by KD Blakely
When he finally made it to the top, he did a slow pull up. One moment he was hanging there by his arms, and then he disappeared into the wall. There were some quiet rustling, then his head popped back out. He looked like a disembodied talking head as he yelled down to us, “I found a place to tie the rope. It should be safe for you to start climbing.”
He threw the end of the rope down. It looked like a snake slithering down the side of the rock until it coiled up loosely on the floor. “Kat, why don’t you tie your backpack and mine on the end of the rope. I’ll pull them up. That’ll make it easier for you.”
“Fine,” I told him, then stopped. My stomach started to churn. “Wait! How are we going to get all of our familiars up there? Only two of them can fly.”
“Oh no!” Faith bit her lip and looked around for Foxy. When I saw the puzzled look on her face, I looked around too. My gasp had all of them looking. There was no sign of Shadow, Rusty or Foxy.
“I guess that means they’ll take care of themselves,” Faith said, and gave a shaky laugh.
Brady made short work of pulling the backpacks up, and then threw the rope back down. Doug climbed the rope quickly. He made it look so easy.
Then it was my turn. My muscles felt tight and my pulse was pounding in my ears. I wasn’t sure if that was from the exertion of hauling myself up that rope, or irritation. I had no idea climbing a rope could be so hard.
I made the mistake of looking down when I neared the top. It looked a lot further down from up here. I suddenly had a terrifying picture in my head of slipping and smashing onto the cave floor.
It felt so good to pull myself into the small opening at the top. I threw myself flat on the ground, feeling a warm sense of relief radiating into my fingers and toes. “I’m not so sure I like rock climbing,” I muttered. Brady only laughed.
Rock climbing nerd!
One at a time, the others grabbed the rope and hoisted themselves up the twenty-five feet to the top of the cave. They squeezed past Brady, working their way further into the narrow passage.
Brady and I were the only ones watching when Olivia, ignoring the rope the rest had used, chose to try her luck climbing up the rock like Brady. When she got to the top, she pulled herself in, saying, “That was so cool!”
Brady looked at her and grinned, “Right? There’s a rock-climbing wall at my dad’s gym. I’m going to start using it.”
They were both so enthusiastic over the climb, they’d forgotten what we were doing here. I cleared my throat, noisily. They both acted startled, then out of habit, Brady checked the map. He froze. “They’re coming back!”
Doug hissed, “Don’t forget to pull up the rope. We don’t want Rejects climbing up after us.”
“Heck no,” Olivia blurted, loudly, then slapped her hands over her mouth in dismay.
Chapter 34
Where in the…
“Quiet,” Brady hissed. I realized he’d been checking the map. “They’re right outside. We need to cover up our light.”
“Oh, please don’t,” Faith begged in a strained whisper. “It’ll be completely black in here.”
Brady’s whisper was so quiet I could hardly hear it. “You better get real comfortable real quick, ‘cause the light’s out in five, four, three, two, one.”
Over sounds of rustling and whispered complaints, the strange neon glow from the berries was hidden from view. Faith had been right. It was completely black up here.
I moved my hand until my palm was touching the end of my nose and wiggled my fingers. I couldn’t see a hint of it.
At least we’re safe from the Rejects up here.
Then Polly’s voice grew closer. “I saw a flash of light over there.” She sounded very short of breath.
Ray said impatiently, “I didn’t see any light. And we already checked that place. There’s nothing there.”
A pale flickering glow spread below us. It looked as though one of them had raised a light above their head and was turning it this way and that. I hoped it wouldn’t show our hiding space. I didn’t even want to think about the Rejects climbing into this place after us.
Ray bit off each word, impatiently. “See, there’s nothing there.”
I clapped my hand to my mouth to stifle a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, that relief was short-lived.
“Wait,” Andrew said. “There’s a backpack on the floor.”
I felt Olivia jerk against me, and realized she hadn’t been wearing it when she climbed the cave wall.
“Well, well,” said Ray. “Look what we have here. A red sweater…”
“Ooh,” interrupted Polly, sounding excited and malicious. “Someone’s gonna get really cold.”
Ray spoke loudly over anything else she might have said, “…and there’s a sandwich…”
“She’s gonna get really hungry,” Polly sounded gleeful.
Ray’s voice was loud. I couldn’t hear Polly as he spoke over her. “There’s a bottle of water and a lighter. See Polly, you couldn’t have seen a light in here. They don’t have their lighter.” I heard him shake the backpack violently, then drop it to the cave floor. “That’s it. It’s all junk. So where are they?”
Andrew said, “They must’ve gone in another part of the cave and left the pack here. We came back really fast, Ray. Polly’s not the only one who saw a light in here. And if they’re here we’ve got them trapped.”
“If they’re here, they’re gonna give us some answers! Come on, let’s find them.”
Ray led the others away, snarling that they’d better not be wasting his time.
Doug whispered, “We should crawl further down the tunnel.”
Crawling was right.
The tunnel was low and narrow, and it wasn’t easy moving through that small space without any light. It would have been easier if it went straight ahead, but it curved around every which way, and made me nervous. What if the tunnel split and we missed an important turn? It was so dark, we’d never know. I finally relaxed when I realized the tunnel didn’t seem to have side passages.
I’d been afraid we’d have to crawl over rocks, but there was a thick layer of dirt on the tunnel floor. I suppose it wasn’t quite as hard as rock would be. At least there didn’t seem to be any pebbles — that would be bad! Once I got over worrying about side tunnels, I could move pretty fast as long as I stayed on my hands and knees.
At one point, Brady quietly asked for the bag of berries. He blocked most of the light with his fingers, shining a thin greenish beam on the map. “They’re checking tunnel two.”
“Okay, let’s move,” Doug said.
We crawled quite a way then the pressure in my ears changed. I cautiously reached out my hand, and couldn’t feel the side of the tunnel — it had opened up around us.
Doug whispered to hold the foot of the person in front so we didn’t get lost. It was harder to crawl that way, but I liked knowing where the others were. I felt totally disoriented.
Were we even going in a straight line?
There was no way to see what happened in the darkness, but Doug suddenly let out a thin cry. There was a sound of something sliding. I could hear his arms scrabbling over the floor for a moment, and then he stopped sliding.
Doug’s whisper sounded strained. “Thanks for not letting go, Faith. Pass the light-berries. I have to see how far down the next part goes.” Slowly, hand to hand we passed the baggie, trying to keep the light hidden. Doug held it cupped tightly in his fingers so only a little light could escape.
He heaved a sigh of relief. “It’s only a three foot drop. There’s another cave down there. Just put your arms in front of you and slide down.”
One at a time, we slid down to the floor of the next cave.
“We can’t explore this cave with them out there,” I whispered in disappointment. “They might see the light and come after us. We’ll have to wait until we know they’re gone.”
“I’m not staying here until they decide to go.” Faith hissed in protest.
&nb
sp; Olivia said, “We need to find the other way out. I can’t be late tonight. Mom threatened to ground me for a month if I’m late anymore.”
“Pass me back the bag,” Brady said. Like Doug, he cupped his hand over the light, letting only a bit escape between his fingers. He directed it on the map and scanned it carefully. “I tried a bit of magic.”
He made a face and shook his head, gazing in amazement at the map. “I don’t believe it. There has to be a scientific principle to explain this!”
“What did you do?” I could feel my eyebrows climbing up my forehead.
“I drew part of the cave on the map, then wished the rest of the cave would show up. It worked.”
I almost laughed at the astonishment in his voice. “I wish we could see us on that map. You know, like we can see the Rejects. It would be nice to know where we are.”
Brady gave a sharp whistle of surprise, which echoed around the cave. Faith and Olivia hushed him and we all stared, wondering what was up.
Brady simply held out the map. There, in the one of the caves that Brady had wished onto the map, five small green dots had appeared.
“How’d you do that?” Olivia asked blankly.
I answered slowly, “I just wished for it. I never actually thought it would work. Ronny was right, we’d better be careful what we wish in here. Maybe we should think how else we can use that map.
Brady said, “Well for one thing, we can use it to get out of here.” After a moment of study he said, “There’s a tunnel on the right side of this cave. We need to take it.”
He pointed along the cave wall with the thin beam of light and the shadow of what could be an opening was visible about twenty feet away. He held the berries carefully, aiming them as if they were a flashlight. We got to our feet and carefully made our way across the rough cave floor. In here, broken rocks and strange dips and bumps covered the cave floor. The others were all stumbling in the dim light, but I found the way strangely easy.
We’d just entered the new passage, which was even lower than the last one, when Brady tripped and fell. The bag hit the floor and he landed on top of it hard. The light died like someone had flipped off a switch. There was a loud squishing sound. I heard him move, but the light didn’t show up. For a long moment, no one said anything. The darkness was so thick, it felt like it was going to smother me.
Brady’s guilty voice came out of the dark. “The good news is, I looked at the way out very carefully. This passage only goes one way, so we can’t get lost. The bad news is I forgot to bring a lighter and the one Olivia brought is wherever the Rejects left it. We can’t light any of the candles, so we’re back to crawling.”
“Why do we have to crawl again?” Olivia sounded offended.
“Maps don’t show where the tunnel gets low. You don’t have to crawl, but I don’t want to hit my head.”
“Oh, right,” Olivia’s voice was subdued now. She grumbled, “I totally hate how nothing electrical or digital or battery operated works in this place.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that before,” Doug said. His voice sounded all I-really-hope-you-never-say–it-again. Olivia fell silent.
The passage seemed to go straight for a long way and the cool air of the cave was starting to soak down through my skin into my muscles. I began to shiver and hoped the others couldn’t hear my teeth chattering. They might think I was afraid. How embarrassing.
Suddenly, there was a dull thud and Doug gave an undignified yelp. I hoped we were far enough away that Ray couldn’t hear us. Doug sounded like his teeth were clenched together tightly. “The tunnel takes a sudden right turn. Watch it.”
One by one, we carefully crawled around the turn. I felt the tunnel began to slope downwards, slowly at first, then more steeply. We hadn’t gone far when I sensed this tunnel open into a larger space.
“Where do we go from here?” I asked, worried.
Brady said, “I wish Fangface could help.”
The whirring of wings and the strange high-pitched squeaks that announced Fangface were a welcome relief. Brady’s voice was so high with excitement, he sounded a lot like the bat. “He can lead us out. Follow him.”
“How?” Faith said. She sounded confused. I didn’t blame her. “We can’t see him.”
“Listen to him.” Brady didn’t actually say ‘duh’ but you could hear it anyway.
We followed the tiny squeaks as quickly as possible. I found it more difficult than I expected – the sound was quiet and bounced off the cave walls, making it hard to tell the direction it came from. Finally, I felt walls close around me and knew we’d entered another narrow tunnel.
Doug asked us to tell him who was there, like he was Mr. Gordon taking role in class. When we’d all said here, he gave a sigh of relief. “We all made it. Now let’s get out.”
I could see a faint glow a long distance ahead. As we drew nearer to the end, there was enough light to see the roof, making it safe to stand up and hurry toward the opening.
The exit was screened by thickly leafed vegetation. Doug peeked out, and then pushed the heavy vines aside. He held them out of the way as he moved cautiously out of the cave. One by one we followed, blinking in the sudden light. We’d emerged onto a narrow dirt trail. For a moment, I just stood there — after the cold cave, the sun felt amazing on my skin.
“I wish I knew what happened to the rest of our animals.” I jumped as something rubbed against my ankle, and let out a gusty laugh as I looked down at Shadow. I saw Rusty, staring at Doug, his tongue lolling out with a doggy grin on his face.
There was a whir of wings and the owl and bat flew out of the cave, circling around us. Faith turned around in a slow circle, then sighed in relief as the fox sat at the edge of the path.
Okay, so I forgot and made a wish. My bad. At least this one turned out okay.
Doug reached up and gave each of us a high five. Brady pulled the dog-eared map from his pocket, looking for the Rejects. He grinned widely. “They’re still in the main cave.”
“How do we get back from here?” Faith asked, her hands deep in her pockets. “There’s no road.”
“According to the map, this trail leads back to the road.”
“We should go,” Faith said. “We don’t want to run into the others.”
“We have to get to the cave early enough to explore that upper space again next time,” Brady said. “Who knows what we missed in the dark.”
“I just wish we knew whether there was anything in there worth looking for,” I said. I didn’t want to go back in if we didn’t have to.
“Oh man, is that cool!” Brady exclaimed. He pointed to the map.
A new chamber appeared on the map. It could be reached through the third passage we hadn’t explored yet. A small blue ‘X’ had appeared in that room, while a second blue ‘X’ was in the upper passage we’d just left.
“Do you think those spots mean there’s treasure in there?” Olivia was nearly dancing in excitement.
“No way. Indiana Jones said ‘X’ never, ever marks the spot,” I said, looking at the new marks on the map in disbelief.
“Yes, way! You wished again,” Olivia said. “Those marks show where there’s something worth looking for.”
Faith cleared her throat anxiously. “What if the Rejects find it?”
“We’ll know soon,” Brady told her, watching the map.
“How?” Olivia challenged him.
“We’ll know they found something if either blue ‘X’ starts moving.” Brady was getting as good as Doug at getting that ‘duh’ sound in his voice. It made Doug laugh out loud.
Olivia blushed and crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at both of them.
I sighed in relief when the Rejects headed into the main cave, while neither blue ‘X’ moved.
Chapter 35
Is Bigfoot Magic?
The dirt path was on the side of the mountain, in an area covered with brush and short stunted trees. Below us, the trees grew taller, blocking the view of t
he valley. On one side, the trail headed further up over the mountain. The other headed down, the way we wanted to go.
The path was narrow and overgrown, more like a deer trail than one used by people. We stumbled our way down the hillside, emerging at the bottom near a large lake. The lake glowed, light sparkling off the moving water like reflections off a diamond. The edges were a bright turquoise, deepening to cobalt blue at the center.
Two small islands, one mostly rock, the other covered by trees were visible on the lake. The one with trees had a small cabin at the center.
“I think we should check out the lake after we finish the cave.” Doug’s gaze roved over the shining water. I wasn’t surprised. Doug loved water – oceans, lakes, rivers, swimming pools, lawn sprinklers. It didn’t matter as long as it was wet.
“I’m glad we don’t have to go into the woods,” I said. “They look creepy. See, there’s black smoke rising over there. I wonder what’s making it.”
Everyone turned to look where I was pointing. Faith let out a short surprised scream as something monstrously large, covered with iridescent scales or feathers showed briefly above the tree line. I felt my eyes widen and my heart began to gallop. “What was that!” I asked, alarmed.
And how many things were still in here with us?
“Maybe that’s why it’s a perilous forest,” Brady whispered.
“I have no idea what it is, and I’m not going in there to find out!” Faith exclaimed.
Doug let out a startled laugh. He didn’t look alarmed, he looked excited. “It might have been a dragon. I’d like to check it out.”
I rolled my eyes. Doug and his dragons! “So, I wonder if this path counts as a road or if we should worry about getting lost.”
An eerie howl came from the left, much closer to us than ever before. “What is that,” Brady choked out, his eyes so wide they looked like they might pop out of his head.
Oh yeah, he wasn’t here last time.