chapter 5

Chapter Five

“We can’t take the balloon down without a crew to help,” Chris said. “It’s a lot more work to land than to take off.”

“I know that Chris. Vondra’s son’s are going to help us.”

“Vondra’s-”

“Shh.”

Chris stood up shakily and risked a quick glance over the side of the balloon. Bellow them stretched a large strip of clear land speckled with moving black dots. As they got closer, Chris realized that the little moving black dots were people, and five of them. In the middle of the clearing was a large blue flag flapping in the wind.

Chris looked over to Sally but she had her nose in one of the manuals and was busy trying to get the hot air balloon down. She had opened the release valve and was letting the air hiss out, but wasn’t watching how much. Neither was Chris, until he looked down at the growing people-specks below him.

The people started waving their arms at them and backing up quickly. They were yelling something.

“Hey!” one of them shouted. “You’re letting too much air out of the balloon! Slow down! H-Hey!” He and his friends turned tail and ran, and suddenly the ground was beneath us. The whole air balloon hit the ground and lifted off again, then hit the ground again.

Vondra’s son’s scrambled to the hot air balloon and grabbed the basket, stopping it from moving anymore as Sally let the air drain out of the valve.

Sally got out first and then Chris was helped out by a gangly boy with a mop of blonde hair and a dashing of freckles across his tan cheeks. Chris landed unceremoniously with a dull thump. He looked around while the rest of Vondra’s son set about to the rest of the work, draining the balloon all the way, detaching it, and rolling it into a stuff stack that was in Sally’s trunk.

They stood in a large glade of shrubby grass flanked by gnarly trees roped with vines. To Chris’s right was a small cabin, tucked neatly away into the fringe of the dark forest, mostly hidden by foliage. Sunlight licked the glade, unhindered by the few fluffy clouds that meandered restlessly across the blue sky.

While Chris took in the scenery, Sally brushed the dust off her clothes and looked about herself with a smile on her face. Chris wasn’t so happy himself.

“We shouldn’t be here,” he mumbled, and Sally elbowed him.

“Stuff it, Chris, here comes Vondra.”

Chris had been expecting a portly woman with a grapefruit head and pink cheeks and gray hair in curlers. He expected her to sort of lumber along on fat legs and have to look up at Chris due to their height differences. Instead he was greeted by a tall, nimble woman with flowing brown hair down to her ankles and skin as tan as walnut skin. Two bright blue eyes shown down at Chris, and a smile fringed with wrinkles spread across her face.

“Sally, so nice to meet you,” Vondra said in a crackling voice, looking over Chris’s head at Sally, still smiling. Sally smiled back and shook Vondra’s hand vigorously.

“Likewise,” Sally replied.

Vondra’s attention shifted back to Chris. “You did not mention another explorer,” she said. Chris blushed at this.

“Chris here sort of just piggybacked on,” Sally said with a widening grin. “He’s got a real eye for adventure.”

“Hmm. As do you, Sally, as do you. I know of not many people who are brave enough, or smart enough, to do this. I praise you for that.” She stepped between Sally and Chris and put a bony arm around each of them. “Come inside,” she said. “It’s time for some lunch.”

“Actually-” Sally started.

“Lunch comes before exploring,” Vondra said with a twinkle in her eyes. “Always.”

The cottage Vondra lived in was firmly made of logs, caked mud, and fern fronds. On the inside, the floor was earthen and there was a hearth, a little thatch rug, a bamboo table and in the back, sleeping quarters and a little kitchen. Upstairs was Vondra’s room and a storage closet. Vondra ordered everyone to sit while she “fetched lunch.”

Lunch turned out to be eight steaming bowls of oatmeal for Chris, Sally, Vondra, and all of Vondra’s five sons. Vondra did the introductions while Chris sat stirring his sludgy oatmeal sullenly.

“Sally and Chris, meet Landon, Sydney, Jettie, Eaves, and Willifer,” Vondra said, pointing to each one in turn. Willifer, the boy who had helped Chris out of the hot air balloon, gave a shy wave. “Boys, meet Sally and Chris.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” five boys muttered back in unison, mostly into their oatmeal.

Vondra gave a wry smile. “I trained you well.”

Sally was inspecting a clump of oatmeal sticking to the bottom of her spoon. “Vondra, can we get back to the plan, please?”

“Plan? …oh, yes, now I remember.” Vondra pulled out a yellowed piece of paper from a drawer in the side of the bamboo table and unfolded it, revealing a map of Dumberkew. She spread it out on the table and seven heads leaned in to take a closer look.

The map was old and wrinkled but showed a detailed map of Dumberkew, the city at the edge of the water, and beyond that miles of raw terrain. Chris was in awe. He knew Dumberkew was large, but he never knew exactly how large, or how much of it was rugged land.

Suddenly a tan finger tapped a little dot in the middle of the map, bringing Chris to the present. “Don’t go there,” Vondra said.

“Why?” Sally asked. It was Willifer who answered in a tiny voice.

“Audric’s tribe camps there,” he said.

“What…who’s that?” Chris asked.

“Audric is the tribe leader. I used to belong to the tribe before I left,” Vondra replied softly.

“So why can’t we go there?” Sally asked. “Is he dangerous?”

“He’s not evil, if that’s what you’re implying. He has a good heart. He would never hurt children.”

Sally flushed. “We are not children.”

“Well, whatever you are.” Vondra chewed on one of her nails for a moment before stabbing the air in front of Sally’s face. “You need a guide.”

“A guide?” Sally echoed.

“Willifer will go with you,” Vondra said, scooping up Chris’s bowl of oatmeal and whisking it away to the sink. Chris wasn’t finished yet but he didn’t mind. He still felt quite queasy and the oatmeal sat like a rock in his stomach. Sally looked up from her own bowl.

“No,” she said. “He will not.”

Willifer blushed.

“Sally…” Chris said.

“Oh, hush, Chris,” Sally replied, pushing her chair back and standing up. “Vondra, Willfer is not coming with us. He’ll only get in the way.”

Willifer blushed harder.

“Don’t try to argue with me, dear, I know a lot more words,” Vondra said. She gave Sally a look and waggled a wrinkled finger in front of Sally’s face. “I won’t let you go alone.”

“Then you come,” Sally said.

“Oh, I would love to, but I’m afraid I have to pass on that offer. Exploring is not for me anymore,” Vondra said with a tiny smile. “Willifer, get ready.” Before Sally could object, Willifer pushed his chair back, stood up, and scrambled away.

Sally glared after him. “He’s only going to slow us down.”

“He’ll be fine,” Chris said.

By the time Willifer was ready to go, it was well past afternoon and Sally was all but tearing the hair out of her head. Chris sat on the ground a safe way away from Sally outside, ripping tufts of grass from the ground and watching Vondra’s other sons run around and flirt with Sally, only to get completely ignored or chased away. “I have no time for any more of Vondra’s sons,” she explained when Chris asked. Chris contemplated telling Sally that she really simply had no patience for any other of Vondra’s brothers not time, but in her venomous mood, he didn’t dare.

Eventually, Willifer was ready. He emerged from the cabin clothed in khaki pants and a tan button-up top, both of them hindered with a bunch of bulging pockets. He wore a, as he put it, “explorers hat”, and had a huge backpack slung over his shoulder.

“What the-” Sally said.

“Always be prepared,” Willifer interrupted, giving Sally a nervous look. Sally returned him a glare. Willifer held up two backpacks and passed them to Chris and Sally, Sally ripping hers from his sweaty fists and unzipping the top. She rummaged around inside and her scowl deepened.

“Why would we need any of this junk?” Sally said.

Willifer looked hurt. “Its standard survival stuff,” he said.

“Well, we won’t need it.”

Chris shrugged his backpack onto his shoulders and swayed on his feet. “Whoa,” he said. “This is heavy. What’s in here?”

“Junk,” Sally said.

“Standard survival stuff,” Willifer said. His eyes lit up. “You always have to think ahead when you’re going into the wild unknown.”

“Why is there a dictionary in here?”

Willifer blushed bright red. “Oh. I think you got the backpack I made for myself. I usually keep a dictionary around me in case I don’t know a word someone uses.”

“Oh.” Chris slipped the backpack off his shoulders and Willifer shrugged off his and the two boys swapped. Chris’s backpack was scarcely any lighter. “Well, at least we’ll be…er…prepared…”

Willifer beamed and nodded vigorously. “We really will be!”

Sally snorted. “These backpacks won’t help us, they’ll slow us down. What if some wild animal attacks us and you can’t outrun it because of your stupid backpack.”

The smile disappeared.

“What then, Willifer?” Sally said, smiling tauntingly.

The color drained out of Willifer’s face and he quickly removed his dictionary from his backpack and set it on the ground.

Sally shook her head. “That won’t help. Them wild beasts can be pretty darn fast. No, no, let me help you. Here.” Sally took his backpack, unzipped it, and shook it upside down until it was completely empty. Willifer watched mouth agape. Sally tossed the empty backpack at Willifer. “There.” Her smug look cleared into a death look. “Now get this into your empty little head.” She jabbed her index finger into his chest and put her face into hers. “I have NOT been waiting for an hour for you to come out with these huge, bulging backpacks expecting me to put it on my shoulders and tramp out on some…some…leisurely tour of the woods! I’m serious, you sniveling little troll. Now get yourself together or I’m going on my own.”

“But…but Vondra said…”

“I don’t care what Vondra said!” shrieked Sally. Willifer seemed to shrink down to the size of an ant. “And I don’t care what you say either! I’m done!” And with that, she dropped her backpack on the ground, turned sharply on her heel, and stalked off, leaving a cowering, ghostly-pale boy in her wake. “Come on, Chris.” She glared at him. “And leave that stupid backpack behind or I will take it off by force and throw it into a river.”

With an apologetic look towards Willifer-who was standing stark still, as pale as can be, his lips pursed, with a hurt look on his face-Chris took off his backpack and followed Sally into the forest.

“Willifer,” Vondra said, poking her head out of the window. “Go with them.”

“But Sally is scary.”

“Sally doesn’t know what she’s up against,” Vondra said quietly, and she ducked back inside.

Reviews

[etxcp]

I like it!!!!!! You did really good!!!!! Inspirational!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I applaud you!!!!!!!! :)