Ruffleclaw

by Cornelia Funke

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text and interior illustrations copyright © 2005 by Cornelia Funke

  Translation copyright © 2015 by Oliver Latsch

  Cover art copyright © 2015 by Vivienne To

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Originally published as Zottelkralle by Cecilie Dressler Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg, Germany, in 2005.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Funke, Cornelia Caroline, author, illustrator.

  [Zottelkralle. English]

  Ruffleclaw / Cornelia Funke ; illustrated by the author ; translated by Oliver Latsch. — First American edition.

  pages cm

  “Originally published as Zottelkralle by Cecilie Dressler Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg, Germany, in 2005”—Copyright page.

  Summary: “An earth monster decides to move in with a human family”

  — Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-385-37548-1 (trade) — ISBN 978-0-385-37550-4 (lib. bdg.) — ISBN 978-0-385-37551-1 (ebook)

  [1. Monsters—Fiction.] I. Latsch, Oliver, translator. II. Title.

  PZ7.F96624Ru 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2014025124

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v4.1

  a

  For the two monsters Elmar and Oliver

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  About the Author

  Ruffleclaw’s burrow lay well hidden under an old toolshed, right next to Shaggystink’s and Wormtooth’s burrows. For its main entrance, Ruffleclaw had loosened three floorboards inside the shed. Outside, carefully hidden among high stinging nettles, was the emergency exit, because Ruffleclaw was an earth monster, and earth monsters were cautious creatures.

  Like any other earth monster’s burrow, Ruffleclaw’s home smelled of earthworms and millipedes, but the floor was covered with soft sweaters, and piled high in the corners were all the human things he had snuck away with over time.

  Ruffleclaw’s neighbors, Shaggystink and Wormtooth, came to visit him only very rarely.

  “Yuckity-icky-yuck!” Shaggystink moaned every time he poked his head into Ruffleclaw’s burrow, always holding his big nose with at least two of his four paws. “What a horrible stench!”

  Wormtooth would just mutter something about human filth and quickly return to her own burrow, which was filled with the delicious scent of hundreds of woodlice.

  Ruffleclaw didn’t care at all what those two thought. Let them munch their bugs and scratch their fleabites. Let them wallow in the mud and slurp slippery slugs. All of that was just not enough for him. Oh no.

  While the other monsters spent their nights digging for hideous treats in the humans’ trash cans, Ruffleclaw padded right up to the human house on his furry paws.

  Oh, how those bright windows lured him closer. And the music! That horridly wonderful jingly-music. It made his knees go all wobbly.

  Usually Ruffleclaw just peered through the windows, or he listened at the walls with his delicate ears. Sometimes, though, when the nights were particularly dark and when nothing moved in the human house, Ruffleclaw would open the big door and sneak inside. The silly lock was of course no problem for his monster claws.

  And what exciting things they had in there! Ruffleclaw’s night eyes needed no lights to spot all the wonders in the dark. He would grunt with joy as he rolled around on the thick carpets or dug his furry face into the soft pillows. He took the most delicious treats from the ice-cold box where the humans collected their food.

  And at the end, he always went to look at the faces of the sleeping humans, staring in wonder at their naked, completely un-furry skin.

  “Those humans look like mole rats!” Shaggystink said with a laugh. “Like huge, icky mole rats.”

  So? Ruffleclaw thought. Was their shaggy monster fur really any better? There were always lice and fleas in it. The humans probably never had to deal with that. And the humans didn’t smell of damp earth, but of delicious soap. Yum!

  Ruffleclaw had once taken a piece of soap back to his burrow and slowly eaten every last bit of it. It was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted!

  “You’ll meet a terrible end one day!” Wormtooth warned him. “You already smell like a human! Yuck!”

  “And?” Ruffleclaw asked, his green eyes turning red with rage. “You’ll see! Oh yes, you will!”

  “See what?” his monster neighbors asked uneasily.

  But Ruffleclaw just bared his teeth and grinned. His scrumptiously smart plan was none of their business.

  Ruffleclaw’s plan was really quite simple: he was going to move in with the humans. Indeed! After all, some of them kept cats or dogs, so why not an earth monster? Earth monsters were much smarter and way more entertaining!

  The house Ruffleclaw kept sneaking into was home to three humans: two large ones and one small one. The large human with the hair on his face was hardly ever there. The other big human was a female. She seemed a little scary, because she had pieces of glass in front of her eyes. But the little human was just right.

  He was only double the size of an earth monster, and he had a cozy-looking bed as well as lots of mysterious playthings. Perfect company for a slug-slimy, smart earth monster.

  One night, while Wormtooth and Shaggystink were already out digging for woodlice, Ruffleclaw packed a tin of worms into his bag. Earth monsters start losing their fur if they don’t regularly eat worms, and Ruffleclaw had never seen any worms in the human house. Heaven only knew what they took against hair loss.

  Ruffleclaw’s monster heart was beating wildly as he climbed up the tunnel to his main entrance. He pushed up the floorboards and hopped onto the dusty floor of the shed. Then he nudged the boards back into place and snuck out into the dark garden.

  He could hear Wormtooth and Shaggystink squabbling somewhere in the dark. Earth monsters loved to fight. Often their fights would escalate into wrestling matches, and four-armed monsters wrestling can get very wild.

  They were probably fighting over some particularly juicy bug. Ruffleclaw’s mouth watered at the thought, but he walked on. He had more important things to do.

  Let those two spend the rest of their lives fighting over silly bugs, sitting in their smelly burrows, and freezing their scrawny tails off in winter. He, Ruffleclaw, would be lying in a warm human bed and eating human cake. Oh yes! He walked even faster toward the house.

  There it was, dark and quiet. Only one faint little light was burning above the entrance. Ruffleclaw’s bendy legs clambered the three steps to the front door. He carefully poked a pointy claw into
the lock. Snap! The door swung open. The earth monster stepped through it and listened.

  Nothing. Just a faint ticking somewhere in the back. Ruffleclaw quietly closed the door and scurried to the stairs. He knew exactly where he was going.

  The little human’s room was on the second floor, right by the stairs. The door was always left ajar. The little human was barely visible. Only his tousled hair poked out from under the quilt. The thin curtains filtered the moonlight.

  Ruffleclaw’s sharp ears listened to the human’s even breaths. He stood there, the bag in his hand. He suddenly felt a little uneasy. He quickly took out his tin and stuffed a half-dried worm into his mouth. Yes, that was better. Smacking his lips, he tiptoed toward the bed and crawled in next to the little human. Ah, so nice and warm! And yum! Ruffleclaw’s nostrils greedily sucked in the air. There was that wonderful soap smell. He grunted happily and dug himself deeper into the soft pillows. Oh, if Wormtooth and Shaggystink could see me now, he thought. And then he was fast asleep.

  The little human into whose bed Ruffleclaw had crawled was called Tommy, and Tommy woke to the sound of someone snoring next to him. It was very rhythmic and very loud snoring. Tommy pinched himself in the arm. But the snoring didn’t go away.

  Tommy carefully lifted his blanket. He pushed out one leg, then another, and then jumped out of the bed. He quickly flicked on the light. What he saw nearly took his breath away.

  Something red and very shaggy crawled out from under the blanket. “Hey, what’s going on?” the thing growled angrily. “Turn off that light right now!”

  Startled, Tommy obeyed. But even with just the moonlight coming through the curtains, the horrible creature was still quite visible. It stretched four arms into the air and gave a wide-mouthed yawn that showed a frightening number of quite large teeth.

  Tommy grabbed his badminton racket and held it out in front of him. “Get out of there!” he shouted. “Get out, you…you…”

  The thing in his bed made a sulky face, but it showed no inclination to move. Quite the opposite, actually. The creature leaned back into Tommy’s pillows and crossed two of its arms over its chest. With the other two arms, it scratched its belly.

  “Now, now!” it said with a hoarse voice. “What kind of a welcome is this? Is that nice? Is that polite?”

  “How did you get in here?” Tommy asked. He was still holding up his badminton racket. “What kind of a thing are you?”

  “Thing? Tsk.” The shaggy visitor angrily shook his head. “My name is Ruffleclaw. Try to remember that. And I am no thing. I am an earth monster.”

  He got up on his bowed legs and bared his teeth in a sort of smile. Then he spat against Tommy’s wall—splash!—leaving a bright green spot on the wallpaper.

  “Hey! Stop that!” Tommy cried out.

  “Why? Where do you spit?” the monster asked calmly.

  “I don’t spit at all!” Tommy started rubbing at the stain with a tissue, but the wallpaper stayed green.

  “Right. So, no spitting.” The monster scratched his ear and yawned. “Got to remember that. Since I’ll be living here now.” And with that he dropped back into Tommy’s bed.

  “You’ll be what?” Tommy lowered his badminton racket and stared at Ruffleclaw.

  “Close your mouth. Makes you look kind of stupid,” the earth monster observed.

  Tommy just stood there in his pajamas and didn’t know what to say.

  “You humans have some slimaliciously awesome stuff!” The monster looked around. “What’s that there, with the buttons?”

  “A radio,” Tommy muttered. “You better not press tha—”

  Too late. Howling guitars, booming drums. Startled, the monster howled. He grabbed the radio with two of his hairy hands and bit into it.

  The sound immediately died. The monster angrily threw the dead device into a corner.

  “What is that horrible thing?” the monster asked.

  “That was my radio!” Tommy groaned. “Don’t monsters like music?”

  “Puh! Music? That wasn’t music,” the monster growled disdainfully. He hopped off the bed. “But somewhere in this house, there’s sometimes really creepy-crawlicious music!” He rolled his eyes in delight.

  “My mother is a piano teacher,” said Tommy, “but…how did you know that?”

  “I’ve been watching you.” Ruffleclaw opened Tommy’s desk drawer and peered inside. He picked up a bright green eraser and plopped it into his mouth.

  “Not bad. You eat this stuff often?”

  “We never eat this stuff!” Tommy slammed the drawer shut. “Leave my things alone.”

  “Oh, don’t be such a grouch!” Ruffleclaw grunted. Then he spat again, this time on the carpet. “Earth monsters can’t stand grouchiness. Got that?” Ruffleclaw waddled back to the bed. He reached for the dirty bag he’d left on Tommy’s nightstand and pulled out a tin.

  “Nevertheless, little human”—the earth monster fished something out of the tin, something that looked suspiciously like a dried earthworm—“I like it here. Despite your constant griping.” And with that, the worm disappeared into his wide mouth.

  Tommy was feeling sick. “Yuck. What are you eating?” he asked.

  “Worms.” The monster smacked his lips. “Why? Want one? They’d be even better with some snail slime.”

  “No thanks,” Tommy muttered.

  “Since we’re talking food”—Ruffleclaw patted his belly—“I wouldn’t mind some seconds from your icebox.”

  “So you already know our fridge!” Tommy groaned. “This can’t be real. It just can’t.” He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.

  The earth monster was still there. He was just closing his vile tin. Then he crawled back under Tommy’s blanket and burped. Tommy stood shivering in front of his own bed.

  “And?” Twenty hairy fingers started impatiently drumming the blanket. “Where’s the food? Huh?”

  Tommy put on his bathrobe and opened the door.

  “See ya!” Ruffleclaw shouted after him.

  “See ya!” Tommy mumbled. He looked at the door to his parents’ bedroom. His dad was away. As usual. Tommy’s dad was a travel guide. But his mom was there. And? Tommy thought. What am I going to tell her? That there’s a red worm-eating monster in my bed?

  Tommy sighed and went down the stairs. Never mind, he thought. I always wanted a dog, and now I have a monster.

  The next morning, Tommy’s alarm went off at six-thirty, and the earth monster was gone.

  There was no filthy bag on the nightstand, nor was there any other trace of his presence. So it was only a dream after all, Tommy thought. But he wasn’t sure whether he should be glad about that or not.

  He padded sleepily to the bathroom and nearly ran into his mom.

  “Where did you come from?” she asked. “I thought you were in the shower.”

  “No, why?” Tommy rubbed his eyes.

  “Then who’s that in the bathroom?” Mom asked. “Your dad is touring through some desert thousands of miles from here.”

  Tommy stared at the closed bathroom door. Very slowly his brain started to catch on to who was taking a shower in there.

  “I…erm…am letting the water run until it’s hot.”

  “Ah,” Mom said. “Let’s not make that a habit, okay? And hurry up, please.”

  “Sure.” Tommy quickly disappeared into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.

  The earth monster was standing under the shower. Soaking wet. Soap bubbles all over his chin.

  “Have you gone completely crazy?” Tommy hissed. “Get out of there right now.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it!” Ruffleclaw purred. “Ahhh, this feels good! And it tickles. Snail-slimifyingly good!”

  Tommy picked up the empty shampoo bottle from the floor.

  “Did you pour all that over your head?”

  “Mousepoop! I’m not as crazy as you think.” With a huff, Ruffleclaw turned his back on Tommy. “I drank most of it, of course.�
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  “Yuck!” Tommy yanked the tap shut. He pulled the struggling monster out of the shower and pressed a towel into his claws. “There. Dry off. And be quiet. My mother’s up.”

  “Just as well!” the monster grunted as he gave the towel a nosy sniff. “You can introduce us.”

  “Introduce you? Are you insane? I’m hiding you.”

  “Why?” Ruffleclaw pouted and spat into the sink.

  “Because she would give you to the zoo, or have you stuffed, or something worse,” Tommy whispered.

  That sounded unpleasant. Very unpleasant. The monster uneasily scratched his belly.

  “Tommy? What are you doing in there?” his mother called through the door.

  “Almost done!” Tommy shouted back. He quickly threw another big towel over Ruffleclaw’s head. “Keep still, if you want to live,” he whispered as he tucked the twitching bundle under his arm.

  “My tin! My tin!” Ruffleclaw shrieked.

  Tommy found the filthy bag under the sink. He stuffed it into his towel-bundle and opened the bathroom door.

  “Where are you going with my towel?” his mother called after him.

  “To dry myself, of course!” Tommy answered. Then he quickly disappeared into his room.

  Enraged, Ruffleclaw wiggled out of the damp towel. “I don’t like that!” he hissed. “Oh no!” He grabbed the towel and tore it to shreds.

  “Be quiet, you idiot!” Tommy hissed back. “My parents can’t stand animals. And my dad’s allergic to everything.”

  “I’m not an animal!” Ruffleclaw growled. “I am an earth monster.”

  “Even worse!” Tommy quickly climbed into his pants and pulled a T-shirt over his head. “You better hide under the bed or…hold on…yes, the closet is probably more comfortable. I’ll be back in the afternoon.”

  “What?” the monster screamed. “What are you talking about? I’m supposed to hide in that smelly closet there? That’s boring. I might as well have stayed in my burrow.”