Chapter 14

Pancakes Are Good For Adventurers

I woke up to silence.

That was always a rare occurrence. Usually I wake up to music of some sort, but that morning there was nothing but sunshine to alert me to the morning.

I glanced around the attic and saw Raven still sleeping. Her clunky black headphones were still on. "Raven! Wake up!" I shouted.

"Um...what?" she mumbled, still half-asleep.

"It's 10:00 AM," I said, glancing at the clock.

"That's late!" Raven exclaimed. "I'm going back to bed." She crashed onto the pillow.

"It's not late for us," I reminded her.

"Fine," Raven said. She climbed out of bed and finger-combed her disheveled hair. I watched her put on her black makeup and sunblock, which, as Raven explained, was so she wouldn't get burnt to a crisp when she walked outside. Finally, Raven laced up her black combat boots and I laced up the neon green laces on my black sneakers and we climbed downstairs together.

Spindler and Orodon were already in the kitchen when we arrived. "Hello Avery," Spindler said. "Orodon cooked some breakfast for us."

"I made us some of them delicious pancakes!" Orodon exclaimed. He set out two plates of delicious blueberry pancakes with maple syrup. I took a few bites and smiled.

Theodore took a pancake off of Spindler's plate. "This could be good ammunition for the Killer Cannon of Doom," he said, studying the pancake.

Spindler and I finished our pancakes. Then, we said goodbye to Orodon and headed out the door.

"Good luck finding the Azurro!" Orodon exclaimed.

"Thanks Uncle Orodon!" Spindler replied.

Bright sunlight illuminated the treetops as we walked outside. Sunshine tiptoed around the forest, eating the darkness that was there the night before. A cool breeze blew through the forest. In short, it was a beautiful day.

"Which way are we going?" Raven asked.

"We're just following the trail," Spindler said, pointing to the gravel path that sliced through the forest. "It leads us almost directly to Yang Yang Restaurant."

I began to walk down the trail. Spindler turned his blue eyes towards me for a moment, making the butterflies in my stomach flutter. I hoped that the worst part of the journey was behind us. Today was a fresh start. Today we would find the Azurro.