Craig of the creek: From beyond the creek

The Ancient Tree Village

Will had finally made it to the treetop town, otherwise known as unstable treetop village by Craig and Co.  it was high above the ground, but it was beautiful, wooden walkways surrounded the pine trees, with rope bridges connecting them, vines were strewn all over, and mushrooms grew on the sides of the barks, this place in its time used to be the headquarters of Will's mother and father, back before they even met, back when they "fought" in the capture the flag war, this was their fort, along with their friends, Will's father had a fishing rod, not unlike the one Will had now, except he used it as a staff than a fishing Rod, while his mother had a bow, there were many bull's eye marks hanged all over the village, all of them had an arrow in the center, but then when the capture the flag game ended, they were on the losing side, and were forced to leave the creek, leaving the massive fort to be forgotten, along with other structures, and it stayed abandoned, until Craig found a small portion of it, and Will had found the heart of it, and he was excited !, he ran through the rope bridges, hopping and skipping along the walkways, it seemed like a fantasy to him, he eventually came upon a wide gap, he almost fell off, there was no way to cross, there was a huge branch connecting the gap, but it was too high for Will to even climb on Will quickly took a look to see another way through, but spotted a message carved onto the tree, it read 

"this shortcut is only available to admirals or higher, if you can't swing across,   then scram rando !           --- Captain Cesar Jones"

Will couldn't believe it, it was his father who had written this message ! this was his fort ! the branch above Will must have had ropes to swing across, but time takes it's toll, and the ropes must have rotted away, Will attached the Garra hook to his fishing line,  he casted the rod and made sure it was hooked to the huge branch, and swinged across, Will had never felt like this, exploring the place that his father used to tell so many stories about !, once across he unhooked the line from the branch and continued, the place he was in on was a fort, it was circular, surrounding the tree it had been built on, even after so many years it stood just like the day it was left behind, Will opened the door and entered, the inside of the room was as bright as outside, the windows providing most of the light, it had a warm cozy feeling, there were many flower pots all over the place, some had berries, some had orchids, one even had a small saguaro cactus growing, there was a table that held several tubes and vessels, they all had a variety of colored liquids inside, there was also a binder besides them it was labeled "Lilly's experimental records #1-#6 (don't you dare touch this Cesar !!!)" the part after 6 was crudely written, as if written in a moment of anger,  but Lilly was the name of Will's mother, so this must have been her lab ! he went trough the binder, which was separated into 6 different notebooks, the first page read  

"scientific log #001 purple berry ink, 

the following experiment is my first attempt to create a way to paint signs rather than etching them into the bark of the trees, I used olive oil as well as a mix of mulberry and purpurine berry paste, the result was a successful permanent ink that is easy to make, and doesn't harm the trees, it reeks however, and must be mixed outside in order to avoid the unpleasant smell to stay inside, no other cons so far... -Lilly Rojas" 

it was interesting, it even had a recipe attached to it, experiments #002 to #012 showed how to make different colors but experiment log  #037 caught Will's attention

"scientific log #037 dragon's breath mix 

today Captain Cesar asked me if I could make a 'defense' potion, to help his troop out in battle, he said he needed something to 'smoke out the enemy' he tossed some military words I didn't quite get, so let's cut to the chase, he needed something that stinks, to defend our flag from being captured, so I got to work, mixed several of ma's jalapeños and some of my purple berry ink and left it outside  so it would rot, the result was a highly reactive mix of bubbling sauce, it's harmless but smell horrendously, it was meant to be thrown, like a water ballon, but before I could explain him this Cesar dunked the mix on himself (!) the handsome moron had to go home early that day, and even the next day he still smelled like deceased skunk

 results: a powerful weapon that can drive even the most iron bellied to barf, and a lesson to explain what your invention does before giving it to the customer"

Will chuckled a little bit after reading this and stowed away the binder and left the room, but not before taking a bite out of a pepper growing on a pot, it burned him as soon as he bit it, he then read the label on the plant it read "Experiment #124 phantom pepper, NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION (it's not my fault you burnt your tongue Cesar !)" looks like he had made the same mistake as his father, he quickly spit out the pepper and looked for a solution around the room, he found a bottle labeled "Experiment #067 ultra-umami spray use if under the effect of spiciness, (note: don't swallow it ! it's disgusting ! - cpt. Cesar) Will drank a bit and spot it right back out, the spiciness was gone, but the spray tasted like what you would expect a 40 year old spay to taste, he tried his best to not barf, but to no avail, he did the best next thing, he ran to the window and barfed out, down below Bobby was walking around eating his candy , when he almost got splashed with the barf, he quickly ran the other way, only to trip on a rock and spill his candy, "my candy" said the poor boy in a sad and quiet voice. Now that Will had recovered from barfing he looked around the room he found a framed photo, it was a smiling girl hugging a boy holding a fishing rod in victory, surely his father and mother, Will smiled, he had found his souvenir, he put it in his backpack along with the logbinder and left the room, he looked above, it was noon, he quickly casted his rod to the branch connecting the two trees and tried to swing back across, but as he was halfway through the gap, a sickening snap sounded out, Will looked above, the branch had snapped, and he started careening towards the ground, Will's life flashed before his eyes, as he fell, the only thing he could do now was to brace for impact, he closed his eyes before he crashed to the ground and . . .