Lena knew that she didn't have one minute to waste.
She ran straight back to the big oak tree and scrambled up the rope ladder to the top.
Oh, hey, you're back early, Johnny said.
Johnny, we have to do something.
The people at my camp.
I just heard them saying they're going to start cutting down all the trees this Friday.
And they're starting with the big oak tree.
Johnny's smiling face changed to a stern one.
But this oak tree is the only way to get in and out of the treehouse city.
If they cut this down... Come with me, he said.
Johnny started walking and climbing higher into the trees as Lena followed closely behind.
The air was getting cooler as they climbed.
The leaves were whispering around them like a secret choir.
Finally, they reached the tallest platform she had ever seen.
So high that the moon itself seemed to rest just above the treetops.
Johnny pulled out a horn and he blew it.
And moments later, dozens of kids appeared from around the city, as they began gathering there with lanterns glowing in their hands.
And from this height, Lena could see the entire treehouse city stretched below.
Bridges crisscrossing like spiderwebs, hammocks swinging gently and little fires glowing like stars caught in the branches.
It was the most breathtaking thing she had ever seen.
The boy stepped forward, his patched shirt flapping in the night breeze and his voice carried easily over the crowd.
He began speaking to everyone who was there.
This city hasn't lasted this long by accident, he said.
It only survives because kids like us protect it.
This is Lena, as he pointed her out to the crowd.
She's the newest member of our city, and she just told me about something we all need to know.
Well, Lena didn't expect this.
She nervously stepped up to the crowd and told them all what she had just learned about and how, if they didn't act fast, the entire treehouse city would be destroyed within days.
Then Johnny stepped forward and said We all know how special this place is and sometimes the city needs us to take care of it, just like it took care of us when we needed it most.
Who here will protect it with me?
And every kid in the city roared back.
And in that moment, Johnny and Lena looked at each other, because they both realized why Lena had been chosen to discover the Treehouse City.
The city needed a protector, someone who could see the dangers that threaten the city from the outside.
And that's exactly who Lena was turning out to be.
We have four nights, Johnny said.
They start cutting on Friday.
We'll split into crews, one kid yelled.
Yeah, we'll do what we do best, said another.
Good, Johnny shouted.
Lena, you're with me.
As they got to work, a girl with a braid down her back raised her hand.
I'm Eleora.
I make maps.
She held up a roll of bark covered in inked lines.
I can use this city's magic to turn their paths into puzzles.
A boy with smudges on his cheeks grinned wide.
I'm Kieran.
I like to tinker around.
I can make their tools stop working.
And then another girl in a green cap stepped forward.
And I'm Mia.
The animals listen to me.
We can ask them for help.
Lena felt the same flutter in her chest that she had felt the first time she climbed the rope ladder.
The flutter didn't feel like fear anymore.
It felt like purpose.
Every kid in the treehouse city worked that night while the camp slept.
They tied soft bells high in the branches so the wind would send a warning song if anyone came too close.
They wove hidden rope lines from tree to tree and they packed pouches with pine cones, acorns and pebbles.
And they practiced their hand signals and owl calls.
Eliora redrew the forest floor.
She moved fallen logs just a little, and she laid sticks in careful shapes that looked random, if you didn't know any better.
Her new pathways through the forest were a maze that would make it quite difficult for anyone unfamiliar with the woods to make their way through.
Kieran tested a coil of vine that could slip around any tool the loggers carried.
He prepared a bit of sap that they could put on the handles of their tools so they'd feel too sticky to hold.
And Mia sat at the edge of her treehouse with her palms out.
A red fox walked onto the platform and sat beside her like a dog.
A pair of crows landed on the rail, heads tilted and an owl flew up next to her and landed on a nearby hammock line.
Mia whispered to each of them and somehow each one understood exactly the danger that was coming to the forest.
She instructed them not to bite and not to claw, only to warn their friends and to lead the loggers away when the time came.
They worked until dawn the first night, and the second and the third, and on the fourth night they slept in their clothes and had packs ready.
And when Friday came, the kids woke up to the sound of engines growling at the edge of the woods.
Trucks rolled in and then stopped where the path narrowed.
A crew of men climbed out with hats, vests, and clipboards.
They spoke in low voices, and Lena and all of her friends knew that this was the moment they had all prepared for.
The loggers began marching closer.
One of them pointed straight at the oak tree.
Start with that one, he barked.
The men revved their chainsaws to life as the engines roared like angry beasts.
Lena could feel her heart pounding in her chest.
And somewhere deep in the forest, a fox barked.
An owl hooted and every child held their breath, waiting for the signal.
But that's a story for another day.
