"Ya know, it's pretty eerie in here…" Emil commented as he, Remy and Etienne walked along the path in the swamps.

"It's cool." Remy replied. He laughed at the frightened expression on Etienne's face. "You can always go back if you want, Et."

Etienne's eyes widened even more. "No way! I ain' goin' anywhere 'round here alone!"

"Suit yourself." Remy chuckled.

The boys kept walking, pausing every once in awhile to climb trees, throw rocks in the water and look for alligators. They were having a grand old time, and were unaware of how quickly the time was passing.

"Hey! Look!" Etienne exclaimed at one point. "I didn' know dere were caves in de swamps!"

"Cool!" Emil and Remy breathed in unison.

"C'mon, let's go in!" Remy suggested, leading the way into the dark cavern.

As they explored the cave, keeping eyes peeled for bats, Emil noticed something.

"Uh…guys? Is it jus' me or is it getting darker in here?" he asked, a slight waver in his voice. He suddenly got the feeling that it was very late and that they were going to be late for supper, if they weren't already.

"Yeah…" Etienne replied, his voice barely above a whisper. "What time is it?"

"I dunno. Don' have a watch." Emil told him.

The boys went back to the mouth of the cave and looked outside. It was indeed growing very dark, and the swamps were filling with shadows and noises that weren't there before. To make matters worse, the boys realized they had gone further than they had planned. Even in daylight, they knew they would have a hard time finding their way back home.

Suddenly, Remy left the cave, much the alarm of his cousins.

"Remy! What're you doin'? Come back here!" Emil yelled after him.

Remy paused and looked at them, his strange red pupils glowing in the darkness. "We can' go home tonight," he explained. "An' we're gon' need a fire. Since I can see perfectly well in de dark, I t'ought I'd get some firewood."

"Oh…" Etienne replied, moving closer to Emil as somewhere nearby an owl hooted. "Mil, I'm scared."

Emil put an arm around his younger cousin's shoulders. "I know Et. But we'll be okay in here, an' Remy an' I won' let anyt'ing happen to you."

Etienne looked up into Emil's face, a mixture of fear and hope in his pale blue eyes. He saw those same feelings mirrored in Emil's eyes. "But who's gon' stop somet'ing from happenin' to you?"

Remy dropped an armful of wood at their feet and grinned. "No one!" he said. "As long as we stay together an' keep 'round dis cave, we'll be fine."

"Do you know how to start a fire, Remy?" Emil asked as the last bits of light faded from the cave. He would have given anything for a flashlight or a lantern at that point. Or even a book of matches.

"Never made one without matches b'fore," Remy admitted, piling the wood together. "Do you know?"

Emil shook his head. "I know you're s'posed to be able to do it by rubbin' two sticks together, mais, I t'ink dere's a special way to do it."

"So what're we gon' do?" Etienne asked miserably, sitting on the floor of the cave and hugging his knees. He was only eight years old, two years younger than the other boys. And he was visibly frightened by the whole idea of being trapped there in the dark.

"Pray it don' get too cold." Remy replied. "I wish I had some matches…"

"Remy, we're only kids, we're not 'lowed to play wit' matches." Etienne reminded from his spot on the floor.

"Dis ain' playin', Et." Remy retorted. "'Sides, not bein' 'lowed didn' stop us from comin' here, did it?"

"Oh man, dey're gon' be so mad at us…!" Emil exclaimed. "We'll be lucky if dey only ground us until we're twenty-one!"

The boys sat in silence for a few moments, each of them thinking about how angry their fathers were going to be. Finally, the dark silence was broken by Etienne's quiet voice.

"I'm hungry."

"Me too." Emil admitted, noticing how empty his stomach was. "But dere's not'ing to eat. We didn' really t'ink dis t'rough, did we?"

"Nope." Remy replied. "I t'ought it would be fun. An' it was, until it got dark."

"What do we do now?" Etienne asked.

"Go to sleep an' hope we can find our way home in de morning." Remy said. That was, he felt, the only logical option they had.

The next morning, the boys were awakened by the sound of voices outside the cave.

"You don' s'pose dey came dis far, do you, Henri?" the first voice questioned.

"I figure, if we did it, dey can do it," a second voice replied.

"I jus' hope dey're okay," the third voice commented.

Inside the cave, the boys looked at each other, elation showing on their faces.

"Dat's Theoren, Claude an' Henri!" Etienne whispered. "Dey came lookin' for us!"

"I wonder what Henri meant…?" Remy began as they got up and headed outside to find their rescuers. They didn't have to go very far.

Henri, Theoren and Claude were leaning against some trees just outside the cave. They weren't exactly surprised to see the children coming out of the cave, but they were relieved, especially Theoren and Henri, who had been very worried about Etienne and Remy. Worrying is, after all, something big brothers are very good at doing.

Theoren smiled at his two best friends. "I don' know, mes amis, should we hug dem or yell at dem?"

"Hug now, yell later!" the three boys exclaimed.

After the hugs were exchanged, Henri said, "C'mon, let's get you guys home."

"Wait a second," Emil replied, looking back at the cave.

"What?" Claude asked, confused.

"Well, it was cold in dere last night, 'cause we couldn' make a fire." Emil explained. "Do you guys know how to make a fire without matches?"

"Yes." The three men replied.

"Can you teach us? We have de wood." Remy asked, realizing that Emil had been trying to prolong the return home and the inevitable yelling.

"Later." Henri told them. "Now c'mon."

"Later…b'fore or after de yelling?" Etienne asked hopefully.

Theoren raised an eyebrow at his young brother. "Don' push your luck, Et."

The boys' fathers decided after much debating that their sons were to be grounded for two weeks. And even though that punishment also included no playing with each other, the boys accepted it without complaint or protest. They all knew, given how angry their fathers were, that it could have been much worse.

Later that night, after Remy had gotten ready for bed, Henri came in to say goodnight to him. Remy thought it would be a good time to ask his brother the question that had been bothering him since the morning.

"Henri?"

"Oui, mon petit frere?"

"Dis mornin' b'fore we came out of de cave, I heard you say you t'ought we could go dat far from home b'cause you did it. What did you mean?" Remy asked, sitting up in bed.

Henri sat on the edge of the bed. He couldn't help chuckling at the memory. "Well," he began. "Theoren, Claude an' I grew up together, de way you, Emil an' Etienne are goin' to. We're all 'bout de same age. Anyways, when we were, oh, I'd say prob'ly 'round de age you guys are now, we did de same t'ing."

Remy's eyes widened. "You guys went explorin' in de swamps an' got lost too?" He exclaimed, unable to picture Henri, Theoren and Claude going against the rules set down by their own fathers.

Henri chuckled again. "Yeah, well, no one's perfect, Remy. An' ev'ryone gets into trouble from time to time. We had it a little better den you, t'ough, when we were lost."

Remy frowned. "How so?"

"We had fire." Henri explained. "Claude had taken a book of matches from his father's desk an' we used dem to make a fire. An' in case you're wonderin', dey gave you de same punishment dat we got. Although Claude was grounded an extra week for takin' de matches…"

"Whoa…" Remy breathed. "Maybe it's a good t'ing I didn' get my wish…"

Henri ruffled his little brother's hair. "Prob'ly. Now you better get to sleep b'fore I get in trouble for keepin' you up past your bedtime."

Chapter Three: Leaving on a Jet Plane