Chapter 13

Chapter 13 ANGRY BEES TO THE LEFT OF ME! SPIDERS TO THE RIGHT! (BUT AT LEAST THERE'S GOOD SYMMETRY!) Harper ran to rejoin her friends as quickly as she could. It wasn't fast enough to avoid being stung in the back. "OW!" she cried, and she felt the bee's poison weakening her. Worse, she knew that the bee that had stung her would die.

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She didn't want that to happen. She didn't want to fight the bees. She'd just spent days bringing them back from the brink of disaster! "What did you do?" asked Morgan. "Nothing!" said Harper. She held up her shield, blocking a dive-bombing bee. "They delivered their message, and then they got really mad." Morgan swatted the nearest bee away with his hand, clearly afraid that a sword would do too much damage. "What was the message?" he asked. "Protect the balance," Harper said. "ARE THEY MAD BECAUSE WE AREN'T DOING THAT?" "Uh," said Po, also swatting a bee. "Jodi and I did sort of cause a forest fire." "We're very sorry about it!" said Jodi as she ran in circles, pursued by angry bees. "But we fixed that damage," said Theo. "We restored the balance. They should have forgiven us for that." As he focused on dodging a bee, a spider struck him from behind. "Yowch! Okay, this is ridiculous. Where are the spiders coming from?" "I THINK THEY'RE COMING OUT OF THAT HOLE!" said Jodi, motioning over her shoulder as she ran past. "Over that way!" Theo and Harper fought their way through the spiders, working in the direction Jodi had indicated.

They found the hole, and inside it… "A dungeon," said Theo. "WE MUST HAVE MADE THIS HOLE BY ACCIDENT WHEN WE WERE LANDSCAPING." "And there's a spawner inside," said Harper. She could see the glow of its fire, flickering in the dark. The spawner would keep making spiders as long as they could defeat them. "I'VE GOT TO DESTROY IT," Theo said. "That'll take care of the spiders, at least." He traded his sword for a pickaxe and carved a bigger hole, giving him easy access to the spawner. He raised his pickaxe, ready to destroy it.

And Harper yelled, "STOP!" Theo did stop, but his confusion was obvious. "Why am I stopping?" he asked, holding his pickaxe just above the spider spawner.

"The bees' message," Harper said. "The balance. WE'RE DISRUPTING THE BALANCE! We had no right to attack the spiders like we did. We started the fight. Just like we started the fire." "So what can we do about it now?" asked Theo. "We can leave," said Harper. "We put this biome back together. Now we should…just leave it be." Theo trusted Harper, but Morgan wasn't happy with the plan. "It feels like we're retreating," he said. "Like we're giving up."