Page 26 of Searching for Thanksgiving

13

“You are nots eating anymore. You are gonna pop!” Morah snapped, pulling the knapsack away from Leo.

Leo’s face crumbled and he looked longingly at the cookie visible in the opening. “Buts… I’m hungry!”

“You’re always hungry. Go eats some grubs,” Pearl suggested, walking past Leo.

Leo’s face crinkled with distaste. “I don’t likes eating bugs. They gets stuck in my teeth and are gooey in the middle.”

“Ew,” Sacha and Hope groaned together.

“I’m tired,” James groaned, sitting down on a log.

“How much furthers do we have to go?” Hope asked.

Morah breathed deeply and tried to remember that she was the leader, and leaders weren’t supposed to gets mad. She sat down on the log next to James and pulled out the map. Buttercup released a soft growl of warning when Leo inched his hand closer to the cookie that was still visible in the opening of the knapsack situated between the symbiot’s paws.

“Leo!” Morah growled, not looking up.

“I’m going to go exploring,” Leo said, snatching the cookie before he darted away with a laugh.

“I’ll goes with you,” James said.

Morah looked up and glared at the boys. “Don’t goes too far. You might gets lost!”

“I’ll goes with them,” Pearl said.

Morah pursed her lips. Pearl going with the boys wasn’t much better. Leo had already shifted and had his nose to the ground. Soon, Pearl and James had shifted as well. She watched as Prime, James’s symbiot, trotted after the trio.

“Knapsack, I wants a sticky butter and honey sandwich, please,” Hope requested. “Do you wants to splits it?” she asked her best friend.

“Sure.” Sacha said, taking the half that Hope was offering. “How much farther is it, Morah?” Sacha inquired, scooting to sit down between Morah and Hope.

Morah frowned and ran her finger over the map. Fortunately, there was a wiggly line and the map showed where they were so she knew they were heading in the right direction. There were still three lines between here and their destination. She slumped.

“We’ve still got a long ways to go,” she groaned.

“Here.”

She absently reached for the oatmeal raisin cookie Sacha held out, took a large bite of it, and slowly chewed. Tapping the map, she ran her finger down along the winding river. Sacha watched the movement with sudden excitement.

“Can we float down the river? It goes near the X,” Sacha asked.

Morah looked at Buttercup and Rainbow. The only reason they had been able to make the balloon was because the two symbiots made themselves really thin. If they tried to make a boat out of the symbiots, it would still be really small.

“I don’t think our symbiots can make a strong enough boat to floats down the river,” she said with a frown.

“What if we asked the knapsack to makes us a boat? You says the goddess told you it could makes us anything, just like Alice and Adaline,” Hope said.

Morah looked at the small bag between Buttercup’s paws. The symbiot shrugged.

“I don’t know. I guess we could ask it,” Morah replied.

“Knapsack, can you please give us a pretty pink boat for our quest?” Hope requested, clasping her hands together and staring earnestly at the knapsack.

“No! Not here!”

Morah and Sacha squealed the command at the same time but it was too late. The three girls fell backwards off the log when a large, bright pink raft popped out of the knapsack.

---