The Guardians of Island X by Rachelle Delaney

her belongings, which she’d left in a neat pile. Now they were strewn about as if a tiny hurricane had blown through camp with an eye for her things alone.
    “Again?” Scarlet jumped to her feet and ran to the other side of the pool with Jem close behind. When she reached the scene she stopped. Her coat, which she’d lately been using as a pillow, was gone. “Mon-keeeey!” she screeched.
    “Wait.” Jem shielded his eyes from the sun. “Look, over there!” He pointed to the edge of the clearing, a good thirty yards away.
    Scarlet turned just in time to see a shadow duck into the trees. “Monkey, if that was you, I’m going to string you up by your tail!” she shouted.
    “Monkey?” Jem said. “I think it was a person.”
    Scarlet shook her head. “I’m going after it.”
    Jem didn’t hesitate. “I’ll come with you.”
    “That’s nice of you, Fitz, but it’s not necessary. I can take on a monkey.”
    “Sure, but what if it’s a pirate?” Jem replied.
    Scarlet had no answer for that. She plunged into the trees with Jem fast on her heels.

CHAPTER SIX
    Scarlet was sorely missing her boots. But with Jem trotting behind her in fine expensive footwear, she couldn’t bear to stop and remove the slivers that pricked the soles of her feet. She bounded on, trying hard not to yelp.
    She thought she’d seen the thief a few minutes before, but now she wasn’t so sure. Whether monkey or pirate, it was small and light-footed and barely left a trail for them to follow.
    “I think I see it!” Jem puffed behind her. “Swing right!”
    Scarlet swung right, trying to scan the jungle, dodge trees, and avoid sharp objects on the ground all at once. It didn’t work. The toenail on her left big toe found a twisted root and lodged into it, bending backward as she tripped and fell with a shriek.
    “Scurvy! Blast! Blimey!” She sat on the jungle floor cradling her foot, which bled where the toenail had cracked. “Did we lose it?” she asked without looking up at Jem. He looked back at her with a why-on-earth-did-you-give-your-boots-to-a-monkey face.
    “I don’t know,” he replied. “Ugh, that looks painful.”
    His sympathy made her feel a bit better. Scarlet struggled to her feet and limped on through the brush.
    “Wait.” Jem turned around in a circle. “Which way were we headed?”
    Scarlet paused, suddenly unsure. Giant ferns leanedin from all sides. Vines hung like ship’s ropes overhead, and tall, towering trees shot up to the sky, blocking the sun. They were in the depths of the jungle, and Scarlet couldn’t tell which way the thief had gone, much less which way would take them back to camp. She remembered the stories Scary Mary used to tell her of people who’d stepped into the jungle, lured by the voices of the dead. The stories always ended the same—the people instantly lost their way and eventually their minds as they wandered aimlessly in the jungle for the rest of their lives. Scarlet had found them terrifying, every one.
    “Did you…bring your map?” she asked, cringing as she said it.
    Jem shook his head. “It’s back at camp.”
    Scurvy
, Scarlet thought. “I say we go that way.” She pointed right.
    “Uh…I don’t know, Captain. I think we were headed that way.” Jem pointed left.
    She hated when he did that.
    They looked around for a moment, then stuck out their fists and shook them three times before shooting.
    Jem’s paper lost to Scarlet’s scissors.
    “Blast. Best two out of three?” he said.
    She shook her head, triumphant. “Come on. I have a good feeling about this way.”
    But after a half hour of twisting around trees and ducking under vines, Scarlet’s good feeling had completely disappeared. Still, she pressed on with Jem at her heels, dodging giant ferns, climbing over rocks, and skirting bushes erupting with sweet-smelling flowers.
    Suddenly the tree canopy opened up, the jungle curtains parted, and the pair found themselves in a clearing. Scarlet was about