THE FEARSOME FOREST

Passing through the spooky forest was going to be tricky, but there had to be a way.

“What would Diamond Foot be doing?” Megabat asked himself.

It was easy enough to find out. He flapped up to Irwin’s bunk and opened the book. There was his hero, boldly battling the five-headed lizard with bad breath…but, what was that on his face?

“Aha!” Megabat said. “His is wearing a mask!” Megabat searched Daniel’s suitcase, hoping he’d packed one, but no. He’d have to improvise. He gnawed two eye holes in a tube sock and pulled it over his head.

“What’s else? Aha! His is having tools.”

Diamond Foot didn’t always rely on just his mighty, glittering foot. He also had a ray gun that went pshew-pshew and shot sonic stun beams at the lizard. Megabat looked high and low, but there wasn’t a single sonic stun gun in Cabin 8.

“Aha!” There was a grape juice box in the special care package Talia, Birdgirl and Priscilla had given them. If he stuck the straw in, he could squeeze it at enemies. “Standing back.” He wrapped his wings around the juice box and practiced his tough-bat act. “Or mine will juice yours. And juice of the grape makings big, bad stains!” He knew because he’d spilled it on the couch once. Daniel’s mother had not been happy.

Now he was ready. Only…Megabat paused near the door. He still didn’t feel brave. Something must be missing.

He went back to study the book and smacked himself in the forehead. It was obvious! Sparkle lines were emanating from Diamond Foot’s magnificent boot. He was aglow with bravery. Well, Megabat could glow too.

He decorated his wings with the glow-in-the-dark eyeball stickers from the care package, then, by the light of the full moon, he balanced the juice box on his back and took off into the shadowy woods.

“Mine’s coming, Babybat!” he proclaimed. He flapped his wings with all his might, but the heavy juice box made it hard to fly straight.

“Mine will warn yours of the evil plot to trap the batses!”

It was also difficult to see out the holes in the sock. He veered around a big evergreen, just managing to miss the trunk.

“Mine will saving yours and Batzilla from capturization!”

He plummeted low, almost to the ground under the weight of the juice box, then flapped harder than ever trying to get some lift.

“Mine will be so muchly brave that—AH!” Megabat cried.

Something had grabbed him! He reached for his juice box to spray his way free but, as he twisted, it rolled off his back and fell to the forest floor with a thud. Still the grabby beast clutched him, yanking the sock mask right off his head.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” Megabat screamed when he found himself falling. “Oof.” He landed in a bed of pine needles and checked himself all over. He seemed to be all okay.

Only…“Wh-wh-what’s is that being?”

Straight ahead, there was the snapping of twigs. A shadow moved in the darkness.

He looked right: more shadows.

He looked left: shadows, shadows and more shadows!

They surrounded him, circling.

“Helping MINE!” Megabat hollered. “PEEEEEEEEZE! Helping mine!”

He wrapped his wings around himself and rocked back and forth. Long minutes seemed to pass, although they might have been only seconds.

“Megabat? Is that you?”

He blinked into the beam of a flashlight and saw the gleam of silvery braces. Irwin! And, right behind him, Daniel!

Megabat swooped toward his friend and buried his face in Daniel’s sweatshirt. “Mine was so ascared.”

“It’s okay.” Daniel stroked his fur. “I’m here now. We were on our way back to the cabin to get a drink of water and we heard you call for help. What happened?”

It took a moment for Megabat to calm down enough to explain. “There was being a terrible grabby beast,” he said, taking shuddery breaths. “It did pull mine’s sock mask away! Mine’s juice box ray gun did fall. And m-m-m-most spooky shadowy creatures circled arounds and arounds.”

Irwin shone his flashlight in a wide arc. “You mean, these shadowy creatures?” Megabat unglued his face from Daniel’s shirt to look. Crouched in the darkness was a family of bunny rabbits. They froze in the beam of light. Their eyes flashed red, then they turned tail and hopped away.

Irwin laughed. “I think you landed in a rabbit den.”

Just bunnies?

“And maybe this was the grabby beast?” Daniel suggested. He unhooked the tube sock from a tree branch where it was snagged.

Just a branch?

“What were you doing out here all alone, anyway?” Daniel asked. “Where’s Babybat?”

“Hers flyinged to the caves to find hers’s mummy,” Megabat explained.

He told all about the bat trap the custodian was going to set.

“Megabat knew mine had to warning theirs!” he proclaimed. Then he added sadly, “Only mine was too afeared.”

“But…you’ve been exploring the forest and caves every night since we got here,” Daniel pointed out.

Megabat had to admit that he hadn’t been. Not even once. And then he had to tell Daniel and Irwin who’d really played the pranks—and how they’d all begun because Megabat was avoiding the spooky woods and creepy cave and trying to keep Babybat busy in safer places.

“Only theys wasn’t pranks!” he said in his defense. “Babybat is just most busy and getsings into everythings!”

“Gee.” Daniel grinned. He peeled a glow-in-the-dark eyeball sticker off Megabat’s wing. “I wonder what it’s like to have a friend like that?”

Megabat held up his wings to show the remaining stickers. He motioned to the chewed tube sock that Daniel had stuffed in his pocket, then the grape juice box that had fallen to the ground. “Mine prepared mineself in all the outfittings of bravery. But it was none use. Mine’s just a fraidy-bat.” He hung his head in shame. “A scaredy, little fraidy-bat.”

“No, you’re not, Megabat,” Irwin said kindly, but Megabat didn’t believe him.

“Yours can jumping off the dock and climbing to the tippiest top of the ropes course,” Megabat pointed out. “Yours knows nonething about fraidy-bats.”

It was Daniel who managed to make Megabat feel a little better by telling the truth. “Okay. So maybe you are a little bit of a fraidy-bat. But so what? What’s wrong with that?”

“Fraidy-bats isn’t brave like Diamond Foot,” Megabat pointed out. “Or twinkle-toothed and fear-free like Irwin.”

“I wish!” Irwin said. “Braces don’t make you brave. And neither do costumes or ray guns.” He picked up the juice box. “Plus, nobody in real life is like Diamond Foot. ‘A brilliant hero has zero fear-o.’ ” He scoffed at Diamond Foot’s catchphrase. “Sounds cool, but seriously? Everyone’s afraid of something.”

“Even yours?” Megabat asked.

“Um. Yeah,” Irwin said, like it was obvious. “For example, I’d never have had the guts to lick a caterpillar.” He grimaced. “Also, just so you know, I only started doing cannonballs last year…and that’s the highest I’ve ever been on the ropes course. I was scared the first time I came here too, but this is my third year. And I’m sorry I laughed at you just now. If I didn’t have my flashlight, I’d have been freaked out by those bunny rabbits too.”

Just then, there was a snapping of twigs. Both the boys and the bat jumped, then Irwin redirected his flashlight.

“See?” He’d illuminated a deer in a thicket of trees. It nodded its graceful head, as if to say hello, then bounded off into the night. “Once you shine a light on scary stuff and kind of get to know it, it’s usually not so bad anymore.”

“Huh.” Megabat watched the deer’s spotted bum leap away. He was starting to understand. “Nicely to meet yours, deer!” he called out.

After all, getting to know things had worked for Daniel. Daniel had been scared of Lake PieCrust, but only until he dipped his toes in and saw there were no leeches. And he’d been worried about the camp food, but only until he’d tasted the garlic bread. In fact, even bugs had started to seem a little bit interesting to Daniel once he’d met Whiffy.

The only problem was…the idea of taking those first few steps into the dark woods was making Megabat’s tummy do flips and flops.

“Will yourses coming with mine?” Megabat asked Daniel and Irwin. “To helping warn Babybat and Batzilla?”

“Of course!” Daniel said. “Doing stuff together always makes it easier.”

“Not to mention safer,” Irwin said. “You really shouldn’t walk alone in the woods, especially at night.”

So they set off together.

As they made their way down the path, Megabat rode on Daniel’s shoulder and Irwin shone the light up ahead.

“Ah!” Daniel almost tripped where the ground was uneven. “What was that? A snake?!”

Megabat clutched tightly to his friend’s shirt, but when Irwin pointed the light down they could see it clearly.

Just a big tree root!

“Nicely to meet yours, tree root!” Megabat said, and he felt his fear dissolve a little.

On they went. They spotted some moths, a flying squirrel and a ring-eyed raccoon. “Nicely to meet yours, foresty friends!” Megabat called into the darkness.

The terrain got rockier and a little steeper. “We’re almost at the edge of the campgrounds now,” Irwin said. “It’s where we’ll find the cave.”

And not a minute later—

“Ummm…Wow,” Daniel said in a shaky voice.

It was easy to see how Devil’s Mouth got its name. The yawning opening of the cave looked monstrous in the darkness.

“You know,” Irwin said, “maybe we shouldn’t go in after all. We can always come back and warn the bats tomorrow…maybe in the daylight.”

But Megabat knew it would be too late by sunrise. If Babybat and Batzilla returned to their roost at the cabin, they’d surely be captured. And yes, this cave was MUCH scarier than bunny rabbits, a deer, a tree root, some moths, a flying squirrel and a raccoon combined…but now that Megabat had said hello to all those things, perhaps he was just brave enough.

“Waiting here.” Megabat’s wings shook as he flew toward the mouth of the cave. He stopped at the edge. For a moment, he thought of turning back, but then, gathering all his courage, “Hello?” he said, ever so softly. “Nicely to meet yours.”

An answer came from inside the cave. “Hello?…Nicely to meet yours.”

Megabat jumped back. Was it a ghost? Perhaps. But, if so, it was quite polite. “Huh!?” he said.

“Huh!?” the ghost answered. It sounded just as uncertain about him as he felt about it.

“Mine won’t hurting yours,” Megabat said, a little louder.

“Mine won’t hurting yours. Mine won’t hurting yours,” the voice answered.

“Daniel. Irwin. Coming here. The cave ghost is being most friendly!”

Irwin approached with the flashlight. Megabat could see the gleam of his braces as he smiled. “That’s not a ghost, it’s an echo,” he explained. “See? Echo! Echo!” he yelled into the cave.

“Echo! Echo!” the cave called back.

Suddenly, a high-pitched screech filled the night. Both boys jumped back. Only Megabat wasn’t scared. He recognized the shrill song. In fact, it was so ear-splittingly awful that he’d know it anywhere.

“Babybat!” he called, and he launched himself into the cave.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Megabat flew in circles, taking it all in. A little stream burbled along the ground and the walls shimmered with bits of crystal. What’s more, a whole colony of bats was swooping around joyfully, playing what looked like a big game of tag.

“They’re catching bugs,” said Daniel, who’d followed Megabat inside.

“Mosquitoes, to be exact,” Irwin added, swatting one on his arm. “The worst kind of bugs. That’s why we hardly ever get bitten at camp!”

Was this the place Megabat had been so worried about? It was wondrous! Magical! The best, best fun! He went deeper into the cave and a few wild bats held out their wingtips for high fives as he passed.

“Babybat!”

“Babybat! Babybat! Babybat!”

He swooped through the echoes and around the shimmery bits of rock that hung from the cave’s roof.

“Where is yours?”

“Where is yours? Where is yours? Where is yours?”

Aha! There she was up ahead, singing her dreadful song.

“Mine’s gots to warn yours,” he called out. But he knew there was no real rush now. He could tell her in a little while.

Her eyes lit up as she swooped gleefully toward him, overjoyed that he’d finally come out to play.