Joshua and the Arrow Realm (21 page)

I
spent the next two days working harder than ever. My time was spent hauling water, hunting, washing, whittling arrows, and sewing my own outfit of a shirt, pants, and moccasins from animal skins. My fingers were dotted with sores from poking myself with a wooden needle, but my helper said my work was decent. By the end of the second afternoon, I dressed like everyone else.

Blisters covered the insides of my hands, and every muscle hurt from manual labor, but I was too tired to care, crashing on my cot each night. Here I was a Wild Child. I'd survived the hunt. These kids were my family now—until my Leaving Day.

On the evening of my eighth day in the Arrow Realm, we were eating squirrel stew in the main house when a kid burst in. “Strangers!”

“Scram and cram!” Ash ordered. “Keep on the runabout and stick whatever moves.”

The kids jumped up, nabbed bows and arrows from the wall, and eased out the windows and door. I picked up my bow and pulled out an arrow from the new ones I'd crafted that day, as Ash put a finger to her lips and urged me to follow her. I felt strong and ready to fight.

The kid who'd called out the intruders pointed off to the right. Ash nodded and waved at the others to spread out. Like silent ghosts, they melted into the trees.

Over the planks, Ash and I crept into the murk.

“Keep on the runabout,” she murmured to me. Wild Child eyes darted from the trees around us, waiting for a sign to attack.

A whisper signaled danger ahead. Ash hunkered lower and fit an arrow to her bow. I did the same with shaky hands. This was no rabbit hunt. A cutting wind sliced across my face, bringing the chill of the night while sweat rose under my new animal skins. My heart throbbed faster with each deliberate creak of a branch by someone—or something—out there. A faint moan snatched my breath.

“Show yourselves!” Ash drew back her bow.

Bodies carved themselves between the leaves, moving closer.

“Tree Girl!” a familiar voice called out.

Two faces appeared before us.

Oak and Charlie! They staggered sideways toward us on the planks between trees—and they carried someone in their arms—Apollo!

“Need Moria plant!” Oak rasped out.

Ash sprang into action on a new mission, shouting orders. “Take them to the empty house. I'll bring the plant!”

The Wild Childs swarmed in to help as Ash grasped a branch and swung into the darkness.

Stunned my friends were alive, I gripped the rope rails and watched them being led away. Charlie's eyes met mine for a brief moment. He raised his hand but I held on to the rope harder, unable to greet my friend. He dropped his head, illuminated by a shaft of moonlight, before getting folded into the mass of kids.

Apollo lay still as death on a cot when I entered the house where he rested. Lanterns shed a sick green glow in the room. Oak grabbed me in a big hug, smelling of sweat and mud. “Joshua, you're alive!”

“How'd you get here?” I squeaked out as he squeezed my ribs.

“I hid in a hole in the cave wall when the soldiers came, heard their talk of blowing up the cave, and knew I had one way out of there.”

He let me go and I glanced at Charlie, who avoided my eyes and shifted on his feet as Ash knelt next to Apollo, working on his injuries. “The river?”

“Yep. One guard caught me but I bribed him with Apollo's coins and jumped right in!”

“How'd you survive?”

He rapped his chest with a grin. “I'm strong as oak and oak floats!”

“For a flippin' blockhead,” Ash said with a snort.

“Better than being a flippin' spudhead like you,” Oak teased back, tugging her ponytail.

“I'd be happy to be a spudhead if we could go back home.”

“O Canada, our home and native land,” Oak sang in a low voice.

“Keep our land, glorious and free,” Ash sang softly back.

“As waiting for the better day, we ever stand on guard … ” Oak's song faded off, and quiet filled the room as he and Ash smiled at each other with a look only a shared country could inspire.

I broke the silence. “And Apollo?”

Oak's face sagged and he tugged on his moustache. “Smashed up pretty bad.”

“He's not grounded yet,” Ash said as she stood. “There. I've packed all his wounds with the Moria plant. Now we wait.”

I took Ash's spot by Apollo's side and put a hand on my friend's chest. A gash tore down his forehead. A mottled bruise painted his left cheek and jaw. His pale skin felt like ice and he shivered as he dreamed.

“Don't die on me again,” I whispered.

Charlie cleared his throat. “Joshua, I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run away—”

I nodded. “I get it. I ran away too.”

“I couldn't live with what I'd done.” His voice cracked and he swallowed hard.

“I know.”

“I've abandoned two brothers.”

He was right. A great canyon filled the space between me and Charlie. Was there any crossing it? Uncomfortable feelings came with seeing my friends again—and shame for giving up on them and myself.

“Evil is hard to fight,” Oak said. “You don't always win but you don't give up.”

“I won't give up again,” Charlie said, knocking his
knuckles together, an appeal for forgiveness on his face. “Promise
.
”

A promise is a promise. I guess sometimes friends let each other down, but it's what you do in the end that matters. If you can't stand up for your friends, what can you up stand for?

My heart chinked open, letting our friendship back in, and I smiled at him. “Brothers.”

“Friends.” He smiled back.

“Heroes,” a faint voice said.

“King-man,” Charlie yelled.

We all helped Apollo sit. Even in the green light, there appeared new color in his cheeks.

“We thought you died in the river!” I said.

“I almost did. If it hadn't been for Oak and Charlie here, I'd be dead by now.”

“Sorry … and about your flute,” Charlie said.

“I told you before, it's all right, Charlie.” Apollo gave him a tired smile. “The flute saved you and that's what matters.”

“But it was the one thing you had of your mother's.”

“Not so. I have my memories.” He looked at me. “I got to hear it make music again through Joshua in my kingdom—and I got to see you both again.”

“How the heck did you survive the river?” I said.

“My crate smashed to pieces, and I was hanging on a ledge at the fork when Oak came racing down river and grabbed me—”

“See, told ya this Oak floats!” Oak rapped his chest with a grin.

Oak patted Apollo on the shoulder. “We were lucky to get out of the river alive. I helped Apollo along for a ways, heading for the Lost Realm, but it was slow going
trying to keep undercover from rough folks roaming the Perimeter Lands. We holed up for two nights in a cave, hoping Apollo would recover. Instead, he grew worse. We needed the Moria plant to heal him, and the Wild Lands were the one place I knew that had it.”

“How'd you find Charlie?” I said.

“I ran right into him,” Oak said. “He told me what happened and, after I shook some sense into him for running away, said he must come with us.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Ha! More like grabbed me by my neck and dragged me with them.”

“I couldn't have gotten Apollo up and across the treetops without you, Charlie.”

Charlie half-smiled.

“I never thought I'd see any of you again,” I said.

“Second chances,” Ash said looking at me.

“Meant to be,” Oak said with a nod.

“That outfit wasn't meant to be, Joshua,” Charlie said. “Why wear it?”

I ran my hands over the soft hide of my new shirt, not sure how to answer.

“You'd only wear it if you planned to stay,” Apollo said, sitting up taller. “Wouldn't you?”

Everyone looked at me.

“You can't stay here!” Charlie threw a hand out, then let his hand fall and said in a quieter voice. “We're all together again. You. Me. King-man. Apollo is freed like we wanted. Now we can go back home. Don't you want to go home? It's our second chance.”

They'd found their way back to me while I hid away here to forget my old life, including them. In wanting to forget my friends, I'd abandoned them too. I wouldn't again.

“Sometimes we have to get lost to find our way, right, Joshua?” Oak bent his head to me. “I thought I was dead for sure, by soldier or by river. But here I am.”

“All of us got second chances,” Apollo said. “I can make my way to the Sea Realm now and convince Poseidon to raise an army and defeat Artemis. It's not far.” He stood and put a hand on my arm to steady himself. “We've stopped evil before. You and me, Joshua. We can do it again. Then perhaps my people can see me as their true king. Will you help?”

I didn't want to let my friends down but couldn't will myself to respond.

Ash frowned at me. “Are you so lucky, blockhead, that you throw second chances away?”

I shook my head but couldn't answer.

Apollo squeezed my arm. “You believed in me when I didn't. Let's believe in each other now.”

“I do,” I said with truth in my words but doubt in my heart that it could make a difference.

A
pollo quickly grew stronger from the Moria plant's magic, and we stayed up late making plans to get to the Sea Realm. The days here had been a blur, but in counting them, we'd been here well over a week. It'd be less time on Earth as time moved faster here.

The planning continued. Apollo believed that Poseidon and the people of the Sea Realm would be inspired by me, the Oracle, and band together to attack the Arrow Realm. Meanwhile, this hero business sat heavy on my shoulders. I didn't deny I was the Oracle but nor did I share my recent experience of animal transformation. I pretended to listen to their planning as a different plan formed in my head.

After making the decision to head out in the morning, Charlie and Oak bunked in with Apollo, and Ash went off to a leader meeting to report the new events.

Charlie followed me onto the platform. “I could stay in your house, Joshua.”

I shook my head, wanting to be alone and figure things out. “I'm really tired. I just want to sleep.”

He nodded but caught my arm as I turned. The lantern light through the window behind us cast him as a hulking figure. “How can you do it?”

I pulled away, not understanding. “Do what?”

“Go on?”

“What's the other choice?”

“Run away.”

“I did. There is nowhere to run
to
on this world. This is everywhere. You told me in the Lost Realm there was no getting home.”

“I was wrong. You got us home.”

“Not anymore. There's no getting home this time.”

“I want you to be wrong.”

Silence fell from the little house as Ash and Oak stopped talking.

Charlie leaned against the building and shoved his hands in his pockets. In the moonlight, his squinted eyes bled a sick orange. “I think about someone else being a big brother to my brother, you know? At first it made me mad but now I think … if it were someone like you, I'd be all right with that.”

I breathed in the scent of dewy wood and leaves. “Thanks, Charlie.”

He nodded and went back inside. I headed down the plank path to my guesthouse and tucked myself under the blanket, listening to the goodnights of the Wild Childs. It struck me that fitting in and belonging were two separate things. I fit in here but I didn't belong here, like Ash said. I was hiding here. Hiding meant avoiding. We weren't so different, Nostos and Earth people. We all wanted the same things: freedom, family, friendship.

My friends may have gotten second chances … but would they get a third? I couldn't risk their lives again. Leandro's journal said the Oracle alone must save Nostos. I must deal with Artemis. There was only one way: command my powers and stop her.

I'd steal the lightning orb back from Artemis, end the spell she was under, and end this evil that plagued Nostos and Earth. Somehow.

Sometimes we have to get lost to find our way
, Oak said.

I wasn't lost anymore.

I opened Leandro's journal for a sign of what to do. The book fell open to a short passage.

My Homeland

Journal Entry 63 on Nostos

By Leandro of the Arrow Realm

I wear armor from head to toe, my impenetrable Armor that neither sword nor the sharpest of arrow can penetrate. My Armor is as hard as the strongest steel ever forged by a master blacksmith. With this Armor, I march willingly to battle—my fearlessness is resolute. Tough triumphs in the wearing of this Armor—this Armor is my Faith!

With Leandro stripped of his armor, faith would be my armor. I'd claim it for both of us. I threw back the cover and scribbled a short note on bark using Ash's quill dipped in berry juice.
I can't be the hero you want me to be. Go. Raise an army against Artemis. Don't try and find me.