Aru Shah and the Forest of Shadows [COMPLETED]

Safeway Heist

A/N: Not lying, I got the idea for this chapter when a friend and I walked to Safeway like we do every day for lunch and I looked over at the garage doors where the trucks unload and said, "What if we broke into Safeway?"

And this is a pretty long chapter so... took a while to write. I split it in two to get this one out on time.

-𓃰𓃰𓃰-

"Aiden!" Aru shouted. He landed hard on his side next to her, unconscious. The dragon flesh that hit him had disappeared, but the spot on his hoodie where it had made impact now had a smoking hole in the fabric.

Mini checked his pulse. "Still alive and stable. Aru, you better get his sweatshirt off."

Heat rose to Aru's face. "What?"

Mini gave her a look. "We don't want the venom burning through and getting to his skin, do we?"

Aru nodded and with some difficulty, she managed to pull Aiden's sweatshirt off, leaving him in a green t-shirt. She rested his head in her lap.

"Oh no," Brynne breathed. "Too late."

The acidic toxin had already reached his shirt, where it was slowly but surely disintegrating the cloth. A few drops had already fallen onto his bare arm.

Brynne reached for a water bottle and uncapped it.

"No!" Mini shrieked as she went to pour the water on Aiden's shoulder. "That could just make the venom's chemicals react with the hydrogen and oxygen, and he could die!"

"He's gonna die if we don't do anything!" Brynne cried, panicking.

Aru brushed Aiden's hair off his forehead. "Wake up!" She shouted desperately.

Mini turned to Rudy. "Do you have a healing stone or something?"

Rudy shook his head.

Aru spotted the tip of the leather journal Sanemi had given her poking out of Mini's backpack.

"Mini! The journal!"

Her sister's face lit up, and she dug it out and flipped open the pages.

"Found something!" She crowed triumphantly. "That creature was called the Bari Chipakali, the Hindi words for big lizard."

"Whatever it's called!" Brynne said. "How do we fix it?"

"It's blood and saliva are extremely venomous," read Mini. "Contact with a few drops can kill an adult in less than two hours. No antidote is known. Is highly reactive with water."

Aru stared down at Aiden's face in disbelief. "So... nothing?"

Mini closed the book slowly. "Nothing."

"Wait, guys," Rudy said, peering into the distance. "What's that?"

Aru glanced up, expecting to see another Bari Chipakali barreling towards them to finish them off. Instead, the thick mist cleared, and a building loomed into sight.

She squinted to make out the words on the wall. "Safeway?"

"Who would stick a Safeway in the middle of a deadly forest?" Brynne asked.

"Remember how the Night Bazaar was hidden inside a Costco?" Mini asked. "Maybe this is another entrance!"

Rudy snickered. "If I remember correctly, you walked into a telephone pole at that Costco."

Mini blushed. "Maybe I did... Anyway, I'll wrap Wifey's arm to keep the venom from spreading too quickly. Brynne, can you carry him in?"

Brynne nodded, and Mini dug a roll of bandages out from her backpack. In a few minutes, Aiden's shoulder was sufficiently wrapped up. Brynne hoisted his limp form onto her shoulder.