“Angus, think. If you jump worlds right now, Gus is going to wind up inside this cave face-to-face with me. Only, he won’t realize I’m a girl in the body of a cave lion. He’s going to see a fierce predator.”
“Yeah, right. Not such a good plan.”
“Plus, do you really think Bonnie is going to stay away from this cave? There are sparkling crystals, a cute little lion cub, and she’s not afraid of the lion. But the next time, the cave lion is going to be able to see her, smell that she’s human, and react like a protective mother lion.”
“Not good.”
“No. Definitely not good.”
“Got any ideas?”
“I have to take this lion body and this lion cub far away. Now that she can see, mother lion has no need to hunt sloth. We have to get her down on the game trail.”
“You mean on the trail at the bottom of the ravine?”
“Exactly. She can hunt the mastodon or follow the trail wherever it leads. Get out of this forested area.
They heard whooping shouts outside the cave. “Bonnie! You’re alive!”
Angus smiled at Ivy. “As soon as they leave, we’ll get you well on your way.”
Angus had to admit it. The kid was good. Bonnie had feigned hunger and complained of the cold. She had whined until the search party had agreed to take her back to the village immediately. Granny had suggested she and a few others remain to search the plateau for the monster’s hideaway, but Bonnie had convinced them that the monster had a secret path through the forest and was out hunting. She had suggested that it might even be on its way to the village and the sloth corral. The lack of fresh snow made it impossible for the trackers to determine in which direction the monster had gone.
The final decision had come from Mother. She had snatched Granny’s eyeglasses from her face and refused to give them back until they reached the safety of the village.
“Just because you can see doesn’t mean you’re a match for that monster.”
“Now I’m too old to protect my family?”
“It has nothing to do with your age. It’s a monster. You need a hunting party, not a group of boys and their mothers.”
“So we’re a bunch of weaklings, are we?”
“That’s not what I said!”
Angus and Ivy listened at the entrance to the cave until they could no longer hear Mother and Granny bickering. Angus poked his head through the opening. “All clear.”
Ivy plunked the lion cub outside and then crawled through. She nipped the scruff of the cub’s neck and trotted across the plateau toward the ravine. She turned her head back and looked at him through her headgear before she went over the cliff and was gone. Angus checked his gear. His safety goggles were on the top of his head, toolbelt around his waist, World Jumper in his clenched fist. He trudged across the plateau to the cover of the forest, found himself a log, and sat down to wait.
Angus was glad to be wrapped in fur. It was cold. He pulled the coat tighter around his body and it occurred to him that his alter ego, Gus, would be wearing the clothing of whatever world he’d been vaulted into when Angus jumped into this one. He was unlikely to be wearing furs. Angus began trekking down the mountain toward the village. He didn’t want to strand the guy on the plateau in the cold at nightfall. By the time he reached the bottom, the overcast sky had turned dusky. Just as he began thinking Ivy would not know where to find him, a gigantic rodent jumped into his arms.
“Yaaarrr!” he yelled, jumping to his feet and propelling the furry creature into the air.
“Skirreee!” A cat-sized squirrel scolded him. “It’s me!”
“Sorry, you startled me. Have you seen yourself? You look like a giant rat!”
“Do not. I’ve got a bushy tail, see?” She waggled it at him.
“How’d it go?”
“I got her down the trail several miles past the village. When I smelled a herd of mastodon, I jumped into a bird. She pawed at the head gear a few times, and then gave up. I think she’ll be fine.”
“I hope so.” He held up the World Jumper. “Are we going to try this thing?”
“We’ve got nothing to lose.”
“Are you going to jump with me? Should we try a double jump?”
Ivy fluffed her tail between two agile paws. “Let’s see if this body can jump with you. A double jump would save me some trouble.” She scratched behind her ear. “If we don’t end up back in your home world, let’s at least hope for a world with flea powder.” Ivy climbed into his lap.
“Here goes nothing,” said Angus. He programmed 2BE01B and pressed Enter. He took a deep breath, pointed the World Jumper at himself, and pulled the trigger.
Granny, Mother, and Bonnie sat huddled around the fire. Mother had been so happy to have her little girl back that it had not occurred to her until dinner, when Gus ceased to appear, that she was now missing her other child.
“I told him not to leave the village. Ordered him!” Granny noticed a flicker in Bonnie’s eyes. “What is it child? You know something. Where is he?”
“Oh, please! He can’t be on the plateau! Is he up there, all alone? Tell us!” Mother grabbed Bonnie’s shoulders.
Cold air gusted into the hut. A shivering and confused boy wearing a shirt covered in strange symbols stood blinking in the firelight. Bonnie scrambled to her feet and ran at him. She knocked him to the ground crying, “Gus! Gus! Gusseee!”
He wrapped his arms around her, kissed the top of her head, and breathed, “Bonnie.”
She closed her eyes and smiled. “You’re back.”
Angus grabbed his head and willed the spinning to stop. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to the dizziness and disorientation of jumping between worlds.
Despite the buzzing in his head, his body was surprisingly relaxed. He rested on a soft, yet firm, surface. His head was nestled on something cool and fluffy. A gentle swish-swishing was the only sound he heard. A familiar, but not entirely pleasant, smell tickled his nose. He flared his nostrils, and then he rubbed his nose with a finger. It almost smelled like paint.
Angus opened his eyes and sat up. A glaring, painful light nearly blinded him. He squinted his eyes and peered through his fingers.
A fierce, hungry black panther gaped at him.
Angus opened his eyes a little more and tried to back away slowly, but he was stopped by a—wall?
He was leaning against a wall with a painting of a pirate ship. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the light, he realized that the panther was also a painting.
He looked down at the bed he was sitting on. He reached over the side and turned off the giant shop light that had momentarily blinded him. And then he saw the back side of a woman who looked like Mom. She ignored him as she finished the brush strokes on a cactus in a Wild West scene on one of the four painted walls.
Angus let out a dejected sigh. He had been so hopeful. He thought he’d finally figured out how the World Jumper worked. This room looked a lot like his, but he didn’t have paintings all over the walls, a superhero comforter, and a tent pitched in the corner. His mother didn’t wear a cowboy hat and chaps. And she certainly didn’t paint.
Well, maybe this world was more normal, more like his home world, more comfortable than the other worlds he’d arrived in. He’d have to wait until Ivy found him.
Apparently, the double jump hadn’t worked because there was no sign of a squirrel—only a fat orange cat with a splotch of blue paint on his head.
Table of Contents
A Note to My Readers
Chapter One: In a Frozen World
Chapter Two: Extended Family
Chapter Three: The Village
Chapter Four: Chores
Chapter Five: Gus Stops Traffic
Chapter Six: Together Again
Chapter Seven: A False Alarm
Chapter Eight: The Fever and the Feline
Chapter Nine: Petting Zoo
Chapter Ten: Blood in the Snow
Chapter Eleven: The Driv
eway Sentry
Chapter Twelve: Some Job
Chapter Thirteen: Carnage in the Kitchen
Chapter Fourteen: Snowshoes and Sisters
Chapter Fifteen: Herding Sloths
Chapter Sixteen: Bonnie’s Pet
Chapter Seventeen: Cruising with Granny
Chapter Eighteen: Thievery
Chapter Nineteen: The Hunters
Chapter Twenty: The Grocery Store
Chapter Twenty-One: Angus Mounts Up
Chapter Twenty-Two: Aches and Pains
Chapter Twenty-Three: A Light in the Crystal
Chapter Twenty-Four: Child Psychology
Chapter Twenty-Five: Angus Makes Eyeglasses
Chapter Twenty-Six: Map Coordinates
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Target Practice
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Discovery Beneath the Hut
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Back to the Cave
Chapter Thirty: The Crystal Lair
Chapter Thirty-One: Green
The Crystal Lair (Inventor-in-Training) Page 15