

Where's Scotty?

Book 1

The Island of DOOM

Cat Crafter

Copyright © KC Global Enterprises Pty Ltd

Smashwords Edition

Alex's Diary

DON'T TOUCH

(That means you, Scotty!)

Monday Morning – Breakfast time – Mood: Grumpy

There I was, not doing harm to anyone, lying in my bed. I was having a dream about being a beautiful mermaid, who decided to trade her fish tail for legs so she could walk on land. I then used my new legs to conquer the planet, and crowned myself Empress Alex – Ruler of Everything. Anyone who tried to resist my rule was fed to my pet shark, Bitey, who lived in the basement of my grand palace. It was a great dream.

That's why it was even worse when I was woken up by a world-shattering-

Being woken up early is the worst. I thought it was the end of the world! I sat upright in bed, and do you know what I saw? Half of my house was missing! Where there was once a wall made of cobblestone blocks, my selection of beautiful paintings of fruit bowls and sheep, and my crafting table, there was now a massive hole and a pile of rubble. The cold morning air slowly filled the room as I stared at the disaster, open-mouthed.

I could see right out to my farm and my chickens. Lucy and Helen looked right back in at me with a confused: bawk?

Then, to make things worse, Scotty appeared. My so-called 'best friend'.

"Hiiiiiii, Alex," he said in his 'please don't hate me' voice.

"I think I may have startled a creeper near your house." A creeper. The green, mean, exploding monsters that caused us all no end of trouble. You get too close and they like to explode. I jumped out of bed and stormed over to him.

"You may have startled a creeper? Half my house is missing!"

Scotty looked at the hole with a thoughtful expression. "It doesn't look that bad." Argh! I could strangle him sometimes!

Monday Morning – After Breakfast – Mood: Calm

I'm Calm. Don't I look Calm? I'm CALM.

OK, I've had my breakfast now. I'm feeling...calmer. On closer inspection, maybe the hole isn't that big. I was planning on extending the house in that direction anyway. I could probably make some stairs, build another floor, who knows. I still have a few chests of supplies that didn't get blown up, so that's nice.

I've managed to get Scotty to help out. By that, I mean that I grabbed him by the front of his stupid turquoise t-shirt that he always wears and told him that if he didn't help me, I'd lead all the creepers to his house and leave nothing except for his bed. He is gathering wood from nearby trees as a way of saying sorry (as he should).

It's going to be a loooong day.

Monday Morning – Building time - Mood: Sigh.

Scotty hurt his hand punching a tree. Who punches a tree?

He is weird.

Monday Afternoon – Time for Lunch! - Mood: A bit hungry

I HATE CREEPERS!

They are a real problem around here. I was walking towards a nearby mine to try and get some stone for my wall, and who should appear from behind a tree? A creeper! I barely managed to dodge before it blew up and took a few blocks of wood with it!

Ugh, it's so annoying.

Monday Afternoon – Still repairing my house – Mood: Really want Scotty to shut up.

Scotty is being a pain. I'm trying to fix my house, and he interrupts me every few seconds. I put the block down and he says:

"Alex, I'm boooored."

I put another block down.

"Alex, I'm hungryyyy."

I put another block down.

"Alex, we should go on an adventure."

I put another block down.

"Alex, why don't we do anything exciting anymore?"

I put another block down and say, "Our lives are exciting, Scotty."

"But we used to have so much fun, questing, exploring deep mines, fighting monsters, things like that."

"I have a house now, Scotty. I have a farm. These things can be fun too."

Scotty just stared at Lucy and Helen for a while. They were doing that thing where they run around in circles and go "Bawk! Bawk!" Those silly chickens are so much fun!

Wow, I just read that back. Maybe I am boring.

No. It's everyone else who is boring. I am fine.

On the plus side, we've spent most of the day adding new improvements to my house. It looks fantastic now. I think I might even add a tower to it tomorrow. Or a moat. Moats are cool.

Tuesday Morning – Breakfast Time. - Mood: Whhyyyy?

I hate creepers!!!

Guess what I woke up to today.

It's almost as if they just want to ruin my house. I mean, Scotty's house is just further down the path. Why can't they blow up his mud hut? It doesn't even have windows! Today, I didn't even get to wake up and inspect the damage, because they blew up next to the other side of my house. That means that I woke to the wall above my head blowing up and the feeling of my bed collapsing beneath me.

My bed. They broke my bed!

To top it all off, Scotty appeared, promising that it wasn't his fault this time.

I would have let him off, but he had to wander into the remains of my house and ask, "How is my sword collection? Is it alright?"

Scotty's sword collection. Why did he even store them in my house? Iron swords, wooden swords, stone swords, a golden sword he found in a chest on time...all stored in my house.

He didn't ask, "How are you, Alex? Are you OK, Alex? Let me make you breakfast, Alex." Nope. It was all about his swords.

To make things worse, his sword collection was completely fine.

He went over to the weapon rack that they are so perfectly balanced on and took them down, hugging them to his chest.

"Ahhh, swords," he said. "I remember the adventures we used to go on. How we used to fight bad guys and dark monsters."

I swear he even started kissing them.

He is a bit creepy sometimes.

He needs to get out more.

To make things EVEN worse, the CREEPER BLEW UP MY KITCHEN! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO EAT IF IT BLEW UP MY KITCHEN?!

OK. Breathe, Alex. Breeeeaaathe. Everything is fine.

I'm so hungry.

Tuesday Morning ish – I'm in a field – Mood: Bored

Scotty found me an apple. I'm slightly less hungry now. I'm trying to fill in one of the holes a creeper made in one of my fields, but my cow, Rebecca, keeps climbing inside it. What is the saying? Curiosity killed the cow? Probably.

She keeps nudging me with her big wet nose.

"Stop doing it rebecca. Get out of the hole so I can fix it!"

She is looking at me now, and moo-ing sadly.

Can she understand me?

Nah, she's a cow.

Maybe I should stop yelling angrily at my cow.

"Sorry, Rebecca."

Tuesday Afternoon – Arrrrrgh! - Mood: Arrrrrrrgh!

Scotty, being the helpful person he is, has gone to the nearby village of Heredock to see if he can find something 'more interesting' to do. Although I could use his help, I'm a bit glad that he isn't here complaining about how 'boring life is'.

Then again, I could really use his help right now.

Why? Because my sheep have escaped! One of the creepers has blown up the fence to the sheep pen and the crafty sheep have used the time to make a run for it!

I'll make a list of my sheep here and tick them off once I have found them:

Roger, the black sheep – Found him in the nearby river! He's a soggy sheep now.

Sarah, the white sheep – Found her under a tree.

Bob, the orange sheep – Found him standing on top of the tree (how did he get up there?!)

Jake, the blue sheep – Was eating flowers on a nearby hill. I think he will get a tummy ache.

Samantha, the purple sheep – Found her inside my house! She was asleep under my table.

Phil, the brown sheep - didn't actually escape. Stayed inside the pen like a good sheep.

Sheepy, the yellow sheep – Found in the mine nearby, trying to eat rocks and failing.

Sheepy 2, the red sheep – With Sheepy, trying to lick some coal.

The Sheepanator, the pink sheep – She was walking towards Heredock! I managed to get her back though.

OK! Let's go round these sheep up! I can do it!

Tuesday Evening – Back home – Mood: So...sleepy

Running around after sheep all day is very tiring. Who knew they could run so fast? But I managed to get them all back! In fact, I even managed to get another sheep, that I have named Julie. Her wool is still white, but I have some dyes somewhere that will make swift work of that. I'm thinking she can be a green sheep. Yeah, it would match her eyes.

Someone is knocking on my door! It better not be Scotty begging me to make him dinner again.

Tuesday Evening – Still at Home – Mood: Confused.

It wasn't Scotty outside my door. Instead, it was an old man with a long white beard. He wore a purple robe and had a long wooden staff in one hand that looked like it was made from twisted tree roots. He looked at me with eyes as purple as his robe, stretched out his arms and said in a booming voice:

"I am Abraham, Great Wizard of the Forest, Elder of the Magic Council, Savior of the Diamond Realm, Juggler of Eggs, Maker of Slightly Burned Cakes, Quite-handy-with-a-Spade! Can you help me?"

I frowned. He seemed really weird. For a second I thought he was trying to sell me something. "Hello, Abraham...er...Great whatsit of the thingy," I said. "What do you need help with?"

"I am on a quest!" he replied. "A quest of great importance! A quest that if I do not complete, it will surely be the end of us all!"

"Ah, OK," I replied. "How can I help?"

Abraham leaned in close, beckoning me over, as if he planned to whisper in my ear. I moved forward slowly, reluctantly.

"Do you know where I can find the one they call Scotty? For he is destined to save the world!"

Yeah, you heard me right. Scotty is 'destined to save the world.'

Of course he is.

I told the wizard to go and check out Heredock, as Scotty was probably there, and then closed the door in his stupid bearded face.

I'm not angry. No, no. I'm just confused. I mean, why does Scotty get 'destined' to save the world, and all I am destined to do is fix my house over and over again? I mean, Scotty can't even make a sandwich without burning it! How is he going to save the world?

I could make sandwiches and save the world.

I just don't want to.

I'm far too busy.

I've got a farm to run and a house to extend.

I don't care. The old man is gone now, so I can focus on trying to get some sleep.

I am still tired from saving sheep all day anyway.

I don't have time to save the world.

I mean, I could save the world if I wanted to.

Maybe I will, some other day.

Not today, though.

I'm going to sleep.

Stupid Scotty.

Wednesday Morning – Weird times – Mood: Creeped out

I woke up this morning at a normal time, without an exploded house! Yay! Except, another strange thing happened today.

Remember the old man from yesterday? Well, he was still outside my house. It looked like he had walked back up the path to the lane that runs into town and then just...stopped. He was staring intensely into the distance, and was just kind of standing there with his staff. Weird.

When I had finished eating my breakfast, I opened my front door and slowly walked up to him. I didn't want to go too fast, in case it turned out he was a creeper in disguise or something. When I was right next to him, I tapped him on the shoulder. "Hello?"

He suddenly shook, as if waking up from a deep sleep, and said:

"I am Abraham, Great Wizard of the Forest, Elder of the Magic Council, Savior of the Diamond Realm...."

"Yeah, yeah," I said, waving a hand at him. "I know, we met yesterday, remember?"

He leaned forward and narrowed his eyes, inspecting me like I was a rotten apple.

"Hmm," he said. "You look a bit familiar. I definitely recall a boy with a big nose."

"I'm a girl," I snapped at him, resisting the urge to kick him in the shins for the big nose remark. My nose is beautiful, thank you very much. "Have you found Scotty yet?"

"Scotty!" His eyes widened. "Yes! Scotty! The chosen one! Destined to save the world! Bringer of the light!"

I blinked. This old guy sure liked to go a bit overboard with his Scotty compliments.

"Yeah, him." I said with a sigh. "You found him?"

The old guy frowned and scratched his chin. "No, not yet. I am looking for him, though."

Clearly this guy's brain was past its best. "Right. You want to come into my house for some food, and then we can find him together?"

The wizard smiled. "That sounds wonderful!"

So now I'm sitting in my kitchen with 'Abraham, weird of weirdos,' who is eating some bread. He even started writing something down in a kind of journal. I glanced over his shoulder and read this:

Bigge nose, haire of orange, mayebee a girle? Gudde Bred.

He really needs to work on his spelling. I guess he likes the bread. When he finishes, we'll head down to town.

Come to think of it, where is Scotty? He should be back by now, being as annoying as ever and trying to break my house. He went down to town yesterday. What is he doing? Maybe he got lost and fell into a lake.

Hmmm. I guess the old man and me both have a quest to find Scotty. Although, mine is more along the lines of 'drag him back here by the ear' and less 'saving the world'. Still, we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

The old man wants more bread. He must really like bread!

Wednesday Afternoon – Going to town – Mood: Frustrated

I've never met someone who gets lost when walking in a straight line before. It's a good thing I am guiding this old man to town, because otherwise he would definitely get lost. I even found him talking to a flower at one point. He stopped in the middle of the road, looked at the flower and said: "Mighty Flower! I am Abraham, Great Wizard of the...oh, what are you doing?"

I grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him along.

"Come on," I said. "No time to be talking to flowers if you want to find Scotty."

Abraham stood back up. "You're right! We need to go! Farewell, sweet flower!" and then he started walking down the path... in the wrong direction!

"Abraham!" I shouted after him. "This way!"

He spun on his toes and turned back, walking towards me. "Right, right, yes, of course."

We've only just made it to town. I guess we need to ask around for Scotty. We'll go to the Jake's first and then....

Oh no. He's wandered off again.

Hang on.

Wednesday Afternoon – The Soggy Spoon Night Club – Mood: On the hunt for Scotty!

There are two things about 'The Soggy Spoon Night Club' that have always bothered me. First, it closes at 6pm, so it is never open at night. Second, it has a jukebox in the corner but my friend Jake, who owns the place, says that music gives him a headache and so he never has it on (except for absolutely special occasions).

I think the Soggy Spoon is actually more of a cafe, but Jake doesn't think owning a cafe is manly enough.

However, the good thing about Jake is that he has his ear to the ground. Not literally, but he knows all the gossip and stuff that is going on in all the villages around. If I was going to find Scotty, this would be the best place to start. I sauntered up to the bar and flashed him my widest grin.

"Jaaaaake, my buddy, my pal, my best friend," I said. He isn't actually my best friend, but he doesn't need to know that.

Jake frowned at me from behind the counter, which he was cleaning with his sleeve. "What?" he grumbled. I could tell straight away that he still hadn't forgiven me for beating him at the fishing contest a few weeks ago. It's not my fault his fishing rod broke. He shouldn't have left it on my chair. "Who's the old timer?"

Abraham seemed to be having a very intense conversation with a nearby wall, asking for it to 'divulge its secrets'. I dismissed him with a wave of the hand.

"Ignore him," I said. "You seen Scotty?"

Jake shrugged. "Maybe."

This wasn't going to be easy, I could tell. I needed to bribe him somehow. "If I promise to give you back the bow that I won off you last week, will you tell me?"

That got his attention. He loved that bow (unsurprisingly, it was a very good bow) and he would be willing to do anything to get it back. "Aye," he said. "That might work." He wiped a particularly mucky spot on the wood in front of him. "I saw him yesterday. Came in here talking about how bored he was and stuff, so I sent him off to the docks. I heard there was a ship down there about to set off on a big quest or something."

The docks. Had Scotty gone off on an adventure without telling me? If so, there will be hell to pay.

Actually, now that I think about it, was the bow hanging on that wall that got blown up?

Huh. I won't mention that to Jake. Maybe he'll forget.

Yeah. Probably.

Wednesday Afternoon – Down at the Docks – Mood: Everything here stinks of fish!

I'm pretty good at fishing. There is something very peaceful about sitting in a rowing boat that I have built with a fishing rod dangling in the blue water, and just doing nothing. I don't even have to catch fish. It's very relaxing.

Unless Scotty is with me.

He fidgets and grumbles and wobbles the boat and moans about how it is so boring and how the water doesn't do anything and how it is too quiet.

He only comes with me when I go to the docks. It is a bustling market of people all working hard on building ships, loading ships with goods, selling their goods, and generally being loud. In fact, being quiet at the docks is almost against the law. You have to push your way through crowds of people just to take a few steps in one direction.

I don't come here very often.

Scotty loves it here.

So it would make sense that he would come here. I've asked around at all his usual haunts: the old pier, the new pier, the middle pier (which is neither new nor old), the cake shop (that's my favorite), the bakery, the weapons shop. No one had seen him.

Where is Scotty?

Wednesday Afternoon – The Docks – Mood: Angry!

Scotty is stupid and dumb and reckless and foolish and...ugh, lots of other, much ruder words! I found some fishermen who had just come back from a day's fishing, sorting out their catch by one of the smaller docks. I recognized the main fisherman as Hank, a huge guy who was mostly beard, carrying a large collection of fish from the boat. I approached him.

"Hank! Have you seen Scotty?"

Hank didn't take long to think about it.

"Aye."

"You have? Brilliant! Where?"

"He's gone," he replied.

"What do you mean, 'gone'?" I asked.

"Acotty is lost to us? Oh mercy, this is truly a devastating blow for the forces of good! How we shall suffer in the oncoming wave of darkness!" Abraham cried and stroked on his beard.

"Shh," I said to the old man and turned back to Hank. "Where is he?"

"He's on a ship," Hank said, loading his fish into a nearby chest. He looked out towards the horizon. "That one. Called the Angry Mermaid, I think. The Captain was raving on about an adventure to a mysterious island on a distant coast."

An adventure? Yes, that sounded right up Scotty's street. He would have definitely jumped on that chance. I looked to where Hank was pointing. In the distance, beyond the outer wall of the dock, was a small ship sailing towards the setting sun. It was definitely too far away to stop it now. I sighed. I had failed in my quest to get Scotty back.

"Yep, they're probably going to do something very exciting," Hank continued in a voice that suggested he would find drying paint exciting.

"An exciting adventure?" I said. "But I have an exciting adventure waiting for him right here!" I pointed at Abraham who was inspecting something on his finger which he had just pulled out his hair. He popped it into his mouth and looked up at me.

"Hmmm?" he said. "What?"

"Oh, yeah," said the fisherman, sarcastically. "Looks exciting."

"Quiet," I grumbled.

So that's it. Adventure over. Scotty has gone and left without even saying goodbye (rude!) and the world is going to end, apparently. It's a shame. I shouldn't have bothered fixing my house again. It will probably be destroyed by tomorrow.

Wednesday Evening – The Docks – Mood: Determined

You know what? No.

I am NOT going to be left behind while Scotty does something exciting and I have to babysit Abraham, Great Wizard of weird. He smells like cabbage.

I am going to find my own ship with my own crew, and we are going to get Scotty back. Then Abraham can take him and save the day and I can go back to looking after my cows and sheep and chickens. I don't care what happens after that.

Yeah, I can do this! Now all I need to do is find a ship. There are plenty to choose from on this dock. One of them has got to want to go on an adventure, right? Yeah. This won't take long, I am sure.

Wednesday Evening – The Docks – Mood: Why do I bother?

Why is it so hard to get a ship?

The captain just laughed in my face!

OK, ok, stay calm. Let's try the next one.

Wednesday Evening – Down at the docks – Mood: Not giving up!

Alright, so these are the ships and the captains I have talked to so far and their reactions. I am mainly writing it down so I can get revenge later:

Name: The Floaty Boat

Captain: Kyle Rogers

Reaction: Hahahaha! No.

Name: The Fisher King

Captain: Lenny Withers

Reaction: Ew. You're a girl? Get off my ship.

Name: The Plucky Penguin

Captain: Jason Falt

Reaction: What do you mean my ship's name is silly?

Name: The Creeper's Menace

Captain: Sarah Gets

Reaction: Sure, I'll take you, for 5 diamonds. (Where am I supposed to get 5 diamonds?!)

Name: ???? It was too rotted to tell.

Captain:??? Some man wearing underpants on his head.

Reaction: mumbles and grumbles and drools (I didn't want to get too close.)

So that's that. I'm down to two ships left and one of them...oh yep. It just left, I am watching it sail out of the harbour right now. I guess I should get a move on and try and persuade the captain of the remaining ship that they absolutely want to go on an adventure with me.

Wish me luck!

Wednesday Evening – Down at the docks – Mood: Happy! (I'm eating dinner)

OK, so the final ship I approached was interesting. I wasn't sure at first if it was even sailable. I mean, sure, it had everything a ship needs, a sail, a big wooden hull, and it just about floated, but apart from that it looked like a wreck! There was a big hole in one side and the whole thing went crreeeeaaaaak every time it rocked with the waves. On the side was a wooden sign that looked like it had been stuck on in a hurry and was beginning to fall off. It read:

The Happy-Go-Lucky

The flimsy rope that held it to the dock looked like it might once have been a lead to tie a horse, but at this point, I wasn't complaining. I mean, I would try anything just to get a ship to sail me in the direction of Scotty. This was my final chance.

I went to the wooden ramp that led up to the boat and said, "Hello? I'd like to speak to the Captain?"

There was no response from anyone on the ship. Creeeeak.

"Hello?"

"I think it's a ghost ship," Abraham commented. "Ghosts can be very unhelpful."

I rolled my eyes and advanced toward the ship.

"Hello?" I said again. "Is anyone-"

"Ya HA!"

I almost fell off the ramp leading up to the ship as someone leapt in front of me, sword drawn and pointing at my neck!

"Stay back, ye scurvy pirate!" I looked up at the person who was holding the sword. The first thing I noticed was the long plait of golden hair that wrapped around her body and across her waist as a belt. Atop her head was a big, triangular black hat with a picture of an orange cat sewn neatly onto the front. The rest of her clothes seemed to be colorful patches of cloth all stitched together. She looked at me with wild green eyes and wiggled the sword a bit more.

"Back, pirate!" she said. "Back, I say!"

I frowned. I wasn't about to be bullied by this strangely dressed person. "I'm not a pirate, and neither is he." I pointed at Abraham who was picking something out of his beard. I'm sure whatever it was wiggled tiny legs in the air.

"Hello!" he said cheerfully. "I like your sword. It's very sharp." He leaned over to me and whispered: "She's not a ghost. Ghosts don't like sharp swords."

The woman narrowed her eyes at me and then, after a second, lowered her sword. "Sorry, I thought you were someone else."

I rolled my eyes. "Who did you think I was?"

The woman shrugged. "My mother."

I frowned. "And who are you?" I asked.

"I am CAT DANGER!" she said, standing tall and proud. "For I have a fierce love of cats and I sometimes can cope with a bit of danger..." her voice trailed off. "Not too much, though." She thought about it. "Actually the less danger, the better. Heard of me?" She glanced down at me.

I shook my head. "Nope."

She sighed. "Most people haven't. Except for my mother, sadly. How can I help you?"

I grinned. It was time to put on the charm. "I need to hire your ship for...."

"To save the world!" Abraham chimed in.

"Yes," I said. "I need to...."

"It's very important!" Abraham waved his staff to add emphasis.

"Right," I agreed. "What I'm trying to say is...."

"DO YOU HAVE ANY BREAD?" Abraham asked, just as dramatically. I turned and gave him an angry stare. "What?" he looked at me. "I'm hungry."

"Shh." I said. I turned back to Cat. "I need, we need to hire your ship for a very important quest to...."

"Nope," Cat Danger said.

"Nope?" I replied. "But you haven't even heard what I am offering yet!"

"Still nope." Cat shrugged. "As you can see, my ship is a bit...how to put it?"

"In an awful state of repair? Un-sailable? A complete wreck?" Abraham offered.

Cat wrinkled her nose. "One of them would probably have been enough."

A thought popped into my head. "So what you're saying is, if it were fixed, you'd be glad to help me."

Cat thought about it. "Yes, I suppose so, but-"

"Deal!" I said, grabbing her hand and shaking it before she realized what was going on. "I will fix your ship and then you can help me save the world."

Cat looked down at our hands shaking and then back up at me. Her eyes narrowed. "I don't like it when people play me, girl."

"My name's Alex," I grinned. "Or as you'll later know me, partner!"

Cat rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She turned and walked back onto her ship. "You've got until tomorrow. If it isn't fixed by then, the Happy-Go-Lucky isn't going anywhere."

I frowned again. "Only one night? That's impossible!"

"Ugh," Cat rolled her eyes. "You sound just like my mother."

But you know what? I think I can fix it in one night! If I can, then we can all sail off to Scotty tomorrow morning! What Cat doesn't know is that she has just asked the best builder around to fix her ship. I mean, I've had to rebuild my house so many times, I could probably fix things in my sleep! I'm going to leave Abraham at the docks (he is apparently talking to some fish now) and I am going to run back up to my house and get some supplies. This ship is going to be fixed before you know it!

Eeee! I am so excited!

Thursday Morning (reeeally early) – Aboard the Happy-Go-Lucky – Mood: So...tired...

The sun is rising and.... Yawwwwwn... I've been up all night fixing the Happy-Go-Lucky. Abraham helped a bit too, but I soon found him lying on the deck, curled around the central mast and fast asleep. He gets points for trying. It took quite a few wooden planks to fix the hole in the hull of the ship, some iron bars to help strengthen the what? And I've just spent a long time patching up the sail with other blocks of wool from my sheep. It might be a bit more colorful now, but that doesn't matter too much, right? I think it looks better.

I'm taking a break now. I've just got to finish the ship's wheel with a few wooden sticks, and then I should be done. Cat hasn't left her Captain's Quarters all night to check on me, so I assume she is asleep too. When she wakes up, she is definitely going to say 'yes Alex, you are so great and smart and amazing and pretty, I will obviously help you on your quest just like we agreed because you are so smart and \- did I say pretty? Well, I shall say it again because it is so true. I have never met anyone else who is as perfect as you.'

Or something like that.

Abraham would agree with me if he was awake. Probably.

Did you know he sleeps with his eyes open? It's weird. He is snoring though, and no matter how much I wave a hand in front of his face, he doesn't react. Weird.

Thursday Morning – Aboard the Happy-Go-Lucky – Mood: Angry!

No matter how much I knock on her door, Cat isn't answering. To make things worse, when I went off the ship to get breakfast and came back, the rest of her crew must have returned from whatever they were up to last night. There are three of them, all men. The biggest of the three seems to be the size of a mountain, his head shaven and his face in a severe frown. The other two are twins, although one is dressed in black and the other is dressed in white. Apart from that, they are identical right down to the small wispy red beard that sticks out of their chins.

All three of them have gathered on the deck of the ship and have fallen asleep as well! I have tried nudging them, yelling at them and kicking them, but none of them seem to react to anything I do. Probably due to years of having to sleep on rainy and rough seas, they have gained the ability to sleep through anything.

They are all worse than Abraham! At least he woke up when I waved some freshly baked bread in front of his nose (he really likes bread, like, to an insane amount).

But nope, Cat and the rest of her crew are all fast asleep, ignoring the hard work I have done and delaying the quest! I need to get going as soon as possible! With every minute I am standing here, Scotty gets further and further away and I am closer and closer to being forever stuck with Abraham and his constant spraying of crumbs everywhere when he talks. I keep telling him to speak after he has swallowed his bread, but then he gets all grumpy and refuses to talk until he has picked every single crumb out of his beard.

Wow, I do sound like a mom, don't I?

What am I going to do?

Thursday Morning – Aboard the Happy-Go-Lucky – Mood: Sad :(

It's almost afternoon now, and it doesn't look like Cat and her crew are ever going to wake up. I've tried yelling at them, I've tried poking them with sticks, I've tried everything. They only grumbled a bit in their sleep, and now one of them has taken my stick and is hugging it like a teddy bear.

I've decided to give up. Quest over. I'll just wait here until Scotty gets back.

I guess now I know why I wasn't chosen to save the world.

Thursday Morning – Still on the ship – Mood: Plotting

I know I just said that I was giving up, but something happened. I was staring out into the sea, sure that there was nothing left to do but wait for Scotty to come back from his adventure, when Abraham sat down next to me, his old bones cracking and clicking. He took in a deep breath.

"Ahh, that fresh ocean air," he said. "Good for the lungs. For the hair too." He nodded knowledgeably.

We both sat and stared for a while. Then, after a pause, Abraham said, "So are we going after Scotty?"

I sighed. It was like he didn't pay attention to anything around him.

"We can't go anywhere," I said. "The crew is still asleep."

Abraham looked at the sleeping crew. "So?"

"So?" I frowned at him. "What do you mean by so?"

"Well," Abraham raised a hairy eyebrow thoughtfully. "We have a ship, fully repaired and ready to go, why don't we just get going?"

"Because the crew is asleep," I said again.

"And?" Abraham said. "Let them sleep. We can do the first bit."

My eyes widened as I suddenly realised what he was suggesting. He wanted us to steal the ship while the crew were still asleep. I thought about it. I don't really know how to pilot a ship, but surely the idea was just to point it in the right direction and let the ship do the rest? I mean, it'll be just like riding a horse, right? A big, wooden, floaty horse that doesn't need feeding. It might even be easier than riding a horse.

Anyway, I've decided that Abraham's idea is the best. We just need to get the ship out into the open sea and then we can wake the crew up (somehow) and be like, 'Hey, you promised to help us if we fixed your ship, well here it is, let's go!'

They won't be too angry, right?

Thursday Afternoon – Locked up in the Happy-Go-Lucky Brig – Mood: Embarrassed

Soooo...er...sailing a ship is a little harder than I thought. Also, turns out the ship's crew were angry. Oh boy were they angry. They do not like it when you sail their ship without them knowing.

I think they were over-reacting a bit.

Just a little.

Alright, maybe I didn't think this plan through completely.

Oh yeah, and I'm now locked up in the 'brig' under the deck of the ship with Abraham. It's basically a cell. It has thick iron bars that extend from the ceiling to the floor, so we aren't going anywhere any time soon. I should know, I tested the door to see if it would open. It wouldn't.

It's a bit annoying.

It was all going so well at first. I managed to sneak past the sleeping crew, get off the ship and untie it from the dock. It took a few tries to figure out the complex knot they had used, but I got there eventually. Next, I just had to get the sails were unfurled and make sure everything about our plan was going smoothly. It was simple stuff, and the crew didn't even twitch. The only problem was, once we were ready to go, the ship just kind of... sat there in the water. I turned the ship's wheel, I tried saying 'go, ship, go!', I even tried getting off the ship and pushing it, but no matter what, it wouldn't move. It was like the ship was being stubborn, refusing to go anywhere without its Captain's permission.

Abraham just kind of stared at me as I tried everything. He's always so helpful.

"What's the matter?" he asked as I tried running from one side of the ship to the other to make it move.

"It...isn't...moving...that's...the...matter!" I said, giving up on running. "I don't know how we are going to find Scotty at this rate."

"Oh," said Abraham. "Running from side to side of the ship isn't helpful."

"Well, if you know how to move a ship, be my guest!" I said. Little did I know these were the words that would kick Abraham into action.

"Oh, I can move a ship. Easy," he nodded. "I am a wizard after all."

I blinked. "You can?"

"Oh yes." He escorted me over to the wheel of the ship and said: "Hold onto that please."

He took up a position in the centre of the deck and raised his arms above his head. Abraham then lowered his arms, to scratch his chin and cleared his throat. "Hang on, let me just remember the magic words," he frowned.

I was sure that he was just going to yell nonsense, leaving us stuck in the same situation, but then he smiled.

"Ahh yes, a standard weather spell." He raised his arms again and said, in a booming voice that seemed to shake the very air around me:

I think that is how it's spelled anyway. It might have had a few more ¥'s in it.

That was when I realized that Abraham was a real wizard! He wasn't just some crazy old man who had turned up at my door and made a bunch of impossible claims. He was a real, actual magical person (who just happened to be a crazy old man as well)!

As soon as he had finished yelling his magical word, the wind suddenly picked up and started blowing furiously from behind us. My hair was whipped forward in front of me and for a while, I wasn't sure what was going on. Then I noticed that the ship was moving!

The wind was catching in the sail above us and blowing the ship out of the dock, towards the big, blue sea! I had to try and guide the ship as best I could, navigating around other ships and fishermen, but I was too busy laughing to hear the sounds of their screams and insulting words because we were on our way! We were going an on adventure to find Scotty!

By the time we reached the open ocean, I was really happy. I mean, it had worked. I never thought in a thousand years that it would actually work, and yet here we were on a ship, sailing in the sea.

As you have probably guessed already, that was where it all kind of fell apart. I shouted down at Abraham: "It worked! You're fantastic!" only to find that he had passed out on the ship deck and was now curled up like a little mouse, sucking his thumb and sleeping. I guess doing magic took a lot out of the guy.

To make things even worse (because it couldn't all go to plan, could it?) Nooooo. I felt the tip of a metallic blade touch lightly against my neck. I didn't turn to see who it was, because I could hear Cat Danger breathing angrily behind me.

"You stole my ship? My ship?" she snapped.

"Ow!" I said, flinching away from the sword. "I didn't steal your ship, I just got us started on our quest. You were busy sleeping and I...."

"You took my ship without permission!" she interrupted me. I'll admit, when she said it like that, it did sound a little like stealing. "There wasn't meant to be a journey! My ship isn't sea worthy!"

I turned to her, avoiding the tip of her sword. "It is sea worthy! Look around you!"

Cat looked around with narrowed eyes. The ship was floating quite happily on the sea. She frowned and then shook her head.

"We had an agreement," I said, trying to convince her.

"We had nothing! You just shook my hand!" she waved her sword in front of my face, in a limp, less convincing manner. I was getting to her.

"That's how you make an agreement," I said. "And now we are going to find Scotty."

"Who is Scotty?" she sneered. "Where are we even going? Do we have supplies? Food? Weapons?"

"Scotty left on the Angry Mermaid yesterday and...."

Cat threw back her head and laughed. "The Angry Mermaid? That ship that was going to explore the mysterious island on the far coast? That crew couldn't sail a rowboat. They are probably already lost."

I opened my mouth to reply, but Cat continued.

"...if we are at sea for weeks without food, we'll all die. Did you think of that?" Cat groaned. "You know what? No. I can tell you didn't. Sally, could you put her in the brig please? We have to turn this ship around and go back."

"No, you can't," I began, but then I felt Sally's huge arms wrap around me and lift me off my feet. This must have been the mountain of a crew member I saw earlier, sleeping on the deck.

"Sorry about this," he said in a surprisingly soft voice.

I wriggled and struggled, but Sally had a grip like iron. He also smelled like lavender, a surprising combination. He carried me and Abraham below deck and threw us in here, the ship's brig. He then apologized for being so rough and patted Abraham on the head with a big, meaty hand.

As he closed the metallic door to the cell, I looked him in the eye. "So you're the ship's muscle? The big, strong and scary guy?"

Sally shrugged. "I'm actually the cook. If you're ever out of here, I'll make you a mushroom stew that will fill your belly for hours!" He smiled widely and gave us both a thumbs-up.

"Er... thanks?" I said, as he clambered back up onto the deck. That was weird.

All I know is that it smells really bad down here. It's dark too! I can barely see anything. There are a few streams of light coming in from the trapdoor in the deck and I am using that to write this. But I can tell you one thing, the ship hasn't turned around yet. I don't know why, but we are still on the same course we set off on this morning.

Abraham is fast asleep. He is currently hugging a bucket and mumbling something about cheese. Come to think of it, I am a little bit hungry. I wonder if Cat does have any food on her ship? Surely she does. Who doesn't keep food on their ship?

I wonder if I can persuade her to bring me some.

Maybe if I ask really, really nicely?

Bored – Bored – Mood: Bored

I'm so bored.

This is boring.

I am bored.

Boooooooooored

Thursday Afternoon – Still locked up – Mood: Rhymes with 'floored'

Abraham has woken up. He decided the best way to pass the time would be to tell a story called 'The Man Who Dug Too Deep'.

It went a bit like this:

There once was a man who had a pickaxe and he thought it would be really smart to dig directly downwards to see how far he could go. He dug deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and-

I decided to interrupt at this point. "Deeper?"

"Don't interrupt!" Abraham snapped, then he lulled back into his 'storytelling mode'. "And deeper and deeper and..." he frowned. "I forgot where I was."

I sighed. Being in the brig was super boring, but listening to his stories was somehow making it even worse. "He was digging deeper?" I said.

"Yes!" Abraham's eyes widened. He looked at me suspiciously. "Have you heard this story before?"

"No, I just guessed."

"He dug deeper and deeper and it got darker and darker and darker until it was pitch black. Blacker than coal and even the darkest of nights. Then he realized...."

Abraham paused for effect (or maybe he just forgot for a second what he was talking about again, it could be either).

"-That he couldn't dig any deeper."

I blinked. "What, he dug through to the other side of the world?"

"No," Abraham frowned. "He reached bed rock. You can't dig through that without some very powerful magic, and even then it is not advisable."

I rolled my eyes. "He couldn't dig any further, so what? What happened next?"

Abraham shrugged. "Oh, he died horribly. The End."

"You can't just end a story like that!" I said. "That's awful!"

He shrugged. "And yet I did. And the morale of the story is: Never dig directly down or you will die horribly."

"You could have just told me that," I sighed, leaning against the wall.

Note to self: Don't let Abraham tell stories anymore.

Thursday Afternoon – Battering down the hatches – Mood: Scared

OK, I'm beginning to think that perhaps stealing a ship I didn't know how to control, then powering it by magic and hoping everything would work out, wasn't the best idea. A little while ago, the ship started swaying and rocking a lot more than your standard 'floating on water' sway. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the fact that my stomach was swaying and rocking too.

I think I started turning a little green.

"You!" Cat threw open the hatch from above deck and stumbled down the stairs, pointing at me accusingly. "What have you done?"

"Urk...me?" I burped. I swallowed and tried to speak again. "I haven't done any...urk...thing!"

"Then why can't we turn this ship around?" she pressed her face against the bars of our cell.

I blinked at her. "Urk," I replied. "I mean...what?" I turned towards Abraham. "Did your magic have any urk to do with this?" I closed my eyes again. Why wouldn't the ship stop rocking?

Cat looked at me suspiciously. "What do you mean' magic?'"

I pointed at Abraham. "He used magic to get the ship moving. He's a...urk...wizard."

Abraham's thick, hairy eyebrows lowered. "I am not an 'Urk' Wizard! They are no more powerful than a party magician! I am a full Wizard! I command the power of the elements in my pinky toe!"

Cat looked down at the old man sitting on the floor. "Really? You don't look like a Wizard."

Abraham looked very offended. "How dare you!" he said, standing up with the help of his staff. "I am the most wizardly wizard you'll ever know! You don't look like a Captain to me!"

Cat drew her sword. "You want to say that to my face, old man?"

Abraham laughed. "You wouldn't last a second in a fight against me! My magic is all-powerful! It will turn you into a-"

"Guys!" I shouted, then took a deep breath as my stomach growled unhappily. "This isn't the time to argue." I turned to Abraham. "Why can't she turn the ship around?"

Abraham spluttered and mumbled and said: "I don't know, I mean, it could be...perhaps...I'm not sure...I may have used a slightly too strong incantation and the wind might still be guiding us a little. It should die down soon and you will regain full control, I am sure. I think I said too many '¥'s."

"Well, it had better stop very soon!" Cat snapped. "Because we are heading right into the worst storm I have ever seen!"

"Urk!" I said, shocked.

She wasn't joking. Cat finally let us out so we could come back up onto the deck and see the damage we had done.

It was bad.

In the distance ahead of us was a large, black cloud, sparks of lightning reaching down to the water, and the rumble of distant thunder. I instantly wanted to be back below deck.

"That doesn't look good," I said.

"And I knew it was there," said Cat. "If we had waited just a few more hours, we could have avoided it completely, but here we are floating straight towards it because someone was too impatient."

She knew that there was a storm heading towards Heredock and had decided to stay inside a bit longer. It was my fault that we were heading towards it now and I had no idea what to do, so I did the only thing I could think of, I got angry.

"Well, maybe if someone wasn't so lazy, and busy trying to trick me into fixing her ship, we would have known! You know how many times I tried to wake you up?"

Abraham leaned over. "Probably not, she was fast asleep."

"Not helping, Abraham!" I shouted at him.

Cat leaned in close, her teeth bared in anger. She looked like she was about to explode, but then she took a breath and stepped back. "Well, we haven't got a choice now. We've got to prepare."

She turned towards the man dressed in white who stood at the wheel of the ship. "Bob!" she shouted. "I need you on full alert. Be ready for when those waves get too big. Try to slow us down as much as you can." Bob nodded. "Other Bob!" Cat turned to a man in black who was standing on the other side of the ship. "I need you to put the sails away. Start tying everything you can down to the deck. We don't want anything flying around when the wind starts blowing. You got that?"

The man dressed in black, also called Bob, apparently, nodded in almost the exact same way and then began to climb up the mast in the center of the ship. "Wizard," she said. "If your magic is so great, surely you can just blow this storm away?"

Abraham blushed. "Well, usually, yes, but after the spell I just cast, I still need to recharge and...."

Cat waved a hand at him. "Never mind. I'm going to need you to help out during the storm. Both of you." She looked at me now. "I don't know how much the Happy-Go-Lucky can take. If I give you an order, you will follow it immediately, without question, understood?"

Abraham and I looked at each other and gulped. We nodded silently and Cat went back to barking orders at her crew. Her face was set into a hard, determined line and it began to hit me how much danger we were in.

I think I would have preferred for her to shout at me.

What have we got ourselves into?

It's starting to rain now. The storm is beginning.

Wish us luck.

Friday? Morning? Afternoon?– Drying out... somewhere – Mood: Completely Lost

The storm wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Oh no.

It was much, much worse!

How much worse? Well, imagine the worst storm you can think of. Got it in your mind? Great, now multiply it by a Gazillion and add one.

Yeah. That bad.

It wasn't so bad to begin with. Sure, it was wet, each raindrop feeling like a little icy dagger against my face, and my hair got stuck to my face and kept going in my eyes, but it wasn't bad.

Cat shouted things like 'Batten down the hatches' and 'secure that rigging' and tons of other sea captain stuff that I didn't understand. Luckily though, her crew knew exactly what she meant, and if they needed help pulling on a rope, or tying a knot or fixing some wood, I was there to help out as best as I could. In fact, for a while, I even thought we had made it through the storm and it was clearing up. I was wrong. So, so wrong.

The ship started to wobble around in the water like an unsupervised toddler.

The waves started getting bigger.

The wind became so strong that even Cat's shouts were blown away into the sky.

The ship was soon a tiny blip surrounded by white, churning water that bombarded us from every side. I could taste the salt inside my mouth and it washed up my nose every time I tried to breathe in. Soon, I found myself just holding onto the side, sprayed with water from every angle and just screaming, hoping that the storm would end soon.

But it didn't. In fact, it got worse!

The wind was whipping at my hair and soon all everyone could do was just hold on. Cat grabbed onto my waist and shouted: "Secure yourself to the deck!" and handed me a rope. She then slid across the deck and out of sight.

"CAT!" I screamed after her, but it was fine. She managed to hold on to the mast with her hands and I saw her giving me a thumbs-up just as the next wave crashed down onto our heads.

All I needed to do now was hold on. Hold on and pray that this wasn't the end of our journey. I don't think I was praying hard enough. I used a gap between the waves to attach the lead to a nearby wooden post, but I couldn't finish in time. I looped the rope and was about to tie myself down when water crashed down on my head and the rope slipped from my hands!

That's when I realized the deck was rushing away beneath me, faster than anything I could possibly hope to hold on to. I saw Abraham holding onto the side, his old hand extended out for mine as I zoomed past like a bullet. He shouted something that was lost in the wind and chaos, and that's when I realized that I was overboard.

For a second, the world was dark and cold and deadly quiet. There was a strange peace under the water.

I saw a black squid swim harmlessly by, as if there wasn't the storm to end all storms battling over its head. I gave him an angry glare, but I don't think he noticed. He carried on his journey, ignoring me completely.

I began kicking and fighting against the water, trying to mimic the squid, but there was no way I was going to get to the surface. In fact, the more I fought, the deeper the water seemed to pull me. Soon the Happy-go-Lucky was nothing more than a speck against flashes of lightning in the distance. My lungs were burning and I knew if I didn't do something drastic soon, I would be in big trouble.

I kicked and I fought some more until finally, it took all my strength, but I burst out of the water. I took in a deep, deeeeep lungful of breath and let out a cheer, until I looked up.

The biggest, wildest-looking wave towered above me, and I knew that I was in trouble. I needed to figure out something to do.

But my mind could only think of one thing: "I hope Scotty is OK."

Then the water crashed down on my head and everything went black.

Of course, that isn't the end of the story. I'm not writing this journal as a ghost (although that would be awesome. I would definitely haunt Scotty).

Actually, I hope Scotty never reads this and finds out that my possible last thought was about him. He would get a really big head and start pretending like he is 'really important to me' or something.

He isn't, if you were wondering.

The thought just appeared in my head. A random thought. It could have just as easily been something like 'the cake is a lie' or 'I like cheese'. So Scotty, if you are reading this (but you shouldn't be, so put my journal down right now!) the thought was nothing. Totally random.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes, everything went black.

What happened next? I haven't got any idea, but it must have involved me floating a lot.

Then I woke up here.

Where is here?

No idea!

I opened my eyes, coughed up a lungful of water, and looked around to find that I was on a golden, sandy beach! It was so sunny and warm, as if storms had never been invented. When my eyes adjusted to the sunlight, I realized I was on some kind of tropical paradise! I found myself laughing out loud. I had survived!

At the top of the beach was a forest. It wasn't a normal forest like I was used to, back at home. The trees here made the trees from home look like babies in comparison. These trees rose high up into the air, reaching into the sky at heights I never thought possible. Their trunks were covered in thick, green vines, which, if the mood took me, I could probably climb up (looking at the sky and how it is turning orange, I may have to. Who knows what comes out here at night.) This wasn't an ordinary forest, oh no. This was a jungle.

I walked up to it and the air slowly grew heavy and thick around me. It was like someone had wrapped me in a thick blanket on a hot day. A layer of sweat began forming instantly, so I decided to stay on the beach.

That's where I am now! Sitting on the beach, taking in the remaining sun of the day, and trying not to think too hard about the fact that I am stranded on a jungle island with little to no chance of rescue.

I mean, I wanted an adventure, right?

Yay adventure!

If someone finds this journal next to my skeleton on the beach, know that I, Alex, lived an awesome life to the absolute max.

I miss my chickens a little.

Probably Friday, definitely night time – On top of a very high tree, trying not to look down – Mood: Wishing I hadn't sunbathed for so long!

I should have built a shelter. That's like Survival 101, and I completely forgot about it. Of course, it only occurs to me now that I am in incredible, horrifying danger! But next time I'm stranded on a desert island, I will definitely remember. Cross my heart.

It wasn't long before the sun set behind the clouds and the sounds of bird song from the jungle changed to the low, angry moan of zombies coming out of the trees and heading towards me! The green, rotting monsters stumbled down the beach, arms extended in the air in front of them, reaching out. I only had moments to escape.

I didn't waste my time. I went with my original plan: I ran towards the nearest tree and began climbing up the vines towards the top. I pulled myself up, hoping that they would hold my weight and, surprise surprise, they did! I began to climb and climb, pausing only briefly to turn and stick my tongue out at the zombies below. "Ner Ner!" I shouted at them. "You can't get me!"

There was no way they were going to climb up after me! Ha ha!

So now that is where I am. Sitting in the branches of a very high tree, in the dark, hoping that nothing is going to climb up here after me. I can hear the moans and groans of zombies below (there is a lot of them), but I think I'm safe.

I'm pretty sure.

I haven't really got any plans of becoming a zombie's dinner at this point. Actually, I don't think I ever will.

I'm going to use this time wisely and make a list of things I need to do to survive this island. You never know, I might be really good at this survival thing.

Survival list of Survival:

Find food! There must be some fruit or something around here somewhere. (Watermelon?) Maybe fishing?

Build a house. Mud hut will do at first, but then wooden house. Then castle if possible (Who doesn't like a castle? Optional: Inside pool?)

Make a flag. I might as well claim this island as my own while I am here. I will put stars on it or something, and I will call the island Alexonia. Or Alexville. Or maybe Alexton. Hmmm.

Come up with a cool name for the island. Those first three names were lame.

Find some way of signalling for help. A giant fire? Bottle with a message in it? Build a boat?

Write about my adventure, get a book deal and earn millions. Live a life of luxury.

Yeah, I think that is a good enough survival list. I think I can do it. You never know, I might not want to leave. Who cares about Scotty and his stupid adventure? He can go and have fun. I will have fun right here, thank you very much.

What was that?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Mood: Not good

Ok someone is firing arrows at me! I thought I was safe in this tree but I'm not! agh! I need to move right now!

It's dark – A cold and damp cave – Mood: Being very very quiet

I tried to jump from the tree I was in onto a nearby one, like a monkey, to try and confuse whoever was firing arrows at me. Unfortunately there were two problems with this:

1. I was very loud and they could easily hear me.

2. I am not a monkey.

Long story short: I didn't make it to the other tree. The branch I was aiming for was just out of my reach and I quickly tumbled back down to the ground. Luckily, I wasn't that high up, so I think I just got bruised a little. It still really hurt!

I didn't get to rest, because I had to start running again from all the zombies and, guess what, skeletons, armed with bows and arrows and spears!

This island is a pile of never ending fun and surprise. My plan for survival was quickly reduced to a 'crazy run for my life through the dark forest'. I soon learned that I am bad at running as well. Every rock, twig and root that I could possibly trip on I did, and it wasn't long before the monsters were catching up.

That's when I saw the cave I am currently hiding in.

I know, a creepy, dark cave isn't much of an improvement on a creepy, dark forest, but I think I've managed to lose the monsters by hiding behind a large rock. If I can stay quiet enough, they might just leave me alone.

I'm going to peek over the rock.

Yes, I can see them now. They are looking for me, but they don't know where I am. Ha! I am a stealth master.

I could be a ninja. When I get off this island, I'm going make some cool ninja swords as a present to myself for being so awesome.

Yes, I've changed my mind. I don't want to stay on this island if it is filled with monsters! Sure, my home was infested with monsters too, but at least I had a comfy bed back there that I could sleep in while the monsters were prowling around - not a smelly cave that hurts my knees. This place is the worst. And I think I just stepped in something. Eww.

As soon as morning comes, I am going to gather as much wood and food as I can, build a boat, and just row myself out into the sea. I don't care what is out there. Storms? Sea Monsters? Bring it on.

Wait...can you hear something?

It sounds like a kind of hissing.

Reminds me a bit of a....

Oh no!

Still night time – Back on the beach - Mood: Lonely.

Today is not my day.

Scotty made up a stupid rhyme once. It went like this: A creeper's no fun, you've got to run.

For once, he was right about something (it doesn't happen very often, although the rhyme is rubbish). When I heard the sound in that cave, I knew that it wasn't going to be any fun. It sounded like this:

The classic hissing sound of a creeper. I barely managed to dive behind the rock I had used to hide from the other monsters before it exploded, blowing my hiding place sky high!

Creepers just ruin everything. The explosion made my ears ring as if I was trapped inside a bell. I just kept my head down, closed my eyes, and hoped that in the hot air that blasted all around me, my hair wasn't singed off.

What? My hair is very important.

When I finally returned to my senses, I knew I had to get moving. Instead of the comforting (ish) shelter of the cave, I could now see the silvery sparkle of moonlight from the sky above me. The creeper had blown the roof clean off!

That noise would have drawn every monster in the forest towards me. I decided that I had had enough of the forest. I was going to go back to the beach. If worst came to worst, I could swim out to sea and wait in the water until morning. Maybe that would be enough to hold them back.

I couldn't go back the way I had come, though. It was filled with monsters. Zombies, skeletons, spiders, creepers, you name it, they were all closing in on my position. I was terrified. I turned and I began to run as fast as I could deeper into the island. If I could find a cave or something to help me hide or climb up and out of their reach, I would be happy.

Uuuuuugh

Zombies weren't just behind me. They were all around me as well!

For the briefest of seconds, I was sure that this was the end. I was unprepared, I had no weapons, no food. In fact the only thing I could say I had was a tan from lying in the sun earlier, and that would probably turn into a sunburn. I was doomed. Doooooomed!

At least I still had my hair.

Luckily, however, the island wasn't as deserted as I thought I was.

It began as a rustling above me. I turned, scared that a monster was about to fall on my head (even more so when a black figure jumped out of the trees, landing nearby). But, as my eyes adjusted in the darkness, I realized the dark figure wore a three-pointed hat and was holding a sword in front of her. Two more figures leaped down beside her, one dressed in black, one as large as a mountain. They all had swords.

"Ah ha!" Cat said. "We found you!"

"Cat!" I cried. "How did you...."

"The explosion," Cat grinned. "Only you could cause chaos like that. Oh, watch out!"

She swiped her sword down next to me and knocked back a zombie that had gotten too close. My chances of escaping alive suddenly skyrocketed.

"Stay behind me," Sally smiled, rubbing my hair with a huge hand.

My saviours surrounded me in a protective triangle, swiping and stabbing at anything that got too close. Slowly, we began to move through the forest in what I assumed to be the direction of the beach and the Happy-Go-Lucky. But then I heard it again.

Another one?

Cat shoved me into the trees shouting: "Run, as fast as you can!"

So I ran. The explosion shook the forest around me a few seconds later, and I turned back. All I could see was rubble and smoke... and then monsters. Lots of monsters.

I remembered Cat's orders and began to run again, blinking the tears from my eyes. There was a feeling in my chest, a constricting feeling of panic, a feeling that told me that if I stopped running, I was doomed. So I ran and I ran, and even when I felt tired, I kept on running.

I leaped over roots, I ducked under branches and I shoved my way through anything that stood between me and the ship. I was running on blind terror and I thought I would be running forever.

And what about Cat, Bob and Sally? Had they managed to get away from the explosion? Had they spent their last moments saving me, useless Alex who couldn't even survive one night in the forest?

I wanted to turn around and fight the monsters. Fight my way back to the clearing where Cat and her crew fought for me, find out what happened.

Find out if I was alone again.

I didn't want to be alone.

But I couldn't. I was too scared, and my legs kept running and running until the forest opened up onto a white, sandy beach with the sea reaching out into the horizon.

With one final glance back into the forest I finally began to slow. I was all alone on the beach.

I didn't stop until I was sure that the monsters weren't chasing after me any more. I sat down on a rock and I haven't moved since. I think I can see the sky turning orange in the distance now, the sun rising for another day.

At least that means an end to the monsters. For the moment.

I guess I need to find the ship.

Morning– Walking along the beach – Mood: Really wish I had something for breakfast.

I've found a ship! I can see it in the distance. I have been walking for a long time, so I'm taking a break before I get there.

I guess I am delaying having to tell Other Bob and Abraham that we are the only ones left. That is, assuming they didn't get lost on the island as well.

I don't want to think about it. The ship looks damaged. Like, really damaged. I guess that storm took a chunk out of it! Everything I fixed on the dock looks like it needs fixing again. I hope I can find enough materials to do it. We definitely have plenty of wood. I think...

Actually, that doesn't look like the Happy-Go-Lucky at all, now that I think about it.

What ship is that?

Morning – At the ruined ship – Mood: Shocked, horrified, scared, hungry, tired and scared. Wait, I already said scared. Terrified.

After last night, I don't think I am ever going to be able to sleep again. Ever.

I don't need sleep anyway.

Yaaaawwwwwn.

That wasn't because I am sleepy. It's because I am bored.

I am tough.

Anyway, I've found this ship. When I first saw it in the distance, I was sure that it was the Happy-Go-Lucky but as I got closer I began to notice that something was a bit off. To begin with, it was a lot bigger. Like, almost twice the size, no, three times. Hmm. Two and a half times.

It's bigger, anyway.

Yaaaaaawn. What? A yawn? No, that was all your imagination.

As the wooden hull of the unknown ship towered over me, I noticed it was leaning on its side on the sandy beach, and looking very sorry for itself. It was in a terrible state, worse than the Happy-Go-Lucky when I first saw it. This ship had clearly taken a severe beating in the storm. Holes and cracks littered the wooden blocks that formed the ship, and a big, deep gash that looked like a burn mark scorched its deck. It must have been struck by lightning or something, because it looked bad.

It also looked really, really comfy. Did you know that wooden blocks make good pillows? I didn't, until right now. What was I writing about?

Oh yeah.

The mast of the ship, usually a large wooden pole that rose up from the center of the deck, was snapped in half, leaning over the edge towards the sea, like a broken bone. In fact, the only part that didn't seem to have taken any damage at all was the figurehead, a wooden woman attached to the front of the ship with her arms folded, an angry scowl on her face, and a fish tail instead of legs.

Next to her, slightly damaged, were the words: The angry mermaid

It was a HUGE discovery! No, no, not the bad spelling, I mean the fact that this ship is the Angry Mermaid. The exact ship that Scotty set off in from Heredock. It's the one I was looking for!

When I first realized this, I was torn between horror and joy. It meant that Scotty was somewhere on this island, and I was close to finding him - which is awesome!

But it also meant that... Scotty was somewhere on this island. The dangerous island of doom filled with monsters and horrifying things. To top that, this ship doesn't look like it is going anywhere soon. I'm not sure if it will go anywhere ever again, in fact.

I looked all over it. The excitement that sparked in my chest at the thought of bumping into Scotty was crushed, because the ship was abandoned. None of the crew seemed to be on board. They have left it here to rot on the beach, hopefully to try and find somewhere safer.

Unless they didn't make it to the island...

I don't want to think about that.

I've made another discovery, which has caused a lump to form in my throat and remain there. It was a small piece of turquoise cloth, torn off against one of the broken planks of wood.

Turquoise.

The colour of Scotty's favorite t-shirt. I think it looks stupid, but that isn't the point right now.

I slowly peeled it off the deck and whispered: "Oh Scotty, what are you up to?"

I kind of feel bad for the Angry Mermaid. It clearly didn't want to be seen like this. It looks very upset. Well, not the actual mermaid. She is just staring out at the island angrily, like it's an insult to everything she believes in.

I can't blame her. I feel the same way.

So, now I am sat by this wreck and trying to figure out what to do. Should I go back into the jungle and try to find Cat? Or should I keep going along the island and try and find the Happy-Go-Lucky?

These hard choices are making me feel really... really slee...

Morning – Back on the Happy-Go-Lucky – Mood: Foooooooooooood!

Big news! The good type this time! I was sitting by the ruined ship (wide awake, obviously), staring at the piece of cloth and feeling sorry for myself, when a familiar voice rose behind me.

"That's a nice looking piece of cloth. Amazing what you can do with a good piece of cloth."

I looked up and grinned. Standing next to me, as if he had never left my side, was Abraham, the old wizard, leaning on his staff.

I stood up and threw my arms around his neck. "Abraham!" I shouted happily. I instantly regretted it. His beard tickled my neck, and he smelled really weird. Like something you would find under your bed after a few years, which may or may not have originally been food. I pulled back quickly. Abraham looked a little shocked by it all, his eyes open wide.

"This was Scotty's," I said. "He is somewhere on this island. I know it."

A grin spread across Abraham's face. "Then we shall find him and our quest shall be complete!" He punched the air and then frowned, examining his nails. "I don't remember that being there," he mumbled.

I've got to admit, I've missed the old guy and his goldfish-like attention span.

"Scotty? Why does that name sound familiar?" My eyes widened and I spun around. It was a voice I had never thought I would hear again. It was Cat!

She sauntered around the hull of the Angry Mermaid, staring up at it with a frown, as if last night had just been some kind of crazy dream.

But her torn clothing, the cuts on her arms and her slight limp told a different story. Sally and Bob walked behind her, not quite as casual, glancing towards the jungle with nervous eyes.

I ran over to her and hugged her as well.

"You're alive!" I grinned. "I can't believe you're alive!"

"Ack! Aaack!" Cat said as I accidentally crushed her throat with my shoulder. I pulled back.

"Sorry."

She coughed a bit and straightened out her collar. "Yes, well, it will take more than a few monsters to kill Cat Danger!" She lifted her sword into the air and the blade fell off its hilt, hitting the floor with a soft clang. She looked at the broken sword in her hand and sighed. "Well, there were a lot of monsters." She looked up at the Angry Mermaid and shook her head. "This is nasty. I wouldn't wish that on any ship. I hope the crew made it off OK."

I nodded. "I know they did."

It turns out that the Happy-Go-Lucky wasn't that far away from the Angry Mermaid. If I had just walked around the corner, I would have found it tucked away in a small cove. Now I can finally get some rest.

I think I can hear Sally making some food. He is singing.

I love that guy.

Morning – The Happy-Go-Lucky – Mood: Back to adventure. Yay?

Wow, I must have needed more sleep than I thought. I could probably have slept for a year if I hadn't been shaken awake by Bob, who found me curled up in a corner on the deck! He pointed towards the wooden table that had been set up on deck and grunted.

I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and stood up. Everyone was sitting around the table, and a small feast made from fruits of the jungle was laid out on top of it!

My stomach rumbled. I needed to eat!

It turns out getting chased by monsters and nearly dying really works up your appetite. Luckily, we had Sally on board who could apparently make a meal out of anything. He hummed and sang as he placed plates of food in front of us with his thick, trunk-like arms. Then he skipped off below deck with surprising grace to go and get more food. As I stuffed my face, Cat told me what happened after I had fallen overboard.

The Happy-Go-Lucky also took a beating in the storm, but it managed to survive quite well. Luckily, Cat deftly brought the ship into a cove, which served as a natural dock, with a path onto the beach. The Happy-Go-Lucky can float here while repairs are being made, using the wood from the island. There aren't even that many repairs needed, in fact, and we could almost leave right away if we wanted.

That was how the argument started.

"We could sail away from this evil island right now," Cat said, spraying crumbs from her bread everywhere. "We nearly died last night trying to save you, and you want to go back?"

"It's daytime now!" I said, spraying crumbs back at her. "The monsters aren't around! We can find Scotty, the reason I came here in the first place!"

Sally placed some more tasty food in between us as we continued to argue. That guy can cook!

"Yeah, well, I never wanted to come here, and I've got to think of the safety of my crew first. As captain, I say we go back," Cat said, shoving some watermelon into her mouth.

"Fine," I snapped, breaking a carrot in two and chomping down on it. "Go back, see if I care. But you're leaving me here, then." Obviously, I did care if she left me here. I mean, how was I going to cope without Cat around? I wasn't going to tell her that, though. No. I secretly hoped she would change her mind.

Instead, she said:

"OK. Bye bye, then."

I sat and stared at her open-mouthed. She was just going to abandon me here!

"I will be staying as well," Abraham said. "For my quest is to find the light bringer, he who will save the day, he who..."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," I grumbled.

It looks like I am going to be stuck on the island with old man Abraham. The guy who talks to walls. That will be really handy when the monsters come out at night. After we had finished our meal, Sally packed us some small provisions and we stepped off the ship. Cat stood and crossed her arms on deck, watching us go.

I waved at her as we stepped off the ship, but she turned away. I guess we are on our own now.

Monday- In the jungle – Mood: Too hot!!!

Guess what! We had barely taken a few steps into the jungle when Cat came running out after us!

I was shocked, but she rolled her eyes and said, "I didn't think you would actually go out by yourselves. You are crazy."

"So...you're going to help us?" I grinned.

"One day," she said with a serious face. "You have one day to explore the island, while my crew re-stock for the journey home, and then we leave, got it?"

I hugged her again and she pushed me away. "It's too hot for hugs," she said. "But I know I'm great. The greatest, in fact."

"You are alright," Abraham said.

Cat glared at him and I tried not to laugh. Those two are best friends. I know it.

Together, we pushed off into the jungle. I knew that we were on the right path to find Scotty.

What I didn't realize is that we were also on the path to hot, sweaty, uncomfortable jungle land of hot sweaty uncomfortableness. The air felt heavier in the jungle, and sticky. Bugs flew around my head and I tried to swat them away, but there were always one hundred more to take the place of the ones I knocked off. It was horrible. Each step demanded the same effort as a thousand steps at home, and for a brief moment, I missed the cool terror of the night. It felt like I couldn't breathe. It was like being in the desert, but surrounded by thousands of plants. It made no sense!

I felt really sorry for Abraham in his big robe. I asked him why he didn't wear something cooler, and he just replied:

"A Wizard is never hot. He is always precisely what he needs to be."

That's probably why he smells so bad.

We've stopped for a break by a little stream. The cold water is amazing.

Wait... what is that sound?

Monday - In the jungle – Mood: We've made a friend!

You know what is worse than spiders?

Giant spiders!

You know what is worse than that? Nothing. Giant spiders are the worst!

It was almost as if they knew that we would take a break by that stream. It must have been their hunting ground, because as soon as we settled down to rest, they came out of the trees above us, clicking and crawling their way down the branches. Cat drew her sword and told us to stay behind her, but she was too slow. The nearest (and ugliest) spider squirted webbing all around her, tying her up until she fell to the ground, cursing. Abraham stood in front of me and began to say a magic word:

Then he paused and frowned. "Wait...no, that spell just makes me slee.." and he flopped to the ground and started snoring. My eyes widened as I noticed that I was the only one left standing as spiders crawled down the trees around me.

"Er," I said. "Nice...spiders?"

Yeah, that was going to work. Red eyes stared at me and a mouth full of sharp teeth opened and hissed. It didn't seem like a nice way to go. I backed up as much as I could into the stream. That's when I heard it.

A scream!

But it wasn't an ordinary scream of horror because we were all about to be devoured by spiders. No, this was a squeal of happiness, of excitement, of joy. I stopped backing up when I felt something soft and fluffy behind me.

I turned. It was a...cat?

The squeal of happiness came from the one person who loved cats: Cat Danger.

This wasn't an ordinary cat, either. No, this cat was about twice the size of a normal cat and it stared intently at the spiders. There was a pause as both cat and spider pondered what to do, and Cat squeaked, "It's so fluffy! I want to touch it! Alex, cut me free! Do it now!"

I wasn't going to move. I didn't know if this giant cat was a friend or if it wanted to share me with the spider. Luckily, I quickly found out.

The spider twitched. It was about to attack, but the cat reacted first. It pounced into the air, claws extended, and landed on the spider!

The spider let out a hissing squeal, which made the other spiders scurry back up the trees in fear. The cat played with the spider for a while, biting at it and scratching it, until that spider too retreated up the tree to escape the feline jaws.

That, of course, was when Abraham sat back up and said, "I'm awake!" He looked around. The cat looked back at him with a confused expression. "Cat?" he asked. "When did you turn into an ocelot?"

The cat licked its paw in response.

It was crazy.

Monday - Back at the Happy-Go-Lucky – Mood: Bad times

I've just seen something I never thought I would see. What is it? Cat Danger giggling. The ocelot seems to have taken as much of a liking to Cat as she did to it, and for a while, after I set her free from the spider's web, she just sat and stroked the yellow and brown fur of the big ocelot as it purred and rubbed against her.

All the time she was doing it, she said things like, "Oh, you are so cute! Yes you are! Yes you are!" and "Who's my biddy widdy cutie booty?"

It was...strange. Creepy. Very unlike the Captain Cat Danger that I had come to know.

Me and Abraham just watched in horror as she rolled around on the floor with the cat for a while and then, finally, she looked up and noticed us.

"Having fun?" I asked.

Cat quickly got up and brushed herself down, putting on a serious face. "If either of you tell anyone that I am like this around cats, I will stab you with my sword and then drop you in the ocean. Got it?"

I looked at Abraham and he looked at me. We both nodded, trying not to smile. Cat narrowed her eyes and continued to stroke the cat on its head.

We were about to continue into the jungle when we heard a distant sound, back where we had come from.

Cat looked up and her eyes flashed with recognition. "The Happy-Go-Lucky!" she cried and then set off in a sprint back the way we had come! The ocelot, seemingly interested, ran after her.

"Wait!" I shouted, but it was too late. Cat was running back from the spot we had taken over half the day to get to.

I knew that our search was over. The sky was already turning orange in the sunset, and I knew that we would have to wait until morning if we turned back now, but there was no way to make Cat stop running.

By the time we got back to the Happy-Go-Lucky, the damage was already done. We all looked on in horror as the Happy-Go-Lucky took on water from the brand new hole in its hull. We jumped in and dragged the ship as close as we could to the beach. Soon, it stood leaning slightly on the sand, just like the Angry Mermaid. It was a horrible thing to see.

Cat stared at her ship, her ocelot at her side, shaking her head.

"Cat," I said. "I'm really sorry. If I'd had known, I would never have...!"

Cat raised a finger, silencing me. "I don't blame you, Alex," she said quietly. "It was a creeper. A cursed creeper. I hate those things."

"I hate them too," I agreed.

She took a deep breath. "I guess you have your wish," she said with a bitter smile.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We're stuck on this island for a little bit longer," she said. "I guess we'll have time to find Scotty tomorrow. Tonight, we rest."

And with that, she boarded the ship and slammed the door closed to her captain's quarters. Everyone standing outside the room was speechless. The ocelot, as if it was a perfectly natural thing to do, curled up outside the door and promptly fell asleep.

Abraham stood next to me and frowned. "These are dark times," he said. "Dark times indeed."

She's been in there for a few hours. At one point, Sally got the courage to knock on the door and offer her some food. Tonight's special was a strange looking fish he had caught. Cat opened the door, took the fish, dropped some down for the ocelot and then slammed the door closed again.

It is dark now, and we are all huddled up on the deck of the ship, listening to the groans and moans of monsters in the forest. I don't think Cat plans on coming out any time soon. Probably a wise decision! I wouldn't want to come out here. It is creepy.

I don't think I am going to get any sleep tonight.

Tuesday Morning – A New Day – Mood: Sleepy

Weirdly, the first person to wake up today was Cat! She strolled onto the deck while we were all asleep, stamped her foot on the floor and shouted, "Wake up, wake up! It's a beautiful day and we are wasting daylight!"

Being the closest to her stamping feet, I sat up quickly, thinking something was wrong, and instantly regretted it. She was right. It was a beautiful day. The sun was up and bright, shining on everything. It was horrible.

"Ugh," I groaned. "Someone needs to turn off the light."

Cat tapped me on the head, and turned to Abraham. "Wizard, can your fancy magic fix my ship?"

Abraham blinked at her through tired eyes. "I... yaaawn... I'm unable to cast any significant magic. Something on this island is blocking my spells. Something... dark." He looked accusingly at the island and then turned back to us. "Then again, I could just be overtired. I am over five hundred years old, you know, all this running around is terrible for my knees."

At first I was shocked. Five hundred years old? How could someone be that old? But then I looked at his wrinkled face and, you know what? He does look five hundred years old.

Cat, however, didn't seem that affected. She rolled her eyes and turned to the rest of her crew. "Alright then. Crew?" Sally, Bob and Other Bob got up in a flash and snapped to attention. They stood in a straight line, ready to receive their orders. Sally even saluted, until Bob pulled down his arm and shook his head. Sally flushed with embarrassment.

"You are going to return my ship to the beauty that it once was, you understand me? I'm going with the girl and the old man and we are going to find her friend. When we get back, I want this ship ready to sail us out of this forsaken place. Understand?"

"Yes Cap'n!" her crew shouted, and they scurried around the deck, finding jobs to do. Cat nodded as they got to work and walked over to me.

"Right," she said. "This time, we are going into the jungle with a plan. We aren't just going to run around and hope for the best."

I nodded. "Sounds good. What do you have in mind?"

Cat squinted in the sunlight and looked at the island. "There," she said, pointing towards the jungle. "That tree."

I turned to look. In the distance, one tree stood taller than the rest, up on a little hill. Nothing seemed that special about it. "What about the tree?" I asked.

"You're going to climb it."

"Me?" I said. "Climb a tree?" I looked back to the tree. It looked big from where we were standing now.

"Yes, you," she said. "I might like danger, but I don't like heights, and Abraham looks like he would fall asleep halfway up."

Abraham looked like he was about to protest, but then nodded. "That is more likely than you would think," he agreed.

So I guess I'm climbing the tree. We are gathering stuff and are about to head out. I keep looking at the tree and...I know this sounds silly, but...I think it got larger since I last looked. That can't be true, right?

Trees don't grow that fast.

Do they? No, of course not.

I'm sure it will be fine.

Maybe I can make up an excuse not to do it once we get there?

Tuesday Morning – On top of the world! – Mood: Exhilarated!

You'll never guess where I am writing this from. The top of the tree! I know, I climbed a tree last night, but it was nothing compared to this beast! This tree must be ancient. The trunk alone was thicker than any other I have seen, and when we stood at the bottom and looked up, it towered over us like a giant who is tall for its age!

Cat, stroking the ocelot (it had of course come with us), laughed at my poor excuses not to climb the tree. She didn't believe that I had twisted my ankle. She shook her head when I said that my tummy hurt, and tapped the top of her sword when I told her that maybe the tree didn't want to be climbed. So I had to suck it up, grab hold of the nearest vine, and climb.

I'm really glad I did.

The view up here is amazing. I feel like I can see to the end of the world, in every direction! The wind is cool and refreshing, and I could stay here forever. The leaves and branches are actually quite comfy if you give them a chance.

The most obvious thing I can see on this island is trees. Trees and trees and trees and more trees. It's very green. I can't really see anything that...

Wait. What's that? Something sticking out of the top of the trees in the distance. It looks like...a stone structure of some kind! I can't really make it out, but that might be worth checking out. It could be, I don't know, a temple or something? All I know is that it means there might be people on the island, and they might be able to help us find Scotty.

Better than nothing, right?

Looks like we have a destination! I'd better climb down and tell the others. Woah, it's a long way down, isn't it? I think I feel a bit dizzy.

Woaaaah.

No, I'm OK. I'm OK. Not a problem.

Tuesday Morning – Not ok – Mood: Not ok at all

Climbing down a tree is a lot harder than climbing up! Everything was going fine, I was holding onto the vines, gently putting my feet into places that I thought could hold my weight, when I heard Cat shout from the bottom of the tree, "Come on, lazy bones! We haven't got all day!"

I turned to shout something back, something rude and really awesome that would put her in her place, but I found myself staring right down to the ground again. The far, far away ground. The tree started to spin and I closed my eyes. No, it was my head spinning, not the tree. I tried to keep climbing down with my eyes closed, but as I rushed, I forgot to check where I was putting my foot and slipped! Before I knew it, I was hanging by one hand, clinging onto a vine and hoping it would hold my weight as it swung around in the air.

It didn't hold my weight. Bad vine.

It started with a creeeeeeeeeaaaak. Then there was a crack snap crack snap. I silently wished I hadn't eaten so much for dinner last night, because next came a CRUNCH! The vine broke from the tree and all of a sudden I was falling through the air towards the ground screaming my lungs out! I thought I heard Cat and Abraham shouting as I fell, trying to catch me, but I knew it was too late. I was going to hit the ground and would become Alex jelly. I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable.

I was surprised. Death, it turned out, was a lot like falling into an icy cold river.

But then it turned out I wasn't dead. I had in fact fallen from the tree into an icy cold river (who would have guessed?)!

I was so surprised, I accidentally breathed in a lungful of water before I tried to kick my way to the surface. It was tough, because this wasn't a calm, sedate river. This one was flowing quickly through the jungle, and I felt myself being dragged along with the current. Even when I managed to surface, I was still dragged along and any attempt to hold onto a stone or the edge was met with failure. Then, the water disappeared and I was falling again!

Down and down and down I tumbled, until I hit even more water. Except this time it was dark and quiet. I easily kicked to the surface, and looked around.

I wasn't in the jungle anymore.

Above me, a shaft of light shone down from the waterfall that had thrown me into a large, blue underground lake. I treaded water for a while, trying to figure out what to do, when I heard a voice from above me.

"Hellooooo?" It was Cat. She looked so small, peering down the hole up in the cavern ceiling. She waved at me.

I coughed and spluttered. "I fell out of the tree!" I said.

"We noticed!" Cat replied. "You fell into a big hole too. Pretty dumb thing to do."

"I didn't exactly plan for this to happen," I groaned. "Can you help me out?"

Cat looked around. "It's a pretty deep hole. Try to see if you can follow the river underground. It has got to come out somewhere."

I frowned. "Does it?"

Cat shrugged. "Probably. We'll try and meet you at the other end!"

"Wait!" I shouted, but Cat had already disappeared.

So I'm stuck underground, alone. Fantastic. It's cold and dark down here. Adventures are the worst. I'd better get moving.

Tuesday ??? - Still underground – Mood: Grumpy

So, good news: I've managed to make a torch out of some coal and sticks I found, so I have some light and am not stumbling around in the dark. Hurray!

This tunnel with the river seems to go on for aaaaages. I've stopped now to try and dry out a little bit, and sulk. I mean, why did I have to fall underground? Why couldn't it have been Abraham with all his magic powers? He probably would have loved it down here. There are so many rocks he could be talking to.

That's all the scenery I have down here. Grey rock, grey rock and...oh look, a grey rock! The never-ending excitement of the underground. I always wondered why Scotty liked mining so much. It doesn't seem that great.

If I'd had just ignored Abraham and Scotty, if I had stayed at home, here is all the cool things I could be doing right now:

Not being underground.

Being completely dry

Eating cake

Playing with my sheep.

Not being chased by monsters.

Not being in the dark.

Not hearing ominous noises behind me.

Wait...what is that noise behind me?

Oh no. I'm going to have to run again, aren't I?

Who even knows what day it is anymore – Mood: Had enough!

Monsters. There are monsters in the dark. Of course there are monsters in the dark. They are terrifying and they are everywhere. It's like they are just spawning here. I guess we know now where the monsters go in the daylight. Right here! Where I am! And I have to run as fast as I can!

Obviously I'm not running right now. I am too busy writing things. Where am I? Well, I've managed to find a little ledge that is just high enough to be out of the reach of the monsters. So I'm catching my breath, with the monsters standing below me and looking up at me hungrily. Yeah, you would like to eat me, wouldn't you, monsters? Well, that isn't going to happen! Not if I have anything to say about it!

I could be in bed right now.

I could be anywhere else.

Anywhere else with no monsters. How great would that be? But no. Here I am, huddled on the ledge, and my journal has only just dried out.

Huh, there's an idea. I could just swim out of here. The river isn't that far away. I could probably jump into it from this ledge. I could jump and then let the water carry me calmly out of this underground hole, like a princess. Yes, that sounds like a very good plan.

I think I'd make a great princess.

Sorry journal, but you are about to get very, very wet again. I'll try and keep you safe. Here goes nothing.

Tuesday Afternoon – Soaking wet by the river – Mood: I'm free!

I've learned that I would make a terrible princess. Instead of being carried sedately, I was tossed and turned and spun around like a squirrel trying to play football against a team of rhinos! Soon, I lost all sense of what was up and what was down.

I occasionally popped out of the water, just long enough to gasp in a lungful of breath before I was dragged back down again. Being a princess is hard.

Finally, the water began to slow and I managed to fight my way to the surface. I took a deep breath and bobbed out of the water, happy to see sunlight in the distance! I smiled and sighed. Finally, I would be away from the monsters and darkness, and out of trouble. My plan had been perfect...ish.

Yeah. Like it would be that easy.

I heard a strange sound. It sounded like a distant hissing, like someone was letting air out of a balloon in another room. I frowned and looked around. What could it be? Where was it coming from?

It was only as I got closer to the hole in the wall that I realized that there wasn't any land on the other side. It was just air.

I sighed. "Another waterfall? How many of these are there?" The path alongside the water had long run out, so I knew what was going to happen. I was going to go over the edge.

This was the previous waterfall's big brother.

It was his very, very big brother, standing on stilts on top of a very tall building. By that, I mean it was a very, very, very, extremely large waterfall. I saw this just as I toppled over the edge and began to fall.

"Oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" I shouted as I fell down towards the water at the bottom.

It was a long, long fall. For a brief minute, I swore I could even see my house, although that could have been unrelenting terror playing tricks in front of my eyes. Luckily, the pool at the bottom of the waterfall was deeeeeeep. So when I hit it, I kept going down for a while into the murky darkness, with a loud...

I sank down and down, the light fading above me. I blinked a few times. I was alive. Still alive! I grinned and began to kick my feet to get myself to the surface again.

I broke the surface of the water with a loud "Whoop!" and lifted my arms in the air. "Who is amazing at surviving? I am!" I shouted.

I have now climbed out of the pool and am looking for a good place to dry off, so I can wait for Abraham and Cat, who I probably overtook in my crazy underground river extravaganza (which is totally what I am going to call it from now on!). Ahhh, I love the sunlight.

I'm feeling good. I don't think I need to worry about anything else for a while.

Tuesday – In trouble – Mood: Realizing I spoke too soon

Of course it all went wrong. It would all go wrong, wouldn't it? Although this time, it wasn't monsters or water or darkness or getting lost. No, this time, it was people.

Yeah! Other people! I didn't even notice them at first. I was just minding my own business by the river, as you do.

Tuesday – In trouble – Mood: Realizing I spoke too soon

Of course it all went wrong. It would all go wrong, wouldn't it? Although this time, it wasn't monsters or water or darkness or getting lost. No, this time it was people.

Yeah! Other people! I didn't even notice them at first. I was just minding my own business by the river, as you do, relaxing and trying not to think about scary monsters or anything bad. I was waiting for Cat and Abraham to arrive when a voice rose behind me.

"Raise your arms and stand up. Slowly." The first thing I noticed about the voice was that I had no idea who it was. All I knew was that it was male and sounded slightly older than me. Unless Abraham had suddenly gotten a lot younger (to be fair, that could probably happen with him), it was someone I did not know.

Also, they were poking what felt like the pointed tip of an arrow into my back. I decided very quickly that it would be better not to argue, and slowly raised my hands and stood up. As I looked across to the other side of the river, I saw that this strange man, whoever he was, was not alone. In fact, he was far from alone. There were at least ten more people with him, each armed with bows and arrows or swords, surrounding me. They were all wearing clothes made out of leaves and twigs, as if they were trying to blend in with the forest around them. Considering I hadn't really seen them until right now, it was clearly working.

I looked at them, terror rising in my stomach, and I tried to say the bravest thing I could think of at that moment.

"Hi?" I said. Yes, I realize this probably wasn't the best or most heroic thing to say, but it is hard to come up with good ideas when you have an arrow poking you in the back.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the man asked. I heard the bowstring creak as he pulled it back slightly. Rude.

But I also heard a slight waver in his voice. Was he scared? What did he have to be scared of? His buddies all had weapons pointed at me, and they were all the protection you needed in this forest. My fear gave way to pure stubbornness.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" I asked right back.

There was a pause as they looked at each other in confusion. The man behind me coughed uncomfortably.

"What?" He looked around at his friends. The nearest one shrugged. "No, I asked you first. You have to answer," he told me.

"No, I don't," I replied, getting more confident with each passing second. "You are being incredibly rude, sneaking up behind a person and poking them in the back with an arrow. I don't have to do anything you say." I grinned to myself.

The arrow poked me in the back again. It hurt! My smiled dropped away instantly.

"Don't let her mess you around, Trevor," came a woman's voice. "She's trying to get in your head."

"Yeah," said the man, apparently called Trevor. "Stop messing me around."

"Are you from the Angry Mermaid?" I asked.

Voices rose among the other members of the party. "How did you know that?" Trevor snapped suddenly.

"Shh!" the woman said. "He didn't mean that," she said to me now. "You don't know anything."

I blinked. Really? These were the brave crew that Scotty sailed here with? No wonder the boat was left ruined on the shore. I guess Cat's description of them wasn't too far off.

"Is Scotty with you?" I asked, suddenly getting excited. "Scotty, are you there?" I looked around at the faces of the people who were standing around me. No sign of Scotty.

"Quiet!" snapped Trevor again. "You'll draw the monsters towards us!"

"Let's just bring her with us," whispered the woman. "Cap'n might want to talk to her."

"But-" Trevor began, but changed his mind. "Alright then." The arrowed poked me again. "Girl, start walking. We're going back to our base."

That's what we began to do. I was escorted through the jungle by a bunch of well-armed, very nervous sailors towards their base. As we left, I took one last glance back at the end of the river, where I had said I would meet Abraham and Cat, silently praying that they were somewhere close, listening to it all, and that they would be able to follow us.

Somehow, I doubt that they were.

We've stopped for a break now. I've found out that the woman who was ordering Trevor about is called Kelly. Trevor is the first mate of the Angry Mermaid, but Kelly seems to be the one in charge. She's a tall woman with blue, messy hair that never seems to go where she wants it to. She keeps brushing it out of her face, but it just springs back into place. Very strange.

They are looking at me weirdly now. What do they want?

Tuesday – In the jungul – Mood: Happee to be going home – Trevor's diary

I do not like this jungul. I miss being on the ship. Evryfing mayd sense there. The gurl we fownd had this book on her and wuz riting in it. It is myne now. Kelly sed I can keep it becuz books will not help us in the jungul.

The gurl is angree becuz we took her book. It is my book now I hav told her but she sez 'no it is myne!' but she is our prizuner so she cant hav it bak.

We hav had a gud day 2day. We hav fowd lots of food to bring bak to the camp. Kelly sez that we will eat well tonyte. That is gud becuz I am hungree.

Tuwsday – At camp – Mood: Grumpee

Kelly sez that i hav too put the prizuner girl into the cage. I do not lyk to put prizuners in the cage becuz the other laydee in there is mean. Shee tryd to hit me last tyme and called me mean names. Kelly is telling me to stop riting in this book and get on with it.

Kelly can be mean sumtymes too.

Tuesday Evening – Locked in a cage – Mood: Annoyed, but glad to have my journal back!

There is nothing worse than someone stealing your journal and writing in it!

Alright, yes, being trapped in a cage on an island filled with monsters is pretty bad too, I guess, but they took my journal!!!! I mean, this is an important and personal document of my life. You aren't allowed to read it without permission, and Trevor went and started writing his own entries in it!

Wow, his spelling is bad. I feel a bit sorry for him, though. It looks like Kelly pushes him around a little bit.

Also, Cat may have tried to punch him in the face.

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention: Cat and Abraham are here! I know, crazy right? What are the odds?

As I was forced across the camp at arrow point, I saw a bunch of metallic cages set up in the corner, and Cat and Abraham were locked inside! Unsurprisingly, they were furious.

"Do you know who I am?" roared Abraham. "I am Abraham, Great Wizard of the Forest, Elder of the Magic Council, Savior of the Diamond Realm, Juggler of Eggs, Maker of Slightly Burned Cakes, Quite-handy-with-a-Spade and you have locked me in a cage! How dare you!"

"Yeah!" shouted Cat. "And I'm Cat!" There was a pause. "That didn't sound as impressive, but you can't hold us in here!"

It turns out they were captured long before I made it out of the cave, and they've been locked in cages since. They thought I was doomed to wander the underground forever. Abraham even made a little doll of me, out of sticks, and he was planning on holding a little funeral for me. That's...er...nice, I guess?

The annoying people are refusing to let us out until the 'captain returns'. Who knows when that will be - they won't tell us anything.

I should probably tell you about their camp, though. First off, I was completely right about that strange structure. The crew of the Angry Mermaid seem to have made their camp right at the bottom of it. It's a small camp, hastily made, whose main purpose is to keep the monsters at bay while they sleep. Most of the items they built are made out of wood they have gathered from the jungle. Beds seem to be piles of leaves. In fact, the most well made thing in the camp is probably our cells, which are made with iron bars. Cat seems to think they were taken right out of the Angry Mermaid's wreck.

Aren't we lucky?

It doesn't look like we are going anywhere any time soon. This is going to get boring. I can tell.

Tuesday Evening – Still in the camp – Mood: Nervous (it's getting dark)

The sun is setting. The sun is setting and we are still in the jungle. I can't help but feel this is a bad place to be when it gets dark. I can see that I am not the only one thinking that. Our captors seemed to be getting even more nervous. They are making sure their weapons are ready and in the best condition they can be in, but it is still easy to see that nerves are a little on edge.

Cat thinks this is the perfect time to try and escape. She has managed to bribe Abraham into trying some magic, and we are getting ready to run as soon as it gets dark. I mean, it isn't the perfect plan, but anything is better than being stuck inside a metallic cage, isn't it? OK, we are ready to make our move now.

Tuesday – A strange development – Mood: Uncomfortable

It didn't exactly go to plan. To begin with, Abraham tried to cast a spell and all he managed to do was summon a cooked salmon into Cat's lap. She wasn't super annoyed, as she was quite hungry and it smelled great, but it didn't help us out in any other way.

Then, Kelly came up to us. She sauntered over to the cages like she was the boss of the world, and looked us all dead in the eye. "Now, you're going to tell us what you're doing on this island or bad things are going to happen."

"What kind of bad things?" Cat asked.

Kelly blinked. We could all tell that she probably hadn't thought this through completely. Finally she narrowed her eyes and said, "Bad, bad things."

"I...see," Cat said. She glanced at me and I shrugged.

"We're looking for Scotty," I said. "We don't want to harm you or any of your people. In fact, we have a ship and we can probably take you all home."

"I never agreed to that!" Cat snapped.

Kelly narrowed her eyes and looked between us. "You have a ship? I'll have to tell the Captain."

"That's fine!" I said. "Tell the captain! Is he here right now? I'll tell him, where is he?" The thought of finally being able to talk to the captain was great. I mean, my legs were starting to cramp from the uncomfortable cell floor.

"If you let us out, we can help with the monsters," Cat suggested.

Kelly snorted at that. "No one can help us," she said. "Do you know how many monsters we have had to fight over the last few days? There are thousands of them! They are endless. All we can do is wait here until...."

Kelly stopped herself before she gave it all away.

"Until?" I asked, leaning against the cage.

"Until nothing," she said quickly. "You heard nothing. I know nothing!"

"You know," said Cat, "as Captain of the Happy-Go-Lucky, I demand to be able to speak to your captain. It is terrible that I am being mistreated here and...."

Kelly stamped her foot. "Fine," she snapped, brushing her blue hair out of her eyes only for it to bounce back to where it was. "Captain Shaw is...well...he's missing."

"Missing?" I asked. I flopped to the ground. We were never getting out.

"Well, we know where he is," she said. "We just don't know how to get to him."

"He's in the Temple," Abraham suddenly interrupted.

Kelly's eyes widened. "How did you know that?" She looked up at the Temple rising among the trees behind us. We all turned to follow her gaze. The sun slowly set behind the hills, and the darkness spread across the island. The temple looked even more ominous in the light of the torches set up by the crew. "He's in there," she said quietly. "And so is your friend Scotty. We've been ordered not to go in after them. So we'll all wait here until they come back."

"That's fine," I said. "I'll go."

Cat frowned. "You can't. We've been ordered."

"No, you've been ordered. I am completely free to do what I want," I smirked.

"And so will I," said Cat.

The sound of moaning zombies began to fill our ears as they poured out of the forest around us. Kelly stamped her foot in frustration and rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said. "You've got three hours. If you aren't out by then, we are going to march back to your ship and take it by force."

"Great," I said.

"And the old guy stays here to make sure you don't try and trick us," Kelly said.

"Wonderful," said Abraham, stroking his beard. "I much prefer the fresh air."

Cat and I both sighed.

Tuesday Night – Outside the Temple front doors – Mood: Freaked out

We are preparing to go into the temple now. I was a little bit nervous, until some of sailors gave Cat and I a cool sword each. I tested mine out in the air a few times. Nothing can hurt you when you have a sword, right? I am beginning to see why Scotty likes them so much!

Swish! Swish! I hurt my arm playing with the sword.

Note to self: Always stretch and warm up before you start swinging swords around.

Why are swords so heavy?

Tuesday Night – Going into the Temple now – Mood: I think I'm shaking

Well, that's great. As soon as we said goodbye to Abraham, he had to get his 'freaky old man' on and reveal everything. I was just planning on waving goodbye to him, but he gave me a surprise hug and then whispered into my ear.

"Alex, be careful. I can feel Scotty's presence in there, but I can also feel a darkness beyond compare. Watch your step, for there may be traps waiting for you and if you forget everything else remember this: Do not enter the portal!"

He then pulled away and looked me in the eye. "Remember my advice, Alex."

What kind of terrifying advice is that?

How about a 'good luck Alex, you'll be fine I'm sure, oh and you are looking really pretty today!'

But nooooo, he had to dial the creepiness up to over 9000!

Tuesday Night – Inside the Temple – Mood: Not at all scared. Nope. I am fine. Totally fine...

We are inside the temple. I haven't been turned into a frog, or exploded, or dropped down a hole or anything yet, so that's OK, but it's still pretty crazy in here.

None of the Angry Mermaid crew wanted to get too close to the temple. They all thought it was cursed, and that whoever went in there would never come out. They were still perfectly happy to send us inside though. Isn't that nice? Still, they were focused on fighting back the monsters that were coming to the camp, so it was just me and Cat standing alone on the first level of the temple, in the darkness. I heard Cat fumbling with something. She muttered a quiet curse and then a torch flared to life on a nearby wall.

"There we go," she grinned. "Let's go and get cursed then, eh?" Cat nudged me with her elbow and winked.

She was far too cheery. I didn't like it.

The temple was made of stone, but it smelled old. The cobblestone walls had cracks filled with green, damp moss, giving them a slimy and gross texture. I poked it once and regretted it instantly, rubbing my hand on my pants, and then looked around some more. In this room, there was a central staircase going downwards, and two smaller staircases either side going up.

I looked at Cat. "Up or down?" I asked.

Cat frowned. "I've heard stories about these jungle temples," she said.

"Nice, happy stories where everyone has a great time and comes away laughing, maybe with a magical unicorn who grants wishes?" I asked hopefully. She looked at me and shook her head. Of course it wouldn't be a happy story. And why did stories never have wish-granting unicorns, in them, huh?

So uncool.

"I say we go up first and then we go down, agree?" Cat asked, holding her sword out in front of her.

I held my sword out too, although I think it is broken because it kept shaking in my hand! I nodded, swallowing my fear, and stepped onto the first step leading upwards. I closed my eyes and waited. Nothing happened.

"What are you doing?" Cat asked, already half way up the stairs.

"I don't know, I suppose I'm waiting for the whole place to explode or something," I mumbled. "Abraham mentioned there would be traps."

"Why would everything explode? I think the stairs are OK," Cat said, continuing upwards.

I guess I over-reacted a little bit. I blame Abraham with his scary warnings. We are now upstairs, and actually, everything is fine. I'm not even kidding. There is nothing up here, except for some windows that we can look out of and see the trees in the jungle. Cat, I think, was a little disappointed: she's looking out the window right now and mumbling to herself. If downstairs is like this, I don't think this temple is going to be a problem at all!

Temple Tuesday! – Under the Temple – Mood: I don't like Temples anymore

Downstairs was a little more eventful than upstairs! To begin with, it was a lot darker. We could hear a strange tapping sound as we descended. It sounded like this: Tap tap tap.

Cat turned to me and whispered: "Is that you?" Tap tap tap.

"No," I whispered back. "Why are we whispering?" Tap tap tap.

"I don't know." Tap tap tap. "It just seems like the right thing to do."

As Cat lit up the area, we found out that we were in a small corridor. Off to our right, the corridor turned a corner. To our left, it stopped. On the wall to our left, three levers hung suspiciously, each asking to be pulled. I reached up to touch the closest one and Cat slapped my hand away.

"Ow!" I said.

"Don't touch!" she snapped. "You have no idea what could happen."

I couldn't argue with that (although she didn't have to slap me). I felt heat flush up to my face as I rubbed my hand better. I just wanted to know what would happen, and as a result, I could have doomed us all. I am so smart sometimes.

I was a little more careful after that, which was good because as we turned the corner in the temple, it was my turn to stop her by grabbing her shoulders.

"Wait!" I shouted. We both froze in place, Cat's foot hovering just above the offending thing that I could just about make out on the floor beneath us.

"What is it?" she hissed.

"Look down," I said. We peered down at the floor. Just beneath her foot, almost invisible, was what looked like a small, black line. Cat frowned and gently brought her foot back, bending down slightly to look at the line closely. She let out a slow breath and then patted me on the shoulder.

"Well done, Alex," she said. "Well done." She meant it. It turns out she almost stepped on a tripwire! It was an old kind of trap, but if she had stepped on it, an arrow would have flown out of the wall opposite and hurt her! As we both gently stepped over it and made our way to the end of the corridor, Cat brushed away some vines on the wall to reveal a small circular hole. She nodded. "This is where the arrows would have fired from. It would have really hurt," Cat grinned, patting me on the back again.

We found one more trip wire in the final room and beyond that, a chest!

Cat's eyes lit up when she saw it. She knelt down next to it and stroked the side. "Do you know what this is, Alex?" she whispered. "Treasure!" It was like she had found something she had been searching for her entire life. She began to open the chest, and I squeaked. What if there was another trap? What if it caused water to pour from the walls or fire to pop out the floor or...

The chest opened. Nothing happened, except that Cat groaned.

"It's empty!" she said.

That's right. The treasure chest was completely empty! I guess Scotty and Captain Shaw came in here before and took everything, which makes sense. We still haven't found them, though, and we are running out of time. We've explored this place from top to bottom now, but where could they be? And what is that tapping noise?!

Still Tuesday I think – The Levers – Mood: Confused

Cat thinks that the answer is to do with the levers that she told me not to touch. We are sitting by them now, and trying to figure them out. I am terrible at puzzles. I mean, which one should we pull? Cat hasn't got a clue either.

A magical unicorn would be so handy right about now.

There are three of them, how are we supposed to...

Actually, you know what? I've just had an idea.

Tuesday Night – Back at the Camp! – Mood: Scared

We managed to solve the lever puzzle! You know that tapping? Tap, tap tap? Well, I came up with an idea. What if the tapping wasn't water dripping somewhere, or just the strange noises of an old temple? What if it was someone trying to communicate?

Yeah, it sounds a bit crazy, I know, but hear me out. There were three taps and three levers. What if someone was telling us to pull the third lever first? I told my idea to Cat, and this is how she responded:

"Ha ha ha ha! That's crazy! How do you even think of things like that?"

I love how supportive she is.

She said that we just needed to 'figure things out', but it was clear that we had no idea, so I did something a bit crazy: I pulled the lever.

Cat let out a shriek as we heard movement somewhere within the wall. Then it stopped, and we waited.

Nothing happened. The tapping began again, but now it went Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

It was a lot slower. I was right! "It must mean 'one', the first lever this time!" I grinned. I was really pleased with myself. I mean, figuring out ancient puzzles wasn't one of my strengths until today. I went to reach for the first lever, and Cat smacked my hand away.

"Nuh uh," she said. "If we're going to die horribly, I am going to be the one responsible." I didn't know how to feel about that, but before I could reply, she reached up to the lever and pulled it down. There was a clunk.

We both paused and waited. "Well," said Cat after a moment. "That was very...."

I didn't hear the rest of what she had to say, because there was a thick, scraping sound of stone against stone. Dust fell from the ceiling, causing us to cough and back away from the wall behind us. I expected to hit a wall, but found myself falling backwards, down a staircase through a hole that had opened up.

I hit the first step with a thump, but before I could fall any further, a hand caught me and stopped me from moving. I lay on the ground and looked down into the room below that had just opened up. A few torches lit up the large, square room, and a strange humming noise came from inside it. I frowned and tried to focus, and realized that the noise came from a big, black rectangle standing upright in the center of the room, a purple, pulsating light coming from within. I tried to look at it further, but a voice came from above me.

"I can't believe that worked!"

I looked up to see a man, dressed in torn, messy clothes, with a big black beard. He grinned madly at me and then helped me to my feet.

"Captain Shaw?" Cat asked, peering through the hole that I had fallen through. "Is that you?"

"It is!" Captain Shaw said. "But we don't have time for introductions. We need to get out right now before-"

There was some kind of scream inside the room. It wasn't a human scream. It sounded high-pitched, almost like some kind of animal. It sounded angry. My blood turned to ice as I looked down into the room and something black with a pair of purple eyes stared back at me.

"Run!" shouted Shaw.

He dragged me out by the arm and pushed up the lever. The hole began to seal up again, but not before there was a 'POP' sound and the purple eyes appeared again... right by the hole. They stared at me as the stone scraped closed and I found myself frozen to the spot.

"What was that?" Cat asked, horrified.

Shaw shook his head. "Not here. Let's go outside."

We are back in the camp now. I can't stop thinking about the monster with the purple eyes. What was it? Shaw is too busy talking to his crew to tell us anything, but Abraham sat down next to me and looked at me with serious eyes.

"You saw it," he said. "We aren't safe here."

Then he wandered off. What does he mean?

Tuesday Night – Chaos around the Camp – Mood: Angry

Things are going crazy here at the camp. The monsters are endless. I thought there were a lot when I was in the jungle, but there seem to be even more here! Cat has joined the fight, taking up her sword and slashing anything that gets too close. The limited defences that were built around the camp are not as great as they were at the start of the night. I don't know how much longer we can stay here.

I tried to get Captain Shaw to tell me where Scotty went. At first he looked at me sadly, and then he mumbled: "Scotty is gone."

"What do you mean gone?" I snapped. "What have you done to him?!" I grabbed Shaw by the front of his shirt and apparently the rest of his crew didn't like that. I soon found a bunch of swords pointing at me.

Shaw raised his hands and the swords lowered. "I saw him walk into the purple mist underneath the temple. We thought it was a portal to somewhere, but he never came back."

"Purple mist?" Abraham asked, his eyes wide. "You let the light bringer enter the portal? But that means that he is in the...."

But Abraham didn't go any further than that because we heard a scream from behind us. Just like the scream from that thing inside the temple, but this time, it was outside.

Abraham turned to look towards the temple. "An Enderman!" he shouted. "Everyone! Look out!"

He pointed at the top of the temple where a black figure with purple eyes was standing. There was something strange about it. This man was tall, taller than anyone I knew, and thin as a stick. He was all out of proportion with his large head and the purple eyes that looked down at us, filled with hate.

Shaw stepped back. "Oh no! It escaped! But how?"

The Enderman disappeared! We looked around, but it was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is it?" said Shaw, nervously.

"It will be back," Abraham said. "It is defending the portal. We need to keep a lookout for...."

The Enderman was back, but this time he was on the outside of the camp. A few of the crew who were standing guard backed up nervously only for him to POP away again. A creeper stood in his place.

We threw ourselves to the ground. I heard shouts, but the world was a blur and my ears were ringing. I pushed myself to my feet and tried to figure out what was going on. I looked up.

I was staring right into a pair of purple eyes. There was a loud scream. I brought my hands up in front of my face, not sure what to do or how to protect myself from this monster, when another figure pounced into view, knocking the Enderman away!

I blinked a few times. It was Cat's Ocelot! It swiped a sharp claw at the Enderman and hissed.

The Enderman disappeared again.

"Alex! Are you alright?" Cat was by my side, helping me to stand. "That creeper explosion was close."

"I don't..." I struggled to form words. Creepers are the worst. Cat guided me back to the entrance of the temple, where the hurt crew members were being treated. Abraham was standing there as well, leaning heavily on his staff.

"Alex," he said to me. "The monsters, they are drawn to the Nether portal, that thing you saw in the temple. If we don't destroy it, we shall be overrun."

I blinked at him, slowly understanding the meaning behind his words. "But..." I said. "Scotty! The light bringer, the whatever you said! He is in there."

Abraham shook his head. "He is lost to us for now. But we can bring him back, just not here. Now we need to save as many people as we can."

He then made me sit down, and someone started wrapping a bandage around my head. Apparently I was hurt. But all I can think about is Scotty. And how are we going to destroy a portal?

Wednesday Morning – After the Chaos – Mood: Determined

I figured it out. I know how to destroy the portal and save everyone. Everyone...except Scotty. It was pretty simple really, and as soon as I thought of it, I stood up and ran to find Captain Shaw and Cat who were fighting off zombies at the breach in the defences.

Swish went Cat's sword, and a zombie went flying backwards.

Swoosh went Shaw's sword, and a skeleton collapsed into pieces.

Together they fought like a well-oiled machine, dancing around each other, jumping and stabbing when needed. It was pretty awesome.

"Cat!" I shouted over the chaos. "I know what to do!"

Cat kicked away a zombie and looked at me. "Yeah?"

"Let the creepers in!" I said.

Cat spun away, fighting another monster, and Shaw turned back to me. He frowned. "I think you've bumped your head too hard," he said and then pirouetted back, spinning Cat back towards me.

"We need to destroy the portal, and who is the best at destroying things? Creepers!" I said. "We just need to get one in the temple and let it do its magic!"

Cat thought about it. "That...actually isn't a terrible idea," she nodded. "I like your kind of crazy, girl!" she grinned.

And that was the plan. The same way the creepers had destroyed my house, I was now going to get them to destroy the temple. Everyone was called to the back of the camp and began to move behind the temple, away from the monsters coming in that direction.

Cat and I were the last ones left. She said, "OK, Alex, you go too, I can handle it from here."

"Nope," I said with a smile. "It's my turn to be the hero for a change. I've caused enough trouble for you."

Cat frowned at me, and then smiled, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Have fun then," she said. "I'll see you on the other side."

Then she ran off around the back of the temple, and I looked at a thousand monsters coming towards me.

I know, it was crazy. But hey, I'm really good at getting creepers to blow things up. So that's what I did.

I ran into the temple. Somehow it didn't seem so bad this time, the quiet was less eerie and more peaceful. I looked back at the door and saw the first monsters coming in. A creeper and a zombie. I backed up the stairs. "Come on," I said. "Nice monsters, yeah you like it in here, don't you?" More creepers and zombies and skeletons and spiders crawled in. I swallowed. I could do this. Everything was fine. I was backing up the stairs when I heard it.

"Oh, no," I whispered. Slowly I turned. It was right behind me. I could smell its rancid breath on my face as it looked down at me and, ever so slowly, opened its mouth, larger and larger, until it looked like it could swallow me whole. I was trapped between a horde of monsters and an angry Enderman, and all I could think of saying was: "Nice Enderman?" Worst. Final words. Ever.

Luckily, they weren't my final words. The Enderman suddenly toppled forward, falling down the stairs into the approaching horde! I stared, wide-eyed, and then noticed the arrow in its back!

"You're all clear, kid!" shouted Cat's voice from outside the temple. "Now let's blow this thing and go home!"

The creepers began.

I didn't need to think twice. I ran up the stairs and jumped out of the nearest window of the temple.

Apparently, it was a really impressive explosion. I don't remember much because I was being launched halfway across the jungle in fiery awesomeness. What can I say? Go big or go home, right?

I woke up, apparently much later, on the Happy-Go-Lucky, Sally's face peering over me. "Oh goody!" he squeaked. "She's awake, Cap'n!"

I blinked and sat up. I was in the brig again. Cat leaned against the open door to the cell. "Sorry," she grinned. "Only place we had available. Ship's a bit full, as you've probably guessed."

I looked outside the cell. The crew of the Angry Mermaid was moving around, doing odd jobs here and there, fixing up the ship.

"What..." I began.

Cat shook her head. "Don't worry, everyone is safe."

"Except Scotty," came a booming voice nearby. Abraham stepped out of the darkness of the cell and looked at me. "It seems you and I still have a quest to complete."

I flopped back down on the bed. "Scotty," I groaned. "Why do you always make my life difficult?"

"There are other Nether Portals, opening all over the world," Abraham said. "We must find them, close them, and, maybe, if we are lucky, we will find Scotty in the process."

"What is the Nether?" I asked. "Why are they opening everywhere?"

Cat shook her head. "Those are questions for another day. You just focus on getting better. We'll let you rest."

And with that, they left me alone on the bed. Sally made a cake to cheer me up, but I can't help but feel that this is far from over. I'm going to find Scotty. Even if it's the last thing I do.

But, hey, this cake isn't going to eat itself so...I guess, goodbye. For now.

Thank you for reading Where's Scotty?

If you liked it, could you please do me a huge favour and leave a review?

Thanks heaps!!!!

Cat Crafter

Where's Scotty – Book 2 – Out NOW!

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