Chapter 8

A True Heart

"Your highness, we've caught one for you." A wispy voice said. They dropped Dennis at the feet of the king. The poor boy was so confused, “What the heck! Where am I? I wanna go home!”

    “Imbeciles! You brought a mortal into our world!” The king slammed his fist against his throne. The shadowed figures cowered in fear, “We’re sorry master. But he was following a group of others to our world.”

    “Fools!” the king boomed, his voice echoing through the halls, “Did you not think of the others! There is a disturbance at our borders! It is them! Instead you bring me a filthy mortal…”

    The shadowed figures began to turn to fly away. There was no way to calm the king. The king waved his hand at the shadows. The shadows began to screech and hiss at the pain. They writhed and twisted before swelling up and bursting into ashes, disappearing completely.

    Dennis watched in shock as the creatures were destroyed by the king. The king turned to look at him, his face was not present within the robes. Only a black  made from the darkest of darkness was seen.

    The king raised his hand in Dennis’ direction. Dennis could feel his breathing slowly being cut off, “W-wait. P-p-please.” he choked.

“Why?” The king said, tightening the force around Dennis’s neck, “I-I-I c-can he-lp you f-find them.”

Interested, the king let go. Dennis fell to his knees, coughing and trying to take in whatever air he could. “Speak. Or will shall do the same except this time I’ll kill you.”

Dennis quickly stood up, “You’re looking for that idiot walking with that blonde tower and the nerd along with that girl that looks like a boy right?”

“Go on.”

“I can tell you about them and everything. It could help you find them.”

“Interesting. What do you want in return? I assume you want something in return. All mortals do.”

“That you leave Luna alone.”

* * *

Luna slowly backed away from the stone. The creature came out of the shadows and into the moonlight, matching Luna step for step. The creature looked like an enormous, demented dog. The creature had unevenly large legs with long, sharp claws stained red and yellow. It’s mouth with an ugly underbite with black, drool-covered lips pulled back into a snarl to reveal two rows of pointed yellow teeth.

Kris stood still as stone as he stared at the creature, “No one make any sudden movements.” He whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

The group slowly moved backwards as the creature kept its eyes fixed on Luna.

“K-Kris. What is that?” Amber whispered.

“The bandersnatch. I didn't know these still existed.”

"W-wait you mean like from the poem Jabberwocky? Like from Alice in Wonderland?" Amber asked in disbelief.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but whatever floats your boat, yes."

Amber hadn’t watched where she was going as she kept her eyes fixed upon the beast. Her foot caught on a tree root sticking too far out of the ground, falling back on a pile of twigs and leaves causing a loud sound of rustling and crackling.

The monster turned to Amber and bellowed before charging her direction. Kris grabbed Amber’s arm and dragged her out of the path of the bandersnatch. He pulled the tiny dagger from his shoe and muttered something causing the dagger to glow and turn into a sword. “Luna! Find a way to open the passage!” Kris shouted to her as he charged to attack the bandersnatch.

Luna looked around worriedly and ran to find where what she believed the ‘passage’ was. She saw a ring of stones with strange writing carved into each one. “I don’t understand it Kris!”

The bandersnatch swiped its paw down upon Kris. He jumped out of the way just in time, “It’s the language of your people! You were able to figure some of it out on the way here. You can do it now too. Think, Luna, think! Read closely!”

“I can’t!”

The beast turned and charged at Luna. Jake, seeing it was coming straight for Luna, looked around to find something to at least distract it. He picked up a heavy stone and flung it at the bandersnatch with all his might, hitting it on the shoulder. It roared in pain and quickly turned running in Jake’s direction. He hadn’t thought that far yet and didn’t know what to do.

Zane looked around himself and saw a broken off branch. It was large but not so much that he couldn’t carry it. He knew this had to do some type of damage. He ran up a pile of stones so that he could attack from above. Gravity had to help him in some type of way. He jumped off the pile and smacked the bandersnatch on the top of the head with the branch, breaking it in two. The monster rolled and shook its head in a daze.

This gave them time. Jake ran over to Luna, “Luna, what can you understand?”

She shook her head, “Its coming together. I think I understand it. I believe it says, ‘The heart of true friendship may open this passage.’ What does that mean?”

"I don’t know. Its confusing... 'the heart of true friendship.'" He repeated to himself.

While the two were trying to figure it out, the other three were trying to fight off the monster. Kris tried to charge at it from behind but only got thrown aside by its tail, sending Kris flying towards a tree being knocked unconscious. "Kris!" Amber and Zane tried to run to where Kris was but were swiped aside by it’s massive paw.

The creature now only had two victims left. It charged full speed for Jake and Luna. Luna turned to look back and saw the bandersnatch coming right for them.

She panicked, unsure what to even do. Luna quickly got up and ran into the path of the bandersnatch, throwing out her arms and standing as the only thing between Jake and the monster.

A bright light shone from where she was standing. The bandersnatch was stopped in it path and tumbled backwards. The brilliant light was one equal to the sun. Its warmth was one of being wrapped in a blanket by the fireplace on a cold day.

When the light had died down, Luna stumbled back, feeling exhausted. “What. Was. That.” She said with wide eyes as she stared at the bandersnatch who was now lying on the ground. The beast got up and calmly walked over to Luna. The beast bowed its head before a shimmering light engulfed it. Once the light had disappeared, so had the beast. All that was left was a golden key shaped like a heart. On it, tiny letters were engraved into the gold, “L.H?” Luna read as she picked it up.

Kris kneeled down next to Luna, who was observing the tiny key, “This passage was made by the lady of the light. I’m not sure if I’m right, but I believe your mother made this. The elders used to speak of the kindness of the lady of the light. She was tricky and believed greatly in friendship. After seeing what just happened there, you must be a child of the light.”

Luna stared at the tiny key in her hands. She wasn’t even sure if Kris was right or not, but it was something to connect Luna to her parents. At least her family if not her parents.

"Is this what she meant when she said, 'the heart of true friendship,'?"

Kris shrugged and smiled, "I don't know. Would you jump in front of a bandersnatch for just anyone?"

“Luna. Over here.” Jake found a heart shaped hole in one of the stones.

The group ran over to where Jake was. One of the carved stones had a tiny heart shaped hole in it.

Luna slid the key into the heart shaped hole and it fit perfectly. She turned it and colorful lights began to break through the ground in the center of the stones. The five quickly got out of the way as the dirt melted way to reveal a tiny, colorful pond. The waters shimmered with different colors across the spectrum.

“This is it guys. Ready?” Kris held out his hands. Amber took one and Zane the other, with Luna and Jake right next to him. The five held onto each other’s hands tightly.

Jake was excited. He was one step closer to his brother. I'm coming Milo. He looked down at his hand to see Luna gripping his to the point her knuckles turned white. "Luna?" He whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks... I didn't think you would do something like that for someone like me..."

He could feel Luna's grip loosen and her worried face calm, "U-uh. You probably would have done the same for me too." She bit her lip, unsure how to continue.

Jake smiled, "But really. Thanks. So much. For everything."

“We jump in on three. One… Two… Three!” The group took a deep breath and jumped into the colorful pond together. The colors disappeared and all that was left was the ground and a ring of stones, just as when they had came.

* * *

    Jake blinked and tried to look around, trying to find out where he should even go. Kris pointed above himself and the five swam to the surface. It seemed so far above them, were they going to make it? Jake tried to paddle as fast as he could, pulling Luna and Zane after him.

When they had finally made it to the surface, they gasped for air. “Oh my god its freezing! And my clothes! My shoes! My makeup!” Luna shrieked. Amber splashed her, “Aish! You’re too loud. Let’s get to dry land and see if we can get dry already, princess.”

Luna whined, "Easy for you to say, you don’t have to worry about this type of stuff."

Amber rolled her eyes, "Come on, the sooner we're dry, the better."

The group swam to land and tried to wring out whatever water they could frome their soaked clothes. Luna sat on a rock whining, “All this hard work and it’s all ruined…” Jake looked through his bag to see what hadn’t been damaged or soaked from the water.

There was a t-shirt that managed to stay dry. He went over to Luna, “Uh hey Luna. Here.” He held out the shirt, “It’s still sorta dry. I don’t know if you wanna use it like a towel or whatever, but here. You might feel a little better with something dry.” He smiled sheepishly, hoping she would accept it.

She looked at the shirt and sighed, “Thanks Jake.” She smiled a little, but that was enough to make Jake’s heart skip like a stone on water.

“H-hey Amber can you come with me and guard while I change my shirt?”

Amber looked at her and shrugged, “Alright. I’ll make sure the boys don’t do anything y.” She teased them.

“Hey…” The three muttered. Amber laughed, “You guys… I’m kidding. We’ll be back.

* * *

As Kris was twisting his shirt to squeeze out the water, he looked at the two boys and noticed Zane was completely dry. “Woah. Zane, how are you already dry?”

Jake turned and saw Zane was dry. It was as if he never touched the surface of the water.

Zane looked at himself, “I-I don’t know. It was weird. When I started panicking that we were so close to the bottom of the lake, I opened my mouth and air came in. When I got to the surface I was dry.”

Kris’s jaw dropped slightly, “You’re of the water people.”

“The what?”

“The water people. They can manipulate water. It’s weird, I know. A friend of mine can manipulate water. He told me that when they’re far enough underwater something happens and they can breath. Unless they choose to, they will always leave the water as dry as when they entered.”

“Woah that is so cool…” Zane said, taking in what he was just told.

“Wait you had friends? I thought you spent your whole life in the castle.” Jake asked.

Kris chuckled sheepishly, “Well, when the king was off on important duties and I was not needed, I would sneak off. I normally went to a workshop where I met with a few friends. We would build things and make contraptions here and there. The shadow minions never told the king on me so it was all good.”

“How far is it from here?” Zane asked. He definitely wanted a place to stay where a roof would be over his head.

“Well if we left now I believe we could make it there by tomorrow night.”

“Great!” the two boys jumped up, ready to go.

“Wait. Where are the girls?”

“I don’t know. They’re taking forever. Typical…” Zane mumbled.

“Hey they’re girls, let them take their time.” Jake defended them.

Kris pulled the dagger out from his shoe, “We should go look for them. You can’t always trust these woods.”

Jake stood up, in fear something might’ve happened to Luna, “Let’s hurry then!”

“Guys!” Two girls’ voices were heard calling them. The boys saw Amber and Luna looking excited as they beckoned them to come over, “You’ll never guess what we found.”

* * *

Luna hid behind a bush as she changed her shirt. Amber kept watch.

A delicious smell began to float their way. It was sweet, like a grandma’s-pie-sitting-on-the-windowsill sweet. “Damn do you smell that?”

“Actually, I do.” Luna came out from behind the bushes wearing Jake’s shirt. “That smell doesn’t just naturally come from the woods. We have to find that place. Those must be people, and if there’s people, we get help.”

Amber nodded, “I like your thinking. Let’s go find this place.”

The girls followed the smell. They knew they were close due to how it was getting stronger and stronger.

Luna tapped Amber’s shoulder, “Hey. Amber. Look.” The two peeked between the branches and saw a tiny shack of a cabin. From it, the smell of a fresh-off-the-pan home cooked meal. “We found it!” Luna squealed in delight. “Let’s go get the guys!”

Luna got up and started running back to the boys. “Hey wait for me!” Amber ran after her.

“Guys!” Amber and Luna were excited about telling the boys. “You’ll never guess what we found.”

“What took you guys so long?” Kris asked. The girls looked at each other and rolled their eyes at him, “We found something awesome what does that have to do with anything?” Amber argued.

Kris sighed, “We were getting worried.”

Amber made a pouty face, “I’m sowwy.”

Kris blushed, “U-u-uh-um- aish forget it! Just show us what you found…” he mumbled, and turned to keep anyone from seeing his blush.

“I don’t know man. What if it’s dangerous. We are in a whole other world now. It’s not the human world.” Zane said to be cautious.

Luna went over to him, “Don’t worry it looked really safe when we saw it.” She smiled prettily, “Trust me m’kay?”

“I-I don’t know Luna.”

Luna put her arm around his shoulders, the thing she really wanted right now was to get out of the wilderness in any way possible, even if it meant knocking on a stranger’s door in the middle of the woods. “Zane. I know you want to get out of the woods as much as I do. We spent the whole night walking through wilderness, fighting a monster, and jumping worlds. You do agree that you’d want a nice, dry place to sleep tonight right?”

Zane smiled nervously. She was right. They were dragged into this whole thing after all. “Well. I guess you’re right. We should probably test it out first. Should we send someone?”

Luna nodded, “That’s a good idea. Who should we send?”

Jake watched them with pure jealousy. Why was Luna’s arm around Zane? Why was she smiling at him like that? They look like a couple…

“I’ll do it.” He said.

Everyone turned to look at him. “R-really?” Luna asked in disbelief.

Jake nodded, “Yup. We’re going to save MY brother so I’ll go see if its safe or not. What is it anyway?”

“It’s a little old shack-cabin thingy. Down that-a-ways. It smelled like a sunday breakfast. Come on, I’ll lead the way.”

The group followed Luna and Amber to the shack. Jake turned to the group, who were going to stay hidden in the trees, “Alright guys. If I die you have to save Milo.”

They all nodded silently as he took a deep breath. Jake turned and hesitantly made his way to the shack.

His heart was beating in his throat. The shack seemed normal, but for all Jake knew it could contain a giant, human eating monster.

Dawn was just starting to greet the skies as the rosy colors of the sunrise shone through the sky.

The shack seemed even creepier up close. He slowly made his way up the creaky steps that groaned under his feet. “Do it for Milo. Do it for Luna.” He whispered to himself over and over.