by Tracey West
“What did it smell like?” Kolka asked.
“Did you try to communicate?” Meechee wanted to know.
“How tall was it?” Gwangi asked.
“Was it shorter than me?” Fleem asked.
“Did it only have hair on top of its head?” Kolka asked.
“Did it hypnotize you?” Gwangi asked.
“It’s gotta be shorter than me, right?” Fleem repeated.
Migo backed away from them. “I don’t know! It all happened so fast. I can’t prove I actually saw one.”
Meechee grinned. “That’s where we come in. Gwangi? Show him the evidence.”
Gwangi moved to a display case and whipped off the cover. Fleem put a snail on top of Gwangi’s head to add some light. Gwangi took something out of the case—a tiny, puffy winter jacket.
“First item: Smallfoot pelt,” Gwangi said. “We believe it sheds its skin.”
Kolka removed the next item—a small, broken ski pole. She held it up to the center of her forehead so that it resembled a unicorn horn.
“Second item: a single, magical horn. Might have power in it,” she said. Then her eyes got wide. “Wait a second. I’m seeing something. Walking stick? Down a hill, with wooden planks on the feet?”
She took the ski pole away from her head. “Whoa. That was crazy.”
“And then there’s this,” Meechee said. She held up a roll of toilet paper. “The scroll of invisible wisdom.”
Kolka bowed to the scroll as Meechee unrolled it in front of Migo.
“Just imagine the amazing stuff they put on here,” Meechee said.
Migo looked at the items and shook his head. “Yeah, um, sorry, but this stuff doesn’t look familiar. I don’t remember the horn, and the Smallfoot I saw didn’t have a pelt this color. So, yep, didn’t see it.”
“Wait! There’s one more artifact,” Meechee said. “The first thing I ever found, the thing that started all of this.”
She picked up a bundle of folded cloth and unwrapped it to reveal a very small boot. Migo’s eyes widened. He had seen one just like it on the Smallfoot he had encountered.
“That was a trigger! He’s triggered!” Kolka said.
Meechee smiled. “I knew it! You did see one!”
Migo couldn’t deny it.
“Where did it go? Think, Migo! Think!” Meechee urged.
“Tell us!” Gwangi demanded.
“I don’t know,” Migo answered.
“Slap him!” Fleem cried.
“No, channel the energy!” Kolka suggested.
Migo closed his eyes, remembering. “It all happened so fast. . . .” He remembered seeing the creature’s tiny foot, and then whoosh!
“It got whisked away in the wind,” Migo explained. “Over the clouds.”
“Which way?” Meechee pressed. “Up the mountain? Over to the village? To the sky? WHERE?”
In Migo’s mind he could see the Smallfoot falling into the clouds.
“Down,” he said.
“Did you just say ‘down’?” Kolka asked.
Migo’s eyes snapped open. “ ‘Down’? No. Did I?”
Excited, Meechee hurried over to the map on the wall. She pointed to the area below the clouds.
“You did! Down! Of course!” she cried. “You know, I have always thought it was weird that a mountain floats, when there is obviously some invisible force pulling us all downward. I call it the law . . . of gravity!”
Fleem shook his head. “You really stink at naming stuff.”
Meechee tapped the map. “But this explains why we haven’t found a Smallfoot up here. Because it’s down there. Below the clouds.” She turned to Migo. “And if we want to find that Smallfoot and change the world, that’s where we need to go.”
Migo’s eyes widened in terror. “What?! In the Great Nothing?”
Meechee nodded slowly. Gwangi, Kolka, and Fleem nodded along with her.
“Very funny,” Migo said. “You’re crazy.”
Gwangi’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t call me crazy,” he growled. “Never call anyone crazy.”
“Do you know why it’s called ‘the Great Nothing’?” Migo argued. “BECAUSE THERE’S NOTHING DOWN THERE!”
“And why do you believe that?” Meechee challenged him.
“Because it’s written on the stones!” Migo replied.
“It’s also written on a stone that there’s no Smallfoot, and yet you saw one,” Kolka pointed out.
“Yeah. Why is there a stone that says something doesn’t exist?” Meechee asked. “Doesn’t that suggest that it actually does? And if one stone is wrong, then others could be as well.”
Migo held up his hands. “Whoa, wait. Other stones? How many do you think are wrong?”
“The whole robe,” Gwangi replied.
Migo shook his head. “You know what? This whole thing’s insane. I’m out.”
Chapter Six
Into the Great Nothing
As he headed for the exit, Meechee ran up to him. “Migo, wait.”
“Hey, I just want to prove I saw a Smallfoot so I can get un-banished,” he argued. “But you want to—what? Get rid of the stones? Tear down everything our world is built on?”
“It’s not just about tearing down old ideas,” Meechee said. “It’s about finding new ones. Don’t you ever wonder what’s out there?”
Migo stopped. He couldn’t lie about that. He’d always wondered.
Meechee stared at him for a moment. “You know what? Come with me.”
She stepped out of the cave, broke off two big icicles, and handed one to Migo. Then she jumped onto the piece of ice and began to slide across the ice cliffs. Migo followed her.
“There’s so much more to life than meets the eye,” she told him as they zoomed along. “I think the world is so much bigger than we know.”
Migo followed her down a hill, under a cliff, and into another cave. They sailed through it into a cavern, where a single tree grew. Migo blinked. How could a tree grow inside a cavern?
Meechee approached the tree and touched one of the leaves. It began to move, and Migo realized it was a dragonfly! The creature opened its wings and fluttered around the cavern.
“Sometimes things aren’t what they seem to be,” Meechee said with a grin.
The other “leaves” opened up and joined the other dragonfly, swirling around Migo and Meechee.
The two Yetis left the cavern and emerged back outside, where dark had fallen. Overhead a round moon shone. Meechee pointed to it.
“So, we’re told that’s the Eye of the Great Sky Yak, right? But what if it’s not? What if it’s . . . a rock?” she asked. She picked up a rock and showed it to Migo.
He frowned, confused.
“Maybe I’m wrong, but what’s wrong with questioning it?” Meechee asked. “There’s nothing wrong with being curious, Migo. And I know you’re just as curious as I am.”
Migo knew that was true. She smiled again and led him back to the edge of the cliffs, where the clouds floated in front of them.
“Life is full of wonder, Migo,” she said. “Do you want to spend your life wondering if there is more to life than what we know? I don’t. I want answers.”
Migo gazed at the clouds. They were beautiful. And in his heart he had always wondered if there was something below them besides the Great Nothing. Before, he hadn’t been brave enough to find out. But now . . .
“Down there, Migo, a world awaits,” Meechee said.
Migo nodded. “Okay. I’ll do it. Is there some sort of plan?”
“We’re going to need some rope,” Meechee replied.
Migo did a double take. “Huh?”
• • •
The next morning Migo dangled upright from a rope over the edge of the ice cliffs, while Meechee, Gwangi, Kolka, and Fleem stood watching from the ground above. The night before, the team had worked to make him a rough helmet, and they’d fashioned a harness out of some thick rope.
“Is it too late to have second tho
ughts?” Migo asked.
“Yes!” Fleem replied.
“I need to readjust the harness,” Migo said, stalling. “It’s a little too tight.”
Meechee stood guard to make sure nobody was coming, while Gwangi studied the length of rope. “This should be enough.”
“Should be?” Migo asked nervously.
Kolka was busy securing the end of the rope around a rock. The slack was coiled into a pile.
“We don’t exactly know how far you’ll need to go before you find the Smallfoot,” she said. “It’s also all the rope we have.”
Fleem and Gwangi gripped the rope, and Meechee ran to join them.
“Okay. If we’re gonna do this, we have to do this fast,” she said. “Gwangi, tell him the plan.”
“Listen up,” Gwangi said. “Pull once to go lower, pull twice to stay put, pull three times to come up. Four pulls means you’ve reached the bottom and it’s safe to come down.”
“Wait, what was the second one?” Migo asked.
“Look, it doesn’t really matter,” Fleem said. He was sure the mission was going to end in disaster.
Kolka grabbed Fleem and tossed him out of the way, taking his place on the rope.
“Your safe word is ‘mystical creature,’ ” she called down to Migo.
“That’s more of a phrase, really,” Migo pointed out.
“If you shout it, we’ll abort the mission and pull you right up!” Kolka replied.
“How about just ‘help’?” Migo suggested. “I’ll scream ‘HEEEELP.’ Nice and short.”
“You’re gonna do great,” Meechee told him.
Migo blushed under his furry cheeks. “Yeah? You really think so?”
“Let’s do this!” Gwangi shouted.
They slowly lowered the rope. Migo’s feet touched the top of the clouds.
“Migo!” Fleem called down.
“What?” Migo yelled back.
“If you die, can I have all your earthly possessions?” Fleem asked.
“FLEEM!” yelled Meechee, Kolka, and Gwangi together.
“Right. Sorry,” Fleem said. “When you die.”
They lowered Migo farther, until the clouds surrounded his whole body.
“What do you see?” Meechee asked.
“So far just seeing clouds . . . and more clouds,” Migo reported. Then he gasped. “Wait! What is that?”
“Oh no!” Kolka cried.
“Sorry. Just my hand,” Migo realized. “Still just clouds. And more clouds. Hey, there’s a lot of clouds.”
Back up on the cliff, the four Yetis heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching. Then Thorp’s voice rang out.
“Meechee, you out there?”
“Thorp!” Meechee hissed. Panicked, she let go of the rope and jumped behind a rock to hide.
“Uh-oh,” Gwangi said.
Migo heard that. “Uh-oh? Why ‘uh-oh’?”
Gwangi let go of the rope, and Migo dropped suddenly.
“Mystical creature!” Migo yelled.
Before they could pull Migo back up, Thorp appeared. Kolka let go of the rope now, and it slowly began to unravel.
“Hey, what are you guys doing out here?” Thorp asked.
Down below, Migo was swiftly falling. “Mystical creature!”
“What was that?” Thorp asked.
“It’s, uh, the wind,” Kolka replied. “It makes strange noises out here.” She glanced at Gwangi and Fleem, and they all started making wind noises.
“Oooooh . . . whiiisssshhhhh . . . mystical creatuuuuurrrrre . . .”
Thorp stared at them, shaking his head, as the rope unraveled all the way. It went taut, catching on the rock that Kolka had anchored it to. She glanced at it, relieved that the rope had held. That meant Migo was safe. But then . . .
Snap! The rope broke.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!” the three Yetis cried.
Thorp moved forward on his mammoth.
“Stop it,” he told them. “You’re all acting weird. I don’t like weird. Weird is . . . weird, okay?”
The mammoth’s huge foot accidentally stomped on the split end of the rope before it went over the edge. The rope went taut again, slamming Migo into the side of the mountain.
“I thought I heard Migo’s high-pitched kind of annoying voice before,” Thorp continued. “Where is he?”
“He’s dead,” Fleem replied.
Gwangi stared at his friend. “Fleem?”
Fleem shrugged. “Well, he’s probably dead.”
Down below, Migo pulled on the rope. “How many times was up? Two? Three? Four?”
Back on the cliff Kolka slapped a hand over Fleem’s mouth. “Honestly? We have no idea about the status of his whereabouts.”
Thorp eyed them suspiciously. “Something’s not right here,” he said. “Let me think about this.”
He tried to think—but gave up. “I just don’t believe you. You’re coming with me.”
He turned to leave, and his mammoth lifted up the foot that had been anchoring the rope. The split end began to snake through the snow once more.
“Oh no!” Meechee cried, watching the scene from her hiding place.
The end of the rope fell off the cliff—and with nothing to anchor him, Migo began to plummet.
“Noooooooo!” Migo wailed. “Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
Thud! He slammed face-first into a snowbank. When he rolled over, he saw the mountain towering over him. He couldn’t see his friends—just the mass of fluffy clouds separating him from them.
“Guys? GUYS?” he yelled.
He stood up and turned away from the mountain—and his jaw dropped.
“Oh wow,” he breathed.
A huge, beautiful mountain range stretched across the horizon as far as he could see. Snow topped the jagged mountain peaks rising into the blue sky. Migo had never seen anything like it.
“This is so not Nothingness!” he cried. “This is definitely . . . Somethingness!”
A large bird with black wings, a red head, and a white collar of feathers soared toward him. Migo’s face lit up at the beautiful sight of the condor.
“Whoa.”
Naaaaaaaa!
Migo turned toward the bleating sound and saw a goat with curled horns and white, shaggy hair.
“Oh my gosh. Hi, little guy,” Migo said, approaching the goat.
Naaaaaaa! the goat replied, and then Migo smiled—but then the condor swooped down and grabbed the goat in its talons.
“That is just harsh!” scolded a horrified Migo. “I’ll teach you a lesson.
He quickly formed a snowball and tossed it at the bird. “Take that!” he shouted. Pow! It hit the condor, and the bird dropped the goat, which landed on all fours and scrambled down the mountain.
“Yes!” Migo cheered. “Run, little guy. Be free!”
Migo’s eyes followed the goat—and then spotted an object in the snow.
“It’s the shiny flying thing!” he said.
He quickly slid down the mountain and raced to the crashed airplane. He squeezed inside. A figure sat in one of the seats, wearing a hat.
“A Smallfoot,” Migo whispered.
The figure turned around. It wasn’t a Smallfoot—it was a goat!
Eeeeeeahhhhhh! the frightened animal screeched.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!” Migo screamed.
Migo jumped up—but his head hit the roof of the plane’s cockpit. The force jostled the plane, and it began to slide down the mountainside at high speed.
The plane slid into an evergreen forest and slammed into two trees, sending Migo flying out the front window. He landed in another snowbank and began to roll down a steep slope, picking up more and more snow as he rolled. He had become a giant Yeti snowball!
Wham! He hit a giant rock, launched into the air, and then landed on a rope bridge. The bridge snapped and fell under his weight. Migo grabbed the single rope that still extended across the canyon, so that he was dangling over the abyss.
Snap! The rope broke, but Migo m
anaged to swing to the other end of the bridge. He collided with a stone pillar, which teetered, and then collapsed on top of him.
Everything went black.
• • •
Hours later Migo opened his eyes. With a groan he pushed off the broken rocks that lay on top of him, and stood up.
The moon was shining in the night sky, lighting up the snow-covered path in front of him. And on that path Migo saw footprints—tiny footprints.
Migo paused for a moment, considering what he should do. Then he took a deep breath. He realized he had no choice. There was only one thing to do.
He followed them.
Chapter Seven
Percy’s Plan
Nestled in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains was a village of humans—containing homes, shops, and the Yak Shack, a restaurant where everyone in town liked to gather.
On the night when Migo crash-landed, Percy Patterson sat having dinner with his assistant, Brenda.
“Okay, okay, back up, back up,” Brenda said. “You want to interview a man who says he saw a Yeti? And you actually believe him?”
“Of course not,” Percy replied. “But it makes for good TV.”
“That man probably has altitude sickness,” Brenda said. “He needs help.”
“After he helps us,” Percy replied.
“What do you mean?” Brenda asked.
“Brenda, do you know what this village is famous for?” He pointed to a poster on the wall of a Yeti. It was surrounded by other Yeti-themed posters.
“Yetis!” he said. “More reported Yeti sightings here than anywhere else on the planet.”
“So?” Brenda asked.
“Picture this,” Percy said. “We’re here looking for the Himalayan jumping spider, but we capture on film—a Yeti! We post the video, it goes viral, then BOOM! My ratings skyrocket!”
“Yetis don’t exist,” Brenda reminded him.
“Or do they?” Percy asked. He looked left and right, to make sure nobody was watching. Then he reached over to a bulging suitcase on wheels and started to unzip it. The head of a white, furry Yeti costume stared at them with plastic eyes.
“Picked up a suit in town this afternoon, and it’s a cracker!” he said in a loud whisper. “It has stilts and everything!”
“You’re gonna put that thing on and deceive your fans?” Brenda asked in disbelief.
