by Royston Wood
Chapter Nine
Buried Treasure
All the shouting woke Ruff from his deep sleep. But he was too excited to be fed up with the Pack Leader for waking him up so rudely. He’d disappeared back into the bathroom anyway.
Skipping and jiggling Ruff tried to nudge Tumble, who was lying as flat as possible in her bed, but in his excitement managed to jump on her head instead.
“Mmmurrff,” snarled Tumble.
Ruff leapt back into his own bed and burrowed frantically at his fleecy mattress until he had completely scuffed it up and kicked it onto the floor. There, lying in the bottom of his bed, were his old rubber ball, bone and ring.
“It’s the Crown Jewels, it’s the Crown Jewels,” he yipped excitedly. “I defeated Black Graksox and saved the Fantasy Realm!!”
“It’s not the Crown Jewels! It is your old and naff rubber toys.”
“Well, yes. But in my dream I got back the Crown Jewels! And now Black Graksox and the Goblin Horde are defeated and the Pack Lands are safe. I, Ruff, have saved the day.”
“Actually, you only got the ring back. I found the ball and the Lead Female found the bone. And all of the Pack Leader’s black socks have been sacrificed to complete your Quest. So, we have all saved the Pack Lands.
“OK, OK. We all saved the Pack Lands!” grumbled Ruff. “Even if some of us never believed in the first place,” he added in a mumble.
“What was that?”
“Er…I was just saying that we must make sure that these Crown Jewels never fall into the wrong paws again,” he said pointing at the rather sad looking rubber ball, bone and ring.
Tumble sighed and raised both eyebrows, her eyes rolling. She could have argued that Ruff’s manky old toys weren’t really Crown Jewels. Or that Ruff is total mental. But it was easier to just play along.
“So, what are we going to do, throw them into the fire in which they were made?”
“Don’t be daft! That sound’s far too complicated. We don’t even know where they were made.”
“I was only joking!” said Tumble.
“Well it’s no joking matter!” snapped Ruff. “Anyway, we can’t throw them into the fire in which they were made, unless it happens to be in the garden, because we can’t get out of the gate,” said Ruff.
“Good point,” said Tumble. Even though they had tried many times they still hadn’t worked out how to open the garden gate. “So what are we going to do with them?” asked Tumble.
“We will hide them in a place so sneaky that nobody will ever find them again!”
*
An hour later they both sat in the corner of the garden looking at a small mound in the flower bed. There was half a rubber bone and the arc of a rubber ring sticking out of it.
“And so the Quest is completed,” said Ruff in a serious voice. “Hooray!!!”
He got up and trotted off to the Doggy Doorway whistling a merry tune. Dogs can’t whistle, they haven’t really got the lips for it, but Ruff didn’t know this and was really quite good at it.
Tumble turned her head and watched Ruff until his butt disappeared through the Doggy Doorway. The Quest was over. Thank goodness for that. No more having to listen to Ruff banging on about goblins!
Staring at Ruff’s badly buried old toys she couldn’t help grinning.
I wonder what adventures Ruff’s wild imagination will get us into next?
OTHER BOOKS
Ruff and Tumble and the Invasion of the Dog Eating Yetis is due for release in November 2013. To find out more join Ruff and Tumble on facebook: www.facebook.com/ruffand tumble1.
To find out more about other books written by Royston Wood visit:
www.books-4-children.com
Or for the latest news see his latest blog here - https://roystonwood.blogspot.co.uk/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As a child I was not a keen reader. I didn't see the point: there were comics and a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
Now I am an avid reader and regret missing out on so many good stories as a kid. Fortunately, with children of my own, I'm now managing to catch up, reading stories to them every night before bed.
There isn't anything quite like a book to let you escape from real life for a while. True, films are great, but they don't involve you as much as a book. A well written book will get your imagination working, filling the story with colour and energy, making the story yours. A film is just a depiction of somebody else's imagination.
In fact, I enjoy reading stories to my children so much, I started to write my own. And bearing in mind my own reluctance to read as a child I have written them to be as engaging as possible, to draw the reader into a land of imagination and discovery.
