The Rightful Heir (22 page)

Benjamin ran down the driveway, hoping his mom wouldn't wake up and see him. He ran as fast as he could, reaching the den in double time. Hopping into the hole with his fishing pole, his eyes tried to adjust to the darkness.

“Back so soon, Your Majesty?” a voice called out.

“We'll just be another minute. Wait here and don't make any loud noises.”

He brushed against the animals as he crept along the wall of the long, dark tunnel.

“This is ridiculous,” the old badger mumbled as Benjamin entered the hall.

“Alright, here's the plan. Squeak, come here.” Benjamin yanked some slack out of the fishing line, knelt, and pulled a self-tightening lasso around the mouse. He brought it down to Squeak's tummy and pulled it snug. “Is that too tight?”

“No, Sire. I believe it's fine.”

“Let's try it out. Take off running.”

Squeak hesitated, then raced across the cavern floor. “Hmmph!” The mouse was yanked off his feet and helplessly reeled back, flying through the air until he was hanging in front of Benjamin's face.

“That didn't hurt, did it?” The boy smiled at the brave mouse.

“No, Your Majesty. It was actually kinda fun.”

“Yeah, well don't have too much fun,” Malcolm said. “That thing'll eat you the first chance it gets!” Squeak gulped.

“Okay, so what are we gonna do once the Snapper is out of the water?” Felix asked.

“I'm gonna real Squeak in as fast as I can. Then you guys jump out and surround him.” Benjamin thought the participants looked a little unsure.

“And what if he refuses to talk?” Jonah asked.

The boy pulled a roman candle out of his pocket. “Then I'll
make
him talk.”

Clementine recognized the colored paper stick he'd seen when they went to kill Farangis. “Oh, Sire! I'm glad you still have those!”

“It's my last one.” Benjamin put the stick back in his pocket and held the mouse in his hand. “Okay, Squeak, walk over to the far end of the pool and act like you fell in by accident. Yell at me when he's coming and I'll pull you out. We'll all be hiding. Okay?”

“Okay.” He started to shake with fear.

“You can do this, Squeak.” Benjamin put him down and he scampered away, legs like jelly. He hadn't fully realized until then how dangerous this was. As he neared the pool, he stopped. It looked really big to a little mouse like him. He turned around and saw them huddled in the tunnel, waving him on. Benjamin's lips mouthed, “Go on!”

The boy nodded reassuringly as he let slack out of the fishing line. Squeak rounded the edge of the pool, trying not to look into the crystal blue water. But he couldn't resist. As nonchalantly as he could, he glanced to the bottom and saw a big green head with piercing yellow eyes looking back at him. “Oh, my gosh!” he whispered in dread. He almost fainted at the thought of that
monster rising up to eat him.

Squeak reached the far edge of the pool in front of the throne. Shaking madly, he crept to the edge and stood with his back to it. He closed his eyes and waited… and waited… and waited.

“What's taking him so long?!” Malcolm asked, impatient.

“I don't know,” Benjamin replied quietly. “Come on, Squeak. Do it! Jump in!”

As they watched in
anticipation, Squeak's mind raced with fear at the predator below him. He sat in a daze. Then he felt something cold on the tip of his tail and jumped in the air. “Yeow!!!” It had touched the water.

“Oh, no!” Benjamin watched Squeak retreat. The fishing line instantly tightened when he took a few steps forward and Squeak was jerked back, taking a roll he didn't intend to take.
Splash!
The mouse panicked in the cold pool. Blinded by the sunlight, his equilibrium was thrown off and he swam blindly toward the middle.

“Reel him in, Sire! Reel him in!” Clementine shouted.

Benjamin's fingers gripped the
handle and he spun it as fast as he could. Squeak felt the undertow of water rush over him as he was pulled backward under the water. The monster's enormous black shell stirred the bottom into a large cloud of light brown sand as he swam madly at the frantic bait. Out of the cloud, two yellow eyes and a set of giant, opened jaws were coming at him!

Benjamin's hand suddenly stopped reeling. He gasped. “The line's stuck! I can't reel him in!” He grabbed it and began pulling with his hands.

Squeak jumped on top of the water, his feet kicking frantically against the surface. A tug from the line jerked him to one side of the pool. The undercurrent rushed against him from the charging behemoth below.
“Aaaaghhh!”
Squeak yelled and leaped at the side, landing on the hard ledge. He collapsed to the ground, waterlogged and trying to catch his breath. As he lay there, the greenish-black head of the monstrous snapping turtle erupted from the surface. His neck was much longer than Benjamin could've imagined. His mouth opened wide to devour the fatigued mouse.
Yank!
Benjamin jerked the mouse back and he flew halfway across the room.

Waves roared in all directions as the monster leaped from the
pool. Easily the size of a car tire, he raced toward the helpless Squeak. Stubby green legs moved him speedily across the floor as his neck stretched out nearly a foot from a crude, dark shell.

“Get Squeak out of there, Sire!” Clementine whispered hysterically.

“Not yet. Let him come out a little more…”

Squeak turned around and saw the frightful monster. “Aaaagh!”

Benjamin jerked him back toward the hidden group. As the Snapper continued the chase, he quickly tightened the slack from the line and gave one last yank. Squeak flew past them. “Now!” Benjamin ran out, the others a split-second behind. The Snapper stopped short as the group of creatures and a human boy ran out from nowhere to surround him. They all stayed a safe distance, trying to remain calm. The Snapper's long, wrinkly neck jerked back and forth, sizing up his aggressors. Benjamin was speechless as he stared at the dinosaur-like ridges running from the top of the gigantic shell all the way down to the tip of the long, greenish-black tail.

“Get out of my way!” The low, gravelly voice was aimed at Mac. Zeus barked menacingly. “You don't scare me,
dog!
I can bite your leg in half!”

“Sire, now would be a good time to get out that stick,” Clementine said shakily from the corner of his mouth.

Benjamin felt the roman candle in his back pocket and pulled it out. “N-Not so fast!” he yelled, mustering confidence.

The Snapper hissed at the boy holding a paper stick in his shaking hand. “What? So
you're
the human that talks?” He took a few steps toward him.

“Not only does he talk, but he can also light you on fire!” the pig said bravely.

The Snapper turned to him and hissed, and Clementine
hopped back in fear.

“He's right,” Benjamin said. “This stick will cook you with fireballs if you don't answer some questions!” He boldly took a step forward, the roman candle in one hand and the lighter in the other.

“I don't believe you, little boy!” The Snapper growled.

Benjamin flicked his thumb on the lighter and a flame shot up. Everyone but Malcolm and Clementine jumped. The Snapper's gargantuan head retreated as his long neck folded back into his shell.

“Now do you believe him?” Malcolm coolly asked.

Benjamin moved his arm forward as the Snapper hissed defensively at the hand with fire coming out of it. “Now tell us. Who do you work for?”

The monster's eyes darted around the room, resting on the flame. “…Fat… Fat Tony.”

“I knew it!” Malcolm cried. “And who does Fat Tony work for?”

The Snapper was quiet, so Benjamin moved closer while the flame was still going. “I don't know his name. Some snake.”

Malcolm and Benjamin looked at each other. “Farangis?” the boy asked.

“Farangis?” the Snapper growled madly. “Word through the water is that a puny
dog
from your kingdom killed him. No, not Farangis.”

“Then whose giant snake skin did we see in Persly's Woods?” Malcolm asked.

The Snapper had backed up almost to the cave's darkened wall, staring at all the creatures around him. “Giant snake?” He thought for a moment, then let out a heaving cough mixed with a long, disturbing laugh. “You mean…she? She is back?!”

“Who…who is she?” Benjamin kept his thumb on the flicker.

“Ohhhhhhhhh, you've
made her mad!” The delighted Snapper's evil laugh sent chills through the others.

“W-who is she?!” Clementine yelled in frustration and fear.

“The mother!”

“The mother?” they all whispered, and Benjamin gasped.

“Farangis's mother!!”

“She is the ‘it' that's been eating everyone up?” Clementine asked softly.

The snapper laughed again. “Yes, quite the appetite she has! She even ate me once, although she threw me back up.” The onlookers flinched. “This turtle was indigestible!”

Benjamin set his jaw. “Do you know where we can find her?”

“Oh, ignorant boy! She will find you!”

Benjamin came at him with the flame. “Where did she try to eat you?”

The Snapper hissed. “Every night she drinks from a spring at the far eastern edge of Persly's Woods. That's how I found her. I tried to befriend her, thinking she could be a powerful ally.” His face grimaced in a smile. “But she doesn't understand…
friendliness.”

“Where is this place?” Malcolm demanded.

“I will gladly tell you, because I know the inevitable death that awaits you! Look for a spring where the cicadas sing loudly.”

“What? Cicadas? They sing everywhere!”

“Not like this. These cicadas can be heard from a great distance. Something sweet in the water drives them wild. And when they stop singing, she is close.”

Squeak walked from behind Benjamin's shoe and stuck out his tongue. “Thought you could get me, didn't ya, you old ugly thing!”

“Squeak, don't antagonize him,” Clementine whispered.

“Ah, you must be the mouse I heard betrayed this kingdom.”
Squeak stood frozen by the monstrous words. “Yes, I heard the story from one of the snakes. Or was that…your
father?”
The Snapper took pleasure at the tears in Squeak's eyes.

“Sh-shut up!” Squeak screamed in anger.

“Oh, pity for you. At least your father made a good meal for Farangis. I'm sure his mother will return to finish the rest of your family off.” The Snapper laughed madly.

“Shut up!!” Everyone gasped as the little field mouse ran at the monstrous snapping turtle.

“Squeak, no!!” Clementine shouted, but Squeak ran on.

The Snapper's eyes fixed on the food charging it. Benjamin immediately reacted, holding the tip of the roman candle to the small flame. The fuse sparkled majestically. But before he could get to the Snapper, the long neck lunged from the shell. Squeak jumped high in the air, avoiding the powerful snapping jaws that clamped down on the spot he'd been only a second before. He landed on the closed mouth of the monster and came to his senses, turning to flee certain death.

The mouse was inches away when
SNAP!
Squeak didn't immediately feel the pain in his tail and kept running, dodging the oncoming sparkles that jumped off what remained of the roman candle's fuse. The Snapper's jaws opened again…and
Gulp!
His jaws closed on the candle that was halfway down his long neck. His mad, yellow eyes crossed, looking down on the foreign object lodged in his throat.

Thoomp!
The turtle's skin glowed red as the fireball shot through his neck.
Thoomp! Thoomp!
His whole body jerked and glowed orange and blue. The animals crowded back in the tunnel watched the fireworks show from around the corner. Ten fireballs shot into the Snapper, his jaw still clamped down hard on the painful fire stick, and smoke seeped from his nostrils and eyes.

Benjamin's small group moved out of the way as the Snapper
retreated hastily and stiffly toward the water. Zeus moved to intercept him but Malcolm called him off. “No, let him go. He won't be coming back. We have all the information we need from him.”

The pain-stricken snapping turtle plopped in the water. A bubbling cloud of smoke rose to the surface. As the smoke cleared, his hind clawed feet and ridged tail disappeared into a black hole at the bottom of the deep spring.

“Is he going to die?” Jonah asked.

“No, but he won't ever forget,” Clementine said.

“Whew!” Benjamin sighed in relief. “Squeak, are you okay?” He ran to the tiny mouse, who was rubbing the little nub he had left for a tail.

“You know, I really don't feel a thing.” He wobbled a few times, then passed out.

“Is he going to die?” Mac asked.

Benjamin smiled at the brave mouse with affection. “No, but
he
won't ever forget!”