Only one house didn’t have happy, singing people in it or around it. As they went nearer to it, they saw a sign on the old cottage with the thatched roof. It said “Keep out! Property of Mr Monamus!” And under that it said “Grumpy Woe, number 134.”
Alex gently pushed open the old rotten door. It wasn’t locked. The old, rotten door swung open with a creak. An old man sat at an old rotten table, putting some things in a drawer. Kate carefully went up to him. Patrick had his hand on his nose. The old man had wispy white hair and skin as old and wrinkly as a snake’s shedded skin. He wore old, faded yellow robes.
He seemed to awake from a deep sleep when Kate gently touched him on the shoulder.
“Sir?” Kate asked him.
“Get out.”
“Sir…”
“I said get out! Do you want me to shout the police?”
Alex pushed forward. “Sir, I believe you knew my parents?”
“I know and knew everyone and everything in this village. I daresay I’ll have known your parents. You look like a Windy Woe person.”
“Sir, Did you by any chance know Sam and Esmme Mason?”
“Of course! You are Alex Mason! I knew Sam and Esmme like the back of my hand!”
He then told them story’s about his childhood, about him always being with Sam every second of the day. He explained how Rever, the man they were looking for, had been a book worm and was always getting picked on. He always had his neatly groomed head in a ginormous book.
They left after having several cups of tea. The cups were made out of dragon bones, much to Kate’s interest. Bellamus took a deep interest in their dragons. He said he studied them a lot. The tea was very sweet. Alex left knowing a lot more about his parents than he did before.
Patrick moaned about his feet being cold all the way through Windy Woe village. Charlie told him to be quiet. He was quiet. Kate bought them some animal skins to keep them warm. They took to the skies at the exit to Windy Woe. What a day!
Lava pool, very hot!
Alex went to sleep in his tent that night, wrapped in animal furs and sheep wool. He slept well all night. He could hear the dragons squabbling over an old fish and Patrick snoring. He happily dreamt of elves, dwarves and goblins.
In the morning he got up, made a careful fire and ate some of Kate’s Drakel and sheep stew. He drank some clean, clear water. What would they do today?
Getting closer, getting hotter
Alex got out of his tent for the third time, after trying to find his shoe. He was suddenly very hot, scorching hot in fact. But they were nowhere near the lava pool.
Sophia looked puzzled. Kate looked worried. Patrick looked angry. Charlie looked calm. Alex looked confused. Why were they all so hot?
Kate suddenly came up with an answer!
“Fire frogs!”
“What?!” Everyone yelled.
“Fire frogs! We’re not near the lava; we’re near a stream… a stream filled with fire frogs!”
“Oh!” Everyone marvelled at Kate’s idea. Sure enough, she came back from the stream with a fire frog on each of her hands.
Fire frogs were red, surprise, surprise, and breathed, you guessed it, fire. They had soft scales and nice, gleaming red eyes. Kate had already asked them to make the fire every morning. They agreed.
Kate made them all some Drakel and grass stew, and let the frogs have some. They apparently liked it. Sophia drew a picture of them and labelled it. She wanted to know all about fire frogs.
Alex just looked at the pond. It was filled with little red bodies, swimming and jumping around on red Lilly pads. Then Kate said they had to set off. The frogs stayed on her shoulders. They flew into the air, gracefully gliding above the cotton wool clouds.
Charlie decided they should stop near water, to fill up their supplies. Alex made a fire and filled his water bottle to the top! He then cleaned his spare clothes, put them on and cleaned his other clothes.
Ben had to clean his dragon’s teeth. They stunk of garbage, rotten eggs, compost bins and all kinds of horrible things. He did not enjoy that!
All that Sophia did was poke her head in a book. Nothing else! Charlie gathered all the materials he could, like leather and metal, to make new saddles and bridles.
Patrick went swimming. He came back very hot and short tempered. It was too hot for anyone, except Kate, to breathe! They all hoped it would be colder at night time.
It was! Everyone went to sleep happy, after having some tough bread and grass stew. Kate also found a full bone to boil in with it, for the flavour.
The next lovely and sunny morning Alex got up and was very cold! Suddenly he found he wasn’t in his tent. He wasn’t on the lovely springy grass. He had been captured… again!
‘By who?’ He wondered. And where was he? He was not in a cave, oh no! He was in a cloud! A cloud cell! A cloud cell could only mean… he had been captured by sky folk! These were people who were made out of clouds, surprisingly strong and were very aggressive.
He saw someone coming towards him.
“Stand up!” Yelled the man. He had a wispy white beard and wore long, flowing, white robes. He had strange white eyes as well. Suddenly everything started fading… He was back in his tent! It had only been a dream!
He told Ben about his strange dream. Ben shrugged.
“I don’t know Alex. I just don’t know! Ask Charlie, he’ll know.”
Alex went over to Charlie’s tent. Charlie was making the saddles. When Charlie saw Alex come in he smiled.
“Hey Alex! What’s up?”
Alex told him about the dream.
“Hmm. Sky folk you say? Ask Sophia for a book on it, she could help.2
Alex ran over to Sophia’s tent. Sophia was reading.
“Alex! Do you want a book?”
“Yes please Sophia. I need a book on the sky folk.”
“Sky folk you say? Pile 3. Please don’t mess it up.”
Alex searched through all the piles until he found one saying pile 3 on it. He took the first book. It said:
Sky folk
People want to study sky folk but never can. The sky folk keep themselves to themselves. Sometimes they shoe themselves to people in dreams. Mostly seen in a dream near the lava pool of the east. No one can talk to them, only listen and obey. Professor A. Kalmore went exploring the clouds and never came back. We have lost all contact with him.
Alex picked up book by book, learning more and more until it was moving time. He got on his blue dragon and soared through the thick, hot air.
They landed at night time. Alex ate a piece of tough bread and then went to sleep.
Still not there?
In the morning Alex got up, boiling hot. All this heat was making him stiff. His dragon was also very stiff. He wanted to get going. Above the clouds it was very cool.
Charlie had finished the saddles and bridles. The dragons looked smart in their new things! Then they set off. Flying higher and higher it got cooler and cooler.
Then they glided gracefully above the clouds, in a misty wonderland. They were all sad when the moon came out and they had to land. Alex ate some of Kate’s stew and then went to bed.
In the morning his face was covered in buzzing, green, flying things. Green imps! He whacked them away with his stick. Patrick ran about, screaming like a little girl!
Kate told the ones that had invaded her tent to go away. They did as they were told!
Charlie whacked them away as well. He was very angry at the imps.
Sophia yelled and screamed and screeched and squeaked! She hated imps! Black imps, green imps, even yellow imps! She whacked them away with books.
Ben ran around, trying to get them away. Finally they were all gone. So was Kate’s breakfast stew.
“When can we go back to cross swords?”
Moaned Patrick. He was fed up of meeting elves, being captured by goblins, freed by dragons and now getting attacked by imps.
“Not for a long t
ime!” Laughed Alex.
Patrick groaned. He did not like this!
Alex made a fire with the remaining fire wood. Sophia read a book. Charlie patched up the tents. Patrick moaned. Ben washed the bowls for the soup. Kate made the stew.
Patrick decided to use his compass to cause some mischief. He ran behind a tree with his invisibility cloak on. No one knew. He fished his compass out of his pocket and began to make a message.
He typed:
(Picture of two arms waving)= Save me!
(Picture of a finger pointing towards a person)= I am
(Picture of cage and person inside it)= trapped!
(Picture of tree)=By a tree
Alex got the message. Everyone did. They spent five hours in the sudden rain shower and mud searching for Patrick, when they found him back at camp!
He laughed and said he had escaped. Everyone was very upset. They had looked under every single tree, all for nothing! He had also eaten all of Kate’s Drakel and grass stew! Everyone was very angry. But they had to go to sleep on empty stomachs.
In the morning Alex got up to find his dragon carefully making a wind shield around his tent. The wind was really strong that day! Alex stayed in bed. Soon Sophia, Kate, Patrick and Charlie crept into his tent.
He was very cold, but not just cold though. Freezing! The bitter, icy wind tried and failed to seep past all of the dragons. It enchanted their scales, making them a most bright colour!
Suddenly the wind dropped. Just like that! Everyone crawled out of Alex’s tent. The dragons walked around, they were very stiff. Charlie carefully remade the camp; it had been blown to pieces!
Kate found her cooking pot and put it on a structure of sticks. She made a fire underneath it and then started cooking Drakel meat.
Sophia went into her tent. She read about the Lava pool and where it was, how to get there and how long it would take them.
Ben sat down on the soft ground and stared into the clouds. He said he was looking for sky folk. He also said they must live in the clouds, if they are white.
Charlie polished all of the saddles and then made Lava pool protection armour, for when they went to the lava pool. When he had finished it, it looked a bit yellow.
Patrick sat around doing nothing. After his trick he wasn’t allowed to do anything. Nothing at all! He was very, very bored. All day long he complained.
Then, One day, Kate saw something, very far off, with her keen eyes. It was… The Lava pool!
The lava pool at last!
Kate shouted at everyone.
“Look! I’ve found it! We’ve been going the wrong way! It’s there!”
Sure enough, when they looked where her finger was pointing, there was the lava pool!
It glistened ruby red, and sparkled in the sun. Sometimes it all burst up in a big explosion! The earth around it was soft and crumbly. They took flight immediately. The next day, they were even closer.
Patrick moaned that he was hot, again, and said he wouldn’t go anywhere near ‘that there lava pool’. Kate volunteered to go and so did Alex. Charlie did as well.
That night they got closer to the lava pool. Kate was ready with a bottle. She and Alex carefully flew towards it at a slow speed while Charlie sped at it. Suddenly Patrick appeared!
“Patrick!” Yelled Alex. Then he swerved to avoid the boiling, bubbling lava.
Kate collected three drops of lava and they glided quickly through the trees until they reached camp. Sophia put the grass and the lava together. The bottle glowed, careful but strong.
The next few days happened in quite a blur to Alex. While they flew in the night on their magnificent dragons, Patrick trudged through the mud.
This was because he was so naughty! He kept eating the delicious stew! He kept eating all of the bread, flying too fast and all sorts of things!
No one liked him anymore. He’d tried to change, but it didn’t work. He gloomily pushed his way past sticks and thorns in the dead of the night.
When they got to where the tree of wisdom was supposed to be, they came to a forest… full of trees! Alex and Jessica searched for the tree of wisdom.
First a black, ebony one. Then an old, ancient oak tree. Then one covered in lumpy, soft, green moss. He stumbled over tree roots and got poked by tree branches. He was not very happy.
Patrick yelled at them. He threw sticks, acorns and nuts at them. An angry squirrel came out of one tree and bit him on the bum!
Kate asked a passing badger in animal language if he knew where the tree of wisdom was. He said he did.
“By the creek and the posies.” He said gruffly.
“Thank you!” Kate called to him. She then ran to the creek and the posies. An old tree stood there.
It was old and creaky, its roots everywhere. Covered in moss, it had a face. Kate carefully went up to it. She was scared.
“Ummm… Please may I have some of your dew?”
“How much dear?” The old tree asked her.
“Three drops please!”
“Take out your bottle and put it near that red leaf, that’s it.”
Three drops of dew carefully dropped into the bottle.
“Thank you so much!” Laughed Kate.
She ran back to the others and showed them the dew. Jessica laughed. Sophia put it in the bottle and shook it three times. The water inside glowed ruby red.
Suddenly Kate thought of something.
“Where’s Rever Rampo?”
Everyone looked on their maps. Oh yes! Rever Rampo wasn’t there!
“Quick! Get it into my cauldron!” Kate whispered. Then it bubbled. Then everyone started Chanting:
“Die, thou art devil from which I have travelled yonder te Pombay Mountains and ye lava pool of te east, ye tree o wisdom an ye still gonna challenge me? Ga on than!”
Rever Rampo was brought to them, struggling against Charlie and Patrick. He had been hiding in the bushes.
“3…2…1… Splash!”
Alex threw the potion over him. The whistle was on a string on his neck. It touched the whistle just before it touched him. Rever Rampo, the great magic man, melted away with his silver whistle.
They returned to the castle after a day and a night’s traveling. Professor Zipplezack was very pleased.
“Well done Alex!” He boomed. “Well done all of you!”
By Kate Leonard and Jessica Teixeira
Special note:
A big thank you to everyone who made this bookpossible and the first book too. This includes teachers and parents.
Alex Mason and the Smoky forest 2-A new girl, a new journey Page 3
