that. As the water rose in the boat, he stared into Shadow’s emerald eyes. “You’re part of the team, too,” he reminded the cat. “You have to follow us to shore, okay? You have to.”
Then he chugged down the fishy-tasting potion and jumped overboard.
As Will dove down deep, he heard two more splashes from up above. There was Mina, swimming down to meet him. And along the surface of the water, four cat paws paddled toward shore.
Will smiled with relief. Then he opened his mouth to take his first breath. It flowed into his lungs, cool as the morning air. Am I dreaming? he wondered as he blew the breath back out. An orange clownfish flitted past, dodging the bubbles.
For just a moment, Will remembered that other night—when lightning had lit up the sky and he had hid in this water, scared and lonely. He did an underwater somersault to shake off the memory.
I’ll have more adventures, he told himself. But maybe next time, I won’t go it alone.
Then he fluttered his feet and followed Mina toward shore.