Welcome to the Ancient
Far North . . . and the
World of the Micekings!
WHERE THEY LIVE: Miceking Island
CAPITAL: Mouseborg, home of the Stiltonord family
OTHER VILLAGES: Oofadale, village of the Oofa Oofa, and Feargard,
village of the vilekings
CLIMATE: Cold, cold, cold, especially when the icy north wind blows!
TYPICAL FOOD: Gloog, a superstinky but fabumouse stew. The secret
recipe is closely guarded by the wife of the miceking chief.
NATIONAL DRINK: Finnbrew, made of equal parts codfish juice and
herring juice, with a splash of squid ink
MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION: The drekar, a light but very fast ship
GREATEST HONOR: The miceking helmet. It is only earned when a
mouse performs an act of courage or wins a Miceking Challenge.
UNIT OF MEASUREMENT: A mouseking tail (full tail, half tail, third tail,
quarter tail)
ENEMIES: The terrible dragons who live in Beastgard
Meet the Stiltonord Family . . .
GERONIMO
Advisor to the
miceking chief
THEA
A horse trainer who
works well with all kinds
of animals
TRAP
The most famouse
inventor in Mouseborg
BENJAMIN
Geronimo’s nephew
BUGSILDA
Benjamin’s best
friend
. . . and the EVIL DRAGONS!
GOBBLER THE PUTRID
The fierce king of the
dragons is a Devourer!
The dragons are
divided into 5
clans, all of which
are terrifying!
1. Devourers
They love to eat micekings raw —
no cooking necessary.
2. Steamers
They grab micekings, then fly over
volcanoes so the steam and smoke make them taste good.
SIZZLE
The cook
3. Biters
Before eating micekings, they nibble
them delicately to see if they like
them or not.
4. Slurpers
They wrap their long tongues around
micekings and slurp them up.
5. Rinsers
As soon as they catch micekings,
they rinse them in a stream to wash
them off.
Copyright © 2015 by Edizioni Piemme S.p.A., Palazzo Mondadori, Via
Mondadori 1, 20090 Segrate, Italy. International Rights © Atlantyca S.p.A.
English translation © 2017 by Atlantyca S.p.A.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any
responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
GERONIMO STILTON names, characters, and related indicia are copyright,
trademark, and exclusive license of Atlantyca S.p.A. All rights reserved. The
moral right of the author has been asserted. Based on an original idea by
Elisabetta Dami. www.geronimostilton.com
Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920, 557 Broadway, New York,
NY 10012. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered
trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Stilton is the name of a famous English cheese. It is a registered trademark
of the Stilton Cheese Makers’ Association. For more information, go to
www.stiltoncheese.com.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded,
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contact Atlantyca S.p.A., Via Leopardi 8, 20123 Milan, Italy; e-mail foreignrights
@atlantyca.it, www.atlantyca.com.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.
e-ISBN 978-1-338-08873-1
Text by Geronimo Stilton
Original title Nella terra degli Uffa Uffa
Cover by Giuseppe Facciotto (pencils) and Flavio Ferron (ink and color)
Illustrations by Giuseppe Facciotto (pencils) and Alessandro Costa (ink and
color)
Graphics by Chiara Cebraro
Special thanks to Tracey West
Translated by Emily Clement
Interior design by Kristine Brideson
First printing 2017
A Peaceful
Evening for
Geronimo!
It was a peaceful spring evening in
Mouseborg, the capital city of Mouseking
Island. The stars shone brightly in the
sky. A gentle breeze blew in from
the sea. Crickets chirped a
soothing song.
Sorry, I should
introduce myself:
I am Geronimo
Stiltonord, and
I am a mouseking.
Not a very fierce,
fighting mouseking,
but a scholarly one.
Chirp!
Chirp!
Chirp!
1
A Peaceful Evening for Geronimo!
Ow, my back!
2
And that night
I had returned
home after a
terrible day!
1 During
morning exercises,
Sven the Shouter, our village chief,
had forced me to do 333 sit-ups!
At noon, dragons had attacked our
village! They were looking to lunch on
fresh miceking meat. I fought
Narrow escape!
2
bravely (well,
as bravely as
I could. I have
WEAK muscles
for a mouseking).
3
And after
that, my sister,
Thea, had
asked me
Oof!
to help her
rearrange all the
furniture in her house!
I was so tired that my whiskers
were drooping!
So I was very happy to retreat to my
house for a peaceful, quiet night. My plans
included:
A light dinner of aged miceking
cheese and herring soup . . .
3
A Peaceful Evening for Geronimo!
Reading a book of legends about
the famouse miceking explorer Erik
the Furry . . .
Ending with a soothing cup of tea
before bed . . .
I had just finished setting the table when I
heard a knock at the door.
Who is it?
A Peaceful Evening for Geronimo!
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Why, oh why, did someone always
have to
INTERRUPT me when I was eating?
As I peered through the peephole, I heard
the deep voice of our village chief.
“Open up, you smarty-mouseking! So
says Sven!” he shouted.
A chorus of micekings behind him cried
out,
“So says sven the shouter!”
Clattering cuttlefish! How many of them
were out there? And what did they want from
me?
“Well, lazy bones?” Sven yelled. “Are
you going to open up?”
You should know that Sven is known as
the Shouter because he shouts very
5
A Peaceful Evening for Geronimo!
loudly! And when he’s angry, his shouts
could make the walls of your house shake. So I hurried and opened the door before the chief could shout again.
A crowd of miceking warriors pushed
into the house. They took seats in my chairs,
on my tables, on my bed, and even in the
rafters. Shivering squids, Sven had called a meeting of the Miceking Assembly in my house!
The warriors whispered to one another,
“What could it be?” They were excited for a
mystery to solve!
Then Sven spoke, “Micekings of
Mouseborg, I have gathered you here
for a matter of great importance.”
The micekings listened in silence,
leaning forward in their seats.
Sven turned toward the foreman of the
6
Shhh!
Silence!
Listen to me!
Stocker
finnbrew
factory. “Stocker! Tell
us what you found.”
Stocker looked
surprised.
“Me? Found? What?”
Great salty
sardines, what
kind of mystery was
this?
Stocker is the foreman of the
factory that makes finnbrew,
the most popular miceking
drink. He guards the barrels
of finished finnbrew. He’s a
very slow-moving mouseking.
When you ask him a question,
he stares at you like a frozen
codfish!
The Mysterious
JUG
Sven turned as red as a pepper. “Stocker,
stop acting like a sea slug and tell the
others what you told me!”
the
“so says sven the shouter!”
micekings chanted.
“Hmm. Let’s see,” said Stocker. “Where
should I start?”
“Start at the BEGINNING!” Sven
demanded.
Stocker nodded. “Okay, then. I will start at
the beginning,” he said. “As you know, every
night I take a walk around the outside of the
factory.”
“Yes, we know,” Sven said impatiently.
“I check to make sure that all the barrels
9
The Mysterious Jug
of finnbrew, left outside to ferment in the
sun, have been brought inside,” Stocker
went on.
“By my beard, get on with the story!”
Sven shouted. “At this rate, it will take you
all night to tell it.”
Stocker’s fur was not ruffled. He
kept talking. “So tonight, during my usual
stroll, I noticed something floating in
the water by the dock. So I walked over to
get a better look, and . . .”
“Aaaaand?” all the micekings
shouted, making my house shake as if
it were made of fjordberry jelly.
“And . . . I saw that it was an
amphora.”
An amphora is a clay jug with two handles.
But what was so important about Stocker
finding a jug?
10
What is that?
The Mysterious Jug
“I pulled it out of the water,” he continued.
“I opened it. And inside I found
a . . .”
“Aaaaaaaa?” the micekings
squealed.
“A parchment!” Stocker
finished. “There was a
message written on it, but I don’t know
how to read, so I ran to Sven.”
“And I decided to come directly to
Geronimo,” Sven said. “Now read this
message, smarty-mouseking. That’s
an order!”
“so says sven the shouter!”
Stocker handed me the parchment, and I
began to read the message:
12
Well, what
does it say?
“I declare . . . to shake . . . um . . .
strong mouseking! . . . sail the stormy
seas . . . um . . . dragon . . . stinkiest . . .
you . . .”
“Geronimo, quit joking around!” my
cousin Trap exclaimed.
“I’m not joking around,” I protested.
“These are the only words I UNDERSTAND.
I can barely make out two runes in a row!”
13
The Mysterious Jug
“You’re supposed to be the smarty-
mouseking!” Sven shouted. “Figure it
out!”
“But, but, but . . .” I sputtered.
Trap took the parchment from my paws.
“Leave it to me, cousin! In addition to being
an inventor, I’m also an expert
at messages in bottles, secret codes, and
invisible clues!”
Let’s see . . .
14
* The original letter was written in runes, the miceking
alphabet. This is a translation for you readers!
I declare
to shake.
strong mouseking!
sail the stormy sead,
dragon.
stinkiest
you
The Mysterious Jug
Trap examined the parchment carefully
(forward and BACKWARD, up and down,
from close up and far away).
Then he announced his conclusion: “Brave
Sven! The amphora probably wasn’t closed
tightly. The salt water from the fjord has
erased almost everything that was written
here. And so . . . the original message is a
mystery!”
16
A Message from
Yan
the Yawner
While Trap continued to study the
message, our village chief paced the
floor of my house, muttering about what
to do next.
“Holey cheese!” Trap
cried out suddenly.
“What’s this seal
at the top of the
parchment?”
“Let me see!” Sven
yelled, grabbing the
parchment from him. His
eyes got wide.
“Why, this is the coat of arms of Yan
17
Yan
the yawner
Yan the Yawner is the chief
of Oofadale, where the Oofa
Oofa live. He’s called “the
Yawner” because it’s said he
can yawn 1,007 times in a
row without dislocating his
jaw. His motto is, “Why do
tomorrow what you can do
next week?”
the Yawner, the
chief of Oofadale!”
Sven exclaimed.
“Salty sardines!
Then this must be a message from him!” Trap said.
A
LOUD
murmur rose up
from the micekings.
This could be a
very important
message!
The micekings
were jumping out
of their fur
with curiosity. They
started to
guess
what the meaning
A Message from Yan the Yawner
of the message might be, based on the few
words I had read.
“Why, it’s clear!” declared a tall, muscular
mouseking. “It’s a challenge sent by the Oofa
Oofa!
THEY WANT TO ATTACK US!”
“What if Oofadale is being attacked by
dragons?” another mouseking
wondered. “And Yan the Yawner is asking for
help from the strong,
brave warriors
of Mouseborg!”
A third mouseking spoke up. “They’re
insulting us! They think we’re stinky!”
I had my own theory. “It could be that
Yan was just writing a simple message of
greeting to a friend,” I suggested. “This
very well could have been a
PERSONAL
letter that was lost and arrived here by
accident. We all know how the miceking mail
works . . .”
19
It’s a
challenge!
Is it a declaration of war?
It’s an
insult!
Um . . .
Hmm . . .
If you ask
me . . .
They’re asking for help!
What do we do?
I don’t believe it!
No way!
I don’t know!
A Message from Yan the Yawner
But nobody took me SERIOUSLY.
“By my beard, Geronimo, you must
be the most foolish smarty-mouseking
in miceking history!” Sven scolded me.
“Didn’t you see the coat of arms? It’s
clearly an
official
message of some kind.
Therefore we must respond in an
official
manner.”
Sven paced the room, twirling his beard
and thinking. The micekings eagerly
waited to hear our chief’s decision. Finally,
Sven cleared his throat.
“If the village of Oofadale is in danger,
The Mysterious Message (Geronimo Stilton Micekings #5) Page 1