Brakayla 4-Ever: Thanks for the review. It's good to be back. I'll probably try to update once a week, but we'll see how long that'll last.
Inside the throne room, it was pure chaos. Mikayla was packing all their gold, Mason was off grabbing other stuff, and even the guards Boz knew to be most stoic were afraid. Boz did not try to grab any valuables – instead, he tried to think of a solution to the problem. But he was panicking, and while he panicked, he could not think straight. He knew there was a simple solution, but he couldn't get himself to remember what it was.
Where was Mason when you needed him?
In the meantime, Brady and Boomer were hanging around doing nothing.
"Not to be disrespectful, but could you do something?" Mikayla said. "You woke up the volcano!" She even found some time to glare at Boz. Did she think he didn't catch it on purpose? It was hard to know what she was thinking.
"That's why I'm waiting 'till it goes back to sleep," Boomer said before he took another bite from his sandwich. Boz rolled his eyes. Where was his sense of adventure? Of justice? It hadn't developed yet, but he could at least suggest an action plan or something.
Brady wasn't any better. She asked him if they read the Great Book. Brady confessed that he did not and Boz shook his head. He was firmly on Mikayla's side when she raged against Brady for not reading this very important piece of literature. How shallow could you be that, even in these moments, you wondered when the second throne would arrive, such as Brady had done?
Boz groaned. Time was ticking. They didn't have much time.
"There's gotta be something we can do," Boz said, still pacing around. "We need to do something. I can't stand by and—" He sighed. His adventure had just begun and already, they were in a dangerous situation. Not the start he'd envisioned. "Maybe Mason knows what to do. He's always got a plan, right?"
Mason ran into the room, holding different items, as many as he could carry, pure panic on his face, such as Boz had never seen before.
"I don't know what to do!" Mason screamed. "Grab some of the gold and run!" He ran out of the room instantly. His panic was infectious and Boz started to be nervous. Out of all people, Mason should have had a plan. He placed his hands on his head and started to sweat, his breath becoming quicker. This is it. We're gonna die.
No. Kinkow was there when Boz washed up with his people. They were going to fix it. If only Boz knew what he had to do to get Brady and Boomer off their lazy asses and to do something.
"Was the big bad mummy-killer crying?" Boomer wondered out loud.
"Now do you believe me!?" Mikayla exclaimed. She pushed Brady away from her when he attempted to get a hug from her. She couldn't deal with their stupidity and naïveté anymore, and left the room, telling them she needed to build rafts. Now only Boz was with the Kings.
"There's gotta be something," Boz said, and he turned to the kings. 'We need to fix this. Do you have any ideas?"
Boomer and Brady listened silently. They remained quiet for another few seconds before Brady turned to Boomer.
"Boom, do you think what I'm thinking?"
"That there's no lava in Chicago?"
Brady nodded in agreement. "And people say we're not twins."
The ground rumbled harder, and Brady and Boomer ran up the stairs. Boz tried to call them back and groaned. With this kind of attitude, they never were going to get anything done. They weren't going to find a way.
But they had to. And since Mason was no use in his state, maybe the Great Book held some answers.
The Great Book, as its name suggested, was great. And large. Though Boz tried to plow through its many, many pages, he couldn't find anything. Not within the time he spent looking into it. Eventually, he had to put it aside, because this book was too big. Even if he did find a solution, or saw something that triggered him to remember what he should do, it might already be too late. they really needed to add a proper index to this book.
Boz put the Great Book aside and started to look for Brady and Boomer. They were trying to grab some of their stuff, no doubt. Which meant they were most likely in their bedroom, at the top of the castle.
He wasn't the only one who had the same idea.
"What are you doing here?" Mikayla asked, right when Boz wanted to walk into the bedroom. Her hand hovered over her machete's hilt and her gaze lay suspiciously on her. Boz could barely tolerate her distrust, especially since he had enjoyed it for so long.
"Same as you, looking for the kings."
"To harm them?"
"To find a way to get that volcano to go to sleep," Boz motioned to the wall, in the direction where he believed the volcano was.
"There is no way," she said. "We need to get off the island."
"I bet you that there is a way," Boz insisted. "I'm sure of it. I just got here, I'm not going to let that volcano ruin my chances."
"Well, good luck," Mikayla said and she passed Boz. Only when she entered the room did Boz follow her. Neither Brady nor Boomer were in the room. Instead, they found Lanny and his monster-fish, both with a devious grin on their face. What did he do now?
"Lanny, have you seen the kings? We have to leave now," she said. Boz silently emphasized her words by crossing his arms and staring at his cousin.
"The last time I saw them," Lanny said, "they were running to the Dark Side, screaming like babies." He barely even tried to hide his joy in front of Mikayla. Maybe she was too nervous about getting off the island to notice.
"That doesn't make any sense," she said, shaking her head.
"Why would they leave?" Boz wondered out loud. He frowned. "Why to the Dark Side? They're new and afraid." He would never see this version of Boomer run off to the Dark Side. Brady was too much of a wimp and probably wouldn't do it either. Just the sounds might make them turn around and pee their pants.
"There are many reasons," Lanny said gleefully. "They're cowards, they're losers – I made a list, if you want to see it."
The pieces fell together. Boz shook his head as he grew furious. How could Lanny so willingly send his cousins to the claws of death, into Tarantula territory? How could he feel so little regard for human life? Boz had never fully grasped how evil Lanny had been, but this illustrated how far he was willing to go. Maybe because a little monster whispered in his ear and didn't let it go.
"They are probably dead by now," Lanny said, feigning a sad voice. "So, it is my duty to appease the island. I will be replacing the kings." Boz made fists. If he hadn't respected Lanny for the person he was one day going to become, he would have already gone off.
"Gather the people." The troll snapped out of his sad spell rather easily. "They must meet their new king."
Mikayla was not happy with the prospect of having Lanny as her king, but she obeyed nonetheless and left the room. Boz watched her leave and then glared at the boy.
"I don't know what you said or where you sent them," Boz told him. "But I will find them and return them to the castle. Got something to say about that?"
Lanny may not have suspected Boz to go against him. Still, he hid his surprise well and reacted swiftly, folding his arms.
"Why don't you go and help Mikayla?" he asked.
"I'm not," Boz said, trying to appear as calm as Lanny, though he knew it was in vain. "I'm not helping her. I'm going to find my kings. I'm going to get them out of Tarantula territory, I will escort them home safely. Unlike them, I know my way around the island. You better watch out, because I will keep them safe."
Lanny took a step back. The glee had disappeared from his face and some sort of fear had appeared. The unintended intimidation had an effect on Lanny, and Boz thought that was quite enough. He wasted enough time in the bedroom, it was time to head into the jungle.
Kinkow was a relatively small island in an archipelago of relatively small islands. The islands had the population of a major American city with the size of a small European country. Other than the tribes of Kinkow living in the jungle, most of the population lived in cities and towns on the shore. If you knew your way around the jungle and kept up a good pace, you could theoretically get from one side of the island to the other, given that nothing or nobody stood in your way, such as a river or a hostile tribe who did not recognize the sovereignty of the kings.
So why was Boz, who lived on the island for eight years and knew it like the back of his hand, unable to find the two people who were most likely to get lost in this maze of trees and shrubberies?
"Brady!" Boz shouted. "Boomer! Come to me! If you can hear me, scream back."
Every now and again, Boz shouted a variation of these words. Most of the time he ran or walked around, trying to find them by scent or other markers that two people had passed by. But he found no traces at all. This was starting to look bleak.
"Boomer," Boz said, shaking his head. "where the hell are you and your stupid brother?" He wandered through the jungle, a thousand and one bad scenarios racing through his mind. He hoped Lanny wasn't king yet. If he was too late, it would feel like he failed the universe.
Then he spotted something you wouldn't normally find in a forest. It looked like an old piece of paper. Boz picked it up and looked at it. It was a map, which showed them the way to the Tarantula people. Almost instinctively, Boz smelled it.
It had a horrible stench and he coughed immediately. God, that was awful.
"Definitely Boomer," he said out loud. The next time, he smelled it more carefully, so he could pick up on their scent. This was a helpful tool to finding the kings and though it was tough with such a bad smell, he was going to use it.
He headed to the Dark Side, to Tarantula territory. He came across their torturing device, but he saw no kings, so Boz continued further until the trail ended with a spot of quicksand.
Oh no.
Boz fell to his knees. Did they fall in? Did the quicksand swallow them? If the Tarantulas passed by, they weren't going to help. It was likely they fell in.
But that didn't make sense. Because they lived. So they didn't fall in, and therefore they still had to be out there somewhere. That didn't make that instinctive heartache and sorrow any better. He stood up again and tried to find that scent again.
He got it. Boz continued his way deeper into Tarantula territory, to where these people guarded their ruby – the thing that would restore Chiki-Kiki. It only took him some heartbreak to remember what needed to be done. But he plowed through, determined to find his brothers and save them from any possible predicament they found themselves in.
At long last, he reached the tunnel. From a distance, he noticed Brady and Boomer, dressed as Tarantulas, going inside the tunnel. The servants of Kaita, all around them, did not stop them. They even started to walk away from their sacred site. Shit, did they bring the bat-medallion? Did they order the Tarantulas to walk away? Mikayla was going to be furious if she knew. That was a bad move.
And a good one. At least the Tarantulas didn't harass them.
From the tunnel rose the sounds of booby-traps being activated. Boz took his chance with the retreating Tarantulas and darted to the entrance. For some brief moments, he didn't dare to look inside, afraid of what he might see. What if they were injured? What if Brady died? What if this ruby broke as well?
Boz took a breath and stepped into the entrance. At the other side, Brady and Boomer were standing. They made it and looked okay. Brady already held the Tarantula ruby in his hands. Though he hadn't noticed the trembling anymore, he could sense the difference. The volcano still spewed smoke, but the ground stopped rumbling. It was a sign – the island trusted these two idiots. Did it know how great they would be one day?
"Guys, are you okay?" he shouted into the tunnel. Brady and Boomer jumped up and turned around to take a breath in relief.
"Boz?" Boomer shouted back at him. "You really followed us all the way here?"
"I'm a friend," Boz said. "I want to be your bodyguard. When you decide to run off somewhere, I'm going to follow." Someone needed to keep those two in check. If not Mikayla and Mason, then maybe Boz could be that person.
The brothers assumed the mist-filled tunnel was safe and strode back out as if they were in a movie shot with slow motion. Halfway through the tunnel, Brady stumbled and the ruby flew out of his hand again.
Boz jumped, reaching out. He landed rather painfully on his stomach and strained his left wrist, but the ruby landed safely in Boz's hand. He took a breath and shook his head. He couldn't have dealt with a second ruby broken in one day. He stood up and Brady and Boomer looked at him, amazed.
"Nice catch, dude!" Brady said. Boz nodded.
"Thanks." He took a step closer and gave the ruby to Boomer. "Don't drop it again. Now, let's go back home before your cousin is crowned king."
Brady and Boomer nodded and the three exited the tunnel together. Boz held on to his hurt wrist and wished he could wrap something around his chest, but he was going to have to wait. First, they needed to go home and stop Lanny. And as they walked on, Boz shook his head.
How was their first adventure over already?