This is the first chapter of a new story, titled Lost In the Woods. It follows the adventures of Karen and Bobby, who have become lost in a very strange wood on a hot summer’s day.
Karen and Bobby were lost. They had been walking through the woods for hours now, after straying from their original path. The sun peeked through the trees from high above, but the shade of the leaves kept most of the intense heat of the summer day off their heads and shoulders.
They walked in silence, occasionally stopping to examine some small detail of nature that they might have missed on previous excursions. Karen would sometimes bend down or kneel while looking at something before standing back up again. Bobby didn’t know what she was doing as he continued his own search for anything new to look at.
It’s so beautiful out here! He thought. He’d never imagined there could be this many colors in one place… it looks like a painting come alive! And how much better everything smells too! It doesn’t even smell like sweat anymore, more like flowers and plants instead. I wonder if we can find some water soon? We must’ve gotten away from our camp pretty fast. There are all kinds of different animals around here; I’m sure there will be water nearby.
He scanned the ground ahead with an increasing urgency until he found her feet. “Karen?” His voice came out hesitant, almost timid compared to his usual tone when addressing her. She turned to face him. A smile crossed her lips as she noticed him approaching. Her hair fell into her eyes briefly as she shook it back behind her head.
“Yes, dear.”
Bobby couldn’t help but notice her shirt wasn’t quite fitting right anymore either, though it seemed tighter than just earlier in the morning. That made sense given how long they had been walking, however. He glanced quickly down at her chest then back up to her smiling face. “What is it?” he asked. “You’re wearing that same stupid smirk you always do whenever you’re happy about something!” he added mockingly, knowing full well how Karen took offense to such things.
Karen giggled slightly. “I don’t think this is something silly enough to warrant getting upset over,” she said as she turned to face forward again. She began walking once more without saying anything else. Bobby felt hurt by her words, so he started after her in silence.
After several minutes of hiking through the woods and listening to birdsong, a sudden noise interrupted them both: The sound of rustling leaves could be heard from above. They stopped moving entirely and held their breaths to listen for any further clues. Then, very slowly, Karen tilted her head upwards and stared at a branch swaying high overhead.
Bobby’s eyes followed hers upward as well. There was definitely something up there, he thought, but what? He looked closer, trying to find it. All of the leaves were green with no hints of brown or black on any of the branches, as they would have if the animal was there. He realized the only way to find out what was making the sounds was to climb higher, so they headed off towards whatever it was.
As they neared, the movement ceased abruptly, as if whoever it was had noticed their approach. At last, they reached a tree whose branches arched outward in all directions, like an umbrella ready to shield some secret.
Karen and Bobby paused in front of the large tree, staring up at its towering height while they tried to determine where the creature might have gone. With every passing second, Bobby became more certain that whatever he saw before was nothing human-like. Its body was covered in shimmering scales; its hands and feet seemed far too small for the rest of it, which was mostly just arms and legs connected together by skin that stretched tautly over bulging muscles. And then, just as Bobby caught sight of a glimpse of one eye peeking out from between two thick eyebrows, it ducked back down behind the canopy of leaves.
“Bobby,” Karen whispered suddenly into his ear. “What is it?”
“It… it looked like…”
“What did you see?”
“A dragon,” he replied. “There’s another one hiding right next to us.” His voice quivered with excitement now. “Can we climb up and look around inside? Maybe I’ll be able to find a book about dragons or something!”
She smiled again and pulled him toward her until they were touching at their sides. “That would be perfect! We should take a moment first though, so we don’t startle them when they come out again.” She leaned forward slightly so their heads were almost touching, as if they were sharing some secret thought.
“What do we tell them?” she asked, looking up once more towards the leafy roof above them.
“Tell who?”
Karen ignored him and turned to face downward. The two stared straight ahead at each other for several moments, smiling gently and holding hands still. Then Bobby noticed how her smile began to grow, slowly spreading across her cheeks and settling in a warm, satisfied expression on her face. Her eyes narrowed in on Bobby, locking onto his own. They both knew what was coming, but neither could say anything about it because of its sheer shock value. A few seconds later, Karen was giggling uncontrollably while trying desperately to hide it behind her hand as Bobby found himself unable to speak either. Finally, he had no choice but to laugh along with her. Their laughter filled the air as they stood there side by side, shaking with the thrill of their private joke.
And then the silence returned abruptly.
“What the…?” Karen stammered after a few seconds.
Bobby blinked rapidly, searching his brain frantically for any clues that might have caused such an abrupt change. “Did you just…” he trailed off and looked down at the ground before lifting his head back up again to stare directly into Karen’s eyes again. He couldn’t believe this was happening again! “I think I just…”
The next sound came from below them: It was a loud thud from the area where they first saw the creature, followed immediately by another, much louder crash. They spun around quickly, peering downward through the branches as another large body landed nearby.
“There!” said a deep, gravelly voice. “It can see us now!”
The two turned their heads upward as another pair of shimmering scales poked out between the leaves and peered at them. This time, however, their jaws were clenched tightly together and their lips were pulled so far back that only the tips of their teeth could be seen. Each of them stared unblinkingly until one let loose a small shriek and ducked back inside the canopy to hide again. The other was quick to follow suit.
Bobby watched both creatures disappear under the leafy roof, waiting patiently for something else to happen; Karen waited impatiently beside him.
A short while later, the sounds began to return: rustling in the leaves overhead, more crashing in the brush, then more stillness once more. A few minutes later they heard movement once more as one of the dragons climbed back outside. This time, they didn’t duck down as they did before though, instead continuing to look straight ahead as if daring it to come closer.
“Hello,” said Bobby hesitantly. “We’re looking for water.” His voice quivered slightly when he spoke, but not nearly enough for Karen or himself to notice.
“Water?” asked the dragon in disbelief. “You must be kidding! There’s no water here anywhere!”
“I don’t know what you mean,” replied Karen, “but we have been walking around for a long time now and are quite thirsty! We’d like to find some fresh water, if you can help us locate any. Are there any rivers or lakes nearby that you might know about? Maybe even a lake with fish in it?”
“What kind of dumb questions is that? Do you think I’m an idiot?” He laughed deeply at his own joke, showing off several rows of sharp teeth on the end of his mouth. Then his eyes narrowed as he glared at her again. “You expect me to tell you where the best fishing holes are too, right?” he added after taking another moment to ponder this question. “If you want to catch anything good out here, you’ll need to use your imagination first!” He chuckled once more and ducked back inside the trees once more. They heard more rustling above them, then silence returned again.
Bobby was shocked by their response, yet strangely unsurprised at all; after all, their experience so far had taught him never to get his hopes up too much about people anyway. As they walked away from the tree, Karen continued to ask the dragon every other question she could think of, but they received nothing but scornful laughter in return. The creature didn’t seem to mind giving directions though: Instead of answering any of her questions directly, it kept telling her how useless she would be without its advice… which led Bobby to realize just what the truth must really be: These creatures were not as friendly as they made themselves out to be, no matter what the girl seemed to believe.
Karen and Bobby soon found themselves wandering aimlessly through the woods, not knowing what else to do next. Neither one dared go near a tree large enough to provide shelter, however, and both were beginning to feel extremely hot and uncomfortable. They still hadn’t managed to find any water since the conversation with the dragons, either, and now it was almost sundown again. They needed something cool to drink if they were ever going to make it home. It looked like there wasn’t any way for it to get cooler than it already was, however. Even if the sun was finally setting and things would eventually start cooling down, there was simply nowhere for them to hide while that happened. And in this place at least, even the animals avoided staying anywhere near a tree during the hottest part of the day.
Bobby suddenly stopped walking, holding his hands up in front of his face as he examined his reflection in the thick layer of dirt covering them. His cheeks felt warm against his palms; sweat glistened on his forehead and neck beneath his shirt as he wiped his arm across his brow repeatedly. He couldn’t see anything because of how dirty they all were, but they definitely didn’t look very healthy. Karen stared closely at him too and noticed he had begun sweating profusely too.
“Maybe we should have waited to come out here until later,” she said thoughtfully, “when it would be easier to keep our skin clean.”
He shrugged slightly without taking his eyes off the ground before them. “What’s the point? There probably isn’t any fresh water around anyway!”
“Well, you don’t know unless you try! What if there is?” She moved closer behind Bobby so their shoulders were touching, then started rubbing his back gently with her fingers while still looking into his own brown eyes. It was her turn now to wipe away a trickle of sweat from her hairline and eyebrows: The humidity was making everything sticky and damp. A moment later, they both heard a slight rustling sound nearby and quickly turned towards it to investigate.
“Did you hear that?” asked Karen.
“Yes…” answered Bobby slowly as he continued wiping himself down. Then they both listened intently, straining to catch another noise over the steady drone of insects buzzing in the bushes somewhere far beyond the trees in every direction. Finally, the sounds returned once more: This time though, there were several different noises blended together in one large crash—something big moving through the brush below them. They looked up immediately to follow its progress. Another loud crash echoed off the walls of green surrounding them just seconds later… followed by three or four others in quick succession. They could only watch for a few moments before whoever-it-was disappeared again under the leafy canopy above.
“Do you think we should stay here tonight?” she asked after another pause.
“What do we have to lose? We can’t get any worse off than we already are, right? Let’s give it a shot!”
They kept walking toward the place they last saw the creature when they suddenly stopped dead in their tracks. The two stared at each other wide-eyed and speechless as they stared at something hanging on the wall beside them.
It was an enormous piece of fruit.
“We found the food supply,” Karen said, her voice filled with surprise. “What does that say?” She pointed straight ahead with her thumb. The large orange-colored fruit hung motionlessly against a tree, not a single blemish marring its perfect skin. It must have been close to ten feet long and almost twice that in width: Even from where they stood it would be difficult to miss. Its round shape and size made it look like nothing less than a gigantic kumquat! It seemed too large to ever fit into their backpacks no matter how carefully they wrapped it first. Neither of them knew what else to call such an unusual plant—it certainly didn’t resemble anything either of them had seen before. After staring at the odd thing for several minutes, Bobby finally gave up trying to guess what kind of tree this particular species belonged to and simply named the new discovery ‘orange’.
“How did we know about these things before?!” he asked, completely astonished.
Karen laughed and pulled him down onto one knee next to her so he could see better as she took another moment to inspect it closer. “They’re called cashew trees,” she replied quietly while examining one side of the fruit’s thick peel. “Cashews are actually inside these fruits somewhere; I’m sure they’ll taste really good if we can find some way to open them.” Then she noticed something interesting and moved even closer: A small hole ran around the entire perimeter just below a line of tiny spines covering its surface. She poked her index finger in cautiously and pushed downward until something hard fell out.
“Oh, there’s a nut in here all right!” She looked back over her shoulder at Bobby with an excited grin on her face.
“Great! Now maybe you won’t think my idea was so dumb after all,” he said with an equally impressed expression on his own. He reached over without thinking and grabbed the fruit by both sides before standing up again, preparing to pull it away from the tree trunk. But then… it began to move of its own accord! The tree itself swayed slightly under the weight of the heavy fruit still attached to it; Karen quickly realized it must have been hanging from a branch near the top of a tall tree because it felt as though they were leaning against something very solid when they held onto either end of the thing. The sudden motion caused Bobby to lose his balance briefly: Before either one of them could grab him again, he stumbled backward and crashed straight into the branches of a nearby bush.
“Oof!”
He jumped to his feet immediately afterwards but kept rubbing himself lightly across the forehead where he had smacked into them.
“Are you okay?” asked Karen while giving herself a quick inspection for any damage that might have occurred.
Bobby nodded emphatically before reaching out and grabbing hold of the fruit once more. “It seems pretty sturdy,” he observed thoughtfully as he stood back upright. “Let’s see if we can get it down now.” They slowly leaned forward until they each held their hands firmly beneath its base; they pulled upward together in unison until it finally broke free of its moorings with another loud crack. It fell almost instantly, bouncing off several other leaves along its way until it landed in a heap of yellowed leaves on the ground at Bobby’s feet. He stooped down to examine it closer, feeling a slight tremor run through him.
“Do you know how to open them yet?!” he shouted at Karen with such force she was nearly knocked over backwards by the strength of it. She scurried around to his side to try and help him, however: Together, the two of them picked the heavy fruit up and carried it back over toward the tree, trying not to drop it again this time around. Karen spotted some small brown-colored seeds clinging to the skin and reached up to carefully pluck them away. But then—something strange happened as she tried to remove them from the sticky outer layer: Instead of popping out cleanly like a normal seed, one suddenly flew out of her hand and embedded itself deep within a hole near the bottom of the peel!
“I’ll be damned!” said Bobby, staring intently. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!”
“What?” asked Karen in disbelief as they both looked closely at the odd seed before reaching for another handful of others. “Did you say something?”
He didn’t answer right away; instead he bent down and ran his finger quickly across the smooth surface just below where the seed had landed. After making sure there weren’t any more protruding from inside, he gently pulled the rest of the shell off along with most of the skin underneath it while Karen did likewise on the other side. The large orange nut had already split into four pieces when they got to the end of it, revealing a very tiny round black object stuck fast in the center of each half. Each piece was easily the size of a walnut, but this one appeared much smaller… as if it was only meant to fit on top of the hard cashew kernel at its core. It wasn’t too surprising to find such an item hiding beneath the tough rind of a fruit so enormous though: After all, if anyone knew how to keep their food safe from animals, insects, and everything else that wanted to eat it, it would definitely have been these mysterious dragons.
The two examined the strange little items carefully, feeling a tingle run up and down their spines as they tried to imagine what exactly could be hidden inside. They couldn’t think of anything else this might resemble—it was completely foreign to anything either of them had ever seen or heard about before. Karen suddenly thought of her grandmother back home who often told stories of magic and fairies whenever she caught a glimpse of a shooting star through her bedroom window late at night.
“Maybe it’s magic!” she suggested excitedly, smiling widely. Bobby chuckled slightly at the comment and shrugged his shoulders as he turned the halves of the nut over to examine the underside.
“It’s not,” he answered after a few moments. “I’m pretty sure this is just some kind of nut.”
“Really?” She looked at him suspiciously. “Then why are we touching it like that?”
He paused for just another moment longer than necessary to think about his response. Then he finally looked straight into her eyes and replied: “Because it’s probably worth more money than you’ve ever imagined.” He smiled warmly when he saw the surprised look on her face; then they both let out a slight chuckle together before standing up again and walking quickly toward the tree from which they had just pulled the fruit down. They set the nuts aside on a large pile of others near the base of the trunk and continued their exploration in search of anything else useful that might prove helpful. The next thing that caught their attention was an oddly shaped shrub that reminded them of the large flower clusters they had seen several times already in other places throughout the jungle. It was taller than most of its neighbors by several feet but didn’t grow so thickly, so it would make sense it wouldn’t get as wet as those plants did under normal circumstances. But then something strange happened as Karen started brushing against its stem while trying to see if it could be broken off easily:
“Look at this!” she shouted with excitement. “There’s a hole in here!”
Bobby came over to her side to inspect it himself: A small opening appeared to be perfectly centered right between two branches as they curved gently away from each other, creating the illusion of a giant teardrop. There were no leaves covering the top of the plant at all—only the smooth white bark of the wood beneath. After pulling one branch carefully away, Bobby took hold of the other end and slowly worked his way up until he was able to peek inside. Sure enough, there was indeed a dark passage leading inside through which he could barely fit his hand completely! When he tried poking his head forward far enough to take a quick look around he realized it was almost like walking through a narrow cave: Only about eight inches wide and twelve long… about half as tall again. The walls seemed to slope upward gradually on both sides for about four or five feet before turning back sharply downward toward the middle. It appeared much too narrow for either of them to comfortably crawl down without getting stuck halfway in place.
They decided to turn back.
The next discovery came when they found what looked very much like another small group of cashew trees, only these ones weren’t hanging from their branches; they were standing upright along the ground in three separate rows. The individual trunks ran straight from base to top, but their branches had grown so high above their heads that it was impossible for anyone who didn’t already know where exactly to step to reach any part of them at all: Their lower limbs formed a natural wall of thick intertwining vines that rose several dozen yards into the sky overhead and blocked out most of the sunlight falling upon the area below. The two searched throughout each tree carefully for anything useful yet discovered nothing except more nuts.
“There must be something we can use here somewhere,” said Bobby as they moved away from the second row and continued on past the first. They reached the third just as they were coming up to the large orange fruit with the four mysterious little seeds still clinging to its rind. Without thinking, Bobby stopped to stare at this one particular nut for a moment, remembering how difficult it had been to pull off its shell earlier. He examined the underside of its hard outer shell closely now, running his finger quickly across every inch of it before bending over and putting it right side-up against his lips to blow lightly over it. When he pulled his fingers back again he saw that he was holding his breath in his lungs—but there was absolutely no trace of moisture on his skin!
Karen turned around slowly and stared at him curiously while she held her hand in front of herself as if preparing to catch some rain drops: “Bobby!” She exclaimed. “Why did you do that?!”
He laughed softly and shook his head: “I don’t really know, but I’m pretty sure I have the answer to your question.” His eyes lit up with excitement once again. “Let’s find out!”