Into the Land of the Lost

by Tony Abbott

  Neal handed back the hourglass, and Julie gave the wizard his magic mirror.

  Waving one last time to Keeah and Max, the three kids raced up the rainbow-colored stairs.

  When they entered the small room at the top, they could see Keeah and Galen and Max riding off through the flowers.

  Eric flicked on the ceiling light.

  Whoosh! The stairs vanished and the floor appeared where the top step had been. The kids piled out of the room and into the basement. The clock on the wall told them it was the same time as when they had left.

  “Eric!” Mr. Hinkle yelled from the kitchen.

  “Uh-oh!” Julie gasped.

  “No problem,” said Eric. “The wrench is right here.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” Julie said.

  “What do you mean?” asked Neal.

  Julie stared at her wrist. “Remember the rule about not taking anything from Droon because then something from here will go there? And start a whole big mess of things going back and forth?”

  Eric nodded slowly. “What about it?”

  “Well, this bracelet,” Julie said, pulling it off her wrist. “It isn’t mine. I had a cute little fox charm on my bracelet. This is something else, some other kind of creature.”

  Neal breathed in sharply. He looked inside the bracelet. “Made in Droon? Uh-oh….”

  Eric swallowed his fear. “Back to Droon, right away. You know what could happen —”

  Thomp! Thomp! Footsteps tramped heavily down the stairs. Eric froze as his father strode into the basement.

  “Dad!”

  Mr. Hinkle frowned. “It took three of you to find a wrench? I need it to … to … ?”

  Eric’s father stopped and looked at his shoes. They were starting to disappear. Then his legs went invisible. Then his hands.

  “Eric? What’s … happening … to me?”

  “Dad?” Eric mumbled. “Dad!”

  A second later, his father was gone.

  Neal turned white with fear. “Now your mom’s going to be really mad!”

  Eric stared at the spot where his father had vanished. “Guys … we’d better —”

  Julie nodded. “I think so —”

  “Like right now!” said Neal.

  The three friends sprang to the room under the stairs … just as the charm on Julie’s bracelet began to growl.

  “Grrr! Ruff-ruff! Eeegg!”

  Eric Hinkle and his best friends, Julie and Neal, jumped aside as a small dog raced across Eric’s basement floor.

  Except that it wasn’t really a dog. It had four sharp ears, bright blue fur, a snubby pink nose, and long teeth. It growled and snarled.

  And it came from another world.

  A world called Droon.

  “We’ve got to catch it, guys!” Eric cried. “We have a more serious problem, remember?”

  “I’m not an it! I’m a moonfox!” the creature snapped. Then it bounced to the shelf above the dryer and began to chew it. “Grrr-ruff! Ruff!”

  Julie swatted at it with a broom. “He’s eating everything! We need to get him back to Droon!”

  “And get my dad back here!” Eric cried.

  Right. His dad. Mr. Hinkle.

  He was the more serious problem.

  Mr. Hinkle was in Droon, the strange, magical, and secret world below Eric’s basement.

  Droon was a world of wonder and adventure.

  It was a world where an old wizard named Galen and a young princess named Keeah battled a terrible sorcerer called Lord Sparr.

  It was a world that only Eric, Julie, and Neal went to. Until now.

  “I’ll never go back!” the moonfox growled, scratching the window, then nibbling the frame.

  Eric glanced around in a panic as his mind raced through the last twenty minutes.

  He and Julie and Neal had just come back up the magical staircase that connected their world — the Upper World — to Droon. Then Julie noticed that she had left her charm bracelet behind.

  And the one she wore was from Droon.

  That was bad, very bad.

  Galen had told them never to bring anything back from Droon. If they did, things would start going back and forth between the worlds.

  And something did go. Eric’s father.

  First, he was here, then —poof! — he wasn’t.

  Unless they brought him back soon, other things might come here. Evil things.

  Maybe even Lord Sparr himself!

  Meanwhile, the charm on the Droon bracelet had come alive and was wrecking the basement.

  Crunch — spah! The moonfox bit off a piece of Mr. Hinkle’s tool bench, then spat it out.

  “Oh, man!” Eric sighed. “What can we do?”

  “Food!” yelled Neal suddenly.

  “Will you forget food?” snapped Julie. “We have to trap this thing —”

  “And food will do it!” Neal said. He dug into the seat of his favorite old armchair. He pulled out a handful of pretzels. “Good thing I’m a messy eater. Hey, moonfox, are you hungry?”

  The fox screeched to a stop on a ceiling beam. “Am I hungry? Do I look hungry?”

  Neal grinned. “Pretzels, here! Free pretzels!”

  “Yes!” cried the fox. It jumped for the food.

  In a flash, Eric grabbed a laundry basket and popped it over the fox. Julie piled some heavy cartons on top.

  “I’ll chew my way out!” growled the fox.

  “Not before we get back!” Eric said, heading for the closet under the stairs. “Next stop, Droon. Time to find my father.”

  “And my bracelet,” Julie added.

  “And more food,” said Neal as the three friends tumbled into the closet under the stairs.

  Before Eric closed the door, he looked out at the basement one last time. His father’s tool bench stood peacefully against the far wall. Sunlight fell through the window, flickering through the leaves of two apple trees outside his house.

  Suddenly, Eric felt not just scared, but sad.

  His father had taught him to climb those trees.

  “He was teaching me guitar chords, too,” Eric said. “I mean, what if Sparr finds him? What if somebody puts a curse on him? What if —”

  “Come on, Eric,” Julie whispered, pulling him into the closet. “We’ll find him. We will.”

  Neal closed the door behind them. Julie switched off the light. The little room went dark.

  Then — whoosh! — the floor beneath them vanished and they were standing at the top of a long rainbow-colored staircase.

  The steps shimmered in a pale light from below. It was moonlight from the land of Droon.

  They stepped quickly down the stairs. They never knew where the staircase would take them, only that it would soon fade.

  It always reappeared somewhere else in Droon when it was time to leave.

  “I see a city,” said Julie, peering down.

  The moon had started to turn pale. Morning sun glinted off a giant stone palace.

  Eric’s heart raced when he realized where they were. “It’s Jaffa City. Keeah will be here. She’ll help us for sure!”

  Jaffa was Droon’s grand capital city. Princess Keeah lived there with her father, King Zello.

  As they descended, the kids could see the palace courtyard bustling with people. Some were rushing here and there with blazing torches. Others were busily toting chests and bundles.

  “Something’s going on,” Neal said as they left the staircase. “The whole city is out today.”

  Groups of six-legged, shaggy beasts called pilkas were stamping their feet near the city gates.

  The sound of carriages squeaking on the cobblestones mixed with dozens of strange voices.

  And one voice rang out above the others.

  “Julie! Eric! Neal!”

  “Keeah?” said Julie, scanning the courtyard.

  “Here I am!” the princess called, waving from the crowd. Keeah wore a bright blue tunic and leggings. A jeweled crown sparkled on her long
golden hair. She ran to greet the kids.

  With her was her father, King Zello, a fierce-looking man in a helmet with horns sticking out of it. But he smiled when he saw the kids.

  “It’s a wonderful day!” Keeah said. “All the kings and queens of Droon are meeting here. We are going to Zorfendorf for a celebration….”

  She stopped. “Eric, what’s wrong?”

  “It’s not a wonderful day in my world,” Eric said. “Something called a moonfox is loose in my basement. Plus my dad’s lost … in Droon.”

  The king’s smile faded. “We must tell Galen immediately. His magic tower is nearby —”

  Before they could move, a figure clad all in black jumped from the crowd. It ran so swiftly they couldn’t make out who or what it was.

  “Halt, creature!” Zello cried. “Who are you?”

  But the figure sprang quickly at the king. It showered a sizzling jet of red sparks over him.

  Then it lurched around and leaped at Keeah.

  “Get away from us!” she cried. She shot a bolt of blue light from her fingertips. The creature dodged it and bounded away across the courtyard, scattering sparks over everyone it passed.

  “What’s he doing?” Neal asked.

  “Let’s find out!” said Eric.

  Together they rushed after the dark shape. It bolted through the crowd toward the city wall.

  “We trapped him!” Eric shouted.

  The figure ran straight for the wall, then turned around to face them. Sort of.

  “Yikes!” Neal blurted out.

  Eric staggered back as the creature slid into the shadows and vanished in a puff of smoke.

  Keeah and Julie rushed over to the boys.

  “Who was it?” asked the princess.

  “I don’t know,” Neal said. “But he had no —”

  “F-f-face!” Eric stammered. “He had no face!”

  Text copyright © 2000 by Robert T. Abbott.

  Illustrations copyright © 2000 by Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

  SCHOLASTIC, APPLE PAPERBACKS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First Scholastic printing, April 2000

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-41855-3

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.