A Day in the Park

Chapter 4

Johnny's P.O.V.

As the tree monster carried us into the cave, I wondered what was about to happen. We were at it's mercy and we were about to be submerged in complete darkness. To say I was scared would be the understatement of the century.

As the sunlight faded away, I became aware of another light source coming from within the cave itself. It came from around the bend at the far end of a dark tunnel. The intensity of the light shifted constantly but never disappeared.

Our captor was walking toward it. When it reached the bend, it's movements came to an abrupt halt. Then, to my amazement, I was lowered gently to the ground and the grip around my body was released. I quickly pushed myself to my feet and was rewarded with a twinge of pain from my entire left side. I turned back to the tree creature in time to see it opening it's other hand, which was now palm up on the ground, releasing its other captive.

For a moment, Dib just sat and stared, then, seeming to finally comprehend that the creature's hand no longer caged him, he got up and ran as fast as he could to me. As I knelt down, with more complaints from my side, and wrapped my arms around him, he buried his face in my shirt and started sobbing. I could feel him trembling against me. The whole time, I never took my eyes off the thing that had put us in such a state of sheer terror.

In the dim half-light coming from behind me, the monster looked like a formless mass. It hadn't moved since standing back up after letting go of us. If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought it was some sort of rock formation. Behind it, I could see the pinprick of light from the entrance of the cave, a good ten or fifteen minute walking distance away.

Then, I realized I should be trying to get away from here, away from that thing. I'd come back and find this entrance again later if I had to. The tree monster couldn't stay here forever, could it?

Ignoring the pain in my side, I picked up the still trembling form of my little brother and slowly backed away, heading toward the bend that the flickering light came from. Not once did the tree creature make a move to stop me. When I got around the bend and out of its line of sight, I leaned against the wall, put Dib back on the ground and let out a sigh of relief.

Then the gears in my head started to turn. What was that thing? Why did it bring us here? Where is here anyway? Why did it just let us go? My mind just kept cranking out questions that I could think of no possible answer for.

I looked down at Dib, who had stopped crying but was still shaking. He just stood and stared at me, waiting to see what I'd do.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

The only response I got was whimpering. I knelt down, got at eye level with him and said, "Look, if we're going to get through this, we need to be able to think calmly and clearly. So, you need to take a deep breath and calm down."

After a moment Dib followed my instructions; it took him a few moments but he finally stopped shivering.

"Now, I need you to tell me if you are hurt anywhere."

He shook his head.

"Do you think you can walk?"

I saw him nod in the dim light.

"Well then, how about we go find out where this lights coming from, maybe it's a way out."

I took his sweaty hand in mine and we walked toward the light. There was a hole at the other side of the cavern that we were in where the light shone brightly. As we made our way toward it, I saw that the light was shifting not only in intensity but in color as well. White, blue, pink and purple lights randomly overlapped each other.

Then we were standing at the edge of the hole. Before us was a vast, high ceilinged cavern that extended far back beyond what I could see. For the length of about half a football field there was gently sloping rocks that led down to the surface of a lake which extended back into the darkness. The rocks were covered with a dimly glowing green moss. There were stalactites hanging from the ceiling, dripping water onto the stalagmites below them, making a sound that echoed off all the walls.

All throughout the cavern there were what looked like little orbs of light swirling and twirling through the air. Some were the size of a balled up fist while others were little more than pinpricks of light. They were all different colors, blue, white, purple and red and even as I watched a few of them switched from one color to another or changed in size. Whereever their light hit the walls or the water, mirror surfaces refracted and reflected it, creating a light display like no other.

"Wow." Dib and I both said at the same time.

I wonder what they are? I thought to myself.

"Night Wisps." Dib stated, making me realise that I had once again spoken my thoughts out loud. I didn't think about this fact for long because my attention was drawn back to the scene before me.

For a moment, all I could think about was what an incredible painting I could create in here. I snapped back to reality when Dib let go of my hand and started wandering down the hill.

I quickly grabbed his shoulder and said "Hey! Where do you think your going."

"I wanna get a closer look."

"Well, I don't want you rushing off. Keep in mind that if you hadn't done so earlier, we would probably be home by now. Instead, we're trapped in a wet cave with a giant tree monster, these night wisps and who knows what else."

At those words Dib fell silent. He looked around and then at me with a sad expression on his face. Then he finally spoke up. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that this'd happen. I was gonna stop the tree and help people."

"And what about that promise you made about telling me before you go chasing after anything?"

"I didn't think…"

"That's right, you didn't think. That's the problem, right there."

As I had been scolding Dib, the night wisps had taken notice of us. As silence fell between us, I realized that we had an audience. Most of them had wandered over to us, although none of them seemed to want to close in the last few yards to reach us. The few that didn't come to us were now travelling above the lake, zooming over distant waters until the darkness seemed to swallow them up. Where are they off to in such a rush?

Dib's P.O.V.

We started walking down the hill and close to the lakeshore.

After travelling a short distance, we sat down on a patch of ground that wasn't covered in moss. The only sounds that penetrated the thick silence were the sounds of dripping as water fell from the ceiling and of running water somewhere off in the distance. The night wisps continued to hover a close by, they now surrounded us on all sides.

As we sat there, I wondered how we were going to get out of here. Finally, when I couldn't stand the quiet any longer, I asked "What're we gonna do now?"

" No idea. I don't see any exits around here. All we can probably do is wait until that tree thing goes away."

"What if it doesn't."

"I'm sure we'll figure something out."

I turned my gaze out toward the water and saw that the night wisps that had left earlier were coming back. At least I think it's the same ones. They were moving in a small, closely-knit group. There couldn't have been more than ten out there. The water underneath them seemed to give off a weird glow too but maybe that's just their reflection. I couldn't really tell; looking through the light of the closer, larger group made it hard to see anything off in the distance.

Maybe they were making it hard to see on purpose.

"Nny?"

"What?"

"Look at the water. Those night wisps are coming back."

Johnny, who had been staring at his shoes with hand cupped under his chin and a look he often wears when he's deep in thought, glanced up at the water.

The night wisps were clearly closer now and I could see that whatever was causing the water to glow was under the surface.

Before he had a chance to say anything, I asked, "What do you think they're up to?"

"I don't know," He said as he glanced back at me, "But I don't feel like sticking around to find out."

"Me neither."

Johnny's P.O.V.

I moved to pick Dib up but found that my side hurt too much to do so. Changing strategies, I quickly grabbed his hand and turned toward the entrance that we came from. With my injuries, I was moving so slowly that Dib was able to keep pace with me easily.

We didn't make it far though because once the other, closer night wisps realized where we were heading, they started changing size and color so fast that they created blinding flashes of light, effectively blinding us. I winced and Dib screamed.

I blindly tripped over a rock, letting go of Dib's hand in the process. I couldn't see him, so I started feeling around and calling out to him. By the time I found Dib and gotten my vision back, the travelling night wisps had reached the shore. The ones that had been surrounding us had all become small white dots. They moved away from us, leaving a large semi circle of space, one which opened up toward the lake.

As we watched, the wisps which had traveled across the lake quickly dispersed, joining the rest of the group. Then something started to crawl out of the water.