The Mysterious Island Read online

  Galen was their prisoner!

  “My poor master!” Max whimpered.

  One of the red-faced warriors below held up his six-fingered claw. “Sparr said wait here.”

  “He wants the old man alive,” said another.

  “For now, at least!” a third said, laughing.

  The laughter reminded Eric of gargling.

  A cold wind blew through the trees.

  Keeah gritted her teeth as she looked up. “Sparr is coming!” she snarled.

  A groggle landed on the ground. Lord Sparr slid off its back. He pointed his magic staff at Galen. “You know where the Eye is. Tell me.”

  Galen stared at Sparr. “Never. You may put me in chains. But the children are brave and clever. They will trick you.”

  “Demither’s island has many dangers,” Sparr said. “Anything can happen. In the end, the Eye will be mine.”

  Galen struggled against his chains. “The children will find the jewel.”

  A thin smile broke across Sparr’s lips. “And they will give it to me, if they want you to live. If I find it, it’s mine. If they find it, it’s also mine. Either way, I win.”

  Galen shook his head sadly. “You were not always so evil, Sparr!”

  The sorcerer turned to the Ninns. “Take the wizard to the white cliff. Wait for my orders.”

  “At once, Lord Sparr,” the head Ninn said.

  Then Sparr waved his hand and spoke a strange word. The whole troop of Ninns, along with Galen, vanished.

  “Oh, no!” Max whispered. “How will we find my master now?”

  Keeah put her finger to her lips as Sparr began to laugh.

  “Galen’s ‘brave’ children will never get off this island alive!”

  Sparr jumped onto his groggle, kicked once, and flew away. As he did, the thick, dark mist all over the island seemed to grow thicker and darker.

  “Never get off this island alive?” Eric snarled. “Ha!”

  Then he gulped. “We will, won’t we?”

  “Yes, if we find my master,” Max said. “And when we do, I will kick Sparr with each of my eight legs!” Then he quickly spun a strong rope of spider silk, and they all slid to the ground.

  Eric waved at the thick haze. “Now where do we go?”

  “Yikes!” a voice screamed suddenly.

  “Help us!” another voice screamed.

  “I think that just answered my question!” Eric said.

  “It’s Julie and Neal!” Keeah said. “They’re in the jungle. Let’s go!”

  They crashed through the thick trees as fast as they could. The long vines whipped against their faces. The bushes scratched them.

  Suddenly they froze.

  Julie and Neal were standing on a rock in the middle of a clearing.

  Surrounding them were six nasty, icky, enormous —

  “Bugs!” cried Max.

  Sssss! The giant bugs hissed angrily at Neal. Their thick, pointed tongues lashed up at him.

  “If one of those things licks me, I’m going to lose the lunch I never ate!” Neal shouted.

  The bugs were hairy beetles about four feet long. Their hard brown shells gleamed like armor.

  “Gross!” said Eric, ducking behind a tree.

  “Eew!” said Keeah, jumping down beside him.

  The bugs flicked their fuzzy legs at Neal and Julie. Their feelers twitched, and their tongues stuck out angrily.

  “All I did was look at a rock,” Neal said.

  “It was an egg!” Julie shouted, pointing to a nearby pile of round pink eggs. “One of their eggs! And you didn’t look, you touched!”

  Neal shrugged. “So how do you say ‘I’m sorry’ in bug language?”

  “If they even have a language,” Max said. “The horrible creatures!”

  Sssss! The bugs hissed and edged even closer.

  Keeah turned to Eric and Max. “I’m going to try a spell. If it works, it will scare the bugs for a few seconds. Then you two can help Neal and Julie escape.”

  “We will do it!” Max promised.

  Keeah crossed her fingers. “Right, if I concentrate on something simple …”

  Eric peered around the tree. “On the count of three, you guys run, okay?”

  “How about on the count of one?” Neal asked.

  “Very funny,” Eric said. “One …”

  Keeah jumped up. She pointed her hands at the bugs.

  “Two …” said Eric.

  Keeah narrowed her eyes. “Tomba — snooka — jeeba —”

  “… three!” Eric shouted.

  “Three!” said Keeah. “No, wait! I mean floo!”

  Too late. Neal and Julie were already leaping off the rock when — ka-bam! — a bolt of bright green light shot from Keeah’s hands.

  The air filled with smoke. The bugs shrieked — eeee! — and disappeared into the jungle.

  Julie leaped over to the princess. “Keeah, you did it! Your incredible spell worked!”

  Keeah stared at her hands. “I guess so….”

  Eric tried to wave away the smoke. “Where’s Neal?”

  “Here I am!” he yelled from behind them.

  Julie and Eric turned around. Neal wasn’t standing there. The only thing there was the pile of bug eggs.

  “I hear him,” Julie said, “but I don’t see him.”

  “Hey, I’m right here!” Neal shouted again.

  The pile of pink eggs moved. Out from underneath the pile popped a brown bug twice the size of a football. It had a hard, shiny shell, six thin legs with fuzz on them, three orange eyes, and two feelers sticking out from its head.

  It was like all the other bugs only smaller.

  A baby bug.

  Eric staggered back. “Neal, is that … you?”

  The brown bug scuttled across the pile of eggs and looked up at them. “Boy,” the bug said in Neal’s voice, “Keeah’s spell made you sort of big, didn’t it?”

  Eric gulped. “The spell went wrong, all right,” he began. “But … well, um, Neal, it’s like, I mean —”

  “You’re a bug!” Julie shouted. “An icky icky bug!”

  “The spider part of me resents that!” said Max.

  “Oh, what have I done?” Keeah said. “Neal, I am so sorry!”

  Neal rubbed his front legs together. Then he saw them and jumped. “Oh, man! This is not good. Change me back, Keeah. Change me back now!”

  The princess stared at her fingertips and then back at Neal.

  “You didn’t answer right away!” Neal said. “You’re supposed to say, ‘Sure, Neal!’ and do your zapping thing, and I’m me again.” Neal closed his three eyes. “I’m ready. Go.”

  Keeah’s own eyes welled up with tears. “I’m afraid to try.”

  Neal’s fuzzy legs began to quiver, and his feelers twitched. “It’s all a dream. It’s all a dream. It’s all a — hey, what’s that?”

  Suddenly he flicked his tongue at Julie’s head.

  “Eeeeeew!” she gasped, jerking backward.

  “Sorry. There was a fly near you,” Neal said. “At least it looked like a fly. It was yellow with bright green wings. Anyway, I missed it.”

  “What you saw was a Droonian seafly,” Max said.

  Suddenly Neal rubbed his legs together, making a strange, high-pitched sound.

  Eric made a face. “Stop being such a bug.”

  “Shhh!” Neal hissed. He tilted his head and went still. “Say that again, please.”

  Eric blinked. “I said, stop being such a —”

  “Not you!” Neal snapped. “The fly!”

  Neal’s big eyes flickered as the green-winged insect buzzed in a quick circle around his head. He kept nodding.

  Eric turned to Keeah. “I don’t hear anything.”

  Julie bit her lip. Then she brightened. “Maybe now that Neal is part insect he can understand the seafly language.”

  “I’m too much of a troll to understand it myself,” said Max.

  Soon there was a whole swarm of seaf
lies buzzing over them.

  Neal scratched his head with his front legs. “They tell me that the groggles are nesting up there somewhere.” He pointed up.

  “Where there are groggles, there are Ninns,” said Keeah. “And where there are Ninns —”

  “There is my master, Galen!” Max chirped.

  Julie looked up into the fog. “But what’s up there? It’s too foggy to see anything.”

  Neal nodded and twitched his feelers a few times. The flies swarmed together in a dense, bright green lump. They began to buzz in ever-widening circles. Faster and faster they flew, around and around over the kids’ heads, stirring up the air.

  And as they did, the breeze they made began to clear away the dark fog.

  Keeah looked up. “Oh, my gosh!” she gasped. “A mountain!”

  Julie stared up. “You mean that was there the whole time?”

  The mountain was steep and craggy. Its distant peak went through the clouds high above the island.

  “It’s awesome,” said Eric. “I bet the white cliff is at the top. That’s where Galen is being held prisoner.”

  “If Galen is at the top,” Keeah said, “then to the top we’re going! Max?”

  “At once, my princess!” the spider troll replied. Then he began to spin his legs so quickly they seemed to blur. Moments later, he held a long coil of silky rope.

  “Time to climb!” Max said.

  “Just like gym class,” Julie said.

  Max and Neal leaped upward easily, tying the spider silk to rocks and ledges wherever they could.

  “Last one up is a rotten bug egg!” Max squeaked, scurrying faster.

  “Hey!” Neal complained, scrambling after him.

  Keeah smiled, tightened her belt, grasped the rope, and pulled herself up. “Better hurry.”

  Without wasting a second more, Eric and Julie began their climb.

  Strong winds battered them as they climbed higher and higher. They reached one ledge after another without stopping. There wasn’t time.

  Soon they lost sight of the beach below.

  “Careful,” Julie said, joining Neal, Max, and Keeah on a narrow ledge. “Remember what the flies said. The groggles are up here. That means the Ninns are close by. They’re not exactly going to welcome us.”

  “We’re heading into danger,” Keeah added.

  Eric’s heart raced. He stopped to catch his breath. “Why are the tiny creatures friendly and the big, powerful ones mean? Answer me that.”

  Neal, clinging to the ledge above, turned. “Size has nothing to do with power,” he said.

  Keeah smiled. “Let me guess, the flies told you that?”

  “Nope. I made it up myself,” said Neal with a chuckle. “It must be the bug in me talking.”

  Kaww! Kaww!

  Sudden cries echoed down the mountain.

  “Groggles!” Keeah shouted. “Take cover!”

  Everyone huddled under the ledge.

  Everyone except Eric. He tried to pull himself up to where the others were. “Wait for me!”

  But the groggles wouldn’t wait. With a loud flapping noise, two of the big flying lizards swooped out of the sky, spotted Eric, and dived right for him.

  “Go away, you ugly creeps!” Julie shouted. They all started pelting the groggles with rocks.

  Kaww! Kaww!

  One groggle shrieked, then pulled away. But the second circled around for Eric again.

  “Leave me alone!” Eric yelled, flailing his arms.

  “More rocks!” Max cried, tossing handfuls of stones at the beast.

  But the groggle kept dodging them.

  Its sharp claws dug and scratched at one end of the ledge Eric was clinging to.

  The rocks began to break away, tumbling down the mountain to the trees below.

  “Oh, man!” Eric groaned. “Get me out of here!” He glanced to his left. The ledge narrowed to nothing only a few feet from him. On his right, the groggle was ripping the mountain away in huge clawfuls.

  There was nowhere for him to go.

  His friends kept throwing rocks at the beast.

  “Hold on, Eric!” Neal shouted to him.

  But Eric couldn’t hold on.

  There was nothing to hold onto.

  Kaww! Kaww! The groggle lunged again.

  The ledge crumbled away.

  Eric grasped wildly at the air.

  He fell.

  “Nooooo!” Eric screamed.

  The earth seemed to swoop up at him as he plummeted toward the jungle. In seconds he would crash into the treetops.

  Suddenly something hard and bony wrapped around him. It tightened on his waist. It was a groggle’s thick claw grasping him tight.

  “Let me go!” Eric cried as the lizard lifted him high into the air. “Well … I mean, don’t actually let me go, but —”

  Kaww! Kaww! the huge beast shrieked.

  “— let me go!”

  The groggle flapped quickly past Eric’s friends. They yelled something out to him, but he couldn’t hear what it was.

  “Probably good-bye!” Eric groaned, twisting in the groggle’s grip.

  The beast soared up the mountain, then slowed and hovered over a broad, flat ridge.

  Looking down, Eric could see a large mound of sticks and other junk in the middle of the ridge. The pile had a dip in the center.

  “A nest!” he whispered to himself. “Please don’t eat me!”

  Kaww! The groggle swooped over the nest. It loosened its claws and dropped Eric.

  “Oomph!” he groaned when he hit bottom. The groggle circled once, then flew off.

  “Probably going to tell his friends that lunch is ready. Yeah? Well, no way!”

  Eric scrambled to his feet. The thick nest surrounded him like a huge bowl. The walls of it, he figured, were about ten feet high. He could get out fairly easily.

  “And I sure can’t stay here!”

  Eric dug his right foot in and hoisted himself up with his tired arms.

  The nest was made of tangled branches and vines. In with them Eric noticed strips of polished wood and red-and-yellow cloth.

  He knew what they were.

  The remains of Keeah’s ship.

  “Robbers!” he snarled. Then he noticed something else. Something shiny and black. He stopped climbing. He peered down.

  “The armored glove …” he whispered. He leaned into the branches, untangled the glove, and dragged it out. Carefully, he turned it over.

  The setting for the jewel was broken.

  The Red Eye of Dawn was not there.

  Crack!

  Eric froze. Sounds were coming from outside the nest. He crept up the rest of the way and peered over the top.

  He laughed. He waved.

  “Eric!” Neal squeaked, scrambling over the top of the ledge. The others followed close behind. Eric jumped from the nest and ran to meet them.

  “We’re safe,” Keeah said, “but not for long. The groggles made such an incredible fuss that now the Ninns are coming.”

  “Oh, man!” Eric said. “Can’t we ever get a break?”

  Clomp! Clomp! A pack of fat Ninn soldiers hustled around the other side of the broad ledge.

  “Guess not!” Neal yelped. “Yikes!”

  Max squeaked. “May I suggest we go the opposite way?”

  “You get my vote!” said Julie.

  The heavy red warriors wasted no time, either.

  They quickly loaded their bows.

  “Aim!” one of them shouted.

  “Yikes again!” Neal squeaked. “Duck everyone!”

  “Fire!” the Ninns yelled.

  Thwang! Thwang! Flaming arrows whizzed by the kids. They skidded along the ground and crashed against the rocks. The Ninns growled and reloaded.

  “Hey, Ninns, let me give you a hand!” Eric shouted. He threw the armored glove right into the center of the pack of Ninns.

  The fat warriors paused to look at it.

  “And we’re out of here!” Julie yel
led.

  The kids dashed around the nest to the far side of the ledge. Max shot in front, scampering as quickly as his eight legs could carry him. Neal raced right behind him.

  They circled around the side of the mountain.

  “A cave!” Neal said. “I see a cave!”

  “I saw it first!” Max chirped.

  They all leaped through the mouth of the cave and ran inside. They dashed into the shadows and held their breath.

  Max held up one of his legs. “Listen. The Ninns aren’t following. We’ve lost them.”

  “I think there’s a reason,” Julie whispered.

  Eric turned to look. “Oh, man!” he groaned. “Isn’t there at least one place on this island that isn’t dangerous?”

  Coming out of the cave depths were several large fuzzy legs and long twitching feelers.

  “Here we go again,” Neal said with a sigh.

  Sssss!

  Ssss! Ssss!

  The kids huddled in the shadows as two large brown-shelled bugs clambered out from the back of the cave.

  “Your family, Neal,” Julie whispered.

  The bugs hissed and groaned. Their feelers twitched in the air. Then the kids saw why.

  In the thin light streaming from the cave’s opening, they saw a giant pit.

  A giant pit full of eggs.

  Julie sighed. “Been there, done that.”

  Sssss! The bugs hissed again more loudly than before. Their tongues flicked at the eggs.

  “Listen, people,” Neal whispered. “The bugs don’t see us yet. Maybe we should just fight the Ninns, one on one.”

  “Ten on one, you mean,” Max chittered.

  “Holy cow,” said Eric. “There it is!”

  He pointed to the pit full of round pink eggs. One egg was smaller than the rest.

  It was shiny.

  It glowed bright red.

  And it was shooting off sparks.

  “The Red Eye of Dawn!” Keeah whispered. “My gosh! We found it!”

  The bugs circled the pit, hissing and flicking.

  Julie bit her lip. “Can’t they tell the glowing red one with all the sparks is not an egg?”

  “They’re bugs,” Neal snorted. “They aren’t that smart. Believe me, I know.”

  The red jewel sparkled again.

  “Now I’m sorry I threw the glove away,” Eric said. “How are we even going to touch that thing? It’ll burn us for sure.”