Victims of Nimbo Read online

  “They probably don’t have signposts up, either,” Jake said.

  “Well, we’ve got to go anyway,” Dave put in. “It would have been better if we had stayed here in the first place.”

  Josh took his rebuke silently. “Get your things together,” he said. “Let’s make sure we have all our weapons and all the food we can carry. This is going to be a rough journey.”

  “Well, I swan!” Reb gasped. “I never saw it rain like this.” His tall cowboy hat was soaked, and water was pouring off the brim in a torrent. His shirt and jeans were sopping as were those of all the other boys.

  They had been marching for two days and had made good time until the rain started. Now they were wading through mud that sucked at their feet and made the going almost impossible.

  “Feels like the start of a worldwide flood,” Wash gasped. His own floppy hat was pulled down over his ears, and he looked small and miserable, which he probably was.

  “How we going to cook anything in this mess?” Dave complained. “We couldn’t build a fire in a million years. Everything’s soaking wet.”

  “We’ll just have a cold meal and march on,” Josh said.

  Reb shook his head sadly. “There’s not even a trail to follow anymore, Josh. This rain’s washed out all the footprints. All we’ve got is that map.”

  “Well, let’s follow it,” Josh said. “At least we know we haven’t gotten off so far. Those two twin trees there—that’s one of the signs on the map that marked the trail.”

  Two massive trees that had grown together rose into the air before them.

  “Let’s keep going,” he said wearily. “We can make a few more miles.”

  “Maybe it’ll stop raining,” Wash said hopefully as he trudged along beside Josh.

  “I doubt it,” Josh muttered.

  “Don’t be downhearted, Josh. We’ll be all right.”

  “And what makes you think that?”

  “Why, we always have been, haven’t we?”

  “Always a first time.”

  Wash looked over at him, and Josh was sure Wash saw the misery written on his face.

  “Don’t be faulting yourself because we went hunting,” Wash said. “Going hunting was all right.”

  “Well, this part of it is all my fault. We should have taken the girls with us.”

  “’Course, if we had done that, nobody would have been home when Goél got there. He might have sent somebody else to help those Cloud folks.”

  “I wish he had!”

  “Aw, come on, Josh! You’re just wet and cold and miserable right now. We’ll do fine like we always do. Goél’s not let us down yet.”

  “It’s all Sarah’s fault,” Josh said, abruptly changing his mind. “If she hadn’t acted the way she had, we wouldn’t be out here in this mess.”

  “Well, I don’t think it was all Sarah’s fault.”

  “Oh, it was my fault, then!”

  “I think part of it was, Josh. You’d better face up to it. I expect we were wrong to run off and leave those girls.”

  Josh glared at the smaller boy but could not answer. He knew that he had been wrong, and he wished desperately that he had behaved differently. There was no going back, however, so they trudged on until darkness came.

  They made a cold camp, for everything was too wet to start a fire. Then they ate the last of their food and slept, miserable and wet, all night.

  The next morning they started out at dawn. Happily, the rain had stopped, and by noon they managed to build a fire.

  For lunch, Reb shot something that looked like a large turkey but had scarlet and yellow feathers. “This is bigger than any turkey I ever saw. I hope he tastes as good as turkey.”

  The fowl was strong tasting, but the boys were hungry, and they devoured every morsel.

  All day long they trudged along. When the sun was going down, Josh checked the map one more time. “We should have come to this mountain that’s on the map here. I haven’t seen anything that even looks like a mountain.”

  “There hasn’t been one,” Reb said. “Nothing bigger than an anthill.”

  “Then we’re lost,” Dave said. “That’s fine!”

  They examined the map carefully but could not figure out where they had gone wrong.

  “I don’t know what to do tomorrow,” Josh finally said. “Go back and start over, I guess.”

  Before they went to sleep that night, Jake sat beside Josh while they both stared into the small fire. “I don’t know as going back would do any good,” Jake said, “Why don’t we forge on and hope we find another one of the landmarks—or maybe even somebody to guide us?”

  “I guess we’ll have to,” Josh said. He felt bone tired.

  The next morning they struggled through underbrush that clawed at their jeans and tore their shirts. At noon they were about to pause for a rest when suddenly Reb yelled, “Hey, look there! There’s somebody up ahead!”

  Eagerly Josh looked. And there came a strange appearing individual. “Let’s talk to him,” he said. “Maybe he can tell us how to get where we are going.”

  The man they approached was tall and lean with black hair and unfriendly dark eyes. He was wearing pants and a jacket made of animal skin with the smooth side turned outward. He looked sort of the way Robinson Crusoe would have looked, Josh thought.

  “I’m afraid we’re lost. Can you help us?”

  “I don’t make a living helping lost fools!”

  Josh blinked but could see no reason for continuing along this line.

  “Sorry to bother you,” he said. “But it would be a great help if you could just tell us where we are.”

  “Where do you think you are?”

  “I think we’re lost. We’re trying to get to the country of the Cloud People. Do you know the way?”

  “Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t.”

  The man seemed to be cantankerous on general principles. He stood eyeing the five boys, and finally he said, “If I were you, I wouldn’t go this way.”

  “Why not?” Reb demanded.

  “Because that’s where them Earth Dwellers live, and they’re bad people.”

  “We’re not looking for any Earth Dwellers. We’re looking for the Cloud People.”

  “Don’t I know that!” the man snapped. “But you have to go through the country of the Earth Dwellers to get to the Cloud People.”

  “Well, then, are we headed in the right direction?” Josh asked almost in despair.

  “Yep. Right into destruction. That’s where you’re headed.”

  No matter what questions they asked, the stranger—who refused to give his name—was pessimistic.

  Finally Josh just spread out the map and said, “Look. If you’ll just show us where we are and which way to go to get to the Cloud People, we’d appreciate it.”

  “Some people ain’t got no sense,” the man muttered. He put a dirty finger on the map and said, “You’re right here.”

  “And where are the Cloud People?”

  “The map’s wrong,” the man grunted. “It ought to be over here. But you’ll never make it through the Earth Dwellers’ territory anyhow.”

  “So we just follow this river until we get to this mountain and turn left and head through this country?”

  “That’s right. But you won’t make it.”

  “Thanks a lot. Always good to have a cheerful word,” Jake said. “I hope you have a good day.”

  The man glared at him and stalked off.

  “Little Mr. Sunshine, isn’t he?” Dave said with a scowl. “You think he knows what he’s talking about?”

  “I guess he does,” Jake said slowly. “And he doesn’t think very highly of the Earth Dwellers.”

  “Well, according to this map, there’s no other way to get to the country of the Cloud People,” Josh said. “So we might as well get at it.”

  All the next day, the five boys struggled to keep up a pace that often left Wash gasping for breath. Reb was the scout. He would disappear,
running ahead, and then come back saying, “It’s OK up ahead. Don’t see anything scary.”

  “It’s a good thing Reb’s such a good scout,” Josh said to Jake as they fought to keep up.

  “He never seems to get tired. I wish I could run like he can.”

  “How much farther do you think it is?” Dave asked. “We’re going to wear our feet off to the ankles.”

  They had seen no sign of people at all, and Wash said once, “This is sure a desolate part of the country.”

  “According to this map, I think we’re in the ancient forest,” Josh said. He looked up at the enormous trees and wondered at the size of them. “I never saw such big trees!”

  When it was nearly dark again, Josh said, “We’d better stop and make camp. It’ll be dark in thirty minutes.”

  “Wash and I’ll get some firewood,” Dave offered.

  “I’ll go out and see if I can quick bring down something to eat,” Reb said. “Maybe another one of them red turkeys.”

  He left at once. The others lay out their sleeping bags and then made a fire. Reb came back after a while bearing a small piglike animal. Little as it was, it had the sharpest, longest tusk any of them had ever seen.

  “This is just a young one, I reckon,” Reb said. “He’ll be good and tender.” He plunked the body down and had pulled out his knife when suddenly Wash yelled, “Look out!”

  Reb whirled. What appeared to be a whole herd of wild pigs was rushing from among the trees. Some of them were as big as Shetland ponies. “Quick! Up in the tree!” he yelled. “We can’t fight that many!”

  It was a very close thing. The boys scrambled up into the branches as the pigs, now squealing with anger, tried to get at them.

  “Good thing those things can’t climb trees,” Jake said. He sounded out of breath from the effort. “Look at that. They’re tearing up our stuff.”

  “Well, I’ll stop their clock!” Reb said. He had his quiver over his back. The rest of them sat in the branches with no weapons at all. Reb drew the bow back and sent an arrow that struck one of the pigs directly in the chest. There was a wild squealing in the herd, as the animal fell over.

  “Drive ’em off, Reb,” Josh yelled.

  Reb Jackson continued to shoot. Although he did not kill any more, he struck enough in the flanks and in the shoulders that finally, with furious squeals, the herd drew away into the forest.

  “You reckon they’re gone?”

  “I hope so,” Wash said. “I never saw such pigs.”

  After a short wait, the boys scrambled down from the tree, and Reb stood over the monster he had shot.

  “Well, we’re gonna have bacon and ham tonight.”

  Josh stood staring down at the enormous beast with teeth like white swords. His heart was still beating fast.

  “If that’s a sample of what they’ve got in the ancient forest, I’d just as soon not have any,” Reb said finally. “They almost got us.”

  “They sure did,” Josh said. “And that tells me we’d better not sleep on the ground tonight.”

  So it was that the Sleepers clung to branches all night long. There was little sleep, and Josh kept wondering what the ancient forest would yield on the next day. He was still conscience stricken too, thinking their trouble was really all his fault. Finally he did drift off, and he dreamed of Sarah Collingwood and how he would apologize when he saw her again.

  8

  Sarah Gets Some Help

  In a short time, Abbey had grown close to Prince Jere. She was always attracted to a good-looking boy, anyway, and, although he was several years older, she was flattered by the way he paid attention to her. She had discovered he was a good singer, and she loved to listen to him. As for his poems, she was not a judge of that, for she knew little about poetry.

  The two of them sat on a platform that jutted out from the king’s castle. Below, the earth seemed very far away, and above was the pleasant sound of wind blowing through the trees. Jere had just finished singing a song, and he grinned at her. “How did you like that one?”

  “I liked the song fine, Prince Jere. You’re a marvelous singer.”

  “I wrote the words myself,” he informed her.

  “Well, I spent a lot of time listening to CDs back in OldWorld.”

  “What’s a Cee Dee?”

  “Oh, it’s a kind of music that’s canned.”

  “How can music be canned?”

  Abbey spent some time explaining the miracles of CDs and recordings to Jere. He was fascinated. “I wish there was such a thing as a Cee Dee here,” he said. “Then I could put all my songs on it, and everyone could listen.”

  “You’d be a star.”

  “A star?” Prince Jere looked toward the sky.

  “Oh, that’s what they called musicians who were very popular. Stars.”

  “Prince Jere, the star. Here. Let me sing you another one.”

  The prince sang another song, and then Abbey said, “Most of the songs back in OldWorld were about love.”

  “Really?”

  “Oh yes. About boys falling in love with girls. And courting them.”

  “What’s that?”

  Abbey began explaining. She had already explained courtship more than once to Enid, who could not seem to get the concept into her head.

  Jere listened, but he said, “Well, that would be great for us poets and songwriters, but I don’t think most men around here would like it.”

  “I guess they wouldn’t. The men have made slaves out of all the women.”

  “No, that’s not so,” Jere protested. “If you want to see slaves, you ought to go to the Earth Dwellers. They really make slaves out of people.”

  “But, Prince, the men here just don’t treat women right,” Abbey protested.

  The discussion that followed lasted for nearly an hour. Finally Abbey just threw up her hands in despair. “It’s like trying to explain colors to a blind person!” she said with exasperation. “Can’t you understand that women and men are of the same importance.”

  “But they’re not,” Jere said. “Men are stronger than females. And can climb vines faster.”

  “That’s true. But women are gentler. They’re just as smart.”

  “You would have a hard time convincing the Cloud People about that.”

  “You know what you’d do if you were a real man, Jere?”

  “Now what do you mean—if I were a ‘real man’?”

  “I mean your father thinks all you can do is sing songs and write poetry.”

  Jere’s face fell. “Well, you’re right about that,” he admitted.

  “Then why don’t you show him you can do more?”

  “And how could I do that?”

  “It’s easy. Sarah’s getting ready to go and face the chief of the Earth Dwellers. What’s his name?”

  “His name is Maroni.”

  “If you want to show what a man you are—braver than a girl—you’ll go with her.”

  “My father would never agree to that.”

  “You see? You’re so afraid of what your father would say, you won’t talk to him about doing what’s right. You know Sarah needs help.”

  “But it’s a foolish thing she’s doing!”

  “I’m telling you, Prince Jere, I’ve seen some strange things. But Goél always helped us.” Abbey went on to tell some of the adventures the Seven Sleepers had had. She finished by saying, “So this is a chance to prove you’re a man.”

  Prince Jere just shook his head doubtfully.

  When the prince left Abbey, he stayed by himself for some time, thinking about what she had said. Finally he decided, She may be right.

  He walked into the throne room, where his father was speaking with Sarah.

  “I’m trying for the last time to tell you that this is foolish!”

  “I’m sorry, sire,” Sarah said. “But this is one time I must displease you.”

  “Well, you’re not one of my subjects. You are one of the Sleepers. I suppose I will h
ave to let you go.” But he looked doubtful. “I wish the men would get here.”

  “I’ll be all right, sire.”

  “Yes, she will,” Jere said suddenly. He stepped up beside Sarah and added, “I have decided to go with her, Father.”

  And that was the beginning of a violent disagreement.

  With an amazed look on her face, Sarah stood back and watched the two argue loudly. She no doubt had guessed that this was the first time Jere had ever offered to do anything but write poetry.

  “I’m telling you it’s suicide!” the king shouted. “You know what those Earth Dwellers are like, Jere!”

  But Jere had thrown himself into this idea with all of his might. “If a girl can face them, I can, too. I can’t let a female outdo me, can I?”

  The king sputtered. “That’s different.”

  “Not very,” Jere said. “Father, I promise that we’ll just look the situation over to see what can be done to free the captives. We won’t do anything foolish. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”

  Celevorn tried his best, but his son was adamant. Finally the king said sadly, “I’m glad to see you taking an interest in the affairs of the kingdom. But I wish you’d be more sensible.”

  Then Sarah spoke up. “I think the prince is showing signs of real maturity, King Celevorn.”

  Celevorn eyed his son, and hope came into his eyes. “Son,” he said, “you know you’re all I have left. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. But I agree. You may go. Be careful.”

  “We’ll be all right. You’ll see.”

  Sarah and Prince Jere left the next day at dawn. Everyone had gathered, it seemed, to watch the pair leave.

  Farewells were said, and Abbey clung to Sarah, suddenly changing her mind and begging her not to go. “Just wait for the guys to get here,” she pleaded.

  “No, I’ve made up my mind,” Sarah said firmly. “It will be fine. By the time they get here, Jere and I may have settled it all. You just wait here.”

  Jere embraced the king, saying, “Don’t worry, Father. It’ll be all right.”

  Sarah got into the basket and clung to it, her eyes shut. Jere slid down on a vine.

  As soon as they reached the ground, Sarah got out and drew a deep breath. “It feels good to have the earth under my feet again.”