“Hurry! I don’t have enough time. You need to find it in the trees before it’s too la-,” Ezra says on the phone before the line disconnects.
“The line disconnected. I think they caught him,” says Alex throwing the pencil in frustration. Alex and I are at a cabin in Washington where Ezra, Alex, and I usually meet.  There are monstrous trees surrounding our cabin, birds chirping, trees swaying back and forth with the wind, and the harsh breeze hitting us softly on our faces. It is in the middle of a forest where we can just relax without being bothered, that was until yesterday, when Ezra had gone missing. Alex is 5’10, almost always wears hair gel, plays the guitar, and a really sweet person, with an excellent voice that will make you want to sing along with him.
“What do you mean? What happened? Is he okay? Is he alive? What did he say?” I shoot a bunch of questions to Alex. Yesterday we were in the cabin when out of nowhere we heard a ‘help’. We, of course, went outside and checked what was going on. Ezra stayed inside because he was sleeping. Alex and I headed outside to see what happened. When we came back Ezra was not in bed anymore. We thought he went out to look for us, but when he didn’t come back the next morning, we knew something was wrong.
“He sounded as if he is being held captive. He said that we need to find it in the tree before it's too late. I’m not sure what he’s referring to, and there are too many trees to know what he is talking about.” Alex said looking disappointed in himself.
          

“Did he say what ‘it’ was exactly?” I asked, wondering what Ezra could have been talking about. ‘It’ can be anything. It could be a note, or possibly a necklace, or maybe just a simple thing like a piece of chocolate. This mission is going to be hard. All we know is that Ezra wants us to find something that could possibly save him.
“I don't know, it can be anything. There’s a lot of trees so it will take days to find what he wants us to find,” Alex explains. “We need to call the police to help us find him.”
“Alright, let me just get the clothes outside that I left outside to dry,” I say, walking out with my basket. I feel a rock hit me and I look at the direction from where it is thrown but don’t see anything. I look at the ground where there are leaves from the trees and dirt, and see a piece of paper wrapped around a rock. I pick up the paper and start reading it. My mouth flies open as I read it. I jog inside the cabin looking for Ezra.
“ALEX!,” I yell as I enter the cabin. “You won’t believe what I found.” I say handing him the paper all wrinkled up.
“How does the person know that we were going to involve the police? Does this mean that we are being stalked? What if the kidnapper is watching us from outside? What if he/she installed cameras in our houses and knows every single move of ours?” Alex says pacing around the living room.
“Let’s go outside and have you get some fresh air,” I suggest. We walk outside and sit on the patio swing. Alex seems to be relaxed and closes his eyes. We can feel the breeze hitting our faces. There are birds chirping as if they were in an orchestra, with their chirps on tune. I stare
into space without realizing what I’m looking at. I see a tree that has a porcupine carved onto it.
In all the years that we have visited the cabin, I have never seen that porcupine carved onto the tree. What if that is the clue? But what could that mean?
“Hey Alex, what if that porcupine carved on the tree is the clue?” I asked, walking towards the tree. I look around the tree just to see if there are any more clues but there isn’t. I hear a creek on the right of me and hear Alex shouting,
“Help! There’s a porcupine! It has needles!” Alex screams like a little girl.
“That doesn’t mean I will hurt you,” whispers the porcupine with a smile.
“It talks!” Yells Alex running into the house. That guy gets scared of everything.
“I saw your friend, Ezra,” the porcupine explains. “He was in a cave with some fairies keeping him inside. He gave me this note to give to you when they were gone. It will explain what happened.” The letter read,
Dear Alex and Diana,

I have been kidnapped by these fairies that want to take my magical power. You might not believe me right now since I have never told you about my magical powers, but it is real. I have the ability to think of some type of food that I want and then it appears. That is how I have gotten us pudding, fried chicken, and chicken soup when we had nothing to eat when it was raining. If the fairies find this stone, they can take my power away. I was born with it so if they take it away, it is like taking my life away. Help me find the stone and keep it in a safe place where no one, not even me knows where it is. I sent you a porcupine to help you find the stone. Alex, I know that you are afraid of porcupines, but you have to conquer your fears. If you don’t do anything to Jerry, it won’t hurt you. Lots of love.
Sincerely,
Ezra xx

“Is this true?” Alex asks, stepping as far as he could away from Jerry. I start thinking. What if Jerry is just pulling a prank on us? No, it is Ezra’s writing. It also can’t be Ezra pulling a prank on us. He’s the mature one.
“No one else can find out, If they do, they can use that stone to take away someone else’s powers and the fairies will just kill Ezra because he will be useless to them,” explains Jerry.
“We have to find the stone as fast as we can,” I say. “Did he say where the stone is located?”
“He said it was where the three of you met,” Jerry responds. That will be easy. But what if we don’t get there in time? Then Ezra will die and we will feel like it was our fault. “We need to hurry!”
“The park where we met is forty-five minutes away! Let’s go right away before the fairies find out and use the stone!” Shouted Alex. Alex gets in the driver's seat, I sit in the
passenger's seat, and I put Jerry in the middle of Alex and I. Alex freezes in shock when I put Jerry next to him. He gets out of the car and goes around the car to tell me something.
“What if he kills me?” He says, seriously.
“Oh Alex, he won’t kill you. You need to face your fear so we can help Alex,” I say shaking my head.
“Fine. I’ll do this Alex.” He says going back to his seat. We pass some cabins, houses, and then finally get to the park.
“So the part where we met was by the swings. There are two trees that are near  the swings. You check on the tree closest to the swings, and Jerry and I will check the other one,” I suggest. We get off the car and run to the trees. I check the tree and find nothing. I turn away, heading towards Alex, but before I take a step, I hear a voice.
“Don’t worry. I hid the stone. I can protect it. I’ll make sure no one gets it,” I turn back and face where the voice was coming from. The tree just talked. A magical tree! No, there are two!
“I’m Liz and this is Tom. We know Ezra and we can keep this stone away from the fairies or other people who want to steal it. Go find Ezra and save him,” Liz explains.
“You, kind trees, are awesome!” I say before I run to Alex and go rescue Ezra. We now know that Ezra will be alive when we see him. Thank you, trees for being wonderful.