Creature Keepers and the Swindled Soil-Soles

by Peter Nelson

  “HAHAHAHA—squonk!” Manuel laughed. “You forget the one house rule of El Encantado, smart boy! No names!”

  Manuel flashed a grin, then leaped out of the RV. Jordan ran to the door, and saw Manuel’s naked backside turn pink in midair, his arms and legs form into flippers and a tail, and his backside morph into a dorsal fin.

  SPLASH! Manuel Boto entered the water the same way he was scooped out of it—as Boto Encantado, the rare pink Amazon river dolphin.

  39

  The smashed opening in the rubble at the base of Mount Breakenridge led to a labyrinth of giant stone pillars. Formed from the crumbled cliff, it was like a forest of jagged rock.

  Abbie, Eldon, Syd, and Doris made their way along a pulverized path that had been formed by Gusto and his Soil-Soles. He’d obviously kicked and stomped his way through the rock, tunneling a pathway with his feet into the heart of the mountain—and leaving only one way out, as well.

  With each step, Abbie, Eldon, Syd, and Doris went deeper beneath Mount Breakenridge. Each step brought more darkness, too, as they moved farther away from the entrance. The last thing Abbie noticed before plunging into total blackness were the walls of the long, small passageway. No longer formed from the shards of Roxanne’s cliff, the walls they were passing through now were solid rock.

  They felt their way along a steady decline, running deeper and deeper underground. Ahead of them Abbie saw a light. The dark, narrow path opened suddenly into a narrow, dimly lit cavern. Abbie looked up. High overhead, a jagged line of sunlight streamed down. They were standing at the bottom of a massive crevasse. The same crevasse Gusto had split in the surface of Mount Breakenridge.

  Syd looked at Abbie. “We’re inside Roxanne,” he whispered.

  The cavern was long and narrow, with walls shooting up hundreds of feet—a giant split in the rock with a solid stone floor beneath their feet. Dark cracks and grooves in the base of the walls, where the stretch of sunlight could not reach, were filled with shadow. It was from one of these dark spaces that Abbie heard a terrible sound—a heavy, raspy breathing.

  “There’s someone in the dark over there!” Abbie blurted out in a frightened whisper.

  “All right, Gusto,” Eldon said. “Come out and let’s have a look at you.”

  Gusto stepped into the dim light. As he did, his Soil-Soles shook the entire cavern. Chunks of rock rattled loose from the walls, crashing all around them. Steam seeped up from cracks in the floor, and the rumbling beneath continued, even after Gusto stood still.

  “Nice place you got here,” Abbie said. “It really suits you.”

  Gusto looked as rough and craggy as the cavern they found him in. Ragged and bruised, his Hydro-Hide torn, he stood tall in his Soil-Soles, grinning down at his guests.

  “This place was all a mistake,” Gusto croaked, turning to Syd. “Thanks to the little trick you played on me up on the surface, my grand plan was completely averted.”

  “Grand plan?” Doris said. “You got Syd’s Soil-Soles!”

  “His fancy footwork atop that rock up there caused me to release the pressure beneath this mountain. Pressure I was counting on to build toward its natural outcome.”

  “The natural outcome would’ve been complete disaster,” Syd said, pointing at a wide swath of smooth rock running through the center of the cavity floor. “That’s the tip of the Cascadia Subduction Zone!” Syd turned to the others. “The pressure was building in this chamber, pushing down on that area, causing the quakes. It was released when Gusto cracked open Roxanne. But from down here, direct impact from the Soil-Soles could trigger a megathrust earthquake that could shake the continent off its mantle.”

  “This is a dangerous place to mess around in, Gusto,” Eldon said. “Even for you.”

  “You twisted old goat,” Doris yelled. “What is it you want? Out with it!”

  “I told you, back at the lake, remember? I just want to bring the world closer together, that’s all.” Gusto grinned as he eyed the strip of smooth stone running through the center of the floor. “And now, with all of you here as my witnesses, it’s time I do just that—”

  Suddenly, a vibration from above shook the cavern, causing small rocks to tumble from the walls. Gusto toppled backward, into the shadows. Abbie, Syd, Eldon, and Doris stumbled as they took cover from the falling stone. Abbie peered upward. Something eclipsed the sliver of light at the surface. The cavern went pitch-black.

  “Congratulations. You’ve reached your destination.” The Heli-Jet and the RV attached to it had parked directly on top of Roxanne, covering her deep crevasse. Jordan and Buck climbed out of the cockpit and stepped onto the forest floor to look around.

  “All right, so where is he?” Buck hollered. “We were locked into the Squatch’s critter GPS device, and it brought us here. But I don’t see no Squatch!”

  “You want us to keep filming you, boss?” a Buckaroo Crew member hollered from the RV.

  “Yes, yes! Keep filming!” Buck called back.

  Buck had his lasso at the ready and was tiptoeing around the parked vehicle, searching for Sasquatch. Jordan scanned the forest in search of another cryptid. He took in the uprooted trees as well as the rubble and rock that had rolled down from farther up the mountain. Something had gone down here, and he had a terrible feeling about it.

  Jordan suddenly recalled a word Ed had mentioned: “relocation.” His stomach dropped, and he turned to Buck. “He isn’t here, but he lives nearby! I can take you there—you wanna see where Bigfoot sleeps, dontcha?”

  “Heck yeah!” Buck exclaimed. “Let’s GIT OUR SQUATCH ON!”

  Buck and his crew piled back inside the RV. Jordan climbed up and into the Heli-Jet. He lifted the RV up over the treetops. As he zoomed silently over to where Syd’s tree house used to be, Jordan fought to push down the fear and anger he felt growing stronger in his belly.

  40

  The moment the light returned to the cavern, Abbie scanned the area for Gusto. Fallen rubble was everywhere, and the steam seeping up from the floor made it difficult to see.

  “Everyone okay?” she heard Eldon’s voice echo from somewhere behind her.

  “I’m all right,” she heard Syd say off to her left.

  “I’m good,” Abbie said. She waited a moment. “Doris? Where are you?”

  “Here I am!” a shrieking voice screeched out from before them. It was Gusto. He stood on a rock jutting out of the floor, mocking Doris’s voice. He laughed as he looked down. Abbie looked down, too, and caught her breath. Lying there on the floor was Doris. She wasn’t moving.

  “NO!” Abbie got up and ran to her friend.

  “Aw, you see? Bringing people together is what I do!” Gusto went into a crouch. “And now it’s time to take that concept to a global level, and begin phase one of Operation Pangaea!” He leaped into the air, his Soil-Soles ready to land directly on the swath of stone cutting through the center of the cavern floor. Syd dived out from behind a rock and suddenly side-tackled Gusto, intercepting the earth-shattering stomp. The two of them rolled onto a nearby rock shelf, where Syd wrestled Gusto as he struggled to stand. Gusto kicked and screamed in Syd’s strong arms. “Let go of me!” he shrieked. “Put me down!”

  Abbie knelt beside Doris. She was lying on the stone floor, her leg wedged between two rocks. “Doris! Are you all right? Say something!”

  Doris opened her eyes and smiled. “Oh, hello, dearie. There’s goat’s milk in the icebox and honey in the cupboard. How do you like your chamomile tea?”

  Doris was dazed. Abbie noticed she had a lump on her head. Eldon rushed over. He moved the rocks to free her leg as he inspected her.

  “She’s sprained her ankle and taken a knock on the noggin,” he said. “She’ll be okay, but she needs to ice that concussion right away. We’ve gotta get her out of here.”

  “I’ll carry her out the way we came in,” Syd said. He was still bear-hugging the lanky, wriggling Gusto, holding him up and keeping him—and the Soil-Soles—from the touching
the treacherous fault line below.

  “Yes!” Gusto suddenly cried out. “You must help your friend! Set me down and carry her to safety! It’s the only way, or she’ll die!”

  “If I set you down, we all die.” Syd turned to Abbie. “What do we do?”

  She glanced at Eldon. “Don’t look at me,” he said. “He asked his Keeper.”

  Abbie imagined herself trying to carry Doris out, remembering the long way in. She looked up at the crack in the ceiling. She saw the sunlight. Then she looked down at the steaming cracks along the upper ridge of the cavern. “Syd,” she said. “Remember that first night, how you got Jordan and me up into your tree house?”

  Syd’s eyes grew wide as he remembered. He looked up at the crack overhead, then down at the nearby ridge. He hauled the Soil-Sole-wearing Gusto away from the fault line, over to an area beneath the opening in the ceiling. He kicked away some of the rubble to expose the dusty rock floor. He slipped off Jordan’s sneakers and stood barefoot. Then he closed his eyes.

  Gusto squirmed in Syd’s arms like a cranky infant trying to get free from a baby harness. “What are you doing? Put me down!”

  BONK! Syd head-butted Gusto. “Shh. I’m trying to hear what Roxanne is telling me.” Syd opened his eyes and used his heel to scrape an X in the dust. He looked over at Abbie. “Ready when you are,” he said. “X marks the spot.”

  Jordan couldn’t believe his eyes. Syd’s tree house was gone.

  He hovered over the sequoia grove that had held it up, and saw that the last tree, the one that had supported Syd’s bedroom, had split and fallen, pulling the rest of the house down with it. The other trees still stood strong, but the house they once cradled in their branches was lying in pieces on the forest floor. The beautiful deck remained intact, but it was little comfort.

  “Hey!” Buck’s voice called up to Jordan from the open RV door below. “I thought you were taking us to Bigfoot’s house! This is a nice deck and all, but c’mon! Is this dump really where he slept? No more tricks, now!”

  The combination of seeing Syd’s destroyed house and hearing Buck’s voice caused something inside of Jordan to snap. He felt a rage come over him he’d never felt before. Suddenly, all he wanted to do was teach Buck and his Buckaroo Crew a lesson. He leaned out the window of the Heli-Jet cockpit. “You wanna see where Bigfoot slept? Okay, then! Next stop, Bigfoot’s bedroom!” He swung the Heli-Jet clear of the deck and looked down. He could see the wreckage of Syd’s house on the ground, hundreds of feet below. Then he cut the engine, and they all dropped like a stone.

  “Aahhhhh!” Buck and his Buckaroo Crew’s screams cut through the whooshing wind.

  CRASH! The RV slammed into the pile of wood that was once Syd’s house. The tires of the truck broke the impact somewhat, but Jordan could hear Buck and his crew yelling and moaning beneath him. He smiled and yelled out the Heli-Jet window to them.

  “There you go!” Jordan said. “Bigfoot’s bedroom! Next stop, the kitchen!”

  He fired up the rotors and jammed the controls. The craft shot straight up into the air. Jordan was about to slam them back down again when he suddenly heard a SNAP! The Heli-Jet jerked. Buck and his crew screamed. Jordan looked down. The RV had broken loose on one side and was dangling from the Heli-Jet. Jordan’s rage suddenly disappeared. “What am I doing?” he said aloud.

  SNAP! CRRRREEEEAAAAK! The RV broke free from the Heli-Jet in another spot. As it swung treacherously over Syd’s deck, Jordan looked out his side window at the empty-armed sequoias that had held Syd’s house. He thrust and banked hard, swinging the RV over the deck.

  BOOM! The RV’s flat tires slammed into the branches and held firm. The back and front of the massive camper wedged between two sequoias with a CRUNCH!

  The unhinged RV door slowly fell off, landing with a rattle on the deck. Buck stumbled out first, and fell to his knees. He looked up at Jordan, who was still hovering overhead in the Heli-Jet.

  “Everyone all right?” Jordan yelled down. The Buckaroo Crew tumbled out behind Buck. Jordan saw one of the crew shuffle over to the railing and throw up over the side. He studied the navigation console. It was still showing the coordinates for Syd’s GCPS tracking device. Jordan lifted the Heli-Jet over the treetops and headed back toward Roxanne.

  Abbie helped Doris up onto Eldon’s back. “Oh, hello, dearie,” the old woman said in a singsongy voice. “Are we going on a trip?”

  “Yes, you are,” Abbie said. She glanced at Eldon, who didn’t look at all comfortable with this plan. “Don’t worry,” she said. “There’s nothing to this. I’ve done it myself.”

  “There is no Badger Ranger Badge for this,” Eldon said. “For good reason.”

  Eldon carried Doris piggyback over to the center of the X. Abbie nodded to Syd. The Sasquatch lifted the screaming Gusto up over his head. Syd looked for a second like he might hurl Gusto across the cavern, but instead he brought him straight down forcefully, feetfirst, onto the floor of the ridge. Gusto’s Soil-Soles banged the X—cracking it open.

  HISSSSSSS! A strong blast of steam shot into the air. It thrust Eldon and Doris straight up and toward the sunlight-filled fissure cut into the ceiling.

  “Aaaaaahhhh!” Eldon yelled as they disappeared into the ceiling crack.

  “Wheeeeeeee!” Doris’s giddy voice echoed throughout the cavern.

  41

  “Congratulations. You’ve reached your destination.”

  Jordan switched to manual and parked the Heli-Jet not directly on top of Roxanne but on the forest floor nearby. He looked at the navigation console, then out the window, trying to make sense of the situation. “Why?” he asked himself. “Why would the GCPS system tell me a homing device I know I last saw in the Amazon jungle is actually here—sixty-five hundred miles away from Brazil, on top of a big rock?” Jordan peered out at Roxanne. “A big rock with a large crack in it.” He squinted. “A large crack with a tiny hand sticking out of it. . . .” Jordan leaped out of his seat. “Oh my gosh! A hand!”

  Jordan ran from the Heli-Jet to Roxanne. Eldon was gripping the edge of the fissure, Doris still clinging to his back. Jordan grabbed hold of them and tugged with all his might, pulling them both up and out of the crevasse.

  “Jordan! Boy Howdy, am I glad to see you,” Eldon said. “Doris took a knock on the head. We need to get ice on that concussion of hers right away.”

  “I know just the place,” Jordan said. “We’ve even got our own personal medevac!”

  Doris looked at the Heli-Jet. “That’s some sweet techspertise you got there, dearie!”

  “Her condition is worsening,” Eldon said. “She’s making up words now.”

  In the short time it took Jordan to fly Eldon and Doris back up to Buck and his Buckaroo Crew on Syd’s deck, Eldon quickly filled Jordan in on all that had happened in and around Harrison Lake. From the tsunami wave caused by the cascading cliff to Buck Wilde’s Wilde Isle (where hundreds of BuckHeads had witnessed Jordan’s Izzy-hoax) to Nessie blasting Gusto clear across the lake, Jordan was amazed at all that had gone down. By the time Eldon got to the part about being trapped deep beneath Mount Breakenridge with an evil madman trying to set off a megathrust earthquake that could send the entire continent of North America adrift, Jordan had the Heli-Jet hovering over the deck. He put the chopper in autopilot mode and turned to Eldon.

  “I have one question,” he said. “And it’s going to sound crazy. Down in that hole, is there any chance—any chance at all—that Chupacabra was there with you?”

  “Chupacabra? He’s alive?”

  “He’s more than alive. He’s our mysterious cryptid-whisperer who freaked out Izzy. And now he’s trying to recruit creatures to join him in a war against humans.”

  “Well, he wasn’t down there with us. I think I would’ve noticed!”

  “Not if he disguised himself,” Jordan said. “And that’s what I’m most afraid of.”

  The two of them carefully lowered Doris onto the deck and handed her off to a c
onfused-looking Buck Wilde. As Eldon dumped the stray boxes marked MADE IN BRAZIL onto the deck and gathered the tree-house rope ladder onboard, Buck confronted Jordan. “Hey, newsflash, fellahs,” he said. “This ain’t Bigfoot.”

  “You wouldn’t know Bigfoot if he stepped on your toe, sonny boy,” Doris said.

  “Listen, Buck,” Jordan said. “Doris is a very old and dear friend of ours, and she needs your help. You take care of her and I promise I’ll see that you get to meet Sasquatch, face-to-face. You have my word on that.”

  Buck looked at Doris for a moment, then back at Jordan. “Okay. What’s she need?”

  “Is your frozen drink machine on the RV still operational?”

  As Jordan and Eldon lifted away from the deck in the Heli-Jet, they could hear the grinding sound of the industrial smoothie machine. They looked down and saw Doris waving happily to them with a fruit smoothie in her hand, a big bag of ice on her head.

  “Do you think she’ll be okay?” Jordan asked.

  “Okay?” Eldon was triple–square knotting one end of the rope ladder to the eyehooks mounted to the cargo floor of the Heli-Jet. “She thinks she’s on a tropical vacation!”

  “Now we’ve got to get Abbie and Syd outta that hole,” Jordan said. “They’re in a lot of danger. The situation is worse than you know.”

  “What’s worse than standing on an underground fault line that could break apart the whole continent with a guy who’s got the proper footwear to make it happen?”

  “If that guy isn’t a guy at all,” Jordan said. “But Chupacabra, in disguise.”

  “HAHAHAHAHA!” Gusto’s awful laughter echoed through the cavern.

  “You’re a monster,” Abbie said. “And a real jerk.”

  “You have no idea.” Gusto suddenly jolted, trying to wiggle free. Syd struggled to retighten his grip. Gusto smiled up at his captor. “Your arms must be getting awful tired, Littlefoot,” he teased. “Why don’t you set me down for a minute? Go on. Take a break.”