Chapter 26 - I've Got You!

They approached the cave warily, unsure of what to expect. The trail along the mountainside was narrow – at some points of the trail only about the width of a grown-up man's shoulders - they could only walk it one at a time. Though the cave wasn't very high up the side of the mountain, it was high enough and all of them tried not to look over the edge.

Arnold went first, followed by Helga, Phoebe and then Gerald. Each was still armed, Helga with the large knife she had taken from the guard in the boat safely in the sheath on her rope belt, Phoebe with the small spar, and Arnold and Gerald with the spears Gerald had found in the temple.

Arnold stopped, holding up his hand for the others to halt, which they did.

"Arnold?" Helga questioned.

"Shh. I think I heard something," he whispered.

The four looked around, their ears straining for any sound. Then Arnold heard it again, a soft slithering sort of sound, then jumped when a small rock landed in front of him.

"Rock slide!" Phoebe squeaked, having looked up.

The other three glanced up to see a small slide of rocks and dirt coming towards them. Gerald grabbed Phoebe's arm and yanked her back, even as Helga jumped away from Arnold just as the rocks landed on the path where she'd been standing. As she jumped back, her foot caught the edge of the trail and slid, throwing her off balance. Her shriek as she went over the edge stabbed at Arnold's heart. "NO!" he yelled, unable to reach her with all the rocks blocking him.

"Helga!" Phoebe screamed, her and Gerald scrambling to the edge to look down.

"I'm here, Pheebs," Helga's voice called up. "Help me!"

Helga had been lucky to fall over the edge at a point where the mountain wasn't steep, but she was still in danger. There were some stunted trees scratching out an existence on the mountainside and she had been able to grab at one as she fell. She had climbed up to straddle the trunk, which stood out at an angle from the side of the mountain, but she was far enough down where she couldn't reach the trail edge.

"Helga!" Arnold yelled.

"I'm alright Football Head!" she yelled back. The sound of her saying her nickname for him reassured him more than anything. While the rockslide had been small, there was a lot of rocks blocking the path between him and the others, so he started to clear them away as fast as he could, coughing at the dust raised as he did.

"Hang on Pataki!" Gerald called down to her. He sat back on his heels and pulled his backpack off. "I grabbed some of that rope they tied us up with," he told Phoebe. "I hope there's a piece long enough."

He dug out several pieces of rope, glanced over the edge again, then picked out the longest. He looked at Phoebe, who was watching him anxiously. "This rope isn't very strong looking, but it's all we got."

"Will it reach her?"

"Let's see."

With him and Phoebe holding the rope, he tossed the other end over the edge. Helga stretched as far as she could and couldn't quite reach it. "It's not long enough!" she yelled to Gerald.

"I can tie knots, Gerald," Phoebe said. "Let's add the next longest piece."

Gerald silently handed it to Phoebe, who tied a complex, though strong-looking knot, making the rope long enough to reach. Helga tied a knot in the end of it to give herself a handhold.

"How's it coming Arnold? I may need your help to pull her up," Gerald shouted to Arnold.

"A few minutes!" Arnold gasped.

Phoebe was on her knees, looking over the edge; Helga was looking up, her hands against the face of the mountain. A sharp cracking sound suddenly shot up from the tree Helga was sitting on. "Hurry Phoebe!" she cried. "It's breaking!"

"Gerald! Now!" Phoebe screamed. "She's going to fall!"

Hearing that, Arnold worked faster, in a panic now. Knowing that there wasn't time, Gerald yelled down to her, "You'll have to help Pataki!" He and Phoebe clung to the rope and pulled. The rope went taut as Helga started up to the path, her feet finding footholds automatically, her eyes steady on the path ahead of her. She didn't dare look down, though she tried hard not to notice how thin the rope was she was using to climb.

It took a few minutes, but as she reached the edge, she was relieved to see Arnold's head peer over. He had run right over once he was able. The fear on his face almost made her laugh, a reaction she couldn't believe she had considering her current position. He reached his hand over the edge. "It's ok! I've got you!"

'You sure do,' she thought, her left hand releasing the rope and clutching at his. With her other hand still on the rope that Gerald and Phoebe were pulling, and Arnold pulling on her left hand, she made it over the edge and, with Arnold holding her, scrambled against the mountainside as far from the edge as possible.

When the realization of what had just happened hit her, she started shaking uncontrollably. She buried her face against Arnold's chest and just trembled. He, in turn, tightened his arms around her. "It's ok. You're safe now," he said in a low tone, trying to soothe her.

Phoebe and Gerald also leaned against the mountainside, exhausted. They looked at each other for a moment, then Phoebe crawled over to Helga and Arnold and also wrapped her arms around Helga, and they stayed like that until Helga stopped trembling.

Helga finally pushed against them, lifted her head up and tried to joke about it. "Ok guys, enough with the hugging already! Get off me, I can't breathe!" She looked at Arnold, whose expression was worried and still reflected his fear. He saw how pale she was, but she tried to smile bravely at him, so he smiled back.

Phoebe pulled back as well and the four sat there, side by side quietly for another few minutes. Helga brushed at her legs, wincing at the scrapes she had received. She was grateful that she didn't seem to have any serious cuts, but knew she'd probably have a few decent bruises soon.

"Ok…break's over," Helga said, pushing herself to a standing position. "Come on!" She reached down to take Phoebe's hand and help her up.

"Geez Pataki, you just almost died," Gerald said, standing up.

"But I didn't," she said matter-of-factly, looking at him. She looked uncertain as Arnold stood up behind her. Then, surprising Gerald, she gave him an awkward hug. "Thanks for saving me," she managed to say.

He hugged her back, looking at Phoebe over Helga's shoulder. "Well I couldn't let anything happen to my girls' best friend," he said softly, which made Phoebe's eyes widen as she blushed. "Or my friend," he added a little hesitantly.

Helga laughed, letting go. "Yeah, my friend," she said. She and Arnold chose not to comment on what Gerald said about Phoebe, though Arnold just smiled his knowing half-smile at Gerald before turning and leading the rest of the way to the cave.

Still in the lead, Arnold stepped cautiously up to the cave entrance. All four kids were listening hard for any noise, but it was quiet, all things considered. He was a little concerned that anyone looking up toward this mountain could probably see them. None of them had taken that into consideration – how exposed they were as they crept up to the cave.

"I would think we would hear SOMETHING if someone was up here," Helga muttered in a frustrated tone.

Arnold agreed. The silence was unnerving.

The opening to the cave was irregular, but large. Gripping the spear in his hand, he slowly eased his head around the edge of the entrance and looked inside. He didn't see anything, or anyone, at first, and took a breath, only now realizing he had been holding it.

"What do you see?" Helga whispered from behind him.

"Nothing. Wait…" Arnold said, stepping further into the entrance and looking around. "There's no one here," he told his friends in a louder voice, "but there's a lot of stuff."

Arnold stepped in further, followed by Helga, Phoebe and Gerald. The four stood just in the entrance and looked around the large cave. Light flooded in from the entrance, illuminating the dozens of crates stacked around the inside.

"Looks like a storehouse almost," Helga said.

"And it looks as if it has been recently searched," Phoebe added, pointing at some of the crates which had been either opened, tipped over, or had items strewn about.

"Well it's obvious our class isn't here," Helga said, disappointed. "I guess we need to go search near that pier. This would be an ideal place to put them. It wouldn't exactly be easy to escape from here."

Arnold looked into one of the crates, "There's…I guess they would be relics or something like that in here. Maybe Green Eyes stuff?"

The other three looked into the crate at which Arnold had stopped. Gerald reached in and picked up a small stone statue. "It does sort of look like the things in the Temple. Only, it's not anything that looks like you, Arnold."

Arnold made a face at Gerald as Phoebe and Helga laughed. "They do have other Gods, Gerald. I'm not the only one."

"You see that ladies," Gerald drawled, smirking at Helga and Phoebe, "He has fully embraced the whole being a God thing. We really should watch out for those lightning bolts…"

"That's not what I meant!" Arnold exclaimed as Phoebe and Helga laughed harder.

"Aw look at poor Arnold blush!" Helga teased, her eyes shining as she looked at him. He returned her look with a sheepish smile.

"It's alright Arnold," Gerald assured him. "I feel honored to be the best friend of a God. I mean, it's a pretty awesome thing to brag about."

Arnold finally laughed, though his cheeks were still flushed. "Very funny, Gerald."

"Arnold! These look like newspapers!" Gerald called from the back of the cave.

Arnold hurried over to him, past Phoebe and Helga, who were digging through one of the opened crates. Gerald had been sifting through a pile of papers, discarded there in a heap. He had in his hand what did look like two newspapers, but it was the picture on the front of the first one that caused Arnold to grab it in excitement.

It was their class, a picture of them taken about a week after they had found out about the contest. It had been used for press releases in their hometown, but Arnold had had no idea that it was news anywhere but in Hillwood. "Helga said La Sombra said he saw it on the news, but I had no idea it meant this."

"It makes sense though, if you think about it," Gerald reasoned. "I imagine San Lorenzo being a prize in a contest had to be big news to this area."

Arnold nodded and looked at the title of the paper. "La Nacion," he murmured and then noticed that the words 'San Jose' were listed at the bottom. "This must be the newspaper of San Jose. La Sombra must have seen it there."

He looked again at the class picture and the headline above it. He couldn't read it, it was all in Spanish. "Hey Helga!" he called.

"What?"

"Can you interpret this?" he asked, waving the newspaper when she looked up at him.

Helga and Phoebe came over to the boys and sat down on the floor of the cave next to them. Arnold handed her the newspaper and she looked at it. "Wow, that's us! Who knew we made international news!"

"What does the article say?" Gerald asked.

They were all silent as Helga read the paper, frowning as she opened the paper to look at another page. When she finally closed it and looked up, she did not look happy.

"Well?" Arnold asked.

The girl sighed. "It appears this paper took more liberties with the story of our trip here than our local paper back home. This reporter actually did some digging. It starts out about the essay and winning the trip, but most of it is about you and your parents."

"It is?"

Helga nodded. "Apparently your parents' disappearance was big news back when it happened. The fact that you were born here and that you were going to come back is the whole focus of most of this article. It hints that you wrote the essay and won the trip in order to search for your parents." She opened the paper again to the inside. "See? It has a picture of your parents and tells their story here," she said, resting the paper on her lap and pointing.

"I had no idea," Arnold said faintly, looking at Phoebe and Gerald.

"Well that explains how La Sombra knew who you were," Gerald said.

"And the connection to your parents," Phoebe added. "If he knows anything about them, or where they are, then he must think he can use you to make them do what he wants. Maybe they did steal El Corazon back from him, and he wants to use you to make them give it back."

"But if he knows where they are, or how to find them, why haven't they come back on their own?" Arnold asked frowning.

Helga looked at him, knowing the meaning behind the question from their talk the previous night. "They may not be able to, Arnold," she said as gently as she could. "We don't know anything yet."

Phoebe was standing at the entrance to the cave as Arnold, Gerald and Helga continued to look through the already opened crates. "Hey guys," she said in a quiet, but strained toned.

They all looked at her. "What's up Pheebs?" Helga asked.

"I think someone is coming towards this cave. I can hear something moving on the path. They are not being quiet and are coming up fast!" She backed away from the entrance, frightened, and moved closer to Gerald.

All four looked at each other, hesitating for a moment. "It could be La Sombra. Or his men," Arnold said.

Gerald ran over to grab his spear and Phoebe's spar from where they had dropped their gear when they came in. He threw the pole to Phoebe, who caught it. Helga drew her knife from its' sheath, looking at Arnold. "Grab your spear. It looks like we're not being taken without a fight."

Arnold followed her directions, but he was had to admit he was scared. He couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to Helga and his friends. He wished there was time to hide them or something, but he knew that was impossible, even if there were some place to hide them.

All of them now could hear the footsteps coming closer. Phoebe was right. Whomever it was wasn't trying to sneak up on them. The four stood side by side between the crates and the entrance, brandishing their weapon of choice and facing whatever was coming at them, all with determined expressions on their faces. Arnold glanced quickly at Helga, who returned his look steadily, then suddenly smiled at him. He couldn't smile back. He couldn't let anything happen to her – not after her almost-fall earlier, when his heart stopped, thinking he had lost her.

They both looked quickly at the entrance when two figures appeared. Two dark figures they couldn't see in the glare from the afternoon sun outside.

"Don't come any closer!" Arnold heard Helga growl, even as he and Gerald stepped slightly forward in front of the girls.

"Arnold?"

The voice was soft and feminine, a surprise to all of the kids, but it wasn't enough for them to lower their weapons, even as the two moved closer.

"I mean it, lady!" Helga yelled.

"Is it really you, Arnold?" a deeper male voice said, and the two finally entered far enough into the cave where the kids could see who they were.

Nothing was said for a few minutes as Arnold, Gerald, Phoebe and Helga stared at the pair, all open-mouthed in surprise. Arnold dropped his spear as he said, "Mom? Dad?"

Note: I had a dozen ideas of introducing Stella and Miles back into Arnold's life, and I hope this one makes sense and will be satisfying to my readers. Their story comes in the next chapter and I also hope that is satisfying. And yay for Gerald and Helga admitting they are friends. Finally.