Florence assessed the forest floor for potential pit digging, and Grimaldi floated around the trees, around and around the trunks, over and under the branches. His scythe had a built-in torch, which was very handy for guiding the friends through the darkness.
Tangine had his Rainbow Ranger guidebook in his hand and was studying the map on the inside page. “I think we should head THIS way,” he said, pointing ahead. “There’s bound to be a nice place to eat at the top of the mountain.”
“I AIN’T CLIMBING NO MOUNTAIN,” said Florence.
“Fine,” said Tangine, turning around, ready to stomp off. “I’ll see you later, then.”
“YOU’RE BEING A STUBBORN LUMP!” huffed Florence after him.
Suddenly, an orderly procession of bearded bugs flew past Florence’s head.
“ARGH!” she bellowed. “I THINK ONE WENT IN MY EAR!” The little bugs scattered as she flailed her wonderfully large and hairy arms.
Pumpy, quickly seizing the opportunity, PA-DOOFed up into the air and gobbled up one of the bugs.
“NO, PUMPY!” Tangine yelled. “STOP EATING ALL THE TIME!”
The bugs squealed and their little eyes turned bright green with indignation. They headed straight for Tangine.
“Uh-oh…” Tangine ran as fast as he could into the mountainous woods with the bugs close behind him. Seeing his trail of potential food flying away, Pumpy followed as fast as his heavy load could carry him.
“Tangiiiiine!” Amelia called. “Quick! We’d better run after him or we’ll lose him!”
Amelia, Grimaldi, Florence and Squashy made their way through the woods as fast as they could. They jumped over mini-streams and shimmery flowers that occasionally erupted with little poofs of glitter.
“WHERE DID HE GO?!” Florence asked, wheezing.
Amelia was beginning to panic. Tangine was nowhere to be seen, and her legs were starting to ache as she ran up the impossibly tall and dark mountain. “TAAAANGIIIIINE?!” she yelled. “Where are you?!”
Higher and higher Amelia and her friends climbed and ran and stumbled and stepped, until suddenly the most unexpected sight stopped them in their tracks….
“Wow!” Amelia gasped.
A ledge was carved out of the mountainside, and on it an incredible garden stretched before them. The whole scene was lit up by a beautiful tree.
“I’ve never seen a glowing tree before!” Grimaldi said.
Florence stomped over to the tree through the long grass. “IT’S FULL OF ROUND THINGS. SOME KIND OF FRUIT OR SOMETHING. THAT’S WHAT’S GLOWING.”
The tree was a sight to behold, with curly branches weaving their way around each other. From each branch dangled a plump yellow fruit, a bit like a Nocturnian Pus Plum, just less maggoty and stinky. They glowed a bright yellow-gold.
Pumpy was happily munching on some of the glowing plums that had dropped to the ground. Tangine was slumped on the grass next to him, catching his breath.
“The bugs flew away when we got here!” Tangine said, panting. “And look what I found! A tree with EDIBLE fruit.” He reached up to a low-hanging branch and picked one of the golden plums. “Mmmmmmm…try one!” he said through a mouthful.
Florence picked one of the glowing yellow plums from a curly branch and took a nervous bite.
“GOBBLING GRUMBLE!” said Florence, taking another bite. “YOU’RE RIGHT. IT’S JUST LIKE BITING INTO A WONDERFULLY CONSTRUCTED YETI PIT!”
“That’s not a taste,” said Tangine.
“WELL, I CAN’T THINK WHAT IT TASTES LIKE…JUST SOMETHING REALLY, REALLY GOOD!” Florence said, picking another five plums and stuffing them all into her mouth at once.
“I feel like we should go back to camp now,” Grimaldi said, looking around. “We weren’t supposed to wander off this far….”
“Grimaldi’s right,” Amelia said. She stroked her Rainbow Rangers sash thoughtfully. “But I guess this could count as foraging for food….”
Her mind made up, Amelia reached purposefully for a plum. It was velvety and light, and its gentle glow illuminated her pale skin. Amelia took a small bite and felt her mouth begin to water. The flavor was full and sweet and almost magical…like nothing she’d ever tasted before. She took another bite, and another.
All of a sudden, Amelia had forgotten about the urgency to get back to camp, and she was overwhelmed by the feeling of being very, very hungry.
“Thish ish delishush!” Amelia said through a mouthful. She picked another plum and held it out to Grimaldi. “Come on, Grimaldi. It’s not going to bite!” She giggled. “We can record it in our Rainbow Ranger diaries to go toward our FOOD FORAGING badge!”
Grimaldi took it and cautiously bit into it. His eye sockets widened, and he smiled. “Wow! This is good. No wonder it’s glowing!”
Florence stared at the night sky, looking content. “IT’S NICE HERE,” she said.
“It is.” Amelia yawned. She was beginning to feel unusually sleepy. “We should probably head back before we get too comfortable.” The world around Amelia grew hazy and peaceful. She was aware that she needed to walk back to camp, but instead, she found herself lying down in the grass. She turned over and reached down to snuggle up with Squashy, who had already begun lightly snoring at her feet.
“ANYONE ELSE REALLY WANT A NAP RIGHT NOW?” Florence asked. Then she gave an almighty yawn and slumped to the floor next to a snoring Tangine.
What’s happening? Amelia thought sleepily.
She felt Grimaldi curling up beside her.
“We should get back,” he whispered. “Just five more minutes…”
“THAT GHOST PIE SANG TO THE PIGEON AT DAWN, DIDN’T IT?” said Florence. “WE SHOULD SEND HIM A LETTER….”
“Yeah,” Amelia agreed without thinking. “Wait…What?” she added as she slowly realized how little sense Florence was making. Her eyelids felt so heavy.
Maybe I should close them just for a second, she thought. They were still getting used to the time difference in the Kingdom of the Light, after all.
Amelia closed her eyes and fell asleep to the sounds of Tangine snoring, Florence’s jumbled sleep conversations and shuffling footsteps in the distance.
* * *
When Amelia woke, the full-moon was bright. She sat up and rubbed her eyes in confusion. The moon was meant to be a half-moon—it was the half-moon break, after all…. But as Amelia came to, she noticed even more moons.
Multiple moons?
What?
Amelia realized that the things she was staring at weren’t actually full moons at all. They were the glowing plums on the tree. Except they were much, MUCH bigger than before.
Florence sleep-burped and woke herself up.
“YEESH,” she said. “THEY’VE GROWN BIG.”
Grimaldi yawned and rose slowly, followed by an annoyed Tangine.
“Where’s my eyelid cream?” the prince mumbled. “I NEED my eyelid cream right now! Pumpy, did you eat it?”
Pumpy responded with one PA-DOOF and rolled over onto a sleepy Squashy.
Amelia looked around to see that the grass they’d been lying on had grown too. But not by a little—it was now three times as tall as Florence. And the Rainbow Ranger guidebooks that they’d been able to hold in one hand were now the size of tents.
“Hold on…,” Amelia started to say as the world around her began to make sense. She looked up and saw leaves as big as boats and flowers as big as houses.
“I don’t think the plums are bigger,” she said, feeling her stomach twist. “I think WE are much, much smaller….”
“WE’VE BEEN SHRINKED!” Florence shrieked. “AAAAAAARGH!” She began panic-digging a tiny pit.
Grimaldi shakily held onto a blade of grass while Tangine stood with his hands on his hips, huffing and puffing. “Well, this just isn’t good enough!”
“Okay, calm down, everyone,” Amelia said, taking a few deep breaths. “It’s all going to be fine.” But Amelia secretly had no idea whether it was going to be okay or not. She didn’t know what else to say. Before she fell asleep, she was normal size, and had been very proud of the fact that she’d grown a whole inch since last year.
But now, well now she was the size of a—
“SOPHISTICATED LADYBUG WITH A BRIEFCASE!” Florence yelled from her tiny pit. And she was indeed pointing at a sophisticated-looking ladybug wearing a tie and carrying a large briefcase.
“I say!” said the ladybug in a deeper voice than Amelia had expected. “Did nobody tell you it’s RUDE to point at a ladybug. Especially a sophisticated one.” Then he walked off in a huff through the tall grass.
“Wait!” Amelia called after the ladybug. “Hello?! We need help! We’re…Well, we’re the wrong size!”
The ladybug reappeared with a frown. “What are you going on about?”
Amelia felt a little embarrassed. “Um, you see, sir, we’re not usually this small. We’re usually much, MUCH bigger.”
“YEAH, LIKE WE-COULD-TREAD-ON-YOU KINDA SIZE,” said Florence, her head poking out from her pit. The ladybug frowned harder.
“Don’t listen to her,” Tangine said, stepping forward. “Florence doesn’t know the meaning of sophistication like you and I.” He leaned forward and whispered. “I don’t suppose you have any spare eyelid cream in that briefcase of yours, do you?”
The ladybug raised his thick eyebrows. “And what are you? Some kind of moth?”
Tangine gasped and stroked one of his wings protectively. “How dare you!”
“Guys!” Amelia said urgently. “The pumpkins! Where are Squashy and Pumpy?”
“I haven’t seen them yet,” said a still-shaky Grimaldi.
The ladybug with the briefcase rolled his eyes and turned away. “You are very, VERY strange bugs and you are making me late for my dinner. So, goodbye!” and with that he walked away, grumbling a few grumpy words under his breath.
“RUDE!” said Florence.
“Come on, Tangine. We have to find our pumpkins!” Amelia said, and swiftly ran off in no particular direction.
Amelia and Tangine weaved in and out of huge blades of grass, dodging pebbles the size of armchairs and Florence-sized loose plums.
“SQUASHYYYYY! PUMPYYYYY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?!” Amelia yelled. “They could be ANYWHERE,” she said to Tangine desperately.
Suddenly, Amelia heard a SNAP.
“What was that?” said Tangine.
Amelia looked around her, but there was nothing there. “It sounded like it came from above….” And then the realization hit her. “Oh, no!” she cried.
It all happened so fast.
Amelia looked up to see a huge plum plummeting straight toward her and Tangine; getting closer and closer by the second. She didn’t have time to think before she was sent flying backward. Something solid hit her smack in the middle of her stomach, causing the air to leave her lungs as she hit the ground.
There was a loud THUD as the huge yellow plum crashed to the ground in the exact spot where Amelia and Tangine had been standing.
Amelia lay there in shock for a few seconds as she caught her breath; then she saw the familiar black eyes and cheery smile of her pet pumpkin peering down at her.
“SQUASHY!” she said, almost crying. Amelia scooped him up into a tight hug, never wanting to let go.
Tangine was still flat on his back, with a very proud-looking Pumpy sitting on his chest.
“Pumpy!” he wheezed. “I. Can’t. Breathe.”
Luckily, Pumpy spotted a mushroom nearby. He PA-DOOFed off Tangine’s chest, straight over to where it grew, and began nibbling at its giant stem.
Tangine sighed. “I will never be as good as food to that pumpkin,” he said.
“AMELIA? TANGINE?” came Florence’s voice. “WHERE ARE YOU?”
“Over heeeere!” Amelia called back.
Eventually Florence appeared through the grass, followed by Grimaldi, who was flinching at every noise and plant he brushed past.
“AH, YOU FOUND ’EM!” Florence said, giving Squashy a tickle on the stem.
“Yeah, they actually saved us from a falling fruit,” Amelia said. “We’re going to have to be extra careful while we’re so small.”
“But we won’t be staying this size forever—will we?” Grimaldi squeaked.
“Of course not,” Amelia said. But she couldn’t think exactly how they were going to get big again. She thought hard. “We were eating the fruit just before this all happened,” she said suddenly. “Maybe it’s something to do with that?”
“How on earth can eating fruit make you shrink? Eating it is supposed to make you GROW,” Tangine said. “That’s what Mom and Dad tell me, anyway.”
The mention of the words “Mom and Dad” made Amelia’s tummy feel all tight. She missed her parents very much already, and the thought of not being able to get back to them made it a hundred times worse.
“What do we do now?” Grimaldi asked.
“Well,” Amelia started. “Ricky and Graham are the grown-ups in charge, so we need to get back to camp and tell them what’s happened. I’m sure they’ll know what to do…,” she added sounding a little unsure.
“BUT IT’LL TAKE US FOREVER TO GET BACK TO CAMP,” Florence said. “EVERY FOOTSTEP IS LIKE A MILE TO US NOW!”
A huge drop of water landed on Florence, soaking her fur from head to toe.
“EURGH!” she cried. “WHAT WAS THAT?!”
SPLOSH! SPLOSH! SPLOSH!
“I think it might be—” Amelia gasped as another SPLOSH of water hit her, almost knocking her over with the force of it. “Raaaaaaain!”
Amelia picked Squashy up and held him tight. “The ground is going to turn into an ocean any minute!”
“Puddles are NOT as fun when you’re this small!” shrieked Tangine, who was trying desperately to pick Pumpy up.
SPLOSH! SPLOSH! SPLOSH! SPLOSH! SPLOSH! SPLOSH!
The rain was getting heavier.
“Over here!” Grimaldi shouted from somewhere nearby. Amelia looked over and saw the little grim reaper floating toward them on a huge leaf.
Holding on to the pumpkins, Amelia, Tangine and Florence clambered on, trying their very hardest not to fall in.
“We’ve got to find shelter!” Amelia said, trying to protect Squashy from the rain with her stripy skirt.
“I GOT THIS!” Florence shouted, leaning forward. She put both of her strong arms into the water and began paddling hard. The leaf boat glided speedily along the water and through the garden.
The light coming from the glowing tree began to fade as they rowed farther away from it, and, apart from the torch on Grimaldi’s scythe, the friends were soon in complete darkness.
But then, when it seemed like they couldn’t get any wetter, it stopped. Amelia could still hear the sploshing of the rain behind them, so where were they? She squinted as her eyes started to get used to the lack of light. “Is everyone okay?”
“I’m not even thinking about the state of my hair from all that rain, but yes,” Tangine said, patting his glittery head.
“I’M ALL RIGHT…,” Florence replied. “I THINK ONE OF THE PUMPKINS PEED ON ME, THOUGH…. I KNOW IT’S NOT RAIN ’CAUSE IT’S WARM.”
Squashy blushed and wiggled his stem apologetically.
Amelia realized that she was able to see the outline of things around her. “Guys, I think we’re in a cave!”
The friends fell silent as they took in the scene around them. The cave was full of beautiful paintings of the island propped up against the walls and lots of giant jars of yellow jam.
But that wasn’t even the weirdest part. All over the cave walls, the days of the week had been scratched into the stone. And next to each day were
the words “NO SIGN.”
And then it started all over again. “I wonder what it means?” Amelia muttered, stepping out of the leaf boat.
“How odd,” Grimaldi said, staring at the scribbled walls with big, wide, empty eyes.
“How TASTY!” said Tangine from somewhere else within the cave, followed by gobbling sounds.
Amelia looked up and saw Tangine leaning into one of the giant jam jars. He was scooping out handfuls of the yellow gloop and wolfing it down. “Come taste this!” he said through a mouthful.
“Tangine, I don’t think you should do that….”
But Tangine wasn’t listening. He leaned farther into the jar, eager to get more of the yellow jam. However, this time, it was too far—and he fell right in.
“Tangine!” Amelia gasped. She clambered up the jar as fast as she could and stretched an arm into it. “Grab my hand!” she said as Tangine flailed around in the sugary gloop.
Florence and Grimaldi came to help, holding Amelia by the waist so that she could lean her whole body in to reach Tangine. He was beginning to sink.
Pumpy bounced into the jar to try to save his owner, but his weight meant that he quickly sank to the bottom.
“PUMPY!” Tangine yelled, spraying a mouthful of jam.
There was a sudden BOMP, causing the jar to wobble. Florence and Grimaldi lost their footing and went tumbling with Amelia straight into the jar with Tangine and Pumpy. Squashy pa-doinged around the outside of the jar in a panic.
“Don’t bounce in!” Amelia yelled from inside the jar as Squashy poised himself to jump in. But her voice was muffled, and the little pumpkin was in a panic, desperate to get to her; with one big pa-doing he bounced into the jar.
Amelia Fang and the Rainbow Rangers Page 3
