Free Zally's Book by Jan Bozarth Page B

stopped me. Feelings tingled and poked at my mind: discouragement, disappointment, despair, tinged green at the edges.
    â€œWe have to help her get out of the pit,” I said.
    Imishi stared at me, her face going pale with disbelief.
“What?
We just spent hours escaping that beast, and now you want to
help
it?”
    When she put it that way, it did sound like a pretty dumb thing to do. But something told me that this was the
right
thing to do. Kir neighed and took a step backward. I gave my friends an apologetic look. “I know, I know. I’m sorry, but I have to do this. She won’t try to hurt us now.”
    Imishi snorted. “It is a
jaguar!
That’s what they
do
—hunt and eat other creatures!”
    â€œShe needs help, or she’ll die,” I said. “Isn’t that what you Kib Fairies do—help other creatures?”
    The fairy girl’s eyes narrowed, and she shook her head. “Not creatures that want to eat us! We’re wasting time, and we need to get back to help Queen Carmina and creatures who
deserve
our help!” She threaded her fingers through Kir’s mane, and he turned to face the jungle. I knew that they wouldn’t leave without me. So did they.
    I went back to the hole, eased myself down onto my stomach, and stuck my head over the edge. The jaguar’s paws were flecked with blood, as if she had been clawing at the walls. When she saw me, I felt a flicker of anticipation, of pleading. Was that possible? The jaguar crouched and tried to leap again, but this time the leap took her barely halfway up the walls before she fell back to the ground. She turned in agitation, lashing her tail. I saw that the bottom ofthe pit was littered with the bones of creatures that had not escaped.
    I stared down at the jaguar, trying to catch her eerie gaze, doing my best to send her a message. Our eyes locked, and the jaguar stopped pacing. Focusing on the jade glow, I sent thoughts to her as best I could, thoughts like
calm
and
friendly
and
rescue
.
    The cat sat on her haunches, staring up at me. I sent her thoughts:
We are your friends. We are not food
. I wondered if the concept of friendship was one the jaguar could even understand, but it seemed to work. She lay down on the floor of the pit, surrounded by bones, and only the tip of her tail twitched. I could tell she was ready to wait patiently for help.
    I stuck my head further through the hole to look around. A couple of my long hair vines slid forward into the hole to dangle beside my face. The jaguar, seeing this, raised a paw slightly, as if to bat at my hair vines—reminding me of one of the kittens playing with the shoestring. My hair dangled only a couple of feet into the hole, but it gave me an idea.
    Wait
, I thought to the jaguar.
I’ll be back
.
    She lowered her paw and rested her chin on it.
    I got up, then spoke to Kir and Imishi. “Look, I’m really sorry. I know you don’t understand this part of my quest. But the jaguar in that pit is an innocent,and I have to help her. Now, the two of you can either wait however long it takes me to do this by myself, or you can decide to help me and we can all get out of here that much sooner.”
    With that, I marched away across the foundation and down the one grassy slope to the edge of the jungle. The apparitions of two mice scampered along beside me. I knew what I needed, and I had to find just the right one. I did not look back, but it wasn’t long before I heard the soft thud of Kir’s hooves on the grass behind me. That was a relief. It only took a minute or two to find what I was searching for: a tall, fallen stalk of bamboo about as big around as my waist. A bunch of small, leafy branches sprouted from the fat stalk. It didn’t look too large, yet it looked strong enough. I tried to pick up one end. The bamboo was surprisingly heavy—perhaps it wasn’t bamboo after all.
    I turned to look at my friends.