"So, are you excited to see M.K. again?" Natalie Sweater said to her friend, Rosemary Smith. "It's been forever, hasn't it?"
"Mhm," Rosemary hummed, looking out the window of the cab that they called. "Gonna be fun, that's what they said. Out in the boring forest with boring trees and boring air."
"Now, stop, you big baby," Natalie said, playfully slapping Rosemary's leg. "It's this behavior that made you come here in the first place. That, and your constant wandering. You were almost lost getting to our meeting point! Plus, the thugs..."
"I got out of there safe and sound, see? I'm still here!" Rosemary snapped. "Just let's get this over with." She looked at her shy friend. "I-I didn't mean it that way, I mean-"
Natalie sighed and put her hand on Rosemary's shoulder. "It's okay. I know what you meant. You still got your pads? For just in cases?"
"In my bag. Bomba better have some chocolate," she said, leaning out the window. "Otherwise, I just might die."
The cab turned into a old house in the middle of the woods with tall grey walls, a red ceiling, and webs all over the top of the house. Rosemary sighed and looked around. Trees were everywhere, alive and well. It was still summer, so the leaves were still green and attached on the trees, except the ones that fell from the last few winters and falls. Once the cab stopped, Natalie and Rosemary left it and Natalie handled the payment. Rosemary grabbed the luggage and they went inside once they found out the door wasn't locked.
"Mub, stop being a pain, I would like to speak with Nod, too," they heard MK say.
"Sure thing, Baby-Girl," they heard a male voice reply. "It's for you."
"Thank you, Mub," another male voice said. "Sorry about that, M.K."
"Eh, no big. So, you like Queen Dandelion Jinn?" M.K. asked the mysterious voice.
Natalie and Rosemary walked into a big computer room with monitors everywhere. M.K. was talking to a boy in one of them. "She's a great queen, always thinking of the forest first," the male figure on the screen said.
"Alright," M.K. laughed. "I've got to go, I'm expecting my friends to come over. Yay!" She smiled in the monitor. "Bye, Nod. Tell Mub I told him, bye!"
The monitor blanked out and M.K. turned and saw her two friends. "Natalie! Rose! How long have you been there?"
"I told you not to call me 'Rose'!" Rosemary snapped. "And we walked in at you telling someone they were a pain."
"Oh, Mub," M.K. smiled. "He is. He has this dilution that we'll get together someday." She laughed.
"Who wouldn't?" Natalie asked. "You're beautiful! Look at you! I wish I had a body like that!" She started pulling at her blonde hair. "I'm stuck with this."
"And low self-esteem," Rosemary butt in. "But at least you know who you are, not like some people." She started twisting her brunette hair and played preppy. "Oh my gosh, I am like so totally perfect and you are all like my royal subjects-ah!" She rolled her eyes and straightened her hair. "Yeah, right."
"This is why I dragged her along," Natalie said. "She needs a few weeks away from the electronics and... People, for that matter."
"Yeah, maybe a few weeks away might do her some good. So, how is it in the big city?" M.K. asked.
"Exciting, compared to this place," Rosemary groaned. "By the way, who were you talking to?"
"No one you know," M.K. answered. "Hey, my dad's not going to be starting dinner for a while, wanna go out for a forest walk?"
"Why not?" Natalie said happily.
"Joy to the world," Rosemary snarled.
M.K. wrote a note to her dad and left it on the table. Once they left the house, the fresh air hit them all in the face. They walked in silence for a while. M.K. was being cautioned about where she stepped. Soon, Rosemary tripped over a dead tree branch, shouting out in pain. She checked her leg immediately as M.K. looked at the tree branch.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Rosemary snarled.
M.K. tenderly picked up the branch and gasped. "It's back," she said. "I wonder if this means- Oh, no." Her eyes widened and she searched the ground for something.
Natalie and Rosemary sighed and shook their heads. As M.K. looked, they decided now was a good time to rest. They sat down and sighed. When they looked back at M.K., she was gone.
"Where'd she go?" Natalie asked.
Rosemary went to where she had been kneeling a minute ago and felt around for footprints. She touched a small orange plant with a red stem and a green dot on a certain spot. She looked over at Natalie, who walked over to the plant. They looked at it and sighed. Rosemary touched it, ignoring Natalie's please to go back to the house.
The next thing she knew, she was getting smaller.
Natalie stared in horror as her friend shrank. She almost screamed, but fell off balance and hit the flower's green spot full handed. She shrank along with her friend. When they were done shrinking, they saw M.K. standing there with her hands blocking the sun from her eyes. Rosemary stood up and looked at the tree that two seconds ago looked so medium. Now it was bigger than the biggest tree she'd seen on the highway. Natalie looked up and started freaking out.
"Don't panic," M.K. said. "Some of the people here are my friends."
Rosemary helped up her friend and glared at M.K. "What do you mean 'people'? No one is this small! We shouldn't even-"
"Baby-Girl!" They heard a shout of the same person that M.K. was talking to. "What're you doing here?"
M.K. turned. "Hi, Mub," she said, smiling. The two girls turned and saw a slug come toward them. "How're you doing?"
"Pretty good. Um, who are the other two?" the slug, Mub, asked.
Rosemary looked at him scared. "He talked. The snail. It talked!"
"He's a slug, no shell," Natalie whispered, as she always does in front of people she doesn't know. "Animal Science and common sense."
"Where's Nod?" M.K. asked. "And Grub? And General Ronin?"
Mub smiled. "Follow me, M.K.," he said. "They're having a meeting for if Mandrake comes back."
"Let's go, girls," M.K. said.
Rosemary, not one to follow orders, or paying attention when it would be really helpful, walked the opposite direction. Natalie stuck by M.K. like glue. I'm not taking orders from a slug. He doesn't know what I've been through. He doesn't control my life. She kept walking through the forest and turned, not seeing them behind her. Good, now they won't know where I've gone. She smiled and she kept walking in the opposite direction. She decided to test out her body in case something wasn't right. She ran for a while, did a summer-Sault, than stood. She jumped and found she could jump much higher then she could ever. She did a back-flip, front-flip, and jumped around for a bit. Once she was done with that, she walked a little farther. After a while, it seemed as if the green would never end. Then there were dead leaves, dead grass, and one big freaking hole.
She looked in it and saw a bunch of bugs, and one weird looking dude with blue skin, a strong figure, a rat's skin cloak, and a black staff. He was starting to climb the hole and Rosemary snapped down to hide herself. Once he got out, she could see him more clearly. He was tall, shiny arms, and when he looked at her, she could freckles dotting his cheek bones. He smelled like a dead rat and he had yellow eyes.
He pointed his staff at her with the bubbly side pointed to her. "Who are you?" he asked.
Rosemary gulped. "Rosemary. Who are you, might I ask?" she said, not one to give information without gaining some in return.
He snarled and put the staff a little closer, then brought it out a little. He thought a moment, then smiled evilly, then kindly. "You're not from around here, are you?" he asked soothingly.
"No," Rosemary said, now confused. "Why? How did you know?"
He put his staff away from her completely. "No reason. I just haven't seen you around the forest, that's all. My name is Mandrake." He held out his hand for Rosemary to shake. "Mind if I call you Rose?" he asked politely.
Yes, she thought, and then thought about the staff and how easily he could have killed her. "Of course not, Mandrake," she smiled, not shortening his name in case he had a major problem with anything she came up with. "So, what's the thing with the automatic kill sequence?"
"Ah, yes, my apologies," he said, starting to turn. "We've had a Leafmen situation before and I didn't want to take any chances."
Rosemary smiled, glad the question didn't end up with her getting hurt. "So, I guess I'm free to go?" she asked, hoping the answer was yes so she could find a way out of this crazy place.
"No," Mandrake said, turning to look at the girl. "You must not leave in case the Leafmen find you and... hurt you."
Rosemary thought a moment. "But what about my friends, M.K. and Natalie?" she asked, knowing it was stupid to mention names but didn't care. He made his point, and he had perfectly good reasons for her not to leave.
"M.K.?" he asked, curious. "Does she have red hair and a pink sweater?"
"It used to be pink," Rosemary said. "I'm not sure what color it is now, but it's not pink."
Mandrake nodded. "I see. She made her choice last time she came here. Don't feel bad for her." He shook his head. "She could have worked with me. Instead, she let Ronin take over what she did here. Poor girl."
"Who's Ronin?" she asked, knowing how stupid she sounded.
Mandrake turned to walk away, motioning her to follow with his hand. "The general of the Leafmen army," he answered. "We'll get you a room and have this whole thing figured out before your friends figured out that you betrayed them to the real solution. Or, at least, that's what I tell the others." He laughed a little.
"Okay," she said. "Solution to what, exactly?" She looked at the dead plants everywhere. "The inflammation in oxygen?"
"Honestly, I don't even know. One of my generals started it and I thought it was a good idea to keep up with even after he died. He was my best general." He looked at her while standing on the lip of the cave. "Leafmen. You coming?" He held out his hand. "I promise no one will hurt you if you're by my side."
"Sure..." Rosemary said, taking his hand. She stood at the top and they jumped in together. "So, what would have happened if I had jumped in without you?" she asked.
Mandrake and Rosemary landed on the ground. "You probably either would get killed or injured and brought to me," he said with pride. "I taught them that." He smiled as some of the bugs came to 'greet' them. "Calm," he ordered and all of them stopped. "I taught them that, too."
He and Rosemary started walking past them, and with each glare, Rosemary leaned closer Mandrake, hoping none of them would be dumb enough to hurt her if just missing their leader. She stayed close to him and looked at all the others. She soon figured out that she was scared. Not just that. She was terrified. A shivered crawled up her spine. She was never scared by anything before. Now she was leaning on him for support! She would have moved away but didn't want to get killed by bugs.
After a minute, she felt him stop, so she stopped a step ahead of him then stepped back. He turned around and had her let go, which was hard when a paper couldn't be placed between them. "My army, this is Rosemary," he bellowed so everyone could hear even if they weren't there. "She will be helping us out around here and with the Leafmen. If any of you even think about hurting her, I will kill you." He looked at her and held out his hand. She took it as he led her away. "Feel better?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" she asked back, trying to sound brave. "I'm perfectly fine!"
"You can feel when someone is afraid when they're next to you. Especially if they feel like they're trying to strangle your arm," Mandrake said, nodding to his arm.
Rosemary let go of his hand gently. "Sorry, guess I was a bit nervous," she admitted. "But it won't happen again, I promise."
"Don't get my hopes up, and don't make promises you can't keep," he said. "I learned that one the hard way."
"Gotcha," she said, walking close to him but keeping her distance so he couldn't feel her tenseness. "Don't make bad promises." She looked around. "I can promise that I'll probably never forget today."
"Good promise," he smiled.
They walked into a house type place. "This is where I live, the guest room is here, too," he said, looking at her. "Want me to show you around or...?"
"Yes, please," she said, not willing to have the only reason she's still there leave.
He looked surprised that she answered so quickly, then regained his composure. "Then let's go," he said, walking in. She tried to keep in step with him.
M.K. and Natalie were riding Mub because Natalie's feet started to hurt. They were riding him for a while before a bird started flying above them. It landed beside them gently. A man with dark brown hair, leafy clothes, and brown eyes jumped from it. He smiled and walked toward them.
"The meeting's over," he said.
M.K. jumped off of Mub. "Nod!" she squealed. "Hi!" She jumped in his arms. When they separated, she turned. "Nod, this is Natalie. She's a friend."
"Ah, Queen Jinn said there were new people in the forest, but where's the other one?" he asked.
"We don't know where Rosemary went to. She was with us, then, poof, no Rosemary," Natalie whispered. "You don't think something bad happened to her, do you?"
"Nah, nothing bad happens around here normally," Nod said. "I'm sure she'll turn up."
"Unless Mandrake got to her," M.K said, looking at her boyfriend. "Then there's no hope for her. He hates the Leafmen and will automatically assume that she's one." She thought a minute. "Oh, no."
"But, Rosemary's an adventurer person," Natalie said. "She would openly go against authority. That's why I brought her here. So that she'll learn to stay with others and... Oh, gosh no!"
"Don't worry," Nod said, looking at them. "I'm sure she just took a wrong turn while you were walking, no big deal. She'll turn up, I'm sure of it." He smiled. "I promise. She's probably good inside. Her common sense will take over and she'll come running." He put an arm around M.K. and looked at Natalie. "Would you like to ride the bird?"
M.K. laughed. "Not with you," she joked.
"I'm with M.K.," Natalie said, worried. "I know she won't try to kill me."
Even though Natalie was a couple years older than M.K., she acted like the younger sister she never had. "Let's go," M.K. said, climbing on the bird. "We can't wait forever."
"Right," Mub said. "Let's go!"
"Um, are you sure, M.K.?" Natalie asked, looking at the bird's front helmet piece. "It doesn't look safe."
"It's safer than riding a plane over the Pacific," M.K. answered, helping Mub up on the bird. "Come on, Natalie, help Mub up."
"Um, okay," she said.
It took a minute, but they got the slug on the bird, much to the bird's complaints. Then Nod got on. He held out a hand. "Come on, it's completely fine," he said.
"How much weight does the bird handle?" Natalie asked, calculating the weight of her and the drop in her head.
"Fine, if you'd rather walk," Nod said.
Natalie nodded. "That would be fine if there was someone to escort me there," she said fast. "But I guess I'll wing it if no one wants to."
"I'll do it," a voice said from behind. Natalie turned, though everyone else already knew who it was. "General Ronin, at your service." He stretched out his hand.
"Natalie," she said, smiling. "May I walk with you?"
Ronin held out his arm. "It would be my pleasure," he said, looking at the bird. "You have a problem with heights?"
"And about everything else a Stomper could be afraid of," M.K. said.
Natalie took the general's arm and started walking. Nod started up his bird and took off. While the two were flying, they were catching up.
"Do you really trust him?" Natalie asked, looking at Ronin.
He looked up. "No, but what's there to fear when he's got M.K. and Mub around?" he asked.
"Who is this Man-something I keep hearing about?" Natalie asked.
"Mandrake is the man who keeps trying to destroy the forest. Even more so since his son died."
"Who killed him?"
"I did. I was aiming at Mandrake, but missed. Now, the whole forest pays."
Natalie looked up at his sad face. "Why'd you take the chance? Couldn't you have left them alone?"
"No, they were trying to kill the... Queen Tara. They succeeded, though." He looked down. "It was a sad day for us all until Nim Galuu put a happy face on everything." He looked at Natalie. "That was the first time M.K. came. She helped us save the forest, and that included the pod." He laughed. "I still don't know how she got those bats away from the moon for the pod to bloom."
"The phone he has, it has an app that makes a bat sound," Natalie explained. "It's one of the benefits of the new technology." She laughed. "The side effects, you could turn into another Rosemary."
Ronin looked at her. "Who?" he asked.
"She's not here. If she were here, she would have wanted to drive the bird," Natalie said. "I brought her here to get away from the technology and show her that the forest is an exciting place, more than her phone." She sighed. "Then this happened and we walked and then she was nowhere to be seen."
Ronin looked at her as she was trying not to cry. "None of this is your fault," he said, putting a supportive arm around her. "All you happened to do was come into the forest."
"I know, it's just, I don't know," Natalie said. "I feel like if I never brought her here none of this would have happened."
Ronin chuckled a little. "No, the only thing that would have changed is that your friend wouldn't be lost right now." He looked at her and knew he said something wrong. "But even so, if she was meant to be here, she'll turn up."
"That's what Nub or Nap or-"
"Nod," Ronin said.
"Right, right. That's what Nod said," Natalie said.
"Really? Then maybe I'm wrong," he said, making Natalie seem confused, then laughed at the joke. "There we go. If I have to lighten up, so do you." They laughed a little then stopped for a minute.
"What are Stompers?" she asked.
Ronin looked at her. "People who are bigger, slower, and some are dumber than we are," he answered. "Don't worry, you seem like the average intelligent ones."
"Thanks, I think..." Natalie said, still not sure about the conversation. "So, slugs can talk?"
"Mub and Grub? Yeah, they can. It's actually annoying sometimes." Ronin shook his head. "But don't worry, it's not like that all the time. From time to time, Mub shuts up. Grub is more the quiet one. You would like him," he said, smiling reassuringly.
"I'm sure," she said.
"Nod, watch where you're flying!" M.K. yelled.
"Still the bird can fly herself better than I will ever," Nod said. "Mub's having fun."
They looked at the slug who leaned his head out and stuck out his tongue. They laughed a little and ducked under a tree branch.
"Let's land a moment," M.K. said, nodding.
Nod laughed. "And have them beat us there? I don't think so!" he yelled over the wind.
"I can barely hear you," M.K. said back.
Nod shrugged. "Oh, well!" he laughed.
"You're a jerk."
"Maybe, but I'm loveable!"
She hit his shoulder and smiled. "I'm lovable!" she shouted. Nod rolled his eyes and, as payback, flipped the bird a few times, causing her to almost fall.