1. I Hate Strawberries!
“I hate strawberries!” Logan growled as he swiped his rough cotton shirt sleeve across his face. The stinging sweat dripping into his eyes was just one more annoyance on top of so many others. He couldn’t decide which was worse:, the hot sun, the straw poking at his knees as he knelt to find the elusive fruits, or the gnats that had decided to swarm around him for no good reason. It didn’t matter what he did; he couldn’t get the pesky bugs to leave him alone.
After a moment’s more consideration, he decided that the gnats were definitely the worst. Not just because of the buzzing but because Ma had been right. Before starting his chores, she’d told him to dab some of Gramps’ Original No Good Bitin’ Insect-Be- Gone liniment on his neck. But he had been in too much of a hurry to listen to that. He’d even said, “Ah, Ma! Those bugs won’t bother me.”
Now, here he was, surrounded by what felt like a tornado of gnats, and he couldn’t quit until the whole patch was picked clean, or Pa would be on him about how “a Mighy Mercenary never does slip-shod work” or some such. So all he could do was suffer. It might have been better if he was allowed to eat a juicy treat or two along the way. But he knew Ma would figure it out somehow if he took any, and he’d get scolded, because these berries were for Sunday dessert and making preserves, not snacking. Not to mention that she wanted perfect strawberries for the pie contest at the county fair next week.
It wasn’t fair that he had to do all the work for her to get a blue ribbon at the fair. He wanted a prize for himself, but he didn’t have anything to enter. Ma had said she’d help him bake something, but that wasn’t very manly. He wanted to enter the ax-throwing contest or maybe the tournament of arms. But she’d said those were too dangerous for a boy of ten.
Well, she thought he was plenty old enough to get sent out to do tedious, awful chores all by himself, but he was too young for anything fun! It just wasn’t fair!
But finishing the job was the only way out of the sun and bugs. He let out a deep sigh, shook his head to ward off the gnats, gritted his teeth, and focused on picking berries, though his frustration meant he ripped off some of the leaves or yanked too hard and pulled off a whole stalk of unripe green fruits along with the one he wanted. He’d be in trouble for that later, too. Yet, as he settled into the task, the distractions, and even the anger, started to fade away. He just had to swipe back the leaves, pinch the stem, pluck the berry, and drop it in the basket.
Swipe… grab… pluck… drop… Swipe… grab… pluck… drop…
He got into a rhythm, and even scooting along the row to get to the next plant was just another, less frequent beat in that pattern. He found himself humming a little tune to the repeating motions that matched a cadence he’d heard his father barking out to Mighty Mercenaries in training. The longer he picked, the stronger the cadence got in his mind, and he started to imagine that his berry picking was some kind of drill that soldiers might do.
Swipe… grab… pluck… drop…
He got so consumed by the rhythm and repetition that he almost fell over when he reached the log border of the strawberry bed and tried to scoot through it. It took a moment for him to shake out of his trance, but the sweat that dripped into his eyes pretty well broke it. As he swiped his shirt sleeve across his face again (that did no good; the shirt was already soaked), the gnats and the scratching straw came back into focus, as well.
He looked around to see if anyone was watching, untucked his shirt, and wiped his eyes with the tails. Pa would be very irritated at that. He should have had a handkerchief along for just such a problem, but Logan
never remembered to put one in his pocket. Pa would probably also be telling him to wear a hat, but that was just silly. A hat compressing his curly hair would make him even hotter than just having the sun on his head.
He didn’t dare say that to Pa, though. Then he’d get a lecture about how if he couldn’t handle a straw hat on his head, he wasn’t ready to go off and become a soldier, where he’d have to wear a steel helmet. Not that it mattered either way; Pa said Logan was too young to start training as a Mighty Mercenary, which seemed just petty when Logan had already helped defeat the Calamitous Drake and the evil Bishop.
Meanwhile, his best friend, Aiden, was at the forge every day with his father. That was dangerous work where you could get burnt or lose a finger if you weren’t careful. Aiden’s father was teaching him how to do it anyhow– making arms and armor for the soldiers.
Aiden got to matter. Aiden got to have people telling him how well he was doing and how much they loved seeing him taking after his father, doing such important work. Aiden didn’t spend all his time picking silly fruits in the hot sun for someone else’s pie.
It just wasn’t fair! They both helped defeat the Calamitous Drake, but he was stuck picking strawberries while Aiden had all the fun.
“Bah!” He growled as he stood up and tried to wipe the dirt off his knees. All he managed to do was smear a thin layer of sweaty mud into the little divots left in his skin by the straw on the ground around the berry plants. That always felt so weird. He rubbed at the indents in his skin, trying to get it back to normal, but all that did was spread the mud around.
“Ugh…”
He reached for the strawberry basket and realized it was overflowing. He must have picked nearly a gallon of strawberries. As much as he hated the whole process of picking them, there was something satisfying about having collected so many. He had picked up the basket by the wire handle, intending to run back to the house to show Ma, when he noticed a sliver of red poking out from under a leaf on the far side of the strawberry bed.
He stooped to investigate and, nestled beneath some leaves, he found two more berries he hadn’t been able to see from the other side. He bent at the waist and plucked them. Then, on a whim, he swiped the neighboring leaves aside and found another couple that had eluded him. He suddenly realized that, if there were this many here at the end of the row, there had to be at least another half-gallon of strawberries on this side.
He looked toward the far end of the patch, which now appeared to be a thousand miles away. His head hung low; he trudged over to the barn to get another basket, then returned and sank down into the strawberry patch.
The buzzing of the gnats intensified, the sting of sweat irritated his eyes, and the prick of straw dug into his knees.
“I hate strawberries!”
2. Freedom!
After what felt like a year, Logan finally finished the last row, dropping the last two berries into the loaded bucket. He ran into the house, hoping that stretching his legs might get rid of the prickling feeling in his knees, and burst into the kitchen.
“Ma! I’m done!”
“Let me see!” Ma replied with a happy eagerness, wiping her hands on her frayed and stained white apron, whose worn appearance matched the gingham dress she wore. That still bothered Logan. Ma usually took such good care of things, had everything just so. To see her in second-hand clothes that didn’t quite fit just didn’t seem right. He still resented the giant, Skull Crusher, for burning their farm and forcing them to move to Blooming Glen with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
Ma took the overflowing basket from his outstretched hands. “My, my, you have been working diligently, haven’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Logan beamed at Ma’s obvious pride in his work. Moments like this reminded him of how much Ma loved him, despite their hard lives.
“Well, I think everything is well in hand here.” She set the basket on the thick oak kitchen table and then picked the biggest, juiciest strawberry off the top of the pile. Logan’s mouth watered. After all his hard work, he would finally get a treat!
He started to reach for it, but Ma turned and walked to the kitchen sink. “This one will be perfect to top off the strawberry shortcake for tomorrow’s potluck, don’t you think? And the rest will be perfect for a pie for the county fair Monday.”
Potluck? County fair? Logan screamed in his mind. I picked all of those and now I have to wait until the church potluck tomorrow for even one taste? It’s just not fair! Heat burned in his cheeks.
His objections were about to burst out of his mouth when Ma turned back to him. “You did a good job; why don’t you go enjoy the afternoon in the woods? I know you’ve been itching to explore since we got here.”
“Really?” Logan asked, wide-eyed. Since they’d gotten here, Ma had kept him pretty much in the barnyard or at school for fear of who knew what. Was she really telling him he could explore?
“Yes, as long as you take that hatchet of yours and a friend. Maybe Aiden is done with his work for the day,” Ma responded. “They say even the small pockets of Darkness have been blown away by the spring storms, so there shouldn’t be anything more dangerous than a raccoon out there.” She suddenly raised an eyebrow. “And before you get any ideas, don’t be bringing home any furry creatures, especially raccoons. You know how much your Pa hates them.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Logan saluted and bolted to the loft in the great room to get his hatchet.
***
Logan raced towards Aiden’s house. Ever since the secret airship mission, he had wanted to explore the woods to the northeast of Blooming Glen. Even though the Darkness was gone, those woods were just as mysterious. Ma and Pa had warned him about playing in the woods alone, but he wasn’t worried. If Aiden was home, he’d bring his blessed hammer; there wasn’t anything they couldn’t tackle together with their hammer and axe combo.
Logan’s house was outside the tall log walls of Blooming Glen, so it was a good half-mile hike just to get to the outskirts of the town proper, then another ten blocks into the city. He understood that Pa wanted their family to be able to fend for themselves on their own land, but did they have to be so far away from his friends?
As he neared the city gate, his frustration suddenly evaporated, because Aiden was already running out to greet him. With his hammer in his belt. It didn’t look like much more than a tack hammer now, but it was amazing how both it and his hand axe would change size and shape to do a big of job.
“Aiden! You read my mind,” Logan called as he slowed to a walk on the dusty gravel path.
“Not me; Daddy Duck!” Aiden pointed above him, where his faithful golden duck was circling. “A few minutes ago, he flew into the yard and started quacking away. I wasn’t sure if it was something dangerous or something fun, but I’m sure glad to see you!”
“I’m glad to see you, too,” Logan replied. As they closed to arm’s length, they reached out their right hands and shook their secret handshake.“With all the work on the new house and the endless chores, a kid can’t get time to do anything important,” Logan griped
“Important? “Aiden raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, like exploring those woods over there!” Logan beamed as he pointed toward
the dark green smudge of close-growing trees far away to their left.
“That’s a great idea,” Aiden responded. “But it’s pretty far–at least a mile, maybe more. Do you think we’ll get to do any serious exploring before dark?”
“We can give it a try, can’t we?” Logan grinned back.
“Race you!” Aiden said as he took off in a jog toward the woods.
“Hey!” Logan called after him. “No fair!” Logan put his head down and dug in with his toes, launching himself into a sprint, but a smile cracked his face as he raced to catch up. It felt so good to be free in the wild with his best friend.
***
Out of breath and still laughing, they reached the forest’s edge and were met by a cool breeze. It should have been a welcome respite from the hot sun, but the refreshing chill quickly turned into a hair-raising prickle down Logan’s spine.
“Aiden,” Logan panted, hands on his knees, “does something feel weird to you?”
“Yeah, I was… going to… ask you the… same
thing,” Aiden huffed, the corners of his mouth bunching as he regarded the treeline.
“Look!” Logan pointed at Aiden’s belt where his hammer hung. It was emitting a soft blue light. He hadn’t seen that happen since the time they had fought the drake.
Aiden pulled it out of its loop and stared at it for a moment while his breath steadied. “This isn’t good; there must be…” he sucked in a long breath, “something from the Darkness in these woods.”
Logan straightened up enough to pull his hatchet free, too, and found that it had lit up in the same way. “What should we do?”
“We should go get Father. Darkness shouldn’t be… so close to the Tower of Light. So, whatever it is, it must be really bad.” Aiden tucked his hammer into his belt and turned back toward the city, stretching his arms up to open up his lungs.
“Are you sure?” Logan objected, and grabbed Aiden’s shoulder. “We just got here, and it was a long run.” He paused a second, still catching his breath. Aiden turned, and Logan continued, “We have our weapons, and they’ve kept us out of trouble before.”
Aiden nodded. “They did, but if you remember, we still got captured by the bishop there for a bit, and, without my helmet, I ended up with a face full of raspberry thorns. So don’t you think we should at least get Sissy and armor up before we go off looking for trouble?”
Logan gritted his teeth for a moment. On the one hand, Aiden was right. Nine months later, there were still a few pock marks on his friend’s face from the raspberry bush. You never knew what might jump out and bite you when it came to the Darkness. But they’d just run so far; surely they could get a peek at what was going on in these woods before heading back.
“How about we just do a scout?” Logan stepped to a bush on the outskirts of the woods and squatted down. “You know, like a couple of sneaky petes. Just scope it out and see what’s going on in these woods.”
Aiden seemed to consider it for a moment, wavering; he took one step back the way they’d come, then shook his head and made his way over to Logan. “All right, just a scout. But if there’s anything that needs fighting in there, we need to go get help. Deal?” Aiden spit into his hand and held it out.
”Deal!” Logan spat in his own palm, and they shook, “Okay, now follow me.”
Logan slowly crept from behind the bush toward a lush green fir tree. Aiden followed him and moved on to the next large bush. They leap-frogged each other from one bit of cover to the next, always looking for trouble and not seeing any. However, each move took them further up a little hillock just inside the forest’s edge.
At the top of the rise was a massive dead oak tree that had to be at least four feet in diameter. It was surrounded by twisted vines and thorn bushes that used it for support.
When Logan reached it, he stood with his back to it and waved Aiden to him. Then, suddenly, Logan gagged at a sickly, sweet-but- rotten smell emanating from the tree.
Aiden reached him, crinkled up his nose, and whispered. “Ugghh, there’s Darkness close by.”
“I’m going to see what’s on the other side.” Logan leaned to peek around the trunk.
Aiden grabbed his collar and hissed, “It’s just a scout. Be ready to run if you see something dangerous.”
“Roger that,” Logan whispered back as he choked down the awful smell. It seemed so familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it. Then he peeked around the corner.
He was so keyed up, expecting danger, that what otherwise would have been a quiet chuckle turned into a full belly laugh at what he glimpsed behind the tree.
“Logan! What is it?” Aiden cried. “Strawberries!” Logan laughed at the irony of the day. He’d gone off looking for an adventure to get him away from the strawberry patch at home, but now there were more.
Granted, these weren’t like the strawberries at home. They were purple, and the size of an apple, Three quarters of them had burst and were rotting with mold, which put a name to the smell he now recognized: rotting strawberries–but with a hint of something else. A closer look at the patch revealed a thick haze of black smoke surrounding the berries. The Darkness!
“Whoa!” Aiden exclaimed as he rounded the oak. “Those are the biggest strawberries I’ve ever seen.”
“They’re Darkness strawberries. Look!” Logan pointed. “How did it survive this close to the Light of the Tower?”
Aiden seemed to survey the scene for what felt like a year before replying, “See that depression they’re sitting in?” He motioned with his hands. “It looks like maybe… three feet wide by ten?”
“Yeah, so?” Logan demanded.
Aiden continued, seeming oblivious to Logan’s impatience. “Well, it looks like it sits in the shade of the big oak trunk and the hill we’re standing on.”
Logan looked more closely and could now see the edge of the tree’s shadow covering the patch and just beyond. “Okay, but shadows move, right? And what about the winter?”
Aiden scanned the area before replying, “I guess there are enough fir trees around this little area to keep the sun off, so the only way the Darkness would be disturbed is the Light of the Tower–which the trunk of the oak tree is blocking pretty much perfectly.”
Logan moved to climb down the hill, and Aiden whirled to watch him go, confused by his sudden departure. “What are you doing?”
Logan barely looked back, already intent on getting a basket from home to bring back. “Those are the biggest strawberries I’ve ever seen. They are sure to win a blue ribbon at the county fair next week.”
“Hold on, those are Darkness strawberries.” Aiden objected. “If they’re anything like Darkness raspberries, they’re just plain dangerous.”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “Dangerous?
What do you mean?”
“A while back, Uncle and I found some raspberries that were turned by the Darkness, and they were huge,” Aiden said, holding up his hands in a circle with his fingers barely touching.
“Well, great. Where’s the patch? We’ll get some of them and take them to the fair, too!” Logan looked around, expecting to see a bush nearby.
“No way, they were super dangerous.” Aiden shook his head feverishly. “The Darkness turned their juice into acid!”
Logan’s eyes went wide at that. “Seriously?” “Yah, it was super strong acid that ate through horseshoes and everything!” Aiden gestured vigorously. “We don’t have something to carry them in safely, and even if we did, when the raspberries were brought into the Light, they turned to dust. So there’s no way you could show them at the fair, even if we did take them home.”
Logan let out a deep sigh. So much for the blue ribbon. “So, what do we do?”
“The oak tree is dead anyway, so I say we just cut it down and let it fall on the patch and break any other limbs overhanging it when it falls.” Aiden held up his arm, bent at the elbow, and then pantomimed the tree falling with a clap. “Between the tree squishing everything and removing the block of the tower light, it should be good.”
“Are you sure the hill won’t still protect it some?” Logan pointed to the overhang where the tree’s gnarled roots stuck out.
“We can always have Daddy Duck come bank some tower light onto the dark places when we’re done,” Aiden replied.
“Alrighty then, I just hope my hatchet adds some power to this, or it’s going to be a long job cutting it down.” Logan reached to pull the hand axe from his belt.
“Aiden! Aiden, where are you?” A familiar voice was hollering from just outside the woods.
“We’re in here, Sissy!” Aiden shouted back. “Mama sent me out to get you,” Lauren, Aiden’s twelve-year-old sister, called.
“How’d she even catch up to us?” Logan hissed, annoyed.
“She must have come on Chance,” Aiden reasoned. “That pony is really fast for his size.”
“Aiden!” Lauren shouted, more insistently this time.
“We’re busy!” he called back. “Yeah! We’ve got–” Logan began.
Lauren cut him off with a sharp reply. “Mama says you need to come home right now!” She was using what Logan had come to call her “mother voice,” so he knew she wouldn’t be taking no for an answer. He rolled his eyes as she went on, “ Ethan and you left a big mess in the great room.”
“Ughhh. Chores!” Aiden groaned to Logan. “But I forgot; I was supposed to clean up before I left, and the Parson is coming for supper. Do you think you can handle this on your own?”
Logan had the hatchet in one hand, held just below the blade, and the handle was slowly growing into that of a full-sized axe. “Yeah, I’ve got this,” he sighed. He’d worked so hard to earn this time with his friend, and now it was already over. Chores ruined everything.
Aiden nodded and yelled toward the forest’s edge, “Coming, Sissy!” Then Aiden
turned back to Logan. “Sorry; we’ll get together tomorrow if we can, okay? And– when you’ve got the tree down, look around a bit; if you don’t think it took care of all the Darkness, let me know, and we can come back together with Daddy Duck.”
“Roger that!” Logan saluted half-heartedly with his free hand, and Aiden trotted toward Lauren’s voice.
With the power of the Light pulsing and humming through the axe, Logan felt like an unstoppable force. He didn’t need Aiden; he could do anything.
Go back to the New Classics Book Excerpts ➡️
