“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.

Aaron Hatches a Plan

Release 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.”

The Apology

Those 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.