The Ark of Dun Ruah, Book 1 (5 page)

CHAPTER 5

Cooks and Frumpets

Kerry sat in the dining cabin finishing her last piece of toast and waiting for Simon. She tried to keep her eyes off the Frumpets, who were busy licking every plate in the cabin. Then they started pestering the cooks, raiding the food counter and begging for leftover scraps. Whenever the cooks threw something into the rubbish chute the Frumpets shouted rudely and shook their fists.

At last Simon returned from his search for the man in the grey cloak. He didn't look happy. Slumping down on the seat beside Kerry he scratched his head.

‘I've lost him again. I can't figure out where he keeps disappearing to. I've checked everywhere, even the toilets.'

‘Hey you,' interrupted a Frumpet, who was staring at Kerry's toast. ‘Can I have it?'

‘Get stuffed!' replied Simon.

‘Don't be so rude Simon,' said Kerry. ‘He's just hungry.'

‘He couldn't still be hungry after all that food. It's ridiculous how much they eat! Come on, Kerry – finish up. Let's get away from these greedy pests.'

‘Be careful what you say, boy,' said the Frumpet. ‘More of that and I'll thrash you.'

‘Go on then,' said Simon standing up to his full height.

Just then a huge commotion broke out behind them. They looked back to see the two cooks wrestling with the other two Frumpets and trying to beat them out of their way. The Frumpets struggled to get a large bag of leftovers out of the rubbish chute. The third Frumpet abandoned Simon and dashed over to join in the fight. After a tussle, the cooks managed to rescue the bag. Then suddenly they all heard a whirring noise. A set of tall, double doors slid open behind the counter. And the cooks rushed through.

‘After them,' cried the Frumpets.

The cooks fended off their attackers and the double doors slid shut, blocking the Frumpets' way through. The whirring noise resumed and faded as it descended into the bowels of the ship.

‘They're gone,' shouted the Frumpets. ‘They're gone. They've stolen our food. We want our money back.'

The Frumpets clawed at the sliding doors trying to follow the cooks. They combed the walls with their thick little fingers, looking for some way to get through the door. But they failed to get in.

‘Now, isn't that interesting,' said Simon. ‘The cooks have a private elevator all to themselves so that they can escape from annoying passengers. Good for them. So the kitchen and all the food stores must be located down in one of the lower decks.'

‘Let's get out of here Simon,' said Kerry, trying to get him away from the Frumpets. ‘I'd like to get some fresh air and to have a look around this ship.'

‘Good idea. Let's explore the Ark of Dun Ruah,' replied Simon.

Simon and Kerry left the dining cabin and explored the two top decks of the ship. Opposite the dining cabin was an entrance to a games room and beside that was a small shop run by a man in a brown habit. They explored them both and then went back to the atrium and through the door to the outside deck. But they couldn't find a stairs leading to the lower regions of the ship.

They returned to the inner atrium again and took the main staircase to the top deck. This led to the lounge where they had been sleeping. It had been converted to a dormitory during the night. Now the mattresses had been removed and people were sitting around on comfortable chairs and couches. At the end of the lounge they went through a set of glass doors leading out to an open air sun deck at the rear of the ship. Working their way around to the front of the ship, they found a small flight of steps leading to the navigation room. But it was closed off to passengers.

After exhausting their search of the top deck and finding no stairs down to the lower decks, they went back to the sun deck. Here they sat on some comfortable deckchairs with the rest of the passengers, relaxing, in the mid-morning sunshine.

It wasn't long before Timmy and Dot came to find them.

‘Have you seen Pod?' asked Timmy.

‘He left us before breakfast to go off to catch a rat,' said Kerry. ‘He should be back by now.'

‘There's no sign of him anywhere,' said Dot, ‘and he told us he would meet us here straight after breakfast. I hope the rat he was looking for didn't get the better of him.'

‘I doubt there are any rats on board,' said Kerry. ‘This ship looks very clean. We've been having a look around here, trying to find a stairs to the lower decks so we can explore the whole ship. But we can't find any.'

‘There are no stairs,' said Timmy. ‘It's very unusual. We've been scouting around the lower decks looking for Pod since breakfast. All the portholes have dark glass over them so we can't see through. And it's impossible to find any of the crew because the lower decks are totally separated from the passenger decks up here.'

‘But some of the portholes were open', said Dot, ‘and I thought I saw monks inside. They were all wearing brown robes with hoods.'

‘That's interesting,' said Simon. ‘There are a lot of monk-like characters hanging around here. The two cooks were wearing brown habits and so was the ticket man. Did you guys by any chance see a tall fellow in a grey, hooded cloak anywhere?'

‘No. We just saw lots of men in brown robes,' said Dot.

‘There's got to be a logical explanation for all this,' said Simon, scratching his rusty head of hair. ‘If only I could figure it out. From what we've seen so far, this ship is run entirely by monks. They come up to the dining cabin at meal times and then they leave in their private elevator. The passengers have no access to the lower decks. And the monks are living down there hidden behind tinted portholes. It's all a bit of a mystery.'

‘I wonder why the passengers aren't allowed into the lower parts of the ship,' said Kerry. ‘Maybe the monk's belong to an enclosed order. Or they could be criminals dressed up as monks and hiding a terrible secret. Those voices I heard in my dream last night were so real.'

‘Well, your imagination is pretty lively today!' said Simon. ‘But let's not jump to conclusions until we find Pod.'

‘Kerry isn't the only one hearing voices,' said Timmy. ‘Right now we are crossing the Sea of Sorrows. The seabirds we met on the ocean this morning told us all about the troubled waters. They said that the waters are enchanted and that many ships have disappeared around here. And we've been hearing voices coming from the sea too.'

‘All right then – here are the facts,' said Simon. ‘The sea is enchanted. Last night there was an almost extinct Giant Eagle on board scanning the upper decks. Poor old Pod is missing. And there's a suspicious man in a grey, hooded cloak prowling around, who manages to disappear each time I try to catch up with him.'

‘So what's the connection?' asked Kerry.

‘Well, we saw how the Giant Eagle attacked the man with the grey cloak in Kilbeggin. And pretty savage it was too! We know that Pod was tormented by the same eagles. Now one of them is on this ship and he may still be after Pod. He might even have got to him already and hurt him. We've got to do a proper search for Pod. Let's go back up and check the two top decks properly. Timmy and Dot, you search the rest of the ship and the seas around it. And keep an eye out for eagles. We'll meet back here in an hour.'

The little group of friends all went their separate ways, searching for Pod and asking everyone they met if they had seen him. An hour later they were all back on the top deck. And no one had any news.

‘This isn't like Pod not to turn up,' said Kerry. ‘He always arrives exactly when he says he will. Something must have happened to him.'

‘Maybe we're overreacting,' said Timmy. ‘It's possible that he just nodded off to sleep somewhere.'

‘Pod doesn't nod off to sleep,' said Dot. ‘He is very fussy about where he nests and he always sleeps with one eye open. No, I think something's wrong. He's been gone for hours. Maybe he flew in through one of those tinted portholes on the lower decks and got into trouble.'

‘Well, I can hear the lunch bell', said Simon, ‘and that means the dining room is open. I'm going to have a chat with the two cooks and see what's going on around here. They might know something about what happened to Pod.'

‘We'll keep an eye out while you're gone,' called Timmy.

When Kerry and Simon arrived at the dining cabin the three Frumpets were already fighting to get first place in the queue for lunch. They were stirring up a noisy racket. The cook's voice could be heard over their cries.

‘I'm going to ban you three from the dining cabin if you don't behave yourselves right now and that means you will get absolutely nothing to eat for the entire voyage. Now get yourselves back down to the end of the line. You can wait until everyone else has been fed.'

Looks of disappointment began to register on the Frumpets' faces. Their mouths were open, ready to protest when the cook picked two of them up by the ears and shook them violently.

‘Do what you are told, or no food,' he said, dropping them at the end of the line.

Kerry and Simon sat at a little table near a porthole and tried to eat some lunch. Simon waited for the cooks to finish serving and for a chance to talk to them alone. Kerry looked out at the deep blue sea. She could see an island off in the distance. It looked very mountainous and rugged. Scores of birds circled above it in the distant grey skies.

Finally the serving finished and Simon approached the head cook.

‘Have you seen Pod, the owl?' asked Simon.

‘I take it that you're talking about the unusual looking Blue Owl that was with you at breakfast. No, I haven't seen him.'

‘He's been missing all morning,' said Simon, ‘and we can't find him on the upper decks. We want to go down to search for him in the lower decks. He's old and may have got stuck somewhere. Will you tell us how to get down there?'

‘The lower decks are private. And they're completely out of bounds for passengers. I'll keep an eye out for him. But I have to warn you that there have been a lot of disappearances in these waters. We are crossing the Sea of Sorrows right now and passing very close to Eyrie Island. It's an evil place. Bad things are happening there. Your owl may have got mixed up with some of the eagles who come to spy on us. He may have had a mishap.'

‘What kind of a mishap?' asked Simon.

‘These waters are terribly dangerous,' said the cook.

‘What do you mean?' asked Simon.

‘Eyrie Island,' said the cook in a low voice. ‘I know things about that island. Once it was a great place. There was an abbey there and lots of villages. Now the place is deserted. The waters are cursed and only eagles live there. It's ruled by their tyrant warlord.'

‘Come on, Chef,' called the cook's assistant. ‘We're finished here.'

‘Keep searching,' said the chef to Simon, ‘and I'll put the word out that the owl is missing. I promise you I'll search the lower decks myself.'

‘But why aren't we allowed down to the lower decks and what's all the secrecy about?' asked Simon.

The chef stared hard at Simon, his lips firmly sealed.

‘Chef, it's time to go,' persisted the assistant who was now standing inside the elevator.

‘Now just you hold on!' demanded Simon. ‘Take me to your captain, that's if there is a captain on this ship.'

‘I'm not taking you anywhere, boy,' replied the head chef. ‘And take a piece of my advice. Mind your own business or you'll find yourself under ship's arrest.'

The chef spun around and charged off through the elevator door. It slid shut and they heard the sound of it descending. Simon looked at Kerry in bewilderment. Suddenly, he clapped his hands.

‘I have it,' he said and then lowered his voice. ‘There's got to be a way into that elevator and down into the lower decks. All I have to do is find it and then I'll go down there and search for Pod myself.'

‘You're not going down on your own,' said Kerry. ‘I'll come with you. It was me who arranged this trip. And I don't want you getting arrested.'

Timmy and Dot circled the ship and checked the portholes of the lower decks. They found no trace of Pod or the eagles. They were back waiting on the open air deck when Kerry and Simon returned from lunch.

‘I'm so worried about poor old Pod,' said Kerry. ‘This is my fault. He never wanted to come with us in the first place. And I talked him into coming on this trip. I'll never forgive myself if anything has happened to him.'

‘Don't be a dope, Kerry,' said Simon. ‘We all wanted to come on this trip. And we will find him. I've just got to find a way into that elevator. It's the only way down to the lower decks. I'm going back to the dining cabin now to check it out.'

Kerry hurried after him and watched as he examined the walls around the elevator doors for switches and buttons. Then he searched under the food counter.