sting. Blood dripped from another broken nose, and Crush laughed out loud, almost falling out of the tree at the sight. Luckily for him, the giant did not notice his cackling. Unluckily for Boulder, the goliath grabbed the net with one hand while he cut the line that held the net with the other, and the giant swung the net to the ground to kill the contents of the trap. Then the giant flung his captured prize over his shoulder. Looking around for the second little person for only a moment, the giant decided that he would take his catch back to the castle and leave the other to run away. Stomping back toward the fortress, he disappeared behind the many trees that stood within the thick forest.
Crush hung onto the treetop in horrified silence, and his stomach turned at the rapid downturn of events in the forest.
“Should I continue to Scalus?” he thought to himself as he listened to the wind rustling in the leaves. Thinking that he was all alone in the treetop, Crush was astonished to find that a monkey’s eyes were staring at him from an adjacent tree. The monkey leaped upward, climbing from limb to limb, and then with a graceful spring from one tree to another, the small ape snatched a limb in Crush’s tree and climbed to a branch just beneath the field agent. The bright eyes blinked as they looked up at him, and Crush then recognized that this was the same monkey that he had met earlier in the forest.
“Simon. What brings you here?” he asked the small primate. Simon broke open a nut shell with his tiny hands, and a fragment of a nut rolled out onto his palm. With an open hand, the monkey then raised the morsel up to share with Crush. Not wanting to offend his newfound friend, Crush accepted the morsel, and he popped it into his mouth. Bitter though it was, he chewed and swallowed the offering. Simon dusted off his hands, and the monkey pointed through the forest toward the castle. When Crush looked to see what he was pointing toward, he began to notice many eyes opening between the leaves. He lost count at fifty as the colony of monkeys slowly and quietly made their way toward him, bounding with great agility from tree to tree. Soon he was enclosed by a gathering of the small apes. Simon, however, continued to point toward the log castle, as if he were trying to convey a message.
It was then that Crush understood what Simon was implying. Looking into the monkey’s eyes, he sensed for the first time the intelligence that he had missed before. Crush turned his head to look at the rest of the group, and he saw the same brightness of intellect in each of their eyes. Squinting toward the giants’ fortress, the beginnings of a plan sprouted into his mind.
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Next Issue
Will Boulder survive?!!! Will Pound and Shad escape the tunnel beneath the dead forest?!!! Be back next issue when Crush ventures into the peril of the castle of the giants to find the old man of the mountain while Pound risks his life descending deeper into the heart of the roach’s den!!!
About the Author
Christopher Carter is an engineer by day, and transforms into a writer and artist by night. He lives with his wife and cat in central North Carolina.
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