The sun felt warm. Outside was bright and breezy and pleasant, in stark contrast to the cave.

Still hiding, Yoyo peeked around the side of the stone for any hint of movement. He saw the tall grasses sway in the gentle wind, but the cave opening he had just crawled out was dull and boring. There was no sign of his friend Birdy.

Yoyo slouched back and rested against the stone. He liked being outside. It felt nice. He was high on the mountain slope, surrounded by green grasses and stone grays. It was a steep slope with rocks scattered in every direction, someplace he’d never been, but it might be fun for exploring and maybe James or Harley were around here somewhere.

With high hopes, he tightened the Velcro straps on his green and black sneakers. Just as he was about to stand up, a parade of black ants grabbed his attention.

They were speedy little ants, dutifully going to an unknown destination. Yoyo placed his finger in the dirt ahead of them and drew a line. He waited to see if the ants would cross.

They did.

Yoyo drew a circle around one of the ants that had wandered away from the others. The little ant approached the edge of the circle and followed it for a moment, but changed direction and walked across with hardly a pause.

“Ha!” Yoyo laughed.

Having a bit of fun but not hurting any, Yoyo drew in the dirt with his finger as the ants went about their day. For the most part the ants ignored Yoyo, as if he was just another rock on the slope and not to be bothered. Eventually when he grew bored, Yoyo let them be, content to watch them travel the invisible roads of the ant world.

Then he felt a tickle on his hand. An ant had crawled on top. Yoyo shook off his hand and stood up in a hurry as goosebumps ran down his spine. He squirmed and shivered, the feeling unnerving. Not letting the slight go unpunished, he distributed swift justice by stomping a few into the dirt.

Silly ants.

Yoyo climbed on top of the large gray stone, away from the dirt and the ants. His view was better now, he could see a bit further. The trees of the valley formed a great forest. Stretching across the horizon, there were many great mountains.

Where are Harley and James?

The last time he saw them was in the woods by their house, before he fell into the hole, then he remembered the way Harley grabbed his arm—that really hurt. But his arm didn’t hurt now and he wanted to see her again. He wanted to see James too. He missed his brother.

Did they climb out of the hole and go to school without me?

He felt sad at the thought. It wasn’t nice that they left him alone. He started to cry.

The tears wet his cheeks like rain streaks down a window. Plop. A drop fell off his chin onto the stone. He felt no desire to throw a tantrum, he felt no anger or scorn, only sadness. He sniffed and brought his cheek to his shoulder, the tears wetting the cloth of his shirt.

Why would they leave without me? They know I don’t know the way to school by myself. Mom and Dad will need to come get me.

The thought lingered. Yoyo pulled his legs together and buried his face in his knees as the sun beat down on the back of his neck. The sadness settled deeply in his chest and he wished he was home.

The sound of a pencil tap caught his ear. It happened again, then paused, then repeated three more times. It sounded like a pencil striking a notebook, and Yoyo pictured Harley working next to him at the kitchen table; he was coloring and she was writing. His mind was back home and he wanted to stay.

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But the ruffle of feathers took him away from his daydream. Yoyo gasped at the sight of a bird. It was his friend Birdy. He was found at last.

The bird’s feathers were gray in the sunlight. It turned its head and probed the earth with its beak. Each peck made the sound of a pencil tap and Yoyo watched his friend with keen eyes.

The bird continued with an unyielding focus, but it was not playing a game of hide and seek, it was eating lunch. The little black ants were taken one by one until the bird ate them all, and then it hopped away to look for more.

Yoyo’s stomach growled. He stood tall, craning his neck, looking around for options. He wanted an apple or yogurt or chocolate or cheese. But since he didn’t know where he was, how was he going to find anything to eat?

The valley with the trees might have food, though he wasn’t sure. He had seen trees in books that had fruit and knew of apple orchids, but he had never visited one in real life before. There had to be other options. He looked around as his friend ate another ant.

Yuck.

He could never eat an ant. But sometimes he saw ants in the kitchen at home, so maybe they could lead him to food he liked to eat.

The ants crawled in a meandering line and Yoyo followed. He climbed up the stones as he went and jumped off the tops. It was fun.

Birdy followed too, walking around the big stones and hopping over the little ones. Gradually down the mountain slope they went together, Yoyo following the ants and Birdy eating them. They were traveling along the invisible road.

As climbing led to jumping and the jumping led to sweating, Yoyo had worked up a thirst. Beads formed under the black mop of hair that sat heavy on his head and he gladly stopped to drink rainwater from a large bowl-shaped rock.

The water tasted refreshing in the heat of the sun. Yoyo drank plenty until he felt satiated and then sat below an overhung rock to rest.

The long blinks started. He allowed himself to fall into a daydream with blurry shapes and fuzzy thoughts. The cozy-comfort kind where the mind wanders so much that eventually it strays from a daydream to a real dream. He dozed off; the rock was the cradle and the shade the blanket. The clouds sailed through the sky as the sun stretched to reach him, but it was the wind that stirred him first.

He woke to a gust of cool air blowing dust down the mountain slope. Stretching, he remembered where he was and sighed when he realized he was still alone. His nap was over and now his stomach was really rumbling, but he wasn’t any closer to finding food.

“Ugh…” Yoyo groaned, frowning.

Standing, he kicked a rock away like a soccer ball. It bounced off a nearby stone and ricocheted back against his shin.

Ouch!

He stared angrily at the rock, casting judgment on it. He didn’t want to see it anymore. Picking it up, he threw it as far as he could. It disappeared from sight.

Don’t come back, stupid rock, or I’ll throw you again. And even farther next time. Who’s next?

Yoyo surveyed the other things on the ground as if they were co-conspirators. There was a loose stone, a tiny stick, a patch of grass; the stone was the biggest, so off it went, sailing into the air like a football.

A loud thump confirmed its landing and Yoyo leapt on top of a nearby boulder to continue rampaging. He kicked the rock hard but it didn’t budge, so the patch of grass that lived in the crevice was his next victim. He yanked it out like a gardener treats a weed, and threw it as hard as he could.

The blades of grass fell onto the boulder with an unsatisfying silence. Yoyo stomped on them until they crumbled and tore; and as he examined his carnage, he noticed a strange discoloration in the rock. It looked like a closed eye.

He kicked it.

Half-effort at first, but then hard and repeatedly, and as he drove the tip of his shoe into the discolored mark, a rumble came forth from the earth.

The rumbling built even as Yoyo withdrew his shoe, like an earthquake growing in intensity. The gray boulder loosened itself from the dirt and suddenly other nearby stones vibrated as well.

Yoyo scurried away as the earth shook from the shifting stones. They dragged against the dirt in their pursuit of the sky. Lurching, lumbering, lifting to take the shape of a giant man, to form a monster which Yoyo had never seen before.

Huge and terrible, the monster was built from the stones, sticks, and dirt of the mountain, and it reached to the sky as if it might grab the sun.

Yoyo cowered in a leafy bush, silent and trembling. The monster groaned and stretched and flexed his might. It plucked the tall grass that clung to the dirt in its crevices. Then it scratched its back, appeared to yawn, and lifted a rock to look underneath.

Meanwhile, Yoyo crouched lower to the ground, shifting further into the bush to hide completely from sight. Another game of hide and seek had started, but this time he hoped he wouldn’t be found.