"Hey, guys, check this out!"
"Huh?" Saetwo had been gazing at the ground, lost in thought, but now she looked up at what Conneda was pointing out. On the side of the road just up ahead was a very large, almost cubical boulder. Carved very deeply into it were several rows of small alcoves that were, coincidentally enough, just a Zoombini's size. In front of it was a little fire pit with a black pot resting over it. Farther back was a sparkling pond, and just past the boulder, the road split into two. Both new roads wandered off and vanished into the distance.
"Look at this!" someone remarked. "We've finally got a place to stay!"
"It's even got FOOD!! FOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD!!!" Conneda cheered at the sight of the boiling contents of the pot. As he did so, nearly everyone made a mad dash for the campfire, cheering joyfully and crowding around. Even Xekrai looked happy for once as he doled himself out an ample serving of the soup and messily gulped it down.
"Can we please stay here, Xekrai?" asked a wheeled Zoombini as she sidled up to him. "We're all so tired, and this place is just perfect for us!"
Xekrai looked shocked. "What – you mean live here?"
Conneda quickly pulled his face out of his bowl of soup. "Why not? We're all sick of traveling around. And let's face it, we're not gonna find anyplace better."
"Guys, this is just a rest stop," Xekrai said impatiently. "We can stay for a while, but we're not living here."
Most of the others grumbled but didn't argue.
"This place couldn't possibly hold all the Zoombinis anyway. We need someplace bigger," Xekrai continued. "Let's stay here for a few days and then decide what to do."
"Well, we're supposed to wait for the adults, remember?" Saetwo reminded him. "And since there definitely no cities here anywhere, that means we'll have to wait here."
Xekrai exhaled violently. "Fine. We'll wait for the adults to show up. But who knows how long that'll take? What if they don't find us? What if they never even got away from Zoombini Isle?"
"They did. I'm sure they did."
"Well, if they did, they'd better get here fast. I'm not waiting around forever."
-----
As the Zoombinis got used to staying at Shelter Rock, they began learning some very interesting things about it. Less than an hour after they arrived, Xekrai discovered that the various mushrooms growing around the campsite changed colors whenever they were touched (needless to say, the ground was dotted with an array of pinks, greens, and blues before long). Touli and Conneda, who had been fishing in the pond, made the very startling discovery that what they had thought were a few rocks protruding from the water were actually the head and knees of a large gray humanoid, who broke the surface long enough to scrub himself with a brush and then resubmerged. A few of the younger Zoombinis had been playing around the campfire when the ring of stones surrounding it were pushed out of the ground by a series of organ pipes, which puffed out a tuneful melody before disappearing back underground.
Had the group not already had to deal with sneezing cliffs, talking boulders, and pizza-eating trolls, all this might have disturbed them, but now they quickly dismissed it as normal – or at least, as normal as life here could possibly be.
The only person who wasn't off exploring the campsite was Saetwo. She couldn't stop thinking about Echae. All she was capable of doing was laying inside one of the compartments and worrying about him. The more she thought about it, the more she was regretting her decision. Why had she left him behind? How was he ever supposed to find them now?
Her guilt only grew as the day wore on, and by the time the sun had set, she couldn't take it anymore.
First thing tomorrow, she told herself, I'm going to find him.
-----
She woke up at the crack of dawn the next day. After squirming her way out of her alcove, she paused for a moment to admire the early morning scenery. Everything was shrouded by a light fog, and the rising sun covered the landscape in a pale light. Seeing it made her feel a little better, but at the same time made her wish Echae were there to see it too.
Not wasting any more time, she took off flying in the direction the group had come the previous day. Before long she rose up until she was flying hundreds of feet above the ground, all the time looking anxiously around for any sign of her friend.
"Echae?" she called. "Echae, where are you?"
But she received no answer, and although she had a sweeping view of the land from her vantage point, she couldn't see Echae anywhere.
Saetwo spent the entire day looking for him, flying tirelessly over the rocky landscape for hours on end and stopping only for a few minutes at a time. As the light began to fade from the sky and she still hadn't found him, she let out a dejected sigh and flew back to Shelter Rock.
It was well past dark when she arrived, and she was surprised to find most of the others gathered around a flickering campfire.
"Is that Saetwo?" one of them asked.
"Saetwo, where were you?!" Touli exclaimed as everyone rushed over to her. "You've been gone all day! We thought something had happened to you!"
"No, I'm fine," Saetwo muttered, not feeling much like talking.
"But where were you?" Xekrai demanded. "And why the heck did you take off without telling anyone?"
"If you have to know, I was looking for Echae," she replied curtly. "And I'll be going again tomorrow."
And she flew off, leaving everyone stunned.
True to her word, Saetwo spent the next day searching all over again. When she was met with no success, she tried again the next day, and the day after that. She barely even noticed how little sleep she was getting, or the concerned looks that the well-fed and relaxed Zoombinis were giving her whenever she returned. Her guilt wouldn't let her stop.
One week after the group had arrived at Shelter Rock, Saetwo woke up to find a small group of Zoombinis gathered around her ground-level alcove.
"What's going on?" she asked groggily.
"Saetwo, we have to talk to you," said Touli. "We know you're all upset about Echae and stuff, but you're taking this way too far."
"You gotta give it a rest. We're worried about you," agreed the skating Zoombini who had helped Echae on board the boat.
Saetwo slowly drew herself up. "You don't get it, guys," she sighed. "Echae's my best friend. And it's my fault he's gone. If I stopped looking for him, I couldn't live with myself."
"Well, you're gonna have to," said Conneda. "Xekrai says we're leaving today."
"Oh, well that's – what?!"
Saetwo shoved her way past the others and flew directly over to Xekrai, who was standing with the remainder of the group at the fork in the road.
"Glad you could join us, Saetwo," he said. "In case you didn't hear, we're leaving."
"What are you talking about?! We're supposed to wait here, remember?"
"Listen, Saetwo. All that time you were out looking for Echae, did you ever see him?"
"No, but – "
"Did you see anybody?"
Saetwo was turning red in embarrassment. "What's that got to do with it?"
"If anyone else was going to come, they would have gotten here by now. I know you don't want to hear it, but face it, we're alone. The big strong grownups aren't coming to help us."
"You don't know that!"
"Saetwo, remember what happened the night we left," said the purple-nosed Zoombini. "Do you really think the Bloats would let that happen again?"
She couldn't think of an argument for that one. "No. . . I guess not."
"And we all want to get going," said Xekrai. "And I know what you're gonna say, but Echae's not coming back. He's gone, Saetwo."
She pondered this, and was shocked to find that she didn't want to argue with him. As a matter of fact, he was probably right. She couldn't believe it, and it made her all the sadder to think about it, but Echae probably was gone for good.
"Okay."
Xekrai looked surprised. "Just 'okay'? Not 'Shut up, Xekrai, you don't know anything'?"
"No. I think you're right."
Xekrai was astonished, but after a moment he grinned smugly. "Well, that's more like it."
"Which way are we gonna go, Xekrai?" asked one of the others.
"We'll discuss that right now. Now, the road on the left goes north, which probably means. . . . "
Saetwo didn't want to take part in that discussion, so she turned around and flew back to the boulder, where some of the others were still gathered around.
"What did Xekrai say?" asked Touli.
"That we should stop waiting for the adults. He thinks they're not coming."
"And what did you say?"
"I agreed with him."
Touli was silent for a moment. "No, really, what did you say."
"Touli, I'm sick of arguing with him. I lost my best friend because I was too immature to listen to him. So from now on I'm just going to do what he says."
Touli and the others obviously had no idea how to react to this, so they said nothing.
"But I'll tell you one thing. I don't think that's really why Xekrai wants to leave."
"Why, then?"
"He wants to prove himself. Xekrai's not the guy who waits around for the adults to take care of anything. I think he hopes they get here, just so they can see how much he's done. He wants to get us through this all by himself."
The group over by the roads seemed to have come to a consensus, so Saetwo and the others went over to hear the decision.
"We made up our minds," said Xekrai. "We're going south. Unless anyone has an objection."
It didn't really matter to Saetwo either way, so she just shook her head. No one else said anything either.
"Then say goodbye to Shelter Rock, everyone," Xekrai went on. "Let's get going!"
And with that, the group set off together down the southern path, their energy restored and excited to be on their way. Xekrai was in the front, looking confident as ever as the others chatted happily around him.
Saetwo was in the very back. As the others were leaving, she paused for a moment and looked over her shoulder, back the way they had come, as though she were expecting to see someone there.
"Goodbye, Echae. I'll miss you."
And she followed after the group.