章 13: Chapter 10: Light in the Darkness
"What exactly is that thing?" Evie pointed at the terrifying, towering serpent. She and Mateo had just reached the front opening of the wall. They crouched together like an adult over a baby.
"It's a basilisk, Evie," Mateo explained. "It's a creature of old magic."
"What does it want with us?"
"Now's not the time." Mateo slipped Sam off his back. He held his palm out to Evie. "I need the pebble."
She glared. "What for?" She pulled the pebble away from her counselor's hand.
He returned her glare.
Evie gulped, but she gave him the pebble.
"Thank you." Mateo rose to his shaky legs. "I'm going to scare the basilisk off, so until I return, watch over the boy. We'll figure out what to do with you, Miss Madison, when we return to the village."
Again, Evie gulped. Yep, she was in trouble. Mateo's last sentence proved it. The camp was going to send her home; she just knew it. They were going to kick her out not even after a day. She pulled Sam close to her and moved off to the side.
Pebble in hand, Mateo crept out of the wall. He rose to his full height, a determined look on his face. He wasn't scared. After all, the basilisk was just a snake.
The sound of sirens bombarded the atmosphere, and a few motorcycles pulled up. Each cycle had a secondary car attached to them.
Evie's jaw dropped when she saw all the rangers. Just how many were in Paperblank Village?
The rangers–male and female–all wore orange and black uniforms. They hopped off their motorcycles and tossed their ropes over the basilisk's neck and back. Pinta Ranger ropes were extremely difficult to break. The Union built them to stop rampaging magical creatures. The ropes themselves were magic.
John moved out of the way so they wouldn't catch him instead.
The scene was epic to watch. Evie couldn't wait for the day when she became a badass ranger.
The basilisk threw its head, but it failed to break through the ropes. Every time it tried, they flickered blue.
One ranger, an auburn-haired woman, announced, "Keep steady, partners!" Her name was Ranger Krysta. She was a few years older than Mateo. She planted her feet and tightened her grip on her own rope. Krysta nodded at Mateo.
He returned it and rolled the pebble around a few times in his hand.
The serpent frowned at him. It kept trying to break free, but the ropes were just too powerful.
Mateo didn't want to hurt it. He paused in his tracks and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he said to the serpent. With that, the young man held Euphorbia's pebble over his head. The flash of light that attacked him and Evie struck it. It blinded the creature.
The snake felt Euphorbia's magic emanating from the pebble and cried out. The light hit a few of its scales, burning them. However, the creature felt no pain–only fear–and retreated. It dove into its hole, vanishing underground. The impact knocked the rangers' ropes back. None fell because their feet were glued to the ground.
The pebble stopped glowing, but the aftermath of the battle was gruesome. The snake's poison–no, the forest sickness–had killed off a large number of plants.
The rangers avoided the hardest hit areas so they wouldn't accidentally breathe it in.
Mateo dropped to his knees, exhausted and hurting. He clutched his belly with his free hand.
Krysta coiled her rope and hurried to him. "You okay, Anthony?" she said.
There it was again! Anthony. A grin stretched across Evie's face, but it wasn't long until she felt Sam squirming in her grasp. "Huh?" the young girl asked.
Sam groaned. He struggled to open his eyes. After being in a coma for sixty years, it made sense.
While the rangers tended to Mateo, Evie tended to him. She grasped Sam's shoulders and said in a gentle voice, "Take it easy. We're going to take care of you."
Suddenly, Sam's blue eyes fluttered open. Traumatized, he shoved Evie off him and struggled to his feet. "Where's Euphorbia?"
The rangers heard him.
Mateo and Krysta hastily approached the wall and looked inside.
Evie and Sam tugged at each other. Upset that he shoved her, Evie pulled on Sam's shirt collar.
Mateo broke them up. He came between each child and pulled them apart. "Knock it off! Stop fighting!"
"Why? He freaking pushed me!" Evie yelled. Clenching her fists, she asked Sam, "Who do you think you are, anyway?"
"Huh?" Sam's face relaxed, but bewilderment replaced the anger. He checked his surroundings. "Where am I? What happened?"
"We found you unconscious in the woods!" Evie shouted. "You're in the Paperblank Forest, you freak!"
"The Paperblank Forest?" Sam looked even more confused than he already was. "But that can't be right. The Paperblank Forest isn't supposed to be this big. Where's the hunter? Where's Euphorbia?" In his mind, it was still the same day he disappeared. He had no idea he was time-traveling.
Krysta turned Evie over to Mateo and approached the young boy. She placed her hand to her heart. "I'm Ranger Krysta, and that's my partner, Ranger Anthony."
Mateo patted Evie's shoulder. "And this is Evie. We hail from Paperblank Village."
"Paperblank Village?" Sam met Krysta's eyes. He confusingly scratched his head.
"Do you remember anything?" Krysta inquired.
"I remember going into the forest to pick berries for Autumn."
"Autumn?" Evie and Mateo said at the same time. The name sounded familiar.
"Euphorbia saved me," Sam added. "There was... this snake." He patted his arm, feeling the dried-up blood. Glancing at it, Sam's face grayed. "Huh? What happened to my arm?"
"You were injured just before you disappeared," Mateo answered. "We're going to get you to the hospital, kid."
Sam panicked. He threw his hands, and a few tears appeared in his eyes. "I don't know what's going on!"
"We know you don't. That's why the Pinta Park Rangers are here to help you," Krysta explained. "Come on." She wrapped her arm around Sam's shoulders and led him forward.
Since he hadn't walked in sixty years, he stumbled all over the place.
Luckily, Krysta was there to catch him. "One foot in front of the other," she informed. She loaded Sam into the extension off her motorcycle.
The cart itself was shaped like a bowl. There was a white seat in it that could hold about two people, as well as a black seatbelt.
Krysta strapped the bewildered Sam in. She soon noticed he was nodding off. The effects of the arm injury were finally starting to affect him, sixty years later. Sam was almost completely out of stasis. "Just hang in there, kid," Krysta said. "You're going to be okay." She was the ranger paramedic, so her job was to get the injured to the hospital.
Krysta hopped onto her motorcycle and booted it up. She turned on the lights, which were wrapped around the cycle's body, and sirens.
Evie, Mateo, and the other rangers watched as she rushed off the scene and headed for the village.
Evie was beyond fascinated. Her eyes roamed around the area, and she said, "Whoa! This is so cool!" However, when she looked at Mateo, he gave her an evil death glare.
***
"How could you be so stupid?" Mateo steered a motorcycle of his own. His partners brought him one so he could return to the village quicker.
Evie, who sat in the cart, pulled her knees close. "I was trying to help you." Wind gushed through her hair.
John flew over the vehicle. He heard the two snapping at one another through the wind and laughed to himself. "So young, so angry." He narrowly avoided crashing into another tree. Currently, he had an urge for some popcorn. That would make the confrontation even more amusing to watch.
Mateo kept his eyes on the forest in front of him, but he kept chewing out Evie. "Help me? I had it all under control."
Evie crossed her arms. "Why didn't you tell us you were Ranger Anthony?"
"It was supposed to be a secret!" Mateo snapped. "How did you find out?"
Evie shut down. Mateo was just as angry as he was when her group didn't listen to him earlier. She shivered.
"Well, how?" Mateo pushed.
"I-I saw you on your device. You weren't exactly subtle when you talked with the Union."
Mateo brought his cycle to a screeching halt. The stop was so sudden that John ended up smashing into another tree anyway. He groaned, upset that his beak was stuck again.
Light rays from the moon hovered over Evie and Mateo. They were on a small path in the forest. Flickering lanterns from Paperblank's treehouses were barely visible through the trees.
Mateo peered over his shoulder at Evie. "You were spying on me?"
"I knew you had a secret. I know one when I see it. My family has plenty of secrets. I'm living one fat lie, Mr. Mateo." Tears poured out of Evie's eyes. Snot dripped from her nose, but she did not bother to rub it away. "I'm just tired of it."
At the sight of her crying, Mateo calmed down. He sighed and hung his head. "Evie..." His voice was gentle that time around. "My family has plenty of secrets, too, but I don't put myself in danger to learn them. I was scared for you. You're not a ranger yet."
Evie rubbed her eyes. "It's not just that. There's something about you, Mr. Mateo... I can't put my finger on it."
"I feel it, too, Evie. We must be the Pebble Masters for a reason."
Silence followed. Evie and Mateo stared at one another for a long time.
Evie cocked her head. Her instincts kicked in, and she picked up her hand. She moved it toward Mateo's face, but she stopped before she could touch it. Her lips quivered. "We're not... family, are we?"
Mateo shook his head. "I've never seen you in my life, Evie, so we can't be. Let's just get you to the village and put this ugly day behind us. We'll figure out what to do with you in the morning. Right now, we need to make sure the time traveler is safe." He patted Evie's head.
Mateo put his hands back on his cycle's handles, but he cringed when his tummy started to hurt. The discomfort was so much worse now. However, Mateo recognized the part of the forest he and Evie were in. There were some berries close by that eased pain when consumed. The young man rolled off the cycle and landed with a plop on the dirt.
"Mr. Mateo!" Evie quickly unbuckled herself and stood up. She hopped out of the cart.
Mateo lifted his head. Sweat trickled down his face. He dragged himself toward a cluster of bushes. Somewhere in them was his savior. He stopped momentarily to catch his breath.
Evie fell to her knees next to him. She tried to look at his belly, but Mateo pushed her off. Unless it was his fiancée, mother, or grandmother, he didn't like people touching him.
Evie helped him up. "Mr. Mateo, I think we need to get you to the hospital, too," she said.
"No! No hospitals!" Mateo released himself from her grasp, but he fell onto his motorcycle. "Please. To save the Paperblank Forest, Evie... That's what my mission is all about."
John's ears picked up on his words. "Uh oh, that doesn't sound good," he mumbled. It took some effort, but he managed to release his beak. John's back hit a tree branch. He caught himself by flapping his wings. The crane soared down to Evie and Mateo and landed next to the cycle.
Evie jumped. "John," she cooed.
"Is my partner being stubborn again?" John asked.
"I'm fine, John," Mateo argued. "It's just a little stomach pain. All I need are some of those berries."
A question mark seemed to appear above Evie's head. "Berries?"
Chuckling, John explained, "There're special berries in this area that help with pain."
Evie glared. "Well, don't just stand there! Fetch some! We need to get Mr. Mateo at least to the village."
"Okay, geez." John hovered a few feet off the ground. He held his feet up to surrender. "It looks like Mateo gave you some of his stubbornness."
"What are you talking about?" Goosebumps ran up Evie's arms.
John, though, said nothing more. It was just more secrets and lies. The bird fluttered into the bushes Mateo had his eye on.
While she waited, Evie helped her counselor onto the ground. She propped his back up against his cycle. "You are obviously exhausted. When was the last time you had a real break from rangery things?"
"I don't know." Mateo thought for a second. "... Nine months?"
"What? Months? What is wrong with you, dude?" Evie rubbed down her face.
"It's not my fault," Mateo said. "The Union keeps calling me up for missions."
"Oh my gosh." Evie did a facepalm. "Let me guess, you say 'yes' every time?"
John's voice interrupted the tense moment. "He sure does. Mr. Mateo just loooves his job." He fluttered out of the bushes, carrying a group of blue berries in his claws, but he had been a little rough on a few of them. Berry juice was all over his feet. It dripped like leaking blood as he came within reach of the girl and her counselor. Shrugging, John added, "Well, I may have squashed a few of them, but–"
"Just give them to me!" Mateo snatched the remaining berries out of John's claws. He ate them all at once.
John and Evie stared.
The berries had a delicate, sweet taste. There was some blueberry and raspberry in them.
For a second, Mateo stared into space.
"Whoo-hoo." John waved his foot in front of his face. He knocked on the young man's forehead. "You're not dead, are you?"
Without warning, Mateo grinned and leaped to his feet.
Evie and John were so surprised that they fell back.
Like magic, the pain in Mateo's belly just vanished. He placed his hands on his hips. His voice was crisp and clear. "I feel terrific! Like a new man! I feel like I can take over the world!"
That time around, both John and Evie surrendered. Whoa, those were some powerful berries.
Mateo pulled his friends to their feet. "Come on, mi amigos. We can't keep Paperblank Village waiting."
"Mateo, are you okay?" Evie asked.
Mateo gently slapped her cheek. "Of course, I am, dumpling."
Dumpling. Mateo himself just called Evie "dumpling".
He took her hands and started to jump up and down like a little kid. "I want to dance all night long and dream about the stars." After letting her go, he approached his motorcycle. "Well, let's go."
"Um..." Evie smiled sheepishly. She removed Mateo's hands from his cycle's handlebars. "How about we just walk the rest of the way?"
"Ooh, flowers!" Mateo ripped away from her grasp. He rushed toward some pink flowers.
"Um, John." Evie nudged the Red-Crowned Crane. "You gave him the right berries, right?"
He nodded. "I did. They just sometimes have side effects. Get him off to bed, okay? I'll check on the time traveler. Mateo will be back to normal in the morning, hopefully."
Mateo was on his knees, sniffing the flowers that interested him. Pollen sprayed all over his face, causing him to sneeze.
Evie soon appeared next to him. "Mateo, do you want to see a pretty pony?" she asked.
"Pony? Where, where?" Mateo jumped up. He jiggled his arms and hands.
Evie took his left arm. "Just come with me." She used the moon as a flashlight to find the path to the village.
"Sí!" Mateo broke free from her. He skipped in front of the little girl and twirled like he was insane.
Evie sighed. If she learned something during her first day of camp, it was that nothing was normal.
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