Chapter
8 ‘The Secret Tree’ Page 31
Tommy was shivering even though it
wasn’t cold. Jason took off his
sweatshirt and draped it over his little brother. He wiped away the tears rolling down his cheeks.
“Hang in there squirt,” he
whispered. “Everything’s going to be
okay.”
Bonta, meanwhile, had pulled a
number of things out of her bag and placed them on the platform. Between her and Typhoo, they crushed up the
ingredients with small stones then mixed the powder with some water in a stone
cup. She took the cup over to Tommy.
“He needs to drink this,” she told
Jason.
Jason sat his ill brother up and
placed the cup to his pale lips.
“Come on Tommy,” he said. “You have to drink this.”
Tommy parted his lips slightly and
Jason poured some of the liquid into his mouth. A portion of it ran down his chin and further dampened his
shirt. He coughed and moaned. The pains in his head were unbearable. Jason gently laid him back down. Bonta dipped a few leaves from her bag in
the left over mixture and placed them on Tommy’s forehead. She placed her hand over the leaves and
closed her eyes. The leaves began to
glow. It spread from Tommy’s head to the
rest of his body. Jason watched with
anxiousness. He desperately wanted to
take Tommy home. After a couple of
minutes, the glow faded.
“He needs to rest now,” she said.
Tommy settled down into a deep
sleep.
“What do we do now?” Jason asked.
“Kypou and Harpi will be back
soon. Kypou will know what to do,”
replied Bonta. “For now we must wait
for them.”
When Tommy woke the pain in his head
had subsided. He was still feeling
weak, but generally okay. He reached up
and felt the mark on his face. It
seemed to have faded a bit. He also
found some leaves stuck to his forehead which seemed pretty strange at the
time. Jason’s sweatshirt was draped
over him. Tommy sat up and found
everyone staring at the trap door.
Something was definitely wrong. He
reached over and tugged on Jason’s T-shirt.
Jason placed his finger to his lips and leaned in close.
‘There’s someone outside trying to
get in,” he whispered. “Keep quiet.”
“It’s probably Kypou and
Harpi,” whispered Tommy.
“No, it’s not,” Jason whispered.
Their attention was brought back to
the trap door. The noises outside were
getting louder. Suddenly, the noise
stopped. Everyone held their breath,
waiting to see what would happen next.
Then there was scratching on the door.
Jason looked around. Over in the
corner he saw the berry basket. He
crawled over to it.
“What are you doing?” whispered
Tommy.
“I’ve got an idea,” replied
Jason. “But I need something heavy.”
Tommy glanced around trying to help
Jason find something heavy, but all he could see were three frightened
dinosaurs and his brother clutching a basket of berries. Unless Jason was going to use one of the
dinosaurs as some kind of weapon, he was out of luck.
“I don’t see anything,” he said.
The trap door shook.
A thought came to Tommy. He reached over and unzipped his backpack
which was lying on the floor, briefly noticing that it had been torn. Tommy sighed. Those Myrites had no respect for other peoples stuff. He rummaged through the pack until he found
his flashlight.
“Will this do?” he said.
Jason took the flashlight from him.
“This will do just fine,” said
Jason.
The trap door rattled again.
Jason crawled over to Typhoo and
shoved the basket in the bewildered dinosaurs hands.
“When I open the trap door,” Jason told
him. “I want you to dump this basket on
whatever pops up. I’ll do the rest.”