Craig of the creek: From beyond the creek

the stranger

"Craig, did you leave the cover of the stump open again?" asked Kelsey quietly "no I didn't, maybe Jason opened it to check again ?" said Craig nervously as he eyed the entrance suspiciously "I'll go check" said JP as he went to the stump hole, and called out "hello ? is anyone down there ?" no response, but the shuffling inside stopped, then someone burst through the hole and back on the surface, it was Will,

now Will had found the map and would have just bailed right then and there, but Helen was still down, he wasn't about to leave her behind like that, he wasn't going to leave any friend behind, not again, he looked at the astonished kids and bird in front of him, the kid with a peanut head stepped in front to introduce himself "hello, my name is Craig, these are my friends, JP, Kelsey, and Mortimer" Will eyed the quartet suspiciously, they were younger and smaller than him, after making sure they weren't a threat to him he introduced himself, "my name is Will, I'm a resident from the graphite Gulch an-" "Craig, look he has your map !" said Kelsey before charging at full force at the intruder, "wait hold on !" exclaimed Will as he barely dodged the charge " I'm just borrowing this I'll bring it back !" "after you show it to the king ? no way, I am not letting that happen again !" answered Craig, angered at this thief,  "king? what king?" said a puzzled Will, before getting hit by Kelsey's sword and pecked by Mortimer, "alright that's it !" exclaimed Will "you want a fight ? you found one !"

with that will pulled his fishing rod from his back and swatted Mortimer away with it ,  before defending against Kelsey's attack by pushing her back before raising his leg to try to stomp her but missed, then he casted the rod towards Craig and took his staff, "hey, give that back !" he exclaimed " as you wish kid !" Will answered before throwing right back at him like a spear, then he swept Kelsey's leg and picked her up before throwing her at JP, who caught her, Craig threw his staff the same way Will had, it hit him, distracting him for a second before he grabbed it and threw it back at Craig, he looked over to where he had thrown the small knight, but she wasn't there but was charging at him again, this time with JP carrying her, he charged as well, when they clashed they were both thrown off balance, but Will got up faster, he had fought stronger enemies before, these were small fries. As JP jumped on him, Will  fell backwards to try to get rid off his attacker  before getting back up and getting his rod "I'm done playing around, you better get ready, 'cause here I come !" Will exclaimed before hooking a heavy log before starting to spin quickly, as if it was an Olympic hammer throw tournament, but he just kept on spinning and spinning, getting closer to Craig and his friends with every turn, they had no choice but to move out the way, or get badly hurt by this weapon of mass rotation, but Kelsey thought of something "Craig if I can get up on the tree, I can drop the chair lift on him !" "alright go, we will distract him" Kelsey got up on the tree while Craig called out to their spinning enemy and luring him to stand under the chair, he then called out to Kelsey to drop the chair, the chair fell on Will, stunning him and knocking him down, then the quartet got some rope and tied him before Will could get up again, to which he answered with strained angry noises, and an occasional "let me out or else" until he finally settled down an accepted his fate. It was quiet again, until the voice inside the stump called out again,  "Will get me out, please !" Craig went to the stump to see who was making this noise, "who's down there? are you also trying to take our stuff ?" Helen recognized this voice it was Craig, the one kid before Will that had bothered to meet her, "Craig, it's me Helen !" she then showed him her friendship bracelet to him, it matched, Craig then called to JP and Kelsey to drop the chair lift down, once Helen was back up on the surface  she saw Will tied up and untied him before any of Craig's friends could stop her Will got up but didn't do anything, "Craig this is a misunderstanding, he doesn't even know who "the king" he comes from farther than that" Helen explained everything Will had to her, from him being the only kid in the Gulch, the darkeners, how he suddenly woke up in this creek, how he met Wildernessa, how she met Will and why Will needed the map to get out, and that he needed as much help as he could get but even that didn't convince Craig to not take Will to Omar, at least until he heard familiar voices coming from the woods "Craig, Craig !"  it was Omar and the honeysuckle rangers, "Craig step away from that guy, he isn't from the king's side, he is a dangerous...thing !" "see i'm not a bad gu- wait did you just call me a thing ?" Will spoke "we know what you are, you are a monster like the guy who replaced the king, sure he was tyrannical at times,  but you can't just dethrone him like that !" yelled Raj "alright why am I getting told off by a bunch of kids wearing flower suits ?!" exclaimed a puzzled Will "because you can't just take over a kingdom !" said Shawn again  "wait... take over a kingdom ?" said a more confused Will before something Clicked in his mind "I think I know what happened, and I think I now how to get it back. take me to where this new king is" and so they went towards to kick the tyrant out of the throne.