"NO! DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE!"

Then Max Goof gasped for air as he realised that he just woke up from a terrible nightmare. Then he was wrapped by a green scaly arm and a metal arm. He turned to see that both were just the arms of his new friend.

"Thanks for the comfort, Cy-Croc."

His new friend, Cyber-Crocodile or Cy-Croc for short, was now hugging him for support.

"It's okay, Max. You're safe now."

"Sorry if I alerted our presence to any enemies out there."

"Well, you stay in this tent and I'll check." Then Cy-Croc opened the tent door and walked out.

As he stayed in the tent while his crocodile friend checked the outside, Max remembered that his life was in danger. Some strange flaming monsters came to attack him where he work at Spoonerville Water Park two days ago and the only one who could protect him was Cy-Croc, who was half crocodile and half robot and from Wales. He couldn't let anyone know that he was alive; none of his friends, none of his family and not even his dad Goofy could ever know. He knew he couldn't because he would put them all in real danger if he did. Cy-Croc was risking her own life to make his own life was safe from these flaming monsters and their mistress that they served. He hoped his dad and his friends were all okay, despite his friends going crazy on social media asking him where he was and if he was okay.

Then Cy-Croc put her head back through the tent. "It's okay, Max. I can't see any of our flaming friends."

Then Max sniffed something. "I can smell smoke. You're sure it's not one of our flaming friends?"

Cy-Croc chuckled. "Yes, I'm certain. That's just breakfast, being cooked a bit well done. Now, come on out and get this tent down while I finish it."

Max climbed out of the tent and felt better for seeing nothing except the large mountains, the tall green trees, the massive lushing rivers and the small campsite he and Cy-Croc were staying at in the beautiful Nantahala National Forest. The campsite was so small that there was only room for one tent, which was their tent.

As he put the tent down, he saw Cy-Croc cooking with a pan over a small campfire metal ring. The flames in that ring were the only ones he didn't mind seeing.

Max knew why Cy-Croc told him to put the tent down as he did it. It was because they needed to get moving whenever they could in order to avoid the flaming monsters. So far, he thought they were doing very well as none of the flames came to the bear hotel they stayed at for the first night and they haven't come to this campsite they stayed at over last night and yesterday they hadn't seen them all day as he and Cy-Croc walked through the forest to look avoid the flaming monsters and get somewhere to safety. So either they were doing very well or maybe the flaming monsters were being too cunning and going to get them when they least expected it.

And Cy-Croc still wouldn't tell him why the flaming monsters and their mistress were after him and that would the less he knew about it the better.

"Hmm, I must say, Cy-Croc," Max said, licking his white gloves, "you've cooked those baked beans and mushrooms with herbs very well. They were just as good as last night, if not even better.

He and Cy-Croc had been walking through the forest. It had been an hour since they finished breakfast, put the campfire out and left the campsite.

"Thanks, Max," Cy-Croc said. "I constantly cook my meals the camp way, but I've always done it for myself. I've never done for anyone else."

"Not even for your leader and your friends?"

"No. They've always had their own different type of taste and they always eat whenever it suits them."

"Well, I really like your cooking," Max said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Cy-Croc asked.

"About what?"

"About your nightmare, of course. Is it the same one the night before?"

Max didn't really want to talk about it, but he knew Cy-Croc was asking these questions not for small talk, but for a very important reason. And that very important reason was so she could help him with his nightmare and not wake up loudly from it again like he had been for the last two nights. "Yeah, it was the same one as the one before."

"Waking up the way you did at the bear hotel made me think you had a bad enough nightmare as you did, but, since you nearly woke up the whole forest this morning and it's the same one, it must be very serious."

Max sighed. "Well, if you must know, I've been having this nightmare for quite a few nightmares before those flaming losers attacked us at Spoonerville Water Park and it's one of my worst nightmares I've ever had in my life."

"Well, that is helpful, Max," Cy-Croc said. "Seriously, it is. But I still need to hear the whole story."

"Fine." Then Max began to explain his nightmare.

It started when he was in the eleventh grade in Spoonerville High School and his classmates were going on a camping trip for a week before Spring Break. Life was great for Max back then. He was still the coolest and most popular kid in his high school due to his Powerline dance he did in the assembly hall on the day he finished the ninth grade and then he with his dad Goofy dancing with the real Powerline in LA a week later. He kept his popularity up with playing in sports and helping teams of all kinds win their trophies and maintain their records, acting (technically, playing main leads) in school plays and winning many talent shows. But what made him happy the most of all was his beautiful, lovely and kind girlfriend, Roxanne.

Roxanne, on the other hand, wasn't very happy. The only good thing she had in her life was Max as the wonderful boyfriend he was. She wasn't popular as she used to be because, on the first day of the tenth grade, new female students arrived and they became more popular only because they were more beautiful despite them being some of the meanest girls there had ever been in the history of not just Spoonerville High School but in the history of mean girls, period. Not that Roxanne ever cared about being popular in the first place nor did she ever miss it. Another thing that made her sad was Stacey, her former best friend and the closest thing she ever had to a sister ever since kindergarten, was so busy with her student body president duties and other stuff and these new friends that she spent less and less time with Roxanne as the school years went on. Roxanne and Stacey never had a falling out with each other and whenever they did talk and hang out with each other they were still pleasant with each other like they used to; it just happened less often than they used to. Roxanne tried her hardest to be friends with the other new students and Stacey's new friends, but she sadly had no success and got bullied by the mean girls. The only true friends she had left were Max and his close friends PJ and Bobby. She was also glad that, while Max maintained his popularity, he didn't let it go to his head and he didn't become a bully because of it and looked out for everyone, including the ones who were getting bullied especially her.

When the class finally arrived at Spoonerville Camp, the male and female students were separated into two groups. Both for the sleeping quarters and the activity groups. The only times the boys and girls could interact with each other was when it wasn't bedtime and when they weren't doing an activity.

While Max bunked up with his best mates PJ and Bobby, Roxanne had to bunk up with the meanest girls from the school and, boy, were they mean to her every second they could be.

On the third day, after the activities were finished for the day, Max noticed when all the girls came back from a hike activity, Roxanne was the only one who didn't come back at all. Not even the camp instructors or the teachers noticed that one of their students were missing. Even before that day, he didn't trust the camping instructors and thought they were not very bright. They seemed more interested in being friends with the classmates than being responsible instructors. And the teachers that came with them were hardly any better.

So, Max decided to pack his emergency camping gear and go and look for Roxanne in the forest himself. Despite it getting very dark, he just had to find her. Before he left, he asked PJ and Bobby to do something to convince the camping instructors to make it look like he was at the campsite. He promised Bobby a dozen cans of cheddar whiz and he promised PJ he would help him clean his house to help please his dad Pete.

Carrying a huge rucksack full of camping and hiking gear, Max called out for Roxanne as he searched the whole of the forest. Despite the lack of success, he wasn't ready to give up on her yet.

Then Max heard some screaming. It sounded a lot like Roxanne and it sounded like it was coming from the nearby river. He followed the screams and he learned that his worst fear of Roxanne struggling to swim out of the dangerous rapids was true. Despite it being dark, he could see with the moonlight in the sky that it really was her. As if that wasn't bad enough, she was about to go over a very large waterfall!

Max followed her and looked for stuff to help pull her out. He tried using a long, wooden branch, but she couldn't reach it. Then he tripped over something and saw it was an abandoned fishing pole. Then he saw how close Roxanne was to going over the waterfall and it reminded him of the time his dad Goofy went over that waterfall in the Grand Canyon and he used the fishing pole and the perfect cast to save him. He couldn't see how good this fishing rod was, but he knew it was his only chance to save Roxanne. He hadn't done this perfect cast in nearly two years, but he was glad he remembered how to do it. As he did it, he saw both the fishing hook and Roxanne go over the waterfall. He felt that he failed.

Then the fishing rod caught something. Hoping it was Roxanne, Max reeled the line in and was delighted to see that it was her that he was reeling in. The hook had had been wrapped around one of her arms and she was using both of her hands to hold onto the line.

Then after Max helped Roxanne out of the water, she immediately hugged him and kissed him all over his face while she cried.

"Thank you, Max," she sobbed happily. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much!"

"It's okay, Roxanne," Max said as he hugged and kissed her back. "You're safe now. Now, come on. Let's get away from this nasty waterfall."

Roxanne couldn't agree more.

"Shh," Cy-Croc whispered. "That's a very moving story and I do want to hear the rest of it, but right now I can hear something."

Max remained quiet as he tried to hear what Cy-Croc heard.