The Adventure of a Lifetime (6 page)

“Wait! Not yet! I have so many things to ask you. What if we die before I get the chance?” Betty pleaded. Her stomach was in knots. She finally realized how dangerous this could be. What if she never saw her family again?

But she was with Amber. Amber was tough. She knew how to handle dangerous missions. She would keep them alive.

Right?

“Ask me one question. Then I'm leaving, and either you come with me or not.”

Betty tried to think of the one question she wanted answered really badly.

“Oh! I got it!” Betty paused. Any question, Amber had said. But would this question upset Amber? She didn't want that, especially when Amber was taking her along on the adventure, too. Very gently, Betty asked, “Do you have any parents?” Betty asked. It was a question that Betty had never really gotten an answer to in the
Amber
series; a topic they hadn't covered. All she knew was that they went to sea when Amber was young. Now that she was really with Amber, it felt like a good time to ask.

“Well, I don't really know. My mom and dad went to sea and never came back. I don't know if they're dead or alive,” Amber said, apparently only knowing as much as Betty did.
Of
course
, Betty thought.
Lana
Mungo
was
writing, and the only things Amber supposedly knew was what she had written. It was a bit sad though—not to know your past.

Betty realized that Amber didn't know who she was. She thought she was a real person, yet Amber was really a character. Betty debated with herself—should she tell Amber who she was? But one glance at Amber sent all thoughts of saying anything flying from Betty's head. Amber was tough. She was always ready to fight. If Betty told Amber the truth, her new friend might lose her concentration and break her arm.

Betty was not satisfied with Amber's answer, but the young heroine had gone back to the arlyers. Amber took out two pairs of batteries from the box. She inserted one pair in the battery pack of her arlyers. After that, she put the other pair in Betty's arlyers.

Both girls—Betty, rather reluctantly—strapped on the wings and soon they were ready to take off. The wings flew high into the air; Betty extended an arm to touch the clouds. She looked down—it was like being in an airplane. The forest was a sea of green; the houses beyond that were tiny specks. It was cold up in the sky; Betty shivered even though she was the one who lived in the windy city. Apparently she was wrong. Clutching onto the straps, she looked ahead. Amber was gaining speed. How was she doing that?

“Hey! Amber! Wait for me!” Betty yelled.

Amber yelled something to Betty that sounded like “lean mutton.”

Lean
mutton? What does that mean?
But then Betty looked at the inside of her wing harness and saw a green button.
A-ha!

Betty started pressing the green button on her arlyers until her thumb hurt.

And soon it was a race to catch up with Amber. But no matter how many times Betty pushed the green button on her arlyers, she never got close. Suddenly Betty realized Amber was lowering herself. Now, how was she doing
that
? These arlyers really needed an instruction manual!

“How are you doing that?” Betty yelled.

“Bar!” Amber called, before she floated down and hit the ground. Betty was still hovering in the sky.

Bar?
Betty thought, and she checked the arlyers' wings until she found a yellow bar. Pressing down, Betty soon descended too. She hit the ground with a thump. They had landed in a village, just as Amber had said. Betty looked over at Amber, who was closing her arlyers. Betty took her arlyers off too, and closed them into the ball.

The village had large factories that each puffed green smoke. It smelled rancid, like a baby's diaper. Betty took shallow breaths to avoid inhaling too much of the toxic air. And then there was the sound! The town looked deserted, yet the noise made her eardrums pound. A heavy
clunk
clunk
and
clank
clank
from the factories reached her ears.
Ugh!
It was annoying, but Betty couldn't do anything except plug her ears. Even then, the noise was still loud. Not wanting to get lost, Betty looked for Amber, who was nowhere to be found!

Panic started to set in and Betty started running wildly, as fast as she could.

“Amber!” Betty shouted. Where had Amber gone?

After a few minutes of running, Betty was panting. Just as she felt too tired to run anymore, she reached something that wasn't a factory. There were about a hundred yards of wet, dewy grass that stood between Betty and suburban style houses.
Finally, something normal!

As she wandered toward the space, she saw there was a large oak tree with no leaves, yet its branches were dripping with rain. The whole place looked dreary; the sky was cloudy, and the machines made the place sound like a robot factory. Betty didn't see any living people. Wait, there was someone under the oak tree standing with her hands on her hips, determined, looking around. Amber! Betty ran to join her.

“Oh, Betty,” Amber said once she noticed her. “I've been looking for you!”

“Where'd you go? I couldn't find you anywhere! Why'd you run off?” Betty gasped. She wasn't in the best of moods right now.

“Well, I was anxious to find the bridge. If you want to come with me on this journey, you gotta pay attention. I thought you were going to follow me.”

“Well, I didn't see you go! You should have waited!” Betty half-whined.

“Sorry!” Amber said, as if that was going to make everything better.

“Well?” Betty asked after a minute.

“Well what?”

“Did you find any information about the bridge?” “Well, I found out that we have to just keep following the path.” Amber shrugged.

“That's it? That's all we have to do? Where'd you find that out?”

“Commoners,” Amber said, dismissing the subject with a wave of her hand. “C'mon!”

***

The two girls walked on the path for quite some time. They didn't talk to each other along the way. Both were frustrated. Amber felt like she was babysitting. Betty felt she was a burden.

Soon, Amber and Betty reached their destination. The Broken Bridge lay ahead of them, half of it not even there and the other half, rickety and shaky, looked like it was about to collapse. Underneath the bridge lay the dark, murky depths of the Tentacle Sea. The sun had set and the hues of red, orange, and yellow made even the most horrible landscape look like a beautiful painted canvas.

“Can we use the arlyers to get across?” Betty asked.

“I guess we could. Good thinking, Betsy!” Amber said, smiling for the first time since they had arrived in Ridgeway.

“It's Betty,” Betty said, now a bit calmer too.

“Right, right, sorry.”

They both clicked the arlyers open and strapped them on their backs. A few minutes later Amber and Betty were in the sky. They were soaring through the air, as free as birds. Betty smiled at Amber, and Amber, surprising herself, smiled back.

Betty looked down. They were right above the bridge, the part where it became all crumbly and fragile.
Whoever
built
it
did
not
do
a
good
job
, Betty thought.

And then it happened. Right as they crossed over the sea, there was a rapid clicking noise and both pairs of arlyers collapsed in midair. Betty shot a quick glance of fear at Amber before they plummeted toward the water, their bodies frozen in shock. The arlyers curled into balls, splashed into the water, and gently floated out of sight. Meanwhile, Betty and Amber thrashed in the air, falling faster. Betty's heart was pounding, her adrenaline was pumping, and she thought of the times she had wished for adventure. Just before Betty's body crashed into the sea, she thought:
Adventure
is
scary
.

And then, she was immersed in water.

She was drowning.

If you've ever drowned, then you know what it feels like. Or maybe you don't, because it's much different in a book. In a book, anything could happen. You could perhaps swallow too much saltwater and die, you could knock your head on a rock and then die, unconscious, of course. And it's all in the hands of the author.

And so, if the author is the type who likes to mix things up, you will probably die. However, if you get lucky, and have one of the few positive, happy-ending authors, you might live.

But right now, Betty couldn't count on happy endings. She flailed in the water for as long as she could, but then she started sinking.

And then suddenly, just as she had started, she stopped sinking. She was being lifted up by two slimy, cold arms. And when she looked at what was saving her, she screamed. She saw a creature that was white, but tinged pink. It had two long tentacles and eight shorter arms, all thrashing wildly. The two long arms were wrapped around Betty, encasing her body. Finally, Betty dared to look up at the creature's face. Two giant yellow bloodshot eyes, the size of volleyballs, pierced her with a gaze the likes of which she had never wanted to see. Even unmathematical Betty knew this equation: eight arms + two tentacles + two humongous eyes = one giant squid, about twenty feet long.
What
was
Lana
Mungo
thinking?
Betty stared at the squid, frozen with fear and shock. She was only a quarter of the size of one of his arms. The squid didn't make a move to go underwater, so she guessed he could stay above the water's surface longer than she expected. Either way, a giant squid meant death. (So maybe Lana Mungo wasn't one of those happy-ending authors.) Betty tried wriggling out of the squid's grasp, but its suction power was too strong.

Amber!
Betty thought.
Where
is
Amber?

Amber was watching the whole show between Betty and the giant squid. She had made it to shore—they had actually been very close and she didn't know why Betty hadn't swum there. But now Betty was in trouble, and Amber needed to help. Amber didn't know what to do though—she could swim very well, but she didn't know how to fight a squid! Taking a deep breath, she did some quick thinking and took her dagger out. Amber aimed it for the squid's eye. She only had one chance to get this right, so with full concentration, she threw her dagger. Luckily, he was so intrigued by his prey he didn't even see it coming. She watched, from afar, as it soared.

It felt like a slow-motion scene in the movies, the blade glinting as it raced through the air, the wind tossing Amber's hair back, revealing her hopeful, yet confident expression, Betty's screams piercing the air deeply, and the squid just, well, being a squid.

Then, finally, Amber's dagger hit the squid's eye and the squid released what seemed like a howl of agony. Its arms started flailing and soon his prey was flying into the air. Betty was thrown into the shallow water along the shore. She slowly pulled herself onto the wet sand, breathing deep, her heart beating wildly. She was alive. She savored a few deep breaths as she collapsed on the sand and let the sun warm her soggy self. Why was the weather so perfect in this book world, even when the most horrible things were happening? There she lay down and shoveled the sand into her hands and watched as she let it go. By the time Amber reached her, Betty was crying.

“I miss my mom!” Betty wailed.

Amber sighed. “I knew I shouldn't have brought you along.”

There was a pain in Betty's heart. She started crying even more as she envisioned her mom and dad worrying about her. What time was it over in her world? Was it morning, afternoon, or evening?

That was it. Betty realized she needed to get home, to the place where she belonged. She wasn't the kind of girl who traveled on quests or fought off giant squids. She was Betty Pems Hilmar, the girl who might dream and read about these kinds of adventures, but would never be able to go on one.

“I want to go home!” Betty cried.

“You'll get home soon. Your home can't be far away, can it?” Amber asked.

Betty sat up and gulped. “Actually, it can.”

“What do you mean?”

“Listen,” Betty started. “I don't think you know how I got here, and I don't know that much about it either. This is not my world. I came here by book, a book called
Amber's Big Adventure
. I don't know why or how, but at least that's what I think happened. I just woke up in the middle of the night, and the book was glowing and humming and it said ‘Betty Pems Hilmar, you are going to be sucked into this book in two minutes. Please gather all your belongings.' And, of course, I didn't do anything because I didn't believe that the book was talking to me. I thought it was a dream or something. But it wasn't lying when it said that I was going to be sucked into it, because that did happen, and then I suddenly appeared in your world. I'm so confused,” Betty finished.

Amber was confused too, but Betty couldn't explain it any better. She barely understood the situation herself.

“So…you came here by book and you don't know why or how? That's just silly! That's unbelievable!” Amber said, laughing.

“Well, you're ten years old and you're fighting off giant squids!” Betty said defensively. Then she stopped herself.
Amber
is
just
so
unrealistic. I mean, fighting dragons at the age of what, nine?

That's what Peggy had said, yesterday morning, and Betty had gotten so angry. Yet today, she had said almost the same exact thing. Who was she turning into? Didn't she love the
Amber
series the same as always? She glanced at the girl next to her, rude and so different from what she had imagined.