Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior

by Jackie French

  Boo hurried after her. ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘Down to the thingummy!’

  ‘Do you mean the Finding lab?’ said Yesterday helpfully, dodging round an ancient Hero on a knife-edged skateboard.

  ‘Of course. Now keep up!’

  The school corridor was dark. It smelt like bats and burning rock. Miss Cassandra switched on the light. At least the shadows have gone, thought Boo. But the strange vibration in his paws and the scent of danger were just the same.

  ‘Owwwww!’

  He jumped. ‘What was that noise!’

  ‘Just Ms Punch practising Book Fu,’ said Miss Cassandra casually. ‘She and those books can get a bit savage on Saturday nights. Right, here we are.’

  They strode into the Finding lab. Boo felt his spirits rise as Miss Cassandra looked over the apparatus on the benches.

  ‘Now, let’s see … crystal ball, laptop, bogey octopus guts … I’ll use the laptop for this, I think. There’s been a bit of interference in the crystal ball lately and I want to keep the octopus guts for tonight.’

  ‘You Finding other bogeys tonight?’ rumbled Mug.

  ‘No. Making soup,’ said Miss Cassandra. ‘Once you’ve done a Find with octopus guts they lose most of their flavour, and soup makes a nice change from tentacle kebabs. Now let’s see.’ She opened her laptop and stared at the screen.

  Nothing happened for long seconds, then something flickered. The shape grew firmer. First there was an image of the school, or rather lots of images, flickering here and there — the classrooms, the school hall, the library (perched up by the boys’ toilets tonight). Then gradually the pictures lost their focus. The screen fizzed. Suddenly a picture flashed onto the screen.

  Miss Cassandra’s eyes widened in horror. ‘Ah,’ she clucked quietly. ‘So there is something strange about. My apologies, er, Whatareyournames. It seems that you were right.’

  Long white things wriggled and squirmed among bright red liquid on the screen.

  Yesterday gasped. ‘What is it? Is that red stuff … blood?’

  Mug peered at the screen. ‘I think that my snack,’ he rumbled. ‘Mum packed me snack in case me gets hungry in the night at Boo’s place. It spaghetti and tomato sauce.’

  ‘But spaghetti doesn’t wriggle!’ cried Miss Cassandra.

  ‘Zombie spaghetti do,’ explained Mug.

  ‘Clawk! Clawk! Clawk! Clawk!’ Miss Cassandra snapped the laptop shut. ‘Well, that’s it.’ She sounded annoyed. ‘Nothing more terrible than zombie spaghetti, though that does sound pretty horrible. Plus the overactive imaginations of a couple of apprentice Heroes. The whole school is totally, absolutely clear.’

  She patted Yesterday’s hand with her wing. ‘I’m sure you’ll make a fine Finder one day, when you learn to do it the professional way. And as for you, young Whatshisname,’ she said to Boo. ‘Learn to think with your brains instead of your nose. The smell of danger indeed. I’ve never heard such nonsense. And I’m sure Dr Mussells will say the same.’ Her claws clicked on the stone as she stalked out of the lab.

  ‘Well,’ said Boo, as he padded down the corridor between Yesterday and Mug. ‘That went well, didn’t it? Now we’re a joke. Boo-Boo does another booboo.’

  Yesterday sighed. ‘It’ll be all over school. Dr Mussells will tell everyone on the staff. The whole school will be laughing at us. We’re the kids who thought the School for Heroes was under attack.’

  ‘Ha-ha-ha-ha,’ said Mug gloomily.

  The strawberry scent was still there, and the smell he’d thought was danger, too. It just goes to show how much I have to learn, thought Boo glumly.

  He felt his tail droop towards the ground. ‘Why did it have to happen now?’

  ‘Why just now?’ asked Yesterday. She still looked pale, her eyes shifting uneasily at the shadows as they came out onto the ledge.

  ‘Oh, nothing,’ said Boo sadly. Even his ears felt droopy.

  Yesterday glared at him. ‘No, go on. Why?’

  ‘I was going to ask Princess Princess to the dance,’ said Boo, scratching his ear miserably. ‘But there’s no chance at all she’ll say yes now.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Yesterday. She stared down into the volcano, avoiding his eyes.

  ‘You come to dance with me,’ said Mug. ‘That what best friends for.’

  ‘Um, Mug, Boo might like to take a girl to the dance,’ said Yesterday diplomatically.

  ‘I suppose I could bring Spot,’ said Boo doubtfully. ‘She’s my friend from home. But she won’t know anyone except me.’

  ‘No worries. Boo take my sister Glug,’ said Mug cheerfully. ‘She think Boo totally hat.’

  ‘I think you mean hot,’ said Yesterday.

  ‘That too.’

  Boo gulped. ‘Does she?’ He suddenly imagined trying to dance with a two-metre lump of blonde fungus. A friendly lump of fungus who thought he was hot …

  ‘Boo’s going to take me. Aren’t you, Boo?’ said Yesterday.

  ‘Am I?’ asked Boo, surprised.

  ‘Yes, you are,’ said Yesterday firmly.

  ‘You don’t have to ask me just because I can’t go with Princess Princess,’ began Boo.

  ‘I want to go with you. I like you,’ said Yesterday simply.

  ‘You do?’

  ‘And I like you both, so me and Glug will come with you too,’ added Mug.

  ‘Right,’ said Yesterday. ‘That’s settled. Come on.’ She gave a sudden shiver, her eyes darting to the shadows again. ‘I need to get my slugs home before they stink up the school. And you and Mug need to go for his slapover.’

  Boo said nothing. But despite the smell of strawberry jam the world no longer seemed as droopy after all.

  It was fun having a slapover, sorry, sleepover (Mug’s mistake was catching), decided Boo, as the two of them settled down in his room at the Bigpaws’s. Mug didn’t fit in a doggie basket, of course, but most werewolves kept a bed and a basket in their bedrooms, in case they felt like Changing at bedtime, and Mug could just squeeze himself into the bed in Boo’s room.

  Spot had really liked Mug, too. Even if he wasn’t a wolf, he had a good strong smell. And he was a Hero, too. Boo had thought the Bigpaws might even have put up a sign, they were so happy to have two Heroes under their roof: ‘We Have Heroes Here Tonight!’

  It should have made up for the embarrassment of the afternoon. But it didn’t. How could he have been so stupid?! Of course there was no such thing as a scent of danger. He’d just imagined the smell of strawberry jam. Or maybe one of the tarts at Mug’s party had been strawberry, and the scent had lingered on his fur. And all volcanoes vibrated a bit …

  Boo snuggled down in his basket and tried to sleep. Mug snored comfortably in the bed next to him, the container of zombie spaghetti on the bedside table, in case Mug felt like a snack in the night. Though after six poodle pizzas and a third helping of corgi crumble and ice cream, Boo didn’t know how he’d be able to fit any more in.

  At least it’s Sunday tomorrow, he thought drowsily. We can sleep in, then maybe play Catch the Frisbee with the gang down at the creek. Mug would like that, and Spot too.

  Yes, it was good to have friends. And slapovers … his eyes closed.

  He didn’t know how long he had slept when suddenly his eyes flashed open. The moon was hanging in the sky like a pizza with corgi topping. A small pig snored from its nest in the branches outside, though more softly than Mug.

  Something was wrong.

  The danger feeling was back again. It wasn’t just a smell, this time, or a feeling in his paws. This was like ice water washing through him. Like a rope on his collar pulling him, leading him …

  He struggled to his feet, trying to push the last remnants of sleep away, and bounded over to Mug. He stood on his hind legs and licked Mug’s fungus face. It felt strangely rough against his tongue. ‘Wake up,’ he barked.

  ‘Um ooopf,’ rumbled Mug sleepily.

  ‘Come on! We have to go!’

  ‘Go where? Bat
hroom?’

  ‘No! Back to school! There is danger there! Now!’

  For a horrible moment Boo thought the big zombie was going to argue. But he didn’t. He just staggered to his feet. Boo scampered out the door and down the stairs. Mug lumbered behind him.

  They had to hurry, thought Boo, racing down the moonlit street towards the ice-cream shop. He didn’t know how he knew, or why. It was as though his body was compelling him. Or his instincts perhaps. Not just his werewolf instincts, but his Hero instincts too. The ones he’d never known he had.

  He pushed the door of the ice-cream shop open with his nose, and padded down the hallway. A faint memory of strawberry jam stopped him in his tracks. He scampered back into the kitchen and rolled the bottle of rat essence from the cupboard with his front paws. Mug helped him slip it into the mouse pouch that hung from his collar, then they both ran back to the bedroom and slid under the bed. The floor dropped.

  Why did the floor have to drop so slowly? Hurry! thought Boo, as they finally landed in the cold gloom of the tunnel.

  ‘Squeak?’ It was the mouse.

  ‘Sorry, your bag’s got stuff in it,’ said Boo, as the small creature leapt onto his back. ‘Can you hold on there instead?’

  ‘Squeak!’

  Boo supposed that was a ‘yes’. He wondered if the mouse had felt the danger too, or if he and Mug had woken it from wherever it slept in the tunnel. But there was no way he could ask it without Yesterday to interpret.

  And it was time to run!

  Boo bounded down the tunnel, Mug thundering at his side. They had to go faster! Faster! Surely the tunnel was never as long as this before …

  At last the red glow appeared in front of them, growing brighter as they pounded towards it. And then they were there. ‘Students approaching!’ yelled Boo, as they burst onto the school ledge above the volcano.

  He skidded to a stop.

  There was nothing there.

  ‘Where danger?’ panted Mug, trying to catch his breath.

  ‘I — I don’t know.’ Boo sniffed. Nothing — just the scent he’d smelt that afternoon. Just the same earthquake-type vibration, though it was even stronger now. But something had woken him. There was something here …

  ‘Boo! Mug! What are you doing here?’

  Boo stared. It was Princess Princess. She wore pink silk pyjamas with tiny gold crowns on them. Her slippers were pink and fluffy. ‘What are you doing here?’ he replied.

  Princess Princess flushed. ‘I … I lost my necklace this afternoon,’ she said unconvincingly. ‘I came back to get it. Mum will give me heaps if I lose it. It’s an heirloom, you know. My aunt wore it when she gave the dragon indigestion,’ she added, gaining confidence. ‘It’s got a row of diamonds and —’

  ‘You no wear necklace this afternoon,’ rumbled Mug.

  Princess Princess flushed even deeper. ‘I … I don’t know why I’m here. I just had to come! All right?!’

  ‘Maybe you are a Hero then,’ said someone softly.

  Boo turned. It was Yesterday. She had stepped out of the wormhole so quietly that even he hadn’t heard her. ‘Yesterday!’ he cried.

  Yesterday wore the same tattered tunic as she always did. Had she changed before coming here, he wondered, or did she wear it even to sleep in?

  ‘I did another Finding,’ she whispered. ‘Miss Cassandra was wrong. She’s so vague — I should never have trusted her to Find properly. She couldn’t even get our Rabbits right. Come on! We have to go up and warn the Heroes!’

  ‘Warn them about what?!’ Princess Princess looked as though she might cry. ‘Why did I come here? I should be in bed! I just had this feeling …’

  ‘A Hero feeling,’ whispered Yesterday. ‘Come on! There isn’t any time to lo—’

  ‘—lose.’ That wasn’t Yesterday’s voice, thought Boo. He’d heard that voice before!

  The scent of popcorn wafted across the ledge. There was the stench of overcooked strawberry jam, too. The vibrations grew stronger still.

  It was the Greedle.

  26

  Zombie Spaghetti versus the Greedle

  ‘Too late, little puppy,

  Ah, fate! How unlucky!’

  ‘Though “puppy” and “unlucky” don’t really rhyme, do they? said the Greedle. ‘You know, I’m so excited that my poetic skills are deserting me.’

  The Greedle looked the same as it had back in the ice-cream shop, thought Boo. The same gaping mouth and long white fangs, the same sagging belly.

  Behind him lurked a pack of octopuses but with thousands of tiny staring green eyes, and little shoes on every tentacle. A row of Zurms lurked behind them, the strawberry jam oozing from their rears and bubbling slightly in the heat of the volcano.

  Boo wanted to leap at the Greedle’s throat. But he couldn’t move. He was frozen, just as he had been all those months ago. Yet this time no Zurm had oozed its jam anywhere near him.

  Why can’t I move?! thought Boo. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Mug and Yesterday, immobile too. Already one of the Zurms was covering Mug with strawberry jam.

  ‘How can I put this poetically?’ mused the Greedle, rubbing its stomach happily. ‘It’s finding a rhyme to “Hypnopus” that’s so difficult. “Slip so ruse?” “Flip, oh Bruce”? I think — yes I really do think it’s best not to be poetic at all if you can’t do it well, don’t you?’

  Where’s Mum? Boo wanted to shriek. What have you done with her? What are you doing here?! Leave my friends alone!

  But he couldn’t.

  The Greedle chuckled. ‘But of course you can’t answer me! Can’t talk, can’t walk, can’t balk, can’t stalk. Those are the Hypnopuses over there.’ The Greedle gestured at the octopus creatures, with their staring eyes. ‘They are such useful bogeys. They paralyse anyone they stare at.’ The Greedle shook its head regretfully. ‘The strawberry jam just didn’t work with you, did it? But never mind. The Hypnopuses and the Zurms between them have got every Hero on this silly mountain nicely jammed — including that big chicken. Oh yes, I was quite clever there!

  Never never never never,

  Has any villain foul or fair,

  Been so clever clever clever.

  My Hypnopuses, multi-talented beasties, lurked in the Zurmhole under the school and hypnotised that silly chicken Finder so she couldn’t see us.’

  Suddenly the vibrations grew even stronger. The whole ledge shook.

  The Greedle rubbed its hands. ‘Dear dear,’ he said.

  It seems to me,

  That soon you’ll be,

  Shaken right down

  Into the ground.

  And waiting below?

  That volcano!

  ‘You and the whole school and Rest in Pieces. My best plan ever! To tunnel with a hundred Zurms under the school and bring the whole thing crashing down forever, first thing Monday morning. No more Heroes! All the old Heroes gone, and all the young potential Heroes too. No one will ever dare to be a Hero again! Every universe and everything delicious in it — pizzas, cherries, ooooh, yummy yummy banana cake with chocolate icing — everything I want, all just for me! I’m too excited to even make a poem about it. Maybe later,’ it added gaily.

  When all this is over …

  And you all are dead dead dead,

  I can find nice rhymes,

  In my head head head.

  When you are black and crispy,

  And the school has gone all wispy,

  Then maybe I … Oh, forget it. It’s time to turn

  this place into lava forever!’

  He had to be able to move, Boo told himself. It wasn’t even as if he was gummed up with strawberry jam this time! It was just mind control! Surely he could break away.

  But you’re a Hero wolf, said a whisper in his mind. You’re good at smelling, biting, widdling. Not brains.

  It was as though his paws were set in rock — cold rock, that was freezing his bones. He would have whimpered, but his throat was frozen too.

 
; One of the Hypnopuses handed the Greedle a tray covered with a white cloth. The Greedle lifted it up. ‘Oooh, yummy. Scones and jam and cream. Just what I need to make tonight totally perfect.’ The Greedle gave a sweet smile as it bit into the scone. It flicked a shiny finger at the Hypnopuses, who slowly, terrifyingly, started slithering towards Boo and his friends.

  Ashes to ashes and rust to rust,

  All you fine Heroes will turn to dust.

  ‘Bye-bye now!’

  Boo strained to move, but it was impossible. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Mug and Princess, frozen too. The mouse was a frozen lump on his back. Nothing in the world moved except the Greedle, munching its scone, the bubbling lava down in the pit, the advancing bogeys and …

  Something shifted next to him. Even more slowly, slowly, something moved.

  Yesterday.

  Her eyes were shut. But she still walked towards the Greedle, her arms extended. The Hypnopuses stopped, confused.

  ‘What …?’ began the Greedle, around a mouthful of scone. Then its smile deepened. ‘Oh, I see what you’re doing,’ it said.

  You clever child.

  I’m quite beguiled!

  ‘You’ve put yourself into the Find trance, haven’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Yesterday’s voice, strangely distant. ‘My mind is far away. My mind can move my body despite the Hypnopuses, as long as I’m in the trance.’

  The Greedle laughed. It was almost a pleasant laugh, laced with genuine amusement.

  Almost.

  ‘You think you can possibly beat me, you shabby little girl?

  Your precious ancient Heroes,

  Are all frozen through.

  And any time I want,

  I can kill you, too.

  ‘Maybe you can kill me,’ said Yesterday dreamily. But I’ll tell you one thing: I’ll die before I let you hurt my friends.’

  The Greedle laughed again as it licked the last of the jam and cream from its skinny red fingers. ‘How long do you think you can keep that up? A few minutes will exhaust you.’

  Yesterday said nothing. She was concentrating on moving in her trance.

  Boo pushed frantically against the Hypnopuses’ control. Yesterday was walking so slowly, he thought, like she was trapped in jelly. How could she manage to walk at all, with her mind in two places?