by Peter Nelson
“Blizzard-Bristles,” Eldon said. “Potentially the most dangerous one of all, especially in the wrong hands. Or in this case, under the wrong nose. The Yeti’s great mustache is made up of Blizzard-Bristles, through which he controls wind and weather. Swiping that from the Yeti would be a near-impossible task. But if he were somehow able to, Chupacabra would control the three elemental powers. He’d have them all.”
“Not quite,” Jordan said. “According to Chupacabra, there’s a fourth.”
“What?” Abbie said. “What’s the power? And which creature?”
“He didn’t elaborate.”
“This is news to me,” Eldon said, “and very troubling. But if it’s true, it could explain why all these cryptids are going AWOL. Chupacabra may somehow be luring them out of hiding to find the one who possesses the fourth power.”
“If you don’t know, then no one does,” Abbie said. She rested her gaze on Morris, who was still floating peacefully in the lapping water. “And if it’s been kept secret even from the Creature Keepers, it could belong to a creature no one would ever expect.”
“Wait,” Eldon said to Jordan. “If there are two more special cryptids out there, what makes you so sure Chupacabra will go for the Yeti next?”
“Because he didn’t kill me, even though he still thinks I’m Grampa Grimsley. In fact, it’s because he thinks I’m Grampa Grimsley that I’m alive. He said I was the only one who could lead him to where it is, and if I didn’t remember or cooperate, he’d drag me to the top of the world, and we’d work our way down, searching for him.”
“Top of the world?” Eldon said.
“Mount Everest,” Abbie said. “The highest mountain on earth.” She turned to Eldon. “That’s the Yeti’s hangout, right? The Abominable Snowman, all that stuff? Everyone knows that!”
“I don’t know that,” Eldon said. “At least, not for sure.”
“What do you mean? Knowing that is your thing!”
“Besides Chupacabra, the Yeti was the only other cryptid who refused your grandfather’s help and protection. Today he sits all alone with the elemental power of his Blizzard-Bristles, keeping the wind and weather in balance. But I’m afraid Chupacabra wasn’t lying—your grandfather was the only one who knew the whereabouts of Wilford.”
“Wilford?” Abbie exclaimed. “Who names these guys?”
Jordan held up the journal. “Grampa Grimsley wrote about nearly every creature he discovered. All his observations, everything he learned about them. But according to this, there was only one creature he learned from. And all he says is he met him somewhere in the Himalayan Mountains.”
Abbie scoffed. “That’s like saying he’s in the ocean. The Himalayas are huge! There must be something Grampa Grimsley wrote down in that old book that could give us a clue. What did he mean he learned from the Yeti?”
Jordan opened the journal and began to read a passage written by his grandfather:
“But which mountain?” Abbie said. “We can’t do what Chupacabra’s doing and start at the highest peak and work our way down!”
“Wait,” Jordan said. “That’s it!”
“That’s what?”
“That’s where we can find him—Everest!”
“Seems unlikely,” Eldon said. “Nowadays, Everest is one of the most climbed mountains in the world. How can you be so sure that’s where the Yeti lives?”
“Because he told me!”
Eldon looked at Jordan with some concern. “Okay. I think maybe you bumped your head when we crash-landed. Jordan, you never had a conversation with the Yeti.”
“Not the Yeti,” Abbie said. “He means Chupacabra!” She and Jordan were both on their feet. “You’re right! We don’t have to find Wilford. We just have to find Chupacabra before he finds Wilford!”
“What?” Eldon said.
“Exactly!” Jordan said. “And the first place he’s going to look is where he told me he would—the top of the world!”
Jordan and Abbie grinned at each other as they said in unison: “Mount Everest!”
Eldon stared at the both of them. “Is it okay if I’m totally confused?”
As day broke over the Bay of Bengal, the howler monkeys sat silently in the treetops, watching the strange visitors hug and say good-bye to one another. Alistair MacAlister boarded the submarine so that he, Kriss, and Nessie could make one more pass for wandering cryptids. Eldon and Jordan thanked him for helping Bernard fix the Heli-Jet.
“My pleasure,” Alistair said. “Her rockets are on their last legs and won’t run at full capacity, but the chopper rotors work, and she should still blast at a good clip.”
“I hope so,” Eldon said. “Bernard and Zaya are flying her up to Siberia. That’s where Chupacabra likely collected that rare, potent strain of valerian root. I need them to get a specimen, then fly it back to the CKCC and get it to Katsu.”
“That creep?” Abbie said. “What’s he going to do, scowl at it?”
“Katsu is a serious young man,” Eldon said. “But he’s also an excellent botanist. If he were an actual Badger Ranger, he’d easily be eligible for a First-Class Badger Badge in Herbology, just like the one I have.” Eldon shoved his sash in their faces, showing off a tiny, leaf-adorned patch. “See the little leaf there?”
“Somehow Katsu doesn’t strike me as the Badger Ranger type,” Jordan said.
“Well, he’ll be able to break down the dangerous root’s properties and come up with an antidote for Corky, which is what matters,” Eldon said.
Moments later, the rotors to the Heli-Jet fired up, lifting Bernard and Zaya off the beach. They waved from the cockpit window as they cleared the mangrove trees and headed north. Jordan, Abbie, and Eldon then turned and waved good-bye in the other direction as Alistair closed the hatch on the submarine and Nessie winked at them. But Kriss lingered behind on the beach.
“You can’t come with us,” Abbie told the Mothman. “We’re traveling upriver in broad daylight, where there may be a lot of people. You could be spotted.”
“She’s right,” Eldon added. “Besides, you’ll be more help to Mac in locating and returning any wandering cryptids. You need to get to the bottom of what’s making them act that way. Whatever’s causing it, I’m convinced it’s not the valerian root.”
Kriss nodded. He gave Abbie a shy smile, then flapped his great wings and zoomed into the air, following after Nessie and Alistair.
Jordan, Abbie, and Eldon stood on the sand. Bobbing in the water before them was a sad little skiff they were planning on borrowing from one of the village fishermen. Farther out in the water, Morris happily swam around, darting through the waves, splashing and playing in the water.
As the Heli-Jet faded over the horizon and the submarine disappeared beneath the deep waters of the bay, Jordan looked down at the rickety little boat. “Sure would’ve been easier to get a lift from either of those guys to the base of Everest.”
Abbie secured a rope to the front of the skiff and pulled it tight. “If Morris spills one more time before the First Quarter moon, he’ll permanently turn to stone. I can’t risk flying him in the air again. You’re welcome to travel with us by river or stay here and live among the monkeys. Your call.”
Eldon was checking his official Badger Ranger pocket atlas. “Across the bay to the west is the mouth of the Meghna River. That merges into the Padma River, which will take us straight up through the heart of Bangladesh. It splits with the Brahmaputra River near the Indian border, but if we stay on the Padma, it becomes the famous Ganges River and crosses into India. Then we then hit the Kosi, which will get us close enough to hike in to the base of Everest. You ready to do this, Elite Keepers?”
“Sure,” Jordan said. “It’s only about five hundred miles, almost entirely upriver and against the current. Oh, and our little boat has no motor.”
Abbie took up the other end of the rope and tied it into a loose leash. She smiled at Morris, who was shooting in and out of the waves like a torpedo.
&n
bsp; “Who says we don’t have a motor?”
14
The local fishermen along the Meghna River stared in wonderment at the little skiff as it whizzed past them upstream at an alarming rate. The two boys rowing the narrow boat didn’t look like especially strong rowers—certainly not strong enough to warrant how quickly their skiff zipped past and around the bend.
Once clear of the onlookers, Jordan and Eldon pulled the oars inside and sat back, enjoying the ride. Abbie sat in the front, manning a taut rope. She gave it a short tug.
The other end of the rope appeared in front of the boat. It was tied around Morris’s thick neck. As he effortlessly pulled them up the river, he spun around into a backstroke and grinned up at Abbie. He gobbled down a mouthful of tiny hilsa fish.
“How am I doing, master? Do you have any instructions for me?”
“You’re doing great, Morris,” Abbie said. “We’re approaching a village, so keep underwater and out of sight. And remember, just go with the flow!”
“Technically, we’re asking him to go against the flow,” Eldon said.
“It’s just an expression, dorkface. I’m trying to teach him independence.”
“With a leash around his neck?”
Morris squirted a stream of water over Abbie’s head and directly into Jordan’s face.
“Hey!” Jordan wiped it off angrily. “You did that on purpose!”
“Nice shot, Morris,” Abbie said. “You’d better keep your head down now.”
“As you wish, master!” Morris smiled and submerged, pulling the skiff up to the fishing village of Chandpur. Just beyond the little town, the river forked in two different directions. While Jordan and Abbie went out to get food, water, and supplies, Eldon consulted his pocket atlas. By the time the Grimsleys had returned and loaded up the boat, Eldon had charted the next leg of their journey. “That’s the Padma River,” he said, pointing to the narrower of the two waterways that lay ahead. “It’ll take us northwest into India. Abbie, please let our little outboard engine know that’s where we want to go.”
As Eldon and Jordan picked up their oars, Abbie yanked on Morris’s rope. The skiff suddenly jolted away from the dock. Then she yanked the rope to one side like a horse’s rein, and they veered toward the mouth of the Padma River.
Hours passed as they made their way toward the border with India. Turning a wide bend, they all suddenly looked to the distant horizon and fell silent. Mount Everest looked as if it was floating, like some massive mother ship hovering above the earth’s surface, trying to find a parking spot.
The three Creature Keepers steadily continued to wind their way upriver in their Kappa-propelled little boat. Jordan leaned over the side, dragging his hand through the cool water. He stared at his reflection in the river, then turned to Eldon, who had taken the reins and was holding Morris’s line at the front of the skiff. “Eldon, do you think my grandfather came by way of this same river?”
“It’s certainly possible,” Eldon said. “He sure didn’t come by Heli-Jet.”
Abbie was lying lazily at the rear of the boat with her leg dangling over the side, her bare toes dipping in and out of the water. Jordan glanced back at her, then continued. “I wish this river could tell us. I wish Nessie’s Hydro-Hide could communicate with the waters of the world, not just control them. Maybe between the rivers, seas, and oceans, we’d discover if he was still out there somewhere.”
After a moment, Eldon spoke up. “To the people who have lived in this part of the world for generations, these rivers are considered sacred. They’re alive, with memories that stretch along as far as they do, flowing not just through land, but across time. These rivers remember every passenger they carried, and recognize those who return to them.”
Abbie lifted her head. She and Jordan stared at Eldon for a moment. He pointed to a patch on his sash. “Badger Badge in Sub-Himalayan Cultures.”
Jordan rested his head against a pack of supplies and felt the water flowing through his fingertips. He stared off at the hazy white peak of Everest in the distance and felt his eyelids growing heavier. He lifted his head and glanced back. Abbie was sound asleep, her foot still dragging in the water. Jordan settled his head down again and stared toward the front of the boat. “You okay up there, Eldon?”
“You betcha,” Eldon replied. “It’s been a long couple of days and we don’t know what lies ahead. You’d better get some shut-eye now, while you can.”
Jordan breathed in the cool, early evening air as he continued to stare at Everest’s brilliant white peak, painted against the darkening sky. He counted the first few stars that twinkled to life around it, then slipped into a deep sleep.
Light flickered against Jordan’s eyelids, flashing him out of a sound slumber. He opened his eyes. A patchwork of banyan tree branches stretched overhead, the morning sunlight streaming through the fluttering leaves and onto his face.
He sat up. Both Eldon and Abbie were asleep. Beyond them, small mountains loomed in the distance, but none of them looked familiar. None of them looked like they were floating on the horizon. None of them were Mount Everest.
“Oh, no.” Jordan scanned their immediate surroundings. They were still on a river. The boat rocked as he scrambled to the front, where Eldon stirred, the rope loosely hanging in his relaxed hand. Jordan looked past him, off the bow of the boat. “Morris,” he yelled. “MORRIS, WHERE ARE YOU?”
“Good morning!” Morris’s friendly voice suddenly sounded from off the side of the boat. “Did you all have a peaceful rest?” He was swimming alongside them.
“Morris! Where are we? Where’s Everest?”
“What’s going on?” Eldon sat up groggily.
“Everest is gone,” Jordan said. “We lost it.”
Abbie was up and looking around at the rear of the boat. “It’s the biggest mountain in the world. How could we lose it?”
“Oh, gosh,” Eldon said. “I must have fallen asleep at the wheel.” Abbie rushed to the side of the boat. Morris was floating along, quite content. “Oh, Morris,” she said. “What did you do?”
“I did just as you instructed, master,” he said, flipping onto his back and staring up at the tree branches overhead. “I went with the flow!”
They were drifting with a current, but couldn’t tell which direction. Eldon had his compass out. He tapped it and checked again. “Strange,” he said. “We’re still heading north. How could we be floating downstream, but heading toward the mountains?”
They began drifting faster as the patchwork of banyan tree branches overhead grew thicker. It soon became a tunnel of twisting limbs. The current picked up, and so did the speed of their little skiff.
Jordan held on to the boat along with Eldon and Abbie as they began to cruise faster than Morris had ever towed them. The river was rushing now, growing rougher, and descending between towering natural walls of stone on either side. The little skiff was barreling through some sort of river canyon, careening deeper and deeper, picking up speed by the second.
“Whee!” Morris was cruising alongside them on his shell, splashing and skimming through the rushing rapids like he was on a water-park ride.
“Morris! Help us stop! Grab hold of the boat and slow us down!”
FLOOSH! The channel suddenly dropped them into a steep natural flume. Their tiny skiff bottomed out into a large underground pool that diverted the whitewater, slowing the mad current into a gentle swirling whirlpool. Morris and the little boat spun off and drifted to rest at a mossy stone embankment.
Jordan, Abbie, and Eldon sat up. They looked around and took in the walls of a deep canyon rising up all around them.
“Hee-hee! That was fun!” Morris’s laugh echoed within the underground chamber as he floated alongside the boat.
“What the heck are you laughing about?” Jordan said. “Can’t you see what you’ve done? You’ve taken us completely off course!”
“Don’t talk to him like that,” Abbie said. “He just did what we asked him to!”<
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“I think we all should calm down,” Eldon said.
“Are you kidding?” Jordan snapped back at him. “This is your fault! How could you fall asleep at the wheel and leave our destiny in the hands of that oversized tadpole?”
“Golly, Jordan. I am sorry, but that’s uncalled for.”
“You’re being a total jerk, Jordan!” Abbie looked at Morris. “Don’t listen to him!”
“Hello there!” Morris smiled back. “I’m Morris. Pleased to make your acquaintances. What are your names?”
“He’s lost his waterlogged mind,” Jordan said. “This actually explains a lot.”
“Morris,” Abbie said gently. “You know our names.”
“I am not addressing you, master.” Morris pointed past them.
Jordan, Abbie, and Eldon spun around. Standing on the embankment were two short, bald, elderly men with long white beards, each wearing a robe.
“Hello,” one of the little men said. “If you please, which of you is responsible for navigating this modest vessel here?”
The three Creature Keepers slowly turned back to look at Morris, who was floating on his back. He spit a spout of water into the air and giggled.
The little man added: “You see, one cannot navigate oneself here. Only those destined to find Banyan Canyon discover it.”
“Morris,” Abbie said gently. “How did you steer us here?”
“I just did as you said, master. I went with the flow.”
15
The Kanchenjungan mountain monks did not live, in fact, on Mount Kanchenjunga. They lived somewhat beneath it, within deep, slotted canyons that made up a hidden, maze-like moat of rock and underground pools at the southern base of the mountain.
This series of secret crevices formed a cathedral of mossy, fern-covered rock walls looming high overhead. Golden sunlight cascaded through the canyons, reflecting off crystal-clear pools and rivulets carved into the stone floor. The rays cast a liquid light show on the walls, transforming the deep catacombs into a twinkling, magical underground world.