Luke climbed down until he could drop from the bottom of the tree. He landed lightly. His brother jumped up and down in frustration.

“What did you see?,” asked Elliot.

“We're on a line between the Lava King's castle, and the royal castle,” said Luke. “I also saw something that looked like sails ahead.”

“Should we try for the royal castle and hope someone there knows where the Mandelas are?,” asked Elliot.

“I don't know,” said Luke. “That has a better chance than circling back to the Lava King, or chasing a sailboat.”

“I can see where the Lava King would be mad after what we did to escape,” said Elliot.

“You're right about that,” said Luke. “Let's go to that other castle and hope someone might be able to help us there. The least they can do is tell us they don't know anything.”

“They might help us for beating the Lava King for them,” said Elliot.

“We didn't beat him,” said Luke. “We escaped his clutches.”

“Either way, we gave him a black eye to go with that ugly mug,” said Elliot. “That should be worth something.”

“That depends on whether they want to give him a black eye and can't,” said Luke. “Just be quiet about that, and let us try to find a way to get out of here.”

“No bragging?,” asked Elliot.

“No,” said Luke. He shook his head. “We don't need the Lava King dogging us even more than he might be now because you want to tell everyone you made someone mad enough to chase you through their town and want to be thrown to the guy we just escaped from.”

“When you put it like that, it does sound like a case of the stupid,” said Elliot.

“I'm glad you agree with me,” said Luke. “Let's walk in a line that way. I'll check to see how much distance we closed to the other castle in a few minutes.”

“Didn't you say there was a sailboat?,” asked Elliot.

“I saw what looked like sails, but I didn't see the actual boat,” said Luke. “The trees were in the way.”

“Maybe the people in the castle know about the sailboat,” said Elliot.

“We'll see when we get there,” said Luke. He turned to face the new direction of travel and drew an arrow to remember which way he should be going. He started walking toward the royal castle.

Elliot fell in behind him. He didn't feel like talking to his brother. At least the younger kid was behind him and ready. He didn't want to expend all of his peke power on one target. Elliot should be able to help with that.

He hoped they weren't going to be told they had to deal with the Lava King as some way to go home. That was the last thing he wanted.

It was bad enough that Elliot was getting them both punished with a possible angry grounding. The last thing he wanted was to make his mother mad while trying to find a way home.

He definitely was not getting her any of the giant flytraps that popped up and tried to eat anything coming close to the pipes that stood in their singular places.

That was a little too dangerous for anything he wanted to give his mom.

Luke made sure to mark the trees to keep on track. It was nothing for him to use that to stay on course. He wanted to reach the royal castle and hope to get shown the exit so they could go home. Then he would take the punishment from his mom over letting his brother get into trouble without being able to stop him.

He was not happy about that projected outcome of their little adventure.

“What you thinking?,” asked Elliot.

“I am hoping we can be shown a passage home without having to do some kind of chores for whomever is in charge,” said Luke. “Otherwise we have to find a way out ourselves, and trust no one.”

“So maybe these Mandelas are just as much trouble as the Lava King?,” said Elliot.

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“I was thinking unhelpful,” said Luke. “If they know the way home, why haven't they left already?”

“Maybe they like it here,” said Elliot. “They're working as adventurers for the Queen. They must be getting something out of it.”

Luke shrugged. His brother might be right about that.

He saw another tree he could climb. It was better to do that to make sure they weren't going around in circles.

“I'm going to go up and look around,” said Luke. “I want to get to that castle and get home as fast as possible. If we are gone for too much longer, Mom will start calling around looking for us.”

“She'll report us to the police,” said Elliot.

“Exactly,” said Luke. “If we can't find the Mandelas at that castle, we see if anyone at the castle knows which way they should be so we can catch up with them.”

“I'll stand lookout like before,” said Elliot.

Luke grabbed the trunk of the tree he had picked out and pulled himself up so he could jump from branch to branch. He reached the top and saw they were closer to the castle than he had thought. A town sprawled out around the place with people going about their businesses. They should be able to get there in a few minutes.

“We're almost there, Elliot,” Luke called down. “I can see a town around the outer wall.”

He scanned the rest of the horizon. He frowned when he spotted the white sails. They were closer to him and Elliot too. Had they decided to cut across the boys' path to the castle, or was it chance? He hoped they wouldn't have to fight sailors sailing on the land.

They needed to hurry if they wanted to avoid whatever the sails were attached to so they could reach the castle and find help.

He took another sighting on the castle to make sure the direction was good in his mind. Then he bounced from limb to limb until he could drop to the ground. He drew an arrow on a tree in the right direction.

“The sails are coming right at us from that way,” said Luke. He pointed behind them and to the right. “The castle is roughly the other way. We have to run if we don't want to be caught out here without any protection.”

“I'm ready,” said Elliot. “Let's go.”

The two brothers burst into a sprint in the direction that Luke had decided was where the royal castle stood. They used some of their strange peke power to boost their speed in bursts so they could cover more ground. An eerie wind pushed at their backs as they ran forward.

“It's a sailboat floating on the land,” Elliot said after a look over his shoulder. “It's coming right at us.”

“Shoot it and see if we can make it turn,” said Luke. He spun around and threw a fireball. The blast passed through the cloudy shape without doing anything that he could see.

Elliot threw a small lightning bolt. The blast caused the ship to turn black and throw off its own lightning at anything close by.

“Wrong move,” he said as he started running to catch up with his brother.

“You stalled it,” said Luke. “It's not moving while it is trying to burn down the forest around it.”

“Too bad we can't call the fire department to deal with that for us,” said Elliot. “I hope the mushroom people forgive us for that.”

“I hope we didn't set some innocent yachter on fire because we were scared of him,” said Luke.

“Don't say anything like that,” said Elliot. “I will get the blame for this. I know it.”

“You did shoot the boat with lightning,” said Luke. “That means I can go home and tell Mom you are in jail for your heinous crime.”

“You can't do that,” said Elliot. “Please, Luke.”

“I won't tell Mom,” said Luke. “But you are going to have to explain this to the local cops.”

“I don't know what to say other than it was an accidental discharge,” said Elliot.

“That sounds good,” said Luke. He pointed at the houses appearing on the other side of the brush he was charging through. “We're almost at the town.”

“They're scattering,” said Elliot. “They aren't going to help us with that sailboat.”

“We have to turn,” said Luke. “We can't lead them into town. All of that lightning will set the houses on fire.”

“Let's split up,” said Elliot. “Meet you at the castle.”

He sprinted and jumped across the sailboat's bow on a splash of his peke power. He sprinted into the trees. He made a face at the cloudy vehicle as he went, vanishing into the trees.

Luke paused. He groaned and looked at his brother running in a circle away from him. He couldn't get the ship to go after him. His fireballs would go through and set more of the trees on fire.

Why did his brother always do the stupid thing?

He turned and ran the other way, skirting the houses. Maybe he could leave the sailboat behind as he circled around to the outer wall of the castle. He had no doubt he could climb the gray stone easily enough. He hoped Elliot wouldn't get into any more trouble they would have to explain to their mother.

She was already going to be mad over what they had done.

Elliot's quest had cost them hours. Their mother was probably calling the cops to look for them. Good luck finding them in the hidden sewer under the city.

Luke paused by a tree to look back. The sailboat sat in the middle of the trail they had been following, gray giving way to white. The lightning had died off. Why wasn't it moving?

He hoped that meant the crew was giving up chasing them. That meant Elliot could climb the wall on his side without trouble. He might be able to steer them home after all if he could find his brother and stop him from causing more trouble.

He might be able to avoid a harsh punishment from his mom if he hurried inside the castle wall and found his brother before anything else happened. They might even be able to collect flowers to appease his mother before they went back.

He looked around, and spotted the wall rising on the other side of the houses. He rushed toward it. He didn't spare a glance to the people on the street cowering from the sudden storm at the edge of their town.

He hoped he wasn't going to be held accountable for the fire in the trees. He had no way to fix that.

Luke frowned as he reached the wall.