Chapter 67: Deep Dark
In the leafy middle of the trees, the sun had not yet been blotted out by the darkness. There, the animals lived cautiously, ever mindful of the dangers that could have presented themselves.
At the end of a twig, there was a leaf with a crescent-shaped hole that went from the edge, nearly to the middle. Soon, the twig jiggled as a little beetle walked to the end and stepped into the crescent-shaped hole.
Just as it had been coming to that branch day after day, it came again to munch out another layer out of the leaf.
Life had been good. For almost a week, it had been living on that branch and eating the leaves that grew there. Day after day, it would walk out and carve its distinct path through whatever leaf it was eating. But, a distinct path will often lead others to your presence.
Without an inkling of awareness, a beak reached down and plucked the little bug up. And in not even a blink, it was swallowed.
The bird that ate the beetle hopped onto the branch, licking its chops and rubbing its belly. It was a rare treat to be able to eat a beetle that was so fat, and non-venomous to boot. If only it had been paying more attention than the beetle.
Another set of jaws snapped over the bird, swallowing it whole. The snake that snacked on the bird wiped its mouth with its tail, and quickly slithered along its way. A fortunate thing, for what happened next.
The end of a bridge slapped against the tree trunk, smashing the twig with the eaten leaves on it. The next moment, the other end of the bridge fell from above, carrying its screaming passengers and slapped against the trunk again. And the process repeated itself, until they came to a hard landing on one of the leafy platforms.
The bridge lay crumpled upon the condensed branches, its passengers nowhere to be seen. A breeze picked up and blew through the branches, just as a purple claw reached out from underneath the planks.
“Ugh…Two crash landings is two too many,” Spike groaned, as he crawled out from beneath the bridge. “Minnie?”
“Over here,” Minnie answered, as she emerged from the other end of the bridge. Once she was out, she shook out a few leaves that had gotten into her ears. “It’s a shame that this bridge doesn’t come with airbags.”
“KEE-KEEK!” came a familiar shout from up above.
Looking up, Spike and Minnie saw the branches of a neighboring tree shaking. A dark shape jumped from one branch, then down to the next.
As they got nearer to the bottom, a high shriek of pain cut through the jungle, sending a nearby flock of birds flying higher up into the canopy.
The second that he heard the shriek, Spike ran to the edge of the platform he was on, and stopped abruptly when he found that there was no easy way across.
Minnie gathered up the bridge and flung it across the gap. The hooks at either end of the bridge anchored securely to their holds, allowing Spike and Minnie both to cross.
Once they crossed, Minnie took the bridge again and flung it up against the tree trunk. The hooks dug into the bark, and Minnie quickly climbed the planks and was able to peer up over the edge of the nearest platform.
The mother monkey sat there with her tail curled around herself. Her green child was scampering back and forth, trying to get a look at his sibling.
In the mother’s arms, the black monkey wailed loudly in a way that reminded Minnie all too well of an injured child.
The mother tried to settle her baby down by gently rocking her back and forth. And while the baby’s crying subsided, she still whimpered and moaned.
“Miss Monkey,” Minnie gently called, offering her hand to the mother.
The mother quietly chattered something that Minnie could not hear as she wrapped her tail around Minnie’s wrist. And with a soft pull, the mother monkey lifted herself to her feet and carefully walked over to Minnie.
Minnie took hold of the mother’s hand and helped her climb onto her back. After the mother, the green child looked warily at Minnie.
“Ko-ko,” the mother beckoned.
Still wary, the green baby cautiously walked to its mother, never taking his eyes from Minnie. Once he arrived, he tried wrapping his tail around his mother’s, only for his mother’s tail to recoil slightly from his own.
“Ka-kee-kee,” the mother said, indicating how she used her tail as a makeshift sling for her daughter’s injured arm. She pointed to Minnie’s shoulder next and said, “Ku-kee-ko-ko.”
The green monkey looked anxiously at Minnie’s shoulder.
“Ko-ko!” the mother repeated more firmly.
That had done it. The green baby scampered over to Minnie’s shoulder, practically hiding behind it as he clung to her.
“Is everyone ready?” Minnie asked.
The mother monkey nodded.
Then, as carefully as she could, Minnie started climbing down the improvised ladder she had made.
On the platform below, Spike kept watch for any missed step. Once or twice he winced when he heard the wooden planks clack against the tree trunk. After several seconds, Minnie was back on solid ground. The green child quickly jumped off and waited for his mother to climb down. The moment that his mother was on the leafy platform, he dashed to the safety of her presence.
The black monkey was breathing hard, her mouth twitching with pain after every breath.
“Kee-kee-ko-ku,” the mother said, as she carefully began pulling away the bandages that were wrapped around her daughter’s arm.
As he watched, Spike winced at the spectacle. He had seen the damage done to the black monkey when he had found her after the bridge broke. Seeing it again, the image of Caru’s broken and mangled body as she sang her last song flashed into Spike’s mind, and he snapped his gaze away.
“Spike? Is everything alright?” Minnie asked.
Spike did not answer immediately, but slowly turned to face Minnie.
“Minnie? The baby...Is she going to…” he hesitantly asked.
He did not have to finish for Minnie to know what he was going to say. She answered by kneeling down to Spikes level to speak with him eye to eye.
“Oh, Spike. No. I don’t think she’s going to die. But, she does need help soon. If she doesn’t get her arm fixed, she may not be the same ever again,” Minnie answered.
“But, where can we go to get help?” Spike asked.
“I don’t know. But, if there are other villages like the one we were just at, ones that aren’t abandoned, we may be able to help her.”
“Kee-ku-ku,” the mother monkey said.
Minnie and Spike both turned to face the mother.
“Kee-ku-ku,” she repeated, as she picked up a fistful of dry leaves, crumbled them in her fist and started sprinkling them over her injured baby.
In the breeze, the crumbled leaves blew away from the baby, forcing the mother to shift herself so that her child was on the lee of the wind.
“Wait. I have something that might help,” Spike said, as he took off his backpack and reached inside for what he needed.
After a moment of searching around, Spike withdrew a bottle that he had taken from the shelves of the doctor’s hut. Once he had, he hurried over to the injured monkey.
Minnie followed after, but stopped a moment when the crumbled leaves that had caught the breeze blew past her nose. And as they drifted by, she noticed something else. Another thing on the breeze was something silvery, and nearly translucent. In fact, she would not have noticed it at all, had it not caught a tiny ray of sun and twinkled dimly. Whatever it had been, she could not wonder.
Nearby, the black monkey was wailing again as Spike tried to get near her.
“Hold still! I’m just trying to help!” Spike said.
His words did nothing to calm the injured baby, who cried louder still. As a result, the green baby was growing more and more anxious from his sister’s condition.
“Maybe I should give it a try,” Minnie suggested.
“Okay. But, do you think you can get her to stop moving?” Spike asked, giving the bottle to Minnie.
“I think so. If my training as a nurse has done any good,” Minnie answered.
The mother monkey did her best to calm her crying child, as she pulled away more and more of the bandages that wrapped around her baby’s arm and tail. While that was happening, Minnie uncorked the bottle she had taken from Spike and began trying to calm the young patient.
From the moment that the bottle was uncorked, the strong-smelling vapors burst out like an invisible cloud, and right into the faces of everyone present.
Minnie gagged and covered her nose, as she set to her work to help the baby monkey.
Somewhere in the dark of the jungle, a nose pointed into the air and inhaled deeply, over and over again.
Pluto had managed to balance himself on his hind legs, steadied by his front paws atop a mound of leaves. His nose was now a beacon for any scent that was traveling on the wind. The smell that he had been following before was now billowing all around from the breeze that was blowing through. With the scent now scattered and muddled through the air, the hound dog was finding it more difficult to pinpoint the direction to follow.
“Ee-ku-kee,” said the blue monkey.
Pluto paid the baby no mind other than a short huff, before focusing his concentration back onto the scent.
The blue baby watched Pluto sniffing the air. He did not know much about scents and tracking, but he could see that his hound dog companion was having difficulty trying to track the scent that he wanted. Looking to Pluto’s upturned nose, he began to think about his own experiences in the jungle thus far into his young life.
Whenever one wanted to see further, they had to go up further. So, if one were to smell further…
Pluto jolted slightly when he felt the weight of the blue monkey climbing up his back. He tried to growl, but only choked when the little punk grabbed onto this collar. He turned his gaze up to face the monkey, but was met with the monkey’s little paws balancing atop his nose.
Once he was settled atop his perch, the little monkey wrapped the end of his tail around Pluto’s snout and extended the rest of his tail upward, setting himself up like a living antenna.
Clutching his shiny crystal closely to him, the little monkey started sniffing deeply all around. For what it was worth, all that he could smell was the leaves around him, and the faint smells of some kind of flower.
Pluto teetered beneath the monkey, getting nothing but another nose full of monkey fur. He tried shaking his head side to side, but that only made the baby wrap his tail tighter around Pluto’s snout.
“Arf-Arf! Rrrrr!” Pluto growled.
“Kee-ka-o-kee-kee,” the baby replied.
He resumed sniffing the air, getting nothing but the same scents as before. As Pluto tottered around below, a ray of sunlight caught the little monkey’s eyes, making him shield the light from view. Looking down, the blue monkey looked at the crystal he held in his arms. Perhaps, if he could not smell what they were looking for, he might be able to see it.
The moment that the little monkey raised his arms to catch the sun in his crystal, Pluto tottered again, taking them further from the ray of light.
“Kee-ka-keekee!” the blue monkey chattered, pointing toward the light.
Pluto would have none of it. The sooner the little punk was off of his nose, the sooner he could focus on finding Minnie’s scent again.
The blue monkey shifted his weight forward, tugging Pluto’s nose with his tail. Slowly but surely, Pluto started to inch in the direction the monkey desired.
They were getting closer. And the little, blue monkey reached out his arms, hovering it ever closer to the beam of light.
Closer still.
Closer.
The edge of the light caught a corner of the prismatic crystal. And the moment it did, neither dog nor monkey could have anticipated what would have happened next.
All around them, the air suddenly was alight with thousands of glittering particles, as if all of a sudden Spike’s guiding light had grown large enough to swallow him.
Pluto yelped and wobbled around. Atop his nose, the little monkey chattered noisily. All he had wanted was to see the darkened world around him. Now, he was seeing everything undergo a shocking transformation.
The leaves on the nearby trees grew as large as frying pans. The branches creaked loudly as they knotted and curled around one another. The foliage beneath them mounded upward, as if something very large were burrowing out from beneath it.
As if the ground were suddenly pulled out from beneath him, Pluto slipped and fell down the rising mound.
The little monkey clutched his crystal to his chest as he rolled down. He reached his tail out to catch hold of anything that he could anchor to. But, the foliage had not stopped growing, leaving his to keep tumbling along.
Pluto reached the end of the platform and caught the edge with his paw. Before he could ever try to pull himself back up, the blue monkey rolled into his snout and sent them both over the side.
As they fell, Pluto tried in vain to flap his four legs like wings. He tried sucking in as much air as he could to lighten his frame. When that didn’t work, he tried blowing all of his air out to resist his momentum.
Naturally, nothing worked. And just as he thought that he would fall to his demise, he jerked to a halt.
Looking up, Pluto saw his tail entwined with the blue monkey’s tail, who was hanging by three of his paws from a thin branch. In his fourth paw, he held his coveted crystal.
“O-kee-kee-kakak!” the monkey chattered, pointing proudly to his crystal, then to the overgrowth of foliage above them. “Kee-ku-ku! Kee-ku-ku!”
Pluto huffed. He was growing weary of that crystal. After risking his neck to help his curious simian charge acquire it, it was now the cause of their current misfortune. That is, if what the blue punk was touting about it was true. After all, who ever heard of a crystal making plants grow?
The little monkey was still happily chattering as he held his crystal for Pluto to see it. But as he lowered it, his grip loosened slightly. Too much, as his crystal went sliding out of his fingers.
“AK! AK!” the monkey shouted, as he fumbled to retrieve his prize.
His fingertips were just curled around the edges when he felt his other paws slipping.
“Uh-oh…” the monkey muttered, just before his paws slipped one after the other from their grip around the branch.
Pluto howled loudly as he fell into the darkness below. Until he landed face first onto something that was nearly invisible in the dark. When he landed, he got a snout full of leaves and other greenery.
The ground beneath him sagged violently under his weight, the eased back. Midway through the ebb of the leafy platform, the blue monkey landed on his back.
“Grrrrrr…”
A threatening growl rose from within the pile of leaves. With it rose Pluto’s head from the green, his teeth bared and his eyes narrowed to furious slits.
“Kee-kee!” the blue monkey chattered.
Pluto whipped his head to the punk’s direction.
“Kee-ku-kukee!” the monkey said, showing his empty paws to Pluto, before he started overturning the many leaves around them.
Pluto rolled his eyes. If there were ever a great loss to be had during the magical quest thus far, this was not one of them. There would always be another rock to find just like it. Well, hopefully not exactly. If every stone in the jungle made plants burst into mad growth spurts, he would have gladly faced the fiercest jungle predator over the plants.
The ground suddenly dropped down.
Pluto and the monkey both gripped the ground, as if their very lives depended on it.
When the ground shifted, they briefly saw the view of a clearing in the branches. Littered around were many dissimilar items that neither had much of a chance to look at. Partly from the darkness. Mostly from the ground rising steadily back up.
Before either could catch themselves, the ground suddenly dropped back down again, making them both slide nearly over the edge.
Reaching his four legs out, Pluto dug each of his paws into the leafy ground and stopped just short of going over. His young companion was not so fortunate.
The little monkey rolled end over end, unable to grip onto anything as he tumbled along and barreled over the edge.
Pluto nearly gave himself whiplash, as fast and far as he stretched out his neck. Still, he had caught the little monkey in his jaws. Fortunately so, else he ended up in the jaws of what waited below them.
Inches below the little monkey, something else waited. Some horrible, aberrant thing that spawned from the horrible depths of the canyon. All that was seen was its back, scaled like a nightmarish reptile’s. But, as it rose up, the corner of its face was seen. Its wide mouth spread as it rose up, revealing double rows of wickedly sharp fangs.
As the beast rose, so did the leafy platform. Standing erect, the beast was revealed to be some seven feet tall, with long, muscular arms reached out to grasp a vine in each hand.
“Kee-kee,” the little monkey whispered to Pluto.
“Hrm?” the hound dog replied.
The beast pulled on the two vines, and the platform lowered again. Across from them, another platform lowered.
“Ee-kee-kee-keekee,” the monkey whispered, pointing toward the ground past the beast.
Pluto squinted to see through the dark. It was difficult to tell, but among the dull, green leaves was one instance of light on the ground. Whatever light there was had been dimly on the prismatic surface of the monkey’s crystal. And like some sort of beacon, it twinkled gently at them.
It looked so near, yet was so far away. And the way that the little monkey was looking at it, Pluto knew what was going through his mind.
Shaking his head, the hound dog tried to dissuade his young charge. Getting it under other circumstances was one thing. But, when there was the mutated offspring of a gorilla and a crocodile between them and a shiny liability, all bets were off.
The beast loosened its pull, and the platform raised again.
“Kee-ko-ko,” the little monkey said.
“Uh-uh,” Pluto replied.
“Kee-ko-ko-kee-kee.”
“Grrrrrrrrr!”
“Kee-kee-kee!”
The platform lowered again. Across from where they were, the little monkey saw another leafy platform lower at the same time as theirs. Taking no heed from the hound dog, the monkey whipped his tail to wrap around the twigs of the neighboring platform and wiggled loose from Pluto’s teeth.
Try as Pluto did to keep the monkey from going, he just barely missed catching him again when the leafy platform trembled.
The little monkey had already climbed onto the neighboring platform, leaving Pluto behind. Against every ounce of his better judgement, Pluto climbed back atop his own platform and carefully made his way to the next.
Just as Pluto outstretched his paw to the next platform, the two platforms began to separate again.
Pluto reached out and grabbed the edge of the opposite platform. A mistake, as the two platforms continued to separate, and stretch the hound dog’s body out.
Just as Pluto felt as if he could take now more, he was able to resist their pull and stop them from separating.
The beast grunted quizzically and gave the vines in its hands a sharp tug each.
Unprepared for the sudden slack, Pluto’s body compressed like an accordion, before his rear half dropped from the platform.
Down below, the beast felt a sudden weight drop onto the platform on its left side.
“Hrhm?” it grunted.
Any intruder in its hollow was fair game. And if this one was as big as it seemed, it would serve nicely as a meal.
It yanked the vine in its right hand, lowering the left platform enough for it to see the very top.
Nothing was there. Not even another leaf fallen from a higher branch.
The beast exhaled gutturally, and turned away, letting go of the vines as it left.
Beneath the platform, Pluto clung to the underside, frozen completely motionless. Now that the beast had passed, he was now free to tremble in terror. And he did just that, as his eyes darted around for the blue punk.
As he surveyed the area, Pluto could see more of what was there. The entire place was littered with things he had known not to be found in a forest of any kind. Wooden boxes were stacked up, each one with a gaping, splintered hole through one or more sides. Spilled from the boxes were scraps of half-eaten foods. Mostly meat. Spear shafts were lodged deep into nearby tree trunks, likely halfway up their length from their appearance. What looked like some article of clothing had been suspended by a vine, cinched up and stuffed with what looked like a thousand rocks. And it was this apparatus that the beast approached next.
Balling up its fists and baring its many teeth, the beast exhaled a low sigh, seemingly expanding the already formidable muscles of its body, before it thrusted its fist into the bag.
A loud, churning crunch sounded from inside the bag, joined by another as the beast followed up with a second punch. Down by the beast’s heel, Pluto spotted the lost crystal.
Somewhere on his periphery, Pluto spotted something moving. There, climbing down the spear shafts that were stuck in the tree was the little monkey.
Pluto waved his paw, trying to silently dissuade the monkey. Instead, the little monkey only waved back, before resuming his advance toward the crystal.
There was only one thing for it. Pluto dropped from his hiding place, hitting the ground only just as the beast landed another mighty punch on its homemade punching bag.
Quickly and quietly as he could, Pluto scrambled behind one of the broken crates. He watched the little monkey’s progress, seeing him steadily climb toward the crystal by the beast.
Something needed to be done quickly. For as uncautious as the little punk was being, he was as likely to get caught as a fly did on flypaper.
Carefully, Pluto peered out of his hiding spot, looking for a diversion to make. Nearest to himself, he saw a stack of masks with frightening, staring faces painted on them. From the look of them, the stacks were placed against a thick bunch of branches to be pushed back (most likely tackled) as far back as they could go. If something could just be done to them…
Pluto reached a paw out and started trying to push the masks back. Only, his limited canine strength could only do so much with one paw. After hearing the beast whale harder on his punching bag, Pluto moved slightly further out of cover to put his plan into play. He put both front paws upon the mask, and started pushing with all his might.
The mass of branches behind the stack of masks started to compress. Every so steadily, he was able to push them back, deeper and deeper.
A loud crashing sound rang through the hollow and Pluto glanced over his shoulder to see what was happening.
The beast was drawing back from a powerful right hook, which left an indent in the bag that looked like a fender bender.
“Aaahhrrrr!” the beast growled, as it shook the feeling back into its hand.
The little monkey was growing closer. He was out in the open, with nowhere to escape to if he was noticed.
It was now or never. Pluto heaved against the masks as hard as he could, until he could feel them pushing back just as hard. Wasting no time, the hound dog jumped to the side. But, not quickly enough.
The mass of branches sprang back into place, catching Pluto as the masks came shooting forward.
The beast bellowed loudly as it spun around and struck the punching bag with its tail. It only just perceived something yellowish-orange rocketing past it when it saw the volley of large, wooden masks incoming.
Opening its jaws, the beast caught the first mask and deflected two others. Once the danger passed, the beast chomped down hard on the mask in its mouth, splintering it.
Something was in the beast’s hollow. And it was going to get rid of it by any means necessary. And so, cracking its knuckles and baring its teeth, it stomped off in the direction that the orange projectile flew.
Beneath its notice, the little monkey dodged just in time to avoid being stepped on. And it pulled its tail out of the way for good measure. Unfortunately, as the beast walked away, it absent-mindedly kicked the crystal away.
The little monkey clenched his teeth as the crystal rolled across the ground, going dangerously near the edge of the platform.
The crystal rolled to a stop, teetering just on the edge. But with every step of the beast, the platform shook ever so slightly, threatening to send the crystal down into the irretrievable depths of the chasm.
Up in the tree, the little monkey could just see Pluto’s face peering through the greenery. Over and over, Pluto twitched his head toward the beast, who was growing closer by the second.
The little monkey looked the Pluto, to the beast, then to his crystal. After a moment, he scampered toward the crystal.
Pluto would have gasped at his rotten circumstances. Apparently his own life was worth less than some trinket. And it was about to be worth even less.
A huge, four fingered hand burst through the foliage, groping blindly around for any intruders.
Pluto pressed his whole body against the trunk behind himself, sucking in as much of his gut as he could to keep it where it was inside of him.
The little monkey hurried toward the edge of the platform, and watched in horror as his crystal leaned closer and closer over the edge.
His own hasty steps only facilitated the problem. And he watched as his crystal tipped right over the side.
He dove.
Pluto pushed his body up the trunk, avoiding another wild grasp
The crystal was falling toward the abyss.
The monkey reached out his paws.
The crystal fumbled and slipped from his fingers.
He fell past the crystal, reached with his back paws and missed again.
Grabbing the bottom of the platform with his back paws, the little monkey watched the crystal fall right before his eyes.
In a last ditch effort, he lashed out his tail and coiled it up into a funnel.
The crystal landed on the outer edge of the monkey’s tail.
The little monkey shifted his tail ever so slightly, centering the crystal to the inside of the funnel. When the crystal started to roll down his tail, he cinched it up in his tail’s coils and lifted it over the edge of the platform.
Pluto’s back paws walked up the side of the trunk, propped up by his front paws. One after the other, he lifted his front paws as the beast groped blindly around.
Suddenly, the beast’s hand lashed out, forcing Pluto to retract his nose from being grabbed. Faced with the monster’s clenched fist, Pluto carefully tried to climb backwards up the trunk. Until the beast’s hand receded from his hiding spot.
Whatever had happened, his life was momentarily spared. Now, he had to collect the little monkey and be on their way.
A gleam of light caught his eye. One that was very faint, but there nonetheless. Peering through the foliage, Pluto had to squint to see what was happening. A long, blue tail was poking up over the edge of the platform, holding in its grasp the very crystal that had gotten them into that awful mess. And the beast was stomping right toward it.
Pluto fearfully nibbled his claws. If nothing was done, soon the little monkey would be eaten. It was then that he looked again to the crystal. It had gotten them into that mess, and it was going to get them out. As quickly as his paws would allow, the hound dog scrambled through the branches.
Tremors reverberated through the platform. And from where he was hanging, the little monkey felt them getting closer. He retracted his tail and began to climb along the outer edge of the platform. But was stopped suddenly when he felt something clench around his tail like a vice.
The little monkey screeched and chattered, grasping the branches to pull itself free. It was all in vain, as his baby strength was no match for the beefcake of a beast who held him. And with a sudden yank, the little monkey was pulled up.
The crystal was slipping from his grasp, and the little monkey tightened his tail around it. Now suspended in the air, he turned to face his captor. First, all he saw was a great pair of glaring red eyes. Next, he saw too many teeth as the beast snarled malevolently.
Pluto scrambled clumsily through the branches, stumbling over almost everything in his way. And for the first time in his life, he wished that he had been born a cat. Even if it meant having to clean himself with his tongue, he would have given anything to reach where he needed to be in time.
Light was shining in from above. If only he could just get it down to where they were.
He jumped to the next branch, catching only a glimpse of the scene below. There was no more time. Unless something was done, the little monkey would be a bite-sized snack for the beast.
Reaching the end of the branch he was on, Pluto jumped upward and grabbed hold of the lowest branch in his teeth. The branch bent slightly, allowing in slivers of sunlight. As hard as he could, Pluto started bobbing up and down, letting in only marginally more sun.
The beast stared at the little morsel in its hand, contemplating whether to crush it in its fist, or swallow it alive.
The little monkey continued chattering and screeching, trying his best to escape the monstrous grip. He knew that he was nowhere near strong enough to break free. For all he could tell, it was the end of him. There he would go, never again to see his mother or siblings again. Worst of all, they would never know what had happened to him.
The beast lifted the monkey to its eye level and began to open its mouth.
In his panicked state, the little monkey could see flashes of light all around himself, revealing the world and hiding it again. Then, as if a light had turned on in his mind, he realized that the lights were not in his mind. Thinking quickly, he did the one thing that he could think to do.
“Kee-ku-ku!”
The beast closed its mouth and stared quizzically at the monkey.
“Kee-ku-ku! Kee-ku-ku!” the little monkey repeated.
“Eeh-uu-khuuu…” the beast answered in a long, guttural exhale.
“Uh-huh!”
The beast turned its head and started sniffing. Something was there that had not been before. Though faint, its scent was perfectly distinct as something that only came along in a very long while. The reason that it shunned the light. And with the scent, it noticed something else. A distinct, constant disturbance of the leaves, different from the wind. A fine, barely noticeable silvery mist descended upon them, directing the beast’s gaze upward.
Pluto was practically bounding up and down on the branch, bending it further with every heave and allowing in more light.
The rays just touched the beast’s eyes, forcing it to block the light with its free hand.
Blinded, the beast could not see the little monkey raise his tail and catch the sun in his coveted crystal.
Another bright flash filled the hollow like water filling a basin. And just as it was before, the world around them came alive.
The leafy platform began to rise and fall like the tide. Leaves grew several times their natural size. Branches wrapped around each other as their twigs sprouted wildly. Vines danced around like strings controlling a marionette.
The beast bellowed loudly as its own home turned against it. Everything that was once familiar was now a hazard. The ground shifted out from beneath the beast, making it fall over the edge of the platform. Reaching out, it grabbed onto the platform, which undulated violently in its grip.
In the beast’s other hand, the little monkey could feel itself coming loose. He wriggled free, even as the beast tried to grip the platform with the hand that held him.
Pluto swung back and forth from his branch like a pendulum. And like the device from Poe, he was lowering with each swing.
He was getting closer to his young companion. The little monkey reached out a paw for Pluto, who in turn reached out his own paw.
The branch swung by.
Pluto missed.
The branch swung back.
Pluto missed again.
The beast was slipping from the platform.
The branch swung back.
Pluto let go with his front paws and gripped with his back legs, further lowering himself.
The little monkey reached up and grabbed Pluto around his neck, clutching to his collar.
In one swift motion, the last of the little monkey slipped free from the beast’s grip. By the time the end of his tail appeared, still clutching his crystal, the beast disappeared into the abyss. For a moment, its mouth full of fangs was visible, then at once swallowed by the dark.
Were Pluto born a climbing creature, he may have been able to hold onto the swinging branch with his rear legs. Alas, he was a mere hound dog, whose legs slipped from their hold, sending the two down into the dark after the beast.
Another rough landing, as the two landed on another leafy platform, bounced to another, rolled across the length of a branch, slid down an incline, shot through a hollow log and finally came to a rough halt on yet another leafy platform.
Pluto huffed quietly. Never again was he going to the jungle. Not even on a safari with Mickey.
“Kee-kee!” came the little monkey’s voice, before Pluto felt him climb atop his head and saw him hover the crystal before his eyes.
It was then that Pluto noticed how very dark the world around them now was. Were it not for the dot of light that the crystal reflected, he would not have seen it at all. And after lifting his ears, he noticed that the world around them was now much quieter, but filled with several times the chatter of the upper levels of the jungle, as if there were a hundred silent symphonies going on at once.
His eyes and his ears would do him no good. But as a hound, Pluto’s greatest asset was his nose.
From his prostrate position, Pluto sniffed the air. He sniffed deeply, and his eyes widened. The scent he had been following was stronger than ever now.
“Kee?” the little monkey asked.
Pluto did not answer. Instead, he reached his tail over his head and wrapped it around his young passenger’s tail. Once the little monkey was back in his regular position, Pluto put his nose to the air and carefully stepped onward.