"Harriet!!" Gavin screamed as his friend was yanked backward, held tight in the claw of the bizarre creature that was absolutely not a bear.
For her part, Harriet was too busy flailing about wildly in a panic to respond.
The creature carried Harriet down the corridor with a roar, causing everyone to dive out of the way. Gavin quickly followed, running after the monster before he could talk himself out of it.
"Mr. Mallard!" yelled Mr. Chickawa from the doorway. "Get back here!"
But that wasn't going to happen. He rushed after the creature, which carried its prey by the shirt collar and ran down the stairs to the main floor.
"Somebody stop that thing!" yelled Gavin as he ran, but it all happened too fast for anyone to do much of anything other than follow Gavin and the creature through the hall.
The initial panic having receded slightly, Harriet was now trying to punch and kick at the creature carrying her, but her attempts were useless. She couldn't get past the coarse fur of the beast, and was dangling too far away to get any real strength behind her kicks.
As Gavin ran, his mind began diving into the subject of just what the heck did he think he was doing. His mind pointed out that he was currently running after a large monster-like creature with no plan on what to do if he actually caught it. He momentarily considered trying to use his new-found catapult power, but he didn't have any ammo and anyway there wasn't anyone around who could punch him in the face.
The creature, meanwhile, ran into the main entry hall and stopped for a brief moment, its attention caught by the dim rays of light filtering through the darkened windows. Then it snorted violently and charged the front door, bursting through into the comparatively bright sunlight.
"It's outside! Help!" called Gavin. He wasn't sure who he was yelling at, but hoped the message would be relayed.
"Keep back, boy!" came the voice of some unknown adult who didn't want a student putting himself in danger. Gavin ignored the voice and ran outside. What he saw floored him.
The creature was in the middle of the front yard of the school, not far from the Aurelia Limpit tree. While one hand continued to hold a squirming Harriet, the other was digging a very large hole, very quickly. Gavin screeched to a halt upon seeing this truly bizarre behavior. That's when it hit him. He knew what this thing was.
It was a groundhog.
A really, really, really big groundhog that was for some reason able to run around on two legs instead of four.
"So it's not a bear after all," he murmured quietly to himself.
"Mr. Mallard! What are you doing out here?" Mr. Hollowind ran up behind Gavin and grabbed him by the shoulders.
Gavin turned and pointed to the spectacle on the lawn. "It's got Harriet!"
"I can see that, but you are a student. Help is on the way."
"We don't have time!" argued Gavin. "It's burying her alive! No, wait, that's not what it's doing. It's digging a tunnel!"
Even as he said this, the giant groundhog jumped down into the new hole, pulling Harriet down with it. Gavin and Mr. Hollowind raced to the edge and peered into darkness.
"Good lord, how did it dig so fast?" asked Mr. Hollowind, sounding a bit shaky.
"What's it doing, Idris?" asked Mr. Atros, joining them from behind. Mr. Choi was a few steps behind him.
"It has the girl," answered Mr. Hollowind, pointing down into the tunnel.
"We have to go after her!" cried Gavin.
Mr. Choi spoke up for the first time. "What's he doing here? No students! It's too dangerous!"
"Yes," agreed Mr. Atros. "Get back, Mallard."
Other teachers soon joined them, and Gavin was more and more marginalized. When Mrs. Gruber arrived, she made quick work of Gavin and sent him away.
"This is for the staff to deal with, Mr. Mallard," she said. "Go back inside."
His shoulders drooped and he turned and stomped back toward the school, furious. Why wouldn't they let him help? Harriet was in trouble and they were just standing there!
"Gavin, what's going on?" Jud and Jupiter ran out the door and met Gavin on the front steps of the school.
Gavin explained what had happened and both of his friends gasped in horror.
"Are they going after them?" asked Jupiter.
"Why bother?" asked Jud. "She's probably already dead."
"No!" screamed a voice none of them at first recognised. Gavin looked around and spotted pretty much the last person he would have expected to see, Barry Zipper.
"Barry's right. She's not dead, Jud!" insisted Jupiter.
"Don't kid yourself," he responded. "It's going to dig its way someplace private and then eat her. That's what monsters do."
"But it's not what groundhogs do," said Gavin, who filled them in on his revelation.
"What do groundhogs eat?" asked Jupiter.
"They're mainly herbivores," said Barry, surprising them once again. "Though they have been known to eat grubs and other insects, or even baby birds."
"And you don't think Harriet is the size of a baby bird compared to the size of that thing?" asked Jud.
"You are no help!" roared Gavin, getting more and more frustrated. Lashing out at Jud wasn't useful, but it did make him feel better.
"We have to go down into the tunnel and find Harriet," said Jupiter. Gavin could see the wheels of her mind already beginning to spin.
"They won't let us anywhere near that hole," said Gavin, pointing to the mass of adults surrounding the opening. It looked like someone--possibly Mr. Hollowind--was starting the descent.
"Not that hole," said Barry. "We need to figure out where he's going to come out."
"That could be anywhere!" said Jud.
"Not if it really is looking for food," replied Barry.
The others stared at him for a moment, then understanding dawned on all of them at once.
"The garden!"
***
Leaving the excitement of the initial hole behind, the four teenagers ran around the back of the school into the school garden. Upon entering, they slowed down and spread out.
"Look for any sign of the thing," said Gavin. "Either digging up out of the ground or maybe pulling plants down into the tunnels."
"If it's here at all," said Jud.
"You got a better idea?" challenged Gavin. Jud remained silent.
The children spread out, wandering amongst tomato plants and strawberry bushes and hip-high corn stalks. An eerie silence settled over the area, leaving the four to stew in their own thoughts while keeping a watchful eye out for any sign of a giant groundhog.
Suddenly, Jupiter called out. "Over here!"
The others raced forward and found her staring at an empty patch of dirt. "It just yanked the plants down into the earth!" she claimed.
Gavin quickly dropped to his knees and began to dig. Barry and Jud helped him, and a moment later, Jupiter joined in as well. The four of them dug into the soft earth frantically for a moment until Gavin's leg plummeted down through the earth and he slid under the ground with a yelp.
"Gavin!" yelled someone. Gavin wasn't sure who. He was lying on his back in a roughly-dug tunnel about three feet wide and high. There was a sound coming from not far off. The sound of something chewing.
He quickly got to his feet and poked his head up out of the hole. "I'm in," he said needlessly.
"Do you see Harriet?" asked Jupiter.
"Do you see the groundhog?" asked Barry.
"No and no. But I hear him." He took a breath, feeling a little silly seeing as how he came up to their knees. "We need a plan."
"I think we just need to keep it in sight and wait for the adults to find it," said Jupiter. She held her hand up as Gavin started to protest. "I'm worried about Harriet, too. But what can we do?"
"What if it's eating her???" asked Gavin.
"It probably isn't eating her," said Barry quickly. "It can't be. That would be... very unlike a groundhog."
"Since when do you know so much about groundhogs?" asked Gavin.
Barry opened his mouth to answer, but Jupiter cut him off. "It's his ability. Well, not groundhogs, but rodents, right Barry?"
He nodded. "I can feel what they're feeling. Rodents. And groundhogs are rodents."
"So what's it feeling?" asked Jud.
Barry closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and shrugged. "It's too far away."
Gavin chewed his lip, anxious.There wasn't time for all this dithering about waiting for the teachers to do something. Harriet was in danger now. He thought again about what he could do. He supposed Jud could punch him in the face and then they could use a dirt clod or something and fire it at the groundhog. He shook his head, it was too complicated.
He lifted his head back up, eyes alight. It was too complicated. There was a much simpler solution. "Jud!" he cried. His friend looked down at him questioningly. Gavin smiled. "I think it's time for Rage Monster."
***
In the end, the very simple plan was for Jud to go into the tunnel, follow the sound of the groundhog until he came upon it (and hopefully upon Harriet), and then he would simply become Rage Monster and punch the groundhog, hopefully knocking it out.
Jud was less than enthusiastic about it, particularly because once he punched the groundhog, he'd likely pass out, and if his punch didn't do the job, he'd be helpless against any counter attack. Gavin, Barry, and Jupiter wouldn't let up, however, and he eventually agreed.
He climbed down into the tunnel, gave one last look at his friends, and disappeared into the darkness.
The next few minutes were the longest in Gavin's life. He wanted to go down there and help, but the tunnel was a tight squeeze and he'd only be getting in the way. There were so many things that could go wrong with the plan. The groundhog could have moved on. The groundhog could prove impervious to Jud's attack. The tunnel could collapse on him. Harriet could already be groundhog feed.
It was agonising.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Gavin, Jupiter, and Barry heard the scraping of someone crawling through dirt and approaching the hole. They held their breath, then let it out with a whoop of glee when Harriet poked her very dirty head up to the surface.
"That was the weirdest experience of my life," she said.
They quickly pulled her out of the hole and took turns hugging her in relief, Barry seemed more relieved than any of them, and Gavin suspected the boy might have feelings for Harriet. The thought soured Gavin a little, but he tried to ignore it.
Eventually, the adults came upon the unconscious forms of student and groundhog and both were dragged to the surface.
Jud was out like a light, which was to be expected. The groundhog was in a similar shape. Mr. Unger and some of the grounds crew took possession of the creature while Jud was carried to the nurse's office.
As the excitement waned, Gavin found himself sitting alone in the garden, trying to process everything that had just happened. He was still there when four adults walked into the garden.
"They've gone too far this time," Gavin overheard Mrs. Gruber say. She was speaking to Mr. Hollowind, Mrs. Gorgacheek and Mr. Choi. Gavin shrunk down low in hopes of not being discovered.
"What are you going to do, Ophelia?" asked Mr. Choi.
"I'm going over there to have a little chat with Symphonius," she responded. "This little conflict has got to stop."
"Not much of a conflict," observed Mr. Hollowind. "It's all pretty one-sided. It's not like we're doing anything to fight back."
"Maybe we should," offered Mrs. Gorgacheek. "Fight back."
Mrs. Gruber gave this a harumph. "I will make my feelings clear to Symphonius. These pranks have got to stop. Miss Grave could have died. Not to mention the two students we still have in alternate forms. I will go at once."
She stormed out of the garden, the others following quickly behind.
Gavin picked his jaw up off the floor as two thoughts came to his head.
First, Mrs. Gruber's first name was Ophelia, just like the woman in the photograph from decades ago.
Second, Mrs. Gruber was leaving the school.
Which meant she wouldn't be around to stop him from going into the hedge maze.