Danger in the Jungle Temple

by Danica Davidson

  “I have an idea!” Maison suddenly said. “We haven’t explored the basement much. We can go back to that little room downstairs and start knocking out blocks to see if we find hidden rooms.”

  That could be time-consuming, but it might also work. “Yeah,” I said. “Because it’s a big building and we could only see a little bit of the downstairs, so there have to be more rooms there.”

  “How do we get there?” Maison asked.

  That . . . was a good question. I looked up at the window. “Do you have a bow and arrow?” I asked.

  She did, though she didn’t usually use it since Alex was the best archer around. Maison reached into her toolkit and pulled out a bow and arrow she’d made. I took a lead out of my toolkit, tied the arrow off, and shot it through the window. It landed somewhere, and I tested the line to make sure it was strong enough to hold both of our weight.

  As long as the skeletons had gone away completely, we would be able to get back inside through the window. I hadn’t heard any skeleton noises, so it was worth a chance. If I climbed back up and there were still skeletons, I could drop back down to the ledge and rethink plans.

  “Follow me,” I said, handing Maison back the bow and arrows. I also gave her the torch so I could hold my sword and still have a hand open for climbing.

  We began slowly making our away up the lead. I looked at the sky, hoping to see a little bit of gray on the horizon signaling that it was almost dawn and we might get some relief. But there was no sign the sun was coming up soon.

  When I got up to the window, I peeked through with just the top of my head above the sill. I couldn’t see any danger directly ahead of me.

  “How does it look?” Maison whispered from below.

  I pulled myself up a little more and looked to the left and then to the right. The hallway was silent and empty.

  “It looks good,” I whispered back, then scrambled the rest of the way up. A moment later Maison followed.

  “Where was the hidden door they took Yancy through?” she asked.

  “Uh . . .” I racked my brain. I knew the general area where the skeleton had touched the wall, but I couldn’t tell her the exact block that had opened the door. “It’s somewhere around here.”

  “Well, we might as well at least try to open it and find Yancy that way,” she said.

  We began knocking along the wall, and I wondered if this was a good idea. It might lead us to Yancy faster, or it could turn us into sitting ducks (an Earth phrase I learned from Yancy) and the skeletons would find us before we ever reached the basement and tried out our plan.

  When a skeleton hissed just behind my neck, I got my answer.

  CHAPTER 18

  I WHIPPED AROUND, SWORD OUT. IT WAS ONLY BLUE! “You silly bird!” I said, but I was so relieved. Blue sang out some more skeleton sounds, looking happy as can be.

  Maison touched some more blocks in the wall and then sighed. “This isn’t working. Let’s go downstairs.”

  We made our way down the steps with Blue floating along beside us, chirping and mimicking the skeletons.

  “I wish we could make him quiet,” I said.

  “Maybe this is what Yancy gets for feeding it cookies instead of seeds,” Maison said. “That parrot is on a sugar rush.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “When we get out of here, we’ll need to find it some seeds.”

  If you get out of there, the Ender Dragon chose to remind me. Which you won’t.

  Down the dark steps we went. I could see the big entrance to the temple, and thankfully there still weren’t any skeletons. Had they all returned to their hidden rooms?

  The better question is, the Ender Dragon told me, what are they doing to your family and friends?

  I sucked in a harsh breath. Maison said, “Stevie, what is it?”

  Before I could answer, Blue let out an especially loud skeleton sound. I turned to shush the bird, but instead I saw several skulls staring at me from the stairwell leading down into the basement. It was the real thing!

  The next second, the skeletons were running toward us, hissing. I spotted the ones with Dad’s sword and Alex’s arrow, but Yancy wasn’t with them. Where had they taken him?

  “Run!” I said. But where was there to run? Maison and I raced down the hallway.

  We both stumbled over something at the same time. Another trip wire! Arrows shot straight at us, but we had fallen forward, so they went right over our heads. I glanced back for an instant and saw the arrows hit two skeletons instead. The skeletons jolted for an instant, but that was it. They weren’t hurt. They kept marching forward, coming after us.

  Blue was flying with us, mixing up his sounds with happy chirps and angry skeleton growls. Boy, I wanted to chuck that bird out the window!

  But, wait . . . no! What was I thinking? Here I was so mad at the bird, when Blue could be our way out of all this!

  “Blue!” I shouted as we ran. “Where’s Yancy? Where’s the boy who feeds you?”

  Still flying, Blue looked my way with his head tilted, as if trying to understand me.

  Maison realized what I was doing. When animals like parrots are tamed, they will always seek out the person who tamed them. They know how to find the person who feeds them!

  “Find Yancy, Blue!” Maison said. “He’ll give you more Oreos!”

  Maybe it was the mention of cookies, but Blue suddenly turned in the other direction.

  No! He was leading us back toward the skeletons!

  Maison and I looked at each other. We had no choice. If that was the direction Yancy, Dad, Alex, and Destiny were in, we had to follow!

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “I’m always ready,” she said.

  We turned to the skeletons, our weapons out. “Just get past them and follow Blue!” I said.

  But Maison was already ahead of me. We slashed around the skeletons, dodging them when they tried to grab us. One caught Maison by her shirt, holding her in place. I slashed with my sword again and the skeleton released her. The skeletons seemed surprised that we’d stopped running and were coming back. It was almost like we caught them off-guard.

  Soon after we ran past the skeletons, Blue stopped flying a little way ahead of us, and he landed on the floor. Was that a clue? Parrots also stopped flying when they were tired. What if Blue didn’t know what he was doing, and he’d just gotten us trapped by skeletons?

  The skeletons were following, gaining on us. One reached out and seized my shirt in its bony hands. I hit its arm with my blade and the skeleton pulled back, ripping part of my shirt. I could still feel the skeleton’s icy cold touch against my skin, even after its hand had fallen away.

  When Maison and I were seconds away from Blue, he hopped back in the air, hovering above the place where he had landed. What was going on? My foot struck the block Blue had been on, and then I had my answer. The floor opened up beneath me, showing a stretch of darkness below. Maison was right behind me, and as soon as I started to fall, she started to fall with me. We both plunged down into the hole, with Blue gliding down after us. At first all I saw was a flash of navy blue and the skeletons watching us from overhead. Then the trapdoor sealed off and we fell down and down and landed on a dirt floor.

  I let out a groan and slowly sat up. What had happened? Where were we?

  Maison was also lifting herself up, and she raised the torch so we could see.

  We were in an enormous room full of cages and prison cells, with shackles chained to the wall and absolutely no sunlight coming in.

  I let out a low gulp.

  Blue had taken us to the temple’s dungeon.

  CHAPTER 19

  “HELLO?” I CALLED, HOPING SOMEONE WOULD answer. “Is anybody there?”

  “Stevie, is that you?” Dad’s voice called.

  I was so relieved my heart almost stopped. Maison and I pulled ourselves to our feet and ran down the hall, with Blue leading the way. I heard Alex, Yancy, and Destiny calling to us too.

  As we ran, our torch
lit more of the room. So far all the cages and cells we’d passed were empty, and that was a good thing. I couldn’t imagine being stuck in one of those!

  Finally Blue stopped flying and hovered in the air. Right in front of him were Dad, Alex, Destiny, and Yancy, each in their own little cell.

  “Stevie, Maison!” Dad said. “Thank goodness you’ve found us!”

  “Are you hurt?” I cried.

  “No,” Dad said. The others shook their heads.

  “I was waiting for the trapdoor to open, and the next thing I knew, I was surrounded by skeleton guards,” Dad went on. “They knocked me down and took my sword before I could respond.”

  I was amazed. The skeletons had to have been really sneaky to slip up on Dad like that!

  “They grabbed me, touched the wall, and opened up a door,” Dad went on. “By the time they got me through the door and sealed it off, I had realized what was happening and was calling out for you. But you must not have heard.”

  “The same thing happened to me,” Alex said. She didn’t look scared—she looked piping mad! “I broke through the wall and then these stupid skeletons grabbed me and took my bow and arrows. They opened a door in the wall and dragged me down this tunnel and into this dungeon. No one is allowed to use my bow and arrows!”

  “Are the skeletons here?” I asked, my eyes darting around. I couldn’t see any, but they could have been preparing to slip out of the darkness and into the torchlight.

  “I don’t think so,” Dad said. “Each time they bring another one of us here, they leave to search for more.”

  “They just want us out of the temple, Dad,” I said. “I think as soon as we’re out, they’ll stop chasing us.”

  “Is there anyone else in this dungeon?” Maison asked.

  “No,” Dad said. “Just us. I’ve been trying to find a way to escape.”

  I looked at the cell doors. Did they have keyholes? I didn’t see any, and I didn’t know where the keys would be, anyway—maybe carried around by the skeletons? No, there had to be another way.

  Blue squeezed himself through the bars and perched on Yancy’s left shoulder.

  “Hey, Blue, my man,” Yancy said. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

  “He’s the one who led us here,” Maison said.

  “Aww, does that mean you like me?” Yancy said, sounding touched.

  In response, Blue tried to dive into Yancy’s backpack for more food. Yancy gently pulled him out, but Blue was already eating something.

  “Maybe Blue can also lead us out of the temple,” Maison said.

  I frowned. First, we needed to get everyone out of their cells.

  “Maison, can I have the torch for a second?” I asked.

  “Sure.” She handed it back, looking at me. I knew she was trying to figure out what I was thinking.

  I was thinking I needed to explore more of this dungeon, in case there were clues. Maybe there was a switch somewhere that would let everyone out. Or maybe I could find a better weapon to break open the cell doors. Maison realized what I was doing, and she began searching the walls as well.

  I made my way through the dungeon very carefully, moving the torch along the walls. I kept revealing more and more cells. They all looked nasty and lonesome. The bars created shadows along the mossy walls that made the room feel like one big, giant cage to trap us all in.

  I didn’t see any exits. And I definitely wasn’t seeing any keys. Or clues.

  Then the strangest thing happened. Out of nowhere, the Ender Dragon let out a sharp sound in my head. It wasn’t a word. It was like she was reacting to something, and the sound was somewhere between a painful sigh and a harsh intake of breath—like the sound someone would make if they were startled by something that made them feel angry.

  This stopped me in my tracks. What would make the Ender Dragon react like that? I waited a moment, but she didn’t make any more noises. It was almost like something got to her, and now she was quiet, really quiet.

  On the far wall was a cell that was bigger than all the other cells. The shadows it cast looked barbed, as though the walls were made of teeth, ready to bite. It’d gotten rusty over the years, and the door hung open a little. There was a sign on top of the cell.

  When I raised my torch to read the sign, I made my own startled sound without realizing it.

  The sign said, THIS CELL IS HOME TO THE PRISONER STEVE ALEXANDER.

  CHAPTER 20

  NO WAY!” I EXCLAIMED. I THREW OPEN THE cell door, listening as it groaned on its rusty hinges.

  My thoughts were galloping faster than a wild horse. Something terrible happened here . . . bad enchantments . . .

  haunted . . . a dungeon . . . Steve Alexander’s cell!

  Maison had hurried over. She read the sign and asked, “Was Steve Alexander put in prison for some reason?”

  “No!” I said. “I mean, not that I ever heard of! But . . . but . . .”

  What had happened here? Why were there claw marks on the walls? Why did the Ender Dragon say this was her home and her temple? Had Steve Alexander been a prisoner of the Ender Dragon before he made her his prisoner and put her in the End?

  I realized that, as much as I wanted to get out of this temple, it must hold really important clues to the past. This wasn’t just the home of a crystal shard. Steve Alexander was also trying to tell me what had happened centuries ago. But all the details were running around in my head and I couldn’t connect them.

  “What’s going on?” Alex called from her cell.

  Maison shouted back, telling her what we’d found, and Alex replied that Steve Alexander was never in prison, no way, no how, not our ancestor, the hero Steve Alexander. Alex would not accept the idea that Steve Alexander had any human failings. Steve Alexander may have been imprisoned by an evil dragon trying to stop him from doing good, but that was still just weakness to Alex. (Never mind the fact she was shouting this from her own prison cell.)

  They say only one man has ever been able to escape from that dungeon, the villager had said, and I thought I had a feeling who that one man had been. When I was inside the cell, I tried to think of what it would be like to be Steve Alexander, trapped in here. The doors slamming shut, keeping freedom out. The long bars. The evil dragon as your captor. It made me shiver.

  And why was there a sign saying this was Steve Alexander’s cell? None of the other cells had signs, let alone signs with names. Was the Ender Dragon trying to humiliate him? Or trying to show off that she’d captured the one and only Steve Alexander?

  There was debris on the floor, and I squatted down and pushed it to the side. My heart gave another leap. Someone had sketched the letters S and A on the floor. It wasn’t as neat as Steve Alexander’s symbol usually was, but maybe he’d carved this while a prisoner, using whatever tools he could find.

  I began hitting the ground with my diamond sword, breaking through the blocks. I heard Maison say my name, but it was like someone was talking to me while I was underwater. I was fully concentrated on what I was doing.

  I knocked away a few more blocks, and then I saw a purple glow from down below. The violet light filled the whole cell and made it feel more magical and less frightening.

  I dove my hand in and pulled out the crystal shard.

  CHAPTER 21

  “I FOUND IT, I FOUND IT!” I EXCLAIMED.

  “Yes!” Maison cheered. “And Stevie, look! I found a switch.”

  She touched something on the wall, and all the other cell doors popped open.

  Dad, Alex, Destiny, and Yancy ran gratefully out of their cells. Destiny tried to give Yancy a hug, but he was too busy stretching his long limbs and cracking something. Yancy had been so concerned about Destiny earlier, and now he was acting so cool about it. But I knew the truth. Blue whistled and chirped happily.

  “Now let’s get our weapons back and get out of here!” Alex said.

  “Forget the weapons,” Dad said. “We can always make ourselves new ones. We don’t want to mess
with those skeleton guards again.”

  Alex pouted but didn’t argue.

  Dad went up to one of the walls and put his hands on it. “Now, I know we came through a trapdoor around here somewhere,” he said. “If we find that trapdoor, it will take us to the entrance so we can get out.”

  Glad to have found the crystal shard at last, I tucked it safely into my toolkit. Then I joined the others, checking along the wall for the switch. Hopefully Steve Alexander’s book would help solve the rest of the mysteries about the jungle temple. In the meantime, I was ready to go home!

  Still sitting on Yancy’s left shoulder, Blue began making skeleton sounds.

  “Shh, Blue,” Yancy said. “That’s not the kind of stuff I want you repeating. You’re going to scare us all.”

  Blue kept making the noise, staring at one part of the wall. That was weird, because now that he was tame, normally Blue stared at whatever Yancy stared at. But the parrot’s eyes would not leave that one spot.

  That’s when the wall parted where Blue was looking, showing a doorframe with just blackness on the other side of it.

  Good bird! I thought. Maybe he really did know the way out, and that’s why he was staring at where the hidden door was!

  We all started to take a step forward, then froze. It wasn’t just darkness after all. Something was moving right past the doorframe. Something tall and white, like moonlight. I heard a hiss, and this time it wasn’t coming from Blue. It was coming from the darkness.

  The skeleton guards stepped through the doorframe, blocking our only exit.

  CHAPTER 22

  “IT’S THEM AGAIN!” ALEX YELLED FIERCELY, HER EYES full of anger.

  “Charge them!” Dad said. “All we need to do is get past them and out of the temple!”

  The skeleton with Dad’s sword let out a terrifying roar, shaking its skull head. Then our two groups rushed at each other.