The Monster Hero

Chapter 31 - Together

"What's been happening?"

"I don't know."

"How do we stop it?"

Everyone is asking questions in whispers. They must think I can't hear them.

"Why is everyone whispering?" I finally ask.

"Who's whispering?" says a extremely nervous man.

"You are. You must think I can't hear you, but I can. I won't attack you. I don't know what's going on, but please stop whispering," I say.

A man stands up, and slides his chair back from the extra long table filled with people.

"Last time we were attacked, I heard a wolfum soldier talking about taking over the humans and ruling the world!"

Everyone starts talking.

"Quiet!" Abby yells.

The man sits back down. I stand up. Everyone in the room looks at me. I see Red sitting with Fred in her lap, encouraging me. We had talked about this last night. I take a deep breath and start to speak.

"I have a plan to stop them. And yes, I know I am one of them. But I don't think it is fair that they push you out of the way. I want to help. But the only way to stop my brother, who is leading the army, and stop the attacks, is to work together."

Everyone is listening. No one is rolling their eyes or letting their attention wander.

"We have to rise together and stop them. But we can only do that if you trust me. So who's with me?"

Almost everyone is looking around nervously, like they want to raise their hand but are scared too.

"I said who's with me!"

Some people jump up, but others stay in their seats. They still look like they want to jump up, but they won't.

"I can't hear you! Who's with me!"

This time everyone jumps up and starts yelling and pumping their fists in the air. They start walking around and chanting. Red runs over and hugs me.

"I knew you could do it!" She says.

Fred runs after her and hugs my legs.

"I knew that you could do that too!" Fred says.

I laugh and lift him onto my shoulders as we walk out of the meeting room.

"Arf!"

Brownie runs at us from the house. Brownie is a brown and white Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Brownie is, apparently, Red and Fred's dog. Brownie is on the small side, but that's okay. It makes it easier to pick her up.

"Brownie!"

Fred runs over and picks Brownie up. Brownie lays her head on Fred's arm.

"Let's go back to the room," Red says.

Fred puts Brownie down and holds Red's hand. Brownie bounds up the stairs. I have moved into the same room as Red and Fred. Fred sometimes likes to crawl into my bed when I'm not there. We turned Fred's bed into a bunk bed. I sleep on the top, Fred sleeps on the bottom.

"Elliott."

I turn around to find a man at the door.

"How do you know my name?" I ask.

"I think we might need help to defeat the other wolfums. I think you should go visit the wizard," the man says, ignoring my question.

He hands me a folded piece of paper and leaves as suddenly as he came. Red raises her eyebrow. I shrug and unfold the paper. A map. A wand with sparks coming out of it is the end destination. I grab my bag and put the map in it. Red grabs hers too. We go out of the room. As we walk down the street, we hear Fred.

"Wait for me! Me is coming too!" Fred says.

I shake my head.

"No, Fred. It's too dangerous," I say, "Stay with Abby."

Fred pouts.

"He's right, Fred. Come on. You're staying with me." Abby comes up to us with a bag.

"I'm coming with you, so that means Fred is too," Abby says.

"Fine,"I say.

"But if you get yourself killed, it's your fault. And if Fred gets killed, I'm blaming you," Red adds.

Abby nods and picks Fred up. I look back at the map. I motion for everyone to follow me. We head over to the scooters. Red clicks a button on hers and a side spot pops out. Fred climbs in and puts on the helmet. Abby pulls a scooter out of a shed.

"Where did you get that?" I ask.

Abby shrugs.

"You don't need to know," she says.

I download the map into the scooter's database.

"Make sure that you don't veer off course," I say as I send each of them a copy of the map.

We power up the scooters and take off into the forest.