Moment of Truth by Batman444 (early readers TXT) 📕

"I hope we have enough time," said Steve.
"By my calculations, we will have plenty of time," Gus replied. It was thirty degrees below zero and the brothers were half way up Mt. Everest hiking.
"Wait a second," Steve whispered, stopping in place, "do you hear that?" All of a sudden snow came crashing down. "Gus!," Steve bellowed. The wind was blowing from the west which sent Gus and Steve rolling towards the east. Luckily, when the storm stopped, they weren't but five feet from one another. They stood up, dusted themselves off and looked around.
"Where are we?," Gus asked a little frightened.
"I...I don't know," stammered Steve.
"We need to go home now: we might die if we stay here any longer," informed Gus.
"Yes," agreed Steve, "but which way is home?" The snow storm had made Steve and Gus lose all sense of time and direction. They thought the storm had lasted hours, but in reality it had lasted a mere two minutes.
"I'm pretty sure we should go this way," claimed Gus.
"Alright," Steve agreed. They started walking in the north east direction. On their way, they saw a bush rattle. They looked at each other in fear, and out of the bush a large bear jumped at them. The brothers stepped back, slowly gazing up at the gigantic brown bear with sharp yellow-tinted teeth.
"Hey," roared the bear in a high pitched voice. Steve and Gus looked at each other in quick panic and back up at the large talking bear. "You do realize you're on the wrong side of the mountain right?", the bear added.
"What do you mean the wrong side?", asked Steve.
"You see," the bear began, "there is a side the people are allowed to hike on and a side they aren't."
"Well, will you help us get back on the other side?", asked Gus, "and for that matter off this mountain?"
"I would love to," grinned the bear, "but there is no time. "You can stay the night in my den, and in the morning I'll lead you to the bottom of the mountain."
"Sounds grand", the brothers stated simultaneously, and with that, they followed the bear."
"By the way," the bear started, "my name is Heath, Heath the Bear."
"I'm Gus, and this is my twin brother Steve," informed Gus.
"Nice to meet you Gus and Steve, where are you two from?" asked Heath the Bear.
"We're originally from Wisconsin, but we're here in India to help teach the kids for a few months," said Steve.
"Well, isn't that very kind of you, you two are very nice gentlemen," stated Heath the Bear.
"Thank you, we try," added Steve.
"Ah, here we are." announced Heath. "Sit on my couch and I will bring you some hot chocolate and some quilts, you're bound to be freezing," Heath added. When he came back out, the aroma of hot chocolate fused through the air.
"Who are the bears on these pictures?" asked Gus.
"Aha," laughed Steve, "this on kind of resembles Smokey the Bear."
"Actually, he's my grandfather," Heath informed. Heath took the picture off the wall, dusted it off, and put it back in its place.
"Smokey is a hero. Such a brave and noble bear," Gus said.
"Yes, and very wise too," added Steve, "I'm sure you're very proud to call him your grandfather."
"Yes, I suppose," Heath murmured with and unconvincing and slightly jealous look in his eye. "Anyways, let me go and cut you a slice of sweet cake, I'm sure you're starved," said Heath.
Steve and Gus sat down on the fuzzy couch and talked about how heroic Smokey the Bear was. When Heath the Bear came out of the kitchen, he wasn't holding a plate with sweet cake on it, for it was a huge dart gun! Within a matter of seconds both Steve and Gus were unconscious.
************
"Wake up, wake up!", said an unfamiliar voice. Steve and Gus opened their eyes and jumped back at the strange people. They were wearing togas made of hay or leaves and crowns made of grass and flowers. How they weren't freezing, Gus and Steve didn't know. "You gentlemen obviously aren't from around here, first thing to know is do not associate with Heath the Bear. He's insanely jealous of his famous grandfather Smokey," added the stranger.
"Wh.. Where are we?" stammered Steve.
"Why, you're on Mt. Everest of course, but that's not the question. The question is why are you here?", the stranger asked.
"We're he...", started Gus.
"We're inspectors of caves and huts on Mt. Everest, so please take us to your home," lied Steve.
"Hmm.. is that so? Well show me your badges then," said the stranger.
"Uhh...", stammered Steve.
"Exactly as I thought, to the dungeon!" flared the stranger. Some of the strange men picked up the brothers and began walking towards the stranger's home and into the dungeon. then they slammed the door behind them and locked it. It was so dark in there that they couldn't see each other. Then, they saw a figure coming out of the corner.
"Hey," the figure started, "I'm supposed to be scaring you, but I'm on break. The light switch flickered on; Gus and Steve were astonished at what they saw. The figure was a hybrid of a donkey and a dragon. "My name is Phil, those people that threw you down here hired me to scare the prisoners", added Phil. All of a sudden the three of them heard a strange beeping noise and looked down at the watch on Phil's wrist which was now lit up. "Well, I'm off break now so... RAWR!!!" Phil roared.
"Ah!," the brothers screamed. This torture lasted two weeks. When the strange people came to give the Gus and Steve food as they did everyday, they offered them one more chance. Gus decided to tell the truth.
"We are really here because we are teaching the kids in this country. We were supposed to stay here on more month, but since we've been in this dungeon for two weeks, that might get delayed," Gus informed. The strange were so grateful; they know how badly the kids of India needed the schooling.
"That's so heroic," stated the strange man. "You really deserve this," he added as he handed them a rather large key. Then he led them through a forest. They moved the last branch from their face and looked up at a huge gray, stone castle.
"This is your castle, whenever you visit us again, you will stay here. Needless to say, you two, thanks to Gus for telling the truth are now the kings of Mt. Everest", stated the strange man. The two men, jaws agape, ran up to their very own castle.
Across the hill, Heath was staring at the two brothers in envy through his binoculars...

Publication Date: 11-06-2011

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