Inexperienced Heart

Chapter 9: Accused of Robbery

Eventually, Landa could not keep silent any longer. She said, "Goldtin, is Logan going to be fine? Do you know what caused it?"

"I have never seen anything like it. We should really find a doctor for him as soon as possible. Come on," Goldtin urged. He stood up and took a step forward. He realized he forgot where they left the bikes and told Logan.

Logan, annoyed, took the lead and ran. They soon found the bikes exactly where they had left them. Logan climbed quickly onto the blue bike. Landa took the red one. Goldtin rode with Landa, mainly because the red bike had a basket in the back, which is where the rabbit sat. Also, it may have been like that because Logan and Goldtin were not on very good terms with each other, ever since the start.

Landa was in the lead with Logan very close behind her. Goldtin kept shouting instructions to Landa. Everything zoomed by them. Then, unexpectedly, Landa started ignoring Goldtin's directions. She turned the bike around and went in the direction they came from. Logan had a hard time keeping up with her. It seemed like Landa was going even faster on the bike. Landa was being controlled yet again. She did not hear Goldtin's constant yelling of "Landa, turn around" nor Logan's voice behind her, saying, "Slow down!" And then, the controlling stopped as suddenly as it had started. She slowly came back to the real world and heard her friends' yelling. As she figured out she was heading the wrong way from the angry yells near her, she turned around. Her speed reduced, not that she realized it, but Logan really did notice it. Logan and Goldtin glanced at each other knowingly and decided to keep quiet about Landa's strange actions for now.

Soon, they reached the place where Landa had suddenly turned around. Logan and Goldtin strongly hoped Landa wouldn't do it again. To their dismay, she turned around again and put on a burst of speed! Goldtin was even more frightened than Logan. As he was riding on Landa's bike, he noticed that they were going through trees and rocks as if they were not there. To Logan, who was trying hard to keep up with Landa without much success, it looked like Landa was going right towards a tree. He tried to warn her, but gave up after a few tries because Landa came out the other side of the tree, miraculously uninjured. For the fraction of the second that Landa was in the tree, Logan could not see her or Goldtin.

After what seemed like hours, but really was a couple of minutes, Landa returned to the real world. She turned around again and followed Goldtin's instructions. When they were at the same spot that Landa was controlled, Logan and Goldtin hoped even stronger that Landa would stick to the path. To their relief and delight, she did not turn around again. They did not get their hopes up too high however. They knew Landa could turn around again any second. But she did not.

Goldtin soon told Landa to stop. They had arrived at the place where they had found the bikes. As Logan walked towards the rock to put his "borrowed" bike in, he heard a rustle in front of him that seemed to come from the bushes. He stopped abruptly and turned around to face Goldtin.

"I told you it wasn't safe to borrow these bikes," Logan whispered angrily.

"Well, without these bikes, we'd never have found Landa. How would you have liked that?" Goldtin hissed back.

"I am glad we found Landa, but-" started Logan, but stopped when he glanced the terror on Landa's face.

He slowly turned around and looked up into four faces that were grinning widely. There were four boys, all taller than Logan. None of them recognized the boys.

"So," said the blonde-haired, pale-faced dude, "the robbers decided to show up. How nice! How was your ride? I certainly hope you enjoyed it because it might have been your last!" The other three roared with laughter.

After the laughter subsided a little, Logan loudly said, "I don't know who you are, but we just borrowed your bikes. Thank you, and now I think we'll get on our way." As he turned around and motioned for Landa and Goldtin to follow him, the blonde boy commanded his companions to grab them.