Aaron carefully handed off the grinning dog, stood aside, and watched the squirrelicorn poke the button with his horn and disappear.
The ground shook again. Aaron, Panther, and the two squirrelicorns turned sharply to see what was coming, and they watched as the rock rolled into the area. Upon it sat six dropbears.
“That’s perfect,” Aaron said to the rock. “Hold tight there for a minute until our other squirrelicorn returns.”
A moment later, the first squirrelicorn returned without the dog. “Job completed, sir,” he said.
“Excellent work,” said Aaron. “Okay, now this next part is going to be a little more difficult. I need each of you squirrelicorns to take two dropbears. They’ll hold on to your bodies, but you need to hold on to them as well so they don’t fall onto land. We need all six of these to go to the ship Queen Eagala is on. The way to do this is to fly overhead and hover there, and the dropbears will let go when they see a person they want to eat. Got it?”
The squirrelicorns contained their horror like professionals and confirmed that they understood completely.
Aaron set up the squirrelicorns with one dropbear clinging to each of their back legs. The squirrelicorns gripped the dropbears’ fur with their claws, their wings flapping to keep them aloft. Aaron helped everyone squeeze inside the tube, and then said, “Once your bears have dropped, find Florence, tell her what we’re doing, and ask her to come to the hole in the side of the mansion. I’m going to need some help.”
“Yes, sir!” said the squirrelicorns. The dropbears were silent, but looked pleased to be going on an adventure. A moment later they all disappeared, and Aaron was left standing with Panther and the rock.
Aaron turned to the rock. “I’m going to take Panther with me. She’s trained now. I think we’ll be okay—I’m taking the vine spiders, too.”
“And how can I help?” asked the rock. “Or . . . is my work finished?” He seemed sad to think it.
“Your work is definitely not finished,” said Aaron. “If you’re willing, I’d like you to go farther than you’ve ever ventured before,” said Aaron. “Will you leave the jungle? Forge a path to the lawn and help Artimé?”
The rock seemed intensely excited about the proposition. “I—I will. If you think it’s best.”
“I do,” said Aaron earnestly. “I believe you can help us a lot. We can use you to hide behind, and inside your mouth if you don’t mind. And maybe if you find any other creatures along the journey who might do damage on board a ship, you could bring them along as well.”
The rock rose up a little straighter. “I can certainly do all of those things,” he said.
Aaron smiled and placed his hand on the side of the rock. “Thank you. And thank you for trusting me so willingly. You’ve been such a good friend to me, and, well, I don’t . . . I don’t actually deserve it.” Aaron cringed, and realized he couldn’t ask the rock to do such a major thing as this under false pretenses. His time to confess had come. He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and forged ahead with it.
“You see,” Aaron went on, “I’m not actually who you think I am. I’m not Alex. I’m Alex’s twin brother, Aaron. And I’ve been . . . I’ve been lying to you. All this time. I’m dreadfully sorry, and I haven’t found a good way to tell you once I knew I had to. I just hope that you will forgive me. And I understand if you don’t want to be a part of this now. I truly do.”
The rock rumbled loud and low. “I know,” he said.
Aaron hazarded a glance. “You know . . . what?”
“I know that you are Aaron. Marcus told me about you, too.”
Aaron stared. “How long have you known?”
The rock thought for a moment. “I suspected from the beginning when you knew absolutely nothing about fixing Panther’s tail. And when you began playing fetch with Panther, I became certain. Marcus told me I’d know the difference between you boys because you are right-handed and Alex is left-handed.”
Aaron was flabbergasted. “You let me lie to you all this time? Even though I was hated by all of Artimé?” he asked.
The rock smiled, revealing a glimpse inside his cavernous mouth. “Marcus didn’t hate you. He said you were misunderstood. A misfit, just like us. I thought you probably belonged here in the jungle.”
Aaron didn’t know what to think. And there wasn’t time to process.
“I’m sure you’re needed back in battle. I’ll be off now,” said the rock. “I’ll wait on the lawn until I’m needed.” With that, the rock moved surprisingly fast over the paths, almost with a spring in his stride.