The Teddy Defenders Trilogy: Books 1-3

by Justin Sloan

  “Way to go there,” Mia said as she helped Ari to sit. “Our brave hero.”

  Ari’s head was full of shooting pain. He didn’t need this from Mia. “We made it?”

  “Our journey’s just begun.” Klide turned to assess their surroundings. “Remember what I said about keeping a positive attitude?”

  “I don’t think there’ll be any oranges here, ripe or moldy,” Mia said. “Keep your mad ramblings to yourself.”

  Klide eyed her and tapped his heart.

  Ari couldn’t take any more not knowing where Rick was. He jumped up and cupped his paws around his mouth, shouting, “Rick! Rick!”

  Klide tackled him, paw covering Ari’s mouth. “You’ll bring them all on us!” Ari struggled, but soon he calmed. Klide removed his paw. “We do this, we do it my way. Come.”

  Chapter Fifteen: The Serpent

  The way Klide took them led through a dense forest where trees knotted and weaved into each other, blocking out any hope of viewing above them. Ari wondered if this might be a good thing, as he had caught a glimpse of movement in the darkness up there and didn’t want to see what it was that was moving. Klide hunched over to sneak between bushes, and the other two mimicked him.

  Ari wasn’t sure what they were hiding from, but part of him didn’t want to ask.

  Shouts came from ahead, and then a dull buzzing. Out of nowhere, a chubby boy ran past, followed by a cloud of wasps and hornets.

  “We have to save him,” Ari said, straightening up.

  “What? Save all of them?” Klide pointed farther on, where more children ran, swatting at wasps and hornets. “If you want a chance at saving Rick, we focus.”

  “No child deserves this!”

  “I’m on your side. But, for now, we must move on. The rest will come later.”

  Mia put her paw on Ari’s shoulder. He nodded. He knew what Klide said was true, but still he told himself they would find a way to help all these children. First, though, he would find Rick.

  After another ten minutes or so of walking, Ari saw a boy with dark hair and red pajamas—Rick? He ran, all-out sprinting now, not caring if anyone or anything saw him. He found the boy between two bushes, swatting at wasps. But when the boy looked toward him, Ari saw he had been wrong. This was not Rick.

  Klide grabbed Ari by his sail-cloak. “When is it ever that easy? Get ahold of yourself.”

  From then on, Ari kept back, his sprits dampened by the crushed hope of the boy who hadn’t been Rick. Soon the ground sloped down and Ari saw that they had reached a steep slope that curved far to the left and right, as if it might go around in a full circle if not for the darkness.

  Klide stood at the edge, his nose scrunched as a foul breeze flapped his bandana. “I’ve made it a ways down, but never all the way.”

  “What’s down there?” Ari asked.

  “Better not to know. Just run, don’t look back. I promise you’ll find out.”

  Ari started to open his mouth to ask more, but Klide was already starting down the hill.

  Mia held back. “Boys first, this time.”

  “Thanks.” Ari took his first step, nearly slipping on the steep decline before breaking into a tripping run.

  A hissing and slithering soon told him why Klide had warned them to take the hill running. Out of the darkness, a serpent brushed past him. Ari kept running, refusing to look. Mia ran up beside him, and Klide pulled ahead.

  The serpent moved for them again, but they were fast enough to dodge, Ari to its right, Mia to its left. Ari caught a glimpse of the serpent this time, and it was as long as a tree was tall. The serpent lunged for them both, but they dodged again, and again, and again—until the serpent wrapped itself into a pretzel.

  The serpent hissed in fury, untangling itself as Ari and Mia ran after Klide. They escaped into the darkness. Or so they thought—but then the slithering was back, and with a quick movement the serpent appeared right in front of them.

  White fangs dripped acid from its open mouth as the serpent snapped at them but narrowly missed. It slithered around them, spiraling closer and closer.

  “Now!” Klide led the way and they all leapt over the scaly form of the serpent.

  Beside Ari, Mia tripped. Ari tried to catch her, but lost his own balance. He stumbled just as the serpent struck for Ari’s head. If he hadn’t tripped, his head would have been a shred of fluff. Ari and Mia rolled on and on down the hill, unable to stop, right past Klide. They rolled all the way to the edge of a cliff. Then they rolled off.

  Chapter Sixteen: Horrors of the Night

  Ari landed with a thump against a rock. Mia groaned, and a moment later Klide dropped down to join them and motioned to be quiet. Above, the serpent’s hissing continued, but soon it grew distant.

  “It won’t follow,” Klide said. “We passed its territory.”

  “Remind me never to do this again,” Mia said as she pushed herself up.

  Ari rubbed his head and stood, nearly toppling back over from dizziness.

  Klide pointed down to where the decline seemed to continue, ever downward. “Remember, never stop.”

  They walked this time, partly from fear of the journey ahead and partly from pain. The hill was less steep at this point and trees provided shelter from peering eyes. A terrible wind began to blow, nearly pushing them back, but they struggled on. Rain pelted their faces. A large object struck Ari’s head and he realized baseball-sized hail was making its way through the rain to barrage them.

  “We need shelter!” Mia said, protecting her head with her arms.

  “We need to keep going!” Klide didn’t even turn to look at them, but continued on.

  Mia, frustrated, pointed to an exceptionally large tree. “Come on, we just have to wait until the hail stops!”

  Ari wasn’t sure who to follow, but he knew the hail was getting worse and he was exhausted. Klide gave him a disapproving stare, but turned back to join Ari and Mia. The three huddled under the tree, the hail pelting the ground around them to form a circle of ice.

  “We can just wait it out.” Mia nodded as if trying to convince herself.

  Klide shook his head. “It won’t stop. This place isn’t like above.”

  Mia frowned at him and curled into a ball beside the tree.

  Klide moved to the edge of safety, staring out. “It gets worse every moment we leave them alone.”

  Ari looked tiredly at Mia. “He’s right. Rick’s waiting. They’re all waiting.”

  Mia glanced up as lightning flashed. “And if they’re already monsters?”

  “The farther down we go, the more likely it is,” Klide said. “It never ends, unless we stop them.”

  With a mighty roar, Ari spun and slammed the tree with his paws, causing a freezing blanket of rain to fall over them. “I can’t accept that!”

  The others stared at him, waiting. He let his paws drop to his side, his head to his chest. Was it all useless? What if Rick was already a monster? Would he even recognize his old teddy bear?

  Soaked, Ari turned to Mia and wrapped his sail-cloak around her shoulders. “Mia, the children need us.”

  A tear appeared in her eye. “And when did they ever care for me? Why should I?”

  “Then do it for me.”

  She held his gaze for a moment, then placed her paw on his. With a nod they moved into the rain and hail.

  The ground was flat now, the storm less fierce. Mia walked beside Ari, holding the sail-cloak tight around her. She eyed him, but looked away when he turned to her. He knew her eyes found him again, but he didn’t turn this time, letting her figure out whatever it was her mind was contemplating.

  As a red glow appeared in the darkness ahead, Klide stopped and pointed. “There!”

  Jagged rocks formed a gate ahead. A cerberus stood guard, its huge body bristled with fur that shot out like spikes. Connected to the body, three snarling dog heads searched the darkness, sniffing.

  Mia clutched Ari’s arm. “I’m going to be eaten by that...
for you. Great.”

  They moved on, toward the cerberus. A shout sounded and monsters appeared out of the darkness, converging on them with weapons drawn. Klide easily knocked the first monster on its butt and Ari and Mia joined the fight. The monsters were child’s play. Klide mule-kicked the last conscious monster in the stomach, sending it flying into a rock so it collapsed to the ground.

  The cerberus turned on them. One of the heads snarled while the other two gnashed their teeth, and it charged.

  “What do we do?” Ari yelled.

  Klide smirked. “Don’t get eaten.”

  “My mantra,” Mia said.

  The heads lashed out, one for each of the bears, but the bears dove in different directions. Razor-sharp teeth barely missed Ari as he fell into the mud. A cerberus head snarled at him and snot flew from the nostrils, covering Ari. Ari leapt to his feet to punch the snout, but the punch barely did anything. Now all three heads turned on Ari.

  Ari ran, the cerberus close behind. Out of the corner of his eye, Ari saw Klide and Mia trying to distract the beast, throwing rocks and mud, but with no luck. Ari sprinted with everything he had, but it was like trying to run in a swimming pool. Mud splattered all around.

  “Get out of there!” Mia called.

  “What’ya think I’m trying to do!” Ari turned to see two heads coming for him at once. He dove past, sliding between tree-sized legs, as one of the heads slammed into the rock-cliff behind Ari. The head pulled back, dazed and whimpering.

  Another head followed Ari, moving in for the kill, but Ari rolled out of the way, barely escaping. He rolled in the other direction as the third head came at him, teeth gnashing.

  When he came to a stop, all three heads were inches away. Saliva dripped from the fangs. Loud thumps sounded from where Mia and Klide pounded away at the cerberus’s legs. But all three heads remained focused on Ari, his trembling form reflected in each one of their six eyes.

  The heads all moved for him, mouths spread wide, but Ari flipped over, landing on his forepaws. The heads bit into the spot he had been as he sprinted for his companions.

  “Get to the gate!” he screamed.

  The mud sprayed from his feet as he ran, his lungs burning. Almost there, he turned to see that the cerberus wasn’t attacking. What was it waiting for? He slowed, looking for some other sort of danger, then saw what was going on—the three cerberus heads were choking on mud from their attack on Ari. With a storm-like sneeze, the cerberus blew mud everywhere and turned back toward Ari and his friends. But it was too late for another attack. The bears had made it to the gate and moved to the hill on the opposite side.

  Behind them, the cerberus’s heads hit the gate, biting and snarling in frustration.

  Ari almost wanted to laugh, until he turned to the hill. Then he wanted to cry. The hill was full of children struggling to push large bags of toys up the muddy slope while monsters watched and laughed.

  “It’s not funny!” Ari yelled, and instantly regretted his outburst as all the monsters turned on him.

  “Jump!” Klide said.

  They went for it, descending the hill like a slide, right past the surprised looks of children and monsters. Ari’s eyes searched for Rick, but found no sign of him. A claw nearly caught hold of Ari, but he swerved and was in the clear. As he flew past a child, Ari shouted out that they would be back for them.

  The hill came to an end and the bears used their momentum to push up and continue running, right past a field of monsters who were forcing children to fight each other with heavy toy-swords. The bears continued running, ignoring the shouts and threats from the monsters.

  Leaving the monsters and children behind, the bears reached a swamp. They couldn’t stop here either, but the sight was horrible. Children outright fought in the murky water, ganging up on each other, shoving, punching—everything their parents must have told them not to do. A gang of children turned on the bears and yelled, “Get them!” As the children gave chase, Ari could see their eyes were black, hair beginning to grow in weird places, and their skin had turned to a light green.

  “Don’t attack them!” Klide warned. “The transformation has begun, but they aren’t monsters yet.”

  “I’d say that’s debatable,” Mia said as she ran past Ari.

  Ari pushed himself forward, glancing back at the children-monsters in shock. “We have to find Rick, now!”

  They ran on through the darkness, dodging attacks until the shouts of children faded away.

  Chapter Seventeen: It Gets Worse

  A wall as tall as Ari could see rose up ahead of them and seemed to go on forever to their left and right.

  “Does it ever end?” Mia asked.

  “I imagine the end is the worst part,” Klide replied.

  Ari squinted toward the wall, trying to get a better view of the dark images darting around. One swooped for the bears, growing larger as it approached, until they saw distinctly the horned body of a winged monster. They dove aside and the flying monster swooped over their heads. It was like a goblin, except it had wings and light blue skin and what looked like goat legs.

  “Harblins,” Klide said with a look of disgust.

  “Let’s get it over with!” Ari dodged another attack by the harblins, but this time after his dodge he jumped and landed on the monster’s back.

  Pulling up on its neck, Ari made the harblin take off into the sky. The beast screamed, almost a human scream, but kept flying. It tried to twirl around and knock Ari from its back, and for a moment Ari thought its efforts would work. Lucky for Ari, the harblin monster had a clump of hair on its head that Ari could grab onto. Up and up they went, and Ari was relieved to see Klide and Mia had taken the same approach and were riding their own harblins.

  Finally they reached the top of the wall and Ari jumped to safety, if you could call being at the top of such a drop-off safety. Mia and Klide landed beside him a moment later. Unfortunately, now the harblins were free again and they attacked the bears.

  “This way,” Ari said, spotting a staircase going down the other side of the wall.

  They worked their way down the stairs, fighting off the harblins the whole time, and had almost made it to the bottom when a whistling sounded from ahead. A gust of warm wind brushed Ari’s cheek and he jumped back just in time to avoid a massive ball of fire that exploded on the rock wall behind him.

  The bears’ fight onward continued, now with fireballs coming at them every few moments. A harblin dove for Ari but he leaped, grabbed hold of its wings, and pulled. Bear and monster landed on the stairs and rolled to the rock bottom, where flames covered square stones like fiery tombstones. Ari narrowly avoided a pillar of fire that burst from the ground. Another pillar of fire came from his left, and Ari pulled the harblin out of the way just as a jet of flame burst into the sky.

  The harblin looked at him with confusion before taking off back into the sky.

  “Not even a thank you!” Ari called after him, unsure why he had saved the creature.

  Another hole beside Ari began to smoke and he dived after Mia and Klide. Their faces scrunched at the putrid stench coming from the steep descent before them.

  “I’m getting real sick of this.” Ari dropped to his butt and began the slide down.

  As he descended, the red glow below came closer and Ari realized it was a river of hot lava. He scrambled backward to slow his descent, narrowly missing an arrow that careened over the lava from where a centaur stood on the other side. The centaur, half-man and half-horse, rose up on his hind legs and let out a shout before preparing another arrow.

  Ari found his footing and grabbed Klide and Mia as another arrow narrowly missed them. They jumped behind a pile of rocks, barely big enough to conceal them.

  “We go around him,” Ari said.

  Ari darted off in a different direction, upstream, to find a spot where the river was narrow. With a loud war-cry, he threw himself to the opposite bank of the lava river, and felt the heat of the lava singeing his tail. M
ia and Klide followed close behind and they saw more centaurs had joined the first. Everyone stood ready to attack, but then the ground rumbled.

  The centaurs hesitated, looking around with wide eyes and perked tails, and then galloped off.

  Klide’s eyes focused on the distance, and even he looked slightly worried.

  The ground rumbled again, causing small rocks to bounce on the earth.

  “An earthquake?” Mia said, sounding hopeful.

  “Worse,” Ari said in astonishment as a massive minotaur appeared, charging. It looked like five ogres crammed into one, with a head of a bull and horns to match. Lava shot from the ground with each of its steps, lighting the area to show the path past the minotaur was covered in thorny bushes. More harblins circled above, and in the distance the barking of dogs and screaming of children told Ari more problems lay ahead.

  Fiery flakes began to fall from the sky. The minotaur neared. A flake of flame caught on Mia. Ari and Klide struggled to put it out, looking up to see the minotaur barreling down on them. They had no time to react and Ari caught the brunt of the attack, the minotaur’s horns throwing him into the air. Lucky for Ari, the horns didn’t puncture him.

  Klide tried to pull Mia aside, but the two bears got knocked back toward the lava. Mia rolled and grabbed for the ground, stopping herself and Klide just in time. Smoke rose from her tail. Ari saw this close call from his arc in the air, and now he was descending again, coming in for a landing. The ground rose up to meet him. Out of nowhere the minotaur appeared again and tossed Ari right back into the air, as if it was playing with him.

  “Don’t worry,” Mia called from below. “I have an idea. Distract it.”

  “Isn’t that what I’m doing?” Ari called as he began his descent again.

  He saw that Mia had taken Klide’s bandana from his head and was running for the minotaur. Ari tried to yell out and distract it, but the ground came too fast and he landed with a thump, the wind knocked out of him.