Epic (6 page)

“You know, some of this stuff looks familiar,” said Nod. “Hey!” He pulled a saddle down. “That's my saddle! Where are we?”

Suddenly, there was a
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM
.

They turned to see M.K.'s father, Bomba, walk past the doorway, holding an old shoebox. In their scale of time, he walked in slow motion.

“Ohhhh, it's where
this
guy lives!” Ronin said to M.K.

“I can't believe it!” added Nod. “He's been crashing around the forest like a bear for years. Most Stompers just come and go. But this guy's relentless.”

“Stompers?” asked M.K.

“Yeah,” replied Nod. “You know, like us, but big and dumb and slow. Always stomping on things . . . Stompers.”

“And this one is obsessed with finding us,” explained Ronin. “Obviously that's a security risk. Can't have one of his big fat feet stepping on Moonhaven.”

Nod joined in. “One of his ginormous, flabby, dirty, stinky—”

“Okay! I got it!” M.K. said.

“So we've been throwing him off the trail,” said Ronin.

M.K. looked puzzled. “You're just messing with him? But he's found all this stuff.”

Ronin shook his head. “He only finds what we want him to find. Look at his map—we've got him looking everywhere but where we are.” He pointed to an unmarked spot on Bomba's forest map, far away from the area with the pushpins clustered in it.

“I love how this guy talks,” said Nod, adopting a much slower way of speaking. “Loook aaaat thisss flooowweerrr.” He and Ronin cracked up.

M.K. was obviously not amused. “It's his life's work!”

But Nod and Ronin continued to make fun of Bomba. “IIIIIIIIIIII hurrrrt myyyy ellbooooowwww!” Ronin cried.

“You're being idiots!” M.K. said. “He's my dad,” she finally admitted.

Ronin and Nod instantly stopped goofing around.

“He's what?” said Nod.

“
I'm
a Stomper,” said M.K.

Nod thought she was joking. “What happened? You got shrunk?”

“Yes,” M.K. said, in all seriousness. She pointed to Ronin and added, “Which he knows!”

“Seriously?” Nod said to Ronin.

Ronin nodded. “It's been a weird day for everybody.”

M.K. put her hands on her hips. “You got a problem with Stompers?”

Nod suddenly became somber. “A Stomper squashed my uncle.”

“Oh my gosh! Really?” M.K. said, feeling terrible.

Nod grinned. “Nah, I'm just messing with you.”

M.K. rewarded Nod with a swift shove, and Ronin couldn't help grinning. Then she turned and saw Bomba looking at some family pictures.

“I guess she's right about me,” Bomba said sadly out loud. “All I seem to be able to do is drive people away.”

“No, Dad! You didn't!” M.K. shouted. “I'm here!” Her angry words from that morning had affected him, and she'd do anything to take them back. But she couldn't. So she tried yelling again: “And you're right about all of it! Don't stop looking, not now!”

But Bomba didn't hear her. At most, if he listened carefully, her voice would be a faint, high-pitched squeak.

However, someone else could hear those high-pitched squeaks . . .

O
zzy, sleeping at the top of the stairs, opened his eye. He couldn't recognize the squeaks he heard, but it was worth investigating. He turned to find a very small M.K. He barked and gave chase.

“Ozzy? Uh-oh!” M.K. exclaimed. She bolted off the steps, with the dog close behind. She ran toward Ronin and Nod, who had collected Boggan armor to take with them.

When Nod saw what M.K. was running from, he spoke only one word: “Run!”

Bomba looked up to see what the commotion was about. “Ozzy?”

Ozzy barked again, followed by his customary sneeze and drool.

Bomba peeked in the doorway and addressed Ozzy. “Will you please stop—”

Right at that moment, out of the corner of his eye, Bomba spotted three tiny figures skittering across the floor.

“They're here! They're in my house!” Bomba shouted, overflowing with enthusiasm. He raced to the closet and grabbed a handheld vacuum. He had modified it by attaching a collection jar to it. He quickly turned it on.

To M.K, Nod, and Ronin, the vacuum sounded like a hurricane. They scattered, as Bomba headed toward them. They tried to make it back to the window to escape, but Ozzy cut them off. Ronin aimed an arrow when—

“NO!” cried M.K. She gave him a shove and the errant arrow hit Bomba in the bottom.

“Ah!” cried Bomba. He swatted at the tiny arrow, as if it were a bee sting. He spun around, stumbled, and bumped his desk, knocking Nod off it. “Ow! I hurt myyyyyy elbowwww!”

“Did you hear that? He said it!” Nod said excitedly. Then Nod hit the floor, looking up in time to see Bomba's coffee cup falling straight for him! He dove to the side, just as the cup smashed down, spilling coffee all over the floor.

When Ronin made it back to the windowsill, he immediately cut off part of the cord from the blinds. He tied and secured it around a slat, tossing the other end to Nod and M.K.

Nod and M.K. spotted the cord and sprinted for it. Nod scurried up the cord to where Ronin was waiting. The two Leafmen prepared to pull up M.K. next, but as she grabbed the cord, the suction from Bomba's vacuum pulled her back!

“No!” shouted Nod. “Don't let go! Don't let go!”

M.K. held on while Ronin and Nod pulled on the cord. But it was no use. M.K was sucked into the vacuum, landing hard inside the collection jar.

Bomba held the jar up to his face, adjusting his buffering equipment so he was able to see the tiny creature better. “Hello there, my little friend.” He looked closer and saw a two-inch-tall M.K. staring back at him.

“Dad! Dad!” M.K. shouted, banging on the glass.

Bomba's eyes went wide, he turned pale, and then he fainted.

The jar went crashing to the floor, breaking open and freeing M.K.

“Dad!” M.K. called again. She reached out to touch him, wishing she could explain.

Ronin interrupted her thoughts. “Let's go.”

Nod noticed M.K. was torn. “You can't stay,” he told her gently. “You're with us now. Come on, we've got to go.”

M.K. knew Nod was right. The pod was still in danger. But before she left, she placed a red pin on Bomba's map revealing Moonhaven's location. Then she grabbed on to the cord and was hauled up to the windowsill.

As they left the house, M.K. asked, “You think he's okay?”

“He'll be fine,” said Nod. “Their heads are like rocks.” Then he quickly added, “Uh . . . smart rocks!”

Not long after, a full moon began to rise as M.K., Ronin, and Nod stood on a branch looking down on the gnarled stump of Wrathwood. It would take all their bravery and courage to fight the Boggans and reclaim the pod before it began to bloom.

They fastened their Boggan armor around them.

“That's a whole lot of ugly,” Nod said, looking at M.K.'s bird-skull helmet.

“Ugh,” said M.K. “It smells like something died in here.”

“Something did,” Ronin pointed out, and M.K. made a face.

They headed toward the stump, surrounded by Boggans in every direction.

“How do we know where to go?” Nod asked.

“I've been here before,” replied Ronin. “With your father.”

Nod looked surprised. “He never told me about this.”

“He never got the chance,” Ronin said sadly.

At that moment, Nod began to look at Wrathwood with new eyes, knowing he was following in his father's footsteps.

Ronin led the others through a tunnel, their Boggan disguises keeping them from standing out.

M.K. had to stifle her scream when she came face-to-face with a bat. Looking up, she saw hundreds of bats lining the ceiling, sleeping fitfully.

At the end of the tunnel, the trio found themselves overlooking the heart of Wrathwood—a giant, multi-leveled coliseum. Above this arena, there was a crack in the ceiling, revealing a sliver of sky.

Ronin pointed to the crack. “There's our exit. Meet me back here when you've got the pod and the slugs.”

“What? How are we going to find them?” asked Nod.

Ronin pointed to a wet, glistening trail leading down a tunnel guarded by two Boggans. “Follow the slime.” He began to walk the other way.

“Aren't you coming with us?” asked M.K.

“I'm going to make sure nobody follows you,” Ronin told them.

M.K. and Nod looked at each other, visibly worried.

Ronin reassured them. “Don't worry, you get the easy part. I get the fun part.” He faced the Boggans and pulled off his disguise. “Hey, look! It's a Leafman!” he shouted.

The Boggans looked around, confused.

Ronin rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe how thickheaded the Boggans were when Mandrake wasn't around. He called to them again: “I'll keep this simple. I run. You try to catch me.”

The Boggans finally caught on, and they swarmed to attack. With precision, Ronin successfully started taking them out, as Nod and M.K. headed off in search of Mub, Grub, and the pod.

M
.K. and Nod followed the slime trail until suddenly a horde of Boggans came bustling down the tunnel. They were on their way to fight Ronin. Nod and M.K. pushed their way upstream against the crowd until they made it through to the other side.

“When I get big again,” began M.K., “I am so coming back here with a can of bug spray!”

Hurriedly, they ran down a path until the slime stopped at a dismembered jawbone, lying on its side.

“Mub? Grub?” M.K. called quietly.

Mub's eyestalks popped up from under the jawbone. “We're down here! I knew you'd come!” Then he turned to Grub, and added, “See? That girl is smitten.”

Nod pushed the jawbone away and he and M.K. retrieved the pod, as well as Mub and Grub.

“Hurry, before the guards come back!” urged M.K.

But it was too late. They could hear Boggans coming down the corridor.

“I have a plan!” said Grub.

Two Boggan guards entered to find the jawbone moved and the room empty. Suddenly, one of them was hit on the head with a drop of slime. They looked up to see M.K. and Nod on the snail and slug, all making their escape!

“Go, go, go!” yelled Nod.

“Ow! That hurts!” complained Mub. Nod was holding on to Mub's eyestalks so he wouldn't fall off.

The snail and slug crawled across the ceiling, staying just out of reach of the pursuing Boggans.

Meanwhile, the number of Boggans chasing Ronin had increased tenfold. But they were no closer to catching him as Ronin leaped from ledge to ledge, always managing to stay ahead of the swarm.

Suddenly, the Boggans retreated. But they weren't fleeing; they were clearing a path for their boss, Mandrake.

“Ronin, what a surprise,” said Mandrake. “I get so few guests.”

The Leafman shrugged. “It could be the stench of death. Some people don't care for it,” Ronin said.

The Boggans watching clearly didn't like that, but Mandrake motioned for them to stand down. “It's all right. Ronin's an old . . . what do you call someone you've known for a long time and always wanted to kill? Wait, it'll come to me.”

“I hope it comes to you quickly. You don't have much more time,” said Ronin.

Mandrake jumped down and took out the bridge Ronin was standing on. The Leafman barely leaped to safety.

Ronin swung, but Mandrake blocked the attack.

“I expected you'd come, but I didn't think you'd come alone,” said Mandrake.

“Who said I'm alone?” Ronin replied. He knew that Mandrake didn't see M.K., Nod, Mub, and Grub up above, making their way along the ceiling into the coliseum toward the exit. Unfortunately, the two guards pursued them.

Nod swung his foot—and it connected with the two Boggans!

Just as Mandrake was going to deliver a crushing blow to Ronin, the two guards landed directly on his head. Mandrake looked up to see M.K. and Nod riding the slug and snail and let out a primal roar. Thousands of Boggans poured out of the walls, climbing toward M.K. and Nod. Mandrake leaped up the walls to block the exit.