“Again!” Ben yelped. “I take back what I said about screaming and running.”
“Mmm, you do the screaming, I’ll do the running,” Clark said, hefting Ben into his arms.
“Ladies,” Victoria said to Nina and Daphne as they ran and she helped them scamper up her hind flanks. Alex and Rafael fell into a run beside her.
“How far do think that thing can chase us?” Victoria asked, glancing behind as the Colossus Tree roared again. “It looks very hungry.”
“And mad,” Daphne added.
“And mean,” Nina said.
“If we’re lucky, it’ll get tired before we reach the forest edge,” Alex said, sprinting to keep pace with Clark and Victoria.
“If we’re lucky, it will follow us home and we can keep it for a pet,” Rafael said.
“I was not thinking that,” Alex said, grinning at Rafael.
“I know you too well to believe that,” Rafael said with a worried glance behind.
They ran and ran for what seemed like forever, but it was not the edge of the forest or the length of the pursuit that finally convinced the Colossus Tree to give up its chase. It was something else large and fierce bursting from behind a stand of dead, dry bushes near Alex and the Guild.
“Gaia’s gallbladder!” Daphne yelled as they all scattered and jumped from the path of the giant spotted beast charging past them, growling and baring its teeth at the Colossus Tree. The Colossus Tree stopped. The creature facing it growled again. The Colossus Tree shook itself, turned, and began a long lumbering walk back toward the dead pond.
“Beowulf!” Nina said, breathless from the run as much as the excitement of the now-massive beagle’s entrance.
“Good boy,” Alex said, walking over to Beowulf, who was no longer a tiny beagle, but a dog the size of a large grizzly bear.
Beowulf trotted back to Alex then stopped, shook himself, first slowly, then faster, and then in a whirl of motion, shrank back to his normal size.
“Impressive,” Ben said. “A shape-changing, giant beagle.”
“I take back every bad thing I said about you, dog,” Daphne said. As if in response to her, Beowulf jumped up and licked her hand.
“How does he do that?” Rafael asked. “I can only turn into things the same size as me.”
“That giant dog is his real size,” Alex said, bending down to scratch Beowulf behind the ears. “He’s small now, but has the mass of that big dog. I doubt even Clark could lift him.”
“Ahh, that’s why he eats so much,” Clark said, stooping to try to lift Beowulf in his arms before grunting and giving up.
“I guess you both have that in common,” Rafael said with a friendly pat on Clark’s arm.
“Mmm, that and nobody can lift us,” Clark said with a chuckle.
“There,” Ben said, pointing. “What’s through those trees?”
“Whatever it is, I hope it can’t run,” Rafael said as they all turned to see where Ben was pointing.
“Looks like a hut,” Alex said, squinting to see through the trees.
“Like a hut something wicked might live in?” Nina asked in weary voice.
“Possibly,” Alex said as he started walking toward the ramshackle structure. “Let’s go check it out.”
“You knew he was going to say that, didn’t you?” Rafael said with a smile to Nina.
“Never gorping learns,” Daphne said with a slight laugh.
“Clever is as clever does,” Victoria said with a wink to Alex.
“Hmm, he’s not the one who pointed it out,” Clark said frowning down at Ben.
“A hut,” Ben said, his voice defensively dropping an octave. “What are the chances a hut can run?”
“Ever heard of Baba Yaga?” Daphne said, and frowned when Ben gave her a quizzical look in response.
“What can go wrong?” Alex said, optimism back in his voice. “We have Beowulf, after all.”
“Wuff,” Beowulf said and trotted off toward the hut.
“You heard him,” Alex said as he set off to follow the beagle. “Wuff.”
Chapter 3: Cauldron Conundrum
In the end, nothing went wrong because there was no one in the hut. It looked deserted or at least very poorly maintained. The only credible sign of habitation was the rusted black cauldron hanging on a tripod of tree branches over the remnants of a fire pit that hadn’t seen a flame in years. The cauldron was about two feet in diameter with a thick iron handle attached to a chain running up to where the three legs of the wooden tripod intersected.
Alex stuck his head through the doorway of the dilapidated hut and waited a moment for his eyes to adjust. The hut was bare, except for a simple wooden stool with three legs and a small wooden bed with a flat board where a mattress should have been. Although there was a thick layer of dust covering everything, there were no spider webs to collect it in the corners of the roof beams, as would normally have been the case. Spider webs required spiders and there were no spiders in the Dead Forest. Or any other kind of insect or living thing. Alex shook his head and turned back to the others outside the hut.
“Disappointing,” Ben said, kicking at a stone. “What a dud.”
“Not finding something interesting might be the best thing to happen to us all day,” Rafael said.
“Mmm, this pot is interesting,” Clark said, bending down to sniff at the cauldron hanging above the ancient fire pit.
“It’s a cauldron, not a pot,” Nina said.
“And I rather doubt there’s been any food in it for quite some time,” Victoria added.
“Ahh, I don’t think cooking food is what it’s usually used for,” Clark said, his nose wrinkling as he breathed deeply over the cauldron.
“What do you mean?” Daphne asked, leaning over to smell the cauldron with Clark.
“Well, it smells like magic,” Clark said.
“A magic cauldron,” Daphne said, a smile spreading on her face.
“Wuff,” Beowulf said, sniffing at the bottom of the cauldron.
“Beowulf agrees,” Nina said.
“It’s definitely a magic cauldron,” Daphne said. “Even I can smell it this close up.” She looked at the others, but especially Alex. “We should take it with us.”
“You want to steal a magic cauldron from the Dead Forest?” Rafael asked as he turned to Alex. “You have officially corrupted her common sense.”
“Rafael does have a point,” Victoria said. “It may belong to someone.”
“This hut is deserted,” Nina said. “Probably no one has been here in years. Maybe centuries. Maybe. Probably.”
“Heavy,” Ben said, giving the cauldron a kick. “It’s cast iron.”
“Clarke can carry it,” Daphne said, smiling up at Clark. Victoria could also probably carry the cast iron cauldron, as she was nearly as strong as Clark, but Alex wasn’t about to volunteer her for the job when he knew Clark would be happy to do anything Daphne asked of him.
“Well, I suppose so,” Clarke said, eying the cauldron in a new way.
“What do you think, Alex?” Victoria asked.
“What kind of magic is in it?” Alex asked, walking closer to examine the cauldron.
“Mmm, I don’t know,” Clark said. “All I can smell is a powerful magic. I can’t tell what it does.”
“A mystery,” Alex said, sniffing at the cauldron.
“Exactly,” Daphne said, her eyes lighting up.
“As if we don’t have enough mystery in our lives,” Rafael said with a sigh.
“We should take it back and figure out what it does,” Daphne said. “It could be something important.”
Everyone was looking at Alex, waiting to see what he would say. If he suggested it was too dangerous or difficult to take the cauldron with them, the others would probably follow his lead. If he told them Daphne was right, that it might be important, then they would begrudgingly agree with him.
He didn’t have to debate with himself what he thought. It was a magic cauldron from the D
ead Forest, probably abandoned there by some powerful mage years and years ago. There was no telling what magic it might be able to perform. It could also be dangerous beyond anything they could predict. The only way he’d consider leaving it behind was if he really had been dropped on his head as a child. But that’s not what he said.
“I think we should vote,” Alex said, trying to use his best reasonable-leader voice. “But I think Daphne’s right. We should try to figure out what it does. So I vote we take it home.” Alex raised his hand. “All those in favor?”
“You bet your butt I’m in favor,” Daphne said as her hand shot up.
“Me, too,” Nina said, raising her hand. Alex glared at his little sister. Her twelfth birthday was the following Monday, and she would finally be eligible for membership in The Young Sorcerers Guild, but she adamantly believed in participating in official Guild votes even though she knew her vote would not be counted.
“Mmm, I guess it’s not that heavy,” Clark said, giving the handle of the cauldron a tug with one hand and raising the other. Daphne smiled at him and blinked bashfully.
“Yep,” Ben said, grinning, “I never pass up a chance to see Clark carry heavy things.”
“I suppose it might prove useful someday if we can figure out what it does,” Victoria said, raising her hand. “Daddy has several old magic cauldrons we can examine for clues.”
“Being the sole voice of rational caution would be useless at this point, so…” Rafael said, reluctantly putting his hand in the air.
“Wuff,” Beowulf said, cocking his leg at one of the tripod branches holding up the cauldron.
“Then it’s unanimous,” Alex said, smiling widely at his friends.
“Yes!” Daphne said, as she ran her hand along the edge of the cauldron.
Alex cleared his throat and raised his voice. “I officially claim this abandoned cauldron for the purposes of magical research and practical application until such time as its rightful owner may appear to claim it.”
“Is that really all that’s necessary to claim abandoned property in Runewood?” Victoria asked with a slight tilting of her head.
“Close enough,” Alex said with a wink. “Clark, if you grab the cauldron, I’ll carry your backpack.” He glanced at his watch. “If we make good time, we should be home for dinner.”
“Do we even know where we are to know how to get out?” Rafael asked, looking around at the wall of dead trees around them.
“That’s the best thing about a magical tracking beagle,” Alex said, bending down to pet Beowulf on the head. “He always knows how to find his way home. Isn’t that right, boy?”
“Wuff,” Beowulf said and trotted off into the forest.
Clark handed his oversized backpack to Alex and hefted the cauldron into his arms. It was heavy, but not too heavy for Clark’s half-giant strength. Daphne walked beside him, eying the cauldron and smiling as if she had found a stray puppy her parents had agreed to let her keep.
“What about the Rune Tree?” Victoria asked as they all set out to follow Beowulf through the Dead Forest flora. She walked beside Alex at the rear of the group.
“We’ll have to look for it again some other day,” Alex said, frowning a bit at the thought of having failed in his search yet again. “If it’s in this Dead Forest, we’ll find it. We’ll find it wherever it is. We don’t have any choice.”
“Can the Shadow Wraith really break free again?” Victoria asked, her voice dropping down to a whisper as she slowed her pace to give more distance between the others in the lead.
“I don’t know,” Alex said, feeling the seriousness of the question settle around him as he sought for an answer. “I can still feel it there, touching the world faintly. Like the scent of smoke after a fire. I don’t think I would sense it at all if we had sealed its prison completely.”
“What if we can’t find the Rune Tree?” Victoria asked. “Or what if we find it and it doesn’t have the rune we need?”
“Then we’ll have to think of something else,” Alex said. “Something clever.” Victoria smiled and Alex grinned back. This was the first time the two of them had been able to speak in private in days, if not weeks. Alex felt his stomach tighten as he thought about all the things he had been wanting to say to Victoria, or really the one thing. Or was it something he wanted to ask? But could he ask it now? And if he got the answer he was hoping for, would that be of any help right now?
Every time he looked in her eyes, he wanted to kiss her again. Like he was looking in her eyes right now. But could you kiss a girl in the middle of the Dead Forest? Was that romantic? Alex realized he had been looking into Victoria’s eyes for far longer than would be sensible for anyone walking through a forest. And she was still looking at him. What was she thinking? What did that look on her face mean?
Then Victoria stumbled, a hoof caught on a tree root, and Alex grasped to steady her, a fruitless endeavor given the disparity in their sizes. Alex stumbled as well, the two of them crashing into the trunk of a dead tree, its broken branches cascading down around them. Victoria scrambled for her footing and Alex tried to keep his feet beneath him, their arms tangled together, as they tried to find a mutual balance. Finally, they both stood upright, holding hands, once again staring into each other’s eyes.
“Thank you,” Victoria said, “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
“It’s my fault,” Alex said, “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“You shouldn’t try to stop me from falling. You could get hurt.”
“You’re not that heavy. Besides, I’ve had Clark fall on me plenty of times.”
Victoria giggled and Alex laughed quietly. And they continued to stare into each other’s eyes. Alex wasn’t sure what Victoria might be thinking, but he knew what he was thinking and he was always one to act on his impulses. He was just about to act when he heard something.
“Wuff.”
Alex and Victoria turned their heads in unison to see Beowulf staring at them, his head cocked in curiosity. Behind the beagle stood the rest of the Guild, heads all tipped in silent imitation of their canine companion.
“I, uh, lost my footing,” Victoria said, blushing deeply as she and Alex disengaged their hands. “Alex caught me.”
“I tried to help,” Alex said, feeling an uncomfortable heat welling up in his cheeks. “I wasn’t very successful.”
Alex and Victoria’s friends stared in silence a moment.
“The forest floor can be treacherous,” Rafael said, a thin smile spreading across his face.
“Let’s get gorping going,” Daphne said. “I want to take a look at this cauldron before dinner.”
“Wuff,” Beowulf said, spinning and trotting back into the trees again. The others turned to follow, Nina turning last and grinning at her brother. Alex coughed, Victoria sighed, and the two of them set off following their friends.
Thoughts of kissing eliminated, mostly, from his head, Alex walked wordlessly with Victoria through the woods of the Dead Forest, staying near the rest of the Guild, unwilling to part, but keeping somewhat separate from the others. It had been a long, exhausting, and largely unsuccessful day and the Guild followed Beowulf through the forest in silence. When they finally emerged from the Dead Forest, the sky above turned blue once again and they found themselves almost exactly where they had entered it.
They were to the northeast of the Silent Swamp, south of the town of Runewood. They crossed the Creaking Creek by way of an old log laid between its banks, hiked up along the edge of Farmer Watson’s cornfield, and past the wheat fields of the Kinup family. They retrieved their bicycles from where they had hidden them in the tall grass and at the edge of a field of barley and rode along an old dirt path running between the fields, Victoria trotting beside them. A short time later, they came across the East Road that would lead them into the town of Runewood and saw something that surprised them almost as much as the Colossus Tree had.
Alex wiped the sweat from his brow as he crested
the top of a small hill overlooking the well packed dirt road running between fields of tall green corn. On the road, a line of trucks spread back for nearly a mile. Big trucks and small trucks, Studebakers and Fords and Packards and Chevrolets, some piled with boxes and crates, some pulling colorful wagons and trailers, their rolled canvas awnings flapping in the wind of their passing. The sides of the wagons were painted with depictions of various magical creatures and astounding scenes of mystery with bright, bold letters declaring what might be found inside by the brave and adventurous of heart.
Alex breathed in the sweet, warm air of the late midsummer day and exhaled with exhaustion and excitement as he read aloud the single word painted in an alternating rainbow of colors on the wooden side of the lead truck.
“Carnival.”
Chapter 4: Carnival Cavalcade
Alex peddled hard, Victoria galloping at his side, the rest of the Guild following close behind. They raced down the slight hill of a dirt path and quickly crossed the East Road. The caravan of carnival trucks had already passed, but the cloud of dust it had kicked up stretched back for nearly a mile.
Alex coughed and wiped the dust from his eyes as he and his friends raced along an old farm path running roughly parallel to the East Road. The caravan was moving far too fast for them to follow, but they had other things to tend to before they could do the one thing they were all looking forward to — finding where the carnival was going to set up.
“Carnival,” Ben panted, his short legs pumping furiously at the pedals of his diminutive bicycle. “How could we not have heard about a carnival?”
“It must be for the Founders Festival,” Alex said. The Founders Festival was a yearly affair bringing the entire Rune Valley together to celebrate the official founding of the town centuries ago.
“I can’t believe Dad didn’t tell us,” Nina said.
“Neither can I,” Alex said.
“I do so love the carnival,” Victoria said.
“You been to the gorping carnival?” Daphne said.
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