Kendra Kandlestar and the Door to Unger

by Lee Edward Födi

  “It’s a grave problem,” Uncle Griffinskitch admitted, leaning back in his chair and stroking his long whiskers. “But I am hoping that I can rupture the enchanted seal with my own magic.”

  “But if you’re caught, Burdock will imprison you,” Kendra warned.

  “It’s a chance I’ll have to take,” the old wizard said.

  “You know, there just might be another possibility,” Professor Bumblebean declared. “You all know, of course, of the statue called the Fallen Faun, which stands near the Een Library? Well, beneath the statue is an ancient crypt.”

  “What’s a crypt?” Ratchet asked.

  “An underground burial chamber,” Professor Bumblebean explained. “It’s here where Flavius Faun was laid to rest. Flavius, as you know, was the creature that Faun’s End was named for. I have given tours of this crypt. It’s very grand, and has many statues and artifacts—,”

  “To the point, professor,” Uncle Griffinskitch said.

  “Well,” the professor continued, as if he hadn’t even noticed the interruption, “legend has it that somewhere within the crypt is a secret tunnel that leads to the outside world.”

  “I’ve never heard of this legend,” Jinx said.

  “Humph . . . neither have I,” Uncle Griffinskitch said. “But, as a friend recently pointed out to me, I don’t know everything. How do you know of this legend, professor?”

  “Why, I read about it of course,” Professor Bumblebean replied happily.

  “Do you think this tunnel really exists, professor?” Kendra asked eagerly.

  “Certainly,” Professor Bumblebean said. “We’ll have to make a thorough search of the crypt, of course. The story says that the door to this tunnel is well concealed.”

  “What does that mean?” Ratchet asked.

  “It means, dear friends,” said the professor, “that you just won’t find it sitting beneath your nose.”

  THROUGHOUT HISTORY, there have been many explorers and famous adventurers who have searched for fabled treasures and secret vaults. Many of them have spent entire lifetimes in pursuit of such hidden mysteries. The problem for Kendra and her friends was that they didn’t have an entire lifetime to spend searching. Somehow they had to find the secret tunnel out of Een—and they had to do it quickly. Kendra knew that if they couldn’t discover a way to the outside world soon, they would never find the Door to Unger before the first summer’s moon. And that meant they might never find her family.

  So, while Uncle Griffinskitch attempted to crack through the curtain with his magic, Kendra and her friends spent each day searching the crypt that lay beneath the large stone statue, the Fallen Faun. The crypt was normally not open to the public without permission, but in this matter they were lucky, for Professor Bumblebean had his own key. He was, after all, the local expert on the history of Faun’s End, and he often led visitors on tours of the mysterious underground chamber.

  Kendra found the crypt itself to be a rather exciting place. There was a small door at the base of the statue, which, when opened, revealed a long staircase that was so dark and dank that it was impossible to descend without the aid of a torch. The chamber at the end of the stairs was even blacker. The floor was paved with square stones that were marked with strange symbols, and the walls were comprised of mostly rock and dirt, giving the whole place the same eerie feeling that a cave might have. As Professor Bumblebean had first described, it was cluttered with many statues and strange objects from days long ago. Of course, the centerpiece of the crypt was the long casket that held the bones of Flavius Faun. The casket was quite ornate, and it was carved with a very life-like relief of the legendary creature.

  Day after day, Kendra and her friends searched for the secret tunnel that might allow them escape into the outside world. A week passed, and they had still found no trace of the tunnel.

  “I wonder if this secret passageway even exists,” Kendra said as she, Oki, and Ratchet walked home one evening after a particularly long day of searching.

  “Well, you can’t expect to find it under your nose, as Bumblebean would say,” Ratchet declared.

  Kendra managed a laugh, for the professor had indeed become very fond of saying that very thing at the start of each day.

  “Well, I loathe that crypt,” Oki declared. “It’s so dark and gloomy. Plus, I don’t like the idea of thinking that Flavius Faun is buried down there.”

  “He won’t hurt you,” Ratchet said. “He’s just a pile of bones now.”

  “The point is, I’m already terrified, and the adventure hasn’t even begun yet,” Oki said.

  “Just use your onion trick,” Ratchet told him. “Remember, you used to always try to not think of onions, and then you’d be so distracted that you’d forget you were scared.”

  “Not anymore,” Oki informed the raccoon. “I used to think of onions (or try not to think of them), but then I met that plant on our last adventure that turned me into an onion because it could read my mind. So now I try to not think of turnips.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense, Oki,” Kendra told her whiskery little friend. “If you were to meet that same plant, he would just turn you into a turnip instead of an onion.”

  “True,” Oki said. “But one of Professor Bumblebean’s books said that onions are the favorite food of Izzards. So I’d much rather be turned into a turnip. I don’t think anyone would want to eat a turnip. Not even an Izzard.”

  “The mouse has a point,” Ratchet said. “You know, you will make a good slave, Oki.”

  “No, not a slave, Ratchet!” Kendra scolded. “An apprentice.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I meant,” Ratchet said. “Sorry, we inventors aren’t so great with words.”

  “Well, maybe you can invent our way out of the land of Een,” Kendra suggested. “Finding Professor Bumblebean’s secret tunnel just isn’t working.”

  A smile suddenly appeared across the raccoon’s masked face. “You know what, Kendra? That’s a great suggestion!”

  “Oh, no,” Oki groaned. “What are you cooking up now, Ratchet?”

  “You’ll find out, my young sla—I mean, apprentice,” Ratchet said, patting the tiny mouse on the head. “We’ll be up late tonight—I’ve just had the most brilliant idea!”

  Oki groaned again.

  Kendra herself had to wait until the next morning to learn about Ratchet’s idea. On her way to the crypt, she stopped by the raccoon’s laboratory to see what her two friends had invented. Now the thing about Ratchet’s inventions, as Kendra knew, was that they were rarely practical. There was his weather clock, for example, which released a sample of the weather outside so that you knew how to dress in the morning. But the problem was that it worked almost too well, and soon, Eens all over Faun’s End were being awoken by gusts of gale-force winds, or tidal waves of rain, or—in one unfortunate case—an avalanche of snow.

  “I just need to work out the kinks,” Ratchet had said at the time, which was pretty much what he said whenever one of his inventions experienced a hiccup.

  Of course, nothing could have prepared Kendra for Ratchet’s latest harebrained plan. As she came into the raccoon’s yard, what should she see but a giant firecracker pointing up towards the clouds! A long fuse trailed out behind the firecracker, but the most frightening part of the device was the fact that Oki was strapped to a tiny seat at the top. The little mouse was dressed in a small cap and goggles, and he was wearing a long yellow scarf. Ratchet was about to light the fuse with a long match.

  “RATCHET!” Kendra exclaimed. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Oh, hi,” the raccoon greeted her with a wave of his black paw. “You’re just in time to witness our great experiment.”

  “Experiment?” Kendra gasped. “Is that what you call this?”

  “No,” Ratchet said proudly. “I call it a cracker seat.”

  “Oh, dear,” Oki squeaked from his place on the rocket, high above the ground.

  “Oki!” Kendra called. “Are you a
ll right?”

  “Well, I’m rather afraid of heights, and I’m not quite sure I want to fly into outer space,” the mouse answered timidly.

  “I told you already; you’re not going into outer space,” Ratchet hollered. “Just to the other side of the magic curtain. Now be a good slave and don’t complain!”

  “He’s not your slave!” Kendra cried with exasperation. “He’s your apprentice.”

  “Oh, yeah, right,” Ratchet said apologetically. “I’ll get that right one of these days.”

  “Oki, get down from there right now!” Kendra ordered.

  “But we haven’t launched yet,” Ratchet said.

  “And you’re not going to!” Kendra said, ripping the matches out of Ratchet’s paws. “Really, this is the most ridiculous invention you’ve come up with yet! You’re going to fry poor Oki with this thing.”

  “No, I won’t,” the raccoon said defensively. “You want to get out of Een, don’t you?”

  “But this won’t do it,” Kendra told him. “You can’t fly over the curtain. It’s like a great dome that covers us. Poor Oki will just go smashing into it. That’s if he survives the . . . the . . .”

  “Blast off?” Ratchet offered.

  “Oh, dear,” Oki squeaked again.

  “What possessed you to put a rocket under Oki’s tail?” Kendra demanded as the tiny mouse clambered down from the cracker seat.

  “Well, think about it,” Ratchet said.

  “I’m trying not to,” Kendra said.

  “Well, your uncle did say I was full of magic perspiration,” Ratchet declared in his defense.

  “No, not perspiration,” Kendra corrected with a sigh. “He said inspiration.”

  “Oh,” Ratchet said, scratching his whiskery chin. “What’s the difference?”

  “One means you sweat a lot—the other means you have . . . er, ideas,” Oki explained as he eagerly climbed down from the firecracker.

  “Come on you two,” Kendra said, still shaking her head. “That’s enough inventing for the time being. I think we’ll stick with trying to find the secret tunnel.”

  “Thanks, Kendra,” Oki said, squeezing the girl’s hand as they set off toward Faun’s End and the mysterious crypt. “You saved my whiskers that time.”

  “I think I saved more than that,” Kendra told him.

  “Well,” Oki said, “it’s certainly not dull being Ratchet’s slave—er, I mean apprentice!”

  WHEN KENDRA AND HER FRIENDS arrived at the statue of the Fallen Faun, they found that the doorway leading to the crypt was open and waiting for them.

  “Professor Bumblebean must be here already,” Kendra remarked as they entered the dark and gloomy chamber. “Maybe he decided to get an early start on the day’s search.”

  Ratchet had lit a torch, but the chamber was still very dark. They cast their eyes around the crypt to see if anything was out of order, but the peculiar artifacts—goblets and chests and small tokens—were where they had left them the day before. Along the far wall of the crypt, life-size Een statues stood in a row, staring blankly ahead, just as they had done for hundreds of years. There was no sign of Professor Bumblebean.

  “Hello?” Kendra called out, giving her braids an anxious tug. “Professor Bumblebean? Are you here?”

  “That’s strange,” Ratchet said, scratching his whiskery chin. “If he’s not here, why was the door open?”

  “Oh, I don’t like this at all,” Oki declared. “I think we should just go back outside.”

  “Now, now, don’t fret,” Ratchet said. “Just think of onions—or turnips, or whatever vegetable it is that you like so much these days.”

  “Wait a minute,” Kendra said, putting her hand to her ear. “Do you hear something?”

  They all listened. Sure enough, after a moment, they heard a strange sound: “Mumph! Umph mumph!”

  “What the heck is that?” Ratchet asked, swinging his torch around in the darkness.

  Then Kendra’s eyes caught a shape in the corner of the room. “Ratchet,” she said, “shine your torch back that way!”

  The large raccoon obeyed and there, in the corner of the room, they saw a hapless-looking Een all curled up on the floor with his arms and legs tied. Quickly, they all rushed over to the poor fellow.

  “Why, it’s Professor Bumblebean!” Oki squeaked.

  “What happened to you?” Ratchet asked.

  But Professor Bumblebean’s only reply was, “Mumph! Umph mumph!”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” the raccoon declared.

  “That’s because he has a gag in his mouth,” Kendra said. “He can’t speak properly.” She quickly leaned down and began to work the gag free.

  “Mumph! Umph mumph!” the professor groaned, and his eyes were wide with fright.

  “Something’s wrong,” Oki whispered, looking frantically about the pitch-black crypt. “He’s trying to warn us of something! There’s someone else here.”

  Kendra couldn’t help thinking that Oki was right. It was as if someone was watching them. She turned away from Professor Bumblebean (who was still not yet free of his gag) and stared at the row of statues that lined one wall of the crypt. But nothing seemed amiss.

  “C’mon, hurry up,” Ratchet urged. “We’re never going to find the secret tunnel out of Een at this rate!”

  Then, suddenly, Kendra saw a shadow move from behind one of the statues.

  “Days of Een!” Kendra screamed with a jump. “It’s Burdock Brown!”

  “Aha!” the sinister Een screeched, and now he pounced out of his hiding place and stood before them. He had a triumphant gleam in his eyes and he was wielding his wizard’s staff.

  “What are you doing here?” Kendra demanded.

  “I knew you were up to something,” Burdock sneered. “So I came down here to find out what you were up to. Unfortunately, old Bumblebean wouldn’t say a word . . . but thanks to the big mouth of the bungling raccoon, I now know!”

  “You don’t know anything!” Ratchet declared.

  “Oh, but I do,” Burdock gloated. “Trying to find a way out of Een, are we? Well, that’s illegal! I’ll soon have you all cast in the dungeon!”

  “EEK!” Oki cried, and in the next minute, several things all happened at once.

  The tiny mouse turned tail and ran into the dark shadows of the crypt. Burdock tried to stop him with zaps of lightning from his staff, but was only able to singe the frightened mouse’s tail. Ratchet tried to avoid the zaps too, but he ended up falling backwards, on top of Professor Bumblebean, who mumbled “Mumph! Umph mumph!” As for Kendra, the only thing she could think to do was to wind up and kick Burdock as hard as she could in the shin.

  “OUCH!” the vile Een screeched, dropping his staff to the floor with a clatter.

  “Serves you right!” Kendra told him.

  “Well, you’ll pay for it,” Burdock sneered, reaching out to grab hold of Kendra with a bony hand. “You’re a pesky little girl,” he hissed. “I knew you were trouble from the very beginning! Now, everyone will see it too!”

  “I don’t think so!” cackled a voice from the darkness.

  It was Jinx! Before Kendra had time to think, the speedy grasshopper shot out of the shadows like an arrow, feet first, and kicked Burdock right in the back. The dreadful Een released Kendra and fell to the ground in a heap.

  “Arg!” Burdock scowled and reached out for his staff, which was still lying on the ground. Quickly Jinx kicked it across the floor, out of his reach. “You know what your problem is?” Jinx retorted. “You don’t have a captain to do your fighting for you! Oh yes, that’s right. I was your captain—until you fired me!”

  “I’ll get a new one,” Burdock scowled. “One that isn’t a critter! And as soon as I call him, he’ll lock you all in chains and cart you to the dungeon. It’s against the law to leave Een! You’re all criminals!”

  “Not if I have anything to do with it,” Ratchet declared, once he had finally untangled himself from Professor Bu
mblebean. He quickly produced a small pouch from inside his vest.

  “What’s that?” Burdock demanded.

  “I call it Snore Galore,” Ratchet replied. He thrust his paw inside and quickly cast a handful of the glittery dust upon Burdock. In an instant, their nemesis was asleep.

  “What in the world is Snore Galore?” Kendra asked.

  “It’s a sleeping powder, of course,” the raccoon replied. “I’ve been developing a whole line of new magical powders. You should see some of them!”

  “Never mind that right now,” Jinx said. “How long will this Snore Galore last?”

  “Oh, he’ll sleep until next week,” Ratchet said confidently.

  “Well, then, we better find the tunnel before he wakes up,” Jinx said.

  “First things first,” Kendra declared. “Let’s untie the poor professor.”

  “Mumph! Umph mumph!” Professor Bumblebean mumbled in agreement.

  Jinx bent down over the professor and tugged the gag out of his mouth. Then, with a flick of her claws, she cut the ropes that bound his hands and legs.

  “I do say!” the professor remarked. “That feels much better. Thank you, Jinx.”

  “No problem,” the grasshopper returned. “Though I think I like you a lot better when you can’t speak!”

  “My word, what do you mean by that?” Professor Bumblebean asked, but Jinx just smiled.

  “Come on,” Kendra told her friends. “We have to find Oki. He disappeared when Burdock showed up.”

  Jinx lit more torches and soon they were all peering into the dim corners of the crypt in search of the timid little mouse.

  It was Kendra who at last found her friend. He was lying flat on the stone floor, for in his haste, he had fallen and knocked himself out. As Kendra came upon him, he was just waking up.

  “Oh, my head,” Oki groaned.

  “What happened?” Kendra asked, kneeling down beside her friend.

  “I tripped on some sort of iron rod that was sticking out of the floor,” the mouse replied.