by Thea Stilton
Once Ekana and Nahele had untied all
their friends, the little group climbed
the stairs and peeked into the observatory’s
office.
An unpleasant surprise was
waiting for them: The lights of the
seismographs were all flashing at once, and
the instruments were going off crazily.
This could only mean one thing.
Seismic
activity was occurring.
Mauna Loa was about to erupt!
The Thea Sisters looked at one another in
dismay. Something had to be done
immediately, but what?
After a moment’s confusion, Paulina
snapped into action. She grabbed her phone
and called Professor Van Kraken.
“Professor, you were right about
everything!” she exclaimed. “We’re at
the observatory, and the instruments are
going crazy. Mauna Loa is going to erupt any
minute now!”
The professor stayed calm. “It’s okay,
Paulina. Listen to me carefully. Based on my
calculations
, the lava will flow in
the direction of the resort. You need to get
over there right away and evacuate
LAVA ALERT!
the building. Bring everyone
to safety, do you hear me?”
“Loud and clear!” Pam
chimed in.
The mouselets, Renani, Ekana,
and Nahele ran to warn the
researchers in charge of the
night watch. Then
they darted outside.
At that moment, there
was an extremely
violent
rumble, followed by a sharp shake
beneath their paws. Mauna Loa was about
to explode!
There wasn’t a minute to lose. Everyone
jumped into Renani’s SUV. They sped over
to the resort faster than a mouse can smell
melting cheese.
The guests and the hotel staff were all
H
e
l
p
!
I
n
t
o
t
h
e
c
a
r
!
sleeping, so no one had noticed that there
was lava flowingtoward the building.
The mouselets, Renani, Ekana, and Nahele
dashed inside and began knocking on
all the doors.
“Wake up! Mauna Loa is
erupting
!”
“Everyone outside at once! You can’t stay
here, it’s too dangerous!”
"Run away
Get to safety!”
“Quickly, there’s no time to lose!”
The guests began to spill out of their rooms
in fear.
Ruby opened the door to her room and
began adding to the chaos. “Danger?
What danger?! You’re just being
drama queens as usual!”
pop
Ruby was determined to make the Thea
Sisters look bad. . . even at a time like
this! She stalked out of her room, shouting,
“One little rumble, and you all start
yelling
! Don’t make a mountain out of a
mousehill. Just shut your snouts and — HEY!”
Colette had grabbed her by the paw and
pulled her toward the window. Fiery sparks
were
shooting out
of the
mouth of the volcano, and a flood of lava
was sliding steadily toward the resort. It was
growing bigger and faster the closer it came.
Ruby’s eyes opened so wide they looked
like they were about to
out of her snout.
She burst into tears and hugged Colette
THE USUAL DRAMA
QUEENS
hurried
tighter than a mousetrap
spring. “Help! I’m begging
you, don’t leave me alone!”
Colette disentangled
herself and tried to
calm Ruby down.
“Don’t worry, if we
can get everyone
out of the hotel, no
one will get hurt!”
Ruby dried her
tears and began
to knock on every door she saw. “Everyone
out! The volcano has erupted,
your lives are in danger!”
She shouted
so loudly that the guests who were still
uncertain immediately
out.
Meanwhile, Ekana, Renani, and Nahele
escorted the hotel’s staff outside. Then
they did a quick snout count to make sure no
one was left in the building.
“Hurry, come this way!” ordered Ekana.
“Everyone, get in your cars and drive toward
the bay!”
It was a
race
against time: The
lava
was picking up speed. It threatened
to catch up with them any moment now.
As their SUV sped down the road,
away from danger, Pam noticed a ray of
light coming from a room high up in the
resort. She could see the
shadows
of
rodents moving around up there.
“Wait just a sec. look!” she shouted.
“There’s still someone in there!”
Ekana followed her gaze. “That’s the
window of Sammy’s office!”
jumped
The SUV quickly retraced its route to the
resort. The Thea Sisters ran up to the
office and burst in to find Sammy Sharkfur
crouched in front of an open
safe
. Next
to him were George Crusterson, who was
shining a flashlight inside the safe,
and the two fake officers, who were putting
piles of money inside a backpack.
Pam turned on the overhead light, which
startled the four dirty rats so much they
practically
out of their fur.
“Surprise!”
“You again?!” said Sammy with a start.
“But . . . how did you get free?”
“Pretty incredible, huh?” teased Nicky.
“We’re great detectives, plus we have more
YOU AGAIN?!
lives
than a whole pack of street cats!”
“Okay, that’s it for the witty wisecracks,”
said Paulina, stepping forward. “Come on,
we need to get out of here. The resort is
about to be flooded with
lava
! If you
stay here, you could be KILLED!”
“Nonsense!” replied George Crusterson.
“According to my calculations, the lava will
exchanged a surprised
never reach the resort. It’s just a false alarm.”
As if in response, a strong rumble shook
the building, and a burst of light illuminated
the room.
One of the fake officers ran to peer out the
window. The lava had reached the wall
surrounding the resort and was pressing
closer and closer. The whole resort was
surrounded by an eerie, glowing light.
“They’re right!” the officer cried in
surprise.
“On your paws, everyone.
We gotta get out of here!” He and his partner
immediately raced out of the room.
Sammy shot George a withering look.
“You and your calculations!” he thundered.
“You’re a dunce, that’s what you are! Expert
seismologist, my paw! You’re nothing but a
quack!”
The Thea Sisters
glance. “Takes one to know one, I guess,”
muttered Pam.
At that moment, a dense
wave
of lava
began to envelop the resort. The mouselets
didn’t waste another second. They pushed
Sammy and George out of the room and out
into the resort’s circular driveway.
In the rush to escape, Sammy dropped
his backpack full of money. Just as he realized
he had lost it . . . it was engulfed in lava!
WHOOSH!
The Thea Sisters and the two thugs
reached safety in the nick of time. An instant
later, the resort was swept away by lava. The
glowing red tide devoured everything in its
path: buildings, rocks, trees — it was all
swallowed up.
“M-my . . . my money . . .” Sammy Sharkfur
moaned in dismay. But it was too late.
Sammy Sharkfur and George Crusterson
had barely escaped with their fur. But a bitter
surprise awaited them. The two good-
for-nothings quickly realized that rescue
teams of firefighters weren’t the only
ones greeting them — the real police were
there, too. In fact, their two fake–police
officer friends were already sitting inside a
real police car — in
pawcuffs
!
“What is going on here?!” yelled Sammy.
The police commissioner took two more
pairs of pawcuffs off his belt. “Sammy
Sharkfur, we’ve had our eye on you and your
accomplices for a while now! We have
YOU GET WHAT’S
COMING TO YOU
evidence that proves you corrupted dozens
of officials to get the permits for your resort’s
construction.”
Sammy Sharkfur was sweating more than
a shiny slice of Swiss.
“That’s not all!” the commissioner
continued, getting angry. “You tricked your
business partner into pawing over his
land
.
You and George Crusterson hid information
about Mauna Loa, risking the
safety
of
the entire Hilo population. You and your
accomplices are under arrest!”
After a moment, Sammy regained his usual
confidence. “Under arrest?! With what
proof?” he said scornfully. “You don’t have
any! My office has been swept away by
lava
! There are no documents; it’s all
lost! So there is nothing you can
prove about me or my business.”
“Oh, there’s proof, all right!” interjected
Paulina suddenly. She pulled out her
MousePhone
.
Sammy looked at her quizzically. Professor
Crusterson turned
paler
than a ball
of mozzarella.
“You forgot about today’s technology, Mr.
Sharkfur,” Paulina said sharply. “My
MousePhone is an excellent recording
device!”
Paulina pressed a button, and suddenly
Sammy’s squeak rang out loud and clear:
“Why should I care about the population?”
Luckily, Paulina had thought to hit
record on her phone in her pocket when
Sammy and his friends discovered the Thea
Sisters at the observatory!
Paulina pressed the STOP button, and
everyone turned toward Sammy Sharkfur.
Sammy’s arrogance had
slipped away like cheese off a cracker, and he
was left angrily squeezing his paws into
fists. “I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if
it weren’t for you meddling mouselets!” he
cried.
At dawn the next day, the volcano finally
stopped erupting. The last of the lava slid
into the ocean without causing any further
damage. Fortunately, the only building that
was damaged was the Fire Flowers Resort.
That wasn’t too big a surprise: It was the
only building in the path of the
volcano
!
“It had to end this way,” sighed Ekana,
resigned.
The Thea Sisters, Renani, Ekana, and
Nahele were at the shore, watching the
red-hot lava slowly fade on the volcano.
What an incredible spectacle of nature!
Nahele put a paw around his grandson.
“You will soon find your way, grandson. And
this time, no shortcuts!”
A NEW DAY
W
h
a
t
a
s
i
g
h
t
!
Look!
I
n
e
v
e
r
t
h
o
u
g
h
t
I
’
d
s
e
e
W
o
w
!
U
n
b
e
l
i
e
v
a
b
l
e
!
a
n
y
t
h
i
n
g
l
i
k
e
t
h
i
s
!
Ekana smiled at him. “I learned my
lesson! I’m just glad no one was hurt.” He
turned to the thea sisters and bowed.
“I have you to thank for that.”
Colette, Nicky, Pam, Paulina, and Violet
blushed from the tips of their snouts to the
tips of their tails.
The little group began to walk toward the
city stadium, where the hula competition
had been held. That’s where everyone had
agreed to meet after the eruption. Because of
the state of emergency, the competition
was suspended, and no winners were
announced. It would be postponed until the
following year.
Instead of being upset about
the competition, Ruby thanked Colette and
the other Thea Sisters. “I have to admit, if it
weren’t for you mouselets, I’d be a
roasted rat right now!” But she
couldn’t resist adding,
“Obviously, the Ruby
Crew already has next year’s
competition all sewn up!”
cosmetics
It was time to go home. All the hula
competitors headed over to Hilo airpo
rt to
catch their planes and say good-bye. Everyone
had managed to save a bit of luggage
from the volcano. Even the Thea Sisters each
had a small backpack. In fact, Colette had
somehow managed to save her pink purse,
her rolling suitcase, and her
bag.
“Colette, I can’t believe it! How were you
able to take all of that stuff during the chaos
of the eruption?”
exclaimed
Nicky.
“This was the bare minimum for me!”
Colette explained, shrugging.
Renani offered to drive his new friends
to the airport. When it was time to say good-
bye, he and Nicky hugged warmly.
ALOHA OE!
remember
“Here, I got something for you,” said
Renani shyly, pulling a small package from
his pocket.
The mouselet unwrapped it eagerly. It
was a CD of Hawaiian songs! “Just a little
something to
me by,” Renani said.
Nicky smiled and blushed. “Thank you! I
plane
interrupt,
can’t wait to listen to it.”
“Nicky? I don’t want to
but our plane is taking off any minute now,”
said Pam.
So the mouselets said their good-byes. As
soon as the
took off, Nicky started
listening to the CD. It was
filled with beautiful
Hawaiian songs about
friendship. She curled up
in her chair and let herself
be swept away by the music. She sighed
happily. Soon, she’d dozed off with the
headphones still in her
ears, and the music
warmed her heart
all the way back to
Whale Island.
When the Thea Sisters got to the end of their
TALE, I was spilling over
with questions. “So, what happened to
Sammy Sharkfur, Professor Crusterson, and
their accomplices?” I asked, curious.
ANOTHER GREAT
SCOOP
“They’re in the slammer, where
