“All right, you horrible lot, listen up!” Ricky said. “The very nice Mr. Shivery Tim Bear here has kindly offered to lend us a bunch of his rowboats to get across to Sugarplum Island.”
Mr. Shivery Tim Bear grunted and nodded.
“And GUESS WHAT?!” Graham added. “This is your first chance to earn a badge.” He did an awkward wobbly twirl just to emphasize exactly how impressed everyone should be about this.
Grimaldi sniggered.
Mr. Shivery Tim Bear stood next to Graham in silence. The polar bear didn’t look very impressed.
“If you cross the water without sinking, you could earn your first badge! But…” Graham paused dramatically. “You won’t just be rowing across to the island….”
“Oof!” Amelia exclaimed as Frankie pushed in front of her, eager to hear how to win the badge.
“You will be racing!” Ricky declared, taking over from Graham. “The first Rainbow Ranger to reach the coast wins an I GOT THERE FIRST badge. So, in an orderly fashion, go and pick a vessel!”
Without hesitation, the Rainbow Rangers scrambled forward, desperate to find a boat and win the race.
Florence pushed her way through the crowd and launched herself into a small polka-dotted boat. A huge wave rose in the air, soaking a shocked Ricky and Graham.
Amelia and Squashy made themselves comfortable in a black-and-white-striped boat, while Grimaldi found a swirly patterned one.
Tangine chose the most extravagantly decorated boat in the docks. It had four wrought-iron posts and lavish frilly red curtains. It resembled a floating canopy bed.
In the water next to Amelia was Frankie. Her narrow boat was covered in green spikes—it looked a bit like a floating cactus. “Don’t expect to beat me,” Frankie said with a glare, getting ready for the race.
Amelia rolled her eyes and braced her oars.
“Good luck, Amelia,” Grimaldi whispered from the boat next to her. “And make sure you don’t let Frankie win!”
“Don’t worry—I’ll try my best!” Amelia said, smiling. She looked out toward Sugarplum Island as it glimmered on the horizon.
“Okay, Rangers!” Graham shouted across the docks to the eagerly waiting racers. “Before you set off, there is one thing to be aware of—there have been rumors of shadows beneath the waves of the Sea of Sparkles…wiggles in the tides and secrets in the sea spray…”
“Graham, you’re doing your annoying explaining-things-in-weird-ways-nobody-understands thing,” Ricky said.
Graham sighed. “Fine. There’s weird stuff in the sea, but no one knows what it is. Okay?”
The Rainbow Rangers muttered nervously among themselves, and Grimaldi peeked over the side of his swirly boat. Amelia leaned across and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “Whatever it is, it can’t be as bad as what lives in the Putrid Pond or beneath the Nocturnian graveyard, right?”
Grimaldi giggled and nodded.
“You’ll be fine!” Ricky assured everyone with a big grin. “Just stay in your boat and everything will be grand.” The Rainbow Rangers were silent.
Ricky cleared his throat. “All righty then! Let’s get this show started. Ready, steady…ROW!”
Nobody moved.
Except Florence.
“OH, COME ON, WIMPITS! IT’S JUST A SILLY SEA STORY!” called a voice. It was their yeti classmate, who was already plowing through the waves using her own great paws instead of oars. “THAT BADGE IS MINE!”
At the word “badge,” Frankie suddenly started rowing. “I’m totally getting the I GOT THERE FIRST badge!”
One by one, the Rainbow Rangers began to move away from the dock, and then, when nothing odd seemed to happen in the water below, they each sped up until a full-fledged race was on. Splashes and sploshes and shrieks of delight were heard as the Rainbow Rangers pulled themselves across the water.
“Come on, Grimaldi. Let’s go!” Amelia called, setting off through the water as fast as she could row. But the little reaper was tucked away inside his boat, frozen to the spot.
“I…I’m worried about what’s under there….” He peeped over the side of his boat.
Amelia saw her fellow Rainbow Rangers rowing away across the water and felt that badge slipping away, too. “It’s fine, Grimaldi!” she insisted. “Look, nothing is happening! Row next to me the whole way.” She smiled encouragingly. “You can do it!”
Grimaldi hesitated, then pulled himself up into a seated position. He began to slowly move away from the dock.
“That’s it—you’ve got this!” said Amelia. “Now just move a little faster and we can beat Frankie!”
Grimaldi began to pick up speed, and soon the two friends were flying across the water to catch up with the rest of the Rangers.
Amelia rowed as fast as her little arms would go, with Grimaldi close behind. “I knew all those years of rowing along the river Styx with Grimpapa would pay off!” he called.
They giggled as they passed Tangine. Pumpy’s end of the bed-boat was sinking in the water. They gradually overtook Rainbow Ranger after Rainbow Ranger. As Florence was whizzing through the water just ahead, Amelia had a brilliant idea.
“Hey, Florence!” she yelled, slowing down a little, with Grimaldi following suit. “If me, you and Grimaldi tie, then maybe we’ll all get the badge!”
“OOOH, GOOD THINKING, AMELIA!” said Florence. The three friends rowed side by side and made for Sugarplum Island. They were SO close now! Then…BOMP!
Something knocked the side of Amelia’s boat, sending her wobbling off course. She shrieked as the little striped boat spun out of control.
“Oops! Sorry! Didn’t see you there,” Frankie said, smirking, and raced off in her spiky boat, passing Grimaldi and Florence, who had slowed down to make sure their friend was okay.
“WANT ME TO GO SIT ON FRANKIE?” Florence shouted.
“You guys just keep going, and I’ll meet you at the island!” Amelia replied, waving them forward. “You still have a chance to beat Frankie! Go, go, go!”
She didn’t mind being left behind just as long as Frankie didn’t win.
Florence saluted; then she and Grimaldi raced ahead to try to catch Frankie as more and more Rainbow Rangers began to pass Amelia’s boat.
Suddenly, Amelia felt something damp on her behind. When she looked down, she saw water oozing into her boat.
“Oh, no!” Amelia gasped. One of the spikes on Frankie’s boat had made a big hole in the side of Amelia’s little striped one. Squashy bounced into the growing puddle of water and tried to lick it up.
“It’s okay, Squashy,” Amelia said, picking the pumpkin up and hugging him to her chest. “I’m going to shout for help. Ricky and Graham will come and rescue us.”
But just as Amelia was about to flag down the two unicorns, she felt a strong wind blowing the hair back from her face.
Her boat was moving.
“How is this happening?” Amelia said, hugging Squashy tighter.
The little boat was heading straight for the shore of Sugarplum Island, overtaking all her fellow Rainbow Rangers, and Amelia wasn’t doing a thing!
Amelia peered warily over the side of the boat, feeling slightly nervous about what she might see. Ricky and Graham had warned them about odd things lurking beneath the water—maybe they were right!
To Amelia’s surprise, she couldn’t see anything but her reflection and the bubbles from the waves the boat was making. Then Amelia thought she could hear something, a faint humming sound. She looked around, but everyone was too far behind her now for it to be any of her fellow Rainbow Rangers.
“Do you hear that, Squashy?” Amelia asked. She thought she was even beginning to make out a tune. Squashy certainly seemed to be waggling his stem from side to side in time with something….
But before she knew what was happening, the boat somehow steered itse
lf onto the sandy shore, and Amelia couldn’t hear the humming anymore. She looked back at the water breathlessly, feeling utterly confused about what had just happened.
One by one, the other Rainbow Rangers began to pull up onto the shore next to her—including a red-faced Frankie Steinburg.
“You CHEATED!” Frankie snapped, storming up to Amelia’s boat.
“Trust me, I really, really didn’t,” said Amelia, still feeling confused. “I didn’t do anything!”
“You’re LYING!” said Frankie, whose neck-bolt was spinning in anger.
“OH, BUZZ OFF,” said Florence, stomping over and pushing Frankie out of the way. “WELL DONE, AMELIA! YOU’RE A ROWING CHAMPION!”
“You won the I GOT THERE FIRST badge!” Grimaldi cheered as he arrived in his little boat.
Amelia shook her head. “I…I…I didn’t do anything!”
“DON’T BE SO MODEST!” Florence scooped Amelia up into a big hug. “YOU WON FAIR AND SQUARE.”
* * *
The Rainbow Rangers gathered around Ricky and Graham as the two unicorns presented Amelia with her I GOT THERE FIRST badge.
Frankie stood glaring at her, arms folded across her chest.
“Welcome to Sugarplum Island!” exclaimed Ricky. “We’ve got LOTS of exciting activities ahead of us this week. Graham has given each of you a special Rainbow Ranger guidebook, which has a map of the island and tells you exactly what you need to do to earn each badge. You have the whole half-moon break to complete as many as you can.”
Tangine was flicking through his guidebook, when he suddenly stopped and put his hand up shakily. “Um, excuse me, but this badge here says FOOD FORAGING badge?” He gulped. “As in searching for your food? As in…you won’t be serving us a three-course meal every night?”
“EXACTLY!” Ricky and Graham said together, both looking very enthusiastic.
FOOD FORAGING
*BADGE*
HOW TO EARN YOUR BADGE:
FIND ENOUGH EDIBLE SOURCES OF FOOD FROM YOUR NATURAL SURROUNDINGS TO SUSTAIN YOURSELF FOR ONE WEEK.
“You’ll be learning to find your own food and prepare your own meals!” Ricky added. “That’s how you’ll earn your FOOD FORAGING badge. Sugarplum Island is filled with thousands of Bobbin-Berries, Frilly-Flowers and Dung-Pods of all shapes and sizes!”
“OOO, DUNG-PODS!” Florence said, licking her lips. “GONNA FIND ME A WHOLE BATCH OF THOSE!”
“We’ll be eating off plates, though, right?” Tangine asked, looking a little wobbly. “China plates? With swirly patterns?”
Graham looked down at Tangine and lowered his glasses. “Oh, no, Tangine…The island is your plate.”
Tangine held Amelia’s shoulder for support. He took a deep breath. “Everything will be fine. At least I have my eyelid cream with me.”
* * *
The Rainbow Rangers spent most of the afternoon setting up their tents and gathering kindling for a campfire.
As the sun began to set, everyone gathered around the fire to sing songs and toast Midnight Marshmallows.
Amelia kept admiring her I GOT THERE FIRST badge on her sash, but she couldn’t help thinking she hadn’t really earned it. Something else had helped her win the boat race, but she had no idea what it was.
Tangine sat on a log, studying the Sugarplum Island map. “So, do any creatures live on this island?” he asked. “And do any of them own a restaurant where I can get a nice cooked meal?”
“Ah…nobody has lived on this island for years,” Graham said. “Only bizarre bugs and teeny-weeny creatures.” He shuffled his log closer to the fire. “Years ago, many Creatures of the Light lived on the island. But gradually everyone left, and no one really knows why….”
“They probably moved on before they got BORED to death…,” Tangine said, yawning. “Or starved from lack of quality waiter service.”
“I like the idea of hunting for food that’s REALLY nearby,” a werewolf named Stink said, glaring at Tangine pointedly and licking his lips. “But for now, why don’t we tell scary stories around the campfire?”
“Oooh, I have a story!” Graham said excitedly. “Who wants to hear my story?”
The young Rainbow Rangers nodded and the group got quiet.
Graham cleared his throat and began. “Once upon a time—”
“That’s not how you should start a campfire story,” Ricky interrupted.
“Oi! You just RUINED my moment,” Graham huffed.
“Don’t you know how a good campfire story works? You need to make it extra mysterious! Get the listener’s attention right away,” Ricky said, waving his hooves around dramatically. “It sounds like you’re about to tell us a love story or something.”
“No, it does not!” Graham said defensively. “I’ll have you know it’s a TRAGIC story….”
“Bu—”
“ONCE upon a tiiiiime!” Graham sang so loudly that Ricky’s protests were completely drowned out. “There was a unicorn named Graham who realized he’d run out of TEA BAGS.”
The Rainbow Rangers looked confused.
“Wait. This is your scary story?” Stink asked, scratching his hairy ears with a hind leg in disappointment.
“How else would you describe running out of tea bags?!” Graham said. “Imagine setting yourself up with your favorite mug and a plate of cookies, and then finding you can’t make a cup of TEA!”
There was a long silence. One Rainbow Ranger had fallen asleep sitting up.
“I want to know what happens next!” said Amelia supportively. She felt bad for poor Graham.
Florence shot her a doubtful look.
Graham’s eyes lit up. He sat up proudly and got ready to tell the rest of his story. But the Rainbow Rangers never got to find out what happened next, because at that moment, Gregory the goblin, who was sitting next to Frankie, sneezed loudly—and messily.
A HUGE globule of goblin snot flew into Frankie’s face.
Frankie screamed, and Amelia and the other Rainbow Rangers looked on in horror as Bobbin the bat flew RIGHT through Sylvia the ghost’s tummy in fright.
Sylvia was outraged. (You should NEVER pass through a ghost!)
And somehow, amid the chaos, Kevin the cyclops set fire to his behind.
“Well, I guess that’s story time over,” Grimaldi said. Amelia picked up a bewildered Squashy, to keep him safe from the stampeding Rainbow Rangers.
Graham galloped past them, taking Kevin and his burnt bottom to the moonlit water.
“Well, I can’t say I’m all that bothered about tea bags or boring Sugarplum Island,” Tangine moaned. “I’m HUNGRY. I can’t possibly wait for Kevin’s rear end to be extinguished before eating. I’m going to go get some of the Royal Snacks that Mom packed for me.”
Tangine opened his tent to reveal a very happy Pumpy munching through a jar of Revolting Brownie Bites. Every other jar that once contained a Royal Snack was now empty.
“HEY! Bad pumpkin! You’ve eaten ALL my snacks!” Tangine snatched the tub away. He looked as if he might explode with anger. “You’re out of control, Pumpy!”
From his safe spot in Amelia’s arms, Squashy waggled his stem in amusement.
“WE COULD GO FORAGE FOR FOOD,” said Florence, picking up a leaf and crunching it between her spiky teeth. “IT’S YUMMY! TASTES A LITTLE LIKE MOLDY SPLEEN,” she added, wiping bits of leaf from the fur around her mouth.
Tangine huffed and walked farther into the trees. “Come on, Pumpy,” he said, sticking his nose in the air. “Let’s find a nice cheese and nostril baguette with extra toenail shavings.”
“Tangine, I don’t think we’re allowed to wander off,” Grimaldi said anxiously. “Plus, Ricky and Graham said that nobody lives here anymore, so there won’t be anywhere to buy food.”
“I don’t believe that. Ricky and Graham are
just saying there’s no one around so that we hunt for food on the GROUND. Well, I’m not doing that,” declared Tangine. “There has to be a shop or a restaurant around here SOMEWHERE.”
Amelia sighed and looked over toward the campfire. Stink the werewolf was howling at the half-moon, and Sylvia the ghost was flying in circles, wailing. Amelia’s tummy rumbled, and she had to admit that Tangine had a point. Now that it was nighttime, she would usually be having her breakfast. “Let’s at least tell Ricky and Graham that we’re going for a walk,” she said.
“Um, Ricky!” Amelia called over the chaos. But the two Rainbow Ranger leaders were busy trying to calm everyone down.
“Come on. Nobody is going to notice if we’re gone for a bit,” said Tangine. “My hunger is far more important than anything else. When I get too hungry, I shed unnatural amounts of glitter!”
“EWW!” said Florence as Tangine marched out of sight.
“We can’t let him wander off alone,” sighed Amelia. “Remember, ‘Never leave a fellow Ranger behind.’ We’ll just have to make sure we return before Ricky and Graham notice we’re gone.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to get into trouble before the half-moon break has even started!” Grimaldi said, pulling at his hood nervously.
* * *
Amelia breathed in the warm night air as the friends trucked through a woodland made up of tall narrow trunks and an abundance of giant and exotic flowering plant life that they’d never seen in the Kingdom of the Dark. Everything was so pleasingly dead and rotten back home.
Amelia Fang and the Rainbow Rangers Page 2