by Nancy Krulik
Oops. I was so scared that I forgot my manners.
“Thank you for saving my life,” I tell her. And I mean it.
“No problem,” Zahra answers. She starts walking toward a giant water bowl near some huge rocks. “I need a drink of water. All this life-saving stuff has made me thirsty.”
“Come on.” Amiri follows her.
But before we can lap up one drop of water, I see something.
“Uh-oh,” I say. “There’s someone in the water.”
“Who is it?” Zahra asks. She sounds worried.
“I don’t know,” I say. “All I see is a tail.”
“You think it’s someone friendly?” Zahra asks Amiri.
“Or someone who wants to eat us?” Mahir asks nervously.
That makes me nervous.
Before Amiri can answer, the four-leg pops her head out of the water. She’s got a big fish between her teeth.
“It’s Rehema!” I shout excitedly.
Amiri, Mahir, and Zahra all stare at Rehema. Then they stare at the fish.
“She was telling the truth,” Zahra says slowly. “That fish is huge.”
“Wow,” Amiri murmurs. He seems really surprised.
“Dinnertime!” Mahir shouts. He hurries over to Rehema.
We all follow close behind. A moment later we are standing by the big rocks near the water bowl.
There are little rocks beneath my paws. They are hard to walk on.
“Hi, you guys!” Rehema barks to us.
It is a little hard to understand her, because she has the fish between her teeth.
“Look what I got for us,” she adds proudly. “I told you I could catch a giant fish. And this isn’t even the biggest one. You should have seen the one that got away. It—”
Rehema doesn’t get to finish what she is saying. At just that moment, Amiri spots something high up on one of the nearby rocks.
“Hey,” he whispers nervously. “Don’t look now. But we’ve got company.”
CHAPTER 9
Usually I like company. When company comes to our house, I jump up and lick them on their faces.
Josh has nice friends. I like when they are our company.
But that’s not the kind of company Amiri is talking about.
This company isn’t someone you play with.
This company is a big scary lion.
His tongue is licking his teeth.
I can’t tell if he wants to eat our fish—or if he wants to eat us.
Wiggle, waggle, what are we going to do now?
“This is your chance, Rehema,” Amiri says. “Why don’t you go wrestle that lion with your bare paws?”
“Wh-what?” Rehema asks him nervously. “You want me to fight him?”
“You’re always bragging about how you once wrestled a lion,” Zahra reminds her.
“Yeah, well, about that . . . ,” Rehema says slowly. “Maybe I exaggerated a teensy bit.”
“Really? What a surprise,” Zahra says. Except she doesn’t sound surprised at all.
“I’ll bet you never caught a hornbill in midair either, huh?”
“Well,” Rehema admits, “I ate a hornbill egg once. I took it out of the nest while the mother bird was away.”
“Guys, I hate to break up the conversation,” Mahir says. “But what are we going to do? That lion is definitely going to spot us soon.”
“We could leave him the fish and run,” Zahra suggests.
“What?” Rehema says. “No way. Do you have any idea how hard I worked to get this fish for us?”
“I don’t think he’ll be satisfied with a fish if he can eat five dogs,” Amiri says.
My tail tucks itself far between my legs. It’s scared. And so am I.
I’m so scared, my paws start scratching nervously at the little rocks beneath them.
BING. BANG. BING.
The little rocks make noises when they hit the big rock behind me.
The lion looks around. He opens his mouth.
YIKES! His teeth look sharp.
My paws scratch harder at the little rocks. They’re scared of those teeth. Which is kind of weird, since paws can’t see.
Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.
CLINK. CLANG. CLUNK.
The little rocks hit the big rock again.
The lion stands very still. His body gets stiff.
He looks scared.
Could it be? Is that big giant cat scared of the noise little rocks make when they hit a big rock?
I scratch at the little rocks again. They go flying all around.
PLINK. PLUNK. PLONK.
At the sound of the little rocks hitting the big rock, the lion starts to back up.
That’s it!
“The lion is scared of the noise!” I tell the others. “Everybody start scratching!”
The African wild dogs stare at me.
“What?” Mahir asks.
“I can’t imagine a big lion being scared of some rock noises,” Amiri tells me.
“I can’t, either,” I admit. “But it looks like he is.”
“It’s worth a try,” Rehema says. She starts to paw at the rocks.
Clink. Plink. BONK.
The lion listens for a minute.
He backs up a little farther.
“It’s working!” I shout. “Come on. Let’s make it louder.”
The African wild dogs and I scratch at the rocks with our paws. We scratch really, really hard.
Scratch. Scratch. SCRATCH.
CLINK. CLANK. CLONK.
FLINK. FLANK. FLONK.
That rock sounds really loud now.
The lion turns around and runs as fast as he can.
“Sparky!” Rehema shouts out excitedly. “You did it! You saved us all!”
“I didn’t save us,” I tell Rehema.
“Sure you did,” Rehema insists. “The lion is gone, isn’t he?”
“We all made the noise,” I say. “One dog couldn’t have made a noise loud enough to scare off a lion. You need a whole pack working together.”
“We do work pretty well together,” Zahra agrees.
“Hunting in packs makes sense,” Amiri says. “It’s safer, and we catch the food much more easily.”
“But you guys always want to hunt in the same places,” Rehema argues.
“So?” Zahra asks.
“Look at this fish I caught in the giant water puddle,” Rehema says. “We never would have gotten one this big in our usual puddle. They don’t get that big there.”
“That’s true,” Zahra admits.
“You guys didn’t believe me when I told you I could catch bigger fish,” Rehema says angrily.
“That’s because nothing else you told us was the truth,” Amiri insists.
“I only made up those stories because everything we do is so boring,” Rehema says. “I have to use my imagination to make life more exciting.”
I give her a funny look. With all these big cats, fat hippos, and running wildebeests, the Serengeti seems pretty exciting to me.
But I guess it’s different if you live here all the time.
“That’s not an excuse for lying,” Amiri tells her.
“I guess not,” Rehema admits. “But we really should try new places to hunt. And maybe have a little fun.”
“That is an awfully big fish,” Mahir says slowly. “I’d like to try fishing in this water for a change.”
“Me too,” Zahra says.
Amiri nods. “I agree. It might be fun to go on some new adventures together.”
Rehema smiles. “Imagine all the food we can catch now that we’re a bigger pack.”
Now I’m confused.
“A bigger pack?” I ask her.
“Sure,” Rehema tells me. “With you, we are five.”
Me? Oh no.
“I can’t stay here,” I tell her. “I have to go home.”
“At least wait until morning,” Amiri says. “It will be easier to find your way.”
I do not want to wait. I want to go home now.
“Rehema, how do I get back to the big rocks that drool water?” I ask.
Rehema gives me a funny look. “The big rocks that . . . ? Oh, you mean the waterfall,” she says. “Where we met this morning.”
I nod.
“That’s a long walk,” she says. “You have to go all the way around to the other side of this big water puddle.”
I look at the giant puddle. It’s so big, I can barely see the other side.
I can’t swim that far.
Just then I spot something big and fat with brown-and-gray skin. He is swimming in the water.
It’s a hippo.
He looks like he’s a really good swimmer.
And that gives me an idea!
CHAPTER 10
Slowly, I go into the water. My back paws paddle. My front paws paddle.
Paddling is hard work. But I can’t stop. Not until I reach the hippo playing in the water.
I’m scared of the hippo. But I can’t let that stop me. I have to get back to my magic bone, and this hippo is my ride.
Quickly, I climb up past the hippo’s small tail and high over his big hippo rear end. Now I am riding on his back.
The hippo is not happy to have me on his back. He tips to one side. Then he tips to the other. He is trying to throw me off.
“Hold on to his tail, Sparky!” Rehema shouts to me. “It’s harder for him to toss you off if you hold on.”
So I hold on. Finally the hippo gives up trying to throw me off. He goes back to swimming.
As the hippo swims, I call out to my new friends.
“Good-bye!” I shout.
“Good-bye!” I hear them bark back.
My tail waves good-bye. Well, it’s wagging, anyway.
My tail is happy.
I guess that’s because it knows we are going home!
Hooray! I can see the drooling rocks! I am back where I buried my bone!
As soon as the hippo reaches the shore, I leap off his back. Then I run. Fast. I do not want the hippo to catch me on land. He could squash me there.
But the hippo does not squash me. I think he is just happy to have me off his back. He turns around and swims away.
I race over to where I buried my bone. I start to diggety, dig, dig.
I am digging very fast. I want to get my bone and go back home, where the cats are small. And they do not want to eat dogs.
I want to go home to Josh!
Diggety, dig, dig. Diggety, dig . . .
There it is! My magic bone! Right in the middle of a big hole in the dirt.
All I have to do now is take a bite and . . .
Gulp!
Wiggle, waggle . . . What are those?
I see two massive gray four-legs. One is bigger than the other. But they both have huge ears, giant paws, and the longest noses I have ever seen.
Quickly, I run away. I hide behind two giant rocks. The big-eared four-legs will never find me here.
Uh-oh. I ran away so fast, I left my magic bone in the middle of the big hole.
What if one of those big four-legs steals it? I’ll be stuck in the Serengeti forever.
I want to go out there and grab my bone. But I can’t.
Ohhhh . . . this is baddy, bad, bad.
The two big-eared, long-nosed four-legs keep on walking. They go right past where I am hiding. Right past the rocks that drool water. And right over the hole where my bone is sitting.
Crunch.
Oh no! I think one of the giant four-legs just stepped right on my magic bone.
I hold my breath and wait while the giant four-legs walk away. Then I run out from my hiding place. I need to check on my bone.
I look down. There’s a crack right in the middle of my bone. But it’s not broken all the way through.
I bend down and pick up the bone with my teeth. Then I bite down.
CHOMP!
Wiggle, waggle, whew. I feel dizzy—like my insides are spinning all around—but my outsides are standing still. Stars are twinkling in front of my eyes—even though it’s daytime! All around me I smell food—fried chicken, salmon, roast beef. But there isn’t any food in sight.
Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!
CHAPTER 11
Hey! Where’s my tree?
Where’s my fence?
Where’s my house?
WHERE AM I?
That big-eared four-leg must have done something terrible to my magic bone when he stepped on it and cracked it. Because my bone did not kaboom me home.
It kaboomed me somewhere I’ve never been before.
Somewhere where there are lots and lots and lots of two-legs. Big two-legs. Little two-legs. Thin two-legs. Fat two-legs.
But none of them are my two-leg. I want my Josh!
Wiggle, waggle, wait a minute. What’s that coming down the road?
It’s a four-leg. She’s all by herself.
But it’s not a dog four-leg. Or a cat four-leg. Or even a squirrel four-leg.
It’s a cow. And she’s walking right down the middle of the road!
The two-legs move to the side.
The metal machines with four big round paws stand still and let her pass.
Everything stops so that the cow can go by.
I’ve seen cows before, when my magic bone kaboomed me to a rodeo in Texas. But this cow isn’t in a big ring. She’s in the middle of the road.
What kind of a place is this?
A crowded place. That’s what kind. A place filled with spicy smells my nose has never smelled before.
And a hot place. My whole body is hot. Even my tongue. It just popped out of my mouth to get some air!
Grumble rumble.
My tummy is hungry. So am I.
I didn’t get to eat any of that big fish Rehema caught in the Serengeti.
I will search for a snack. But first, I’m going to bury my bone. It may not have worked the way I wanted it to, but it’s still my only chance at getting back to Josh.
Maybe all my magic bone needs is a rest. I always do my tricks better when I am not so tired.
Grumble rumble. Or hungry. Like I am now.
I carry my bone over to a small patch of grass near a little tree at the side of the road. Then I start to diggety, dig, dig. Dirt flies everywhere.
There are lots of two-legs around, but they don’t even look at me. They just keep walking.
Diggety, dig, dig. I have made a nice big hole.
I drop my bone into the hole. Then I pushity, push, push some dirt right over it. Now no other dog will be able to find it.
If there are any other dogs in this place.
So far, all I’ve seen are two-legs, cows, and metal machines with big round paws.
A large crowd of two-legs goes running by.
“Ouch!” One of the two-legs steps on my paw. That hurt.
The two-leg doesn’t stop to see if I am okay. I don’t think he even realizes that he stepped on me.
I don’t like this place. I want to go home.
I want to sleep under my tree.
And dig near the flowers.
And cuddle with Josh.
But I can’t. I’m stuck here with my broken magic bone.
What if my bone never works again?
What if I never see Josh again?
Oh, this is bad.
Baddy, bad, bad.
CHAPTER 12
Sniffety, sniff, sniff.
Just the
n, my nose smells something spicy. And meaty.
I do not want to think about scary, baddy, bad, bad things anymore.
Meat is not scary. Or bad.
Meat is yummy, yum, yum.
The meaty smell is coming from where all the two-legs are walking. Maybe one of them will drop a nice hunk of spicy meat onto the ground. Then I can eat it.
Sniffety, sniff, sniff.
Boo. No one is dropping any food.
Sniffety, sniff, sniff . . .
Hey, what’s that?
Right in the middle of my sniffing, I spy something lying on the ground. It’s not food. It looks like some sort of doggie chew toy.
A chew toy isn’t as good as meat. But it will give my teeth something to chomp on while I look for food.
I pick up the chew toy with my mouth.
The toy is hard, and it doesn’t make a loud squeaky noise like my toys at home do. But I can still chew on it.
Chew. Chew. Chew.
“Hey! Put that down!”
A dog leaps out from the crowd. He glares at me and bares his fangs. He is one angry dog!
“Do you have naan in your ears?” the angry dog asks me.
“Do I have what in my ears?” I ask. But I do not let go of the chew toy.
“Naan. Bread,” he answers.
“Why would I have bread in my ears?” I ask him. “Bread goes in your tummy.”
“Well, you must not have heard me,” the angry dog says. “Because you’re still holding that magic lamp.”
“Do you mean this chew toy?” I ask him.
“That’s not a chew toy,” he says. “That’s a magic lamp.”
Huh? I’ve heard of a magic bone. But I’ve never heard of a magic lamp.
“What’s so magical about it?” I ask the mixed-breed.
“Are you kidding?” he says. “You don’t know about the jinni?”
“The what?” I wonder out loud.
“The jinni,” the mixed-breed repeats. “He’s trapped inside the lamp.”
I can’t tell if this dog is telling me the truth or not.
“Someone lives inside this thing?” I ask him.
