The Shobble Secret (The Shocking Trouble on the Planet of Shobble)

  A cold blast of air made her shiver. She pulled down the window and got back into bed. Switching on her bedside lamp, she carefully unfolded the paper plane to reveal a message written in red ink. Nicola knew the handwriting well; it was Katie's.

  Dear Nicola,

  PLEASE DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME. I AM FINE! I am in a room they call the 'hostage room' somewhere right at the bottom of Enrico's house. It's not as bad as it sounds. They have made it very comfortable for me - I guess because I am a HAIRITY. (It's all so silly and I hate that 'hairity' word - it makes me think of something my cat would cough up.)

  I can imagine that Sean wants to plan a big rescue mission but there is NO POINT. I am being guarded by more Security Thugs than I can count.

  Silent Fred brings me my food so I am hoping he will get this note to you.

  I know you and the others will work out some way to convince Enrico to let me out. Don't forget how we convinced Princess Petronella not to destroy Earth!

  In the meantime I am trying hard to become friends with the Thugs. My Travel Scrabble set has come in handy. The Thugs had never heard of the game and tonight I suggested we play it. They loved it! The meanest-looking one with the piggy eyes got a triple word score and he was so happy! See! I knew it would come in handy!

  I know you'll be worried about me but everything will work out fine, you'll see. Say 'hi' to the others.

  Lots of love,

  Your friend,

  Katie xxx

  PS Try not to let Greta annoy you. Remember, you are the BEST!

  The Space Brigade would fall apart without you as our leader.

  PPS I am cutting all my hair off as soon as we get back to Earth.

  Nicola laughed and almost cried. Leave it to Katie to be thinking about other people. If Nicola were in the same situation, she would have sent only one line: GET ME OUT OF HERE NOW!

  She folded the letter up carefully and put it in her backpack. At least she knew Katie was managing to keep her spirits up.

  Nicola lay back down in bed and questions she couldn't answer filled her head.

  What would Topaz be like? How much time had already passed on Earth? Was the Time Squeeze working? Should they help Topaz overthrow -

  Suddenly, as if she'd just stepped into a deep black hole, Nicola fell asleep.

  It seemed like only seconds later that she woke to find the room filled with a kaleidoscope of glimmering colour. The sun had risen and Shobble's rainbows were out again.

  Nicola sat up, rubbing her eyes. She could hear a strange high sound that was like a cross between a horse's neigh and a turkey's gobble. The ShobGobbles were obviously being saddled up in their stables.

  There was no time to waste. Topaz had to be found at once.

  16

  Tyler, an early riser like Nicola, was already on the front steps of the mansion when Nicola got there, stamping his feet to keep warm.

  Nicola gave him a nudge on the shoulder to say hello, then looked up at the rainbows soaring above them. At this time of the morning the light wasn't too bright and you didn't need sunglasses to appreciate the colour-splashed snowy landscape. She took a deep breath. Something about all this beauty made her feel stronger.

  'Did you sleep okay?' she asked.

  'Not really. I was worrying about Katie and then when I did finally get to sleep I dreamed that Enrico put our spaceship into the washing machine on the maxi-wash cycle.' Tyler rubbed his eyes. 'I woke up screaming.'

  The front door of the mansion opened and Shimlara and Greta appeared together, both pulling their backpacks over their shoulders, running fingers through their messy hair and yawning.

  'I had such bad dreams,' said Shimlara. 'I kept dreaming that Enrico was offering me tall glasses of lemonade to burn my tongue.'

  Greta looked around irritably. 'I see Sean isn't here yet.'

  'I hope he's not still asleep,' said Nicola, thinking about the times her dad had resorted to spraying Sean with a water pistol to try and wake him up for school.

  There was a clip-clopping sound. Silent Fred and Joy came walking down the driveway, leading five ShobGobbles by their reins. Two scowling Security Thugs stomped behind them.

  'I hope the ShobGobbles are easy to ride,' said Nicola. She'd only been on a horse once before.

  'Good morning, Space Brigade,' said Joy. She was speaking much more formally than the night before, obviously conscious of the Security Thugs listening to her every word. 'These are your ShobGobbles. They're fresh out of training school and haven't been given names yet. You're welcome to name them yourselves.'

  She pointed at the large saddlebags slung across the ShobGobbles' broad backs. 'You'll find plenty of provisions for your journey.'

  Shimlara stroked the glossy feathers of the nearest ShobGobble. 'What do they eat?'

  Silent Fred held up his board. It said: Indigo berries. He'd sketched a little picture that looked like a bunch of misshapen grapes.

  'They grow wherever the rainbows shine indigo light,' said Joy. Silent Fred handed each of them a large white feather about the size of a cricket bat.

  'ShobGobbles are very sensitive,' said Joy. 'You just brush your feather-whip very gently against their sides.'

  Silent Fred was still holding out one last feather. 'Oh,' said Joy, looking around. 'Where is -'

  The mansion doors opened and Sean came skidding down the steps towards them.

  'Sorry I'm late,' he said. 'I had the worst night's sleep. My room was between Tyler's and Shimlara's. Tyler kept waking me up yelling something weird like, "At least use the GENTLE cycle!" and Shimlara kept screaming, "But I'm NOT thirsty!"'

  'Sorry,' said Shimlara and Tyler together. 'Bad dreams.'

  'Now you have your maps?' said Joy. She glanced at the Thugs and put on a ferocious voice: 'So you can track down that evil, horrible, nasty girl, Topaz Silverbell!'

  Silent Fred discreetly handed Joy his blackboard. Nicola saw that it said: No need to overdo it, love. He rubbed it out quickly while Joy looked embarrassed.

  'Yes, we've got our maps.' Nicola patted her top pocket. She'd studied the map for ages trying to work out the fastest, easiest way to reach Topaz.

  'I've worked out the best way to get there,' said Greta. She pulled out her own map and Nicola saw she'd drawn a series of neat little arrows across it. 'We head east through the Forest of Thwarted Dreams, cross the Raging River at the Touch-and-Go Bridge, then travel west towards Treachery Bay and directly north across the Perilous Sea to the foothills of the Cloud-Capped Mountain.'

  'Uh, okay . . .' said Nicola uncertainly. She knew that Greta was much better at geography than anyone else in the group, but some of those places sounded pretty unpleasant. She took a deep breath. 'I was planning for us to head west through the Valley of High Hopes, cross the Raging River at the Safe Hands Bridge, then go east through the Sweet Dream Swamplands and south across the Honey Sea to the foothills of the Cloud-Capped Mountain.'

  'That would take much longer!' scoffed Greta.

  'Yes, but Nicola's way would actually get you there,' said Joy. 'Nobody ever makes it through the Forest of Thwarted Dreams. They always have to turn around and come back. That's why it's called Thwarted Dreams.'

  'Well, I don't even know what that stupid word "thwarted" means,' muttered Greta. 'It sounds like wart!'

  'To thwart someone means to stop them from doing something,' explained Nicola, trying hard not to sound like she was showing off. (Although on the inside she was giving herself a high five and thinking, YES! My way is better!) 'Okay, so we go Nicola's way,' said Shimlara impatiently.

  Joy was still studying Nicola's map. 'Yes, it will probably take you about two days. Tonight you can stay at the Why Not Drop Inn. It's just a few kilometres past the Safe Hands Bridge. You'll be very comfortable there.'

  She seemed as if she badly wanted to say something else but the Security Thugs were hovering.

  Suddenly there was a commotion from inside the mansion. The doors opened and a flustered servant appea
red, wringing her hands.

  'There's a crisis!' she called. 'Enrico says his cornflakes aren't crunchy enough! He says they're disgustingly . . . SOGGY!'

  The two Thugs immediately ran up the steps towards the mansion doors speaking urgently into their radios. 'Code Soggy. Code Soggy. I repeat, we have a Code Soggy. This is not a drill.'

  As soon as they were gone Joy dropped her formal tone and spoke urgently. 'Enrico's spies will be everywhere,' she told them. 'They'll be sending back information to Enrico. So watch what you say.'

  Silent Fred grabbed Joy's arm and pointed at something on his forehead.

  'Oh, yes,' said Joy. 'One more thing. We don't know how many people support Topaz. Some people think that because Enrico is our Commander-in-Chief he can do no wrong. Others are just so nice they think it's bad manners to complain. And of course, everyone is frightened of the Thugs. So, if you want to know if someone is a Topaz supporter you can recognise them by this secret mark.'

  She pushed back her frizzy hair. High on her forehead was a tiny speck like a freckle, but when Nicola looked closer she saw it was actually a tiny letter 't'.

  The door to the mansion opened again, and another servant yelled, 'All hands on deck! Enrico's toast is . . . lukewarm!'

  Joy and Silent Fred rolled their eyes at each other.

  'You'd better get going,' said Joy. Silent Fred helped each of them climb up on to the saddles of their ShobGobbles.

  'Good luck,' said Joy fervently.

  Silent Fred held up his board. It said, We'll keep an eye on Katie for you.

  Nicola felt like she was very high up off the ground. She clung to her ShobGobble's back with her knees and grasped her reins tightly. She noticed that the rest of the Space Brigade were all watching her expectantly.

  Whenever you don't feel confident, just pretend you are, her mum had told her once when she was nervous about a speech she had to give.

  Nicola lifted her chin. 'Follow me,' she said, and tapped her feather-whip against her ShobGobble's back.

  17

  'WHOA!'

  The ShobGobble shot off like a firecracker exploding. Nicola's head snapped back and her legs gripped the saddle in panic. Her feather-whip nearly slipped from her grasp as her ShobGobble pounded down Enrico's long driveway, splattering snow with its hooves.

  Cold wind rushed against her face, tearing the breath from her throat and blurring her eyes. She could hear cries and shouts from the other members of the Space Brigade behind her. It seemed they were all having the same trouble. A ShobGobble streaked past hers with someone clinging desperately to its back. She recognised Sean's voice yelling, 'WHAT'S YOUR HURRY?'

  Up ahead, Nicola could just make out the huge brick wall that surrounded Enrico's property. Her ShobGobble seemed to pick up pace.

  'WHOA!' shrieked Nicola again, pulling on her reins. 'OH PLEASE, PLEASE WHOA!'

  It seemed her ShobGobble was determined to slam them both straight into the wall. She tried to sit up so she could use her feather-whip to guide him towards the gates but it was all she could do to keep her balance. Should she just throw herself off? Which would hurt more, hitting the ground or hitting the wall?

  The wall loomed up in front of them. The ShobGobble lifted his head and stretched out his long neck. Suddenly Nicola knew what he was planning to do. He was going to try to jump over the wall.

  'No!' she cried. There was no way they could make it!

  Her ShobGobble ignored her. In one powerful movement he leapt into the air. Nicola closed her eyes, leaned forward and buried her face into the animal's strange-smelling feathery neck.

  Suddenly, the roaring sound in her ears vanished. All she could hear was the sweet chirping of a bird. Nicola opened her eyes and laughed with delight.

  'You can fly!' she shouted. 'I didn't know you could fly!'

  Her ShobGobble flapped his huge wings, tilted his head and gave her a humorous look as if to say, What's all the fuss about, Earthling? I know what I'm doing.

  She looked around and saw the other ShobGobbles were also flying over the wall. 'I just remembered something else about ShobGobbles,' called Shimlara. 'They can fly!'

  'Yeah, thanks for the warning!' Sean called back.

  Nicola's ShobGobble glided to the ground on the other side of the wall. The other ShobGobbles did the same.

  'These animals must be untrained!' exclaimed Greta, who was trembling. 'Why did they go so fast? I'd rather walk!'

  'I think maybe we were too hard with our feathers,' said Tyler.

  Everyone protested with comments like, 'But I barely touched it!'

  'I was last to leave,' explained Tyler. 'I heard Joy calling out, "Gentler with your feathers!" Then I heard her say to Silent Fred, "Oh, well, they'll learn soon enough."'

  'We should just fly them all the way to the Cloud-Capped Mountain,' said Sean.

  'They can only fly for short distances,' said Shimlara. 'If they fly for too long, they get exhausted and fall asleep in midair. A girl in my class did a project on the ShobGobble. I remember imagining how scary it would be if you suddenly heard your ShobGobble start snoring.'

  'Let's all spend a few minutes practising our riding,' said Nicola.

  'But I know I can't do it, Nicola,' said Greta. 'My ShobGobble doesn't like me. I'm not - I'm not very good with animals.'

  'You'll be fine,' said Nicola. 'It's like learning anything new. You always think you can't do it in the beginning. Just give it a go.'

  Greta grimaced and didn't say anything.

  Actually, Nicola didn't know if she would be able to work this out herself. She thought about what Katie would do if she were here. Katie loved animals. She was very calm and respectful with them, as if they were people.

  Nicola leaned forward and put her mouth close to her ShobGobble's ear.

  'Hi there,' she whispered. 'My name is Nicola.'

  The ShobGobble was quiet. Nicola saw him looking at her shrewdly with his three beautiful eyes. She lifted her feather-whip. Rather than tapping it, she stroked it against his right side as delicately as if she were tickling a baby's cheek.

  Nothing happened. Too soft?

  She was about to try again when her ShobGobble moved, trotting obediently off to the right. YES!

  Tyler was right. The trick was to use the feather very, very gently.

  Nicola decided to risk going faster and tapped her feather a tiny bit harder. Her ShobGobble responded with a brisk trot and Nicola panicked. Calm down, she told herself. After a few seconds, she was bouncing up and down in a slightly unsteady rhythm. As they thudded through the snow, moving in and out of the colourful beams of light created by the rainbows, Nicola suddenly felt exhilarated. It was like the first time she'd ridden her bike without training wheels.

  With a deft twitch of her feather and a pull on the reins, she turned her ShobGobble back around to see how the others were doing. Sean, Tyler and Shimlara were all getting the hang of it, their foreheads furrowed with concentration.

  Greta, however, was sitting astride her ShobGobble, staring straight ahead and not moving. Nicola rode over to her.

  'It's easier than you think,' she told Greta. 'You just use your feather so lightly it's like you're hardly touching it.'

  Greta didn't answer. She seemed frozen with fear.

  'I'll show you,' said Nicola, and before Greta had a chance to protest, Nicola used her own feather-whip to caress Greta's ShobGobble.

  'NICO -' began Greta as her ShobGobble trotted off.

  'That's it, Greta!' Shimlara called encouragingly.

  'Try changing direction!' cried Nicola.

  Greta lifted her feather high, hesitated, then softly touched it down. Her ShobGobble obligingly turned the other way.

  'I did it!' said Greta.

  'Well done,' said Nicola, as Greta managed to turn her ShobGobble in a circle and bring it back to her.

  'Thanks,' said Greta. 'And, um, thanks for helping me. I guess I needed a push.'

  Nicola was so surprised at th
is unexpected gratitude that she nearly fell off her ShobGobble and had to grab on to the edge of her saddle.

  'Watch it,' said Greta sharply. 'Your balance isn't that great.'

  It seemed it was a very short moment of gratitude.

  'Okay, everybody! We'd better get going!' Nicola shouted. She was about to pull out her map but she noticed a sign.

  25 VALLEY OF HIGH HOPES

  She pointed to the sign. 'That's where we're heading.'

  'Twenty-five what?' asked Tyler. 'Twenty-five miles? Twenty-five kilometres? What measurements do they use on Shobble, Shimlara?'

  'You really can't expect me to remember everything I learned in class,' shrugged Shimlara.

  'I'll guess we'll find out,' said Nicola. 'Let's go.'

  She gave her ShobGobble a gentle stroke with the feather.

  'You know,' said Shimlara as she trotted along beside Nicola. 'If it wasn't for the fact that Katie has been taken hostage and we're on a mission for a mad man who plans to burn our tongues and put us all in a mobile jail, this would be a lot of fun.'

  18

  'Look! It's all those crazy "hairity" fans again,' said Sean. They were heading past the massive iron gates at the entrance to Enrico's mansion.

  'They'll wonder where Katie is,' said Tyler.

  He was right.

  As soon as the people recognised the Space Brigade, they came running.

  'Where is your wonderful and amazing friend?' one called. 'Where is the beautiful and kind Katie Hobbs?' called another.

  'They really love her,' observed Greta sourly.

  'I bet it's because most hairities are really snooty and full of themselves,' said Shimlara.

  Nicola pulled her ShobGobble to a stop and said to the crowd, 'Sorry. Katie isn't with us today.'

  A rather handsome young boy carrying a single rose fell to his knees, sobbing.

  'But where is she?' cried out an older woman plaintively. 'I've baked her a cake!'

  'I'll have it,' offered Sean. 'No need to let it go to waste.' Nicola looked down at the pleading faces and thought, Why should I protect Enrico's good name?