The Fallen Star

by Tracey Hecht

  “Aha! I know what you two are thinking: my plan was pure genius!” Bismark exclaimed, thrusting a fist toward the sky. “I successfully summon a star creature …and then it leads us straight to the flowers! That’s what I call a win-win, amigos! A marsupial miracle! A Bismarkian boom!”

  “Thank goodness! Thank goodness! The sick animals are going to be all right!” Tobin said with a gulp.

  “Yes,” said Dawn, “let’s gather the flowers quickly!”

  At once, the fox and the sugar glider bounded across the slope toward the field. But when Tobin tried to follow, he felt suddenly stuck to the ground. “Oomph!” He grunted as he attempted another step. But it was no use. He looked down at his stomach in horror. The skin was pale and taut, and it brushed the ground when he walked. His stomach was so swollen now, he couldn’t even wrap his arms around it!

  “Oh no,” he said, struggling to lift his foot. At last, he managed to take a step forward, but the movement sent a sharp jolt through his scales. “W-wait…I…I can’t…”

  “What are you doing, muchacho?” Bismark flapped back toward his friend and eyed him holding his belly. “Your stomach, amigo? Really? Truly? Now? This is no time to be hungry! We’ve got to get to the fields!”

  “I … I know…” Tobin sputtered. “I just—”

  “You just quoi?” Bismark asked. “What’s the problemo? The issue? The hold up?”

  Dawn looked back over her shoulder. “Tobin,” she said sharply. “Come on. The sick animals need the flowers. You said so yourself. We must hurry.”

  Tobin swallowed hard and attempted another step, but his body seized in agony. “I know…but I…” He took a deep breath. He couldn’t hide it from his friends any longer. “I do, too!” Tobin cried at last. “I need the flowers, too!”

  Bismark’s mouth fell open. Dawn took a step back toward her friend.

  “Oh no…” she whispered, catching sight of his swollen belly. “You ate the fruit!?”

  Tobin desperately nodded his head. “Yes!” he cried, confessing at last. ““I did. I tasted the poisoned pomelo!”

  “Mon dieu!” Bismark cried. “Quelle horreur! How do you feel, pangolino? Are you all right?” But before Tobin could answer, the sugar glider’s mood quickly changed from concerned to annoyed. He puffed out his chest and raised his flaps in the air. “I can’t believe you kept this from us!” he exclaimed. “Don’t you know that the Brigade shares all? Tell him, mi amore,” he said, looking up at the fox. “Don’t I always say everything on my mind? Don’t I always pour my heart out to you, like a beautiful song?”

  “I-I didn’t want you to be worried,” said Tobin, looking pleadingly at his leader. Then he tried to smile. “Besides, it’s all going to be okay now, anyway, isn’t it?”

  The pangolin pointed his snout toward the sea of flowers swaying in the field below. Even under the thick blanket of clouds overhead, the flowers seemed to radiate a bright blue. “I’ll be fine in no time,” he said. “All the animals will be. Everything is going to be—”

  Thunk.

  Tobin stopped mid-sentence. One of the blossoms had just jerked down and out of sight.

  Another one disappeared, just as quickly as the first!

  Thunk.

  And another one, gone, before the Brigade’s very eyes.

  Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

  Faster and faster now, the flowers disappeared underground. Tobin clutched his stomach. Maybe he wouldn’t be fine after all.

  Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

  Gone.

  Gone.

  Gone.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I… I…”

  “Mon dieu! It’s the invaders!” yelled Bismark.

  It was all happening so fast. The blue blossoms were disappearing into the ground, one after another, without a trace.

  Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

  Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

  The fox raced down the hill, with Bismark clinging to her snakeskin cape and Tobin trundling behind.

  Dawn sprinted now, desperate to reach the flowers. Desperate to save as many as she could. With one final leap, she was there. But each time she grabbed for a flower, her claws only grasped empty air. The flowers were being sucked into the earth faster than she could react.

  “You’re moving too slowly, my love! Try like this!” Bismark shouted as he scurried toward a flower, flaps outstretched.

  Thunk!

  The blossom jerked underground so quickly, it spun the glider around like a miniature cyclone.

  “Mon dieu! A little help here, amigo!” the glider cried out to Tobin as he staggered dizzily about.

  “I’m coming!” called Tobin. “Oof!” The pangolin stretched out a claw, struggling to reach one of the flowers.

  Thunk!

  It disappeared before he could grab it. “Oomph!” He stumbled after another.

  Thunk!

  “No!”

  Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

  “No! No! No!”

  The pangolin’s efforts were to no avail. The moon had slipped behind a cloud, making it difficult to see, and with the added weight and pain of his boiling belly, he was far too slow to stop the flowers from going under.

  “By the stars—it’s a riot, a rampage, a raid!” Bismark cried.

  Dawn looked around helplessly. Before her eyes, the entire field was becoming entirely barren of blue—each and every flower was disappearing into the depths of the earth.

  Finally, defeated and out of breath, the Brigade found themselves standing in the middle of a blossomless field.

  “Oh mon dieu. Sick animals…no flowers…no cure. Pas du tout! We are doomed! Destroyed! Done for, I tell you!” shrieked Bismark. “Well, at least you are, amigo,” he added, glancing sideways at Tobin.

  Dawn shot a searing stare at the sugar glider.

  “Oh goodness,” said Tobin. His voice trembled as his stomach lurched in pain. “How could this get any worse?”

  “I…I…”

  The trio froze—the eerie voices were back! Dawn’s ears stood high and taut. She raised a paw to her mouth to hush her friends.

  “I…I…” The strange call came again.

  Bismark’s eyes nearly bulged out of his tiny skull. “Mon dieu! Does that answer your question, my scaly chum? This is how things get worse!” He gulped. “It’s the star creatures! First they’re after the flowers.…And now they’re after us!” The sugar glider quickly leaped behind Dawn’s tawny rear leg and covered his face with his flaps.

  Nervously, Tobin looked into the distance. His throat tightened and his stomach churned as he awaited the eerie blue glow. But when the creatures came into view, Tobin cocked his head in confusion. “Wait.…” He took a tiny step forward and focused his beady eyes. These creatures weren’t glowing at all! In fact, they appeared to be covered in something familiar: soft, light brown fur.

  Bismark gasped. “Mon dieu! The invaders are even wilier than I thought!” He pointed with one flap. “They’ve performed some sort of dark magic to disguise themselves! To transform into earthly animals! To make themselves like…mice…or rabbits…or…”

  “…lemurs,” Dawn finished.

  “Yes, precisely, that’s it!” exclaimed Bismark. “They’ve disguised themselves as little lemurs!”

  The fox shook her head. “No, Bismark,” she said. “They are lemurs.”

  “Quoi?” Bismark examined the chanting creatures once more. Dawn was right—they were just lemurs: small, furry, and—dare he admit it?—cute.

  “What a letdown,” he grumbled, kicking the hard, dry ground at his feet then wincing at the throbbing in his toe.

  “But why are they here?” asked Tobin. His body trembled with pain, forcing him to sit. “Do they have something to do with this?”

  “It certainly is odd,” said Dawn. She eyed the dozens of chanting animals with suspicion. Although they were not the star creatures, there was something quite strange about them. Their eyes were glazed over, and they were moving slowly and s
tiffly, as though they were in some sort of trance. “Let’s watch them,” said the fox, scanning the terrain. She gestured toward a large rock near the edge of the flower field. “We’ll hide over there.”

  Quickly, the fox bounded behind the stone. The sugar glider followed, but Tobin struggled to stand. “I don’t think I can go that far.” His voice came out in a whisper.

  With some gentle pushing and pulling, Dawn and Bismark helped the pangolin move out of sight.

  “Look at those weird little fuzz balls,” Bismark grunted, peering beyond the rock’s edge. “What are they trying to say? ‘I, I,’ what?”

  The sugar glider watched as the furry animals came to a stop in the barren field, just a few tree-lengths away. Then he saw them pull something from the folds of their fur.

  Bismark squinted at the lemurs, curious. What were they holding? At last, the moon reappeared from behind a curtain of clouds, allowing the sugar glider to see more clearly. The lemurs were holding sprigs of tiny red berries…and then they were swallowing them whole: stems, flesh, pits, and all.

  “Really? Truly? Vraiment? This is the time for a snack?” Bismark wondered. “What lazy, hunger-brained hombres! I knew they couldn’t be the star creatures!” He gave a small laugh. “Pah! Star creatures dressed as little lemurs? Who would have ever imagined such an absurdo idea…?”

  But then his voice trailed off. Something very strange was happening. In a matter of moments, the animals had undergone a total transformation. They were no longer the slow, snacking creatures they were a moment ago. They were crazed blurs, zipping and zooming across the field with unnatural quickness and speed.

  “Oh goodness! What’s going on?” the pangolin exclaimed.

  “I don’t know,” said the fox. “But this is very unusual. We don’t know what these lemurs will do next or what is causing this strange behavior. So stay hidden.”

  Tobin obliged at once, crouching down to the ground and cradling his swollen belly. Bismark, however, stood on tiptoe, his big, bulbous eyes growing wide.

  He stared in awe as another group of lemurs popped the fruit in their mouths. Then, just like the others, they started to zip and zoom across the field like lightning bugs.

  Bismark’s gaze narrowed, his expression shifting from awe to envy.

  “If I could just get one of those little fruits…” he mused, tapping his fingers together. “I mean, mon dieu! Look what they did for those slow, lazy lemurs! Imagine what they’d do for a sugar glider!”

  Completely captivated, Bismark crept past the rock’s jagged edge and carefully made his way toward the frenzied lemurs. “After all, I am naturally swift and slick,” he continued to himself. “With these little berries, I’d be undefeatable, unbeatable, invincible!”

  “Bismark!” Dawn’s voice rang out from behind the rock.

  “All is well, mon amour!” he yelled, not even bothering to look back. “I shall join you again in uno momento.…” Bismark marched on, nearing the buzzing lemurs. “We may not have gotten the flowers, but I’m going to get something even better!” he reasoned. “Si, si. My beloved Dawn won’t be able to resist me once I get my paws on that fruit.”

  “BISMARK!” both Dawn and Tobin called out this time.

  The sugar glider gave an exasperated sigh and glanced over his shoulder. “Que paso?” he asked. “What is it?”

  “Come back here! Now!” the fox commanded.

  “Huh?” Bismark said. Then he scanned his surroundings, finally registering the scene before him. The lemurs weren’t just zipping and zooming at random. They were forming a ring…around him!

  “Oh mon dieu! Never mind—keep your berries! They’re all yours!” he yelled, backing away. “Keep them all! I don’t need them anyway…I am magnifique enough as it is!”

  But the lemurs weren’t listening. Or, if they were, they ignored him. They moved in closer and closer, their bodies vibrating so fast now, they appeared as a single furry blur. Bismark’s breaths turned from shallow to heaving as the dozens of creatures pressed in on him. Chanting and chanting. Louder and louder.

  “Eeeeeeeek!” The sugar glider released a bloodcurdling scream as the hoard of lemurs closed in, their eager paws reaching for him. “Dawn! Tobin!” he cried, cowering under his flaps. “HELP!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  PANGOLIN POOF

  “This is it! This is the end! I shall meet my death at the paws of these loco lemurs!” Bismark cried. The circle of crazed animals tightened around him, grabbing him and pushing him along. “Get your paws off me, you brutes! Stick to your fancy fruits and stay away from moi!”

  Dawn leaped out of the rock’s shadow as the lemurs tried to shove Bismark across the field. “We have to help him,” she said, beckoning Tobin to follow.

  “Ouch!” The pangolin took a step but yelped in pain. His stomach churned and felt like it was on fire. He curled up in a crescent and clutched his belly, but the flames he felt inside did not lessen.

  Dawn spun around. She drew in a sharp breath as she caught sight of her friend writhing and reeling on the ground. “Take a deep breath,” she said, moving back to the pangolin’s side. But she couldn’t help glancing anxiously over at Bismark. She could barely see his gray pelt through the mass of surrounding lemurs. “Will you be okay?” she asked Tobin.

  The pangolin let out a grunt and gave a small nod.

  Dawn placed a paw on Tobin’s trembling scales. “I’ll be right back,” she promised. “Just hold on.” Then she sprang out to rescue the sugar glider from the circle of lemurs.

  “Oh goodness!”

  Dawn heard Tobin cry out behind her, but she couldn’t stop.

  “OH NO!”

  Tobin cried out again. Dawn’s heart pounded in her chest.

  “NOOOOOO!”

  At last, Dawn came to a halt. She had no choice—this cry was different. Desperate. What was happening to her friend? The fox glanced back worriedly—then she gasped.

  “I’m…” Tobin’s eyes bulged from his face. “I’m gonna…”

  Dawn’s throat felt tight at the sight. Tobin was no longer curled in a ball—he was splayed on the ground, spine arched, tail lifted high in the air.

  “I’m gonna…BLOOOOOOOW!” Tobin yelped. His entire body shook. “Ohhh…Myyyyyy…Goooodnesss!!!!”

  With a giant whoosh, Tobin’s scent glands unleashed behind him. His body jolted forward as his defensive spray shot out of him in a dense, greenish cloud, a truly terrible stench.

  Dawn shielded her snout with her tail, but even through her thick fur, she could smell the pangolin’s spray. Although Tobin’s poofs were never pleasant, the poisonous pomelo rendered this one absolutely ghastly. Dawn crouched low to the ground, further away from the horrific cloud overhead. But even still, she coughed. It was the most foul, awful scent she had ever smelled in her life—so bad, in fact, that it stung her nostrils, her eyes, and her throat.

  “By all that is heavenly!” Bismark cried, still struggling under his captors. “I am certainly doomed now! If not at the hands of these crazed fur balls, then from the fumes of my foul friend!”

  Bismark pawed desperately at the lemurs’ claws. “In the name of all that is sweet, release me! I need my flaps to wave away this repulsive odor! And you, mes amis, should do the same!”

  But even through pained coughs and watery eyes, the lemurs held fast to Bismark and continued their chant.

  “I…”—gasp—“I…”—cough. “I…I…”—wheeze—gasp—cough.

  Under the harsh, green cloud, the sugar glider coughed and sputtered. “Good-bye, my sweet fox! Fare-thee-well, my fair maiden! How I wish my dying breaths could have been filled with your sweet smell instead of the scaly one’s stench!”

  A strong breeze blew, propelling the cloud of poisonous stink across the field and settling directly over the lemurs’ heads. All at once, they began to choke. And then they were left with no choice: they were forced to release the sugar glider to grab at their throats, wipe their eyes, and plug
their noses.

  “Mon dieu!” Free to move at last, Bismark wrapped himself in his flaps to protect himself from the deadly fumes. But he was unable to see, and he stumbled forward, back, and in circles until, finally, he collapsed onto his rear. Dizzy and disoriented, he stayed there, huddled in a tiny ball, eyes closed, waiting for the lethal fog to pass.

  “Bismark.” Sometime later, he heard a voice overhead. “It’s okay now. The air has cleared.”

  It was Dawn. Slowly, Bismark unfurled his flaps and opened a single eye. He sighed with relief. His two friends stood beside him, and he was all right. But where were the lemurs?

  The sugar glider opened his other eye and frantically gazed about. Then he gasped.

  The lemurs were still there—each and every one of them. But they were no longer zipping or zooming—in fact, they weren’t moving at all. No—they were lying flat on the earth: unmoving, unthreatening, and entirely unconscious!

  “The poison made Tobin’s scent extra powerful,” said Dawn, letting out a small, raspy cough. Her amber eyes were teary and bloodshot from the toxic fumes. But as she squinted to survey the passed-out animals, she could not help but betray a small smile. “The lemurs just couldn’t take it.”

  Tobin lowered his snout. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  ”You’re sorry?” cried Bismark. “Are you kidding, muchacho?” Holding his nose, the sugar glider rose to his feet. “You should be proud, scale-butt! Your special aroma is a knockout!”

  “Oh goodness,” Tobin said sheepishly. “I suppose the poison was at least good for something!” He let out a tiny giggle. “And I feel a bit better, too. I might not even need the blue flower any—” But Tobin stopped short and winced. The heat had suddenly returned to his belly. The toxic explosion had only provided temporary relief.

  Dawn’s face creased with concern. But then her eyes darted sideways, and her worry shifted to anger: one of the lemurs had awakened and was staggering to its feet with a groan.