You laughed and cheered as you, Martin, and Chris zip lined through the trees of the Indonesian rain forest. You had loved all the creature adventures before, and now you were looking for the rare draco lizard.

"Zip lining is one great way to get around up here!" Chris called. You laughed at how you were just five feet away from Chris, but he sounded so far away.

"Yeah, but we've been zippin' around all day!" Martin yelled over the wind.

"And we haven't found zip!" You added. All three of you laughed.

"Where are you, draco lizards?!?" Martin asked the forest. You laughed at his usual childish excitement.

Soon, you came to the end of the line. Chris put his feet against the tree and detached the harness from the line. Martin did the same, and you after Martin. You looked down at the ground far below and flinched at the height. The fear wasn't so bad anymore, but it still made you uncomfortable to be so high up.

"Whoa." Martin said, looking with you. Chris put a hand on Martin's shoulder.

"No time for sightseein', bro!" He said. You and Martin both looked at him.

"You gotta keep up if we're gonna-" Chris continued, but you stopped him.

"What are you talking about? We're both right behind you." You said. Martin smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, but today we have to be at the top of our climbing game, like, can you do this?" Chris asked. He jumped up and swung around a branch above him a few times before landing.

"Show off." You said, then did a front flip while keeping your balance on the branch.

"Oh so what is this now, a "who's the best climbing Kratt" contest? I thought we were on a mission, to find a rare lizard." Martin said. You laughed.

"We are." You and Chris said at the same time. You smiled at each other, then Chris brought up a projection of the lizard on the creaturepod built into his glove.

"Draco Volans, one of the few species of gliding lizards in the world. There are other kinds of flying gecko." He said. You pressed a few buttons on your creaturewatch, and an image of a draco lizard popped up.

"But the one we're looking for is the draco lizard!" You finished. You closed the pictures and the projection disappeared. Chris did the same.

"That's why you gotta climb like me." He said. You rolled your eyes at him.

"What'r ya gonna do when it glides away?" You asked smugly. You pointed to a far away tree. "No way you can catch up with it then."

"I'll just have to go as fast as I can." Chris replied simply. He looked back at Martin.

"It'll come down to a split second. Whether we catch up with the draco and discover the secret of this mysterious flying lizard, or not." Chris said. While he was talking, a small grey lizard climbed headfirst down a tree and climbed up on Chris's shoulder.

Chris looked down at the lizard on his shirt, and it jumped away and zipped past you.

"A draco lizard!" You said excitedly. Martin stepped toward you and the direction the lizard went.

"And it's zipping away! Wait up, Zip!" Martin called. You and Chris looked at him with slight surprise.

"Zip? You named him already?" Chris asked. Martin looked at Chris, then back at the lizard.

"Well, he kind of named himself." Martin said. The tiny lizard quickly jumped from tree to tree. "Does he zip or what?"

"Come on. Now I'll show ya how to climb!" Chris said. You followed Martin and Chris to the edge of the branch.

"Wait up, draco!" Chris called. He jumped from tree to tree to keep up with Zip.

"Hang on, buddy!" Chris said to the lizard. He ran and jumped to a different branch before running again. He looked over to see you passing him on a vine. You swung ahead of Chris and landed on the tree next to the one he was about to jump on.

Zip passed by you, and you followed him to a branch lower down. You and Chris swung through the branches in perfect time to match the tree you were in. Chris did a hand-spring across two branches, and you ran and jumped to each one. Chris swung on a vine, jumped off another branch, and-

"Uh oh. I've got no glide!" He screamed, and started falling down to the forest floor.

"Chris!" You screamed. Thinking quickly, you tied a strong vine to your ankle and jumped down after him.

"I forgot one basic law of physics- if there's nothing holding an object up, it falls!" Chris screamed while he was falling. You continued your dive after him and he kept screaming random facts about physics.

"It falls faster, and faster, until-" Chris grabbed on a branch as he passed by one. 

"I grab something else to hold me up! Martin's gonna have to admit it, I really am the best climber." he finished. You saw the branch starting to break under his weight, and soon it gave way and he started falling again.

You tried to grab Chris before he could fall any further. You reached out your hand to him. Your hands got closer together, closer, closer...

But then Chris started falling faster, and you missed your chance to grab him. 

You flinched as you watched him hit a mud pit on the ground, and then again when you realized you were about a foot away from the mud pit. You held out your hands in front of you, but then the vine tightened around your ankle and held you up.

You sighed in relief, but then gasped as you remembered Chris. You reached up and untied your ankle, and you fell on your back. You got up quickly to see if Chris was alright.

Martin had beat you to the mud pit, and started trying to pull out Chris, who's head had gotten stuck in the mud.

"Chris, bro!" You said worriedly. You helped Martin pull Chris out of the mud.

"Are you okay?" Martin asked him. Aviva and Jimmy ran up to see if Chris was alright, too.

"Pretty lizards, land on my finger..." Chris muttered, holding up one finger. You wanted to laugh at the comment, but knew it wasn't the time and you were to worried about him.

"We better get him back to Tortuga HQ." Aviva said. You, Martin, and Jimmy just nodded in agreement, at loss for words by Chris's condition. Aviva and Martin held up Chris with J.Z. close behind and you dragging back.

The image of how you missed the chance to save Chris kept playing over and over like a movie in your mind. You came so close to keeping this from happening, and you still failed. Chris fell, and it was your fault.

(Martin POV)

Martin was really worried about Chris after that fall, but he was also really worried about (____). When he saw the mangled vine hanging behind them, it didn't take much to realize what they had done.

Martin looked at Chris, who was still dazed by the fall, and then looked back at (____), who was walking far behind everyone else. (____) was staring at the ground with a blank expression, and it made Martin nervous because they had never acted like that before, even when things were bad.

Martin's eyes widened when he realized he was more worried about (____) than he was about Chris. Even if he never admitted it to anyone, he wanted more to be closer to (____) than anything.

He just wished he could be the kind of brother (____) could love.

...

...

To Be Continued...