Whatsamadoozle and Theo dove into the grass and grabbed it.
“The Whatsamadoozle is mine now.”
“You’re a conniving little cub. You’re going to pay for that.”
Cutter spread his wings, and their edges began to move like chainsaws and made a terrible grinding noise. He swiped, but Theo jumped out of the way. Then he ripped around and sawed ten trees in half.
“Teddy bear cutlet. Sounds delicious!”
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Theo took off into the forest with Cutter on his tail. The dinosaur cut down trees left and right as he followed.
The Whatsamadoozle glowed in Theo’s hand. He imagined it as a mallet, and it flashed. A magnificent mallet, three times his size but as light as a small stick, pulsed in his hand.
He swung around and smacked Cutter in the chest. The dinosaur fell back, his wings sawing through several trees as he tumbled. One of them fell on him, but he threw the tree off and ran after Theo faster than before.
“You won’t get away, bear.”
The trees rustled again and shuffled around them as they ran.
Not again.
Theo squinted through the canopy and saw that he was running toward the north star; he was in the southeast corner of the forest, and he guessed that he must have entered the forest from the west end, which was where he needed to go—but so much was happening that he couldn’t be sure.
Cutter was unfazed by the forest movement. “Some measly trees aren’t going to stop me from having teddy bear shish kebabs.” He leaped into the air, his bony feet stretched wide to land on Theo, but Theo turned the Whatsamadoozle into a shield with spikes. Cutter landed on it instead and yelled, jumping away. He reared his wings back and fired two slicers of blue energy at Theo. They looked powerful, and Theo didn’t know if the shield would protect him.
The trees kept shuffling around, and he spied a low-hanging vine on a nearby tree.
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Theo aimed the whip at the vine, and he sailed into the air just as the energy slicers whizzed by him. Cutter passed beneath him, his wings cutting the trees that suspended the vine, and Theo fell to the ground.
Cutter pivoted and laughed; he was standing in the way Theo needed to go.
“Let’s see you keep your bearing now.”
The forest dissolved before Theo’s eyes, and he couldn’t focus. He sank into the ground, and everything became a mirror image of its former self.
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Theo dashed past Cutter, narrowly missing the dinosaur’s wing. As he ran, several trees ahead formed a wall, preventing him from going farther.
Theo slid to a stop, looked back, and saw Cutter gaining on him.
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Theo jumped on the stick and bounced once; it was springy, and he knew that it could launch him high and far.
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He landed behind Cutter; the dinosaur kept charging ahead and accidentally sawed the wall of trees in half.
“You’re in my way,” Theo said, turning the Whatsamadoozle into a giant mallet. He smacked Cutter on the head fifteen times until the dinosaur collapsed.
“Ay-yi-yi . . .”
Theo jumped over Cutter’s body and took off running. As he did, the forest reversed itself.
A nearby tree grabbed Theo by the waist and launched him into the air; he broke through the canopy and saw the moon in the sky, and the forest exit nearby.
When he crashed through the trees and landed on the ground, the forest reversed itself again. The tree that had grabbed him laughed and disappeared among the other shuffling trees.
“I’m not the one cutting down your
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