{Imagined by Astrid, Evie, Iris, Jack, Lockie, Nessa, Rafferty}
PAFFF!!!!! Michael threw a perfect powder snowball –
a direct hit! It exploded straight in Daisy’s face and shattered all over her white-blonde hair.
But Daisy didn’t crumple. Shaking the snow off her eyelashes, she called out to her friends:
“Come one, Flora Lenora, Lucy, Anna – I’ve got a plan!”
The girls followed Daisy as she ran and skidded towards the snowman they’d built that morning. With their help, she lifted off his head – pop! – and they staggered back to where the boys were digging a big pit in the snow.
Daisy couldn’t believe their luck – her brother was so busy bossing his friends Tommy and Euan about that he didn’t notice them as they stumbled up behind him and PLOPPP!! dumped the whole of the giant snowball right on his head.
After that it was all-out war, the boys pelting out the snowballs they’d packed into their ditch, and the girls not even bothering to roll the snow into balls any more: they just stood round the edge and scooped huge handfuls of icedust over the enemy.
Lightning the dog wasn’t sure which side he was on, but he was in ecstasy, barking and running between the children and trying to catch snowballs in his teeth. Whoops! Daisy didn’t see him dash behind her and fell sprawling backwards.
She lay there laughing and looking up at the sky, and even when the others crowded round, threatening to dump more snow on her head, she refused to get up.
“Lie down with me and make angels!” she shouted.
The others didn’t take any persuading – they were tired after their epic snowballing and a good lie down seemed like an excellent idea.
They lay in a huge circle, hands just touching, heads inwards, and all smoothed their arms up and down to make wings in the snow.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” said Flora Lenora, “The sky’s so blue. I never knew the sun could shine like this when it was snowy.”
“oooh yes, beeeyooooowtiful!” laughed Tommy, jumping up and dancing round their circle in ridiculous huge leaps, Lightning snapping at his heels.
“It’s starting to snow again,” pointed out Michael, “let’s see if mum’ll make us hot chocolate”
“HOT CHOCOLATE!!!” yelled the others, and pulled each other up, dusting snow off their backs with unnecessarily hard thumps (especially on the bottom area, but that’s good friends for you … )
“If it snows when the sun’s shining, does that mean that somewhere there’s a snowbow?” wondered Daisy.
“Oh, a snowbow!” gasped Flora Lenora, “where?”
“She didn’t mean there is one. Cuh! Sometimes you’re as dumb as your name!” groaned Euan.
“Don’t be mean, Euan” Daisy defended her friend, “It was my idea, and I bet you there is one”
“Of course there isn’t,” said Michael, rolling his eyes at his sister, “There’s no such thing as a snowbow.”
“Is”
“Isn’t”
“Is”
“Isn’t”
The other children knew from experience that this kind of argument could go on for some time, so while Michael and Daisy droned on, they tiptoed off and climbed up the ladder to the treehouse, right over where they stood.
“One – Two – Three – Now!” whispered Lucy, and the friends shoveled snow as quickly as they could over the edge of the platform.
Daisy and Michael’s argument was instantly forgotten in their outrage at the mini avalanche, and they ganged together to pelt the others as they tried to escape down the slide on the other side of the tree.
The slide proved even more fun than snowfights – like sledging without the bumpy bits. They built a huge snow-wall at the bottom of the slide, then sat one behind the other and WHOOSHED down together to smash it down.
After that, everyone was soaking and cold and tired but very happy.
They bundled into the house, kicking their boots off into a heap on the doormat, and shedding their warm puffy coats like wormcasts in the hall.
Daisy and Michael’s mum laughed at their rosy red cheeks and poured steaming mugs of hot chocolate for them to dip ginger biscuits into, while Lightning curled up in his favourite spot in front of the fire.
The children ate and drank in silence for a while, their eyes shining with thinking about the brilliant morning they’d had.
Then:
“Mum – is there such a thing as a snowbow?” Asked Daisy
“Oh Daisy, don’t start that again!” moaned Michael, kicking her under the table.
“But I want to know” said Daisy, kicking him right back.
“You know, I don’t know?” Replied their mum. “You’d think there would be, wouldn’t you? If there’s a rainbow, why not a snowbow? I tell you what, why don’t you go and look it up in the Library? There’s bound to be something in one of your father’s old books. If they exist, you’ll find out all about them there, I reckon”
“Good idea, mum!” Said Michael. “Thanks for yummy hot chocolate”
“And delicious biscuits!” added Anna.
The children scraped back their chairs and dumped their mugs in the sink, rushing out of the kitchen.
Lightning lifted his head to see what all the excitement was about. He’d been having an excellent dream about chasing snowdogs, but it seemed Daisy and Michael were heading off on another adventure, and he was not a pup who liked to be left out, so he chased out of the kitchen and barged past Anna, Flora Lenora, Tommy, Euan, Lucy, Daisy and Michael to be the first up the stairs.
The library was at the very top of the house. It wasn’t really a Library, not like the one in town that has a copy of every book there ever was. It was just the posh name Michael and Daisy’s dad gave to his office - a room in the loft that was packed to the rafters with books and papers. They loved it up there, though: it had a round window you could use to look at the clouds, or the stars, and best of all it had a ladder on wheels for reaching the top shelves.
“My turn” said Daisy, and without waiting for Michael to argue, she climbed up the ladder, nimble as a pirate. “C’mon, push me round to the weather section.”
Their dad loved the weather, and everyone knew it, so for his birthday and Christmas he was often given books about things like cloudspotting and extreme storms, and he had built up quite a collection.
Michael and the others grabbed hold of the ladder and wheeled Daisy over to the shelf just beneath the round window. Even on the top step, she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach.
“Can you help me?”
Michael didn’t need asking – he was already up there with her and stretching to lift down the huge Encyclopedia of The Weather.
But it was too heavy even for him – the big leather-bound book slipped from his fingers and clumped down suddenly, bouncing off the handrail on the library ladder and landing on poor Lightning’s tail.
“oh no, Lightning! Are you okay?” Daisy jumped down and hugged her yelping dog. He seemed to be able to wag his tail just as well as before, and his tongue was certainly as licky, so they decided he was fine.
All six children managed to squash onto the big old comfy sofa in the corner of the library, and Flora Lenora just opening the Encyclopedia to find the section for ‘S’ when Euan said:
“errrrm – where did that door come from?”
“What door?” asked Michael.
“That door, under the window” replied Euan “It wasn’t there before, was it?”
“No” said Daisy “There’s never been a door there.”
“It’s a secret door!” yelled Tommy (he always yelled, especially when he was excited) “It must’ve opened when you knocked the knob on the top of the ladder!”
“I wonder where it goes?” asked Lucy.
“Only one way to find out” said Michael, jumping up from the sofa so quickly that Lightning feared for his tail again and ran quickly into the corner, out of harm’s way.
“Anyone got a torch?”
“Yep,” said Tommy, “Always carry a wind-up torch, just in case I come across any secret doors. I never have though, not until now.” He looked a bit glum at that, until he remembered that they had actually found a secret door, and were surely on the brink of a real life, true adventure.
“Right, hand it over” ordered Michael.
“What do you mean, hand it over? It’s mine!” protested Tommy.
“Yes, but it’s my secret door.”
“Oh stop arguing, and let’s explore” said Daisy. And without waiting for her brother, she pushed the steps back to underneath the door in the bookcase and began to climb.
“No – Daisy – wait!” shouted Michael.
But he was too late. Daisy had already crawled through, and disappeared into the dark square between the books.
CHAPTER TWO
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Iris, Jack, Joseph, Nessa, Polly}
-->
It was dark
through the door. Daisy hoped Michael would hurry up and bring the torch. She
didn’t mind the dark, but she did want to see where she was going. The ground
was a bit soft under her feet.
Then something swooped next to her
ear. What was it? It was as if someone had dropped a velvet hood over her head.
She couldn’t see a thing, not even her fingers when she wiggled them in front
of her eyes.
Gingerly, she stepped forward,
trying not to think what it might be that was so squidgy when she trod on it.
Another whoosh by her ear! Daisy
ducked. And another. She started to run, as fast as she dared in the darkness.
Her heart was bumping superfast. All around her there was a fluttering and
whoosh after whoosh. She felt a hundred feathers brush her face and arms, it
was like walking through spiders webs but without the stickiness.
It suddenly occurred to her that it
was stupid to go forwards – she should be trying to turn back, or at least wait
for the others. But when she turned around, she still couldn’t see anything. If
the door was open, why wasn’t there light coming from the library? They
wouldn’t have shut her in here on her own, would they? Michael sometimes played
tricks on her, but that would just be too mean. And besides, he’d wanted to
find out what was through the door even more than she had.
Daisy stood and thought, trying to
ignore the creatures which kept battering past her. She couldn’t actually tell
which was the way back any more. She stared and stared into the blackness,
starting to wonder if her eyes were even open. How could it be possible to be
looking and just see nothing? She’d never been anywhere so dark. It was
petrifying.
She began to see little dots dancing
in front of her eyes, and at first she thought it was just because she’d been
staring too hard (what if they fell out?!) but then she blinked, and the
pinpricks of light were still there. In fact – could it be – they were bigger
and brighter than before?
Daisy shuffled forwards again, not
daring to run this time, almost comforted by the now-familiar creatures
whooshing past: they seemed to be heading towards the dots of light, too. There
weren’t so many of them now, and Daisy realized that the light was closer than
she thought, it’s just that it had been blotted out by the – bats! That’s what
they were! – hundreds of them, flying past her. She must have scared them when
she opened the door. Well, not as much as they’d scared her!
She could see now that she was in a
tunnel. The floor was soft because it was covered in old leaves. She was
relieved it wasn’t something worse. All the bats had gone, and for a moment
Daisy felt very, very alone. She looked back, hoping to see Michael or Lucy
appear, laughing at the joke they’d played on her by pretending not to come.
But still there was nothing there, and she couldn’t bring herself to go back
into the darkness. Perhaps if she went on, out of the tunnel, she’d find
something to make a light with?
It was bright bright bright outside,
and very very hot indeed. Daisy was still in her snow-layers and felt boiling
in an instant. She took off her fleece and tied it round her waist as she
looked out over a strange new land.
All along the horizon were
mountains, with snow on the peaks. Closer, there were more mountains still –
but instead of snow, they had smoke pouring out of the top. Volcanoes! Just
wait till she told Michael about this …
Not far away, she saw a wooden
house, hiding behind a big clump of trees. Maybe that would be a good place to
start, perhaps there were friendly people there? People with a torch? Daisy
knew she shouldn’t talk to strangers, but it was hard to know what else to do,
so she stepped out of the tunnel towards the house.
It was too hot! She had to hold her
hand over her eyes to see in the glaring sunlight. Luckily, there were trees
nearby and she hurried into their shade.
She heard a scurrying, and a
chattering, then a SQUEAK as a huge rat ran over her toes.
Urgh. Daisy was brave when it came
to most things, but she really hated rats. She found that she was clutching on
to the tree trunk. Then nearly leapt out of her skin when something scuttled
over her hands. Not a rat this time, thank goodness, but a spider. Daisy loved
spiders, she could watch them spin their amazing webs for hours. But this wasn’t
like any other spider she’d ever seen before: for a start, it was bright green.
And for seconds, it had stopped on her fingers and was tapping her knuckle to
get her attention.
Daisy thought she must be imagining
things – perhaps she had sunstroke – especially when the spider started to spin
silk and wrap it around her wrist. It jumped to the ground and began to walk
ahead, pulling the silken string like a dog’s lead. The thread was remarkably
strong: when Daisy didn’t start walking straight away, instead of breaking, it
pulled her wrist out, away from her body, until she had no choice but to follow
after the green spider as it darted across the forest floor.
She relaxed when it seemed the
spider was taking her towards the house: that was where she had been heading
anyway. She followed her strange guide up the steps and across the wide wooden
verandah, to the screen door, where it scurried up to the lock and tickled it
open with two of its long, spindly legs.
Daisy found herself in a cool,
shadowy hallway, a relief to be inside after the burning heat of before. But
she was horrified to see, hanging on every inch of the wallspace, heads.
Snarling, spooky heads of beasts, some familiar – a lion, a tiger, even a
yawning hippopotamus – some that she had never seen, even in the big old
encyclopedias in dad’s library.
“Hello! What have you brought me
today, then, my little Spinkins?” Daisy started at the voice which boomed
alarmingly from behind an antelope head.
A tall, thin man stepped out from
the shadows. He looked like a character from one of Michael’s comics: he was
wearing khaki shorts, with a shirt tucked in and long socks pulled up to his
knees. On his feet were big clumpety boots, and on his head a strange-looking
hat that Daisy knew (from dad’s encyclopedias again) was called a pith helmet.
Then it was the man’s turn to look
surprised.
“A girl! My my my. Well, it seems I’m
not the only human being in this godforsaken land after all. What brings you
here, midear?”
“Hello,” said Daisy, “This is going
to sound very odd, but what happened is that there was a door in dad’s library,
only we didn’t know it was a door until it opened and then I came through but
no one else did and now here I am and I don’t know how to get home.” She was
determined not to cry in front of this strange man.
“Do you know, that doesn’t sound odd
at all. Don’t you worry. That’s exactly how I got here myself, as it happens.”
“Really?” said Daisy, “So can you
show me the way back?”
“I only wish I could” replied the
man. I’ve been here fifty years, looking for the answer to that question. “No,
I’m very much afraid that, like me, you’re here for good.”
CHAPTER THREE
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Nessa, Rafferty}
-->
Michael looked at
the bookcase in disbelief. Where had the door gone? Where was Daisy? Oh no … he
was going to be in such BIG trouble. How could he have lost his sister? How
would he explain that she had just … disappeared?!
While Michael was distracted by worrying,
Tommy grabbed back his torch and ran up the ladder.
At the same moment, Anna, horrified
to see her best friend Daisy vanish into a bookshelf, jumped up and yanked the
knob at the top of the steps.
Just as silently as before, a dark
gap opened up in between the books under the round window.
Without thinking, or even stopping
to check the others were following behind, Tommy and Anna tumbled through
together.
They landed feet-first on a springy
wooden floor, and spread out their hands so they wouldn’t crash down. But before
they could catch their balance, a huge gong sounded, so loud that it shook the
boards under their feet.
Tommy’s breath caught in his throat
as he realized that they were surrounded by hundreds of men and women dressed
in red robes. Their feet were bare, and they looked familiar from the kung fu
movies he loved to watch on Saturday with his dad.
He saw Anna shift on her feet and
raise her hands higher. Of course! She had been studying martial arts this
term. Tommy’d been really jealous. And now it looked like his mum not letting
him go to the classes too was an epic disaster. Still, he’d played enough
computer games to know the basics, and he and Michael were pretty good at
beating the enemy when they played warriors. Tommy braced himself for the fight
ahead.
But to his surprise, he saw Anna
bring her hands together as if she was praying, and bow down low. She glared at
him and he realized that she wanted him to bow, too.
“Ni How,” Anna was saying, “We come
in peace. We seek our friend, Daisy, who came this way.”
What was the use of learning kung fu
if you didn’t fight when you had the chance? Tommy was fuming as he knelt
beside Anna. Still, he supposed that it wasn’t such a great idea to try to take
on a whole room full of grown ups with just the two of them. And some of them
did look quite strong, not to mention a bit scary, with their shaven heads and
serious eyes.
An old man with a long grey beard
fastened in a tight plait stepped forward and gave Anna a small bow in return.
“You arrive like demons, yet speak
like a child. We do not know the one you seek.”
“Oh no! But you must! Daisy – she’s
about my height, but with fair hair. She came through only a minute ago.”
“I have practiced here for seventy
years, and in all that time you are the only beings to have come through the
air like this,” replied the old man.
There was a murmur from the crowd,
and Tommy realized that they must be almost as scared of him and Anna as they
were of them. He put on his most menacing frown, just in case.
Anna, on the other hand, looked as
though she were about to burst into tears.
“She did come through! We were in
the library, and suddenly the door opened, and Daisy went in, and Tommy and I
followed right behind. Perhaps you just didn’t see her?”
“Child, today is the day of our New
Year Contest. Hundreds of us have been watching this very stage since dawn. No
child, or demon, could have come this way without us seeing.”
“Then we need to get back, right
away. Perhaps she will have gone back too. Tommy, don’t just stand there. Help
me. We need to get back through the door.”
“What door?” asked Tommy.
Behind them, was nothing but air:
and a crowd of watchful warriors. Tommy stretched out his hands to check for
sure, then felt like a fool when they snatched and dropped through nothing. He
thought about turning the moves into some kind of cool martial arts gesture,
but Anna didn’t look like she’d agree it was a good idea.
“Where did it go?” Anna turned back
to the man.
“I do not know this door you speak
of. We are losing time. Our contest must conclude at dusk. Wait with us, and I
will help you when we are done. But first, you must prove to me that you are
not demons sent from hell.”
“Demons?” shouted Anna, “Of course
we’re not demons! We’re children and we’ve lost our friend and we want to go
home!”
Tommy quite liked the idea of being
a demon. He frowned again, and said in his most husky tones: “What do we need
to do to prove we are not from hell?” The last bit boomed with a satisfying echo
round the wooden walls of the hall, and just at that moment the first rays of
the setting sun sent a red light in through the open windows. Tommy was pretty
impressed by the effect.
“You will fight, and show your
virtue,” replied the old man.
Aha! That was more like it! Tommy
grinned and turned to face Anna. A fight to the death! Obviously, he’d be sad
to lose his good friend, but in all the best gladiator films, this is what
happened. And your friend would always understand that you had no choice but to
win. It’s what they’d want – after all, Anna wouldn’t like Tommy to be dead,
would she?
But yet again Tommy was
disappointed. Honestly, what had they been doing at those martial arts classes?
Anna didn’t seem to be into fighting at all. Instead, she bowed her head again.
“With respect, Master. Tommy is my
friend. He is not trained in the art of Kung Fu. I do not wish to fight him. I
only want to find Daisy.”
“With these words, you show me your
human nature. A demon will never resist the chance to fight.” The old man
smiled and bowed again.
Tommy had sympathy with the demons.
But at least the Master was now leading them to sit at the side of the hall and
it looked as though they would get to watch a kung fu contest. He supposed
that, if they couldn’t be in a fight themselves, watching other people fight
was the next best thing.
After the contest was over, and
Tommy had worn his voice hoarse shouting along with the rest of the crowd, a
woman came to collect them and guide them out of the hall, to another building
nearby. She showed them where to leave their shoes, and took them inside, to a
simple room with rush matting on the floor.
They knelt on cushions, and waited.
After what felt like ages, the old
Master stepped softly into the room.
Anna stood as he walked in, and
bowed again. “Master, please help us. We need to get back, and find our
friend.”
The old man touched Anna gently on
the shoulder. “All in time, child. You must be patient. A journey of a thousand
miles begins with a single step. Or, in this case, a single bowl of rice.”
As he spoke, the woman came back in,
bringing a tray with bowls of steaming rice. Tommy took one when she offered it
to him. It was a simple dish of rice and prawns. Tommy wasn’t much sure he
liked prawns, they always looked a bit too like insects to him, but now didn’t
feel the right moment to say so.
As they ate, the old man explained
that he did not know how to find the door they had come through, or Daisy for
that matter. But he was sure that if Anna and Tommy stayed with him, and worked
at the hall with him in return for food and a place to live, and learned kung
fu with him, then in time, if they were patient, the answer would come.
At first, Tommy thought Anna was
going to say no, and he wanted to kick her under the table – except there
wasn’t a table. But she must have thought it was as cool an offer as he did,
because to his surprise, she said yes.
All thoughts of Daisy vanished.
Tommy even swallowed a couple of prawns in his excitement. He was going to be an
apprentice to a real life kung fu master!
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Nessa, Rafferty}
Flora Lenora
paused for a moment at the top of the library steps. She bit her lip and looked
back at Michael, Euan and Lucy. Then she thought about Daisy, Tommy and Anna
waiting for her on the other side, took a deep breath and pressed the knob. As
the door opened silently in front of her, she held the gold charm she wore
round her neck for luck, and stepped forwards.
It was cool and beautiful on the
other side. Looking up, she could see a domed roof stretching green tiles
overhead. In the centre was a hole, and a patch of bright blue sky which sent a
shaft of sunlight down to dance on a pool in the middle of the room.
Swimming languidly round in the
pool, Flora could see orange shapes that looked like her goldfish at home only
much much bigger, shifting in and out of the shadows cast by waxy water lilies.
Flora Lenora gasped when she heard
soft footsteps: a shuffle of sandals on the smooth stone floor. She looked
round for somewhere to hide, and saw a long table against one wall, covered
with a white cloth.
She dived underneath and crouched as
still as she’d ever been in her life, trying not even to breathe. Where were
the others?
CHAPTER FIVE
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Nessa, Rafferty}
CHAPTER SIX
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Nessa, Rafferty}
Michael was
holding Lucy’s hand, and it wasn’t embarrassing. There was something about the
cold darkness on the other side of the door that made you want to be not alone.
He heard a whimper behind them, and
realized that Lightning had come through too. He reached down to stroke him,
and gave Lucy’s hand a squeeze. He was the oldest, and he was going to be the
bravest too.
Their eyes were starting to get used
to the murky light.
“Daisy, is that you?” Lucy called,
as they saw a shadow moving ahead.
Lightning gave a
low growl and Michael could feel him tense against his leg.
“Don’t be silly, Lightning, it’s
just the others – isn’t it?” Michael hoped he sounded more certain than he
felt.
Grabbing Lightning’s collar, and not
letting go of Lucy, he started to walk towards the shapes that wavered a darker
grey against the mist in front of them.
“Tommy? Tommy!” his voice echoed
loudly in the silence, “Come on, Tommy, turn on your torch, there could be tree
roots or anything”
Michael expected the others to start
laughing any minute.
“I’m not sure it’s them,” Lucy
whispered, “I think we should try and go back, we’re in the wrong –“
Suddenly, a face loomed up right in
front of Michaels’ nose, and Lightning began to bark frantically, pulling back
on his collar and scrabbling with his claws on the dirt floor. Michael didn’t
know how he managed not to scream. Lucy didn’t scream either; she just dropped
Michael’s hand and started to run back the way they’d come.
The face vanished so quickly that he
wondered if he’d imagined it. But he could hear Lucy’s feet running behind him,
so he knew there had been something. Something pale, and facelike, with dark
eyes and a grim mouth.
He turned and ran after Lucy, not
daring to let go of Lightning’s collar. Where was she? There were shapes in the
darkness ahead, but he couldn’t tell which one was Lucy.
It was awkward running and holding
on to Lightning, and he was starting to feel out of breath.
There she was! He reached out and
grabbed her hand to let her know it was all right.
But her fingers were cold and
crusty. They didn’t feel like they had before.
And then she turned around to look
at him, and it wasn’t Lucy at all.
The face was pale, and the lips were
thin and grey. He should have seen it wasn’t her, because instead of Lucy’s
long dark hair, this creature had wispy pale strands that showed flakey grey
scalp underneath.
Michael pulled back in horror, but
the thing just clutched tighter to his fingers, digging sharp nails like claws
into his knuckles.
Lightning was barking and barking
and barking. Michael wanted to let him go, to fight off the creature – but what
if he got hurt? What if he ran off?
With one hand holding his dog’s collar,
and the other in the cold clasp of the monster, Michael’s only option was to
kick. But his trainers were soft and useless as a weapon, and he couldn’t get
his balance to swing his leg out far enough to make contact with the wraithlike
thing that danced on the end of his arm.
“Come” – he realized it was talking
to him, its voice papery and crackled, its tongue black against a grimace of
teeth. The bony fingers tugged at his as the creature whispered again “Come and
play. Join in our game. The other one is.” And it shivered and shook in what
Michael guessed was a giggle.
Oh no. They had Lucy. And perhaps
the others, too. Michael thought about
his little sister Daisy in the clutches of this hideous thing, and shivered. He
had to save her. Had to save all of them. He had no choice but to go where it
guided him.
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Joseph, Nessa, Rafferty}
Euan was just
reaching for the knob at the top of the ladder when a paper aeroplane shot out
of the bookcase and jabbed him in the eye.
How had that happened? Michael and Lucy had literally
just gone through the door. Not even Daisy had had time to make an aeroplane.
He reached down
and picked it up. It turned out to be a letter, folded into a – really very
pointy, he thought as he rubbed the soft, sore skin next to his eye – paper
jet.
Everybody – if you get this,
it means it’s worked at last! I don’t know if you played a trick on me and shut
the door behind me (Michael, I’m so going to get you if you did …) but
basically I’m stuck here. The door has just totally vanished. Luckily there’s a
man here (he used to live in our house! How weird is that?) and we’re helping
each other try and find another way back. The paper aeroplanes are my idea.
We’ve tried pretty much everything else. It’s been ages, I hope you and mum and
dad haven’t been too worried. It is quite cool here, there are dinosaurs can
you believe it! But I miss you and I’d really like to come home now. So can you
try coming to get me? I can’t believe you haven’t already, to be honest! You’d
better not have been using my side of the bedroom, Michael. Maybe send me a
message back. What I’m going to do is, throw this plane at Jonno’s library wall
(that’s the name of the old man who’s been helping me), and sort of squinch up
my eyes and really wish really hard. So here goes, fingers crossed I see you
soon! Xoxoxo Daisy
Dinosaurs! Euan
couldn’t believe it. Daisy must be playing one of her tricks – she’d only been
gone about five minutes, why would they be worried? Even by her standards of
being the most impatient girl in the world, five minutes didn’t count as ages.
Still, he had to admit it was weird
that a piece of paper could come out of nowhere. Maybe she’d just opened the
door really quickly and shoved it through. Which means that all that lot were
on the other side laughing at him. Euan felt a bit cross. Okay so he’d laughed
at Flora Lenora for dancing, but she was being stupid and it really wasn’t fair
for them all to gang up on him like that.
Right. Where was a pen? He grabbed a
biro from Michael’s dad’s desk.
WOTCH OUT I’M COMING TO GET YOU!!!!
He scrawled over the top of Daisy’s letter. Then he folded it back into the
aeroplane shape – making sure it was nice and pointy at the end – and took aim
at the bookcase, just below the round window. He felt a bit stupid for throwing
it at the books when clearly there was no way through, but no one was watching
and part of him wanted it to be true that there was some kind of magic portal.
So he stood with his legs apart, in
his favourite warrior pose, and thinking of the revenge he’d get on his friends
as soon as he saw them, he threw.
The plane arced out of his hand
beautifully, and glided towards the bookcase. To his amazement, and excitement,
it didn’t bounce off the spines of the books as he’d expected, but carried on
flying, between a sort of crack between them that he hadn’t noticed before. And
then, with a little ‘phutttt’ sound, it was gone.
Excellent. It really was a portal.
Which meant that maybe Daisy was telling the truth. Which meant that maybe she
really was in a land with dinosaurs. Epic!
He kicked something as he ran back
up the library steps. Tommy’s torch: he must have dropped it on his rush to get
through the door. Even better. It was one of those wind-up ones. That might
come in useful in a land of dinosaurs.
Euan didn’t stop to wonder what
might have happened to the rest of his friends, or why Daisy was on her own, or
how he might get back when Daisy hadn’t been able to. He just charged back to
the top of the ladder and yanked the knob as hard as he could. He was going on
an adventure!
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Joseph, Nessa, Rafferty}
He couldn’t stop
sliding. The world had turned into a giant freezing slippery tunnel and he was
bouncing down it on his butt faster than he’d ever slid before. If it weren’t
so scary it would be epic.
The tunnel twisted and turned, so
every time he tried to sit up to see where he was going or what was happening
he got thrown down onto his side or his back again. He had to put his hands
round his head to stop it smacking into the icy walls.
Then, suddenly, he was out of the
tunnel and into open air so cold it took his breath away. He was still sliding,
though, scooting out of control over sheer ice. He wanted to stop. He couldn’t
breathe, his bum hurt, he was tired of holding his head up, and his fingers
were freezing.
BAM! Out of nowhere, something crashed
into him and Euan came to a horribly sudden stop.
Dazed, he lay still a moment looking
up at the dull grey sky overhead. Then he heard a groaning. He wasn’t ready to
sit up yet, so instead he reached out a hand, the one that wasn’t still
clutching Tommy’s torch. His fingers closed round something cold and smooth.
Ice? No, it wasn’t wet. It was more … scaly. His mind was just leaping to a
horrible conclusion when whatever it was he was holding slid out of his grasp.
Not slid as in he’d dropped it. Slid
as in slid. Like a snake. Which just proved that his horrible conclusion was
right. He’d been touching a snake!
Euan leapt to his feet, letting out the
biggest most terrified scream he’d ever made. Then he fell over again. And
stood up again when he saw he’d fallen right next to the snake. It was looking at him with its mean little
eyes. It flicked its long sharp tongue. If it had lips, it would be licking
them.
It was hard to run on the ice, but he did, skidding
and sliding.
Through his terror, Euan realized he
could hear someone laughing. He stumbled to a stop, catching his balance on the
treacherous ground. He turned around, and saw Flora Lenora sitting with the
snake in her lap.
“Ha! Oh I’m sorry, Euan,” she tried
to force her lips not to smile, “You just looked so funny scrabbling away!
Trying to stand up and run on the ice!”
“B-but you – it – what -?” Euan
couldn’t get over Flora Lenora’s dramatic appearance, but most of all he was
shocked by the fact that she wasn’t at all bothered by the huge serpent that
was now coiling its way round her neck, its evil red tongue flickering all the
time. Flora Lenora, who was such a – well – such a girl, always skipping and
shrieking and startled by stupid shadows, just not even remotely scared by that
slithery scaly beast.
“Where did we appear from, do you
mean? Well, I’m not quite sure exactly. One minute I was running away from the
emperor’s guards, then next minute Aspirus was leading me into a tunnel, and I
was bumping into you! Brrrr, it’s really cold here, isn’t it?”
“The Emperor?” Euan couldn’t get his
head round any of it. He’d expected dinosaurs and Daisy and instead he was here
in this freezing cold place with a snake and Flora Lenora. It wasn’t quite the
adventure he was looking for.
“Yes! The Emperor. I went through
the door after Tommy and Anna, but they weren’t there. Nobody was. And then the
door wasn’t there either and I was all alone in this weird place with a pond
and a hole in the roof. It was totally beautiful, actually. I think it was some
kind of a temple. But I didn’t get much chance to look around because people
came and I’m really glad I hid under a table because it turned out they were
soldiers!”
Euan was shivering, but he didn’t
know if it was just the cold or surprise or fear or what. He wished he still
had his big coat and hat on. So he was very pleased to see in the distance a
crackling orange that looked warm and welcoming and familiar.
“C’mon, Flora Lenora. Look, there’s
a fire! You can tell me all about it when we’re warm. I’m too blimmin freezing
to concentrate. Soldiers and temples. It’s just all too weird.”
“You’re right! I’m so pleased to see
you. I’ve never been more glad to see anybody” Flora Lenora picked herself up
and to Euan’s alarm, planted a big sloppy kiss on his cheek. And then, really
annoyingly, she started to glide elegantly across the ice towards the
flickering bonfire, one long step at a time, as if she was ice-skating.
He tried to copy her and immediately
fell over again. This adventure just wasn’t going well.
Flora Lenora looked back at the
commotion and gave her irritating tinkly laugh again.
“Oh, poor Euan! Let me help you.
Hold my hand and I’ll pull you along. You just have to go with the flow, see –
and lean forwards, not back. Don’t fight it, and you’ll be fine.”
Grumpy because he was embarrassed,
Euan had no choice but to hold hands with her – keeping a careful eye on the
snake to check it didn’t make any sudden moves in his direction.
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Joseph, Nessa, Polly, Rafferty}
They were
climbing upwards, zigzagging across a steep hill. The creature still clutched
at Michael’s hand, digging its chalky fingers into his.
He still couldn’t see Lucy, but he
thought he could hear her. And the weird thing was, she seemed to be laughing.
He relaxed a tiny bit, even though Lightning was still tense and growling,
pulling on his collar.
At last, they reached the top, and
Michael saw Lucy, surrounded by a circle of pale grey children. They were
drifting slowly around her, taking it in turns to glide into the centre and
stroke Lucy’s face. It looked creepy to Michael, he couldn’t understand why she
was smiling. The creature holding his hand tugged him forwards, rasping:
“look – another warm one”
Lucy saw him then, and her laughter
changed to a smile of relief.
“A doggeee a doggeeee” the whisper
started round the circle, and poor Lightning began barking again, pulling
against Michael’s hand as the zombie children reached out to stroke and pat
him. Michael found himself standing back to back with Lucy, holding Lightning’s
collar with both hands now so that he wouldn’t lose his desperate dog.
“It’s not bad when they touch you.
It tickles, it’s quite nice. I think they want the warm,” said Lucy.
Michael found it hard to be
reassured. The children just looked so – dead – and their skin was so flaky,
like the pale undercooked pastry on the bottom of a school pie. Then one of the
ghouls touched his face with a gentle finger, and he found that Lucy was right:
it did tickle. Even Lightning seemed to be calming down with all the attention.
Michael was so distracted by the children taking it in turns to stroke his
cheek that he must have loosened his grip on Lightning’s collar. Suddenly, the
dog was gone. But when Michael looked down in panic, he saw him lying on the
ground like a puppy, rolling over to have his tummy tickled.
The zombie children loved it. Now
they seemed to have lost their shyness, and were all surrounding Lightning, who
was in heaven at so much attention. Lucy and Michael were left alone.
They looked at each other with wide
eyes.
“Where are the others?” asked Lucy
fearfully. “Where are we?”
“We’re in some kind of a ghost land,
don’t you think? It’s creepy. But they don’t seem to be dangerous, thank
goodness,” replied Michael. From where they stood at the top of the hill, he
could see a grey landscape spreading below them, with mist curling around bare
dead trees. Then he spotted an orange glow flickering in the distance, and was
about to point it out to Lucy when she gasped.
“The children might not be dangerous
– but what about them?’
Michael turned to where Lucy was
pointing, and saw tall dark shadows drifting up the hill towards them.
Lightning was no longer lying in bliss on the ground. His hackles were up
again, his teeth bared in a low growl.
The ghost-children turned, and
Michael was very worried to see that they, too, looked scared.
He felt a clutching at his hand and
thought it must be Lucy. But, no, she was by Lightning, holding his collar and
trying to pull him back. He realized it was the same ghost-child who’d brought
him here, and now it was whispering to him again.
“Come. Come away. We shouldn’t have
brought you here. We so wanted to play with you. But the grown-ups don’t just
like to play. They will smell your warm blood and they won’t just want to touch
you, oh no. They do much worse.”
Michael didn’t need telling twice.
He grabbed Lucy and hoped Lightning would follow. The shadows were clearer now,
and he could see their gaping mouths and dark blank eyes.
They ran and stumbled down the hill,
towards the fire Michael had seen earlier. It seemed like a good place to head
for, he thought. Zombies were afraid of fire – weren’t they?
They were
climbing upwards, zigzagging across a steep hill. The creature still clutched
at Michael’s hand, digging its chalky fingers into his.
He still couldn’t see Lucy, but he
thought he could hear her. And the weird thing was, she seemed to be laughing.
He relaxed a tiny bit, even though Lightning was still tense and growling,
pulling on his collar.
At last, they reached the top, and
Michael saw Lucy, surrounded by a circle of pale grey children. They were
drifting slowly around her, taking it in turns to glide into the centre and
stroke Lucy’s face. It looked creepy to Michael, he couldn’t understand why she
was smiling. The creature holding his hand tugged him forwards, rasping:
“look – another warm one”
Lucy saw him then, and her laughter
changed to a smile of relief.
“A doggeee a doggeeee” the whisper
started round the circle, and poor Lightning began barking again, pulling
against Michael’s hand as the zombie children reached out to stroke and pat
him. Michael found himself standing back to back with Lucy, holding Lightning’s
collar with both hands now so that he wouldn’t lose his desperate dog.
“It’s not bad when they touch you.
It tickles, it’s quite nice. I think they want the warm,” said Lucy.
Michael found it hard to be
reassured. The children just looked so – dead – and their skin was so flaky,
like the pale undercooked pastry on the bottom of a school pie. Then one of the
ghouls touched his face with a gentle finger, and he found that Lucy was right:
it did tickle. Even Lightning seemed to be calming down with all the attention.
Michael was so distracted by the children taking it in turns to stroke his
cheek that he must have loosened his grip on Lightning’s collar. Suddenly, the
dog was gone. But when Michael looked down in panic, he saw him lying on the
ground like a puppy, rolling over to have his tummy tickled.
The zombie children loved it. Now
they seemed to have lost their shyness, and were all surrounding Lightning, who
was in heaven at so much attention. Lucy and Michael were left alone.
They looked at each other with wide
eyes.
“Where are the others?” asked Lucy
fearfully. “Where are we?”
“We’re in some kind of a ghost land,
don’t you think? It’s creepy. But they don’t seem to be dangerous, thank
goodness,” replied Michael. From where they stood at the top of the hill, he
could see a grey landscape spreading below them, with mist curling around bare
dead trees. Then he spotted an orange glow flickering in the distance, and was
about to point it out to Lucy when she gasped.
“The children might not be dangerous
– but what about them?’
Michael turned to where Lucy was
pointing, and saw tall dark shadows drifting up the hill towards them.
Lightning was no longer lying in bliss on the ground. His hackles were up
again, his teeth bared in a low growl.
The ghost-children turned, and
Michael was very worried to see that they, too, looked scared.
He felt a clutching at his hand and
thought it must be Lucy. But, no, she was by Lightning, holding his collar and
trying to pull him back. He realized it was the same ghost-child who’d brought
him here, and now it was whispering to him again.
“Come. Come away. We shouldn’t have
brought you here. We so wanted to play with you. But the grown-ups don’t just
like to play. They will smell your warm blood and they won’t just want to touch
you, oh no. They do much worse.”
Michael didn’t need telling twice.
He grabbed Lucy and hoped Lightning would follow. The shadows were clearer now,
and he could see their gaping mouths and dark blank eyes.
They ran and stumbled down the hill,
towards the fire Michael had seen earlier. It seemed like a good place to head
for, he thought. Zombies were afraid of fire – weren’t they?
CHAPTER NINE
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Joseph, Nessa, Polly, Rafferty}
Tommy and Anna
were terrified. After all their training with the Master, they had felt strong,
powerful, ready for anything. But there was no way they could fight this.
When the Master had explained that
they needed to head to the mountains for the first true test of all they had
learned, they had been excited. It was like something they’d read about in
books of ancient legends: setting off into the unknown with only a few days’
supply of food and water, and the new knowledge they had of how to survive.
And the first night had been just
that – exciting. They were proud of themselves for finding a clean dry cave to
sleep in, and for managing to build a fire. They’d sat out on the mountainside
and looked up at a sky filled with more stars than they’d ever imagined
existed, and talked about how they would learn to navigate by them, and how
jealous the others would be when they told them what had happened.
It was in the morning that Tommy
suggested they investigate the cave properly, before they set off again up the
mountain. Anna hadn’t wanted to – why be in a dark spooky cave when the day was
warm and beautiful, and she could see snow on the mountaintops? But Tommy
wanted adventure, not just a boring old stroll up a hill. And so they’d gone
in, and found …
This writhing, impossible, mythical
beast that seemed to have a hundred scaly heads, all of them snapping and
reaching for Tommy and Anna.
For a moment, the children were
paralysed with fear. Then Tommy felt a scorch of the beast’s breath on his
hand, and “RUN!!” shouted Anna.
But what was she doing – instead of
turning back out of the cave as Tommy was about to do, she was heading
forwards, towards the monster.
Dancing backwards to avoid the
thrashing teeth and blasts of fire, he watched in horrified fascination as his
friend managed to dodge and weave between its slithering heads towards its
hideous body.
Of course! What was it the Master
had said a hundred times in their training? If you face an opponent mightier
than you, you must harness that strength and take it for yourself. Was that
what Anna was doing now?
Tommy realized that his urge to run
away was just leading the monster forwards. By running towards it, Anna had
confused it, and made it impossible for it to catch her. Even now, it was
desperately trying to turn its heads backwards, against its own body.
He couldn’t watch anymore. He had to
save himself. So even though it went every instinct in his body, Tommy opened
his mouth in his most warlike yell, and charged towards the beast.
All the months of training had made
him nimble and fit. The Master had made them practice night and day until they
were able to react before their minds had even had time to think.
Tommy wasn’t thinking now. He was
pure action as he darted between the deadly heads.
Now he was right up next to the
scaly body, dodging backwards as the clawed feet stomped dangerously close. He
reached up and dug his fingers in where the scales overlapped, and found it was
surprisingly easy to find a handhold. Bumping and crashing against the hard
body as the monster writhed in frenzy, he managed to climb up and follow Anna’s
lead so that they were each sitting astride one of the snake-like necks.
“NOW WHAT???!!!” Tommy yelled at
Anna. But his words were drowned by the bellows of the beast, which was going
mad with its useless attempts to reach the irritating humans on its neck. It
began to charge backwards, straining its hundred heads around until it seemed
it might flip over completely.
Instead, it began to slip and slide,
and Tommy and Anna could only cling on for dear life as the monster fell
through the back of the cave, and suddenly they were in a place so cold they
could barely breathe, sliding across a sheet of ice.
CHAPTER TEN
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Joseph, Nessa, Polly, Rafferty}
It wasn’t a
bonfire.
Flora Lenora was pulling Euan along
so fast that they couldn’t stop. Which was very, very bad. Because the
flickering they’d seen wasn’t coming from a lovely bonfire. It was the fiery
breath of a hideous beast: a beast that had just caught sight of the two tasty
morsels sliding uncontrollably towards it across the ice.
“A Hydra! Oh nooooo!” Now Flora
Lenora was scared, and the snake around her neck reared up and hissed in alarm.
Euan pulled desperately backwards on
Flora Lenora’s hand, but all that did was to pull them both down onto the icy
ground. Now they were bumping and sliding painfully along, dragging skin from
their fingers. The torch looped round Euan’s wrist snagged and cut into him.
That was it! Somehow, he managed to
grab hold of the torch properly with just one hand, and opening out the winding
handle, he dug it into the ice like a pick. With a wrenching jerk that nearly
pulled his arm out of its socket, Euan and Flora Lenora stopped sliding at
last. They turned over and began to crawl desperately away. It was too hard to
stand up and run, the ice was just too slippery.
From behind them, they heard an
almighty roar as the beast began to follow, and terrifying blasts of heat
burning where the ice had frozen them instants before.
“Flora Lenora! Euan! Catch these!”
They looked up in amazement, and saw, wheeling above them in the sky, the
incredible sight of Daisy riding on a huge eagle – no, stranger than that! – a
unicorn with eagle’s wings! And then, tumbling on the ice in front of them fell
two spears, their lethal points wrapped in rags.
Euan reached out and grabbed one
immediately, using it to pull himself up to standing, and turning to face the
monster. He remembered the book he’d read about a boy about his age, hunting
wild boar in medieval times. The only way to do it, the book had said, was to
brace the end of your spear in the ground, and offer yourself as bait so that
the boar would run at you and kill itself on the spear. He hoped the same
method would work on an enormous mythical beast. And with the two of them, it
was worth a try.
But Flora Lenora wasn’t picking up
her spear! What was wrong with her? She was pointing and shouting something he
couldn’t hear over the noise of the beast.
Then he saw it, too: riding on the
back of the monster were Tommy and Anna, looking as terrified as he felt. And
there, behind it, came Michael and Lucy. But they weren’t alone. Behind them,
ran an army of grey children, each of them carrying the spears amd arrows that Daisy
had dropped from the huge quivers strapped on either side of her flying unicorn.
The beast reared up and roared,
Tommy and Anna clinging with their fingertips to its flailing necks.
To Euan’s horror, Flora Lenora began
to walk forwards, holding up the snake and chanting: “Hydra. Hydra. Hydra.”
Over and over again she said it, until the beast seemed hypnotized by her stare
and the eyes of the serpent. Every one of its heads was facing Flora Lenora
now. And then she began to walk backwards, away from it, but never breaking her
gaze. Euan had to shuffle quickly sideways so that she wouldn’t fall over him,
and waited uncertainly, with his spear still poised.
Behind the monster, Michael and Lucy
and the ghost children were getting closer on the ice, some of them stopping
now and preparing to throw their weapons. And above, Daisy was swooping through
the sky on her winged unicorn, trying to get close enough to drop spears down
to Tommy and Anna.
Flora Lenora seemed oblivious to it
all, nothing in the world but her and the snake and the hydra, and still she
walked backwards, and still the beast advanced, its hundred mouths breathing
out flame like the heat of a furnace.
Then Euan saw what she was doing,
and he hoped Daisy and the others saw it too, because it was time to run.
The ice was beginning to melt in the
force of the flames, groaning and creaking, and with a sudden CRACK the ground
began to give way beneath the Hydra.
The beast was too intent to Flora
Lenora to notice what was happening, but Tommy and Anna saw it and looked
desperately for a way to leap from its back.
“Here!” shouted Daisy, and flying
down as close as she dared, she reached for Anna’s hand and pulled her up
behind her on the unicorn. Tommy watched in anguish as they swooped away to
safety, and another huge crack broke the ice under the monster’s feet. Then
Lucy was dropping down to the snowy bank, and the unicorn was beating its
mighty wings back to rescue Tommy.
Michael and Anna and their strange
army of ghost-children stood tense on the ice, surrounding the monster now. The
moment Tommy was off its back, they threw their weapons, and at last the spell
of Flora Lenora’s gaze was broken: but too late. As the Hydra howled and
snatched and reached desperately for the edge and the prey that still smelled
so sweet, the ice gave way at last and sent it rushing into water so cold that
the monster turned in an instant into a frozen sculpture of fangs and scales
which shattered into a million pieces as it crashed through the surface.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Joseph, Nessa, Polly, Rafferty}
They couldn’t
celebrate, much as they wanted to. That same ice which had spelled doom for the
Hydra was starting to bite into the children now, and they knew they had to
move fast if they didn’t want to turn into frozen sculptures themselves.
Sliding to the edge of the lake,
they hugged each other and shared quick stories of how they’d come to be in
that strange place. But there was little time for talking. Somehow, they had to
get out of this freezing snow land.
“Let’s ask the ghost children. After
all, they live here,” suggested Lucy.
But when they turned to look for
their grey companions, the little ghosts had all faded away, back into the
trees and the mist.
“We can’t follow them,” said
Michael, “It’s too dangerous, without them to protect us from the adult
zombies.”
Anna shivered, “You’re right. We’ve
just survived one impossible attack, let’s not risk another. Daisy, you must
have seen something of the place when you were flying up there? I can’t believe
you found a unicorn! That is so awesome.”
“I did, actually,” replied Daisy,
“you’re not going to believe it, but I think I saw – a snowbow!”
“Oh Daisy, don’t start that again,”
groaned Michael, “There’s no such thing as a snowbow.”
“Well, there’s no such thing as a
unicorn, but we’re standing right next to one!” Daisy stuck up her chin
triumphantly. “There are all kinds of impossible things that are possible on
this side of the library door. And I think that, since it was looking for a
snowbow that brought us here, we should just give it a try to see if it might
be the way back.”
“Good idea, Daisy,” said Flora
Lenora. “And even if it doesn’t work, then at least we will have seen a
snowbow. I’d love that.” She was stroking the unicorn’s velvet nose and
whispering in his ear, and he didn’t seem to be at all bothered by the snake
now coiled sleepily around her neck.
“There’s just one thing. I promised
Jonno – he’s the man I met, when I arrived in the land of the dinosaurs – that
if we found a way back, we’d take him too.”
“Dinosaurs? So you’re telling me
they exist too? They’re not extinct or anything?” Michael was looking at his
sister with a familiar look of incredulity.
“Michael, we just played with ghosts
and ran away from zombies. It’s obvious this isn’t an ordinary place,” said
Anna. “Stop being such a grown-up about everything. Isn’t it cool that
dinosaurs exist? I wish we could see one!”
“Maybe you can,” said Daisy. “We’ll
have to go back and get Jonno. I promised.”
“How will we get there?” wondered
Tommy, “we can’t all ride on the unicorn.”
“There’s a place where all the
worlds meet,” explained Daisy. “I think it must be how we all came to be in
this one together at last. Come on, follow me.”
And putting her hand on the
unicorn’s mane, she led them all through the trampled snow, towards a pool that
was strangely liquid in the freezing air.
“Look,” Daisy said.
And as the children stared into the
water, they each saw reflected back the world they had been in, as if the
surface of the pool were a jigsaw of different lands.
“There’s the emperor!” said Flora
Lenora “I wonder if he misses you, Aspirus?” she asked the snake on her
shoulders. “Perhaps it is time for you to go back. They’ll never know it was
you who showed me how to escape.” And she kissed the serpent’s snout as it
slithered sadly down into the water, and the reflection of Ancient Greece
below.
“Yours was such an amazing land,”
Daisy said to Flora Lenora, “That’s where I met the unicorn, and at first I
didn’t think I was going to find anyone there, but then I heard the commotion
at the temple and saw you slip away with the snake. Those guards were so cross,
you wouldn’t believe!”
“What? You mean you’ve been to other
lands?” asked Michael. He couldn’t believe that his little sister seemed to
know so much about this place. She was talking as though she’d lived here
forever, not just spent a few bewildering hours being shocked and terrified by
it.
“Yes, of course: once Jonno found a
way for us to travel between the lands, I went looking for all of you. But I
kept missing you. Tommy and Anna, I can’t believe you learned kung fu from the
Master! That is just so awesome. He asked me to stay too but when he told me he
feared you had been attacked by the Hydra-beast, I had to come and find you.”
Daisy would have gone on, but just
then she was interrupted by a tall old man splashing his way up through the
centre of the pool.
“Brrrrrrr!” he shivered, “My
goodness, Daisy, could you not have tracked your friends down in one of the
warmer lands? This place is as cold as the Artic at Christmas – reminds me of
that doomed expedition I went on, to find the mermaid ancestors of the
narwhal.” Shaking himself like a dog, the man opened the battered old suitcase
he was carrying and took out a towel which he wrapped round himself like a
cape.
“Jonno!” Said Daisy, “We were just
coming to find you. I think we may have found a way back home!”
“Really? Daisy, you clever thing
you. Spinkins told me we should follow after you, and he insisted I bring all
our things, and he was right.”
“Come on, then,” and Daisy led the
unicorn off again, away from the pool.
“Hang on,” said Euan, “You said we
could see a dinosaur! I’m the only one who hasn’t had an adventure. All you lot
– you’ve been to ancient Greece and learned kung fu and fought with zombies.
But all I’ve done is spent half an hour being singed by the stinky breath of a
dragon. It’s not fair!”
“It was a Hydra, not a dragon,”
pointed out Flora Lenora, annoyingly.
“Well, I wouldn’t know, would I?”
retorted Euan, “since I haven’t made friends with a unicorn.”
“Now, now” said Jonno soothingly,
“Daisy’s told me what close friends you all are, and I can see from the way you
fought off that beast together that she’s right. Don’t spoil it all now with
this silly argument. Euan, how about you help me to carry some of my bags, see
if that doesn’t make things better?”
Euan couldn’t think that carrying
some mad old man’s luggage could possibly compensate for not seeing a dinosaur,
but he was too polite to talk back to someone who reminded him of his granddad,
so with a bit of a grumble under his breath, he reached out to take the cage
Jonno was handing to him.
“Look out!” the explorer warned,
just in time – and Euan realized that what he was carrying looked for all the
world like a baby pterosaur. “It’s not dangerous, but it does like to give the
occasional friendly nip,” Jonno explained. Euan laughed in amazement, and it
was just as well the others were walking around him to guide the way as they
followed Daisy and the unicorn away from the pool, because he couldn’t take his
eyes off the tiny, perfect dinosaur in the cage he was carrying.
{Imagined by Astrid, Farrah, Jack, Joseph, Nessa, Polly, Rafferty}
Even Michael had
to admit it was beautiful.
Rising up from the snow in front of
them, curved the ghost of a rainbow: silver, white and grey, it shimmered in a
graceful arc high into the clouds above.
“A snowbow!” gasped Flora Lenora.
Daisy should have been smiling
smugly at Michael, but she was too sad that the time had come to say goodbye to
her beautiful unicorn. So instead she took her brother’s hand.
“I think it’s time to go home, don’t
you?” she asked him.
“Yes, I could do with another hot
chocolate, I reckon”
“HOT CHOCOLATE!!!” The others cried,
and together they started to help each other climb up the snowbow, Lightning
barking and running between them all to make sure no one lagged behind.
The surface of the snowbow was rough
and cratered, like the moon, and once they found the rhythm they made good
progress, although it was as slow as walking through sand dunes. Everyone was
too tired and overwhelmed by the strangeness of their adventures to talk much.
Instead, they looked with wide eyes at the view over this magical land – the
unicorn getting smaller and smaller as they climbed ever higher, the pale grey
children flitting through the trees in the distance, the hole in the ice, still
steaming gently from where it had swallowed that hideous, terrifying beast.
Now they were climbing through the
clouds, and could see no more. And now they were out in bright sunshine, warm
at last after their hours of bitter cold. They paused a moment, and tipped
their heads back to drink in the light.
“Well, well, well,” Said Jonno, “you
were absolutely right, miss Daisy. Here we are. Yes, oh yes, I do believe here
we are.”
Daisy looked at him, her eyes
dancing with golden specks from looking too much in the bright sunlight. He was
pointing at a door, ahead of them on the path. It seemed familiar – above it
was a round window, the twin of the one in her dad’s library.
“The door! It’s the door!” she
rushed forward and pushed at it. But it wouldn’t budge. “Oh,” she said, and sat
down suddenly on the ground. In that moment all the courage and spirit that had
kept her going rushed out of her, and she knew she might cry.
“Ah yes,” said Jonno, “Now then,
where did I put them?” And he started to rummage through his bags and packs,
“Dear me dear me, I knew we would need them. Sure I packed them somewhere
safe.”
Euan cleared his throat. “errm.
Jonno? Maybe here?” he asked.
The explorer looked up from the
piles of clothes and kit he was tossing around, and saw Euan holding out the
cage he’d been carrying. There, hanging from a hook just above the baby
dinosaur’s head, was a bundle of keys.
“That’s it! The very thing! Clever
chap, clever chap” Jonno beamed as he reached through the bars and unhooked the
keyring.
“Hand these round, Michael” he said,
and started to shove his possessions back into the case. Flora Lenora and Anna
had to help him close the locks by sitting on it, and even then when he stood
up there was a pair of khaki boxer shorts hanging out.
Michael gave everyone a key, and
then with a deep breath turned to face the door.
Now that it came to it, he was sad
the adventure would be over. Then Tommy said “Ooh, hot chocolate,” and Michael
thought about home and not being chased by monsters and it seemed a good idea
after all.
He put his key in the lock, and turned.
EPILOGUE
“Wow! That’s a
lovely hug!” Said Daisy’s mum, “What did I do to deserve that?”
“I just missed you, that’s all”
mumbled Daisy into her shoulder.
“Missed me? You dafty. You’ve been upstairs to the
library for five minutes. How can you have missed me?”
“Oh, yes, well, I just wanted to say
thank you for tea.”
“Talking of tea, can we have some
more hot chocolate? Please mum?” asked Michael.
“More? You only just had some! And
it’ll be time to go bowling soon.” But his mum started to get the mugs out all
the same, and all the friends sat round the familiar table, so glad to be safe
and in the warm again.
“Here you go then – oh! Who’s this?”
Mum nearly spilled the milk in her surprise at seeing a tall, strange man in
her kitchen.
“Oh, um, mum, meet Jonno – Mr
Jonstone, I mean – he’s an explorer. He used to live in this house, can you
believe!”
“Really? Well, you’d better sit down
and join us for hot chocolate, and tell us all about your adventures.”
And Daisy smiled at Michael as they
thought about the adventure they’d remember forever, but could never tell …
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