Chapter 10: The Hunter
A few things were different in the enchanted forest. Ben was gone, and Lee was nicer. The forest had softened up Lee's "royal" attitude.
Lee was starting to cook and clean up after himself. He still wouldn't help get any of the food, but he did stop eating all the biscuits and started eating real food.
One night, a mean old hunter came into the forest. The water immediately froze. The hunter looked around with his beady, black eyes. He was wearing black, and riding a brown horse with a black saddle.
The hunter dismounted his horse and tied it to the tree on the pond rocks. He looked around and saw Cathy and Turtle's cabin. He pulled some cloth and rope out of his pack and sneaked silently over to the cabin.
Of course, Cathy and Turtle were asleep. Before they knew what was going on, they were gagged and tied up.
The hunter threw them into a corner and began to root through their things. He would take anything he could sell. He decided it would be easier to take everything. He packed everything into some bags. He knew the horse couldn't lift it all. He needed something else to carry it in. He remembered seeing a blue car parked outside the forest. He stuffed his bags in the trunk and put Cathy and Turtle next to the car. Then he moved on to Lee's lean-to.
The hunter soon had Lee's stuff in the trunk and Lee tied and gagged next to Cathy and Turtle.
Next the hunter moved on to Sarah, Tim and Ryan's cave. He did the same with them. Then he drove the car away, leaving all six of them on the ground in the middle of the forest. The hunter soon came back and threw the kinds into the car. He had already dropped their stuff off at his warehouse. He drove down a steep hill into a large cabin's driveway. He took the kids inside and put them in a large cage. He had a whole wall of guns opposite the cave.
If only there were someone to help us, thought Cathy. There was.
Ben, being strong in The Force, could "hear" Cathy's cry for help, and stopped what he was doing. "Some of my friends are in trouble," he said. Ben flew in his X-Wing back to the Golda and ran to rescue his friends.
He couldn't open the door of the cabin; it was locked. He whipped out his light saber and cut it right off its hinges. The door crashed into the cabin. The hunter turned from his wall of guns to see a boy with a light saber in his hand standing on top of the broken door.
"Hey! Git outta here! Go on! Git!" the hunter yelled.
Ben walked closer to the hunter. "Don't make me use this," he said.
"Oh! I'm so scairt!" the hunter said sarcastically. "A twelve-year-old with a light up sword ain't gonna hurt me!"
"You're wrong," said Ben.
"I ain't wrong! I ain't never wrong!" He chose a pistol from the wall of guns. He took careful aim and shot straight at Ben, and killed him…
…Or would have, but Ben was gone. Ben was now standing next to the hunter, his light saber at the hunter's throat. "I'll give you one more chance to let them go," he said.
"What are you gonna do? Chop me up with your toy sword?"
"Toy?" said Ben, acting confused. "I never knew it was a toy."
"Don't play games with me, boy!" the hunter shouted. He stepped forward through the light saber. His head stayed behind.
"I'm sorry you all had to see that. I warned him it was real. It seems that he doubted my word," said Ben to everyone else. He cut the lock off the cage with his light saber.
Everyone was soon untied. They gathered up their things and packed them into the car. They waited for Tim to drive all the things home, then he came back and drove them all home. They put everything back to normal.
After they had all recovered from the incident with the hunter, it was back to boring life. Ben was a little, sadder, because his master, Qui-Gon, had been killed by an evil Sith Lord know as Darth Maul.
One day, around 5:30 a.m., a huge, green dragon flew into the forest. There was a large golden shield with a red jewel in it around its chest. The dragon had scaly skin and huge wings. Its arms were as big as anyone in the forest's (except Ryan's) head was.
On the dragon's head was a small, gray mouse with large pink ears and a long, pink tail.
"Home again," said the dragon. He had a very deep and funny voice.
"Yes. I wonder if my brother is still here," said the mouse. It had a very high and squeaky voice, as you would expect a mouse to have. He jumped off the dragon's head and scampered off into the sunflowers.
Ryan came outside after dinner, to find the dragon lying in front of the food storage. Ryan just started at him.
"What are you looking at?" asked the dragon.
"Youw cool!" said Ryan.
"Thanks!" said the dragon. "I'm Ember. Who are you?"
"Wyan."
"Hey, Ryan. Have you seen Squeak?"
"Who's Squeak?"
"A little mouse."
"I'll look fow him." Ryan scampered off to look for Squeak. Ember went back to sleep.
Later that night, while everyone was asleep, a tan and brown dog walked into the forest. He went right to Cathy and Turtle's cabin and curled up next to the door.
The next morning, Cathy woke at 5:30 (again) and found the dog asleep at the front door. She had no idea where this dog came from, or who it belonged to.
Sarah came outside to get food, which was now back in the bin, since winter was over.
"Hey, Sarah! Know this dog?" called Cathy.
"Never seen him," Sarah called back. She went on to the food and got three biscuits.
The dog sat up and stared at Cathy and Sarah. When Cathy came back from getting the food, the dog followed her inside. It went straight over to Turtle, who was still sleeping, and hopped onto his bed. The dog curled up at his feet and fell asleep.
Ben woke up. He got up and got his biscuit and mug from the table outside, and sat on the rocks by the pond to eat. Cathy came out to eat, and then Sarah joined them with her breakfast.
Later in the morning, Tim and Turtle were sitting on "deer rock" talking and playing with the dog, Mocha. Mocha had been Turtle's brother's dog, and so he knew Turtle well.
Squeak scampered out of the sunflowers and over to Ember, who was sleeping in his favorite place, by the food.
Ben was talking to Sarah and Cathy by the rocks, and Ryan was playing in the water.
Suddenly, Ryan jumped out of the water and shouted, "Bwww! That watew just got weally cold!" A moment later, the ice was frozen solid.