The Mysterious Island

  Keeah shook her head slowly. “Maybe there’s a way. Galen said it was Sparr’s anger that makes the Eye dangerous.”

  Neal’s three eyes stared at the Eye. “And that means … ?”

  “I know,” said Julie. “It’s like, if you’re angry, the Eye is angry.”

  Eric nodded. “And maybe if you’re the opposite of angry, the Eye won’t shoot those deadly red beams everywhere.”

  “What’s the opposite of angry?” Neal asked. “Being happy? Like laughing and stuff?”

  Sssss! The bugs hissed and flicked again.

  “That’s the problem,” Keeah whispered. “I don’t feel happy. I just feel scared.”

  Julie turned to Neal. “Do bugs get scared?”

  “Don’t look at me,” he replied. “I’ve been blasted once already. Besides, you definitely do not want to smell fried insect.”

  “No, it’s my job,” said Keeah. “I’m a wizard, sort of, halfway, at least.”

  “But how will you get past them?” Max said, nodding toward the bugs.

  Julie held up her finger. “Wait, I have a plan.”

  “What plan?” Eric asked.

  “The one where Neal pretends to be their baby bug. You know, to distract them.”

  Neal backed up as far as he could. “I don’t think so! I may be a dumb insect, but I’m not that dumb!”

  “But, Neal,” whispered Julie, “they’ll be so excited to see you, Keeah can grab the jewel. It’ll be perfect.”

  “Perfectly nuts!” Neal grumbled. “They’ll lick me with those creepy tongues! No way!”

  “We need the Eye to help free Galen,” Keeah said. “Only Galen can make you yourself again.”

  Neal was quiet. His feelers twitched and quivered. He cleared his throat with a tiny cough. “Myself again? Really?”

  “Plus, it’ll be funny,” said Eric. “Keeah will laugh so we won’t blow up.”

  Neal sighed. “I guess so. But next time, someone else can be the bug!”

  He fluttered his feelers once, took a squeaky breath, then scuttled out of the shadows.

  “Mama! Papa!” he cried. “I’m home!”

  The big bugs swung around, opened their feelers wide, and lunged for Neal. Yeeeee!

  Keeah laughed as she scurried to the eggs.

  The bugs completely surrounded Neal, squealing with delight.

  “Hurry!” Neal yelled. “They’re licking!”

  Keeah laughed harder. Her hands closed firmly around the glowing red jewel.

  “She’s got it!” Max chirped. “And it’s not shooting red bolts!”

  “Neal,” Eric cried. “Get out of there!”

  In a flash, the five friends dashed out of the cave. The bugs hissed and squealed, but the kids shot around the ledge and up the side of the mountain before they could catch up.

  Higher and higher they went, until there wasn’t any more mountain to climb.

  They crawled over the last rise.

  A sharp wind passed over them.

  They found themselves standing under a dark, open sky.

  They were on the edge of a white cliff overlooking the vast sea of Droon.

  Galen was there, wrapped in chains.

  A hundred Ninns were there, guarding him.

  And Lord Sparr was there, too.

  “Give me the jewel … or die!” he snarled.

  “Uh … is there a third choice?” Neal asked.

  At once — whoom! — a wall of raging flames shot up around the kids.

  “Trapped again,” said Eric.

  The kids huddled together to avoid the flames.

  “A prison of fire,” Sparr said. “You may thank Witch Demither for the idea. Thoughtful, isn’t she?”

  “My happy mood is fading fast,” Keeah whispered. The wall of fire edged closer.

  “Let them go,” Galen boomed, struggling against his chains.

  “Give me the Eye and you may all go,” Sparr told them. He snapped his fingers, and one large Ninn raised his heavy sword. “Your chains will be cut, Galen. You will be free.”

  Max’s eight legs trembled. “D-d-don’t trust him.”

  Eric looked up. The flames coiled high into the air. The strange, green-winged seaflies were beginning to gather above them.

  Eric felt something wasn’t right.

  What was it?

  Sparr stared through the flames. “I created the Red Eye of Dawn centuries ago to do my will —”

  “Your evil will!” Keeah said, trying to remain calm. “All you do is put curses on people. Like Demither. Like my mother!”

  Eric kept staring at their prison of fire. Demither’s fire. He recalled how she had said once that she was a friend to no one, not even to Sparr.

  The flames slithered over one another. They gleamed red, then silver, then red again. The Ninns were afraid of the fire. They wouldn’t come close.

  But still, something was wrong.

  Zzzz! The seaflies buzzed lower.

  Then, in a flash, Eric knew what it was. The fire looked hot enough to burn them to a crisp. But no smoke was coming from the fire. And no heat. The flies would never buzz so close if there was heat. That was it! The fire wasn’t real.

  It only looked hot.

  The fire was … something else.

  In fact, it was hundreds of something elses!

  Sparr circled the flames. Soon, he would guess. Demither had tricked him.

  In an instant, Eric formed a plan. He tapped Neal with his foot and glanced up at the seaflies. Then he nodded at the Ninn with the sword. “Can your pals do something?”

  Neal smiled a big smile. He twitched his feelers. Slowly, the flies lifted and buzzed over to the Ninn.

  “Give me the Eye!” Sparr demanded.

  “Get ready to move,” Eric whispered. He stepped to the wall of fire.

  “Eric, what are you doing?” Julie said.

  “Just follow me.” He held out his hand.

  “Master Eric, no!” cried Max.

  “Now!” Eric shouted.

  Neal twitched, and the flies surrounded the fat Ninn. “Ugh!” the guard growled, swatting the flies. His heavy sword dropped to the ground.

  At the same instant, Eric leaped through the fire. He was ready to scream, but he didn’t have to. The instant he stuck his hand in, the flames ran over his fingers. The fire was icy cold!

  “Silfs! I knew it!” he cried. The strange creatures spilled in a shower to the ground.

  “Demither has betrayed me!” Sparr cried.

  Eric and Julie dashed over and grabbed the Ninn’s sword. Together they swung hard.

  Chung! Galen’s heavy chains fell away.

  “Now you will pay!” Sparr shouted.

  “No, Sparr,” Keeah cried. “You will pay for the curses you have put on people!”

  Ka-whoom! Bright beams shot wildly from Keeah’s hand.

  A terrible bolt blasted the ground near the Ninns, sending them rushing in every direction.

  Another exploded near Neal.

  “Oww!” he cried, as he leaped for cover.

  “Keeah!” Galen shouted. “You cannot control the Eye. Your anger will destroy you!”

  “Throw it away!” Max yelled.

  Keeah hurled the burning stone at the sea.

  “IT IS MINE!” Sparr cried. He sucked in his breath and seemed to grow to twice his size. His eyes flashed, and his fins turned black with rage. He grasped his magic staff.

  Ka-bam! Bolts of fire leaped from the staff. They shot across the air to the Eye. And the jewel stopped its fall to the sea. Slowly, it moved back toward Sparr.

  “You see? The Red Eye of Dawn knows its master!” he howled. “Come to me, my jewel!”

  Laughing, he reached for the sparking jewel.

  Suddenly — KA-WHOOOM!

  The peaceful sea exploded, and a giant serpent rose from the waves.

  “Witch Demither!” Eric said.

  The serpent reared her head and opened her jaws. “I am Demither, queen o
f oceans!”

  And with a single lunge of her scaly arm, the witch closed her claws over the Red Eye of Dawn.

  “No!” Sparr cried out. “Black was the day you were born, Witch Demither! I will find you!”

  The serpent reared once more, then plunged into the water below, sending up a wave that crashed against the cliff like an exploding bomb.

  “Awesome!” Julie gasped, staring at the water.

  The sorcerer leaped upon a groggle and soared over the white cliff. “Ninns, follow me!”

  Then, turning to Eric and his friends, Sparr cried, “Weak humans! You will end your days on this island! Crumble, earth! Fall to the sea!”

  And the ground began to quake.

  Kaww! Kaww! The entire army of Ninns streaked across the sky after Lord Sparr.

  The whole island rumbled and shook. Giant cracks split the rocks along the cliff.

  “Let’s get out of here!” Neal yelled, stumbling across the ground to his friends.

  Eric gasped when he saw his friend. “Hey, Neal, you’re back!”

  “What’s wrong with my back?” Neal said.

  “It’s normal!” Julie said. “You’re Neal again! Not a bug! The Eye must have blasted you back to your regular you!”

  “I always did like me!” Neal said. “Let’s go!”

  Rrrrr! The ground rumbled again and again.

  “This way!” Galen urged. “The island is crumbling into the sea! Swiftly now!”

  The six friends ran as quickly as they could down the white cliffs. They pounded through the tangled jungle. Rocks slid and crashed all around them. Trees fell in their path.

  Finally, they reached the shore.

  Krrrk! The giant white cliff above them began to split.

  “We need a ship!” Keeah said.

  Galen frowned. “We need something to start us off. Something to build a ship with.”

  Eric’s eyes went wide. “I know!” He ran across the beach. There, hidden in the rocks, were the wooden planks and torn sail from the old ship.

  “Can we use these?” he asked breathlessly.

  “Yes!” said Keeah.

  Quickly, they assembled as much of the old ship as they could find. Together Galen and Keeah spoke fantastic words over them.

  Suddenly, magically, the broken planks became hundreds of planks. Torn bits of sail furled upward into red-and-yellow squares of cloth.

  The Jaffa Wind, more beautiful than ever, rose up before them.

  “Hurry aboard,” Max pleaded.

  The moment they piled on, the giant sails filled with wind, and the ship began to slide over the water.

  KRRRK! A large crack tore open the cliff face, sending huge rocks tumbling to the sea below.

  “Just in time!” Eric said.

  The beach and the jungle were swept away by the crashing waves.

  A moment later, the towering mountain itself fell into the sea. The mysterious island vanished.

  As if it had never existed.

  The ship sped magically over the waves.

  Leaning against the side, Eric let out a long breath. “Sparr lost today,” he said.

  Keeah smiled. “Yes. For now, he doesn’t have the Red Eye of Dawn. Now my father and I can search for my mother.”

  “What will Sparr do next?” Neal asked.

  Galen glanced across the water. “Demither is heading north,” he said, “to the coast of Mintar where she became what she became. Sparr will follow her there. But that is a story for another day. Look …”

  The sun peered through the dark clouds and shone over the sea. It was a new day.

  “And look at that,” Neal said. “A city!”

  They all ran to the upper deck. Rising in the distance were the silvery towers of an enormous city. Sunlight glimmered on the harbor and on the many colorful boats sailing into it.

  “Jaffa City,” Keeah exclaimed. “The capital of Droon. Home.”

  “We’re home, too,” Julie said. “There are the stairs.” She pointed off the left side of the ship. The magic stairs were hovering over the calm waves.

  A few minutes later, Neal, Julie, and Eric stepped from the ship onto the bottom stair.

  “I have no words to thank you,” Keeah said, “except to say — come back soon!”

  “Droon needs such good friends as you,” Galen said with a smile.

  Eric smiled, too. “As long as the magic keeps working, we’ll keep coming.”

  Julie hugged Keeah. “You can count on it.”

  “Farewell, Master Neal,” said Max. “It was fun not being the smallest one, for a change.”

  Neal put his fingers to his forehead and wiggled twice. “That means — see you soon!”

  The three children waved and raced up the stairs to the basement above them. They turned to look one last time at Keeah’s ship as it sped over the sparkling sea to Jaffa City.

  Then Eric flicked on the light.

  Whoosh! The stairs vanished below them, and the gray cement floor appeared in its place.

  “That was so strange,” Eric said.

  “The weirdest ever,” Neal agreed.

  They entered the basement.

  Julie sighed. “But, somehow, I can’t wait until we go again.”

  “Me, either,” said Eric. “I wonder where we’ll be next time. Jaffa City? The coast of Mintar?”

  Neal made a face. “As long as they don’t have bugs! Anyway, as Galen said, that’s a story for another day. Look.”

  The soccer ball was lying on the workbench.

  It was a normal ball once again.

  Light flashed in through the basement windows. But it wasn’t lightning. It was the sun.

  “The storm’s over,” Eric said. Then he turned to his friends. “Anybody hungry?”

  Neal grinned and twitched his fingers. “That means — you better believe it!”

  Then they all ran up to the kitchen for lunch.

  School was over for the day.

  Eric Hinkle and his two best friends, Neal and Julie, climbed onto the bus home.

  “It’s been two whole weeks since we’ve been to you-know-where,” Julie whispered as they squeezed into a seat together.

  Eric smiled. Of course he knew where.

  Droon, the totally secret and magical world of adventure that they had found under his basement.

  “It’s so strange,” Eric said when the bus started up. “We have all these amazing new friends and we can’t even talk about them.”

  “Enemies, too, don’t forget,” Neal added.

  That was true. Since their first adventure in Droon, they had met Galen Longbeard, an old and powerful wizard, and his spidery helper, Max. Khan, king of the pillow-shaped purple Lumpies, had helped them, too.

  But their special friend was Princess Keeah, a junior wizard who was trying to keep the wicked Lord Sparr and his red-faced Ninns from taking over her world.

  “I wonder what Keeah is up to,” Eric said. “I’m itching to go back.”

  “And I’m just itching!” Neal groaned, bending over suddenly to scratch his legs. “In fact, I’ve been doing weird stuff all day. Not to mention the tiny little voices I keep hearing …”

  That’s when it happened.

  Pop!

  “Whoa!” Eric gasped, looking under the seat. “Look at that!” He pointed at Neal’s sneaker.

  Neal bent down. His shoelaces stretched and broke, one after another. The toe burst open and something brown and shiny popped out.

  “Neal,” said Julie, “what’s with your sneaker? Is that the stuffing coming out?”

  Eric gasped. “No, that’s his foot coming out!”

  “That’s not my foot,” said Neal. “It looks like a bug … a bug…. Wait. That is my foot! I’ve got a bug foot! Oh, no! I’m a bug again!”

  The other kids on the bus turned and laughed.

  Julie dropped her backpack over Neal’s shoe before anyone saw it.

  “Holy cow!” Eric whispered. “I know what’s going on! Nea
l, brace yourself. It’s back.”

  Neal frowned. “What’s back?”

  “The bug spell,” he said.

  “What?” Neal moaned. “I thought that spell was over!”

  “It looks like it just came back,” said Julie.

  On their last adventure in Droon, a magic spell had gone wrong and accidently Neal had been turned into a bug.

  A baby bug, with a hard brown shell, six legs, and feelers on his head that curled and twitched.

  And now it was happening again.

  Errr! The bus stopped, and the doors swung open.

  “There’s only one place to go,” Eric said, grabbing Neal and pulling him off the bus. “To my basement. Hurry. We need to go back to Droon.”

  Together, they ran across the yard to Eric’s house.

  “The spell’s not finished somehow,” Julie said, frowning. “But don’t worry, Neal. Droon is the most magical place ever. We’ll find the cure.”

  “This is not going to last forever,” Eric added.

  “Forever?” Neal squealed. “Yikes!”

  They hurried to the side door and opened it. Eric put his finger to his lips. “Nobody can see you like this, Neal.” He paused to listen.

  Julie nodded. “Let’s be as quiet as —”

  “A bug?” Neal said. “I can do that.”

  Eric listened to the clacking of a computer keyboard. “My mom’s working.” Then he called out. “Mom, I’m home. Neal and Julie are with me. We’re going downstairs! Bye!”

  They rushed through the kitchen.

  On the way, Neal wiped some crumbs off the table, then licked his palm. “Sorry,” he said. “Crumbs suddenly seem tasty to me.”

  Eric was worried. “I don’t like this,” he said. “Nothing magical has ever happened outside my basement … until now.”

  “Let’s think about that after Neal’s cured,” said Julie. She shut the door behind them. They hustled downstairs.

  “Now,” she said, “did anybody dream of Droon?”

  Eric shook his head.

  Usually, a dream would call the kids to Droon.

  Or the soccer ball in Eric’s basement would turn into a globe of Droon. Princess Keeah had put a charm on it.

  But the magic soccer ball was lying as usual on the workbench. It was just a ball.

  “No dreams,” Neal said. “Unless you count the one where I thought a lizard would eat me.”