by Ellis Byrd
“Ah.” Peck stopped moving. She could still feel herself sinking, but much slower now. It took every bit of willpower she had not to struggle against the quicksand.
Sir Gilbert grabbed a stick and held it out to her, standing at the edge of the quicksand. Slowly, carefully, she reached for the stick . . . but it was too far away. Desperate, Peck lunged forward and felt herself sink another few inches.
“Stop!” Sir Gilbert cried, withdrawing the stick. “I’ll find something longer.”
He disappeared into the bushes. Peck held as still as possible, her heart pounding in her ears. She sank deeper, her body tilting sideways. Without thinking about it, she lowered her left arm to balance herself, plunging it into the quicksand.
“Oh, Peck,” the bunny Alpha muttered. “Bad move.”
Now just her head and right arm were above the quicksand. She tried tugging her left arm up, but when she felt the thick, grimy sand creeping up her neck, she froze. A moment later, Sir Gilbert reappeared holding a long, thick vine.
“I’m going to toss this to you,” he said. “It’s vital that you catch it on the first try—otherwise, your movement might cause you to sink entirely.”
Peck swallowed hard. “I can’t! My left arm is stuck, and I’ve got this.” She waved her right paw, which was clutching the map.
Sir Gilbert’s expression was grave. “Peck, you have to drop the map.”
“No!” Peck thought frantically. “I’ll . . . I’ll catch the vine with my teeth!”
“That’s too risky. Just—”
“I can do it! Trust me!”
The quicksand was now up to her chin. Grimacing, Sir Gilbert hesitated for a moment. Then he tossed the vine out.
Peck lurched up, her jaw clamping around the vine. “Uhguhdih!” she cried triumphantly, and Sir Gilbert pulled the vine as hard as he could. Peck rose up slowly, slowly, and then:
Slorp!
The bunny Alpha went flying out of the quicksand. She shrieked as she soared directly toward Sir Gilbert, who barely had time to drop the vine.
“Oof!” Peck slammed into Sir Gilbert with surprising force, and they both toppled to the ground. Rubbing her head, Peck slowly got to her feet. Then she noticed Sir Gilbert and burst into giggles.
The tiger Alpha’s cloak covered his head, and his legs were tangled in the vine. He tried swiping the cloak out of his eyes, but only succeeded in tugging it farther down.
“Here, hold still.” Peck scurried over and flipped the cloak over Sir Gilbert’s head.
“Thank you,” Sir Gilbert said, standing up with as much dignity as he could muster. Peck stifled her laughter as the tiger Alpha untangled the vine from his legs.
“Thank you,” she said, glancing back at the quicksand. “I never would’ve forgiven myself if I’d lost the map.”
“The map,” Sir Gilbert repeated, sighing. “Peck, why are you more concerned with that map than your own safety?”
“I’m not, don’t be silly!” Peck clutched the map to her chest. “It just would’ve been a terrible waste. We’d never find the treasure!”
Sir Gilbert studied his friend carefully. “I must ask . . . Why do you care so much about treasure? Could gold really mean that much to you?”
Peck blushed. “No, not gold,” she told him, folding the map carefully. “Someone buried something and marked it on this map—so they must have wanted someone to find it! It’s like a secret someone hid . . . just for us!”
“Well, I suppose I can understand that,” Sir Gilbert said, smiling. “But let’s not worry about treasure just yet, shall we? Not when we have a ship to repair and lost friends to find.”
Peck nodded vigorously. “You’re right,” she agreed. But as they headed back to the river, she couldn’t help casting a longing look at the path on the other side of the quicksand: the path that led to the X, and whatever mysterious treasure was buried there.
* * *
“These lily pads are incredible!”
Eugenie splashed into the river, swimming back to the riverbank where Graham stood waiting. “Are they as thick as they look?” he asked eagerly.
“Thicker!” Eugenie replied. “I bet one of those lily pads could hold two rhinos without sinking!”
Graham clapped and laughed. “Perfect! Looks like we’ve found our new sails. We’ll just have to bring a few crew members back here to help us haul them to the ship.”
The two animals followed the river upstream, chatting enthusiastically as they kept an eye out for more potential tools and ship-building materials. Graham greatly enjoyed the otter’s company. He was surprised to learn that she was very interested in architecture, and she had a creative way of looking at problems that Graham respected. He valued his fellow Alphas and appreciated their unique skills, but it was refreshing to spend time with someone so similar to himself. He was telling her the details of his latest invention back home, a purifier that separated dirt and grime from water so that it was clean to drink, when Eugenie gasped.
“Oh, look at that plant!”
She pointed to a bush the size of an elephant. Its leaves were extraordinarily long and wispy, bursting up from the center and then drooping over to graze the ground. Graham and Eugenie hurried over to examine the leaves.
“They seem really strong, despite how thin they are,” Eugenie said, pulling one taut to demonstrate. “Graham, do you think we could use these as thread for sewing our new sails?”
Graham was impressed with her ingenuity. “Brilliant idea!” he said, and Eugenie blushed. They gathered dozens of the string-like leaves, wrapping them into coils so they wouldn’t get knotted up inside Graham’s bag. When they had finished, they continued their trek along the river. Graham and Eugenie both spotted the tree at the same time: a thick trunk covered with ivy and sharp spikes. Up close, they saw that the spikes had sharp, pointed ends.
Graham raised his eyebrows at Eugenie. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Eugenie grinned. “Needles!”
“Exactly!”
Graham felt pleased as they plucked out several spikes and placed them in his bag. With their makeshift needles and thread, along with those glorious lily pads, they were well on their way to rebuilding the Wayfarer. His mind was already racing, imagining the ways he could improve the ship to make it sail even faster.
“Let’s take these materials to the Wayfarer,” he told Eugenie. “Then we can bring back a few crew members to help us with those lily pads.”
They retraced their steps down the riverbank and into the jungle. But after only a few minutes, a strange noise stopped them in their tracks. A rustling sound, accompanied by whispers, was coming from high overhead.
Graham and Eugenie looked up at the canopy of trees blocking the sky. The thick, bright green vines were wrapped around one another, forming a net. Tiny webbed paws poked through here and there, and Graham spotted several pairs of eyes blinking down at him.
Eugenie gasped. “The other otters from the Wayfarer!”
“Graham! Eugenie!” one cried. “Thank goodness you found us!”
“We wanted to come help you find supplies,” another added. “But this net was under the grass, and it trapped us!”
“The vines are really thick,” a third called down. “Even a sword probably couldn’t cut these knots.”
“Fascinating!” Graham exclaimed, and Eugenie elbowed him. “Er, I mean terrible. Terribly fascinating. Don’t worry, we’ll get you down from there!” He was already looking around at their surroundings.
“You’re going to invent something, aren’t you?” Eugenie asked eagerly. “How can I help?”
Graham didn’t respond at first. His mind was working quickly, assessing the problem and the available resources he could use to come up with a solution. Then he snapped his fingers and beamed at Eugenie.
“I’ve got
it!” he cried, holding out his bag. “Here, take out all the needles we’ve got, and thread one with one of those string leaves. I’ll be right back.”
Graham was a blur of motion, flitting back and forth between trees, looking for the strongest piece of bark he could find. He returned to Eugenie, and they set to work with the makeshift needle and thread. When they had finished, Graham held up the piece of bark. A row of sharp, tiny needles jutted out along the edge.
Eugenie beamed. “A saw!”
“Exactly!” Graham said, pleased. “Now, let’s see if it’s sharp enough . . .”
The monkey Alpha clambered up the tree closest to the net with the trapped otters. From the highest branch, he could see how the net was tied to the tree, stretching across the clearing to another tree. The knot was tight, the vine every bit as thick and strong as the otters had claimed.
Graham set to work with his new saw. After a minute, it was obvious the needles were sharp enough for the job. “Get ready to jump!” Graham called to the otters as the vine started to fray. “One, two . . . three!” The vine snapped, and the net fell.
“We’re free!” one of the otters cried, leaping onto a branch along with his friends. Graham and the otters climbed down and hurried over to Eugenie. When the last otter joined them, Eugenie gasped.
“Did the vines hurt your eye?”
The otter touched the black eye patch covering his right eye. “Oh, no! I found this on the beach and put it on for fun.”
Eugenie and the other otters laughed.
“You look like a pirate,” one said.
“Arrr, matey,” another joked.
“Well, my pirate friends,” Graham said with a smile. “Care to help us carry a few giant lily pads back to the Wayfarer?”
“Aye, aye!” they cried, and Eugenie led the way back to the river. Graham picked up his bag and followed, laughing along with the others. But he couldn’t help wondering about the eye patch. Whoever had worn it had no doubt been the one to set that trap with the net.
Graham thought of his missing friends, and his brow furrowed with worry. Apparently this island wasn’t as deserted as it appeared.
CHAPTER FOUR
Cosmo reached between two jagged rocks, carefully pulling out a strand of bright green seaweed. “What’s that now?” He tilted his head, listening hard to the briny plant. Then he stood up quickly, squinting at the massive boulders a little farther inland. Movement caught his eye on one of the smaller rocks nearby.
“Wylie!” he called, and the koala glanced over his shoulder.
“Yes?”
“Where’s Liza?” Cosmo asked eagerly, still clutching the seaweed as he joined Wylie. “My friend here has just given me some information I think she’ll want to hear.”
Wylie pulled himself up to the top of the rock and squinted. “There!” he said, pointing to the largest boulder in sight. “Greely’s with her. They were trying to get as high as they could to see if they could spot the Wayfarer.”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to see our ship from here,” Cosmo said, already clambering over the rocks toward his fellow Alphas. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t find it!”
The two koalas found Liza at the top of the boulder, scratching shapes onto its surface with a sharp stick. Greely stood a short distance away with his back to the water, staring out at the island.
“I believe the mist over that cluster of trees might indicate a waterfall,” Greely called to Liza, who nodded as she continued sketching. “A waterfall means a river, though we cannot determine its course from here.”
“Are you trying to map out this island?” Wylie asked curiously.
Liza smiled. “What we can see of it, yes.”
“I think we might be able to chart even the parts we can’t see.” Cosmo stepped forward, and Liza stopped sketching and looked up at him.
“What do you mean, Cosmo?”
The koala Alpha held out the seaweed. “This seaweed was just off the northern coast on a sandy beach until the storm hit. It was caught in the same current as us and swept down to the southern tip of the island.”
“That must be the beach the lifeboats were headed for,” Liza mused, nodding. “So that’s where the Wayfarer is, along with the others.”
“A sandy beach on the northern side!” Cosmo said eagerly. “And here we are on the pointy southern tip, surrounded by rocks and boulders . . . Does that sound familiar?”
Liza’s eyes widened. “The map!”
Greely joined them, frowning down at the sketches on the rock. “So you believe this island is, in fact, the island on the map from the Forgotten Archive?”
Leaning on her staff, Liza gazed out at the jungle and rocks beyond. “It might just be,” she said thoughtfully. “We were on course for it, after all.”
“Too bad we don’t have the real map,” Wylie said with a sigh. “Then we’d know the quickest route.”
Liza closed her eyes. “I studied that map extensively,” she murmured. “The jungle covers the center—it would take quite some time to make our way through. But there’s a path through the caves that leads to the northern beach.”
She pointed to the cave entrance, and Cosmo’s stomach dropped. “The caves? Underground?”
“That’s right.” Liza looked at him curiously. “Is that okay, Cosmo?”
“Yes, of course!” Cosmo said a little too brightly. “I was just, um, enjoying the sunshine so much. Seems a shame to go down in the dark.”
“But much safer in the event of another storm,” Greely pointed out. “That first one developed with surprising speed.”
“True, very true,” Cosmo agreed. But his heart fluttered anxiously in his chest as the four animals climbed down the boulder and made their way toward the cave entrance.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Wylie whispered once they’d stepped inside the cool, dark cave.
Cosmo nodded and smiled, but he clutched the seaweed tightly for comfort. This was ridiculous, he told himself. He was an Alpha, after all. He’d been in countless situations more frightening: battling with Phantoms, cutting down giant ice spikes on Mt. Shiveer, even preventing the eruption of a volcano! Caves were nothing to fear, Cosmo thought resolutely. Even though they were dark. And cramped. And once he was deep inside, there would be no way to escape quickly if he had to.
Shaking off these thoughts, Cosmo hurried to catch up with Liza. She was stopping every dozen or so steps to scratch arrows into the side of the cave with her staff, each one pointing in the direction from which they’d come. The tunnels were dark and narrow, splitting and forking so many times, Cosmo started to feel dizzy.
“Why are you doing that?” Wylie asked when Liza scratched yet another arrow.
“Just in case we need to retrace our steps,” she replied.
“Oh! Great idea.”
Greely kept ahead of the others, scouting out forks in the path and identifying which tunnels seemed safest. While Liza and Wylie chatted amiably, Cosmo found he couldn’t join in. The deeper into the caves they wandered, the more nervous he felt.
“If this really is the island on the map,” Wylie was saying, “that means we might walk right under where that X marks the spot—the buried treasure!”
Liza smiled. “You sound like Peck.”
“You’re not excited about the idea of treasure, Liza?” Wylie asked.
“I’m curious about everything on this island,” Liza replied. “Including whatever might be buried in that spot.”
“I bet it’s—ouch!”
Wylie fell to the ground with a thud, and Liza immediately knelt at his side.
“Are you hurt?”
“Nah, I’m okay,” Wylie said, blushing a little as he brushed off his knees. “I tripped on that.”
He pointed to a thick root partially sticking up from the ground. Cosmo fo
llowed its path up the side of the tunnel until it disappeared into the rocky ceiling. His trepidation vanished, and he beamed.
“Goodness, those jungle trees must be massive!” he exclaimed, hurrying over to inspect it more closely. “We’re deep underground, and their roots still reach down this far . . .”
Greely stood at the next fork, eyeing the two tunnels. “This one on the left is a dead end,” he called to the others. “Let’s keep—”
He stopped abruptly, and Liza helped Wylie stand. “What is it, Greely?”
The wolf Alpha’s yellow eyes narrowed. “I hear something . . . a rumble, growing louder.”
“I don’t hear anything . . .” Cosmo trailed off as the root beneath his paw began to tremble. “Oh. That rumble.”
Before anyone else could speak, dust and dirt sprinkled from overhead. A few pebbles fell with a clatter, immediately followed by a rock roughly the size of Cosmo’s head. He dodged it nimbly and looked from Liza to Greely.
“What’s happening?”
Greely’s expression was grim. “Cave-in.”
Suddenly, hundreds of rocks cascaded down behind him, blocking the tunnel to the right.
“Back the way we came!” cried Liza, but it was already too late. The rumble grew deafening as even more rocks poured into the path behind them, rushing closer in a way that reminded Cosmo of the tidal wave. With no other choice, the four animals raced into the tunnel on the left—the one that dead-ended.
They huddled together in the dark, waiting until the roar of falling rocks gradually trickled to a stop. Cosmo’s breathing grew shallow, and his heart was hammering rapidly.
Liza leaned on her staff and studied their surroundings. “Well. We appear to be trapped,” she said. Her voice was calm but her eyes flashed with worry.
“Oh no,” Cosmo whispered. “We’ll never get out. Oh no. Oh no.”
Liza looked at him in surprise. “Cosmo, it’s not like you to panic! We’ve been in tighter situations than this before.”
“What’s going on?” Wylie asked kindly, sitting on the ground next to Cosmo. “You’ve been acting strange since we entered the caves.”