Wild Thornberry Adventure

chapter 9

There was a bright blue-green light coming down as Bree and Sloan escaped to their helicopter. The lightning streak grabbed a hold of both Cherry and Eliza as Debbie was thrown down on the ground. It was like some sort of black magic. They were both being drained of their abilities to talk to animals. They were then free and walked slowly as things were being torn upside down. Donnie rushed over to the girls. Eliza quickly bent down and hugged Donnie as he went to Cherry and she did the same.

"Debbie..." Cherry coughed as the teenager walked over to them. "Debbie... We... Have to go..."

"Where are you going?" Debbie asked.

"We have to get Tally..." Eliza weakly replied. She then bent and picked up the cheetah cub in her arms. "Darwin, come on!"

"Yeah!" Cherry added and felt very, very weak.

Darwin didn't speak, but he hooted and hollered like his nature chimp instinct.

"Eliza... I can't understand Darwin!" Cherry cried.

"Neither can I," Eliza replied. "It's really gone..."

Eliza, Cherry, Darwin, Donnie and Debbie all then went down a dying tree trunk and got into the water with it. They all floated along as it slowly drizzled outside from the deep impact. After a while though, Cherry and Eliza explained to Debbie about Eliza's long-hidden secret from the family.

"You expect me to believe that a couple of years ago you freed a warthog, but he was really a magic man who made it so you could talk to animals, but you had to keep it a secret unless you met someone with the same ability, or else there'd be some tornado thing and you would lose your powers?" Debbie asked after the explanation.

"Well... yeah..." Eliza answered.

"I knew it!" Debbie slammed on the trunk which nearly made Cherry fall into the water. "That's why you're always sneaking out all the time with Darwin! How about you, save a warthog?"

Cherry shook her head. "I could always talk to animals, it was something I was born with."

"Oh, I have a few things to say to that monkey," Debbie continued. "Tell him that I don't appreciate it when he leaves pizza crusts under the seat cushions."

"Uhh... Debbie?" Cherry tried to settle her.

"Go ahead, tell him, I don't care which one of you does." Debbie prompted.

"Debbie, I broke the rule." Eliza said.

"She told about her powers, so she lost them." Cherry added.

"Oh my gosh," Debbie sounded touched. "You did that for me?"

"I can't talk to Darwin anymore," Eliza sighed. "And the last thing I said to him was really mean. Now, I can't even tell him I'm sorry."

Darwin hollered as the water spread quicker and quicker with each second.

"Eliza, Cherry," Debbie put a hand around the girls. "I may not speak monkey, but I think he's trying to tell us about that waterfall!"

"WAAAAH!" Cherry cried and tried to get herself to safety, but the group crashed against vines, but no one was injured. Cherry shivered and shook as she looked down anxiously.

"This must be Tembo Valley!" Eliza cried. "Come on, the eclipse is gonna start soon!"

After dangling from vines for a while, the group ran off together through the valley. Eliza, then followed by others, fell into a leaf trap and fell inside a hollow hole. Cherry landed first, followed by Eliza, Darwin, Donnie, Tally and Debbie. Cherry groaned and muffled as Darwin helped everyone else out.

"Darwin really watches out for you, doesn't he?" Debbie smiled.

"Yeah," Eliza smiled. "He's my best friend."

"I think my glasses are broken..." Cherry moaned as she held her shaken up glasses in her hands.

"The elephants!" Cherry watched the herd of elephants go for the electric fence Sloan and Bree set up. "It's a trap! They're all going to die and we can't even warn them!"

"But, can't you, like, make elephant noises or something?" Debbie asked.

"Debbie, we can't talk to them!" Cherry cried.

"Shaman Mnyambo told me in a dream that he gave me my gift for a reason." Eliza added. "It doesn't matter now, I lost it."

"Okay, enough you two," Debbie huffed. "Enough with 'poor us, we lost our magic powers' bit. Are you two just gonna sit there?"

"What are we supposed to do?" Cherry asked.

"We're just ordinary girls now." Eliza added.

"You?" Debbie turned to them. "Eliza, ever since you were a little kid you dragged home birds with broken wings and creepy toads and stuff. You didn't have special powers then. You just cared. Cherry, I don't know you very well, but I can tell you care a whole lot for animals yourself. Trust me, neither of you are ordinary."

"But, we can't talk-" Cherry spoke, but Debbie grabbed her and made her face her eye to eye.

"What's more important?" Debbie asked. "Saving a bunch of elephants or having special powers you can't share with anyone?"