Epic (5 page)

“Magic might be stretching it,” he replied. “I'm charismatic. Possibly charming.”

Perking up, M.K. flat out asked, “Do you know what to do with the pod or not?”

“Not a clue,” replied Nim. M.K. shot him a look and he continued, “But I
do
know where to look it up. Follow me!”

Nim led the group down a tunnel lit only by glowworms. They emerged into a vast space deep within the tree. All around were ancient rings stuffed with scrolls.

“The Rings of Knowledge!” Grub exclaimed. “Is everything that happens really recorded here?”

“Oh, yeah,” answered Nim.

“And you've read them all?” asked M.K.

“I've skimmed them,” Nim said with a shrug.

“So is
this
event being recorded?” Grub asked.

“Of course,” answered Nim.

“Is this?” asked Grub, this time making a silly, stretchy face.

This went on for a while until Nim tuned out the snail and continued looking for the scroll. “Blooming a pod . . . got to go way back for that.”

When Nim finally found the right scroll, he unwound it and scanned it. “Okay, let's see. Pod, care of . . . must keep moist . . . oh, here we go. Well, the good news is, once the queen chooses it, it's going to bloom no matter what.”

Everyone thought that was great news.

“
But
,” interrupted Nim, “it has to open tonight, in the light of the full moon, when it's at its highest peak. Mentions it a bunch of times.”

“What happens if it blooms out of the moonlight?” asked Grub.

Nim read down the scroll to the jagged bottom edge. “Unclear. The last part's missing. Termites have been a problem.” Then he brightened. “So, here I thought we were doomed! Celebration, anyone?”

Everyone left, except M.K.

“Wait,” she said to Nim, who stopped to listen. “This is going to sound weird, but I'm not from this world. I thought maybe something in these scrolls could tell me how to get home.”

“The scrolls don't tell us the future,” Nim said. “They only guide us with the knowledge of the past. Oh! That's a great line . . .”

“So you can't help me?” asked M.K.

“I didn't say that,” replied Nim. He handed her an old, dusty scroll.

She unrolled it partway and found it covered in an ancient script. “I can't read this,” M.K. told him.

“It's just dusty,” said Nim, with a twinkle in his eye. “Blow it off.”

So M.K. blew on the scroll, and a big cloud of dust flew off, transforming into an image—an image of Queen Tara!

“It's you!” M.K. cried.

M.K. was astonished at the figure of Tara standing in front of her.

“Come closer,” the queen beckoned.

Suddenly, a giant shadow hovered over them. M.K. turned to discover a giant-sized version of herself!

“It's a memory,” M.K. realized. The memory of when she first stumbled upon this world of the Jinn.

“If you can hear me now, it means you got to Nim's,” said the queen. “Today's not going the way I planned. The pod needs you.”

“You don't understand,” M.K. said desperately. “I have to get home. This has nothing to do with me.”

“You're here for a reason,” Queen Tara said. “Maybe you don't see the connections yet, but just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not there. I know you're scared, but stay with the pod. Be with it when it blooms. And then, you'll get back what you've given.”

The wind picked up, and the image of the queen began to fade again.

“Well, THAT was intense!” Nim exclaimed.

M.K. smiled to herself. “There's a way to get home. I have to be with the pod when it blooms, and that's tonight. Thank you!”

Nim smiled back. “I'm glad you were paying attention, because she started talking and woo . . .” He kept talking, but M.K. wasn't listening. She was filled with hope—finally.

When Ronin heard the news, he sprang into action. He pulled Nod aside and gave him very specific instructions: “We're not done until the pod blooms. I'm sending word to the Leafmen, so I need you to stay here and keep an eye on the pod.”

A short while later, Ronin and Nim stood in the treetop with a group of fireflies.

“Let the Leafmen know that the pod is safe, and we're going to bloom it here,” Ronin instructed.

Nim looked at the fireflies. “You heard him. Go tell 'em, boys!”

The fireflies launched into the sky to deliver their messages to the Leafmen.

Down below, Nod noticed M.K. returning from the Rings of Knowledge. He approached her. “Look, I'm thinking I didn't make the best first impression.”

M.K. smiled. “It's okay. I've never had a guy fight a mouse for me before.”

Relieved, Nod smiled, too. “You're not from around here, are you?”

“Not exactly,” replied M.K. “But I have some time before I go back. Anything I should do?”

Nod grinned again. “You should give me a second chance.”

M.K. agreed and held out her hand. “Deal.” And to her surprise, Nod pulled her out of the window.

Once outside, Nod held a finger to his lips and pointed to a few moving shapes. They were barely visible through the thick fog. When it did clear, M.K. was stunned to see the shapes were actually a herd of deer. From her perspective, they were gigantic.

“Whoa,” she said, astounded.

The deer passed by the pair, beautifully and slowly, before drifting back into the fog.

Nod smiled at her. “Put your arms around me,” he told her. And soon they rode a deer's antlers while it wandered in the forest. They had no idea that in just a few moments, Mandrake would make his attack.

T
he ground below Nim's tree burst open and Mandrake emerged, sitting atop a star-nosed mole.

“Excuse me, but I've lost something very dear to me,” he said mockingly. “It was left by a friend who's—” Then he spotted Mub and Grub with the pod. “You found it!”

“If you want to take this pod, you're going to have to go through us,” Mub declared.

“Relax,” said Mandrake. “I'm not going to hurt it. I need it alive.”

Grub put his hands on his hips. “Well, we're the only ones who know how to keep it that way.”

Mandrake smiled cruelly. “Thanks for the tip,” he said, gesturing to his Boggan guards who grabbed Mub and Grub as he took the pod. They tossed the slug and the snail aboard the mole, and Mandrake spurred the animal back into its tunnel.

Ronin arrived a few seconds too late to do anything. He spotted Nod and M.K. entering through the window. Furious, Ronin stormed up to Nod and berated him for leaving the pod unattended.

In Mandrake's lair, Mub and Grub huddled in a corner with the pod, surrounded by Boggans. Mandrake stood over them as he was giving a speech. He raised a spearlike object, and then Mub and Grub screamed.

“Please, stop!” begged Mub, in agony.

“My son was born on a night like this,” Mandrake told them while holding a spiny nut he used as a memory box. He pulled out a set of pointy teeth. “These were his baby fangs. And here's the first skin he ever molted . . .”

“Your stories are boring and torturous!” Mub cried out.

Mandrake's eyes narrowed. “The Leafmen took my son from me. So I took something from them. It's basic etiquette: an eye . . .” He poked Grub in his eyestalk.

“Ow!” shouted Grub.

“. . . for an eye,” Mandrake finished, poking Mub in his eyestalk.

“Ow!” Mub moaned.

Mandrake sneered. “Tonight, your pod will bloom here. And what blooms in darkness, belongs to the darkness. So, soon I'll have another little dark prince. I'll destroy the forest with the very thing you hoped would save it.”

“I hate to break it to you,” said Grub. “But it doesn't say that in the scrolls.”

A wicked smile crossed Mandrake's face. “It does in the part I have.” He held up the piece of the scroll that was missing from Nim's.

Mub and Grub looked at each other. They knew they were in trouble, that the pod was in trouble, and they had no idea what to do next!

B
ack at Nim's oak, Ronin continued to berate Nod for leaving the pod. “Stay with the pod, that is all you had to do!”

“Yeah, but I just thought that—” Nod started to respond when Ronin continued, “Do you ever think about anyone besides yourself?”

M.K. stood up and took responsibility. “It wasn't all his fault,” she said. “The queen gave it to me and I should have been with it.”

“And you,” Ronin said to M.K. “I expected as much from him, but I thought you would know better.”

“We're really sorry,” said Nod. “Okay, we just—”

“I don't want to hear it,” Ronin said. “That was the last part of the queen that I—that any of us may ever have.”

“I will do whatever it takes to help you get it back,” M.K. promised him.

“I appreciate the enthusiasm,” said Ronin as he saddled his bird. “But Wrathwood is too dangerous.”

“You can't go alone,” she insisted. “What about the whole leaves and tree thing that you said? Nim! Tell him!”

Nim tried to be reassuring. “Look, kid, the moon's almost up. That's bloom-or-die time. So if no one has a better plan—”

“What if we sneak in, in disguise?” Nod suggested.

Ronin laughed and said sarcastically, “Great idea. I'll go as a grasshopper, and you can be my cricket lady friend.” Then he added, “I don't have any Boggan armor handy, do you?”

M.K. piped up. “I know where we can get some.” She then hopped on a bird and grabbed the reins. As Nod jumped on behind her, she said, “You might want to hang on.”

M.K. spurred the bird into flight, a little shaky at first, but eventually got the hang of it. Nod held on tight, and Ronin followed behind, unsure of how he felt about the plan.

A short time later, M.K., Ronin, and Nod peered through the window of M.K.'s father's house.

“Over there,” M.K. said, pointing to a display across the room. Boggan artifacts lined the shelves.

M.K. squeezed through the barely opened window, and Ronin and Nod followed.

From their perspective, the house was huge. To M.K., especially, it seemed like a brand-new place.

But there was no time to explore. They needed to get across the room to the shelves. Ronin leaped off the windowsill first.

Nod, wanting to show off, slid down an open tape measure, used the padded desk chair as a trampoline, and grabbed a cable to swing himself to the base of the shelves.

“Come on,” he urged M.K.

She smiled, finally confident in her new size and skills. She stretched like an athlete, gave herself a running start, and jumped.

But she wasn't quite as successful as Nod. Instead, she bounced off the objects that Nod skillfully sprang from, logrolled on a couple of pencils, and ultimately landed with a
thud
on her bottom.

“That was awesome. Here,” said Nod, extending his hand to help her up.

M.K. was embarrassed as she took his hand. Then she looked down to see her right leg was covered in a dust bunny—hair, lint, and other yucky stuff. She kicked at it, but it wouldn't come off. “Ew! That is some static cling!”

The more she tried to rub it off, the more static it became. She reached to brace herself on the metal wheel of the desk chair.

Nod shouted, “No, that's metal, don't touch tha—”

BLAM!

Because of her small size, the second M.K. touched the metal, the static shock blew her backward. She was out of the dust bunny, but her hair stood at attention.

Nod went to help her up again and received a little residual zap when he grabbed her hand. “Ow!”

“Knock it off,” Ronin said seriously.

Nod and M.K. looked up to see Ronin already on the shelf above them. They climbed up to join him and took a closer look. They were amazed by what they saw: There were Boggan and Jinn artifacts all over the shelf, including bird-skull helmets and bat-skin clothes.