by Jaden Kent
“I’m waiting. . . .” Ella said as they flew down the path.
“You’re right, sis,” Owen said. “This was all your fault.”
“I meant that I’m waiting for you to admit that my plans are better than yours,” Ella replied.
“Nope,” Owen said.
“Yep,” Ella replied.
“Nopey-nope-nope-nope-nope.”
“Yeppy-yep-yep-yep-yep.”
The two trolls from Terror Swamp suddenly rushed out of the forest toward them. Ella and Owen skidded to a stop in midair.
“We got ’um! We got ’um!” Dumbdalf shouted. “Hey! What happened to all your moss?”
“We, uh, wished it away!” Ella explained, as they no longer had their troll fairy disguises.
Owen was the first to realize this could only mean more trouble for him. And probably Ella, too. The two dim-witted trolls had somehow found a platypus. A pink platypus carrying a ukulele to be exact, which he played . . . upside down. Somehow.
Owen gulped. “Oh, no. Please don’t tell me your name is—”
The pink platypus cut off Owen and sang, “You got it. My name is Platyplat-plat-plat and I love to siiiiiiiing!”
“Me did what you said!” Dumberdoor said with a snarl. “Now me want us wishes!”
“And me wish you get in the lasagna!” Dumbdalf added, thrusting the cauldron of lasagna before Ella and Owen.
Ella and Owen exchanged a worried look.
“Got any more bright ideas?” Owen whispered to Ella.
Unfortunately, Ella didn’t have any ideas at all this time!
Read on for a sneak peek from the fourth book in
the Ella and Owen series, The Evil Pumpkin Pie Fight!
1
A HEAD FOR TROUBLE
“G
ive us me wishes!” Dumberdoor the troll said.
“We found the pink platypus that plays the ukulele upside down!” Dumbdalf, the other troll, said. “Now you owe us wishes.”
The two trolls raced from the forest toward Ella and Owen. The two dragons were shocked. “How did they find a pink platypus?” Owen asked his twin sister.
“I don’t even want to know about the ukulele,” she replied.
“So, where’s me wishes?” Dumberdoor demanded.
“Okay, okay. I have your first wish,” Owen said. The trolls rubbed
their hairy, wart-covered hands together with excitement.
“Your first wish is that you wish you could watch me and Ella run away!” Owen and Ella turned and ran away.
“Me not want that wish!” Dumberdoor said. “Me wish for dragon stew!”
“Me too wish for stew dragon!” Dumbdalf added. “Grant me wish!”
The trolls watched as the two dragons ran into the forest and disappeared into the shadows.
“I think we lost them,” Ella said.
“I hope so,” Owen puffed. “My claws are aching from all that running and my wings are too tired to flutter.”
Owen looked around. “Wait a minute! We’re back in Terror Swamp again! I didn’t want that either!”
“Don’t worry. I think home is this way,” Ella said, pointing through the forest, “. . . or maybe it’s that way.”
“Good,” Owen replied. “You go that way. I’m going the other way.” Owen ran away, but crashed into a tree. A branch broke off and fell on his head. “It’s a Swamp Tree Goblin! It’s got me!” Owen’s scaly body wobbled and he tripped over a tree stump. He crashed into Ella.
“Watch where you’re going!” she cried.
Ella and Owen splashed down into the inky black doom of Terror Swamp.
Ella shivered, shaking the water from her scales. “Don’t be such a scaredy-dragon,” she said. “There’s hardly any water here.”
Owen stood up and picked the mud off of his claws. “Great. So we’re lost again.”
“Maybe not,” she replied. Ella pointed toward something moving on the other side of some trees. There was a flickering light in the distance. “Let’s check that out,” she said.
“Oh, let’s not,” Owen replied. “Every time we go to check out something, we get captured and something tries to eat us.”
“It could be a way out of Terror Swamp,” she said.
“Really?!” Owen said. “There’s no way I’m going to investigate the only light glowing in the middle of a place called Terror Swamp!” Owen folded his scaly arms. He wasn’t budging.
“Well, I’m going to go see what it is. You can stay here. On your own. In the dark.” Ella’s dragon wings fluttered and she flew off toward the light.
Owen looked around as it grew darker. Leaves rustled and swirled in the night air. A Grizzly Owl hooted. A Swamp Bat swooped low, passing by Owen’s snout.
On second thought, being left all alone while someone else goes to check out the only light glowing in the middle of a place called Terror
Swamp is even worse than going to check out the only light glowing in the middle of a place called Terror Swamp! Owen thought.
Owen flew off after his sister. “Okay, Ella! Wait up! Let’s see what’s making that light!”
Together the two dragons pushed through the forest. They came to a clearing in front of a broken-down wooden swamp shack. A jack-o’-lantern with an angry face carved into it sat on the porch. Light flickered from the candle inside its head.
“That’s one creepy jack-o’-lantern!” Ella said.
“Okay, we’ve seen what the light is. Let’s leave,” Owen said. “This
place looks haunted.”
“You can’t ever go,” the jack-
o’-lantern suddenly said to them. “Ever-never!”
“Who-who are you?” Ella stuttered.
“I am . . . the Pumpkin King!” he said. “Vines up!”
“Ahhhhhhhh!” Ella and Owen screamed.
Vines stretched out from beneath the porch and wrapped around Ella and Owen.
“I told you something like this would happen!” Owen yelled.
