chapter 6

Lily and the Lasso

The morning air was filled with the shrill sounds of calling birds. These weren’t the melodious songs of woodland birds that Twig was used to, but raucous cries and harsh squawks. It made it even clearer that they were in a foreign, unknown environment.

Under the canopy of the little shrub, Twig shivered. Were the birds overhead friend or foe?

Basil poked his head out from under the leafy tent. “What is all the racket?” he groaned.

“Careful, Basil,” Twig said. “Who knows what may swoop down? We don’t know what lives here.” Basil ducked back into the safety of the leaves.

“Of course,” Twig continued, “we’ll have to find out. We need to find food, as well as find out where we are, and where we go next.”

He cautiously scampered out of the shrub and glanced around. There were birds soaring and gliding in the sea breeze overhead. Twig made a loud chirping sound to attract their attention, and then readied himself to dodge back into the vegetation.

He looked up. Several of the birds cast him an offhand glance, but none of them looked the least bit interested. Perhaps he wasn’t considered food in this dune environment.

“I think it’s okay to explore,” he said.

They warily trooped out, stretching in the morning sun and shaking off sand. In a moment they realized that they were at the bottom of a deep pit, bounded by mountains of sand. The walls of the pit were steep and on all sides.

“We’re surrounded,” Basil said. “Sand everywhere.”

They all tried climbing up the loose slopes, but each time slid back down in an avalanche of sand.

“We need to get out,” replied Lily. “But not sure how.”

They debated different ways of getting out. Basil suggested climbing on one another’s shoulders.

“That’s fine for the first one out,” said Twig. “But what about the last one?”

“Well, the first one out can be a . . . a scout,” Basil retorted. “And report back to the rest of us.”

“And who wants to be the scout?” No one spoke up.

“Okay. Next idea.”

Char was doing his own exploring and started digging in the sand some distance off. “Look!” Lily pointed. “Char’s feeling better. He’s finding his own way out by digging a tunnel!”

They watched as Char got deeper and deeper into the sand, until only his rear half was showing. He snorted as the sand flew behind him, his wings shaking and fluttering. Suddenly the hillside of sand collapsed around him, and the dragon was left buried, with only his thrashing, wiggling tail exposed. In a moment his head popped out of the loose sand, and he snorted a puff of smoke.

Laughing, Lily raced over and began pulling on Char’s tail, while Basil and Twig dug out the sand around him.

“You’re no help,” Twig said. “We can’t spend all day rescuing you!”

Lily surveyed the plant life that dotted the bottom and slopes of the pit. She thought of the crow’s nest of the Captive. “Should be easy to fashion a rope,” she said. “If I can find the right materials. There’s not much to work with, but I can do it.”

She got to work. Using twigs and various vines she gleaned from around the pit, she made a rope long enough to reach the top of the sloping walls. One end she tied into a loop.

“If we give each other a boost, we can maybe lasso that sturdy-looking shrub up there.” She pointed to the north edge of the pit. “Then we just pull ourselves out, paw over paw.”

“What about Char?” Twig asked.

Lily thought for a moment. “We boost him up first. He’s the first one out.”

“Okay. Let’s try it.”

Basil crouched down, and Twig climbed on his back. Then Lily, with the lasso at the ready, scrambled up onto Twig’s shoulders. With many attempts, she was able to hook the end of the rope around a strong-enough branch of the shrub high above.

“Great!” she squeaked. “Now let’s get Char out of here first.”

“Come on, Char,” Twig coaxed. “Climb onto my back.”

Char clambered up Basil’s furry back and then Twig’s legs. With wings fluttering, he made it onto Lily’s back.

“Hey! Hurry up!” Basil cried out. “I’m getting crushed down here!”

With a flurry of wing beats and a giant push by Lily, Char scrambled over the edge of the dune pit and onto the rim.

“Hurrah for that!” Lily called. “Now my turn.”

Paw over paw she pulled herself up.

Basil came next. He was weak from days of no nutrition. It was a struggle, but at last he lay gasping at the top of the dune.

Finally it was Twig’s turn. With the combined efforts of Lily and Basil pulling on the rope, he was at the rim of the pit in no time.

Panting heavily, they surveyed the scene around them. They could finally get a good look at their surroundings for the first time. All the sandy dunes were part of an island, surrounded by sea. The birds that swooped and soared above their heads were seabirds, gulls and terns and sandpipers, calling to one another, agitated by the intruders below.

The birds were strange, with unusual colors and patterns and calls. He wondered what other creatures were on the island.

And were they friend, or foe?