Island of Legends (The Unwanteds) (28 page)

“In a moment. Just ahead is where Dog lives.” The rock pulled up to a small hollow in a large tree.

Aaron looked inside. He didn’t see anything. Then slowly the outline of the dog appeared—it had blended in with the rich brown background of bark and dirt. The dog looked peaceful, sleeping there. But Aaron still had the teeth-size scabs on his arm to prove otherwise.

The little dog opened one eye, saw Aaron, and jumped to his feet. His tail wagged. Aaron stepped back, but the dog didn’t attack. He barked a few times.

“Hello again,” Aaron said. “Just passing through. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

The dog’s pointy teeth gleamed. He barked again.

“He’s happy to see you,” said the rock.

“Oh,” Aaron said. “That’s nice.” He waved, and then felt stupid about waving, so he folded his arms over his chest. He really had no idea how to communicate with animals. Or . . . statues. Or people, for that matter.

Aaron and the rock said good-bye to the dog and went back the way they’d come, toward the tube. When they reached the clearing, the rock switched directions and headed down another path.

“Where does this one lead?”

“This leads around the outside of the east wall of Quill. The only other way to access that end of the jungle from Quill is through the secret passage.”

Aaron stopped in his tracks. “The . . . what?”

“Marcus didn’t tell you about that either?” the rock thundered.

“No.”

“Well.” The rock stopped moving. “I’m sure he’s blocked it off by now. He always meant to.” He stayed still. “There’s not much down there, anyway.” Abruptly the rock turned, nearly running over Aaron’s toes to get to the clearing once more and travel down a third path.

“This is the way to Artimé. It’s quite a long walk. My path takes you as far as a stream. You’d have to cross the stream and travel quite a distance to go the rest of the way.”

“Where do you end up?” Aaron asked.

The rock looked at Aaron for a long moment, and then he said in a skeptical voice, “Are you sure you’re qualified to be doing this job?”

Aaron felt his face heat up. “Mr. Today died very suddenly,” he said, getting defensive. “He didn’t have time—”

Just then a furry gray creature dropped from a nearby tree onto Aaron’s head. It bared its fangs and hissed. And then it chomped down hard on Aaron’s shoulder. Aaron screamed and fell to the ground.

R
elease him!” the rock thundered.

The furry gray creature paused mid-chomp.

“Release!” screamed Aaron. Pain ripped through his shoulder, and he tried to shove the thing off of him. “Agh! Release!” He couldn’t think.

The creature withdrew his fangs and hopped out of the way of Aaron’s flailing arms, ran down the path to the nearest tree, and scurried up it.

Aaron flopped to his back in the dirt. “Ugh,” he cried out. “What was that?” He squirmed, gripping his shoulder. “Why does everything here have to stinking
bite
me all the time?”

The top of the rock leaned over, peering at Aaron. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not!” Aaron said. He rolled to his good shoulder and rested there for a minute before he got to his feet. “What was that thing?” he asked again.

“That was actually not one of Marcus’s creations,” the rock rumbled. “There are a few of those around. Dropbears. They drifted to Artimé many, many years ago on some wreckage from a ship, or at least, that’s what I remember from Marcus’s story. But they are carnivores, so Marcus sent them here to the jungle. They’re quite cuddly and fun loving . . . if you’re not edible.”

Aaron lifted his hand to check his shoulder. “At least it let go of me.”

“Yes. The dropbears aren’t magical creatures, but Marcus did train them not to eat him by bringing them food.”

“Perhaps you should have mentioned that to me last time,” Aaron grumbled.

“I’m continually surprised at how little you know about us.” The rock’s cave-mouth closed. He rolled back to the clearing where the tube was. “You can clean your wound by the creek if you’d like.”

“Sure, and wait for something else to attack me? I think I’d better go.” Aaron pressed his shirt against the puncture wounds.

“Panther will be sorry she missed you. She’s rather taken a liking to you. I don’t think you’ll find her attacking you anytime soon. Your work on her tail has made her loyal to you. If she’d been here, she’d have put that dropbear out of commission.”

Aaron looked up at the rock. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“Where is she now?”

“Out hunting, I suppose.”

“Oh.” Aaron looked at the rock.

“I hope you’ll come back again.”

Aaron didn’t quite know what to make of such language. Nobody he knew actually said such . . . such emotional things, or expressed themselves quite like this rock was doing. Well, besides Alex. To Aaron, it didn’t seem logical to
hope
anyone would do anything—did it? Either Aaron would come back or he wouldn’t, and the rock would have to be fine either way. Hope was a waste of time.

“I will, I suppose.” Aaron’s shoulder throbbed, and his mind turned back to what the rock had said a moment before. “So, about Panther. You’re saying she’d attack others if they seemed like they were trying to hurt me?”

“I think so, yes. But I don’t know her thoughts.”

A new idea was forming in Aaron’s mind. “Actually, yes,” he said slowly, “I’ll definitely be back. Soon. Tell Panther I’d like to see her. I’d like that very much.”

T
hose who needed sleep slept. Those who didn’t need sleep spent the hours conversing quietly or contemplating in silence. Namely, Simber.

In the morning, when Alex awoke, Simber approached.

“Will you come for a rrride with me?” Simber asked, his voice more gruff than usual.

Alex resisted the urge to say, “I thought you’d never ask,” and instead played along with Simber’s game, knowing the proud cat found it extremely difficult to admit failures of any
sort, even the smallest kind. He climbed aboard, and the two of them soared ahead of the ship.

Alex could see the new island in the distance, and it gave him a little thrill of fear and excitement. The island had a deep red outline. It was almost perfectly rounded, like a soup bowl floating upside down on the water. Trees grew on it, taller and more concentrated in the center.

“It looks quite nice from this far off, doesn’t it?” Alex ventured after a bit.

“It does,” agreed Simber. “Therrre’s something odd about it. I haven’t figurrred it out quite yet, though.”

“Odd how?”

Simber didn’t speak at first, and then he said, “Odd like Warrrblerrr, when we rrrealized therrre was no sound.” He paused again. “It’s not that, though. I can alrrready hearrr things. Bits of things. Nothing clearrrly, of courrrse.”

“Life?”

“Yes.”

Alex nodded. He could see Spike a short distance ahead of them, her spike cutting through the water. She hadn’t let up
her pace, and Alex had a feeling she could go much faster if she wanted to. He was so glad they’d found each other once again. It was interesting to see how she learned things.

“What do you think of Spike?” Alex asked after a bit.

“She’s verrry smarrrt,” Simber said. He clamped his jaw shut.

Alex felt the cat tense underneath him. “Yes, she seems to be picking up on things at lightning speed.” He frowned, puzzled by the cat’s reaction to the question. “I imagine she’ll be a big help to us in the future,” he continued.

Simber was silent. Alex could see him working his jaw.

“I would have told you more about her, really,” Alex offered. “Eventually. I felt foolish, is all. About bringing her to life and losing her immediately.”

“It’s not a prrroblem,” Simber said. “You don’t have to tell me everrrything about yourrr plans.”

“I almost always do, though,” Alex said. He had no idea what was happening with this conversation. Simber seemed almost hostile.

“Well, now you won’t have to.”

“What?” Alex exclaimed.

“I assume you intend to rrreplace me.”

Alex nearly fell off the giant cat’s back. “Don’t be insane!” he cried. He flung his arms around the giant statue’s neck and held on. “Simber, you’ve gone completely bonkers if you think I would ever want to replace you! Is that what you’ve been thinking?”

Simber growled, but his neck and back relaxed a bit. “It crrrossed my mind.”

Alex closed his eyes and held the beast, pressing his cheek against the smooth stone of his neck. “Oh, Simber,” he said in a quiet voice. “I wouldn’t want to live without you by my side. You’re my best friend. I . . . I love you.”

Simber was silent as they soared through the air toward the red island. After a while, he cleared his throat and said in the gruffest voice Alex had ever heard, “I’m sorrry about the way I trrreated you.” The cat swallowed hard. “I was wrrrong to speak to you that way in frrront of everrryone. I won’t do that again.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Alex’s mouth. He knew how hard it was for Simber to say that. He stroked the cheetah’s neck.

“And . . . ,” Simber said.

Alex waited a beat. “And?” he prompted.

“And . . . I love you, too. Harrrumph!”

Alex’s smile spread across his face.

W
hen Spike began to jump through the water, Simber turned his ears toward her. A moment later, he slowed. “Hang on,” he said to Alex.

Alex hung on. Simber swooped around and headed back toward the ship. “Ease up, Ahab,” Simber called out.

The captain adjusted the sails and the ship began to slow.

To Alex, Simber said, “Spike noticed something strrrange about the island too. We’rrre going to apprrroach with caution.”

“Good call,” Alex said. “Did she say what was strange about it? I can’t hear what she’s saying.”

Simber swooped down near Spike so that Alex could speak to the whale directly.

“Spike, what’s happening?” Alex asked.

“It is moving.”

“What is? The island?”

“Yes. But not up and down like other islands do.”

Alex squinted at the island, which wasn’t far off now. “Simber, do you notice that?”

“I’d thought it as well but wasn’t surrre. It’s verrry slow, like it’s floating. It’s just . . . strrrange.”

They continued on. Spike disappeared beneath the surface to check things out from below, while Simber and Alex flew back to the ship to update the others. As the ship drew close to shore, they could begin to see details on the lush plants and trees growing both on the mainland and also along twin reefs that jutted out into the water. The reefs formed a large lagoon where the water was calm. Captain Ahab guided the ship into the calm water.

Soon Spike surfaced alongside the ship. “The squid is here. He’s in a lot of pain.”

Carina looked over the railing. “I can help him.” She glanced at at Alex. “Is it all right if I go?”

Alex knit his brows together, thinking. He was extremely wary about this island, based on his past experiences with the other islands. But Spike was there. “Spike,” Alex called.

The whale surfaced.

“I want you to stay close to Carina, and if we retreat, I want you to take her and follow us right way.”