How to Be an Adventurer

I patted Fearless' soft head. He nuzzled my hand and gave it a dry lick.

"I know. I'm thirsty, too." And hungry. And tired. He nuzzled my hand again.

"Alright here," I opened my water bottle, the last few sips, and gave some to Fearless. He lapped up what he could and I took the rest.

"Well now we're gonna have to run to Bea's 'cause that was the last of it," I huffed. Fearless let out a groan. I ignored him and we started running. Bea's house was a couple of miles away. I ventured into the Silent Forest today to pick some apples for Bea's homemade pie. Dough was hard to get and cost a lot of money. Bea finally got some more and asked me to pick apples. I had a basket filled and Fearless was trying to eat them.

"No! Not until Bea makes her pie!" I shook my finger at his nose. After around an hour of running, the Library came into view.

"Bea!" I called. "I got them!"

The old women, about eighty years old, appeared in the doorway. This library was here before the New Millennium came. Bea's parents owned it, and she said pets were never allowed before Fearless, Brain, and Danger. But they were an exception. They were because they were ours.

"Well well took you long enough. And look! You're all exhausted! Well at least the apples are intact," Bea shook her head. "Come in, everyone's waiting."

In the cafe in the Library Warren, Patrick, Julian, and Rosario were sitting on pillows, waiting for me and Fearless. Brain was lying against Patrick and Danger was staring out the window.

"Apples!" Warren grinned. His two front teeth were missing from where he fell yesterday.

"Yes, delicious, ripe apples ready for pie. Apples Tabitha almost died of heat exhaustion for," Bea took the apples behind the counter.

"Died?" Warren gasped.

"Not died," I reassured him.

"Yea," Rosario laughed. Nothing can kill our Tabs."

"Not even monsters?" Warren asked.

"Yep!" II patted his head Like I did to Fearless. Warren was the youngest of us, he was only eight. Patrick was the oldest, but his mind troubles made him seem like Warren's age. I was ten---or eleven? I forget---and Julian and Rosario were thirteen. I didn't know how old Danger was, but I knew he was old. Fearless was only four, but he acted like he was experienced. Brain was still a puppy, only two years old.

"Does anybody want to help an old woman make pie?" Bea asked us.

"I'll help Bea," Julian got up. I walked to where the books were with Fearless following. The Library had everything. Some books were hundreds of years old while some of them were only ten years before the New Millennium. My favorite book was the one about the girl and her dad who could read themselves in and out of books. I wish I could do that. I would read us into the book about the girl who falls in love with a sparkling vampire, or the one about the boy with magical powers and the lightening bolt shape scar. Any where other then here. Here where guards shoot at you, where the monsters hurt you, or where the shadows erase you.

"Tabby!" Warren appeared behind me. He was holding Patrick's wrist and Brain had followed them. "Read us a story please?"

"Which one?" I asked.

"The one about the boy who doesn't grow up. I don't wanna grow up and neither does Patrick!" He pulled the book off the shelf. He knew where was even though he didn't know how to read. None of the boys did. Very few people did, and they were mostly the government or the rich people in their big houses in the big city. I knew how to read because Bea taught me. When she was a kid, everyone knew how to read because it was a necessity. But then again, when Bea was a kid, the world was a brighter, happier place.

"Yes. Come, lets go to the cafe," I started walking back. The boys and the dogs followed. When we got back, I waited until the pie was ready to be eaten. When it was passed around I opened the book.

"All children, except one, grow up," I started. "They soon know that they will grow up, andthe way Wendy knew was this ..."