‘Yeah, thanks for the warning!’ Sean called back.
Nicola’s ShobGobble glided to the ground on the other side of the wall. The other ShobGobbles did the same.
‘These animals must be untrained!’ exclaimed Greta, who was trembling. ‘Why did they go so fast? I’d rather walk!’
‘I think maybe we were too hard with our feathers,’ said Tyler.
Everyone protested with comments like, ‘But I barely touched it!’
‘I was last to leave,’ explained Tyler. ‘I heard Joy calling out, “Gentler with your feathers!” Then I heard her say to Silent Fred, “Oh, well, they’ll learn soon enough.”’
‘We should just fly them all the way to the Cloud-Capped Mountain,’ said Sean.
‘They can only fly for short distances,’ said Shimlara. ‘If they fly for too long, they get exhausted and fall asleep in midair. A girl in my class did a project on the ShobGobble. I remember imagining how scary it would be if you suddenly heard your ShobGobble start snoring.’
‘Let’s all spend a few minutes practising our riding,’ said Nicola.
‘But I know I can’t do it, Nicola,’ said Greta. ‘My ShobGobble doesn’t like me. I’m not – I’m not very good with animals.’
‘You’ll be fine,’ said Nicola. ‘It’s like learning anything new. You always think you can’t do it in the beginning. Just give it a go.’
Greta grimaced and didn’t say anything.
Actually, Nicola didn’t know if she would be able to work this out herself. She thought about what Katie would do if she were here. Katie loved animals. She was very calm and respectful with them, as if they were people.
Nicola leaned forward and put her mouth close to her ShobGobble’s ear.
‘Hi there,’ she whispered. ‘My name is Nicola.’
The ShobGobble was quiet. Nicola saw him looking at her shrewdly with his three beautiful eyes. She lifted her feather-whip. Rather than tapping it, she stroked it against his right side as delicately as if she were tickling a baby’s cheek.
Nothing happened. Too soft?
She was about to try again when her ShobGobble moved, trotting obediently off to the right. YES!
Tyler was right. The trick was to use the feather very, very gently.
Nicola decided to risk going faster and tapped her feather a tiny bit harder. Her ShobGobble responded with a brisk trot and Nicola panicked. Calm down, she told herself. After a few seconds, she was bouncing up and down in a slightly unsteady rhythm. As they thudded through the snow, moving in and out of the colourful beams of light created by the rainbows, Nicola suddenly felt exhilarated. It was like the first time she’d ridden her bike without training wheels.
With a deft twitch of her feather and a pull on the reins, she turned her ShobGobble back around to see how the others were doing. Sean, Tyler and Shimlara were all getting the hang of it, their foreheads furrowed with concentration.
Greta, however, was sitting astride her ShobGobble, staring straight ahead and not moving. Nicola rode over to her.
‘It’s easier than you think,’ she told Greta. ‘You just use your feather so lightly it’s like you’re hardly touching it.’
Greta didn’t answer. She seemed frozen with fear.
‘I’ll show you,’ said Nicola, and before Greta had a chance to protest, Nicola used her own feather-whip to caress Greta’s ShobGobble.
‘NICO –’ began Greta as her ShobGobble trotted off.
‘That’s it, Greta!’ Shimlara called encouragingly.
‘Try changing direction!’ cried Nicola.
Greta lifted her feather high, hesitated, then softly touched it down. Her ShobGobble obligingly turned the other way.
‘I did it!’ said Greta.
‘Well done,’ said Nicola, as Greta managed to turn her ShobGobble in a circle and bring it back to her.
‘Thanks,’ said Greta. ‘And, um, thanks for helping me. I guess I needed a push.’
Nicola was so surprised at this unexpected gratitude that she nearly fell off her ShobGobble and had to grab on to the edge of her saddle.
‘Watch it,’ said Greta sharply. ‘Your balance isn’t that great.’
It seemed it was a very short moment of gratitude.
‘Okay, everybody! We’d better get going!’ Nicola shouted. She was about to pull out her map but she noticed a sign.
25 VALLEY OF HIGH HOPES
She pointed to the sign. ‘That’s where we’re heading.’
‘Twenty-five what?’ asked Tyler. ‘Twenty-five miles? Twenty-five kilometres? What measurements do they use on Shobble, Shimlara?’
‘You really can’t expect me to remember everything I learned in class,’ shrugged Shimlara.
‘I’ll guess we’ll find out,’ said Nicola. ‘Let’s go.’
She gave her ShobGobble a gentle stroke with the feather.
‘You know,’ said Shimlara as she trotted along beside Nicola. ‘If it wasn’t for the fact that Katie has been taken hostage and we’re on a mission for a mad man who plans to burn our tongues and put us all in a mobile jail, this would be a lot of fun.’
18
‘Look! It’s all those crazy “hairity” fans again,’ said Sean. They were heading past the massive iron gates at the entrance to Enrico’s mansion.
‘They’ll wonder where Katie is,’ said Tyler.
He was right.
As soon as the people recognised the Space Brigade, they came running.
‘Where is your wonderful and amazing friend?’ one called. ‘Where is the beautiful and kind Katie Hobbs?’ called another.
‘They really love her,’ observed Greta sourly.
‘I bet it’s because most hairities are really snooty and full of themselves,’ said Shimlara.
Nicola pulled her ShobGobble to a stop and said to the crowd, ‘Sorry. Katie isn’t with us today.’
A rather handsome young boy carrying a single rose fell to his knees, sobbing.
‘But where is she?’ cried out an older woman plaintively. ‘I’ve baked her a cake!’
‘I’ll have it,’ offered Sean. ‘No need to let it go to waste.’ Nicola looked down at the pleading faces and thought, Why should I protect Enrico’s good name?
She spoke up in a clear voice. ‘Katie Hobbs has been taken hostage by the Commander-in-Chief.’
There was a gasp of horror from the crowd.
‘But Enrico wouldn’t do such a terrible thing,’ said the woman with the cake. ‘Especially not to a lovely hairity.’ She looked at the others. ‘Would he?’
A camera flashed and a microphone was shoved in Nicola’s face. An intense-looking woman said, ‘What’s your name?’
‘Nicola Berry.’
‘Nicola, why has Katie Hobbs been taken hostage?’
Nicola decided she shouldn’t reveal any more. ‘You’ll have to ask Enrico that. I have no further comment.’
She tapped her feather-whip against her ShobGobble as briskly as she dared. ‘We have to go!’
‘Wait, wait!’ called the reporter breathlessly, running alongside Nicola’s ShobGobble. As she ran, the breeze lifted the hair on her forehead and Nicola caught a glimpse of the letter ‘t’ – a Topaz supporter! She pushed a card into Nicola’s hand. ‘Contact me if you ever want to talk.’
Nicola managed to shove the card into her jeans pocket. She twisted her head and saw that her announcement had created something of an uproar. People were gesturing angrily, stamping their feet and raising their palms high above their heads.
She hoped she hadn’t made a terrible mistake and put Katie in more danger.
Her ShobGobble cantered along smoothly ahead of the others, as if he knew where he was going. Nicola squinted her eyes through the rainbows and saw another sign.
24 VALLEY OF HIGH HOPES
‘That’s right! That’s where we’re going,’ she said out loud. She realised she hadn’t named her ShobGobble yet. She said, ‘Well done, um, Shobby!’
Her ShobGobble flatten
ed his ears and gave a disapproving snort.
‘Oh, you don’t like that. Let me think of something better. What about . . . Gobby Boy?’
He gave an even louder snort.
‘Okay, okay, I guess they’re all a bit too cutesy. What about Sky-Glider?’
The ShobGobble wobbled his head and made a rumbling sort of sound as if to say, ‘So-so.’
‘I know! What about . . . Quicksilver?’
He gave a long definite chirp of approval.
‘Okay, Quicksilver, that’s your name. It’s very nice to meet you, Quicksilver.’
They were now headed across a vast snowy white plain. Nicola was glad that signs for the Valley of High Hopes kept appearing at regular intervals.
She turned to check on the others. Shimlara had her head close to her ShobGobble’s ear as if she was deep in conversation. Sean seemed to be trying to encourage his to rise up on its hind legs, as if he was doing a wheelie on a bike, but his ShobGobble was studiously ignoring his efforts. Tyler already looked like he’d been riding ShobGobbles all his life. At the end of the line was Greta. She was sitting very straight and stiff in her saddle, but at least she was moving in the right direction.
Nicola turned back to the front and Quicksilver tossed his head as if to say, ‘Look!’
They were passing a village. A crowd of dirty-faced children came running when they heard the sound of hooves. This time Nicola looked closely at them and saw their clothes were threadbare and their bare feet were turning blue in the snow. Nicola thought of the crackling fires and hot baths at Enrico’s mansion. No wonder Topaz thought these children’s parents should be paid for their hard work!
She noticed that the ground was beginning to slope downwards and snow-laden trees were starting to appear. The next sign they passed said:
5 VALLEY OF HIGH HOPES
The ground became even steeper and Nicola had to lean further and further back in her saddle to avoid falling off. She could hear little shrieks of horror from Greta.
A few minutes later they came to an arched sign that read:
YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER THE VALLEY OF HIGH HOPES
We HOPE you enjoy your visit!
We HOPE you do not leave behind your litter!
We HOPE you enjoy the flowers but do not pick them!
‘Those numbers on the signs meant the number of minutes it takes to get somewhere,’ said Tyler, looking with satisfaction at his watch. He scratched his head. ‘Although how do they know how fast you’re travelling?’
‘I just thought of something.’ Sean looked very serious.
‘What?’ Nicola’s heart sank at the thought of yet another problem.
‘We never had breakfast.’
Nicola rolled her eyes. ‘We’ll find somewhere with indigo berries for the ShobGobbles and we’ll have brunch.’
‘What’s brunch?’ asked Shimlara. Sometimes they all forgot she came from another planet.
‘It’s like a mixture of breakfast and lunch,’ said Greta in a superior tone. ‘You have it mid-morning.’
‘Oh! You mean lunfast,’ said Shimlara. ‘I always ask the Telepathy Chef for a scrambled egg sandwich.’
‘Stop talking about food,’ groaned Sean.
‘Hamburgers,’ said Tyler conversationally. ‘Hot dogs. Pizza. Ice-cream.’
‘Aaaaggggh!’ Sean clutched his stomach. ‘Starving . . . dying . . . need food.’
‘Come on,’ said Nicola. ‘The sooner we get going, the sooner we eat.’
‘Do you think the ground is going to stay steep?’ asked Greta.
‘It is a valley,’ pointed out Shimlara. ‘It will go down and then up again.’
‘Just lean back in your saddle,’ advised Nicola.
‘Hmmmph.’ Greta looked unconvinced.
Nicola gave Quicksilver a gentle pat and led the way under the arch.
It was like entering a different world. The light from the rainbows was now filtered through a canopy of trees. Instead of dramatic shafts of colour, Nicola could see quivering patches of red, blue and green light, as if someone had gone crazy with a paintbrush. It was very quiet and peaceful, except for the occasional soft ‘thud’ as a pile of snow slipped from a tree branch. The clean mossy smell of forests and rivers filled their nostrils.
As Shimlara had pointed out, they were heading down towards the bottom of the valley, but there was a wide paved path to follow, so riding was easy.
The weight of worry vanished from Nicola’s shoulders. She felt as light and bouncy as a balloon. Anything seemed possible. They would find Topaz and work out a way to overthrow Enrico and rescue Katie. Nicola would win first prize in the Inter-School Story Competition (even though she’d never actually got around to entering), and she would be picked out by a talent scout for a starring role in a television series (even though she was a pretty hopeless actress) and she would most definitely be picked for the next Olympic Games (even though she wasn’t especially sporty). Yes! She couldn’t wait to see how many medals she would win!
‘Guess what, Nic!’ Shimlara called out from behind her. ‘I just realised I’m going to win every single race at the Intergalactic Athletics Carnival next week! It’s true I haven’t been training much but I’ve got so much natural ability!’
Sean came trotting up to ride alongside Nicola. ‘Just thought you should know I’m going to be a black belt by Christmas, so don’t mess with me.’
Mmmmm, thought Nicola. Sean had only just got his blue belt in karate. It seemed like there might be something in the air in the Valley of High Hopes.
She could hear Tyler and Greta talking behind her.
‘I’m expecting a letter from NASA waiting for me when I get back to Earth,’ said Tyler cheerfully. ‘They’ll be offering me a part-time job after school as an astronaut. So I’ll be able to give up that boring paper run.’
‘Well, I was just thinking that when I get back to Earth I might start a “Most Popular Student in the School” competition,’ said Greta. ‘I’d win it for sure.’
Nicola snorted. Maybe this should be called the Valley of Impossibly High Hopes.
Although did that mean her own hopes were impossible?
No! Her hopes were sensible and realistic!
As they followed the path further down into the valley, the vegetation became thicker and the light dimmed. The snow gleamed as if sprinkled with thousands of tiny crystals. Every now and then there was a startling splash of brilliant colour from where the rainbow light had crept through. The Space Brigade fell silent. The only sound was the clip-clopping of their ShobGobbles’ hooves.
An hour passed.
Another hour passed.
‘Chirrrp!’ said Quicksilver. Nicola started. She felt like she’d been in a trance. She looked around and saw that they’d come to a clearing next to a bubbling creek. A huge pool of indigo light shone on a corner of the clearing and Nicola could see thousands of purple berries – just like the ones Silent Fred had drawn for them. Quicksilver smacked his lips.
‘Yes,’ said Nicola. ‘Indigo berries.’
There was also a huge mossy log that looked like it would make a comfortable seat, lying next to the remains of a campfire. It was the perfect spot for brunch – or lunfast.
‘Time for a break,’ announced Nicola, pulling on Quicksilver’s reins.
Nicola saw the rest of the Space Brigade stretching and rubbing their eyes as they climbed down from their ShobGobbles.
‘I feel like I’m in the middle of a beautiful dream,’ said Shimlara. Nicola knew exactly what she meant.
They led their ShobGobbles over to the creek and the patch of indigo berries. The ShobGobbles took long slurps of water before hungrily attacking the berries.
‘I hope we didn’t wait too long before feeding them,’ said Nicola worriedly. ‘If Katie was here she would have thought of it sooner.’
‘I think we’ve taken too long feeding ourselves,’ said Sean, rapidly pulling out Joy’s provisions from the saddlebags. ‘I can’t
believe I forgot I was hungry. That never happens to me.’
Suddenly Nicola was starving too. She found a big checked picnic blanket in her own saddlebag and spread it out next to the log.
‘I hope it’s not too much weird stuff like last night,’ said Sean.
‘Well, it looks sort of normal,’ said Tyler, as he unpeeled the lid of a large silver container. Steam rushed out. He held up something shaped like a miniature rainbow and covered in flaky pastry. ‘Who wants to try it?’
‘I will!’ Nicola bit into one. The filling was like nothing she could describe. It was like crunching into a crisp apple at the same time as biting into a piece of chewy caramel. ‘I don’t know exactly what it is, but it tastes great.’
‘Probably better not to know,’ said Sean, grabbing one.
Shimlara opened another container to reveal thick jam sandwiches on crusty white bread – at least they looked familiar. There were also biscuits, cheese sticks, gigantic muffins, strange-looking fruit and bottles labelled INDIGO BERRY JUICE.
‘Are you sure that’s not for the animals?’ asked Greta distastefully.
‘Who cares?’ said Sean. ‘It’s good!’
Of course, best of all, there were also dozens of ShobbleChoc bars and two thermoses filled with the creamy hot chocolate they’d had the day before.
While they were busy laying out the food, Greta efficiently started a fire. (It was one of her useful skills, they’d discovered on their last mission. She had learned how to do it in Girl Guides.)
Soon they were all sitting comfortably on the rug, enjoying the warmth of the fire, their mouths so crammed with food they could hardly talk.
A croaky voice that seemed to come from nowhere made them all jump.
‘Is that hot chocolate I can smell?’
19
Everyone looked around nervously.
‘I don’t mind you using my kitchen,’ continued the voice. ‘But you could at least offer me something warm to drink. I haven’t had a hot drink in twenty-three years.’
The Shocking Trouble on the Planet of Shobble Page 8