CHAPTER TWO: Inside the Great Hammond Tree
Jack looked around the inside of the Great Hammond Tree. This was definitely no normal tree. There were ladders, and spiderwebs, and man eating plants located on the base floor. Jack decided to quickly, yet quietly, make his way to the ladder nearest to him. He climbed up it.
He moved around the next level. He came to another treasure chest, but Thor didn't seem interested. He was fascinated with the texture of the walls.
"Hey Jack! Look at this wall! Vines are growing all over it, which gives it a rough surface. Maybe you can climb it." Jack looked up to see how high it went. He saw three giant, skull looking spiders.
"Or maybe not," Jack said, as he walked to the treasure chest. He opened it. When he opened it, he found a map. "No weapon?" He was getting ticked, but at least he now knew where he was going...that is if he could figure out how to read this dumb thing. He handed it to Thor, who told him how. Jack followed the map to a door.
"There's a door?!"
"Of course," Thor said, like it was no big deal that there was a door to another room inside of a tree. Jack opened the door and went into the next room.
The door closed and barred automatically behind him. He turned a sharp turn to see it.
"Jack! Look out!" Thor said as something popped up out of the ground and shot up at him. He quickly raised his shield which deflected the nut and hit the creature back.
The next thing he knew, the doors unbarred. Jack just stood there.
"You should go in the one straight ahead," Thor said, pointing to the door in front of them.
"I'm thinking that I should turn around and leave."
"No! You have to help the Great Hammond Tree, Jack! We have to stop the evil in the forest!"
"That's exactly it! I don't know what the hell is going on! I randomly woke up to you being not so quite yourself, and suddenly everyone's telling me I'm some kind of potpourri and that I have to break some kind of curse and save the day?! I can barely even think straight right now from the Benadryl in my—that's it! I'm freaking stoned!" He said. It was all starting to make sense now. He had to be high because there is no way that he would have come up with something like this on his own. It was the only thing that made sense. If no one was messing with him, he HAD to be high!
He decided to play along. "Alright, fine. We'll do it your way." He headed to the door in front of him and entered.
In the next room, there was a large floating platform in the middle of the room. Jack looked around for some other way to cross to the other side, but found none. He had no idea what was holding the platform in mid-air, but he was sure that Sam could tell him. He looked around and realized for the first time that his team wasn't with him. Where the heck was his team?!
He sighed and got a running start so he could jump to the platform. When he got on it, it began to shake violently so he went ahead and jumped to the next form of solid ground. When he landed safely, he looked around.
"Jack," Thor said. "Here's another chest."
"That's another thing!" He complained. "What's with all the chests?! The least they could do is give me a locker or something!" He opened it in frustration. He lifted out a slingshot. "Are you kidding?! No guns?! Not even a zat? Where's the knife, at least?"
"You got the slingshot! That's awesome, Jack!" Thor said. Jack rolled his eyes. This guy was way too optimistic.
Jack looked around the room. He didn't see a way out. He looked up and noticed a giant spiderweb, much like the ones he'd already seen. He also noticed that there was a ladder holding it was holding in place. He, instinctively, pulled out his sling shot and fired. He missed the point that he saw, so he tried again. This time he got it.
Jack hopped down and ran across the room. He climbed up the ladder and exited.
"That was awesome Jack!" Thor said.
"Yeah, whatever," Jack was obviously irritated. This was so dumb. Why was he here? He made his way over to the vines that Thor was so excited about.
"Why don't you shoot those things with your slingshot?" Thor suggested. Jack did it, reluctantly. When he had killed all three of the giant spiders, he climbed up the vines and onto another level.
"Just freaking great!" He said, dusting himself off. He walked around before coming to another door. Thor was freaking out about this door, too. This was way too weird for him. He was seriously going to kill whoever made him go through this stupid scenario.
He entered through the door. The doors barred behind him, yet again. He sighed deeply and drew his sword. Nothing was coming at him from any direction, so he placed it back in the sheath.
"Now what?"
"Try standing on that thing!" Thor said, pointing to a button like thing sticking out of the floor.
"You stand on it," he began to argue.
"I'm not the hero, Jack, you are. You are the one the Great Hammond Tree entrusted to break the curse."
"You're my sidekick. You do it. I don't want to die if any unexpected trap falls from the roof."
"I'm far too light," Thor argued. Jack grit his teeth and walked over. He stood on the button. Suddenly three platforms rose from the ground. He made his way over to the other side.
Great, another treasure chest, he thought to himself. He opened it.
"You found a compass!!" Thor said, once again, over dramatically.
"Okay, this could be of some use. So, now we have a map and a compass. Where do we go next?" They made their way back to the door, only to find it still barred. Jack shot Thor a questioning look. Thor simply shrugged. Then he caught sight of an unlit torch.
"Hey look at this!" He said. "Maybe if you light it, the door will open."
Jack, without saying anything, took out one of his deku sticks and caught it on fire. He lit the torch and sure enough, they were able to go through the door. He made it back into the main room.
"Now what?"
"Maybe if we jump off of here, that web in the center of the room will break."
"You want me to kill myself?!" That was it. Jack was royally pissed now.
"You won't. Didn't you notice the water underneath?"
"For all you know it could only be two feet deep!"
"And for all you know, it could be ten feet deep. I say try it!" Thor insisted.
"Why should I trust your gut?"
"I haven't been wrong, yet," Thor pointed out. Jack took an irritated breath and headed to the edge. Suddenly an even larger spider fell, knocking Jack on his butt. He quickly pulled out his slingshot and shot it a couple of times, killing it. He glared at Thor, who responded with a sympathetic look.
Jack walked to the edge. His stomach was almost in his mouth. He closed his eyes and jumped off, breaking the web. He landed in the water.
Luckily, it wasn't two feet deep. He came up and flung the water from his face, noticing that his dorky green hat was still on.
"I told you!" Thor said.
"Can it!" Jack snapped, splashing him with water. He swam around until he found some hard ground underneath the water. He climbed up on it and climbed up on some higher ground.
When he got on the higher ground, he saw another unlit torch and a button. This time the torch was golden, like the one that was already lit in the previous room.
"Okay, okay, okay," he sighed, before Thor could say anything. He jumped on the button again. This time the unlit torch lit itself. "Now what?" He asked looking around.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Jack asked irritated. "You've known exactly what to do up to this point, you have to know!"
"I can make a suggestion," Thor said.
"Then make it," he said between gritted teeth.
"You see that web over there?" Thor asked, pointing directly across from them.
"Yeah."
"Maybe if you took a Deku Stick, lit it on fire, took it over there and lit the web on fire, you could get through the door that's right behind it."
"I'm gonna kill you," Jack said, charging at him.
"What did I do?" Thor asked, flying out of his reach.
"I knew that you knew what to do! Who are you and what do you want from me?"
"I'm Thor and I want to help you! We need to get a move on it so we can break the curse on the Great Hammond Tree!" Jack pulled out his slingshot and shot at Thor. "You're wasting Deku Seeds!" Thor said, dodging the seed.
"We're in a damn tree! I can get more!"
"Just try what I said, Jack. It might work."
"Of course, it'll work! It always works!" Jack got out a Deku Stick and did exactly what Thor suggested. Sure enough, Thor was right.
When he entered the room, there was an annoying plant shooting things at him again! He did exactly what he did the first time.
"I-I-I'm Jacek. Please forgive me. If you spare me I'll teach you something cool," the shrub looked up to see Jack. "Oh it's you again!"
"Tell me what's cool," Jack said, holding out his sword. Jacek gulped.
"You'll never beat the others up ahead unless you punish them in the proper order."
"What's the order?"
"Two-Three-One. Twenty three is number one!" He mumbled something about being a traitor as he hopped back to his little spot in the ground. This time the bars didn't go up. Jack looked around.
"Maybe if you shoot that eye with above that door, it will open," Thor offered.
"When you know the solution, stop saying "maybe". It pisses me off," Jack said as he shot the eye. Once again, Thor was right.
Jack entered another room. Thor opened his mouth to speak, but Jack spoke up first.
"Let me figure this one out!" He said in one breath. Thor backed off.
"I'll bet there are some interesting things under the water," Thor said. Jack shot him a look. "Sorry."
Jack hopped into the water and found another button. He pressed it, then came up for air. The water level had dropped. He climbed back on to solid land and hopped into the random, floating patch of land. He ducked when he went under the spinning bar, which happened to be spiked. He hopped off the floating patch, when he reached the other side.
This time there was a box. The box was leaned up against a bit of the wall. Jack shot Thor a smug look. He was determined to figure this room out for his own ego's sake.
When Jack made it to the box another spider dropped down.
"Holy crap!" He said, jumping backwards. His heart was pounding. He pulled out his slingshot and killed the spider. Then he pulled the box to a certain point and climbed up onto it. After getting onto the box, he then proceeded to climb onto another spot. There was a door waiting for him.
"Told you, I could do it," He shot at Thor.
"I never said you couldn't, Jack. We need to get a move on it if we're going to break the curse."
"Right," Jack said, getting back down to business. He entered the door.