The Warble (4 page)

Kristina wondered what the bowing was
all about, and as she stood watching, Clover flew over to her and whispered in
her ear, “Don’t you have any respect? Bow!”

“Thanks, guys, but no
need for the formalities,” the boy said.

“But the respect is due
to you, Prince Werrien,” Clover said.

“Not as long as that
villainous queen—oh, excuse me, Her Majesty, is in power.”

Looper made the
introductions. “Prince Werrien, this is Kristina. Kristina, this is Prince
Werrien.”

Kristina looked at the
boy shyly. “Are you really a prince?” she asked warily.

The boy’s blue-green
eyes gave her a fleeting glance as he slung his quiver and bow across his
shoulder. “I guess you could say that, but the way things are now, I just go by
Werrien.” There was silence for a moment, and then Werrien continued, “Well,
it’s been a pleasure, but I’d best be off. I’ve got plenty of things to do.” He
turned to leave.

“Wait!” Looper said, in
a slightly anxious tone.

Werrien turned around.

“There’s something you
ought to know.”

“Oh? What is it?”
Werrien asked.

Looper flew up to his
ear and whispered, “We are in the presence of the
chosen one
.”

Werrien turned to look
at Kristina. “Let me guess—this little girl?” he asked.

Kristina marched over
to Werrien. “Little girl? If you haven’t noticed, you’re not really much taller
than me.” She stared up at Werrien, who was about a head and a half taller than
she was.

“Oh, I get it. You’re
the one who has come to save Bernovem from all its troubles.” Werrien swung his
sandy blond hair out of his eyes and stared right back at her.

Looper landed on the
rock again and tried to stand taller than he really was. “As a matter of
fact...” he began; then swallowed anxiously and continued, “Yes, I mean, that
is the reason she came here.”

Werrien’s eye brows rose
and he shook his head in disbelief. He turned around, and proceeded to walk
away. “You can usually find me in these woods, so let me know when she’s done
saving Bernovem. We’ll have a big celebration.”

Kristina felt her
temper rising. “Hey, Prince Charming!” she yelled.

Just as Werrien turned
around in response, she tossed the Warble to him. He caught it, and looked
curiously at it. “What’s this?” he asked.

“Oh, I’m not quite
sure, but I’ve been told it’s called the Warble!” Kristina said haughtily.

“What? This colored
ball?” Werrien tossed it up in the air. When it landed in his hand, it was so
hot that he had to drop it.

“It hurts, doesn’t it?”
Kristina said smiling, feeling a bit of satisfaction.

Werrien bent down and
cautiously picked it up. It was no longer hot but just a little warm. He looked
up at Kristina; she could see the shock in his blue-green eyes. “You really are
the one.” He looked bewildered. “Well, I was hoping this day would get better.
Whoo-hoo!” he hollered with joy. He went over to Clover, who was still standing
on the rock, and lifted her by her tiny hand and spun her around in the air.
Then he placed her back down on the rock. Clover blushed as she straightened
her skirt and tried to find her balance. “Wow! I can hardly believe that the
Warble is really here in Bernovem.” He rolled it around on the palm of his
hand, still in awe of it. Then he tossed it back to Kristina and grinned at her
in a way that made her feel self-conscious, and the odd thing was that she had
never really felt that way before when other kids teased her.

Looper could see how
she was feeling, so he said, “We really need to get to the Indra River before
we run into another one of the queen’s zelbocks.”

“Mind if I go with
you?” Werrien asked.

“Would you?” Clover
promptly replied, her eyes lighting up. “I mean, if it’s not too much trouble,
we could always use your protection.” Her freckled cheeks blushed red.

“I thought that you had
plenty to do already,” Kristina said, still feeling annoyed with Werrien.

“Look, I’m sorry for
treating you the way I did. It’s just that I would never have thought that the
Warble would be returned by a...”

“A dumb little girl?”
Kristina said, finishing his sentence.

“Well, not a dumb
little girl, but a…”

“I get the point. Let’s
just drop it. I guess I wouldn’t mind having you come along.”

“Well, then, it’s
settled. What are we waiting for?” Looper said.

They started to leave,
but then Kristina stopped and said, “Wait! What about that dead creature? Are
we just going to leave it out here in the open?”

“Don’t worry about it.
Zelbocks don’t last very long after they die,” Werrien said.

Kristina turned to look
at the zelbock, but it was gone. “Where did it go?”

“It disintegrated; even
Bernovem’s soil can’t stand zelbocks,” Werrien replied. “Though I must say,
that was pretty good thinking, to try to cover our tracks. I mean, for a girl,
that is.”

“What do you mean, ‘
for
a girl’
?” Kristina retorted.
He’s very handsome but sure doesn’t have
the personality to match it,
she thought.

~ ~ ~

The sun had totally
disappeared, and the woods were covered in a blanket of darkness. Looper and
Clover flew a little ahead of the two children, lighting the way with a soft
glow, like fireflies. Looper seemed to hear something, and he suddenly stopped
in midair. “Listen! Can you here it?” he asked.

They all stopped to
listen.

“Yes, I can. What is
it?” Kristina asked.

“It’s the Indra River,”
Werrien said.

“Not much longer and
we’ll be there,” Looper said.

Clover shivered a
little. “I feel a storm coming,” she said.

No sooner had she said
it than a swift wind came at them and picked up Looper and her and took them
for a twirl in the air. Lightning flashed across the sky, and then thunder
pounded the atmosphere. Kristina looked up, and a rain drop hit her nose. A few
seconds later, the rain began to fall with such heavy force that it felt like
buckets were being dumped on their heads.

“I think you’ll have to
carry on from here without us!” Clover yelled. “We can’t fly in this downpour.”

“Come on, Clover! We
can try to make it,” Looper tried to coax her.

“You listen to me,
little brother. The road stops here for you and me, so don’t get any big
ideas,” Clover said sternly.

“I guess that means you
two are on your own from here on,” Looper said sadly, trying to steady himself
in the rain.

The four said their
good-byes. Then Clover and Looper took cover under a large leaf to wait out the
storm.

Werrien continued to
lead the way through the brush and pouring rain. “Lucky I met up with you guys,
for if I hadn’t, you’d have to find your own way to the river,” he said as he
tried to cut through a thick mass of tangled thorn bushes blocking their way.

Kristina frowned at
Werrien through her sopping wet hair. “Hey! I came here to your land, which I’d
never heard of before, to deliver this thing called a Warble, which I didn’t
ask to do, and believe me, at this moment I’d rather be home in my comfy, dry
house than trudging through this wet forest with a conceited boy like you,” she
said.

Werrien was going to
reply but an arrow hit a tree just behind his head, and before Kristina could
even blink, he grabbed hold of her and pulled her to the other side of the
tree. As the two of them sat crouched on the ground in the darkness, they could
hear what sounded like a horse trotting toward them.

“Wait here,” Werrien
said.
He
crawled to another nearby tree, stood up, and cautiously peered around it. He
could see a black-cloaked figure upon a jet-black horse. He motioned to
Kristina with a twitch of his head to come over to where he was. She crawled as
quickly as she could over to the other tree. “Can you see that little clearing
through those trees?”

“Yes.” Kristina had to
squint to keep the pouring rain out of her eyes.

“When I say go, we must
run—and I mean faster than you’ve ever run before.”

Kristina felt
butterflies in her stomach.

“Okay, one, two, three,
go!” Werrien whispered. He took off running very fast, but Kristina could run
fast, too, and she kept right up with him. “There’s no stopping from this point
on!”

The black-cloaked
figure caught sight of them and began charging after them. It quickly gained on
them. Werrien and Kristina kept running as fast as they could.
“I
don’t know if I can run any farther. I’m getting a sharp pain in my side!”
Kristina said.

“It’s not much farther.
You have to keep going!”

Kristina’s foot
suddenly hit a rock and she went flying, face first, to the ground. The
black-cloaked figure was about a hundred yards behind them. Werrien helped her
up. They started running again, but the black-cloaked figure shot an arrow at
them and it skimmed Kristina’s shoulder, causing a burning sensation. The sound
of the horse’s hooves pounding the ground got louder and louder, and she could
hear its heavy breathing behind her.

“I hope you’re not
afraid of heights!” Werrien yelled.

“What do you mean?”
Kristina yelled back.

“Take my hand!”

Kristina grabbed his
hand—and suddenly there was no ground beneath them. They had jumped off a high
cliff and were about to land in the Indra River.

When Kristina entered into the land of
Bernovem, the time there had no correlation to the time in her own world. All
the while that Kristina had been in Bernovem to this point; Davina, Hester, and
Graham were still sleeping soundly in their beds on the same night that
Kristina had been awakened by the annoying buzzing noise.

Davina, Hester, and
Graham all woke up at the same time, approximately the same moment that
Kristina entered into Bernovem. Raymond, who was already awake, stood staring
at the open laundry chute. The same thing had woken all of them as it had
Kristina—the continuous buzzing noise. The annoying sound went deep in their
ears, like a noisy creature had crawled inside them. Davina, Hester, and Graham
tossed, turned, and shoved their heads underneath their pillows, until finally
they all woke at the same time. They even sat up at the same time, except for
Raymond, who was trying to bury himself in his shavings. Then, while all of
them looked around their rooms to try and figure out where the annoying sound
was coming from, it happened.
Poof!
They all disappeared into thin air, and as quick as a flash, they were
mysteriously transported to the world of Bernovem.

Davina found herself
falling at a high speed from the sky, clutching her bed sheet, which the wind
caught hold of and turned into a parachute. She slowly drifted down, and then,
with quite a bump, she landed on the soft green grass very near the pile of
leaves where Kristina had been dumped out of the sack. Feeling a little stunned,
she glanced about the beautifully manicured lawn and, just like Kristina had,
thought that she must be dreaming. As she sat there, she suddenly heard noises
coming from a nearby bush. It sounded like some wild animal had been caught in
a trap. She got up and walked toward the bush, passing the rake that Rumalock
had left on top of the wheelbarrow. She stopped for a moment and glanced around
at her surroundings to make sure no one was around, watching her. Then she ran
over to the wheelbarrow, grabbed the rake from it, and held it over her head.
She then tiptoed toward the bush.
If the wild animal tries to lunge at me,
I’ll just whack it a good one over the head with the rake
.

A few feet away from
the bush, she heard the noises again, coming from inside it. “Whoever you are,
you’d better come out now, or you’ll regret you were ever born!” she taunted
angrily. No one responded, so she proceeded toward the bush. Then, when she was
close enough, she cautiously stuck her foot into it and wiggled it around to see
if she might feel something. When she didn’t feel anything, she took one step
inside the bush.

“Ouch! Get off my
foot!” an annoyed voice yelled.

Davina jumped back, but
still kept the rake over her head, ready to slam it down. More rustling came
from within the bush, and then, suddenly, a girl in a nightgown came crawling
out of it. It was none other than Hester Crumeful.

Hester stood up and
placed her hands on her hips. “If you
even
try to hit me with that rake,
my mother will call the police, and you’ll be hauled away and thrown into jail
faster than you could hit yourself over the head. And believe me, you’ll wish
you would have, once you know who you’re dealing with!” she said, breathing
heavily.

Davina dropped the
rake. “Who are you?” she said, looking inquisitively at Hester.

“Who are you?” Hester’s
tone was snooty.

“I think I might
recognize you, however I’m surprised you don’t recognize me. My name’s Davina
Pavey. I was president of the book club, as well as Library Assistant of the
Year at Webster Elementary last year. You should have known that—you go there,
too!”

“Oh, really?” Hester
asked in a doubtful tone. “So how come I haven’t seen you there this year?”

“Well, duh!” Davina
rolled her eyes. “I now attend Wallendon High. Isn’t it
obvious
that I’m
much older than you?”

“As a matter of fact,
I’m twelve and a half, and you don’t look more than a year or two older than
me, and I don’t recall seeing or hearing of you at all, though I’m sure that
you must know my family.”

Davina shrugged her shoulders.
“No, I…”

“Does the name Crumeful
ring a bell?”

Davina suddenly looked
like she had swallowed a frog. “You mean the Crumefuls who live in the mansion
in Eastwood Manor?”

“Yes, I certainly do
mean the Crumefuls who live in the mansion in Eastwood Manor.” Hester’s brown
eyes looked Davina up and down. “I suggest that the next time you have an
inkling to kill somebody with a rake, you first better find out who you’re
dealing with.”

Embarrassed, Davina
dropped the rake and walked over to Hester. Then she bent down and started
brushing the dirt and leaves off of her nightgown. “I’m so sorry,” she said.
“What did you say your name was?”

“Hester Crumeful.”

“Oh, yes! How could I
forget, Hester? That is such a beautiful name. Were you named after anyone special
in your family?” Davina asked smoothly.

“Yes, as a matter of
fact, I was named after my great-aunt, the late Hester Crumeful II. I am the
III.”

“Well, isn’t that
special?” Davina went on, oozing with false compliments.

Suddenly, they heard
noises coming from the nearby forest, so they stopped talking to listen.

“What do you think that
could be?” Hester asked.

“I don’t know.”

The two of them started
walking toward the forest.

“Aren’t you going to
grab the rake?” Hester asked.

Davina smiled. “Oh,
yeah! Good thinking.”

As they got closer, the
sound—a moaning noise—got louder and clearer. They entered the forest and once
again, Davina put the rake above her head. There was a fallen tree up ahead of
them, and the sound was coming from just beyond it.

Scared, Hester hid
behind Davina. “Get ready to bash it a good one,” Hester said.

Davina gripped the rake
tight and jumped on top of the fallen tree, ready to let whatever was moaning
have it, but a voice spoke suddenly. “Ah! Please don’t! I’ll do anything you
say!” it said, coming from a person that was covered in mud.

“Wait! Stop! I know
that voice!” Hester said surprised. “That’s my dorky cousin, Graham Kepler!
Besides, only he would moan like a baby over something as little as sitting in
the mud.”

Graham jumped up. “Give
me that rake!” He lunged at Davina and grabbed hold of the rake and tried to
pry it out of her hands. “I’ll show you who’s the baby!” Graham, being smaller
than Davina, was no match in the struggle over the rake.

“Oh, yeah? You think
you can mess with me, do ya?” Davina clenched her teeth and turned purple in
the face. She gave Graham a kick with her foot, and he fell back in the mud
with a big splash! Once again, Graham sat up, covered from head to toe in fresh
mud. Davina and Hester started laughing.

“Okay, I give up,”
Graham said. “But can anyone tell me where I am and how I got here?” As he was
speaking, he felt something crawl out of his nightshirt and then onto his
shoulder. It crawled on top of his head, and he jumped up, screaming.

“Stop jumping around
like a scared chimp!” Hester said to him.

Graham stopped and
peered up to try to see what was sitting on top of his head.

“It’s that pesky little
critter belonging to Kristina Kingsly,” Davina said and grabbed hold of Raymond.

“Hey, watch where
you’re squeezing me. I just finished my midnight snack, and I’m still quite
full,” Raymond said.

Startled to hear
Raymond speak, Davina dropped him.

“Clumsy girl,” Raymond
said, just before scampering off into the woods.

“This is too weird,
being in this strange place, and to top it all off, talking rodents! I must be
dreaming,” Hester said, nervously.

“Well, then why don’t I
splash some mud in your face? That should wake you up,” Graham said, while
trying to rub some of the mud off his freckled face.

“I must admit, it is
kind of freaky,” Davina said. Then she turned to Graham. “Hey, aren’t you the
kid who put that stinky Limburger cheese in the classroom heater last year?”

“Yeah, how did you
know?” Graham asked.

“What do you mean, how
did I know? Everyone heard about it. My brother Marvin told me that it stunk up
the hallway for over a month.”

“Yeah, wasn’t it
great?” Graham laughed.

“Hello? Aren’t you guys
forgetting something?” Hester said impatiently. “We’re standing here in some
weird forest, in our p.j.’s, and to top it off, we heard a rat talk!”

“Yeah, and aren’t you a
fine sight to see,” Graham teased. Hester did look kind of funny, with her hair
all messed up. “I can’t believe it. This is the first time ever that I’ve seen
you without one of your stupid scarves around your neck, Hester.”

Hester grimaced at
Graham. “I wouldn’t be surprised if all of this is just another one of your
ridiculous pranks.”

“Thanks for the
compliment, but I’m in enough trouble. I’m practically grounded for the entire
Christmas break. I certainly don’t need anything else to add to my list.
Besides, do you think I would have gone to this much trouble to prank you guys,
being that I’m the one covered in mud and all?”

“Good point, but then
how did we all get here?” Davina asked.

“Do you think I look
that smart?”

“Definitely not!”

Hester looked around
the moss-laden forest. “I’m feeling kind of scared,” she said.

“Stop being such a
baby,” Graham said coldly.

Davina looked about and
noticed a trail leading back to the finely manicured lawn. Then she noticed
Rumalock’s cottage. “Hey, look! There’s a little house. Let’s go see if there’s
anyone home.”

“Yeah, maybe there’ll
be some food we can eat. I’m starving,” Graham chimed in.

“I could go for that,” Davina
said.

The three of them
tromped over to Rumalock’s house, stomped down the little steps, and knocked on
the old wooden door. Nobody came to answer; Rumalock was still out. Graham
pounded a second time on the door. Then he put his ear up against it to see if
he could hear anyone walking around inside. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s home,”
he said.

“Let’s check to see if
any windows are open,” Davina said eagerly.

“What do you mean, like
break in?” Hester asked.

“Well, we are hungry,
aren’t we?” Graham responded with a big grin on his face.

“Starving,” Davina
said.

The three of them
walked around the cottage.

“This place is really
weird. Everything is so small,” Graham said. They came to a window. “It looks
like I’ll have to crawl in, seeing that there’s no way either of you will fit
through it.”

“Hey, you watch your
tongue, Graham Kepler. You’d better remember it’s my family who lets you spend
summer vacations at our horse ranch, and I could change those arrangements real
fast,” Hester said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Graham
replied, brushing off her comment.

Suddenly lightning
flashed across the sky, and a few seconds later, they heard a loud clap of
thunder. The rainstorm had finally hit Rumalock’s neck of the woods.