A Crazy Day with Cobras (6 page)

“This is fun!” said Annie.

Not really
, thought Jack. Where in the world were they going?

A million insects hummed and buzzed. Butterflies and dragonflies darted about. The elephant burst from the sea of grass and charged into a scrubby forest. As she plowed through shrubs and trees, birds cawed and flapped out of the brush.

“Okay, slow down, Morning Breeze!” yelled Jack. “You’re back in the wild, so you can let us off now! We need to—”

Before he could finish, the elephant lifted her trunk and let out a loud shriek. She reared up on her hind legs. Jack and Annie tumbled out of the
carriage. They slid down the elephant’s back and fell onto the ground. Morning Breeze shrieked again and tore away through the forest.

Jack and Annie lay in the dirt. They heard the elephant trampling plants and crashing through bushes. They heard her bells jangling. Then the sounds faded away.

“Are you okay?” Annie asked.

“Yep,” said Jack. “But that wasn’t very polite of her.”

Annie laughed. “Well, you asked her to let us off,” she said.

“Yeah, but not
dump
us off,” said Jack. He waved away flies and slapped at mosquitoes. He felt sweaty and thirsty and exhausted. “I wonder how long it will take us to get back to the tree house?”

“I don’t know—let’s just start retracing our steps,” said Annie.

Jack and Annie stood up and brushed the dirt off their coats.

“Hey, where’s your bag?” asked Annie.

“My bag?” said Jack. Where was it? He whirled around. He saw it lying in the grass.

“There!” he said. He hurried to his bag and picked it up. It was open. “Oh, no!” He reached in and pulled out their research book, the blue bottle, and Teddy and Kathleen’s note. He searched frantically for the emerald rose.

“I don’t believe it! The emerald’s missing!” cried Jack.

“It must have slipped out when we fell off Morning Breeze,” said Annie. “We’ll find it. It has to be here somewhere.”

Jack shoved everything back into his bag. Then he and Annie got down on their hands and knees. Jack looked intently at the forest undergrowth—the dried vegetation, sticks, clumps of dirt, and rotten leaves.

“I can’t believe this!” said Jack. They had been so close to returning home, their mission done. Now they were stuck in the middle of nowhere and the emerald rose was missing. “I don’t see it. It’s not here. Maybe it fell out at the bazaar when—”

“Bingo!” said Annie. “There it is!”

“Where? Where?” said Jack.

“There!” Annie said, pointing.

Jack saw it. The emerald rose glittered like a tiny green light in a small, sunlit clearing. It was lying next to a mound of earth and dead leaves.

“Yes!” said Jack. He and Annie scrambled to their feet and headed for the mound.

But when they got closer, Annie grabbed his arm. “Wait! There’s something weird happening there,” she whispered. “
Very
weird. See?”

“What? Where?” said Jack.

Annie pointed to the mound. Something very weird
was
happening. The earth and leaves seemed to be moving! Then Jack saw speckled yellow bands and two shiny black eyes.

Jack gasped. “Oh, no,” he whispered. “A king cobra!”

T
he king cobra circled the leafy mound. Its skin was olive brown, the color of the dead leaves. It had speckled yellow bands that ran around its scaly body.

“Back up, back up. Go slow,” Jack whispered to Annie. Jack picked up his bag, and they quietly stepped backward, until they got to the edge of the clearing. “Now run!”

Jack and Annie took off. Clutching his bag, Jack ran with little steps, trying not to lose his pointy slippers. After about a hundred yards,
Annie came to a halt. “Stop, stop!” She grabbed Jack’s arm. “We shouldn’t get too far away!”

“Why not?” said Jack.

“Penny!” said Annie. “We have to get the emerald for Penny!”

“Right, right,” said Jack. “Okay!” He took a deep breath. “First, we have to get calm.” Jack took another deep breath. Then he pulled out their research book. “Okay. Let’s read about cobras.”

Jack opened the book and found a section about Indian wildlife. He read:

“So that mound of leaves was its nest,” said Jack. “And the cobra was probably a mother snake guarding her eggs.”

“How does that information help us?” said Annie.

“It doesn’t,” said Jack. He went on:

“That’s bad news,” said Annie.

“Yep, really bad news,” said Jack. He kept reading:

“Whoa,” said Annie. “That must be why Morning Breeze panicked and ran away.”

Jack closed the book. He shook his head. “I don’t see how we can possibly get close to that nest,” he said.

“Then there’s no way we can get an emerald rose for Penny,” said Annie, “unless we go back to the Great Mogul and ask for another one.”

“And that’s not going to happen,” said Jack.

“Then how can we save Penny?” asked Annie. “Think of Penny.”

Jack thought about Penny. He would do anything for her. “Okay,” he said. “There might be a way we could get the emerald rose. What if … what if we were really small?”

“
Yes!
” said Annie.

“The cobra can’t hear us, right?” said Jack. “She can only see us and feel vibrations. So if we make ourselves small, maybe we can sneak back and get the emerald without being seen.”

“
Yes!
” said Annie.

Jack reached into his bag and pulled out the blue bottle. He and Annie both stared at it. “So how many sips should we take?” Jack asked. “One for ten minutes?”

Annie shook her head. “Two for twenty.”

“Okay …” Jack took a deep breath. “But just
so you know, when we get small, everything else will be huge, like flies and spiders and—”

“Spiders?” Annie said in a small voice.

“Yeah,” said Jack. “Hey, you know what? You don’t have to do this. I can do it by myself. It only takes one person to get the emerald.”

“No!
I’ll
go.
You
stay,” said Annie.

“No way,” said Jack. “We’ll both go.”

“Good,” said Annie.

Jack held the bottle up to his lips. “Okay,” he said, “two sips.” He took two quick sips, then handed the bottle to Annie.

Jack felt dizzy. He closed his eyes and hugged himself. He felt as if he were falling through a hole.

SHHHHHH-WISSSSSST!

Suddenly the forest was filled with chirping, whirring, crunching, and squeaking.

“Oh, wow!” whispered Annie. “Open your eyes.”

Jack opened his eyes.

He and Annie were both small—
very
small. Their clothes and shoes and Jack’s bag were all small, too.

“Oh, man, we got
really
small,” said Jack. He looked around at the grass and the weeds and the mushrooms—they were all taller than he was! “I think we shrunk to about six or eight inches.”

Close to the ground, the scrubby forest was awake and alive, filled with the ripe smells of earth, noisy insect sounds, and the rustling and whispering of grasses and weeds. The dirt glittered as if sprinkled with flecks of silver.

“It’s really beautiful,” said Annie.

“Yeah …,” said Jack.

Wildflowers looked like elegant and luminous umbrellas with pale pink petals and silvery leaves. Berries were the size of apples.

“Look up!” said Annie.

“Wow!” said Jack.

The tall trees of the forest were like skyscrapers. It was hard to see where they ended.

WHUP!
Something plopped down in the dirt beside Jack.

“AHHH!” Jack and Annie grabbed each other in terror.

It was a giant insect—as long as Jack’s arm! It had a flat brown body, six legs, and two sets of wings. It looked at them with huge, goggle-like eyes. It waved its antennae and crept forward.

“AHHH!” Jack and Annie stumbled backward.

The giant bug stopped. Then it rubbed its front wings together. The forest erupted with shrill chirping—
Creekle! CREEKLE! Creekle! CREEKLE!

Jack covered his ears and laughed. The giant insect was a cricket! He knew a cricket wouldn’t hurt them. The cricket pushed off the ground with its long hind legs and leapt into the brush.

“Look!” said Annie, glancing up.

A giant golden yellow butterfly hovered above her. As if Annie were a flower, the butterfly touched down lightly on her head and opened its wings. Annie held her breath. She didn’t move a muscle. She looked like she was wearing a wide yellow hat.

The butterfly closed its wings, then opened them, and with a whispery sound, fluttered deeper into the forest.

Bzzzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzzzz
.

A gigantic bee circled above Jack. “Whoa. Keep moving, buddy!” Jack said, ducking and waving his hands. “We’re not flowers!”

The bee buzzed lazily away.

“Hey, we’d better hurry and get our emerald before we become our
real
size again,” said Annie.

“Oh, right!” said Jack.

“Which way?” asked Annie.

Jack looked around. It was hard to tell where they were. “I remember the emerald was shining in the sunlight.”

“It looks sunny over there,” said Annie. She pointed to a clearing.

“So let’s creep through the shade toward the light,” said Jack. “Remember, the cobra can’t hear us, but she can see us and feel our vibrations. We have to stay hidden and step lightly.”

“Hey, I wonder where the dad is,” said Annie.

“Don’t ask,” said Jack. “Don’t think about it. We have enough to worry about. Come on. Let’s go.”

He and Annie crouched down and started creeping toward the sunlight.

J
ack and Annie stepped lightly through dead leaves and pushed aside feathery weeds that towered above them. They carefully climbed over twigs, pebbles, and tangled roots. They skirted around a deserted anthill as high as Jack’s knees.

When they got to the edge of the cobra’s clearing, Jack stopped. He held up his hand and Annie nodded. They peered between tall blades of grass.

The emerald rose glittered in the sunlight. It looked as big as a softball. The cobra was still coiled around her nest. But now she looked as big as a monster in a fairy tale.

“Whoa!” Jack breathed.

“What do you think we should do?” Annie whispered. “Should I just run as fast as I can, grab it, and run back?”

“No, no!” said Jack. He was shocked by how big the cobra looked.

“I think she’s asleep,” said Annie.

“We can’t really tell,” said Jack. “Her eyes are hard to see because of her camouflage.”

“So how—” started Annie.

“That’s it!” said Jack. “
Camouflage!
”