| |
Hank and I raced out into the warm morning sunshine at full speed. The adrenaline was pumping and my heart was beating so loudly that I could hear it pounding in my ears! Neither one of us dared stop running once we got out of the cave either. We continued our mad dash down the hill, barely stopping to breathe, and never once looking back. We probably would have run at that pace all the way back down the mountain and to town had not Hank caught his ankle in a tree trunk. With a howl of pain, he went sprawling across the ground, and more of his Healinwood seeds went flying from the bag he carried in his hand.
“Hank, are you all right?” I asked, skidding to a halt beside him.
“Ahh... I'm fine,” he moaned, rolling onto his side and then pulling himself shakily back to his feet. “I just tweaked my ankle a bit.”
Once we had stopped running I suddenly became aware of how tired I was. We were both gasping for breath now, and Hank was limping badly. I put an arm around him and helped him to a large rock that overlooked the river that flowed beneath us. It was the river that would lead us back to town.
“Well,” I said, trying to sound optimistic. “It doesn't look like that cat followed us out of the cave.”
“Good, hopefully, it's still hung up in those vines. I'm tired of running.”
I was just about to help Hank to his feet and proceed on the path back to town when a familiar voice reached my ear.
“Hey! You two! Wait right there!”
I looked into the woods and saw the man from the Environmental League hastening in our direction. He was flanked by four or five of the lumberjacks from our meeting several days earlier. I noted that it was the men who had been most staunchly opposed to our lumber yard.
“Great,” I muttered. “This is isn't going to go well.”
“Alright gentlemen, we know what it is that you two are doing up here,” the man said when he reached us. “I can tell you now that it's useless. We intend to have that tree destroyed, and all seeds will be confiscated. There will be no circumventing the law on this server!”
Two of the lumberjacks who were in the group stepped forward. They roughly tore the bags of seeds from our grasp, smirking as they did so.
“Now,” said the Environmental League spokesman. “Just tell us where the tree is and maybe you won't be fined for your criminal activity.”
“I don't thi-”
Hank cut me off mid-sentence with a sharp, yet subtle kick to my leg.
“It's just up the way a hundred meters. You'll see a tunnel with vines growing around it. It'll lead you right to the tree.”
“Now that's more like it,” said the gentleman, smugly. “I see you're finally learning who is in charge!”
Without another word, the group left us and hurried up the hill to the tunnel and disappeared inside. I stood looking at Hank for several minutes until several loud sounds reached our ears.
“AHHHHGGGG!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!”
There were screams of terror and agony, followed by a ferocious roar, and then, silence.
“Well,” Hank said with a wry smile. “We didn't get the Healinwood but perhaps it's for the best.”
“Besides,” I added. “I don't think those fellows will be working on the Woodland server anytime too soon.”
“Agreed. Now, let's go home.” Hank said.
Thank you for reading Diary Of A Wimpy Noob: Lumber Tycoon
I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, help other people find this by writing a review.