by Tracey West
Yi brightened. “You’re coming?”
“Yeah!” Jin said. “I checked and Da He Village has boats leaving for the city every hour.”
Yi’s smile dropped. “Okay, well when we get there, you and Peng can take a boat back, but I’m going to take Everest home.”
Everest walked over to Yi and touched his forehead to hers, and she knew he was grateful. Jin just sighed as the four of them headed out toward their next destination, the Yangtze River.
Back at Qiandao docks, a large boat had just dropped anchor. It carried a small RV and three black SUVs. One of the vehicles towed a platform with a large iron cage on top.
Mr. Burnish, Dr. Zara, and the security captain stepped off the boat, followed by a small troop of security guards. Dr. Zara began questioning the dock workers whether they’d recently seen a teenage girl with a strange beast.
One of the dock workers pointed to a barge. “Well, that pulled in yesterday morning, but we’ve unloaded all of the cargo and didn’t find anyone.”
“Would you mind if we search it again?” Dr. Zara asked.
The dock worker agreed, and Dr. Zara led the security force in a sweeping search of the barge. The guards didn’t find anything, but Dr. Zara’s sharp eyes spotted some sooty footprints—enormous, yeti footprints—on the back deck. She followed them to a trail of empty soda cans that led to the rail of the barge.
Mr. Burnish approached her and noticed the prints too. “The yeti? He was here?”
“Yes, and it looks like he fancies soda,” she replied.
They ordered everyone into the vehicles and made their way onto the road. Dr. Zara stood on the front grill of the transporter as it followed the trail of empty soda cans. She grinned. They might just find the yeti yet!
They barreled down the country road for miles, and the empty cans got farther and farther apart. Just when Dr. Zara thought the trail might end, she spotted the big broken crate down the embankment.
“Stop!” she yelled.
The convoy came to a screeching halt. A whooping snake popped up in the back seat of the transporter. “Whoop!” Mr. Burnish and the security captain looked at each other.
“What was that?” asked the captain. Dr. Zara examined the crate while the guards swept the area. After about twenty minutes, the security captain circled back.
“Sorry, Doctor,” he told her. “No sign of them anywhere.”
Dr. Zara frowned, knowing she had to break the news to Mr. Burnish.
“Sir, the yeti has disappeared,” she began.
Mr. Burnish looked around. “It’s been so long since I’ve been out in nature,” he said wistfully.
“Sir, if we—”
He touched the weeping willow next to him. “Look at this tree. It’s a wonderful tree. Look at the colors. I love this tree!”
He pointed his ice axe at one of the guards. “You there. Chop it down and put it in a bag, will you? I want it in my penthouse.”
“Right away, sir,” the guard replied, and he ran off to find a chainsaw.
Dr. Zara raised her voice. “Mr. Burnish!”
He turned. “Right! What is it?”
“We should divide the team and cover some ground,” she told him, as the guard returned with a chainsaw and began to rev it up.
Mr. Burnish nodded. “Captain, let’s fan out!” he boomed.
“Yes sir!” the security captain replied, as the willow tree crashed to the ground.
Not too far away, Yi, Jin, Peng, and Everest made their way up a grassy hill while Jin studied a map on his phone.
“On the map, the village is only, like, an inch away,” he said. “That can’t be that far.”
“It must be on the other side of—” Yi reached the top of the hill and stopped. A tall, jagged mountain rose up in front of them. Mist swirled around the top, and ancient stairs wove a twisting pathway to the peak.
“The Yellow Mountain. Wow,” she said.
Everest and Peng gazed up at it in awe. Jin, on the other hand, looked horrified.
“Wait . . . we are not going over that,” he said.
Peng broke into a run. “Come on, Everest. I’ll race you!”
The boy and the yeti raced for the stairs. Yi followed them, as did Jin, with a reluctant sigh. Peng might have been full of energy at the start, but he fizzled out before they were halfway up the mountain. Everest dragged Peng behind him.
They stopped at an overlook covered with fuzzy dandelions. Peng plucked one.
“Ooh, Everest, look. Make a wish,” he said.
Everest took it from Peng’s hand and gobbled it down.
“No, no, no, they’re for wishing,” Peng told him, as Yi and Jin caught up to them, puffing and panting.
Peng picked another dandelion and closed his eyes. “I wish I was a basketball superstar,” he said.
He blew on the flower, and the fluffy dandelion seeds separated and floated through the air. Yi smiled and picked a dandelion.
Peng ran to the edge of the overlook, cupped his hands around his mouth, and called out in an announcer’s voice, “Starting in the championship game—the Mighty Peng!”
At that moment, a drone rose up from below and stopped in front of Peng.
“Wait, is that a drone?” Peng wondered. “Cool!”
Another drone appeared and buzzed around Everest’s head. Red lights lit up and the drone made a beeping sound. Then four more drones rose up, surrounding them all.
“Okay, not so cool. Not so cool!” Peng cried.
Yi and Jin peered over the ledge and spotted a black SUV, and some Burnish Industries security guards.
“Oh no. It’s those guys from the city,” Yi said.
“I told you this was a crazy idea,” Jin said. “What now?”
Yi looked around, frowning. “I have no idea. I wish there was a way out of here.”
Everest looked at Yi. Then he looked at the drone, then back at Yi. He started to hum. The dandelion in Yi’s hand began to grow larger and larger.
“What’s going on?” Jin asked, as the dandelion grew as tall as Yi, with a flower bigger than her head.
A gust of wind blew, catching the flower. Yi’s feet lifted off the ground.
“Yi, let go of that! It’s dangerous!” Jin yelled.
Yi looked at the yeti. “Everest, are you sure about this?”
The dandelion had grown even larger. Everest grabbed Peng with one arm and grabbed the thick stem with the other as the dandelion rose higher into the sky.
“No, Peng. Get down from there right now!” Jin demanded.
Peng held out his hand. “Jin, jump!”
Jin climbed the stairs as fast as he could, as the giant dandelion floated higher. The drones followed him.
“Jump!” Yi urged Jin.
“No, get down here!” Jin shouted back.
He jumped up and tried to reach Peng’s hand, but couldn’t make contact. He watched helplessly as they floated away.
“Can you hear me? Meet me in that village by the river!” Jin called out.
“We’ll be there!” Yi replied.
“And take care of Peng!” Jin added.
A gust of wind swept up, sending the dandelion flying higher into the sky and away from Jin. Then a drone crashed into the dandelion, knocking off fluff and pushing them off course.
“Wait! Wait, where are we going?” Yi cried.
Whoosh! The giant dandelion was swallowed by clouds. As Jin watched them go, he was suddenly surrounded by drones.
Chapter Eight
Lost in the Desert
A hungry family of four tortoises (two adults and two babies) approached a blade of grass in a vast desert of red clay that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Suddenly Yi, Peng, and Everest descended from the sky, screaming as the giant dandelion emerged from a bank of clouds. The fluffy seeds began to break off one by one, and the dandelion rapily descended toward the ground. The terrified tortoises disappeared into their shells.
“Brace yourselves
!” Yi yelled.
Boom! A cloud of dust filled the air as they landed in the desert. The remaining fluffy dandelion seeds cushioned their fall. The blade of grass was gone. The four turtles lay on the ground pulled into their shells, looking like brown rocks.
“Everest! I’m over here!” Peng called out as Everest looked around, confused. “No! Over here!” Everest spun around. Peng clung to Everest’s back. He slid off onto the sand, landing facedown. “I’m okay!” Peng announced good-naturedly, standing up and brushing dust off of his clothes.
“That was amazing, Everest,” Yi said. “You saved us, and now we’re . . . Where are we?”
Peng frowned. “A long way from Jin.”
“Well, that’s his fault. He should’ve jumped! I mean, why doesn’t he ever just JUMP?!” Yi exclaimed with annoyance.
“Well, he jumped on that boat back in the city. That’s what got him on this trip in the first place,” Peng pointed out.
“Yeah, but that’s because he was worried about you. You’re his family,” Yi replied.
“He thinks of you as family too,” Peng said.
Everest scooped up two big rocks and a small one and held them out to Yi and cooed. Yi knew he meant “family.”
The “rocks” suddenly popped their tortoise heads out, nearly scaring Everest to death. Peng laughed and noticed the other baby tortoise on the ground.
“Hey, little turtle,” Peng said, as he picked it up and held it out to Everest as if it were a young Yi.
“Everest, Jin said Yi was like his little sister when they were kids.” Peng waved the “Yi” tortoise in the air with a flourish. “She was always doing something CRAZY that would get her into trouble. So he watched out for her.” He placed the baby “Yi” turtle into Everest’s hands next to the baby “Jin” turtle. The two babies touched heads as Peng looked over at Yi and said, “He still does.”
Yi should have been comforted by Peng’s story, but it only gave her an ache in her heart, one she didn’t really understand. She changed the subject.
“I . . . I think we should get going,” she said as she gazed at the vast, windy desert around them. She had no idea which way to go, or how far away from civilization they were. But she had to be strong for the kids, even if one of the kids was big and hairy and magical.
“But don’t worry! I can get us out of here,” she said, trying to sound confident. “Let’s go.”
The wind picked up as they headed out across the desert, leaving the tortoises behind to feast on the giant dandelion stem. Yi held her head high. No one would ever know how uncertain she felt.
Chapter Nine
Jin and the Villains
Back at the Yellow Mountain, Jin reached the Burnish Industries convoy at the bottom of the steps. The security guards surrounded him, as Dr. Zara approached him.
“I hope you’re not hurt,” she said. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Dr. Zara.”
“I know who you are!” Jin blurted out.
“You do?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He took a deep breath. “You’re the bad guys.”
Duchess popped out of Dr. Zara’s hair and moved to her shoulder.
Jin jumped back. “Whoa! Your gerbil is freaking me out!”
Mr. Burnish turned to the security captain. “A boy who knows his gerbils. I like him.”
“Bad?” Dr. Zara asked Jin. “You’ve got this all wrong. That wild beast is unpredictable, even dangerous. We were trying to rescue your friend when the yeti kidnapped her.”
“He did kidnap her,” Jin admitted. His mind was spinning. He had seen Everest pick up Yi and carry her off. And those weird powers of his . . . that yeti was definitely unpredictable.
Impatient, Mr. Burnish poked Jin in the chest with the tip of his ice axe.
“Listen, I own that yeti,” he said. “He is my yeti. I want my yeti back! Right? Just nod.”
“Mr. Burnish, please,” Dr. Zara said.
She gave Mr. Burnish a stern look as she took Jin aside.
“I just need to find my cousin and my friend, and get them back to the city in one piece,” Jin told her.
Dr. Zara lowered her voice. “I can get all of you back to the city. But the only way I can help your friends is if I know where they are. Do you know?”
Jin shook his head. He had no idea where that giant flower had carried them. Poor Peng could be anywhere, and in danger, and Jin believed it was all his fault.
“That yeti is the pinnacle of my research.” Dr. Zara’s confidence faded and she seemed vulnerable. “I really need him back.”
Jin eyed the doctor and almost felt sorry for her.
“I don’t know where they are,” he said. “But I do know where they will be.”
Dr. Zara smiled at him. “Excellent. Now, you see, we can help each other.”
She led Jin into one of the SUVs and then spoke with Mr. Burnish and the security captain. Jin relaxed into the soft, comfortable seat, exhausted. Then they took off into the countryside, headed toward the village along the Yangtze.
When night fell, they made camp in a clearing. The guards set up tents and built a roaring bonfire. Jin and Mr. Burnish sat outside the RV, a luxury vehicle that looked like a small apartment. Jin contentedly sipped on steaming cocoa as Mr. Burnish regaled him with his experience in the Himalayas.
“And suddenly I saw it—a yeti!” Mr. Burnish went on. “A real yeti. Cold eyes staring. It was going to kill me. I swung my axe—”
He recreated the moment by swinging his ice axe, and Jin had to duck.
“—and it was gone. No footprints. Nothing.”
Mr. Burnish looked down at the axe, remembering.
“I rushed back to tell the world what had happened, but without proof, they laughed at me,” he said. He pointed to himself. “They laughed at me.”
“And you spent all these years trying to get your proof?” Jin asked.
Mr. Burnish nodded. He turned his gaze toward the starry sky. “I’m so used to looking down on the world,” he said. “It’s amazing how small one feels just by looking up.”
Jin looked up at the sky, and for an instant, he knew just what Mr. Burnish meant.
Dr. Zara quickly approached them. “Mr. Burnish, we need to get an early start,” she said. “We’ll catch up to that yeti tomorrow, thanks to Jin.”
Jin cringed at the reminder that he had betrayed Yi. But I’m doing it for Peng, he told himself. For all of us! Yi doesn’t know what she’s getting into.
He nodded to the adults and headed inside the RV. Mr. Burnish stood up and smiled at Duchess, who was perched, as usual, on Dr. Zara’s shoulder. He tickled the furry creature under the chin.
“Duchess, is that your name?” he asked. “You’re kind of cute, you know, in your own ugly, beady-eyed kind of way.”
He turned and went inside the vehicle, and Dr. Zara’s eyes widened in shock.
Meanwhile, Jin sank into the comfy mattress in the guest room of the RV and gave a contented sigh. This was so much better than a bunch of leaves, he thought. And no mosquitoes!
Still, he couldn’t sleep. He stared at the ceiling worrying about Peng and Yi . . . and Everest.
He’s just a kid! Yi had said about Everest. The more Jin thought about it, the more he felt Yi was right. A kid who would probably be terrified by Mr. Burnish’s ice axe . . .
Restless, Jin got up and walked outside. He needed to think. But above the sound of the guards snoring in their tents, he heard intense whispers. Jin decided to investigate. He snuck over to one of the SUVs and peeked out from behind it. In the moonlight, he saw Dr. Zara talking to the security captain.
“You’re cute in your own ugly, beady-eyed kind of way,” she said, mocking Mr. Burnish. “I tell you, he’s going soft!”
Jin stifled a gasp. Dr. Zara had dropped her fancy British accent. She sounded American! But why would she need to fake an accent?
Dr. Zara tossed a stun gun to the security captain.
“I thought we had to keep th
e yeti alive,” the captain said, wrinkling his bushy brows.
“The buyer won’t pay us unless he’s still breathing, but if he’s a little banged up, who cares?” Dr. Zara said coldly. “They’re just going to chop him up into little pieces for their experiments, anyway.”
“And what do we do with the kids?” the captain asked.
She looked at him with steely eyes. “Well, if you want your ten percent, you’ll get rid of them! For good!”
Jin’s mouth opened in shock, and he realized he had trusted the wrong person! She was truly evil!
“Oh, and get rid of this rodent I’ve been carrying around,” she continued. “Do you know how hard it is to keep up this British animal lover act? I’m done!”
“Duchess? But she’s a one-of-a-kind albino jerboa,” the captain said. He playfully jingled his keys in front of Duchess, and she grabbed them with her teeth.
“She’s just a rat, you idiot!” Dr. Zara fumed. She flung Duchess off her shoulder and onto the grass right next to Jin.
The captain’s keys still dangled from her mouth. Jin quietly picked her up and crept away.
First, he cracked open the door of the RV and placed Duchess inside with Mr. Burnish.
“I think you’re better off with this guy,” he whispered.
Then he examined the keys. “All right, let’s see. SUV? Too loud. Transporter? No. What’s this one?”
He grinned and looked around the camp to see a chrome motorcycle glistening in the moonlight.
“Sweet!” he whispered.
He sat on the bike, turned the key in the ignition, and the engine purred. Then he checked his hair in the mirror and quietly said to himself, “Looking good, Jin! Thanks, Jin!” Choking on the throttle, he gunned it. The bike zoomed forward without him!
Wham! The motorcycle slammed into a tree. At first, Jin just stood there in shock. But soon, adrenaline pumped through his body. He didn’t need a motorcycle. He would get to Peng and the others before the bad guys did, somehow, some way!
Determined, he ripped the sleeve off his designer shirt and tied it around his head. Then he let out a cry and plunged into the woods.
