Bone Vol. 3: Eye of the Storm

By Jeff Smith

This one begins with Fone reenacting a scene from Moby Dick, which is overseen by Miz 'Possum who is bewildered by the display. Fone stops reading, even though Miz 'Possum was curious to hear more, but she had stopped by to check up on everyone. They apprise her where they'd been sleeping whilst the roof is getting fixed and then she enquires about Phoney Bone and how he's being handled since his little cow race mischief.

Miz 'Possum leaves after to get back to her kids and Fone Bone learns Thorn is up for watch duty, offering to sit up with her, but she doesn't mind the alone time for being free of the dreams she's been having. On the walk back they run into Smiley and he shares Phoney's new plan of raising enough goods to get them out of debt and back home, seeing what he had in mind set Thorn's belief Phoney's adjusted to his new life well, back into perspective.

Then it's night and we see some rat creatures are paranoid of someone nearby, especially the one which hasn't been checking for four days. Once he confirms there's no one about they settle with the thought Kingdok won't detect them. Then one hears something again and requests the other to look, realizing Kingdok has only then found them. Kingdok isn't going to kill them though, but has brought them a bag of rabbits, giving them words of encouragement and leaving, to their extreme relief.

Then we see the farm-house and Thorn has drifted off, having another dream. First she's quite young and practicing the flute, then she's older and a hooded figure asks her to approach, when the hood is slid up, it's Fone, which is when she wakes and tries to speak with Fone who's dreaming, quite asleep.

We then see what Fone's dreaming of, being a Moby Dick inspired one, with he and Phoney chasing the white whale, which turns out to be Smiley. Phoney still tries to catch him, though and in so doing, Fone goes overboard, but before, noticing a coffin on the ship, which had gone overboard with him. As he climbs atop the coffin, he sees the Red Dragon cresting a wave and then Fone wakes up to discover it's late in the day and no one is inside. When he looks around outside, there isn't anyone about out there, but Ted who makes small talk about Fone's terrible love poetry, who then relates what the group is up to and realizing it's break time, Fone decides to work on the new poem he's been writing for Thorn. As he's making headway on the poem, Thorn walks up asking about what he's up to and after playing it off, she inquires as to whether he remembered what he'd dreamed of.

After Fone imparts what he remembers, she lets him know she'd had a dream with him, but possibly not him in it as well, making him bashful and picking her flowers, but she having left already and the Red Dragon walking up after, plays it like they're for him, unbeknownst to Fone, but once he turning around and realizing who he's now talking to, confides his dream, which the dragon is unsurprised to hear about, revealing they'd both had an "intruder" in their dreams and leaving him. Fone is irritated by the dragon's parting nickname and goes back to writing his poem when Smiley and Phoney walk up and Phoney decides to intrude on what Fone's been writing. Phoney then makes sure to differentiate how Fone's been acting to how they've been acting toward Gran'ma Ben and Thorn to how he's been offering his time like a slave, but upon hearing the "dinner" bell, go off running to the house, but to be disappointed when the bell Gran'ma Ben had rung was for them to make the dinner, not eat it. Once they realize they've got to kill some chickens and prepare them for cooking though, they begin to look quite shocked and dizzy at the task.

After, Lucius wakes up the boys to do some work for him since it's his turn to make use of their manual labor, to all of their, especially Phoney Bone's loud bemoaning. Fone soon determines he can either choose to stay with Gran'ma Ben and Thorn or go with his cousins, he of course opting to stick around with Thorn; and Gran'ma Ben, of course. So whilst the boys and Lucius get on their way to Barrelhaven, Thorn and Fone start on some chores and a project Thorn wanted to begin. Meanwhile on the road, Smiley tries to get Lucius to open up on his personal life, finally getting him to speak about an almost fiancée which didn't become anything more.

Then Lucius realizes someone is following them so they make precautions by lightning the cart and making Smiley ride the cow in case they had to make a quick escape. As Lucius and the boys are wary of the mysterious follower, Thorn is scaring bone with the back story behind ghost circles before the storm hits, they retreating to the barn. When they get comfortable in the barn, Thorn instigates conversation about the dreams they've been having. As this is happening Lucius and the Bones path is blocked by a falling tree and Smiley makes them realize the rat creatures are following and getting closer. Lucius asks them what they've come for and they ask for the star-chested Bone, Lucius then yelling for Smiley to go and get help from the town, but he having his own plan which gives them an action-packed diversion, ending with them going straight over a cliff.

They land safely, but quite a bit more wetly, since they've now been reached by the storm. We then skip back to Fone confessing to Thorn of his dream and the Dragon's response which seemed odd, since he hadn't told him the details of his dream involving him. They continue to figure out the meaning of both their dreams and Fone lands on how Gran'ma Ben is the one who seems to know the most, before she interrupts them. She doesn't say a word, though, giving the air of being straightforwardly mad.

Fone then decides they should go after her to expose what she knows, Thorn shocked by the whole experience. After Fone goes out of the barn, Thorn recovers and shows him she'd headed into the woods, Fone becoming certain they'd get lost and should turn back for it being too dark, but Thorn believes she can follow and they soon see Gran'ma Ben up ahead of them. They confront her, with she not divulging any answers other than they should get back to the barn, but they both stand firm in learning more. Gran'ma Ben seemed to be going after the Dragon since he had made an oath not to invade Thorn's dreams somehow and Gran'ma Ben is continuing to try and get the both of them to return to the barn when a loud crack brings the rat creatures coming towards them to Gran'ma Ben's attention.

Then we follow Phoney and Co. walking in the woods, Smiley shouting cowboy phrases as they go, for some reason and Phoney promising idle threats as Smiley asks the usual question reserved for children on long road trips. Soon Smiley's pointing the finger back at Phoney for feeling he's so smart and reminding him his smarts didn't do much for him at the cow race. Phoney soon has Lucius defending his business acumen, as well when Lucius notifies him of how he'll be looking forward to working him like a horse through the summer and soon after Lucius is baiting Phoney to bet he wouldn't be able to run his bar better than he can; the stakes being higher than before. They reach the bar after they make their bet and some customers are waiting inside when go in, some still ready to give Phoney a beating for rigging the race. Lucius steps in to remind them the bets had already been settled for them and they're going to have to get used to the Bones being there for having to work there for a while, trying to ease the tension with a round of beers for them on the house also informing the Bone's they're going to have to win the customers over if he's going to win their bet.

Then we see Thorn, Gran'ma Ben and Fone making their way down a steep decline, with Gran'ma Ben motioning for quiet. They climb a ways down and then Gran'ma Ben instructs Bone to have a look around behind some trees. Gran'ma Ben knows the rat creatures probably know where they are at the moment and is still mad at them for following her, but they both try to remind her they were only worried she'd pick a fight with the dragon. They continue to argue until Gran'ma Ben believes she hears the rat creature nearby and gets everyone to crouch. Gran'ma Ben sees one rat creature and warns them to stay back and hidden whilst she approaches, believing the one to be a scout. Fone then thinks he hears a noise Thorn doesn't hear at all, thinking they should follow or do something at all, Fone only deciding to stare in the direction Gran'ma Ben had gone. They watch and agree to go after her in five seconds if she doesn't return, but they don't have to go anywhere since she comes back to update them of there being many rat creatures about the area and how they won't be able to get back to the farm and they will have to run from them.

When Fone enquires what the scream was he'd heard, Gran'ma Ben says she'd disposed of the scouting rat creature and they should leave before any others noticed. They start climbing and Bone sees a rat creature chasing them, another getting closer to Thorn and Gran'ma Ben punching it in the face, grabbing all and running full tilt with Bone shouting for the dragon before Gran'ma Ben covers his mouth and they are hunkered down under a tree. When lightning strikes, we see rat creatures everywhere behind the tree in the open area. Then as a rat creature gets near them, Fone sees the dragon and the rat creatures disappearing, Fone apprising Gran'ma Ben of what happens. Gran'ma Ben then looks like she might do something about the dragon's presence, but then warns Bone the dragon may not be there when he calls, he not coming when she'd needed at one point. As they begin their trek back, Fone mentions to Thorn they should show the map they'd discovered to Gran'ma Ben, ending the chapter; these issues only get better as I go.

Gran'ma Ben is mending the fence near their home as we watch from the rat creature's perspective, they trying to listen to what's being said. Fone and Thorn are about to confess to Gran'ma Ben about what's on their minds when she interrupts by letting Fone know she owes Fone an apology for how she'd been acting towards him. After she regards her bad behavior Thorn brings up what they'd been wanting to show her. First he accidentally shows her a poem and then gets to the real thing they wanted to show her, being the map.

Thorn admits she drew it after Gran'ma noticed it's simplistic sketch-style, hushing her due to the forest's many ears. We then see two rat creatures looking out from a dark area of the forest, one sending the other away. Meanwhile Gran'ma gets them back to the farmhouse and indoors. Once inside Gran'ma Ben asks Bone where he'd found the map and after mentioning how they were chased away by locusts, Gran'ma talks to herself which makes Thorn protest her not divulging everything to them. After sending Fone to get her water, Gran'ma Ben considers where to begin, Thorn suggesting they start with her dreams. Gran'ma Ben proceeds to relate leaving Thorn with the dragons to detect a safe place where no one knew them and the latter gets upset for being deceived as the former tries to justify what she'd done.

Gran'ma Ben goes on to explain why they had been at war with the rat creatures the first time and how there had been disagreement to those who had taken over the valley, ending with the rat creatures retreat, Fone then asking why it was necessary to hide Thorn, then revealing her ancestry. Thorn is then spurred by Fone to mention the dream she'd had of being handed over to the dragons. Gran'ma Ben fills in the blanks which young Thorn couldn't remember even in her dream, like who was among the hooded figures and what had happened after they'd been attacked. After sharing the tale, Gran'ma Ben reveals if the locusts are back, then war will soon follow and she hadn't done her duty which was to protect Thorn.

We then follow the rat creatures as they gather their ranks, one huge one, Kingdok speaking to the Hooded One of Thorn's true station in life, the Hooded One expressing of already being privy to this information and how Kingdok isn't doing his job as leader of the rat creatures as well as he believed, the Hooded One leaving him there to enter the swarm of locusts which appear in the sky and dropping him onto a bridge then entering a cave tunnel to speak with another creature of unknown appearance, but turning out to be the Lord of Locust. The Hooded One asks what he should do about the "star-chested one", he now being told to wait their instruction, the Hooded One believing they should prepare against the Red Dragon, but the Lord of Locust ends their conversation, also ending the chapter.

Next we see Lucius is getting the attention of the patrons in the bar, stating of a contest and knowing everyone had a grudge against the Bones, but needing everyone to stay civil since they still had to work off what they owed Lucius, who also kept them in check as to how much blame they should take on themselves as well as the Bones. Lucius then gets into the details of the contest which involves Phoney up against Lucius in who can run the bar better, making a red line to divide the bar and letting the patrons decide who wins. When the contest starts, Lucius is obviously favored, which gets Smiley questioning how they'll win, coming up with some wild ideas, making Phoney realize their terrible fate. Meanwhile, Thorn is still coming to terms with the truth of her dreams. Fone tries to get Thorn to remember what happens once she's with the dragons which she still can't see clearly.

Fone asks if Gran'ma Ben has anyone to help protect them, she thinking not since the Lord of the Locust is back. Soon after Thorn leaves them to lie down in the barn, Fone making sure she's alright and leaving her to rest. Then we see what kind of plan the Bones have come up with at the bar. Phoney realizes the futility of the plan and goes over to Lucius to see if he can figure out why they're all over there, other than for the obvious reason, when he gets over there though, he begins to see everyone going over to their side of the bar, Lucius now wondering what's going on. When Phoney figures out what Smiley had done and stops him, it angers the patrons again and they're ready to beat Phoney up again. Smiley then wishes loudly for Fone's dragon to help them, getting one of the patron's to confirm his words.

We then see the patron insisting on knowing what Smiley had meant, he repeating himself and everyone surprised Fone would have a dragon in his power. They start to ask too many questions after and Lucius puts a stop to it. The townsfolk don't give up easily though, so Phoney has to stick up for his cousins by spouting their "dragon problems" are theirs alone and nothing to do with he and his cousins. Then Jonathan, a young man is told to convey what he'd seen in the forest since Lucius was unwilling to let any of them off the hook for even believing dragons existed.

Phoney then fans the flame of their fears by considering if there's one dragon about, there must be more. After the townspeople work themselves up to take action, they ask Phoney what they should do, he figuring they need to hire a dragon exterminator and they in luck since he was exactly what they needed. Then to rub in what Phoney had cooking up, he imparts to Lucius after he asked him what he had up his sleeve and how this would be how he'd win their bet, Phoney hints to everyone they needed something to whet their whistles before getting down to business, the first round would be on the house and after everyone would have to get their own tabs, all the patrons going along with Phoney's clever ruse.

Lucius is about to put a stop to it when a hooded figure walks through the door, he noticing a medallion around his neck. Lucius approaches the man and asks him if he required lodgings for the night, the man confiding in him he had news from the south and Lucius replying for him to wait outside. Then we see how Fone is doing, Ted asking how he was and then sharing with him how he'd been to see Lucius and his cousins and how they were up to the usual mischief then asking what was going on with Thorn and Gran'ma Ben, Fone letting him in on some vague details, but Ted surprising him by filling in the blanks, he then going on to inquire where Gran'ma Ben was for having an important message to deliver, then going off to the house to speak with her. Fone is next called on by Gran'ma Ben herself to get his knapsack and meet her in the barn.

We see Gran'ma Ben relating to Thorn to get up for receiving news the action had changed in the south and they'd have to leave because a large number of rat creatures would be heading their way. Gran'ma Ben goes back into the house to get their food supply and a cloak for Thorn, revealing to them how to uncover a secret door under the straw Thorn was lying on and to get the trunk within. When Gran'ma Ben asks for Bone's knapsack after opening the trunk and puts in a concealed object, advising him to keep good care of it. She then straps on her old sword, handing the shield to Fone, then making sure everyone was ready to go before heading out the door, ending the book. I'm looking forward to the next installment.