CHAPTER SEVEN
Oliver woke first, his head still on the desk. He looked at Elliott, asleep next to him and thought, maybe she didn’t notice that we fell asleep. He quickly raised his head to appear to be paying attention, but noticed that the classroom was different. None of the kids were seated at their desks and the room was empty. The chalkboard had been erased and all the chairs were neatly pushed under each desk.
He whispered to Elliott, “Brother wake up.”
Elliott slowly opened his eyes and pulled his head up. He was confused looking around the room. When he tried to stand, he noticed a problem- his hands and feet were tied to the chair! Oliver’s hands were also tied, which made him panick, and he rocked back-and-forth yelling, “Brother, what’s going on?!”
The shrill voice of the teacher spoke from behind them, “I’ll tell you what’s going on.” The sound of her voice caused both boys to freeze in place. They were frightened.
She continued, “You two broke one of the strict rules-,” she moved around from behind
them and stood directly in front of the boys’ desk, “children must always be attentive to lesson. If children are not properly indoctrinated, there will be no other option than to send them to the
Island of the Beast.”
Oliver’s eyes grew even wider from behind his glasses. “That sounds bad,” he muttered
aloud.
“Oh it is bad,” she replied, a slight grin growing on her face. “It’s a punishment reserved for those children who are perpetually curious.”
Elliott pleaded, attempting to persuade the teacher, “We’re sorry. We are not used to being
here and the air is hard to breathe and we-”
“Silence!” the teacher interrupted. She paused before continuing. “Since you two are new
here and are not accustomed to the rules, I shall grant you a second chance. You are tied to the chair so that you will have the privilege of completing the lesson. Once complete, then you may return to the others.”
Elliott and Oliver were relieved somewhat and remained silent and still as the teacher moved to the chalkboard and began the lesson over. She spoke as if talking to the entire class of children, though it were only the brothers in the class at the time. She spoke about symbols that related to words and phrases, most of which did not make any sense to Elliott and Oliver, but they listened intently regardless.
Oliver had a particularly hard time keeping still and paying attention to the lecture. He would look away and pull his hands and feet at the ties. His emotions flared and he would grunt and huff when it was too much for him. At each sound, the teacher would pause the lecture and stare at him before starting again where she left off.
Elliott knew his brother was on the verge of being triggered and, if that were to happen, the Teacher would surely put them in whatever Confinement was that she spoke of earlier.
"Oliver," Elliott whispered to his brother, "try to calm down, breethe."
Oliver struggled, it was extremely difficult for him to keep his emotions from overtaking him being bound and confronted by the Teacher. He was even sweating from the strain. It was the hardest moment he had dealt with since coming to the Cloud Islands. After a couple of hours of the teacher speaking in monotone about what seemed to be the same thing over-and-over, only pausing to stare at Oliver when he could not help but make a noise, she stopped abruptly and moved to behind the boys. With a simple motion in which the boys didn’t see, the ropes restraining them came loose and fell to the floor.
“You may go,” the teacher said in a low voice, almost like a growl.
​
The boys waisted no time jumping from the chairs and running out of the school doors. They both almost tripped and fell, running down the steep hill that led back to the clearing and the big circle of tents. They stopped just before the area where the other children had been playing ball-kick and both brothers bent over and rested their arms on their knees, panting and wheezing in the thin air.
Elliott glanced up to see all the children staring at the brothers. Their eyes were all wide and it was apparent that they all wanted to ask the brothers something but were afraid to. Oliver paid no attention and, once he had caught his breath, walked in a stomp to the tent they had slept in, his bottom lip sticking out as he did.
Elliott waited alone, looking back at all the other children. He didn’t like the way this island was.
Hesitantly, a little girl approached Elliott. “I’m in charge of harvest this week and have to choose two to help me,” she said, her voice high-pitched and timid. “Would you two like to come help?” She looked down at the ground after asking, her long, straight hair falling into her face.
Elliott, unsure of what was even being asked but too fearful to question, simply answered “Yes.”
She smiled, not looking directly at Elliott, before turning and running away.
The sound of a propellor spinning caught Elliott’s attention and he turned to the rocks where the boys had been dropped off. There was a new sky taxi approaching. This one was red and seemed to be in a lot better shape than the one that was driven by Cad. It, too, had a basket in its back for passengers.
Hearing the propellor, Oliver stuck his head out of the tent in the direction of the sound. The first thing he noticed was the long blonde hair of the driver, who at first he thought was a woman, but as the sky taxi landed, could see that it was a young man.
Elliott didn’t even hear the little girl returning and he was startled when she put a large, woven basket in his arms. “Here you go,” she squeaked and ran toward the sky taxi. She held a basket similar to the one she handed Elliott that she held upside down on top of her head as she ran.
Oliver ran toward the sky taxi, hoping it would take them away from the terrible Teaching Island and the mean teacher. Elliott ran to catch up with his brother and the two met as the propellor of the red sky taxi stopped turning.
The young girl threw her basket into the back of the taxi and climbed in after. The young boy in the driving seat leaned over the side of the driver's seat and stared at Elliott and Oliver.
“Uh,” he more moaned than spoke, “I don’t know you two.” He had a slurred, “surfer” accent.
Elliott found the boy oddly out of place with the rest of the people they’d met in the islands thusfar. He figured that the boy was not much older than he, but tall for his age. “I’m Elliott and this is Oliver,” he offered.
“Whatever,” the boy shrugged as he turned to face the front. After a moment, he asked, not looking at the brothers, “You two comin’ or what?”
Elliott and Oliver, eager to leave the island, jumped in the back of the sky taxi and the propellor started, sending wind gusting down onto them. As the sky taxi lifted, the little girl yelled to the brothers, “Oh yeah, I’m Yan.”
“Yam?” Oliver returned.
The girl laughed, thinking he was joking and corrected, “No, Yan.”
The sky taxi picked up into a fast glide. This sky taxi was smoother riding than Cad’s. Still,
the faster pace of the younger driver made Elliott nervous. He huddled down against a wall next to Oliver.
The little girl laid down next to the brothers, putting her head on her basket like a pillow. “It’s going to be a while to Harvest Island,” she yelled. “You two might want to lay down and rest.”
Oliver pulled at his brother, beckoning him to lay down with him. The events with the Teacher earlier had drained the boys and they laid down. Soon, the consistent sound of wind and propellor became a soothing tune and the boys’ breething in of the thin air caused them to become weary. Elliott fell asleep first this time and as Oliver drifted off, he wondered what “beast” referred to when the teacher spoke of an “Island of the Beast.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
The thud of the sky taxi jolted the boys awake. The two immediately noticed that the little girl, Yan, was not in the back of the vehicle with them. Elliott looked up and gasped at the view of the stars- it seemed to him as if he could see clearly every star in the sky. The moon was bright shining down on them.
Oliver took a strained breath in as deep as he could. “Brother, I smell food!”
The boys stood up together and looked around at the new island. There were long stretches of crops that went up and over hills, scattered across the land. Each line of crops had a different color and they all seemed to flourish on the island.
The boys climbed over the side of the taxi bed and, upon landing their feet to the ground, felt the soreness of all the walking and climbing they had experienced thusfar.
“Owe,” Oliver groaned, “my feet hurt.”
“Yeah, my legs hurt, too,” Elliott countered.
“Well,” Yan spoke, alerting the boys that she was there, “if you’re already sore, this is going
to make it a lot worse.” She held handed the boys their baskets, which she had carried from the sky taxi.
“Oh boy,” Elliott said, taking the basket. It was woven from a yellow leather and the handle was buttoned on. He’d never seen one like it.
“Wait a minute,” Elliott addressed Yan. “If the clouds are below us, how does it rain on the islands?”
She looked at him with a suspicious gaze. Strands of her long hair fell into her face and she didn’t bother to move them. She replied quietly, “Why do you talk like that? And, what is rain?”
Oliver crinkled his brow and looked to her, his glasses falling down his nose, “What? You don’t know about-”
Elliott cut his brother off, putting a hand over his mouth. “Nevermind,” he almost yelled, drowning out his brother. “I just remembered that is something from our island and it’s not important anyway.”
Not wanting to risk being curious, Yan turned toward the crops and pushed her hair behind her ear. “So,” she breathed in a relieved breath, “try to get a variety and get good ones, so that we don’t have to throw out anything.”
She immediately began walking across where the crops began, obviously headed toward something particular. “I like the Shashpashes, just so you know.”
Elliott and Oliver looked at each other, wondering. “What’s a Shashpar- Sass- what?” Oliver said.
Elliott shrugged and the boys began walking toward the crops. As they neared, it occurred to them that these were not fruits and vegetables that they were used to. In fact, not a one crop looked familiar to them.
“Um,” Elliott said, unsure, “I don’t know if I’m allergic to any of this.” He paused, looking for something familiar. “I don’t even know what any of this is.”
Oliver was less hesitant. He ran to a tall green stalk that had a bright red fruit on it. He only had to tug lightly to remove it. It was almost heart-shaped and before even considering what it was, he took a big bite.
Elliott gasped and ran to his brother, “Oliver, what are you doing?!”
Oliver chewed quickly and swallowed. He turned to his brother and showed him the strange fruit. “It taste kind of like an apple.”
Elliott examined the fruit. It didn’t resemble an apple, but Elliott knew apples grew on trees, not stalks. Oliver handed it to him and motioned for him to try it. Elliott cautiously lifted it to his lips and touched his tongue to it. It did taste like an apple.
Before he could even consider it being anything but an apple, he took a big bite. As he chewed, he was surprised, himself, that he would readily eat a strange food. He was very hungry.
Then, the boys heard Yan’s footsteps on the grass approaching. “You two haven’t filled your baskets?” She had a full basket of fruits and vegetables of red, green, yellow, purple, blue, and pink, all shaped like no grown foods the boys had ever seen.
Elliott didn’t want to show his lack of knowledge, thinking it would make Yan suspicious, so he spoke carefully. “Oh, um, we don’t have this one on the island we come from,” he said, pointing to an almost L-shaped, blue fruit.
“Carmashes?” Yan returned, removing it from her basket and handing it to him. “Oh yeah, these are kind of salty, but their really good for dinner.”
Elliott took the fruit carefully and smelled it. It smelled like sweet potato and he could tell it was salty. Not being ready to try it, he put it down in his basket.
“Ok, we have to get a move on,” Yan said skipping past the boys to another crop and then disappearing in the leaves of the row.
“I’m going to find some different ones,” Oliver said, excited about the new foods. He ran in the direction that Yan had gone and started grabbing the best-looking crops, as he thought they were.
Elliott looked back down the line of crops nervously. He then walked down the one crop that tasted like apples and gathered almost exclusively that fruit.
After some time, the three returned to the taxi, their baskets full. Yan looked at Elliott’s basket, mostly full of the heart-shaped apple fruits. “You like Razzules, huh?” she said. “Me too.” She didn’t question Elliott’s decision, just went to the sky taxi and lifted her bounty into the riding bed, grunting as she did.
Elliott was relieved that she didn’t ask anything further. He was happy at the name “Razzules” because he felt he could remember it, being that it sounded to him like apples.
Elliott and Oliver followed Yan, lifting their baskets into the riding bed before climbing in, themselves. They didn’t sit, though, as the driver was nowhere around. The two boys looked down the line of crops and Elliott noticed a yellow glow along tops of some of the taller stalks. Just beyond the island, he could see the sun rising. It was strange to him because the sky was still dark above them and all the stars could be seen.
The sound of the taxi driver’s boots half-stomping caught their attention. He emerged from a line of dark-green, star-shaped fruits, one of the fruits half-eaten in his hand. “Oh, you dudes are ready?” He moved slow, but his steps were heavy. It appeared that he didn’t care much for anything.
He didn’t look at the three kids as he hoped into the driver’s seat and started the propellor. The spinning sent a gust of wind down on the riders and the boys hunched down, getting secure in the bed of the taxi. As the taxi rose, Elliott carefully looked over the edge of the riding bed and could see that the colorful island was now illuminated by the rising sun. He found the island’s beauty to be incredible and it kept him staring as they moved away from it. By the time it was out of sight, the sun had risen enough to turn the sky into day. Still, as Elliott turned from the island, he could see that on the opposite horizon, the sky was yet night and the stars could still be seen.
The taxi bounced slightly and the reality of how high they were caused Elliott’s heart to jump. He fell down to the riding bed and crawled next to Oliver. “Oliver,” he said, but hearing no reply, he turned to find his brother already asleep. He turned to see Yan lying down as well. Elliott followed suit and, as he watched some of the loose fruits tumble around in the riding bed, he too fell asleep.
CHAPTER NINE
The boys were awoken once again by the hard landing the young sky taxi driver made. Elliott and Oliver both looked to Yan, who stood with her basket full of fruit and hoped over the side of the passenger area of the sky taxi. It was obvious to the boys that she had gone to gather food regularly.
The boys followed suit, balancing their baskets carefully as they made their way to the ground. Both boys had fruit fall from their baskets and they had to set them down to pick up the fallen ones.
Without allowing them clearance from the vehicle, the young sky taxi driver started the propellor and quickly lifted into the air, sending the boys tripping over the back of the taxi. The wind from the propellor pushed the boys fallen fruit tumbling away from them, forcing them to chase them and return them to the baskets.
Once they had returned all the fruit, Elliott turned to his brother. “Can you carry it, Oliver?” “Yeah, brother,” he replied, “I got it.”
Yan was already out of sight and the boys started toward the circle of tents. As they walked,
Elliott looked up at the white school building atop the hill. His skin shivered as he noticed the tall teacher, standing at the doorway, just staring at the brothers.
Oliver hadn’t noticed her and Elliott decided walked on the side of his brother as to shield him from seeing her.
A few of the children met the boys and took the fruits and vegitables from them. There was no question of what had been harvested, what the boys preferred, no questions at all. Questions could be considered curiousity, after all.
Oliver heard something beyond the grass clearing and turned to see Cad in his old sky taxi approaching. “Look, brother,” he said, tugging at Elliott’s arm, “it’s Cad.”
Elliott turned just as Cad landed the taxi, the propellor sputtering a few times before stopping. The older man climbed out of the driver seat and retrieved a large sack. It appeared that he was making a delivery of some kind.
Elliott’s eyes grew wide. “Hey, Oliver,” he leaned close to his brother and whispered, “come on- I have an idea.”
The two ran toward Cad, who was startled by their heavy footsteps running toward him. “What- what are you trying to do? Kill an old man?” he muttered and adjusted his cap. Elliott stood silent for a moment, composing an appropriate request to get them off of the
Teaching Island. Carefully, he spoke, “Uh, the Queen told us that she wanted us to return to Capital Island as soon as possible.”
“She did,” he returned, a hint of unease in his tone. “Well, I’m not going that way just yet, got another delivery to make.”
Oliver interjected, “We can go. It’s ok.”
Cad shook his head no, but Oliver, eager to leave, went forward and climbed into the back of the sky taxi.
Elliott hesitated only a moment. He looked up the hill where the teacher had been standing and noticed she had returned inside of the school. Not wanting to face her again, he also climbed into the back of the sky taxi.
“Well- eh- wait uh minute!” Cad stammered. He threw his hands in the air and then returned to the driver’s seat, feeling he didn’t have a choice in the matter. The old propellor sputtered a few times and he hit the dash of the taxi, muttering something under his breath. The propellor kicked on and jerked the vehicle up only briefly before slamming them back down into the ground.
“Hold on, we’re getting there,” Cad said calmly to the boys, not looking back at them.
He reached under the steering wheel of the taxi and soon the propellor was moving once more. This time, the liftoff worked and the vehicle soared upward and away from the Teaching Island.
Elliott slumped down next to Oliver. The boys were both relieved to be gone from that island. Oliver looked up at the sky. The sun was close to directly overhead and it was the first time that the boys couldn’t see stars and night on either side of the horizon.
They flew on and Elliott turned to his brother. He spoke just loud enough for Oliver to hear over the propellor, but not loud enough for Cad to notice. “Hey, Oliver, do you think mom and dad and our family members are ok? I mean, we’ve been gone a long time. I wonder if this happened to them too.”
“I want to go home,” Oliver replied. Tears formed in his eyes behind his glasses.
Elliott put his arm around his younger brother. “I know, Oliver. Me too. We have to find a way to get down to the Earth.”
As they spoke, the sky taxi jolted downward quickly, lifting the boys completely out of their seats and then slamming back down.
“Oh dang,” Cad said in a tone between sarcasm and panic.
The propellor slowed and the vehicle began falling. Oliver peeked over the riding area, past the front of the taxi. They were moving fast and he could see Capital Island some distance ahead.
The boys were nervous. Oliver crawled back down into the bottom of the riding area. Cad once again reached under the steering wheel and attempted to fix the old taxi. The propellor would start quick again, only to slow or stop completely. The sky taxi swerved and bounced up- and-down.
“Just hold on, boys,” Cad yelled without looking back. “I’m gonna try and get us on the west end of the island.”
“Try?!” Elliott screamed.
The taxi flew out of control, falling quickly from high up. There was a loud boom in the sky and the boys saw fire and smoke trail in different directions. At first, they thought the sky taxi was erupting, but then, when another boom resounded away from them, they realized it was something else.
Oliver peaked once more over the front of the taxi and saw, only briefly, a group of strange, gray structures, standing at different hieghts near to each other. He saw a cannon fire something into the sky away from them, which bursted into flame and smoke. The vehicle was moving fast, however, and soon all he could see was the tops of trees.
“We’re gonna have to make a crash landing I’m afraid,” Cad yelled back to the boys as treetops scraped the bottom of the taxi. One thicker treetop caused the taxi to flip and the whole taxi quickly spun upside down and then rightside up again. Somehow, the boys managed to stay in the back, but they were terrified and screamed. The taxi hit several limbs and the propellor took such a beating that it broke into pieces. The thin air, mixed with the boys’ yelling and fear, caused them to panic even more. The riders hit limbs and trees, bouncing to-and-fro until finally slamming into something head-on. The boys only saw the ground coming toward them for an instant before everything suddenly silenced.
