‘You were both supposed to be taking a deep breath with me!’ said Ling-Fei, her voice faltering a bit.
‘And you’re supposed to be the local expert!’ snapped Charlotte.
‘Whoa, whoa, whoa,’ said Dylan. ‘We’re all on the same team, with the same goal. So here is what we know, based on the clues.’ He held out an open hand and started counting his fingers. ‘We know that it is something with spikes and scales, something that we can eat and something that is named after a beast.’ Dylan paused and pushed his glasses back up on his face.
‘Thank you for just rephrasing the riddle,’ said Charlotte, rolling her eyes.
‘Only trying to help,’ said Dylan, forcing a smile.
An awkward tension filled the air.
Charlotte closed her eyes and took in a long breath. She paused a moment before opening her eyes. ‘You’re right. You’re all right. I’m sorry.’ She looked at Ling-Fei and offered a tentative smile. ‘The deep breath helped.’
Ling-Fei gave her a small smile back.
‘Scales, scales… maybe it’s a fish?’ Charlotte went on.
‘Good thinking!’ said Dylan. ‘But what kind of fish has spikes and is also named after a beast?’
A thought dawned on Billy. Last summer he’d discovered the strangest fish he’d ever seen. He remembered it because it was called a lionfish, although in his opinion it didn’t look anything like a lion – because it was covered in spikes! ‘I’ve got it!’ he said. ‘It’s a lionfish! It’s named after a beast, it has spikes and scales, and I’m pretty sure you can eat it.’
‘Good thinking, Billy!’ said Charlotte. ‘That must be it!’ She turned to Ling-Fei. ‘Where around here can we find a lionfish?’
‘Aren’t lionfish extremely dangerous? I’m pretty sure they can kill you,’ said Dylan.
‘What else could it be?’ said Billy.
Ling-Fei’s face lit up. ‘I know what it is! It’s a dragon!’ She started to laugh. ‘Old Gold must think he’s so clever.’
‘You can’t eat mythical creatures,’ said Billy, who still wanted his answer to be right.
‘It’s dragon fruit!’ Ling-Fei replied with a smile. ‘It fits the description perfectly – they have spikes and scales, or at least what look like scales, and they’re delicious! And, best of all, I know just where we can find one.’
Ling-Fei led the group into the forest. As he followed her, Billy noticed she was chewing her lower lip anxiously.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.
Ling-Fei looked around nervously. ‘You know how Old Gold said he gave us a more difficult item to find?’
Billy nodded.
‘He wasn’t kidding. The place I know where dragon fruit grow is far. But…’ She trailed off.
‘But what?’ prompted Billy.
‘There’s a short cut. I’m not supposed to know about it – it’s through the bamboo grove, which is technically off limits…’
‘You know a short cut?’ asked Charlotte, who had snuck up next to them. ‘Well, we absolutely must use that. You heard Old Gold – the rat won by cunning.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Ling-Fei. ‘I don’t want us to get in trouble.’
‘How will Old Gold even know we took a short cut?’ Charlotte said. She looked at Billy and Dylan. ‘You two agree with me, right?’
‘She’s got a point,’ said Dylan.
‘I do kind of want to win,’ Billy admitted.
‘Okay,’ said Ling-Fei hesitantly. ‘It’s this way.’
They walked deeper into the forest until they reached a lake edged with weeping willows and then, beyond that, a bamboo grove. It felt like stepping into a painting.
Billy stopped. There was something moving in the bamboo up ahead.
‘Did you guys see that?’ he asked, pointing. ‘There’s something there.’
‘It’s probably a monkey,’ said Ling-Fei. ‘I’m sure we’ll see a few. They’re mostly harmless. They’ve taken over that pavilion up ahead. That’s why it’s called Monkey Pavilion. The dragon-fruit plants are just on the other side.’
‘Did you say the monkeys are mostly harmless?’ Dylan squawked, but the rest of the group was already heading towards the bamboo.
As they passed the weeping willows and stepped into the bamboo, the air and light around them changed. Sunlight filtered down in strips and, when Billy tilted his head back, he could only see pockets of sky. He hadn’t realized how tall the bamboo grew.
‘Shouldn’t we hear the monkeys?’ asked Charlotte. ‘It’s awfully quiet.’
‘Maybe they know we’re coming and are waiting to ambush us,’ said Dylan.
Billy laughed and swatted Dylan on the back. ‘Relax,’ he said. ‘We’re bigger than them.’
‘And some of us are smarter than them too,’ quipped Charlotte.
Soon, the bamboo opened into a small glade. In the centre stood a red pavilion with a sloping green roof supported by four pillars. The edges of the roof were upturned and the top was pointed.
And there was something on the pavilion, staring straight at them.
‘Guys,’ Dylan breathed, ‘that’s not a monkey.’
Don’t Run
Billy stopped breathing. Staring straight at them was a tiger. Its long orange fur was striped with black and its eyes were a vivid yellow. Even from a distance, Billy could see its claws glinting in the light.
‘This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening,’ Dylan whispered, his eyes tightly shut.
‘What do we do?’ Billy asked. He felt frozen to the spot, as if he was in a dream where he couldn’t move. He tried to remember if he knew anything about tigers. But all he could focus on was the one directly in front of them.
‘I don’t know,’ Ling-Fei whispered back, her eyes huge.
‘We shouldn’t run,’ Charlotte said. ‘I know that much from watching animal documentaries.’
‘Do you think it’s seen us?’ Dylan said, his eyes still closed. ‘Maybe it doesn’t know we’re here.’
As if in response, the tiger licked its lips, its pink tongue flicking out again and again.
‘It has definitely seen us,’ whimpered Ling-Fei.
The tiger stood up and stretched. Its muscles rippled under its fur and Billy knew without a doubt that it could tear him apart.
He could only think of one other time he’d been this frightened. He’d been surfing, alone, and a wave had knocked him off and under
