The Lost Knight (Volume III) The Lost World

Chapter 14: Eat My Hat

I wake up some time later with the party still going strong. I sit up, and Jonah emerges from under the bed.

"How long is the party going to last?" I ask as he offers me a cup of water. I take it gratefully. My throat is so dry it's like I've been eating sand, and my head is pounding.

"About three more days," he says.

"Three days! Who carries on like that for three days?"

"It's closer to five days. You've been asleep for about a day already."

"What? That can't be right. I don't even feel rested."

"Come with me. We'll find a quieter place," he says.

Navigating through the party is tricky. By the time I make it to the other side, I've received five rock necklaces, a bowl of fruit in the crux of my elbow, two drinks in one hand, and a plate of something orange in the other. I've also shared a dance with about half the tribe.

When we reach the staircase, I'm giddy or possibly overtired, but Jonah likes my smile and smiles back. "Nice hat," he says.

"Thanks. It's new." I put the drinks down, but I'm keeping the food and my hat. It's difficult to balance it on my head because it's supposed to be held on by long chimnocki ears poking through the two holes on the brim, but it's loaded with fruit and cookies.

I follow him up several flights of stairs and across a narrow bridge. "Why don't cave people ever have handrails?"

"Huh?"

"In the movies and stuff, anytime they show a cave-dwelling people, there's never a handrail. I mean, it's beautiful, but really, this can't be safe."

After we climb more stairs, he answers. "Handrails are dangerous. Do you know how many humans have fallen over a handrail? They believe they are safe, so they become careless. If you remove the handrail, the illusion of safety is gone, and therefore people are more cautious."

I don't agree with his logic. I'd feel a lot safer climbing these meandering staircases and bridges if there were a rail to hold on to.

We're several stories up when Jonah stops at a cavern that looks similar to the one we just left, only it's entirely carved with little cubbies and has a much smaller center area. I follow him to a third-level cubby. The noise from the party is drastically dampened by distance and solid rock.

"This is so much better," I say when I sit at the tiny table. I flop my giant, heavy hat down and peel off what I hope is a cookie. "I'm so hungry I could eat my hat!"

Jonah smiles at my little joke and peels off a large purple fruit before he leaves to gather cots from other cubbies and makes a bed for me. When he finishes, he sits on it.

"Isn't whoever sleeps in those going to be mad you took them?" I ask.

"No. The chimnockies whose beds these are will find another one. They're not a possessive people. Nor are they capable of anger."

"So what? You can take whatever you want?"

"Pretty much."

My face tightens into a frown. "How does that work? Aren't they robbed all the time?"

"No, they have all kinds of hiding places. They're a difficult race to steal from," Jonah says as he rifles through several cabinets until he comes across a pot and some vegetables. He lights the fire pit and cooks the veggies while slicing the fruit from the bowl I brought.

"You just robbed them."

He grunts. "No. This cha-ibi doesn't belong to anyone. Whoever slept here last night will sleep somewhere else. "