D. MacHale - Black Water

“It’s my home,” he answered. “Seegen lives there too. We should go see him now.”

“Absolutely,” I agreed.

“Good!” Boon exclaimed happily. “This is going to be a great adventure!”

One of us was having a good time. It wasn’t me.

“We’ve a long way to go,” he explained. “You’ll need another shoe.”

Right. I had lost my “shoe” to the lizard thingy. Boon walked to the side of the tree room to a pile of dead vines. He lifted them up to reveal another pile of rag clothing.

“I keep my gar clothes here,” he explained. “Going down there to the flume is kind of creepy.”

I knew what he meant. Piles of bones will do that. Boon dug through the clothes and found another raggy shoe. It was amazing how he had the physical dexterity of a human. He tossed the shoe to me, saying, “Is this what you wear on your home territory?”

It was my turn to laugh. “Not even close,” I chuckled. “So far there isn’t a whole lot here that is like Second Earth.”

Boon looked totally stunned. “Really?”

“Oh yeah,” I answered while tying on the shoe. “What you call klees, we call cats. Some are big and wild, but most are small and gars keep them as pets.”

I saw a frown cross Boon’s face. Uh-oh. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him that.

“You keep klees as pets?” he asked, incredulous.

“Not me, no,” I was quick to answer, trying to do damage control. “But some people. A couple people. Not many, really. It’s very rare.” Yikes.

Boon walked toward me, and I once again realized that he was a dangerous predator. I was about to say something like, “Whoa, remember, I’m the lead Traveler!” But I didn’t want to be lame. Instead I stood up and tried to act like the lead Traveler.

“Your ring,” he said.

I looked down at my Traveler ring. It was the one item that was allowed to be brought between territories. “What about it?” I asked.

“Hide it,” Boon said. “If somebody sees you wearing a ring, they’ll know something is wrong. Thebestthing they’ll do is take it from you.”

“Really?” I asked. “What’s theworstthing they’ll do?”

“Eat you” was his sober answer. Gulp. I quickly took off my ring. “Can I see it?” Boon asked.

I reluctantly handed it over to him. Boon took the ring and admired it like it was a priceless jewel.

“Incredible,” he said with awe. “Someday I’ll have one too.”

I took the ring back and tied it around my neck with one of the braided vines that I used to lash on my stinky clothing.

“You should take me to Seegen now,” I said with authority.

Boon looked at me with cold eyes. Had I pushed too far? Obviously, he wasn’t used to being told what to do by a gar. We held eye contact for a moment longer, then Boon broke out in a big smile.

“This is going to be fun!” he exclaimed, and hurried off.

Fun? I can think of a lot of words to describe my first few minutes on Eelong. “Fun” wasn’t one of them. But that didn’t matter. I was here to find Gunny…and stop Saint Dane. Fun wasn’t part of the equation. So I hitched up my shoes, hid my ring around my neck, and jogged after the walking, talking cat that was going to bring me to a place called Leeandra and the Traveler from Eelong.

Eelongis a strange and wonderful place. Strange because oftheway evolution took such a different turnfromon Second Earth… or any of the other territories I’d been to, for that matter. Wonderful because it’s totally beautiful. Not since I first swam through the underwater world of Cloral had I been to a place where you could use the word “paradise” to describe it. I think this territory is about as close as it gets. But Eelong is one other thing. Dangerous. Strange, wonderful, and dangerous. That pretty much summed up my opinion.

Boon led me to the far side of the massive room inside the hollow tree and pointed up to a ledge that led to a hole in the wall. It must have been a hundred feet up.

“That’s the tunnel we’ve got to take out of here,” he said.

“You’re kidding?” I answered. “It’ll take me an hour to climb those vines.”

Boon shook his head in pity. “How can gars on your territory be superior to klees if they can’t even climb?”

“We have an agreement with cats,” I answered. “They don’t ask ustoclimb things andwedon’t ask themto doalgebra.”

Boon had no idea what I meant. But he shrugged and said, “No problem. We’ll take the gar way up.” He walked along the wall of the cavern until he came upon another tunnel into the tree, at ground level. “Follow me,” he said, and disappeared into the opening. I stepped into the opening to find myself in the dark.

“Boon?” I called out.

Boon’s head suddenly appeared from above, upside down, right in front of my face. I jumped back in surprise and saw he was hanging from his back feet, or paws.

“Climb the roots,” he instructed. “It should be easy.”

I looked up to see he was hanging from a dense tangle of thick roots that created a tunnel going straight up. “Why do we have to climb?” I protested. “Can’t we just go outside and walk to Leeandra?”

“We could,” Boon answered. “If you don’t mind running into a tang.”

Tang? The only “Tang” I knew was a fake orange drink that astronauts liked. “What’s a tang?” I asked.

“Nasty creatures,” Boon answered. “Predators. They eat gars, mostly, but that’s because we klees are smart enough to keep to the trees. Tangs climb even worse than gars do.”

“Are they green?” I asked. “With lots of teeth, and smell bad when they’re hungry?”

“You know about ‘em?” he asked.

“You might say that,” I answered. “I nearly got eaten by one.”

“Then you know what I’m talking about,” Boon exclaimed. “That’s why we climb.”

Boon hoisted himself up and climbed the root system. I figured that if the price of avoiding those lizard creatures outside was to climb a tree, that was okay by me. Boon was right; it was easy. It was like climbing the jungle gym in the playground at Glenville School.

“What happens when we get up?” I called up to Boon. “Won’t we be stuck?” I thought about making a joke about dumb cats getting stuck up in trees and having to be rescued by the fire department, but I didn’t think Boon would get it.

“Trust me,” he said. “I’ll get you where you need to go.”

This was his show, so I stopped asking questions. Since he hadn’t eaten me yet, I had no reason to believe he meant me any harm. As strange as the whole situation was, I was beginning to feel that finding Boon was a good thing. And if he took me to Gunny, it would be an even better thing. We climbed quickly for about five minutes. When we reached the top, I hoisted myself out of the vertical tunnel and into another large, empty room. We were still inside the tree, but now high above the ground. The room was about a third of the size of the room at ground level. I could feel a slight swaying as theiuge tree moved in the wind. The floor was made of wood planks that looked old and weathered, like they had been there a long time. Leading outside were three big archways cut into the walls. I felt a warm breeze blowing through and saw blue sky beyond.

“It’s a tree house,” I said. “Do people, uh, klees live here?”

“I told you, nobody comes here much anymore,” Boon answered. “It’s too far from civilization. But somebody must have lived here at one time, and built this dwelling.”

“So now what?” I asked.

Boon walked for one of the archways. I followed him, but slowed before reaching the opening. I’m not good with heights. I expected to peer out of the archway and see a long drop to the ground. When I took a tentative peek outside, I was surprised to see that beyond the opening was a balcony about twenty feet wide. I took a cautious step outside and saw that it wrapped around the tree. The floor was made of the same wooden planks as inside. There was a handrail around the outside for safety. Better still was the view. I walked slowly toward the handrail and got another look at the incredible forest.