Sunset Valley

Chapter 10.

"Come ON," I ushered Jem and Freya into the forest, which was even prettier on the inside, like being inside a crystal cave or a dome made of mirrors, only less shiny, though it exceeded the usual amount of refracted light displayed everywhere. They were slugs, even if Jem was carrying a heavy backpack and Freya had short legs, I'd still be going faster.

When they wouldn't pick up the pace, I just went on ahead and climbed a huge willow tree to a fairly low branch, where I rested. My legs dangled a few feet of the ground like pale tinsel in a Christmas tree. What I loved about the spot so much was even though it was low to the ground, you still had a near perfect view of the forest ahead. Then, remembering I packed it, I pulled a disposable camera out of my backpack and held it at a high angle above my head. Just as Jem and Freya walked underneath my branch, I snapped a picture, and stuffed it back in my backpack. Freya looked up at me while Jem seemed interested in something in the bushes, and she asked, "Hey, Edelweiss?"

"Yeah?"

"How'd you get up there?"

"Oh, it's easy, you just-"

"Guys!" It was Jem, who was peeking though the brush.

"What?" Freya asked in a small voice. Jem motioned her over.

"It better not be someone naked," Freya muttered, and followed him. Beginning to get used to Freya's awkwardness, I ignored her comment and climbed a little higher. I peered over the bushes to see what they were looking at. It was nothing but two cops talking to a big man in a rotting-squash-yellow suit.

"Another window stolen," said the first cop. "We suspect Torrance has struck again. I mean, who else could it be? The security on that house was tight, and I mean snug like a straight jacket, sir. Only he would've known how to get in."

"Yeah. Torrance is sly... Elusive. Like a ninja," the second cop added childishly. The man in the suit shock his head and sighed heavily, his pudgy chins multiplying, as though talking to them was like running a country.

"I wish he would just-" the man started, but Freya had accidentally snapped a stray branch and had stolen everyone's attention. Jem elbowed her in the ribs.

"Spies!" Yelled the first cop, pointing at me. It suddenly felt like a fire was being kindled underneath my cheeks, and started to climb down the tree as fast as my short arms would allow when something yanked my shoulders back and wouldn't let go, no matter how hard I tried to get free. I feared the cops had grabbed me, but when I turned I realized my backpack had just caught a branch. However, they had already plowed through the bushes, and my chances of escaping were vanishing as fast as my friends were.

"Wait!" I screamed at them, and yanked at the straps of the backpack. I felt like a three year old deserted in an aisle of a store, only in much more trouble. My eyes traveled down, and saw both cops were climbing up fast. Finally, I just took the backpack off my shoulders, landed on the brach below me, untangled it from it's branch, and threw it as hard as I could at their faces. I noticed something about these people, though: they cursed in strange accents, and looked different than anyone in Afsia. They're foreign.

"Afsians!" Yelled the man in the weird suit, pointing a chubby, accusing finger at me, and then in Freya and Jem's direction. "Get them!"

But the cops were already falling out of the tree, thanks to my backpack, and that fat man's odds of getting me are far slimmer than he is, so as I jumped, landed, and ran in my friends' direction, I knew I was free of their grasp.