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A Mammoth Mystery (Geronimo Stilton Cavemice #15)

Page 3

by Geronimo Stilton


  Giant glaciers, two of the tigers had

  captured a . . . mammoth cub!

  The poor little — well, big! — guy! He

  must have gotten lost when the rest of the

  mammoth herd fled. The tigers had found

  him, captured him, and tied him up like

  Jurassic string cheese.

  “Squeak! I wouldn’t want to be in his

  place,” Trap whispered. “Surely those terrible

  tigers will take him to their encampment in

  the Stinky Swamp!”

  “Those nasty cats could use a good club to

  the head,” Thea said, frowning.

  “You want to FIGHT the tigers?” I

  asked, whiskers wobbling. “B-b-but what if

  they capture us?”

  Squeak!

  55

  Thea grinned. “Don’t worry — I’ve

  got a solution!”

  Hercule and I looked at her hopefully.

  “We need to find the mammoths!” Thea

  said matter-of-factly.

  “Crusty cheese chunks, thanks a lot!”

  Hercule said. “Do you think we’re a bunch

  of cheesebrains?”

  “We already tried to look for the

  mammoths, remember?” I added.

  “Listen to me,” Thea said calmly. “If the

  mammoths knew that one of their babies

  had been captured by the tigers, they would

  come back for him. I bet they’d also teach

  those nasty cats a lesson!”

  Rocky boulders, maybe my sister was

  right!

  “I agree,” said Hercule. “But there’s still

  one enormouse problem — how will

  56

  we track down the mammoths in the first

  place?”

  “Maybe we could send one of our mail-

  a-dactyls* out to deliver a message to

  the mammoths,” I suggested.

  But Hercule shook his snout. “The

  mammoths don’t know how to read! We

  can’t send them a written message.”

  Trap looked thoughtful. “What if we tried

  smoke signals?”

  “Megalithic mozzarella!” Hercule cried,

  exasperated. “Everyone knows that the

  mammoths have TERRIBLE EYESIGHT.

  Plus, do any of you know smoke signals?”

  “Um, well, no . . . ” I said with a shrug.

  “But then what can we do?”

  My question hung in the air while we all

  stared at Hercule.

  After a moment, he cleared his throat and

  * Mail-a-dactyls are flying dinosaurs that deliver

  messages etched on giant stone slabs.

  57

  a clever smile stretched across his snout.

  “You’re not going to believe your EARS,

  cavemice!”

  “Try us,” I said, eager to hear Hercule’s

  plan.

  He clapped his paws.

  “I

  have

  the

  most

  mouserific

  idea

  in

  all

  of

  prehistory!”

  “So what are you waiting for?” Thea cried.

  “ Tell us!”

  MASSIVE

  METEORITES,

  WE

  JUST

  MIGHT

  BE

  CLOSE

  TO

  FINDING

  AN

  ANSWER

  TO

  OUR

  ENORMOUSE

  PROBLEM!

  59

  AN IDEA WITH

  WINGS!

  Hercule gave another dramatic pause, then

  finally exclaimed, “The answer is simple.

  We will FLY!”

  Bones and stones — what? Trap, Thea,

  and I looked at one another in confusion.

  “But, Hercule, I think you’re forgetting

  one small detail,” Thea said slowly. “We

  don’t know how to fly!”

  “Right, we don’t have wings,” I added.

  Had Hercule lost his cheese?

  “You really are a bunch of graniteheads!”

  Hercule responded, rolling his eyes. “Did I

  say that we would fly with wings? Huh?”

  “Well, no . . .” Trap said.

  60

  “That’s right!” Hercule went on.

  “My dear friends, we will fly — on a

  balloonosaurus!”

  Thea, Trap, and I all jumped to our

  paws. Fossilized feta, that really was a

  megalithic idea!

  Balloonosauruses are flying dinosaurs

  that we cavemice use for long air trips. They

  have wings, and for gas they use a normal,

  seasoned, or spicy

  bean fuel! Their

  runway is at the

  Old Mouse City

  flightport.

  I paced on my

  paws, thinking

  hard. “But . . . to

  get to the flightport,

  we need to cross the

  Burp!

  city. How will we avoid the TIGERS

  camped out around the city wall?”

  “I have a plan!” Thea said. “Listen

  up . . .”

  1

  First, we will enter Old Mouse

  City at nighttime, sneaking through the

  secret entrance in the dark so we won’t be

  discovered.

  2

  Then, as quiet as mice, we will scurry

  to the flightport to board a balloonosaurus.

  3

  Finally, we will survey the island from

  above

  in search of the mammoths.

  It was a brilliant and dangerous plan.

  Oh, who am I kidding? It was so dangerous

  that we were risking extinction!

  “Pointy triceratops horns, those tigers

  will spot us!” I squeaked in a panic. “They’ll

  capture us! They’ll pulverize us!”

  “Do you have a better idea?” Thea asked.

  62

  “We have to do

  something, and this

  might work.”

  As much as I hated

  to admit it, Thea was

  right. The future of

  all cavemice was at

  stake!

  So, in the DeaD

  of night, we crept

  up to the city wall

  and silently crawled

  through the mud.

  We were only two

  millitails away from

  T iger Khan and

  his fanged henchmen!

  1

  2

  3

  TAKE ADVANTAGE

  OF THE DARK . . .

  FIND A

  BALLOONOSAURUS

  SURVEY THE ISLAND FROM

  ABOVE, LOOKING FOR

  MAMMOTHS!

  Zzzzz!

  Zzzzz!

  Luckily, the fearsome felines were busy

  dreaming up the different ways they could

  cook us cavemice.

  “Stewed, roasted, or baked?” one

  asked, licking his lips.

  “No, rodent kabobs!”

  “As a side, would potatoes or Paleozoic

  onions be better?”

  “Onions! And it’s even better if they’re

  MOLDY — extra flavor! Ha, ha, ha!”

  Before I could stop myself, I let out a grunt

  of disgust.

  “Ugh!”

  Tiger Khan perked up his ears and

  SCANNED the dark with his ferocious

  eyes. Squeeeeeak, what had I done?

  Luckily, He
rcule and Trap had a plan to

  save our tails. They began to make similar

  noises.

  65

  “Uggggh! Hoo-hoo-hoooo!”

  “Oh, it’s just a Jurassic owl,” Tiger Khan

  growled, disappointed. He’d fallen for our

  trick!

  Boulders of Brie, we had almost been

  goners!

  Without a second to waste, we used the

  secret entrance in the wall to Old Mouse

  ???

  City. It was made for emergencies —

  and this definitely qualified!

  When we reached the flightport, we found

  the balloonosauruses snoring happily. Holey

  boulders, they were sleeping as heavily as

  blocks of granite!

  We managed to wake one up, but he

  had two shriveled wings and a goofy

  expression on his face. We couldn’t afford

  to be picky, though — we had to get going!

  We climbed aboard the balloonosaurus

  and took off just as a lightning bolt

  lit up the sky.

  zap!

  Jurassic Jack cheese! Just what we

  needed — another storm!

  67

  Snort!

  Help!

  !!!

  c

  r

  a

  a

  a

  a

  c

  k

  !

  ZAP!

  Gulp!

  The balloonosaurus had just taken off, and I

  was already as GREEN as a Jurassic zucchini

  from fear, vertigo, and airsickness. I was a

  mousetastic mess!

  “Be brave, Geronimo!” Trap

  hollered, giving me a thump on the

  back.

  “Ouch!” I yelped. What

  Paleozoic pain!

  Suddenly, a gust of

  WIND

  made the basket

  of the balloonosaurus toss

  from one side to the other.

  I tumbled to the bottom of

  70

  the basket with my paws

  in the air.

  bonk!

  But that was just

  the beginning. The

  wind began to

  blow harder

  and harder

  Hellllllp!

  until . . .

  boom!

  Thunder

  ECHOED

  all around us. This was going to be a

  megalithic storm!

  Our goofy balloonosaurus had trouble

  keeping his balance when the sky was calm.

  In the middle of a storm, forget it!

  The poor guy wheezed and panted, flapping

  his shriveled wings and weaving every

  which way. Petrified provolone, this flight

  was making me queasy!

  Trap and Hercule tried to stuff the

  balloonosaurus with spicy bean fuel while

  Thea encouraged him. “Be brave, big

  guy! Don’t give up! Flap those

  strong wings!”

  “Um, strong wings?” Trap

  muttered under his breath. “This

  beast has the shabbiest wings

  in all of prehistory!”

  Thea jabbed him with

  her elbow. “Shhhh!

  Can’t you see that he’s doing his best?”

  zap!

  Just then a super-powerful

  lightning bolt ripped through the clouds

  and struck the balloonosaurus’s tail. The

  poor dinosaur swerved dangerously and

  began to spiral down

  out of the sky. Holey

  boulders, we were

  all doomed!

  “Nooooo!” Thea yelled. “Don’t

  give up now! You can do it! Take us higher!

  Come on, come on, come on!”

  But despite her encouragement, the

  balloonosaurus fell like a sack of

  potatoes — and WE FELL WITH HIM !

  GREAT GOUDA

  GLACIERS,

  WE

  WERE

  JUST

  A

  PAWSTEP

  AWAY

  FROM

  EXTINCTION!

  I did the only thing I could do at that

  moment: I hugged my friends and prepared

  for the worst, squeaking at the top of my

  lungs,

  “good-bye,

  cavemouse

  worrrrrld!”

  75

  SAVED BY A

  WHISKER!

  We kept falling but never hit the ground!

  Finally, I opened my eyes, and amazingly,

  I wasn’t extinct. Instead, I found myself

  sitting on something soft and comfortable. I

  looked up and found myself snout-to-trunk

  Snort!

  Um

  . . .

  with — squeak! — a mammoth!

  I had landed right on his trunk!

  The beast looked annoyed. I had landed

  right on top of him in the middle of the

  night — with no warning!

  “Um, well . . .” I said, giving him my most

  fabumouse smile. Before he could get any

  angrier, I jumped down to the muddy

  ground next to Thea, Trap, and Hercule.

  Our balloonosaurus, on the other paw,

  had landed in a small lake nearby. The

  poor guy was having a tough time getting

  out of the water!

  “Here, grab on to this!” called Thea,

  throwing him a rope.

  With the last of his strength, the

  balloonosaurus snagged the rope, dragged

  himself to shore, and collapsed on the

  ground.

  77

  He looked just about as bad as I felt!

  But I couldn’t think about that, because

  the mammoth I had landed on was stomping

  our way — and he looked mad.

  HEEELLLPPPPP!

  Thea held up a paw. “STOP! We have

  something to tell you!”

  She began to tell him everything that had

  happened, while Trap and Hercule tried to

  act out her words so the mammoth would

  understand.

  “The saber-toothed tigers have ATTACKED

  Old Mouse City!”

  Trap did a pirouette.

  “They captured a baby mammoth!”

  Hercule jumped in the air four times,

  while Trap grimaced.

  The mammoth froze in shock. Then

  78

  he raised himself onto his back legs and let

  out a loud trumpet:

  “bhruuaah!”

  The ground began to shake. Fossilized

  feta, what was happening? A moment later,

  we were surrounded by an entire herd of

  mammoths!

  “bhruuaah!

  bhruuaah!

  They sounded furious!

  Bhruuaah!”

  “They’re going to rescue the baby!”

  Hercule squeaked.

  “And I’ll bet they teach those terrible

  tigers a lesson, too!” Trap exclaimed.

  “What are we waiting for, guys?” Thea

  cried, fiercer than ever.

  79

  “Charrrrrrge!”

  The mammoths let us climb on their backs,

  and the herd raced toward Old Mouse City.

  HOORAY!

  The

  mammoths

  and

  cavemice

  were

  about

  to

  get

  our

  revenge!

  80

  Hooray!

 
Come

  on!

  Gulp!

  Whoooop!

  MAMMOTH ATTACK!

  The mammoths RAN through the night,

  despite the wind, the dark, and the deep,

  sticky mud. They were fabumouse!

  DRIP!

  Drop!

  Drip!

  The rain was coming down heavier and

  heavier now.

  What a storm!

  I held on to the back of the mammoths’

  leader for dear life. Holey boulders, I was

  getting tossed around so much that I felt

  like a mammoth milkshake myself!

  “Don’t let go, Geronimo! Hold on tight!”

  Thea called over the storm.

  At the first light of dawn, we finally arrived

  at Old Mouse City.

  The saber-toothed tigers had finished

  building their ladders. They were about to

  climb the wall and invade the city!

  “We’re going to have the purrfect

  cavemouse feast,” Tiger Khan snarled.

  “Har, har, har!” his henchcats replied.

  PETRIFIED

  PROVOLONE,

  WE

  DIDN’T

  HAVE

  A

  MINUTE

  TO

  LOSE!

  When the mammoths spotted the tigers,

  they began to trumpet at them.

  bhruuaah!

  bhruuaah!

  bhruuaah!

  What now?

  “What’s going on?” Tiger Khan

  screeched.

  The fierce felines on the wooden ladders

  stopped, confused. But the mammoths

  didn’t even give the saber-toothed tigers

  time to defend themselves.

  Huh?

  Oh no!

  Chaaaaarge!

  Help!

  Aaahhh!

  Save yourselves!

  Let’s

  get

  revenge!

  Great Gouda glaciers, it was an incredible

  sight: The mammoths completely petrified

  Tiger Khan and his henchcats. They wiped

  out those felines like prehistoric

  bowling pins!

  Many of the tigers ended up in the mud

  with their paws in the air. Others RAN

  AWAY

  like Jurassic jackrabbits. Others

  yelped like scared little kittens.

  “HELP!

 

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