AS--Damien?!

I took off running through the forest.

"Hey, where're you going?" Seb yelled after him.

"To save my friend!" I shouted back.

I just hoped that I wasn't too late.

* * *

I raced off through the forest. Damien, why do you have to be so stupid?! I thought angrily to myself as I charged through the underbrush.

If that old brownie, Seb, was right, then Damien had just been kidnapped by a horribly dangerous pirate. Not only that, but his father had gone and gotten himself kidnapped by the pirates in the ship. Why did I have to be the one to rescue them?! Well, maybe because you signed yourself up to help look for the princess and the locket.

"Damien, you're going to be sorry," I muttered.

"Help...!"

I froze, bow at the ready. It'd been faint, but I'd heard it. I was pretty much positive that it was Damien. I took off running in the direction of the yell.

It led me even deeper into the forest. There was no sunlight here. Only darkness. The trees surrounded me, and I pushed down that nervous feeling in my stomach. My eyes scanned ahead. And that's when I saw it.

"Damien!" I yelled angrily. "How'd you get yourself stuck in an animal trap?!"

Damien was hanging high above the forest floor in a net made of old vines and was glaring down at me indignantly.

"Aren't you going to let me down?!" he yelled.

I smiled. "Maybe. Maybe."

That's when I got my idea...