*Chapter Eleven*

"J-J-JAGUAR." Sarah covered her mouth. "Keefe, just follow my l-lead." She bit her lip as she focused on breathing to calm herself. There was not just one, but a whole mob of jaguars.

"Yeah, and that's so easy to do while you're shaking like a-" Sarah slapped her palm over his mouth, interrupting whatever snarky comment he had.

Keefe mumbled something, but it was incoherent, since Sarah was covering his mouth.

Sarah grabbed his hand and dragged him away to a tall pona tree. She put her palm on the bark and whispered: "Everglen. Please take us to Everglen."

"Oh, great, she's going crazy now," Keefe muttered, trying to slip out of Sarah's firm grip.

Sarah ignored her brother and closed her eyes, trying to focus like Renna told her to. But it was hard to do while a group of very large, very scary jaguars carefully crept up to them, slinking around the trees with wile.

She felt a pulse through the bark. A strange heartbeat. Like the tree was alive. In a way, it was.

Then warmth pushed through the wood, and it empowered Sarah. She smiled. She could do this.

She felt power when she touched the tree.

"Everglen," she murmured, more sure of herself than ever now. Light poured from through the tree and started to swirl subtly around the bark.

Keefe jerked away from his sister just as the glowing folded in on Sarah and transported her home.


"KEEFE!" Sarah shrieked as she streamed through the roots, now merely a glow in the connected environment of Mother Nature.

She flew out of the tree and solidified. "KEEFE!" she cried again, actual tears streaming down her face and dribbling off her chin.

Tam, Linh, Fitz, Sophie, and Dex stood there as a group, gawking at her.

"What in the world?" Sophie gasped.

"I-I just brought myself back, a-a-and Keefe, he's still in the Amazon...I-I.." Sarah collapsed as a heap on the dewy grass.

Sophie gasped as she realized what Sarah was saying. "Are you sure it was the Amazon?"

"Stupid guy," Tam muttered under his breath, but his dark-grey eyes reflected concern. Tam and Keefe were apparently rivals, but they were still friends. So, they were technically frenemies.

"Did the Neverseen take you?" Dex asked, wringing his fingers.

Linh started to say something, but Sarah held up her hand. "Could you guys talk...one...at...a...time...please?" she breathed.

"Sure," Fitz butted in. He glanced around at everyone in the courtyard. "I'll reach out telepathically to everyone and ask you the questions. That way, it'll be more organized."

"Good idea," smiled Sophie, and she twined her fingers with Fitz's. Sarah very noticeably scowled at them. She was still vying for her brother, even though he wasn't there right now.

Sophie nervously let go of Fitz's hand as soon as she saw Sarah's ballistic glare. Fitz closed his eyes to monitor the thoughts.

A moment later, Fitz opened his eyes again. "Dex would like to know if the Neverseen took you."

"Yes. They did," Sarah narrowed her eyes.

"Okay. Sophie wants to know, one, were you in the Amazon?"

"Yes," puffed Sarah.

"All right. Two, she wants to know how you got there."

"Um, well, Keefe and I-"

"Also, mind explaining why Keefe was there?" Tam interrupted. Fitz silenced him with a stealthy glare.

"I don't know. I guess the Neverseen took him after me," Sarah admitted after a small break to catch her breath.

"Okay. Now can you go back to the other question? How did you get to the Amazon?"

"There was a leaping crystal that led us there. We found it hidden in the grass outside of the Neverseen's hideout," Sarah explained with a gusty sigh. She was worrying about how Keefe would survive the jaguars.

Fitz nodded briefly. "And Linh's question is- how did you make it here, but not Keefe?"

A hot tear made its way down Sarah's cheek. She sighed. "I learned I have a second ability that the Neverseen apparently recently installed in me. I'm a Querker."

"What's that?" Sophie asked, bemused as she forgot to stay silent. But, very noticeably, Fitz did not contradict her.

Sarah pursued her lips and elaborated. "I can teleport through trees' roots."

"And you can't bring people with you?" Sophie clarified.

"I don't know. I think maybe I can, but Keefe yanked himself out of my grip at the last moment, right as I was getting my energy."

Sophie uttered a string of unrepeatable words. "Calm down, Sophie," Fitz whispered, squeezing her hand for comfort. But nobody couldn't deny the fact that Keefe was far better at calming Sophie down than Fitz ever could be.

"I can try to go back, but I don't remember exactly how the tree looked like, and where, exactly, it was positioned," Sarah sighed. "And..." she hesitated. "I kinda forgot to mention that there's a huge group of hungry jaguars prowling around."

Everyone shrieked, "WHAT?!"

"Kind of a big detail to overlook," Fitz scowled.

Sarah shrugged, trying to look unperturbed. But the truth was, because of her fright, Keefe might die.

A determined glint in her eyes, Sophie said, "I'll teleport there. I'll save Keefe."

A/N: Hey there! Just a quick notice- Normally, I update my fanfics every day or at least every other day. However, I need some more inspiration before I resume updating this one, in order for my writing to be the highest quality possible, so it may be a couple more days before I add a new chapter here. Thank you for your patience!