James found himself very near the beehive. He did not notice it at first because the bees had called it a day and gone to bed. James did not relish the idea of sleeping in the bee meadow, but he did not mind the flowers of that little meadow, and he liked being able to see the moon and the stars above. Under the trees just seemed too dark.
Besides, he told himself, his dad always said if he got lost, he should stay where he was until someone came to get him. “With my luck it will be Davey,” he said, and he settled down to get as comfortable as he could. He did not expect to sleep, because he could not seem to get his eyes or ears to close.
At that moment, David started rubbing his throat. It felt sore from calling out for his brothers and sister and he got tired of hearing no response. He had indeed doubled back, as Chris had imagined, but he went well off course. He began to think he might be getting too close to the field of grain and the giants when he heard a rustling of leaves off to one side. He hesitated, afraid of what it might be, and thought that it might be anything in this strange world; but at last he decided he had to take a chance.
“Chris? Beth? James?” He called half-heartedly, still not quite willing to commit himself. He heard the rustling again. “Beth?” He tried once more.
“Hey, Bert.” David heard the giant voice. “I found one.” David looked up. Rupert hovered over him with only two trees between them. David had imagined in the dark that the two giant legs were merely two more trees.
“Well get it.” Bert’s voice came from some distance.
“Grab it.” Knuckles sounded closer.
Rupert got to his knees and reached between the two trees as far as his arm could go, but David had already started running. He had walked for a while and rested. This was just the sort of motivation he needed to start running again.
“Can’t reach it.” He heard Rupert behind him.
“Get after it, you dolt,” Bert said, reasonably closer than before, and David started fleeing for his life. Out in the open, David would have been captured in about twenty seconds or maybe, given those three, it might have been two minutes at the most; but in the forest, the Giants could not go where the trees grew close together, so that involved going around a lot of places. As a result, they moved through the trees with even less speed than a motivated twelve-year-old, even one who tripped several times in the dark. Of course, David would have done much better if he had stopped screaming, “Giants!”
James heard the scream and he called out, for once using his loudest voice instead of his softest. “David, over here! David, I’m over here!” David turned. He recognized his brother’s voice, and never considered if it might be some monster imitating his brother. He only slowed when he recognized the dim figure in the moonlight. “Help me,” James said. He had gathered some rocks and he had an idea.
James started to throw the rocks at the bee tree. David helped, until he heard the buzzing and realized what he was doing. Then they heard the crashing through the woods from the direction David had come, and though David yelled, “No!” James threw a large stone hard enough to crack the entrance to the hive. That made the bees extremely mad, and they swarmed out. The boys ran.
James held tight to his brother’s sleeve. David nearly tore his own shirt when he realized they ran straight toward the giants and were about to be crushed underfoot. But by then, James let David pull him aside. They squirted behind some bushes and listened for a second. Sure enough, the angry bees and three Giants met in the middle. David pulled James further from the mayhem, and good thing because the language became vile and hands and stomping feet began to flail in every direction. The boys would have been crushed under one of Bert’s great sandaled feet if they had remained behind that bush.
“James, you have the sneakiest mind I know.” David whispered the compliment as they moved swiftly from the engagement. James merely smiled, glad that things worked out so well. Then they saw a light ahead, and both thought only that they needed to be quiet and careful.
Beth and Chris came from the other side when they saw the light. Both got excited by the prospect of not having to be stuck in the darkness of the woods all night, but wary of what might be making the light. It looked warm and comforting enough, but it did not appear to be firelight.
“What do you think it is?” Beth asked, even as the ground began to tremble.
“Earthquake,” Chris said flatly, as he fell to his hands and knees. For nearly five seconds, though it seemed more like five minutes, the earth shook with great violence. The children all heard trees give up the fight and fall to the ground with great crashing and crackling. Whole branches sheared off against other trees, boulders, and the earth. Fortunately, none fell near the children. James and David also saw a great burst of steam shoot up from the ground not far away, and not far, in fact, from the location of the stagnant pool. Then it ended, suddenly, and all four children breathed again. All four made up their minds to head toward the unwavering light no matter what might be there. It had not so much as blinked during that whole trembling episode.
When they arrived, James and David would have run to Beth and Chris who might also have run to the boys if not for the vision that rested between them. A woman, a real lady in a medieval dress, a queen no doubt, given her terrible, breathtaking beauty, hovered a foot or two above the ground like the banshees, but unlike the banshees, she looked purely angelic. The glow that came from her felt warm and welcoming, and without the least trace of ghost or wickedness about her. What is more, no one doubted that despite all appearances, this person seemed to be thoroughly human.
Storyteller Tales & Thoughts 