The Caterpillar King (13 page)

But the longer we sat there, the more water
soaked into my pants. At first, I tried to ignore it, but Tika was
quick to catch on.

“You are wet,” she said. “The raft is
wet.”

“Not really,” I said.

“I know it’s true,” she said. “We are too
heavy together. We are sinking.”

“I don’t think so.”

But after a while, I had to admit she was
right. More and more water crept onto the raft. First, it pooled in
the center, and then it spread to the edges. Before long, I was
sitting in an inch of water, and Tika was getting frantic.

“Finch! Put me back! I do not want to
capsize!”

“Alright, calm down,” I said. I hopped off
the raft with Tika, and it resurfaced. Once I’d pulled the raft in
safely, I took Tika back to her tree.

“The raft cannot support us both,” she said.
“Maybe one, but not both. So I will not ride on it. I am sorry. Let
us sleep here tonight, and maybe tomorrow there will be a new
path.”

Tika curled up and settled in. It was
completely dark, and she made her preparations for the evening.
Just before she dozed off, she opened her eyes and looked at
me.

“This time, do not make any stupid actions
in the night,” she said.

And then she went to sleep.

***

The next day, we woke up to find everything
the same as before. The river was just as it had been. There was no
new path. The only thing that had changed was Tika’s attitude.

“I think today, we should go onto the water.
We will take the oars with us. When we sit still, we sink. But if
we paddle, we will not.”

I couldn’t believe it. “You’re sure you want
to do this?”

She nodded.

“But we still don’t know which way to go,” I
said.

“We have to move closer to the split,” she
said. “Then I think the path will become clear to us.” With that,
Tika picked up the little oar and boarded the raft. I decided I
better go along with her before she changed her mind.

We pushed off the land with my oar, and
started towards the fork. I paddled on the left side, while she
took the right side to balance us out. Since I was stronger than
her, I thought we might have some problems keeping straight. But
somehow, our raft went right ahead in a perfect line. Tika must’ve
been a very powerful paddler.

We were making good progress, and our raft
hadn’t sunk at all. That half of Tika’s plan was working really
well. Unfortunately, the other half wasn’t. We got closer and
closer to the fork, but the white line was still nowhere to be
seen.

“Tika,” I said. “Should we just guess?”

“Keep going straight,” she said.

After a little while, we made it to the
fork, and slowed to a stop. There were thick bunches of trees all
around us, like giant fences. There was nowhere to pull our boat
ashore.

“Is anything becoming clear to you?” I
asked.

“Not yet,” she said.

A minute passed, and then the raft began to
sink. It was only a little bit of water, but Tika dropped her
paddle at the sight of it, and it sunk into the river.

“That is fine,” she said. “Less weight means
we will sink more slowly. Can you pick me up?”

I lifted her into my hand. The water kept
pouring in all over the raft. I looked back to the opposite shore,
but it was too far away to go back now. Before long, the water was
up to my ankles. I was considering throwing my oar in the river
too, and I told Tika.

“No,” she said. “You will need it to
continue.”

She stared down at the water. It covered my
shins. Then Tika did something very strange. She looked up at me
and smiled.

“Do you have faith?” she said.

“Umm…” I said.

“What I mean to say is, do you have faith in
me
?”

“Sure,” I said.

“Good,” she said. “I am sorry.”

“For what?” I asked.

She gave me an answer very quickly. She
leaned in and bit me right on the hand.

The first caterpillar had been bad. The
squirrel had been worse. But Tika caused me enough pain that I
really thought I had died. My mind fell into darkness. It stayed
that way for a long time. When I opened my eyes again, I was in my
only memory.

This time, the old woman’s hands were
removing the needles from the fabric. At first, I thought she was
unraveling her work, but then I realized she had finished it. She
spread out the large white cloth on the floor. It looked like a
giant rug or blanket. Once again, I tried to get a look at the
woman’s face. But no matter what I did, the image still cut off
right beneath her face.

Fortunately, I was able to get another look
at her necklace. It hung down off her neck, the pendant swaying as
she arranged the blanket. It wasn’t glowing, though, which worried
me. What if she wasn’t going to tell me the way this time? But just
as I started to doubt her, the left part of the necklace began to
glow.

When I woke up, I could see the white line
beneath the water, and it was glowing, too.

“I told you we had to go left!” I said to
Tika.

I looked down at the raft, and saw that the
water was gone. But Tika wasn’t there anymore, either. In her
place, there was a small, wooden piece. That was all that was left
of Tika.

16.

My friend Tika had been transformed into a
woodchip, and it was my fault. If I hadn’t dragged her along to
help find my mother, if I hadn’t convinced her to come on the raft
with me, none of this would’ve ever happened. Now, I paddled as
hard as I could down the river. The sooner I got to land, the
better. But before long, I wore myself out, and I collapsed in a
heap. I sat still, not rowing at all. And that’s when the current
picked up and carried me right to shore.

Once I got on dry land, I laid my three
wooden pieces on the dirt. They were all identical, so I couldn’t
tell which piece belonged to which animal. I arranged the three
pieces in the same pattern as the woman’s necklace, and then I
pushed them together. The edges of the pieces started glowing. For
a second, I thought all three might turn back into squirrels and
caterpillars. But then the light died down, and I was still looking
at the same shape. The only difference was the three pieces had
fused into one.

With the pendant in hand, I started forward
once again. Not only did I need to find my mother, but now I needed
to change a piece of wood back into living, breathing animals. It
didn’t sound too simple. I traveled deeper and deeper into the
forest, but there was hardly any sign of life, besides plants and
trees. Then, through the brush, I saw a big gray shape. It looked
like a stone wall. I followed the wall around to another side, and
took a dozen steps back. I was looking at a castle.

The castle was pretty small, which I thought
was fun. It was about the size of a regular house, but with
castle-like features such as turrets and spires. Right in front of
me, there stood a ten foot tall door.

Unfortunately, instead of a handle, there
was a round hollow space. I had no way of getting the door open. I
knocked very politely, but no one answered. I pushed against it as
hard as I could, but no luck. I jammed my fingers into the edges
and pulled. Still nothing. After a minute, I decided to walk around
the perimeter and check for other entrances. But my search wasn’t
successful. All the walls were solid stone. The door was the only
way in.

The door didn’t want to budge, so I figured
I’d take a break. I sat down right in front of it and took out my
pendant. It had appeared in my memory each time, and now here it
was in my hand. I held it up and let it catch the sunlight. Behind
the pendant, I could see the door, and the empty space where the
handle should’ve been. Then I had an idea.

From this spot, it looked like the empty
hole and the pendant were about the same size. I went to the door
and compared it from a closer distance. It looked like a perfect
fit. I slid the pendant back into the space, and it completed the
wall. The pendant glowed, and a loud rumbling noise came from
inside. The door slid away to the right, and the pendant
disappeared with it. As the door opened, three gold coins fell at
my feet.

In front of me, there was a path that
trailed into darkness. On my way in, I picked up the three gold
coins. They were all blank, and they fit nicely in the palm of my
hand. I hoped the coins would make up for the fact that I lost the
pendant. It was stuck inside a crevice in the wall, and there was
no getting it out.

Once inside, I headed down the dark passage.
It curved off to the left and then slithered back to the right. It
would’ve been pitch black, if not for the gold coins. As it turned
out, they glowed in the dark. I held them up in front of me, and
they lit my way. After a few more twists and turns, I walked out of
the hallway and into a great hall. The hall was well lit, from a
window high up in the ceiling. The light shone down on the only
other thing in the room: a giant red dragon.

I turned back to the path I came from, but
it had disappeared. I was staring at a solid wall. Then I looked
back to the dragon. He was lying calmly on the ground, his head
buried into one of his legs. He seemed to be sleeping. Behind him,
I saw a single door. At least there weren’t two paths to choose
from here.

For about the thousandth time since I left
them, I wished I had some nets or batteries. I just didn’t realize
how important it would be to keep things sleeping, and to move
really fast. But there didn’t seem to be anything in the room to
help me. It was me and my gold coins against a dragon. Hopefully
the coins did something more than glow in the dark.

As far as I could see, I had two options: 1.
I could wait for him to wake up and murder me, or 2. I could make a
run for the door now. At the moment, I had the element of surprise
on my side. That had to count for
something
. Things didn’t
look like they were improving any time soon. With all that in mind,
I crept towards the door behind the dragon.

My first few steps were stealthy and
excellent. But the closer I got, the more nervous I became. With
one very unfortunate misstep, I tripped on a raised stone. I
stumbled and almost fell, and in the process the gold coins slipped
out of my hand. By the time I caught my balance, the coins were
already clanging off the ground. They bounced up and down a couple
times before settling. I held my breath, even though I knew I had
woken up the dragon. I was paralyzed.

“Leave me alone,” said the dragon, burying
his head in his leg.

I exhaled. He was still dreaming. I picked
up the coins and took another small step forward…

“I
mean
it,” he said. “Go away.
Please.”

The dragon lifted his head and looked at me
with ferocious eyes.

“I…can’t,” I said.

“Leave now or…I’ll eat you,” he said. “I’ll
do it. I mean it.”

But something about the way he said it
didn’t seem true.

“There’s no way out,” I said. I pointed to
the entry that had been behind me. “That doorway closed up. So if
you could just let me through, I’d be really grateful.”

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s not allowed.”

It seemed like another dead end. But then I
wondered if he’d be open to negotiation.

“What if,” I said, “I gave you a shiny gold
coin?”

I pulled a coin out and showed it to him. He
looked it over, and puffed out his nose in disgust.

“Gold coins are stupid,” he said.

“You don’t like
gold
?” I said.

“I don’t like anything,” he said. Then he
curled back up into a ball and pretended to sleep.

It seemed like the dragon was very
depressed. I decided it would be best not to push my luck with a
second attempt at the door. Instead, I tried to lighten the mood by
making conversation.

“You ever fly out through the ceiling?”

The dragon looked up at me. “What’re you
saying now?”

“The ceiling,” I said. “There’s a huge
window way up there. You ever go outside and stretch your
wings?”

“I can’t leave,” he said. “I’m the security.
I have to sit here all day and all night forever. I can’t even fall
asleep. It’s terrible.”

“Well,” I said. “It doesn’t seem like
there’s much to protect.”

“Yeah, just some old lady,” he said. “She’s
been here as long as me. Only
she
gets friends. I hear them
talking all the time, while I have to sit here and scare everyone
away. Of course, I
like
being alone, but still…”

“Wait,” I said. “There’s a woman who lives
here? And you’ve heard other voices?”

The dragon suddenly got suspicious.

“What’s it to you?” he said.

“Nothing,’ I said. “Just good to know.”

“Hmph,” he said. After that, he fell silent
again.

Of course, what he’d said made me feel
hopeful for the first time in a while. I was almost positive the
woman he was protecting was the same one I’d seen in my memories.
Not only that, but the dragon had heard other voices, too. I didn’t
want to jump to any conclusions, but those could easily have been
the voices of Tika and the others. Maybe someone had trapped them
all here, and they were just waiting to be saved. My thoughts
turned back to the prophecy.
I
didn’t think I made such a
great savior, but here I was. And all I had to do was get past a
giant dragon that never moved. No problem.

The dragon didn’t talk much the rest of the
day. His bad mood just never improved. All the while, I was
planning my next attempt. This time, I’d try to sneak by under the
cover of night. Once the sun set and darkness fell, I was ready to
go. A cloud must’ve been covering the moon, because even the
skylight disappeared. It was the perfect time to act. I stood up
and took two soft, small steps towards the door.