Stanley Pines, Our Hero (TEOC series #1)

The Return

In thirty minutes, we were ready to leave. The sun was shining weakly from behind wispy clouds; it was the morning of Friday, September 14th. We had been unconscious for an entire day after the sea serpent attack.

The water was surprisingly smooth - none of the usual rough waves were present. The Stan O' War II was helped along by Mermando and a couple merman friends, so we got to the island in only two to three hours' time.

"This is as far as we can take you," he told us as we arrived at the island's rocky shore. "The lake is completely landlocked, and the island extends too far deep to go underneath."

We thanked Mermando, before he and his friends sped off in the direction we had come from.

"You know, surprisingly, I actually liked that guy," I said to Bella as the mermen faded from sight.

"Yeah; that was super cool we got to meet a real merman!" she agreed. "And those other guys, the, er - what were they called?"

I shrugged. "Started with either an e or an i. I dunno."

I turned to see Ford already anchoring the ship to some nearby rocks.

"We need to get going," he said sharply, tying the last knot. "A lot of valuable time was lost because of the attack. We cannot afford to procrastinate any more. The axolotl could already be beyond the lake and on the smaller island for all we know."

"But we literally just got back," Bella said, frowning slightly. "There's some food down in the cabins; we can have lunch first, before we - "

"NO," Sixer retorted, a dangerous note in his voice. "Lunch can wait - we do not have the luxury to waste time! The sooner and faster we move, the better things may be."

I glanced at Bella, my eyebrows raised, and saw she wore an expression of shock similar to mine. Sure, Ford can get a bit short-tempered, but this was alarming, even for him.

"Alright, keep your pants on, we're coming," I told him, gathering my pack. Bella threw a simple drawstring bag over her shoulder, and we followed Poindexter off the Stan O' War II over the treacherous rocks littering the shore.

We walked for a while in silence. Ford was scanning the surrounding area, which was just as barren and deserted as it had been four days ago, with an uncharacteristic ferocity in his gaze. The fact that he wasn't taking notes like last time was also startling.

Maybe it's one of his overly paranoid phases, I told myself. From when he was in the other dimension.

Then after about ten minutes of walking, Bella's voice from slightly up ahead brought me up short.

"Look! There's some tracks here!" She was pointing to the snow before her. I caught up to her and saw a trail of some kind of animal footprints, coming from one of the seldom pair of trees on the island and continuing forward.

"Hey, Sixer," I called. "Ya might wanna take a look at these."

Ford came pounding over to study the marks.

"Those look fresh," he informed us. "I'd say they were created yesterday, at the earliest, if not today. We better quicken the pace - it seems as though some monsters are headed the same place we are."

He turned and continued walking with even more vigor, his footsteps farther apart. Bella and I jogged forward to catch up, though stopping to walk a little behind my brother.

"Ford seems to be actin' a bit off, don't ya think?" Bella hissed to me out of the corner of her mouth.

"Definitely," I whispered back.