Ch6-The Dragon Wakes

The Dragon Wakes Jack put on his brakes and jumped off his bike. Annie did the same. A huge boulder crashed down the mountain slope beside them. The boulder slammed onto the road right in front of them. They looked around wildly. Rocks were sliding and tumbling. Trees were whipping back and forth and then breaking apart. Branches, rocks, and dirt cascaded down the slope. As Jack tried to figure out what to do, another boulder tumbled down—and then another! Jack pulled Annie off the road. They scrambled into a rocky crevice and huddled down. Clods of dirt hit their bike helmets. The ground finally stopped shaking and rumbling. For a moment, neither Jack nor Annie said anything. Then Jack uttered one word: "Earthquake."

"I know," Annie said hoarsely. "Like—like that earthquake we lived through in San Francisco." "Except there, buildings crumbled around us," said Jack. "Here, it's mountains." "I think it's stopped," said Annie. "Let's look." Annie started to stand up, but Jack pulled her back down. "Wait!" The ground had started shaking again. "Aftershock!" he said. "Watch out —more stuff might fall." No sooner had Jack said that than another enormous boulder crashed to the ground. Then another one tumbled down. The earth stopped trembling again, but the air was so thick with dust and grit that it made Jack's eyes burn. "I wonder if the pandas are all right," said Annie. "Oh, man!" said Jack. "Bing-Bing!" He pictured the giant panda in her yard, trapped under a rock or a tree! "We've got to go back!" said Annie. "I know!" said Jack. They both scrambled out to the road. "Where are our bikes?" Jack and Annie looked around. As the dust settled, they saw massive damage up and down the

highway. Fallen rocks, mud, and trees blocked both the way to Wolong Town and the way back to the panda center. A boulder the size of a car had crushed both their bikes. Jack and Annie took off their helmets and dropped them to the ground. "We can't go back to the panda center now," said Annie. "We can't go to town. We can't go anywhere." "No kidding," said Jack. "You'd have to be King Kong to get over this stuff." "King Kong," Annie repeated. Then she looked at Jack and grinned. "What?" he said. "King Kong. No problem," she said. "We can do it." "Do what?" said Jack. "Turn into King Kongs!" said Annie. "Well, not quite as big as King Kong, maybe, but we could be five times bigger than we are now." "Ohhhh," said Jack. He'd forgotten all about their magic potion! "It's perfect," said Annie. "It's the only way we can get out of here."

"Yeah…," said Jack, letting out a long breath. He reached into his backpack and took out the small bottle that held the potion. "Five times our size," said Annie. "You're almost five feet tall. So you'll be almost twentyfive feet tall. And I'll be just a little shorter." "Right," said Jack. "But we can only use it once," said Annie. "And we only have an hour. And we have to choose which way to go: back to Wolong Town or back to the panda center. If we go to town, we can keep looking for the special food to save Penny—if the restaurants are still standing." "Plus we can leave in the tree house whenever we're ready," said Jack. "Right," said Annie. "But we'd have to leave Bing-Bing and the rest of the pandas behind. And we wouldn't know what happened to them, and we wouldn't be able to help." Jack stared at the bottle. It was a terrible choice. Then he thought of something. "Remember on our last mission, you said that when we do the right thing, it feels like it somehow helps Penny—even if it seems to take us away from our goal?"

Annie smiled. "Yep, and everything worked out on that mission, didn't it?" Jack nodded. "Panda center!" they said together. "You take a sip first," said Annie. Jack popped the tiny cork out of the bottle. He tilted his head back and took a quick sip. He licked his lips, then held the bottle out to Annie. Just as Annie took the bottle from Jack, the ground trembled with another aftershock. Jack started to shake. "Yikes!" cried Annie. The aftershock ended, and the ground stopped trembling. But Jack kept shaking. Annie yelled something, but Jack couldn't understand what she was saying. His body was still quaking. He had started to grow!

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