I woke up the next day, to hear Cole shouting for us to get up. "Cole, Cole, calm down. what's the matter?" I couldn't recognize the voice, and i crawled out of the tent to see Sammy, with his hands on Cole's shoulder's, calming him down. "J-Jackson's Gone!" He shouted. "Where did he go?" "I-i don't know." Sammy looked at the ground, trying to see if he left any footprints. "Don't worry, he probably just went to use the bathroom." I said, trying to keep the situation calm. "Percy's right, he's probably just using the bathroom, no need to freak out." I looked over at Aarron, giving him thanks with my eyes. "R-right, probably just a bathroom break." I looked over at the girls, and saw them start to calm down. "What's this?" I looked over at Sammy, who had picked up a piece of paper. "Look, he left us a note, it's probably just him explaining that he went to use the bathroom since everyone else was asleep." Aarron and Sammy both looked at the note, then looked at me, i could tell something was off. "You four stay here, we'll go discuss something." I said, while walking over to Aarron and Sammy. I pulled them into the woods, and once we were far enough away, I let go of them. "What does the note say?" Sammy read the note out loud. "Return Tim, Unharmed, and we will return the kid with light blue hair. You will then leave." I got a little angry. "Who Is Tim! and what do they mean Leave?! This is un-owned woods, Nobody's going to force us away." "Percy, Percy calm. Right now, the best thing we can do, is try to find the person who left this note, and tell them they got the wrong people. it's obvious someone took this 'Tim' and they're just trying to get him back. Looks like we're not alone in these woods after all." "Sammy's right, we need to be calm about this. we need to find them, and explain that we don't have Tim, and make sure Jackson stays safe for the time being, until we get him back. if somebody's kidnapping people out here, it might be best if we do leave, we don't want anyone else to get kidnapped." I listened to Aarron and Sammy's plan, knowing that it made sense, but i don't understand how they aren't angry. One of our friend's got kidnapped! How are they so calm? I took some deep breaths. "Fine, but we're not letting the other's know about this, we're going to keep this between us." "That would be best." Aarron said in response. "Let's get back to the others now, we don't want them to be worried about us." "Right, let's go you two."
I went into the building, to hear Ruby muttering to herself in the back. "Ruby, you ok?" I could hear her jump, she should really pay more attention to her surroundings. "Y-yeah, I-i'm Fine Leo. W-we're closed today, please leave." "Ruby. Is Tim ok?" "H-he's fine, as far as i know. I-isn't he back at his burrow now?" "According to George, no." I could hear her take a sharp breath, she was hiding something, and i was going to find out what. "Ruby. Come out here." "N-no?" "Fine, then i'm coming back there." "No! Stay out there!" I didn't pay any attention to her, and went to the back, to find a human tied to a chair, with one of my missing socks in his mouth. i fell over backwards in shock. "Ruby! Why's there a human here?" "Shh, We can't alert the whole forest to the presence of humans, Leo. Me and the humans have a deal, they'll return Tim, and we return their friend, then they leave. Easy peasy, no one gets hurt." "No one better get hurt. I'll keep watch over them, to see what they'll do. If they plan on betraying us, We'll know instantly."
