The Swamp Boggles

by Linda Chapman

  “Yes, Mrs B,” Sophie said, nodding at the bag on her shoulder. “It’s here.”

  Sophie and Anthony’s parents were often away from home working abroad for several months at a time because they were archaeologists. When they went away, Grandpa always moved in to look after Sophie and Anthony and Mrs B did all the shopping, cooking and cleaning.

  “Lunch?” Mrs B asked.

  “Here.” Sophie held up her lunch box.

  “PE kit?”

  Sophie nodded. “That too. I’d better go, Sam will be waiting.”

  “Have a lovely day,” said Mrs B, kissing her.

  “Thanks!” Sophie heard Anthony coming down the stairs and hastily left. She and Anthony never walked to school together if they could help it. Sophie always called for Sam, who lived on the same road, and Anthony usually cycled with his friends.

  Grandpa was just coming back from his morning run in his all-black tracksuit. He jogged up to her, glancing around suspiciously. “Keep your eyes open today, Sophie,” he said in a low voice. “I feel in my bones that something is going on. The woods seem quiet – too quiet. Be prepared!”

  Sophie felt a nervous tingle across her scalp. “OK.”

  “Now, have you got the green gem with you?” he hissed.

  Sophie nodded, touching the belt she was wearing under her school trousers. She could feel the green gem in there, safely hidden.

  “Good. You must look after it,” he warned. “And, Sophie, don’t talk about this on your way to school with Sam if there’s anyone around. Stop and think. Wait until the coast is absolutely clear.”

  Sophie sighed, feeling tired suddenly of the endless list of instructions. Didn’t Grandpa trust her to do anything right? “OK. Oh, and Grandpa…” She was just about to tell him about finding the clue for the yellow gem when an idea came into her head. What if she and Sam could find the gem on their own? It might prove to Grandpa that she was the right person to be the Guardian after all.

  “Yes?” he questioned.

  “Nothing,” she said quickly. “I’ll see you later!” She hurried away.

  Sam was waiting for her outside his house, his red hair sticking up in all directions. “Hi there!” They fell into step. “Have you had any more thoughts about the clue?” he whispered.

  Sophie shook her head. “I can’t figure it out at all. How about you?”

  “I looked up ‘wares’ in my dad’s dictionary at home. It means things that someone sells, so maybe the gem is hidden in a shop.”

  Sophie frowned, wondering if that meant they had to search all the shops in town. It would take ages! She opened her mouth to say this, and then she spotted a group of year fives on the pavement ahead.

  She blinked as she realised it was Tara, Ria and Daisy talking excitedly to some of the boys from their class. That was strange. Tara, Ria and Daisy were the cool girls at school, and they never talked to the boys if they could help it. But judging from the way Tara was waving her arms and talking really fast, something exciting had happened.

  Sophie and Sam hurried over.

  “It was totally weird!” Tara was saying. “It looked kind of like a person, a bit taller than me, but it had green skin and it was dripping goo everywhere.”

  One of the boys, Jamie, laughed. “Yeah, right. Oink, oink. Flap, flap. There’s a pig flying by.”

  “I’m not lying. It was real! It was like something out of Doctor Who!” Tara insisted.

  “I wonder if it was a TV thing – one of those pranks they play.” Ria smoothed her hair down. “There could be TV cameras watching us right now!”

  “Or maybe Tara’s just making it up,” snorted Alfie.

  “I’m not!” Tara pointed down the nearby cul-de-sac. “It was just down my road over there. Standing by the trees.”

  Sophie and Sam exchanged a look. As the group of year fives carried on towards school, still arguing over whether Tara had really seen something or not, the two of them slipped across the road towards the cul-de-sac.

  “It has to be a shadow creature,” whispered Sophie.

  “I know, but it doesn’t sound like an Ink Cap Goblin,” Sam whispered back. “They’re not green, and they don’t drip goo.”

  Sophie peered anxiously down the cul-de-sac. “We’d better go and check it out!”

  They walked down the pavement, looking around in all directions. Each bungalow was neat and tidy, bright flowers blooming in window boxes, bins neatly lined up. Everything seemed perfectly normal until Sophie spotted a large trail of slime on the pavement. She grabbed Sam’s arm. “Look!”

  Sam gulped. “Either a shadow creature’s been here, or there’s a supersize snail in town!”

  Sophie’s toes began to tingle. The feeling surged up through her legs, her body, her arms and into her head. She felt a crazy urge to jump and fight as her Guardian powers kicked in. There had to be a shadow creature nearby for her to feel like this!

  She set off at a super-fast run. The little cul-de-sac came to a dead end, bordering on to the woods. There was a footpath running alongside the trees, and a small white fluffy dog with a blue bow perched on its head and a sparkly collar was sniffing around the trail of slime. Sophie skidded to a halt beside it. The trail went straight into the trees. She picked up the pampered-looking little dog and moved it well away from the horrible slime. “I’m going in!” she called over her shoulder to Sam, who was still running down the cul-de-sac.

  “Wait for me!” he called, but Sophie didn’t. She raced into the trees following the trail.

  Branches grabbed at her like crooked fingers, and thorny brambles caught at her ankles, but Sophie was intent on following the slime. The trees pressed close all around her, and the shadows deepened.

  Suddenly she saw something just ahead of her, moving through the gloom. She caught her breath. It was a shadow creature! But it certainly wasn’t an Ink Cap Goblin. It had greeny-brown skin, enormous bony hands hanging by its sides, straggly wisps of hair that looked like pondweed and slime dripping from its toes.

  The Guardian powers were throbbing through her, making her feel strong and powerful. “Hey, you!” she shouted, speeding up. “Mr Bony Hands!”

  The creature swung round. It was a head taller than Sophie, and wore scraps of raggedy clothes. A swampy stench like the smell of rotten eggs billowed towards her.

  “You!” it said in a burbling, slimy voice. “The girl who’s the new Guardian of the Gateway.”

  “Yep, that’s me,” said Sophie, stopping and folding her arms.

  For a moment they both just stared at each other. Suddenly Sophie became aware of strange rustles in the trees around her, coming from the gloomy shadows. A flicker of fear rose up inside her, but she pushed it down.

  “What were you doing out on the street?” she demanded. “Someone saw you!”

  “So?” The creature gave a squelchy laugh. Its teeth were very long and sharp, Sophie noticed uneasily.

  She tried to sound braver than she felt. “So, stay away from the town and the people in it.”

  “Never! I have a job to do.” The creature opened its slimy fingers. In its palm glinted the large iron key to the gateway.

  Sam ran up behind Sophie, panting and out of breath. “It’s got the key!” he gasped, propping his hands on his knees.

  “How did you get that?” burst out Sophie. “Did you take it off the Ink Caps?”

  “Take it? No, they gave it to me!” The creature gave a low, wet-sounding chuckle that made Sophie’s skin crawl. “We’ve got a deal. I’m going to use it to find the gem, and then they’ll open the gateway.”

  Sophie stared at the key. If she could just get it back, then it wouldn’t matter where the gems were hidden – the shadow creatures wouldn’t be able to open the gateway! She lunged forward, but her opponent was fast. It jerked the key away with a snarl as it swiped at her with long, claw-like fingers.

  Sophie jumped back, surprise flashing through her. The Ink Cap Goblins had been cowardly, but this thing di
dn’t seem scared at all! She attacked again, her right foot lashing out in a high kick aimed at its chest. Ha! she thought in triumph, waiting for the crunch…

  SQUISH!

  It was as if her foot had hit a pillow filled with water. The creature’s body was so soggy that her kick didn’t seem to bother it at all.

  Sophie gasped in surprise as her opponent grabbed her foot and yanked upwards, just as Grandpa had done in the training session. “Oof!” She thumped back on to the ground. Before she could spring to her feet, it was looming over her, showing its long, spiny teeth.

  “Get off her!” Sam yelled. He threw his lunch box at it. There was a splatting sound as it hit the creature and dropped to the floor.

  Through the trees, Sophie heard a very faint cry. “Cutie-Pie! Cutie! Please come back!” But she didn’t have time to think about it. She felt the creature’s hands on her shoulders, saw its pointed teeth coming closer to her face, smelled its rotten breath. She struggled as hard as she could, but her fingers just sank into its squishy skin. Panic rushed through her. How could she fight something that she couldn’t hurt or grip or kick?

  “No!” she cried as the creature’s teeth came closer…

  Sophie yelled as the shadow creature reared over her. Suddenly it stopped. It pulled back sharply, looking all around it with wide eyes…

  Sophie seized her chance. Rolling swiftly to her right, she leapt to her feet. As she did so, she saw the little white dog she’d noticed earlier come bounding along the path following the slime trail, the top knot and ribbon bouncing on its head. It wagged its tail when it saw her, looking like a cuddly toy come to life.

  “Quick! Sam! Grab that dog!” she gasped. She had a feeling that creatures like the one in front of her would eat a ridiculously sweet, fluffy dog like that in one gulp!

  Sam swooped down and scooped up the little dog as Sophie quickly got into her tae kwon do stance, readying herself for a fight. Great – now she had to protect herself, Sam and the dog!

  The creature’s eyes bulged as it stared at Sam. Suddenly it made a weird, scared, choking cry, covered its face… and then sneezed explosively.

  “ATCHOO!”

  Sophie quickly spun round and lashed out with her foot, trying to throw it off balance while it was distracted. But before her foot could squish into the creature, it had turned and run away down the path. It disappeared into the shadows, still sneezing uncontrollably.

  “What did you do to it?” Sam exclaimed, the dog still held safely in his arms.

  “I… I don’t know!” Feeling equally astonished, Sophie lowered her arms. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “So, why did it run away like that?” Sam demanded.

  “I dunno.” She grinned. “Maybe it was scared off by the dog.”

  Sam chuckled. “Yeah, right.” The white pooch reached up and licked his chin with its pink tongue. “Did you scare off the horrible shadow creature, then, you big fierce dog?”

  “I wonder what it was that did make it go,” said Sophie, staring down the dark, tangled path where the thing had vanished. “And what kind of creature it was.”

  Sam nodded. “We’d better check The Shadow Files straight after school. We can ask your grandpa too. He might know.”

  Sophie’s heart sank. What on earth would Grandpa say when he heard that she’d had a chance to get the key back and hadn’t managed it? Or that the creature had nearly bitten her? She really didn’t want to have that conversation at all!

  Just then there was another faint cry through the trees. “Cutie-Pie! Cutie-Pie! Come back!”

  Sam rolled his eyes. “Cutie-Pie?”

  “That must be the dog’s owner,” said Sophie. “Come on, let’s take it back.” She’d be glad to get out of here, she realised, glancing around her. The woods seemed to be closing in on them somehow. It felt like dozens of eyes were watching them.

  They hurried back down the path. An old lady with grey hair was standing on the edge of the wood, looking very anxious as she called into the trees. She exclaimed in delight when she saw them. “You found my Cutie-Pie!”

  “Yes. He’s OK,” said Sam, putting the dog down. “He just followed a scent into the trees.”

  Cutie-Pie bounded up to his owner and put his paws up on her legs.

  “Thank you so much for bringing him back, dears,” said the old lady, picking the little dog up. “I had such a fright when I realised he’d gone! You naughty little Cutie,” she scolded, tapping the dog’s nose. “Come on, I’ll give you a nice bowl of chicken for breakfast.” Looking very relieved, she carried the dog away.

  Sam looked at his watch. “We should get to school.”

  Sophie took a breath. After all the excitement it was hard to imagine just going to school like normal, but they’d be late if they didn’t hurry. “Let’s just hope we don’t meet any more shadow creatures on the way!” she said.

  It was too risky to talk about what had happened while they were at school, but as soon as the day was over with, Sophie and Sam hurried back to her house to check out The Shadow Files.

  Mrs B opened the door for them. “How was school?” she asked cheerfully.

  “OK, thanks,” said Sophie as they went inside. She swallowed, glancing around her. “Is, um… Grandpa in?’”

  “No, he’s at Jack Badgett’s shop,” said Mrs B. She shut the door behind them.

  Sophie let out a relieved sigh. Jack Badgett was Grandpa’s friend, and when they got talking they chatted for hours. At least that meant that she didn’t have to tell him what had happened, just yet!

  “Come on, let’s go upstairs,” she said to Sam as they started to take their shoes off.

  Mrs B’s blue eyes were twinkling. “First, come into the kitchen. I bought you a present today!”

  “Oh.” Sophie tried to look pleased. Mrs Benton was wonderful, and she often bought Sophie presents to make up for the things Grandpa had always treated Anthony to, but the trouble was she had a strange idea of what kind of things Sophie might like. When Sophie was little, Mrs B had bought her endless princess dresses, when all Sophie had wanted was to dress up like a knight or Spider-Man. Just recently, Mrs B had started buying Sophie hair and make-up sets, but although Sophie had waist-length blonde hair, she could never be bothered with trying to put bows or slides in. Still no matter how awful Mrs B’s presents were, Sophie couldn’t bear to hurt her feelings, so she always had to pretend that she liked them.

  “It might not be that bad,” Sam whispered, reading her thoughts.

  Anthony’s voice floated out of the kitchen. “Oh, let me tell her! Let me!” he was begging Mrs B.

  “Something tells me it’s going to be bad,” Sophie muttered, her heart sinking as she heard the delight in her brother’s voice. She braced herself and went into the kitchen.

  Mrs B was holding out a plain white plastic bag. “Here it is, duckie!” she beamed. “I was in Jack’s shop this afternoon, and he’s just got a job lot of them in. He was telling me how much his granddaughter, Daisy, loves hers. All the girls at school are playing with them, apparently! You really should have said.”

  Sophie felt a flicker of horror as she thought about what all the girls in her class had been playing with for the last two weeks. No, surely Mrs B couldn’t have bought her a… a…

  “It’s a Fluffy!” Anthony crowed, unable to keep quiet a second longer.

  Sophie opened the bag and peered inside. Big blue eyes stared back at her out of a round plastic baby face. She cautiously took the creature out of the bag. It had a tiny rosebud mouth, long eyelashes and a body shaped like a fat baby, but it was covered in fluffy pale pink fur.

  “Press the button on its tummy – go on!” Mrs B urged.

  Reluctantly, Sophie did.

  “Mama!” it said in a voice like a dalek. It blinked its eyes and stared at her. “Feed me!”

  “It even comes with its own bottle,” cooed Mrs B. “Well, what do you think, Sophie?”

  Sophie thought the Fluffy was t
he grossest, yuckiest thing she had ever seen in her life, but she forced herself to smile. “Thanks, Mrs B. It’s… it’s great.”

  She saw the horror and sympathy on Sam’s face as she gingerly held the Fluffy at arm’s length. It was still staring at her with its ridiculously big eyes. “Mama! Baby hungwy! Feed me, Mama!”

  Anthony chortled. “Go on, sis! Feed it!”

  Cringing inside, Sophie took the bottle out of the bag and pressed it to the Fluffy’s lips. Immediately it began to make slurping, sucking noises. Then it blinked again. “Wanna cuddle! Wanna kiss-kiss. Wanna…” It seemed to pause and look at her. “WEE-WEE!”

  Sophie’s heart dropped like a stone as Anthony and Sam both collapsed laughing, united for once. How could Mrs B have given this to her? There was no way she could take it into school! She could just imagine how the boys who she played football with at break time would laugh at her too.

  “Honestly, you two!” huffed Mrs B at Sam and Anthony. “Don’t laugh at Sophie’s lovely present.”

  Anthony and Sam sniggered.

  Mrs B frowned. “That’s enough. Now come and help me get the ironing things out. I really must get it done before teatime. Sophie and Sam, can you fetch the laundry basket, iron and starch spray from the utility room, and Anthony, can you get the ironing board out for me, please?”

  Anthony sighed, but Sophie and Sam helped willingly as Mrs B fetched biscuits and drinks for them all.

  “What’s this spray for?” Sam asked curiously, taking the iron and starch spray to Mrs B. “My mum and dad don’t spray our clothes when they iron.”

  “Starch, duckie?” Mrs B said, plugging the iron in. “It takes out the creases and stiffens the clothes.” She chuckled. “When I was a girl I used to use so much starch on my father’s shirts they could stand up all on their own. Now, I’d better get some hangers and get started.”

  Looking interested, Sam started to read the back of the can.

  “Weirdo alert!” Anthony muttered under his breath as Mrs B bustled out of the room to fetch the hangers. “Only you could be interested in some dumb ironing spray, Sam.”