The Friendly Creeper Diaries: The Moon City, Book 4: The Underground City

by Mark Mulle

Later that night

  Honestly, I cannot stand this jungle. I’m pretty sure I wrote that down already last time I was here. But I really can’t stand it.

  First off, when David said we were cutting through, I assumed we would be out of the jungle in an hour. Maybe two. Apparently ‘cutting through’ to David means spending the entire day in the jungle.

  He says it is the quickest way to the Sun City instead of going over one village and trying to get a ride there. Fine except the jungle is terrible to go through. Progress felt slow to me although David kept saying we were making good time.

  Not good enough. We weren’t going to make it to the Sun City by nightfall which meant we had to make camp in the jungle. Just what I wanted – to stay overnight in the jungle.

  We had been trying to figure out where to make camp and I had been secretly wondering why in the world I had decided to show up after all when I heard the noise. It was a soft chittering noise I knew all too well.

  David heard it too and unsheathed his sword. I grabbed my bow. Spiders were somewhere in the darkness. We had one torch set up but if there were a group of them, they could still grab at us if we left the safety of the light.

  “Better to clear them out now.” David said as I notched an arrow in my bow.

  “Man, I don’t like this place.” I grumbled.

  The chittering noises grew louder. It was a group of spiders by the amount of noise they were making. Then they burst through the darkness and lunged at us. I let my arrow go and it hit the first spider that had lunged at David. Then I notched another arrow.

  Next to me, David was jumping into the fight. I could tell that he had been practicing with his sword and shield which didn’t surprise me. Since he was so convinced there was so much to see in the world, of course he would be practicing.

  We took two of the spiders down easily but three more were circling around us. One distracted me and another attacked from the back. I was thrown to the ground and got a mouth full of dirt.

  “You okay?” David called over to me as I got to my feet.

  “Wonderful!” I called back as I fired an arrow into the nearest spider.

  The final two spiders seemed to be wondering if this had been a smart idea. They split up and one came after each of us. I fired an arrow but it missed and lodged into the tree behind the spider. I was knocked back to the ground with the spider on top of me.

  “Mike!” David cried out at me.

  I tried to keep the spider’s teeth off of me. The spider was heavy and too strong to just push off of me. As I struggled, David was fending off the spider that was coming after him. He rolled by the spider and picked up the torch that we had shoved in the ground.

  Then he threw it towards me. The spider saw the flames coming towards it and lurched backwards in fear. This gave me enough time to push it off of me. The spider was scampering away from the flame of the torch. I grabbed my bow and fired off another shot.

  This time it landed and the spider turned to ash. Behind me, David finished off the spider that had been attacking him. Silence filled up the jungle.

  “You okay?” David asked me.

  “Yeah. Good idea with the flame though.”

  David helped me to my feet, “You have gotten a lot better with that bow.”

  “You too, with the sword.”

  He looked down at it, “Yeah, well. Figured I shouldn’t let my skills get rusty.”

  I sighed, “Can we please set up camp now? All I want to do is sleep.”

  I managed to write in here to catch up everything that had happened but I am too tired to stay awake any longer. I am hoping tomorrow we will find the Sun City and I get to sleep in a real bed.

  Day 5

  The Sun City was sprawled out in front of us by the middle of the afternoon. It looked the same since the last time we had been here. It had high walls to keep out any enemies but once you got past the walls, the city was like a glittering jewel. The homes were made out of the nicest materials. Stores sold and crafted anything someone could think of.

  The Sun City was on a large hill. On the very top of the hill was the king. Even though all the villages had mayors to take care of the day to day affairs, the king still had the most control over the Over World. Any major choices were left up to him.

  We had never met the king directly. It had almost happened. After we had taken care of Lucas, someone who spoke for the king came to see us. They had mentioned that we might get to meet the king but it never ended up happening. What the king did do, however, was let everyone know about our village. That meant that people knew there were friendly creepers out there. Sure, people still got a bit scared around us but at least I could walk around Sun City and not have anyone panic.

  “Alright, so now what?” I asked David as we headed towards the main gates of the city.

  David was flipping through the book filled with drawings, “The symbols are around the city. We just have to find them and follow them –”

  “Find them? You make it sound as if this place is so small. This is a giant city. The largest city in the Over World. It won’t be that easy.”

  David waved his hand at me, “The book has some drawing that give me a good idea where to start. Don’t get all worked up.”

  “I’m not worked up.”

  David glanced at me and grinned, “You’re a little worked up.”

  “Am not.”

  The two of us bickered to the front gate, where the guard allowed us access. We cut through the marketplace. The scent of food made my stomach grumble. I was hungry. Ignoring some people staring at me because I was a creeper, I told David I needed to eat.

  “Fine, fine. Grab some food and meet me down the street, alright?” He mumbled as he took off.

  I shook my head and sighed. I was worried about what David would feel when he found out this was a wild goose chase. He had been so hoping to find something amazing underneath the Sun City.

  Munching on the food I had bought, I went down the street to meet up with David a few minutes later. This street was mostly empty. It had seemed to be full of shops at one point but it was as if everyone had closed it up. I knew it was silly but it felt as if we were being watched.

  At the end of the street, I didn’t see David. I looked around and called out for him but there was nothing. Annoyed, I walked down a side street to see if he had wandered off. I was about to call him again when I was yanked backwards.

  I struggled but someone was holding me very tightly. I couldn’t see them. My food fell to the ground as I tried to break free.

  Then a low, strange voice in my ear said, “You and your friend need to leave. This is not a place for you.”

  I was released and whirled around. But whoever had grabbed me was gone. I looked up to try to see how they could have grabbed me. The wall was flat. There was no door or window they could have seen me from.

  I looked down at my food, which was ruined on the dirty stone pathway, and sighed.