Jayden Blue and the Lair of the Iron Lions, A World So Close Book Three
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Slap with a Bushy Tail 1
Chapter 2 – The Largest Wild Cat 12
Chapter 3 – Helped You Learn 20
Chapter 4 – He Was in Trouble 34
Chapter 5 – You Should Try Out 41
Chapter 6 – We Are Lions! 47
Chapter 7 – All Kinds of Trouble 62
Chapter 8 – Absolutely Unyielding 70
Chapter 9 – Hearts Are Iron 76
Chapter 10 – They’re Teasing You 86
Chapter 11 – One Entertaining Storyteller 93
Chapter 12 – Feline. Iron Lion. 101
Chapter 13 – What about the Closet? 112
Chapter 14 – It’s Not My Story 118
Chapter 15 – Better Chance Together 128
Chapter 1 – Slap with a Bushy Tail
He heard the strong, enthusiastic purring even before opening his eyes. By the way his blankets were pinned down on each side of him, he knew that they’d snuggled in as close as they could—it must be a cold morning, he thought, just like the forecaster had predicted.
“It’s snowing out there, isn’t it, guys?”
Like every other time, they chose to not answer, and their purring hadn’t changed at all.
So, Jayden tipped his head up and opened his sleepy eyes. He looked first to his right, at Halo, who was staring directly at him with his bright green eyes.
The cat tipped his head to nuzzle Jayden’s arm under the blanket, revealing the unmistakable white ring on his head and parts of his ears, obvious against his completely black fur everywhere else.
“Hi, Halo.”
Jayden turned his blinking eyes to the left, and he was greeted with an intense stare by a pair of shiny blue eyes.
“Hi, Hex. Hey, let’s not start the week with a hex, okay?”
He waited for an answer, but Hex didn’t offer one. He didn’t even stand and stretch to show a willingness to start the day. If he had, he probably would have revealed the black markings on his left side in the form of a letter “x.”
Instead, all Jayden could see was flawless white fur surrounding his piercing blue eyes.
“Oh, fine. A hex to start my Monday. Thanks, Hex.”
Both cats continued to purr, each only occasionally flicking his tail lazily.
Jayden wiggled his arms free and crossed them behind his head after running his fingers through his thick, wavy brown hair a few times. He lay there, looking at the ceiling, grinning at how both cats had shifted closer to tighten his cocoon.
“Last week,” he said, still studying the mostly dark ceiling, “we played hide and seek. Remember that? Remember all the unbelievable tricks you guys played?”
He looked at Halo, who had no response.
A glance at Hex didn’t lead to an answer from him either.
“I still haven’t figured out any of that. The week before, you were attacking me before I could sneak out of the house. Remember that?”
He looked at each one quickly, shook his head at their lack of any reply, and looked again at the ceiling.
He sighed deeply and said, “Of course. You’ll never admit anything. My real question is about what game we’re playing this week. How about a hint?”
When he felt the cats rolling into him on each side, pressing the blankets tighter and ending up on their backs, he laughed and reached out to scratch their bellies.
“What are you telling me? That you just want attention? Don’t you already get loads of that?”
Whatever they said, they said it with their purring while he continued scratching around under their chins. They gave each other a quick glance, then focused on his eyes again.
“What was that? You do have something planned, don’t you?”
He gave his clock on the nightstand a quick study, then tipped his head up enough to look at Hex and Halo.
“Okay, guys. I have to get going. I have to get ready, pack my books, eat breakfast, and get out on the porch in time to wait for the bus with Rayl.”
Hex didn’t move. Neither did Halo.
“Guys. Really.”
The cats purred and stayed where they were.
“Alright. You’re leaving me no choice.”
He got a good grip on the edge of his blankets and lifted them as high as he could.
The cats had dug in their claws and seemed to be enjoying the ride.
“Alright. You asked for it.”
He sat up, still keeping his hands up high, and the blanket was almost straight up.
Hex hung on. So did Halo.
“You guys are being ridiculous. Alright. Here we go.”
Still holding the blanket high, he brought his legs in tight, managed to stand up, and held the edge of the blanket high above the bed. The cats were about even with his head and even though he couldn’t see them, he could feel their weight.
“Guys! Come on! Really, I have to get going!”
The weight on the left side ended with the sound of Hex unhooking himself and plopping onto the bed. Then, Halo dropped too. When Jayden lowered the blanket, he saw both cats padding their way out of his bedroom, their tails pointing at the ceiling.
Never taking his eyes off of the door, he jumped to the floor, rushed over, and closed it up.
After getting ready for school, Jayden jammed all of his books into his backpack and made sure that all of the fasteners were closed and secured.
No way Hex can hide in there this time, he thought. And there’s no way they could be hiding in my room—I kept that door closed.
He cracked open his door enough to take a look around the hallway. He’d closed the bathroom door, and the other two bedrooms were closed too.
Will I be attacked? he wondered. Will they be hiding? Or something else?
He stepped out into the hall and pulled his door shut quietly. His sneakers squeaked only a little as he crept along the wood floor. The carpet runners on the steps helped him stay quiet until he was far enough down to lean over and peer into the living room.
It was dim in the room, still early morning, but enough light leaked in from the kitchen to light up pairs of green and blue eyes. The cats were lying comfortably on the dark blue couch, Halo mostly blending in with his black fur.
“Huh. Okay, I guess it’s just breakfast, then.”
He continued to the bottom and began the short walk through the room and toward the kitchen, unblinking eyes focused on him the entire way.
“Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.”
Jayden’s mother was finishing preparing his breakfast at the counter, and she said, over her shoulder, “How about an omelet today, Jay? Toast too?”
“Sounds good. I’m starving.”
When he took his seat, his father had already folded up the newspaper and said, “So, Jay, what’s going on this week?”
“Oh, the usual stuff probably. There won’t be any more track for gym class, not with all that snow. And in math, we’re going to—”
“No, not that. That’s all good, but I’m wondering about those cats. What’s the game?”
“Oh, the cats. Right. I have no idea.”
His mother set a plate in front of him and reclaimed her seat, where she continued to enjoy her steaming coffee.
“Mom, this looks great. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Oh, you know what? Before things get weird with those cats, maybe I should feed them.”
She set down her mug and within a few seconds, she’d popped the top of a cat food can and spooned it evenly onto two plates. At the sound of the prying of the metal lid, the cats had rushed in and were waiting for her to set the plates on the floor.
“They’re hungry too,” said his father. “In case you’re curious, I’m not opening the door to the garage.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think we’re playing hide and seek anymore.”
“No? Well,” he said, after finishing his coffee and standing, “you’ll have to tell me all about it later. I need to get into work early. Good luck with those cats, Jay.”
“Thanks, Dad, but I don’t think I have a chance with these two.”
“And do you remember why?”
“Yeah, Dad. They’re just too good at being cats.”
“They really are pretty smart,” said his mother.
His father had left, and his mother had kept him company while he ate his giant omelet and a second serving of toast.
“You do like that jelly, don’t you?”
“Yeah, Mom. I like strawberry, too, just like Mort.”
“Who’s Mort?”
“Oh, that’s Morton. He’s the one I almost beat in that race last week.”
“Well, you could probably beat him at eating omelets.”
Jayden grinned while he chewed.
The cats had finished and turned to face the table. They froze there, both standing and watching Jayden and his mother.
His mother shook her head slowly and said, “I’ve never seen that before, Jay.”
Both stared at the two cats, seeing that they’d gotten just a drop of food on their chins and down on their chests. The soupy brown mush was more obvious on Hex’s white fur, but Halo had his own tiny clumps clinging to his black fur.
“Me neither. How did that happen? What’s going on with them?”
“Oh, Jay! That’s actually a good reminder about those bibs. Remember that? Your father brought it up, and we were going to try to wear some the next time we had spaghetti.”
“I remember. But, Mom, maybe you really should make some for them too?”
“Well, you know, we sure could. Just for fun. Is Raylene coming over soon?”
“Yeah, she always waits with me for the bus. She’ll be here in a few minutes. I better get going.”
“Me too.”
“Where are you going?”
“Nowhere, Jay. Not yet. But I do want to see if I have anything to make bibs for the cats.”
“Really, Mom? You’re really going to?”
“Sure. Why not?”
Jayden stared at his mother for a few seconds, not blinking, then they both watched the cats take a leisurely walk into the living room.
I don’t know for sure that they won’t pounce on me, he thought, so I better be ready to go.
He put on his warm coat and added the backpack over it. He cinched it up tight and began a cautious walk out of his room, then down the hallway, then down the stairs.
Before he could lean over and peek around, he heard his mother’s voice in the kitchen.
Dad’s gone, he thought, so what’s going on? Maybe she’s on the phone?
He leaned over and saw their eyes shining brightly from the couch. Before he could wonder why they’d chosen to not play any kind of game, he noticed that something wasn’t right.
The pairs of eyes were at odd angles.
Sometimes, only one eye went dark, then the other.
In the dim light, they looked all jumbled up.
He was sure that was them, though, because who else could it be?
“Huh.”
He hurried to the bottom of the stairs and flipped the light switch.
“Oh, no way! You guys . . . how did that happen?”
Both cats were completely wrapped in loop after loop of yarn of many different colors.
Some loops held an arm and leg from Halo together, others held both of Hex’s legs, and another tangled clump held legs and arms from each.
Some loops held both cats to each other, side to side.
Both had tight strands that pinned their whiskers back.
One of Hex’s ears was wrapped tight.
A tight string across one of Halo’s eyes prompted him to keep it closed.
So was one of Hex’s eyes.
They’re in trouble! he thought. How can I save them the quickest?
“How did this even happen?”
One bright green eye and one calm blue eye pleaded with him for help.
“Mom! What happened?”
He heard her in the kitchen, saying, “Hang on, Sherri. Jay needs something. What, Jay?”
“Mom, what happened to the cats?”
“Oh, Jay, I have no idea. Anyway, I’m on the phone. Okay, Sherri, I’m back.”
Jayden rushed over and began unwinding the helpless cats, and he called out again, “Mom, they’re all tangled up!”
“Jay, just do the best you can.”
Jayden stared for a second at the doorway to the kitchen, then he shook his head and smiled.
Yeah, he thought. Hex and Halo and their games are just for me to figure out.
He got Hex’s ear free and began working on getting their whiskers loose. Then, he tried helping their legs, but their reflexes kept them kicking, and he couldn’t find the end to untie them.
“Mom, where did all this yarn come from?”
“Hang on again, Sherri. Jay, I was looking for material to make bibs for those cats. It was all mixed in with the yarn and stuff. Sherri, okay, what were you saying?”
Big blue and green eyes looked up at him while he frantically tried to unwind them. He finally separated the two cats and quickly got Hex’s legs free. He stood and arched his back.
“You’re welcome, Hex. I still have to help Halo, though.”
While he was trying to find a way to untie the mostly-black cat with a white ring on his head, Hex decided that he’d like to help.
“No, Hex, that’s not helping. You’re just going to—”
With his sharp claws, Hex had somehow tangled himself back into a knot with his brother.
“No, Hex! Mom! I can’t—”
A quick three thumps on the front door caused him to pause his efforts. Big eyes from his helpless cats looked up at him.
“You guys!”
Jayden jumped up and ran to the door. With a quick whoosh, he swung the door in, drawing in clouds of snow and waves of cold air.
Raylene stood with a mitten still raised where she’d been knocking. Her purple knit cap was plastered with snowflakes, and she tried to brush some of it off of her shoulders.
“Hi, Jay. You ready?”
Her cheeks were red from the cold and her eyes were bright. She gave Jayden a big smile.
“Yeah. I mean, no! Rayl, I need your help. Come on!”
He took her hand and dragged her inside, then he slammed the door.
“Look!”
“Jay. What did you do to them?”
“I didn’t do it! They did it themselves! Come on!”
Still holding her hand, he led the way to the cats.
“Hi, Hex. Hi, Halo,” she said. “What are you guys doing?”
They couldn’t move. Neither one spoke.
“Just help me get them loose, okay? We don’t have a lot of time before the bus gets here.”
“Where’s your mom and dad? Can they help?”
“My dad left already. And my mom is on the phone. It’s up to us.”
“Well, between the two of us, we should be able to figure this out.”
A few minutes later, they’d separated both cats from all of the yarn. Jayden balled it all up and jammed it back into his mother’s storage container, and he made sure that he’d snapped the lid closed tightly.
Both let out deep sighs and sat on the couch, the cats purring and climbing all around on their laps. Almost every time either of them turned, they whipped their tails into whoever’s face was closest.
“Halo, dear, enough with the tail!” said Raylene.
“You, too, Hex,” said Jayden, spitting out bits of cat hair. “We don’t need cat fur all over our faces. What’s going on with you guys?”
Each cat gave them one more solid slap with a bushy tail, then they settled down.
“Jay. That was weird. How did that happen with the yarn?”
“I wish I knew, Rayl.”
They heard their bus backfire, still far down the street.
“We have to go. Bus is coming.”
“Do you think we’ll ever figure out your cats, Jay?”
“Huh. I wonder.”
Out on the narrow porch that ran most of the length of his house, Jayden Blue stood with Raylene Hawkins at the top of the stairs. Three steps led to a walk that ran down to the sidewalk near the road. In each direction, tall evergreen trees grew between the sidewalk and the road, and another short walkway led to the street.
The porch and stairs were gray and the tree branches were green, but they couldn’t see any colors. Everything was white, and the sky kept dumping more. So many flakes were in the air that they couldn’t hear the bus rumbling toward them, its tires rolling on a thick white cushion coating the street.
“Maybe you should get some boots, Jay.”
He looked down at her favorite boots: tall and brown.
Then, he looked at his sneakers and felt the cold already invading them.
“You might be right. It’s really cold out here.”
“Snowy too. You ready for another week of school?”
“I suppose. How about you?”
“Yeah! I got the painting done, and I like how it turned out.”
A crow in the tree near the road cawed three times.
“There he is again!” said Jayden. “Think he’s going to fly at us?”
“I hope he does, Jay. Maybe we can see where he goes this time?”
“I wonder.”
The big bird flapped his wings a couple of times, hopping from branch to branch.
“Here he comes!”
The crow launched himself with his wings wide, and he dipped low, close to the drifts, flying straight at them. But he didn’t angle himself up. Instead, he only swooped to his left and rose a bit higher, just high enough to land on the porch about ten paces from them.
Jayden and Raylene stared, speechless, as the crow looked back at them. Then, he turned his head to face the house.
“Rayl, come on,” he said and took her hand.
They crunched through the deepening snow until they were ten steps from the porch, then they turned to look.
“Jay. I don’t believe it. I never expected that.”
“Me neither.”
Hex and Halo had jumped up onto the arm of a chair and stared out the window.
“They really are friends, Jay. Here too. Not just, um, you know where.”
The crow turned back toward them for a second, then he hopped and pumped his wings, circling away from the house slightly, then aiming higher.
They watched his flight for as long as they could, which was when they were looking at the upstairs bedroom windows.
“I know where he went,” she said, looking at Jayden.
“Me too. And we’re going there, too, right? After dinner?”
“Yeah, Jay. I love it there.”
“Still can’t talk about it, though.”
“Nope.”
Chapter 2 – The Largest Wild Cat
Jayden and Raylene stood near the bus door, and the driver hit the button again. And again, the door rattled but wouldn’t open. He got up, gave it a kick to shake loose the freezing slush, and it finally folded open—not all the way but wide enough to let them in.
“No track this week,” he said as they climbed the slippery metal steps.
“Nope. Winter sure is back again.”
They took their favorite seat, close to the front, and they paused their conversation until the bus had slipped and slid its way to a slow ride to the only junior high school in their small Nebraska town.
“It’s not at all warm here, Jay. We’ll never see any flowers either.”
“Nope. Later, though? Fields of them?”
“Yeah! Hey, what happened with those cats? How did they get all tangled up in yarn?”
Jayden turned to her and stared, shaking his head slowly.
“Rayl. They planned that. They made it happen.”
“What do you mean? How?”
“Just like last week, when Hex acted like a fish. Remember that?”
“Hex acted like a fish again?”
“No, Rayl, no! They both tricked my mom into deciding to make bibs for them!”
She tipped her head and squinted at him.
“I don’t get it.”
“Rayl, we were talking last week about wearing bibs the next time we eat spaghetti. Hex and Halo must have been listening, and they—”
“Your mom gave them spaghetti for breakfast?”
“No! But they slopped their breakfast cat food all over themselves, and that made my mom and me remember about bibs. Right then, she decided that she’d make some for them, just for the fun of it.”
“And she wrapped them up in yarn instead? Jay, what kind of a bib is that?”
“No, Rayl! She got into her stuff, looking for cloth, and then she got a phone call. When I came down the stairs, that’s how I found them! All tangled up!”
“Jay. No way. Your cats planned that? They really can’t be that smart, can they? They slopped their breakfast on purpose?”
“Who knows? Sure looks like it, Rayl.”
“Well, what kind of game are they playing? What was that all about?”
“Hmm. I wonder.”
Homeroom had just ended, and Jayden and Raylene were ready for their first class of the day: math. The hallways were crowded, students talking and laughing and hurrying in each direction. The bells would be ringing in only a few seconds.
“Hi, Jay,” said Tommy as he walked past.
“Oh, hi, Tommy. Time for math.”
“Yep,” he said before walking into the room without stopping.
“That turned out pretty good, Jay. The way you stopped him from tweeting during your book report.”
“It sure did. I had no idea that could ever happen.”
“No running today,” said Morton with a laugh while he was walking past, on his way to a different class.
“Nope,” said Jayden, and they grinned at each other for a second before he was on his way.
“Morton too?”
“Yeah, Rayl. But I call him Mort now.”
“Oh, like a friend. That’s nice. Is it because he beat you in that race?”
Jayden shifted his pack to his other shoulder and looked up and down the hallway. A group of laughing girls were walking past, and he waited until they were far enough down the hall.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
“Well, sure, Jay. About what?”
“About that race.”
She tipped her head slightly while holding his gaze. He looked quickly at how her dark brown hair had bunched up on a shoulder before looking back into her big brown eyes.
“What about it?”
“I could have won.”
She smiled and said, “Well, yeah, if you’d practiced more. The only running you ever did was, um, you know.”
“Yeah. Where the crow flies. But that’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean?”
She watched his smile grow bigger and when he nodded at her, her eyebrows shot up as high as they could go.
“Jay. No way. You let him win?”
“Shh!”
She giggled and looked both ways.
He kept nodding and said, “Yep.”
“Why? You wanted to beat him so bad, remember?”
“Because of what you said.”
“What did I say?”
“You said that running might be the only thing he’s really good at.”
“Oh, Jay, I did say that. So, you let him win? Because it meant more to him than it did to you?”
“Yep.”
She shook her head slowly, giving him a big smile, and just as she started to speak, the bells all around them erupted.
“Got to go!”
“Yeah, Rayl. Let’s go! Do you wish those bells were louder?”
“Nope!”
Mrs. Gregory looked around the room without saying anything, waiting for the students to all settle down and notice that they were being watched. It didn’t take long from her waving her yardstick around.
“We’re not done with circles yet, class, but we’re also going to expand our lesson to include geometric objects. While a circle needs only two dimensions, the objects we’ll be studying have three.”
Jayden glanced to his right and saw Raylene, in the very next seat, turn her head to give him a smile.
“Jay,” she whispered, “that was very kind.”
“What?” he whispered back.
“With Morton. How you—”
“Ms. Hawkins? You sound talkative enough to share with the class three examples of geometric objects.”
Raylene’s eyes stretched open, and she turned quickly toward Jayden, who was frozen in place and staring back at her, then she again looked at their teacher.
“Um, I think . . .”
“Yes, Ms. Hawkins?”
“Um, a cube.”
“Good. Yes. That’s a very common one. What else?”
“Uh . . . a sphere.”
“Very good. One more?”
“Oh! A cylinder!”
“Very good! Yes, those are three very common geometric objects. Who can offer any more examples?”
Jayden stopped listening, and he thought that maybe Raylene had, too, because she’d turned to him to offer a smile. He gave her a thumbs-up.
“Class,” said Mr. Penton, his eyes appearing three times a normal size through the excessively large lenses of his glasses. “Let’s get going on a new topic for us: the periodic table. But before we dive into that, was anyone curious enough to investigate the size of the largest wild cat ever seen?”
No one raised their hands. Jayden and Raylene and everyone else only looked around the room at each other.
“I find that trivia like this can be enlightening,” said their science teacher with a grin. “It helps to put things in perspective. You all have computers and such, so let’s make this a simple assignment for tomorrow: you all check and see if what I’m telling you is true or not.”
They all watched him silently as he poked lightly at his short gray hair.
“Well, of course, I wouldn’t lie to you. That’s not what teaching is about. But I do want to spur your curiosity—I don’t mind admitting that. But still, you should all check for yourselves.
“There are various reports about Siberian and Bengal tigers being the very largest. When they measure their length, it’s from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail.
“The largest of these are reported to be about eleven feet, or almost three-and-a-half meters. How’s that for a big cat?”
Jayden turned to Raylene, and she was already looking right at him, her mouth open and her eyebrows held high up. He gave her a smile and raised his hand, then he turned to look toward the front of the room.
“Yes, Jayden?”
“Um, do regular cats ever get that big? Can they?”
Amid light laughter all around, he again looked at Raylene. She was grinning and shaking her head.
“Mr. Blue. You mean, like house cats? Regular house cats?”
“Uh, yeah. Like if they were living in the jungle.”
More laughter. He even heard Raylene laugh once.
“No, Mr. Blue. That doesn’t happen. If they eat much more than they need, they won’t get taller and longer. They’ll just plump up and won’t be able to run up steps or climb trees like they used to.”
“Oh, okay.”
He let out a deep breath, glanced again at Raylene, and saw that she was still smiling. They both turned back toward Mr. Penton.
“So, go give that a look. Now, moving along to the periodic table.”
He pointed toward the large chart hanging on the wall over on the right side of the room.
“As you can see, every element has its own symbol. Some are simpler than others. Oxygen, for example, is just the letter ‘O.’ That one’s pretty clear. A lot of them don’t seem to make as much sense. We’ll study this in greater detail as we move along.”
Jayden had just set down his tray in the cafeteria, across from Raylene. To their left and right, other students talked and laughed and ate, sometimes looking out the windows at the heavy snowfall.
“No, Rayl, I’m not trading my fries.”
“What makes you think I was even going to ask?”
He turned his head and only grinned at her until she giggled and said, “That’s okay. You were already nice to Morton. That’s enough for a while.”
“I’ll give you all of that slop that you want, though.”
“Wow, thanks but no thanks. Jay, I can’t believe that question you asked Mr. Penton!”
“Wasn’t that fun, though? And what if they could get that big? Like we saw in that other, that . . . um, place. Where the crow flies.”
“Well, Jay, I think anything can happen there. You must have known that you’d get laughed at, right?”
“Yeah, I kind of figured.”
“And you asked it anyway?”
“Yep. Because it was just part of the fun. It just seemed like a fun thing to do.”
“Nobody tweeted either. How about that?”
“Yeah, I think that’s done. Even gym class is getting to be more fun. I’m glad I’m not a blue jay anymore.”
“You never were, Jay.”
Gym class, history, and English had come and gone, and Jayden and Raylene were bundled up and on their favorite bus seat. The low temperatures, high winds, and unrelenting snowfall seemed to hush everyone to a lower level of chatter than normal.
“Jay,” she almost whispered, “it’s a good day for hot chocolate.”
“It sure is. You’re coming over, right? We can look up that tiger stuff for a while, but then we can—”
“Go where the crow flies? Yeah, Jay. I wish we could talk about it. Oh, wait. Hey, Jay, what if Hex and Halo were as tall as you?”
He turned to her with a big smile. She popped her eyebrows up a few times.
“That’s right! We can kind of cheat, can’t we? Yeah, Rayl, imagine how far they could jump if they were that big.”
“I bet they’d run from a storm too. Through a field of wildflowers.”
He laughed and nodded.
“Toward a forest that looks like a wall?”
“Yeah. A really dark one. One that—”
She stopped at seeing that he was staring above the bus driver’s head, lost in thought.
“Jay?”
He shook his head and looked at her.
“Rayl. I was just wondering something. In that world where the crow flies place, how much time passes? I mean, here. How much?”
“Oh, Jay. I never even thought of that. Maybe it’s the same? It’s probably the same, right?”
“I wonder if we should try to figure that out.”