by Tracey Hecht
“There has to be a way,” the fox muttered.
“Bien sûr, there’s a way, my sweet!” Bismark said. “We bolt straight ahead, ram them down, dodge…their…clutches!” He punched a fist in the air, but his voice faded.
“Aye, aye, aye-aye! Aye, aye, aye-aye!” The lemurs’ chanting grew even louder and their circle drew even tighter. They were now standing shoulder-to-shoulder, leaving no room between them. And the circle was thick and solid—at least ten rows deep all around.
Dawn shook her head. Even if she agreed with her friend’s rash approach, it would never work. The Brigade was outplayed and greatly outnumbered.
Dawn opened her mouth, searching for a command, or at least words of comfort or wisdom. But there was nothing to say. The lemurs were nearly touching them now.
The Brigade was caught.
Chapter Eighteen
THE CAPTIVES
“This is an outrage! Release us at once, you traitors!” yelled Bismark. “I’ll flap you silly for this!”
The sugar glider wriggled and squirmed, but his efforts were useless. The lemurs held strong, ignoring Bismark’s cries, and marched onward, pushing and tugging the Brigade along with them.
“Where are they taking us?” Tobin yelped. The pangolin struggled to catch a glimpse of his surroundings, but all he could see besides a mass of brown fur was the blur of the treetops above. “Hello?” he asked, attempting to communicate with his captors. “Excuse me?”
But the lemurs did not reply. They simply marched onward, eyes blank and grips tight. As the branches overhead became thicker and the crunch of leaves became louder under the lemurs’ paws, the animals chanted even louder than before:
“Aye…aye…aye-aye.”
“Aye…aye…aye-aye.”
Dawn’s jaw tightened. “I think that’s your answer, Tobin.”
“They’re taking us to the aye-aye? Oh mon dieu, we are doomed!” Bismark screeched. “I cannot go back to that malodorous muchacha. Who knows what she’ll do when she gets her hideous hands on us! Pulverize us with her pointers, grate us with her grinders, soufflé us for a star-creature snack?”
Suddenly, the lemurs came to a halt. Dawn’s fur stood on end as the captors ceased their chanting. She recognized something in the air—a burning smell. Something gritty, or maybe metallic.
But before Dawn could identify the odor, the lemurs released their hold on the Brigade, letting them fall to the ground in a heap.
“Oof! How about a little warning before you so roughly handle my delicate yet masculine physique?” Bismark grumbled, wiping the dirt from his eyes.
Lying curled on the ground, Tobin cradled his stomach and moaned. The blue flower had worked—the terrible burning was gone—but he remained queasy, as though the plant and the poison were still battling it out in his belly. And the lemurs’ less-than-gentle handling certainly hadn’t helped the pain.
Tobin took a determined breath and struggled to his feet. Then he coughed and squinted through the thick dust that surrounded him. “Where are we?” he asked.
Dawn sniffed the charred air and looked down at her paws. The ground was burned and marked with small holes. We’ve been here before, thought the fox. She spun, dragging her tail through the ash. Then she saw it: the star stone. And standing on top of it—ragged, yet triumphant—was none other than Aye-Aye Iris.
“Well, well, well. Look what we have here.” The aye-aye’s familiar, scratchy voice cut through the dense air. The words were punctuated by a loud, happy cackle.
“You have done well, my lemurs,” she continued, turning to the furry primates. Despite the swirling dust, the lemurs stood motionless and unblinking, glued to Iris’s mesmerizing gaze.
“Aye, aye, aye-aye!” they chanted. “Aye, aye, aye-aye!”
Frantically, Dawn searched through the crowd. Everything—everyone—was connected: Iris, the lemurs, the aliens. She was sure the blue glow would appear any moment now. The fox waited, bracing herself for its arrival. But nothing came—the night remained dusty and dim.
Dawn gave a small sigh of relief. The Brigade had enough to battle without the star creatures. She looked back at Iris.
The aye-aye still stared down at the lemurs, but now her hand was raised overhead. The fox watched as, with a single finger, Iris drew a semi-circle in the air. As though caught in a spell, the lemurs responded by forming a single-file line and creating an arc around the Brigade.
Iris cackled at her three captives. “The ones too smart to join Aye-Aye Iris,” Iris snickered, exposing her dark, yellow teeth. “Look where that’s gotten you now!”
“Mon dieu–you traitor! Double-crosser! Backstabber!” Bismark shouted, pointing an accusing flap at the aye-aye. “You may be a lemur, but you act like a rat!”
Iris’s big orange eyes flickered mischievously. Then she reached under her armpit and fished through a tangled tuft of fur. When she pulled out her hand, a flower, its blue petals and orange center glowing like jewels, twirled in her long fingers.
Bismark’s eyes bulged. Dawn released a low growl.
“Oh goodness, Iris! You have one with you right now?” Tobin cried.
“Yes,” she hissed. “And only Aye-Aye Iris knows where she hid all the rest!” With a smirk, Iris tore the blue petals from the stalk and tossed them over her head. They showered over her as she bent back with a cackle.
“Oh goodness, what are you doing?” gasped Tobin. “Don’t you know how many animals need that?”
“Of course Aye-Aye knows,” the lemur snapped. She slid from the stone with a rustle and landed before the Brigade. “Aye-Aye Iris knows all. She warned you, remember?” she asked, drawing closer. “She offered you information, wisdom, protection. But you didn’t listen.”
“Why are you doing this?” Dawn demanded, narrowing her eyes at the aye-aye. “Why are you working with the invaders? Why are you leading them?” The fox raised her voice louder. “What do they want? What do you want?”
Iris shook her head, stringy fur whipping over her face. Then she pointed one of her long, bony fingers at the Brigade. “You didn’t listen!” she snapped.
Dawn growled and crouched down low, poised to attack, but before she could, the aye-aye raised her finger and clucked disapprovingly. “What do you think you’re doing, fox?” she snarled. She gestured toward the other lemurs with her claws. They took a menacing step forward, and Dawn backed down. She and her friends were far too outnumbered to launch an attack.
Satisfied with the retreat, Aye-Aye Iris slowly lowered her finger. “No, you didn’t listen,” she repeated, muttering under her breath. “No one listened!” she screamed. “No one ever listens! But that’s about to change. Oh, yes. They’ll listen to Aye-Aye Iris now!”
The aye-aye turned wildly to face the Brigade, her eyes burning with rage, her whole body shaking. Then she centered her gaze on Bismark.
“Mon dieu, the loco one is staring right at me!” he cried, shielding himself with his flaps. “I know I’m attractive, but please, find someone else to ogle! Try the scaly one!”
Iris clenched her hands into tight fists. “Loco? Crazy? Yes, of course that’s what you think!” she screamed. “That’s what they all say! ‘Stay away from the aye-aye! Don’t talk to Iris! Don’t go anywhere close!’”
“Oh goodness! We’re sorry!” cried Tobin. He eyed the fallen petals that lay at the aye-aye’s feet. “Just don’t destroy any more flowers!”
Iris’s leathery ears twitched in their sockets and she licked her dry, cracked lips with her tongue. “Destroy?” she asked with a snort. “Oh no. I would never do that. These flowers are Aye-Aye Iris’s secret—her power! As long as she has these, everyone will depend on her. They’ll want to come to the aye-aye. They’ll need to come to see Iris!”
“Iris, stop! There’s no time for this—animals’ lives are at stake!” Dawn shouted.
“Enough!” the lemur screamed. She spun around, let out a shrill, piercing whistle, and the lemurs stepped toward her i
n unison. Then Iris began to wave her long, bony fourth fingers before their eyes like a pendulum.
“Aye, aye, aye-aye,” she muttered.
“Aye, aye, aye-aye!” they chanted.
“Lemurs, dig!” the aye-aye commanded.
In a flash, the army of lemurs began clawing at the dusty earth beneath their feet. Their limbs churned up the dirt with incredible speed, creating a pit that grew deeper and deeper within moments.
Dawn stared at the lemurs: why were they doing this? Why were they listening to the aye-aye? She stared at the lemurs, moving as fast as lightning, but with no emotion and empty eyes. Then she looked at the aye-aye who was totally still but for her swaying fingers.
Back and forth, back and forth, swayed the aye-aye’s fingers.
Left, right, left, right, moved the lemurs’ eyes.
The fox’s jaw fell open in sudden comprehension. At last, it all made sense. “A trance.” Her eyes were fixed on the aye-aye’s finger. “That’s how she gets them to do what she wants! That’s how she’s controlling them!”
Tobin, too, stared at the rhythmic, mesmerizing motion of the aye-aye’s fingers. “Oh goodness! Is…is that what she’s going to do to us?” he cried. “Take over our minds?” The pangolin quickly turned away from Iris and curled into a ball.
Her ears flinching, Iris glanced at the pangolin without slowing her fingers. “Oh no,” she whispered. Her mouth spread into a ragged grin. “Aye-Aye Iris has something different planned for you. You three—the Nocturnal Brigade, as they call you—know too much. Aye-Aye Iris cannot risk you revealing her brilliant plan to the others.” The aye-aye snapped her gaze back to the lemurs. The hole they were digging was very deep now. Dangerously deep.
“Lemurs! Take them to the pit!” Iris shrieked.
Dawn snarled, Tobin clutched himself tightly, and Bismark extended his flaps, but it was no use. The lemurs were too fast, too many, and the Brigade went hurtling down, down, down to the bottom of the freshly dug pit.
Chapter Nineteen
ALIENS
The three friends landed at the bottom of the pit in a heap. Then, slowly, they staggered to their feet.
Tobin rubbed his sore scales and looked around frantically, desperate to find a way out. The lemurs, with their crazed energy, had managed to dig a massive hole—as big as a beluga whale’s stomach. The moonlight shone down through the pit’s wide mouth overhead, but even with its pale, familiar light, it felt as if the Brigade had been swallowed whole. The pit was vast, its walls, high and steep. Escape seemed completely impossible.
“Oh goodness,” Tobin gasped. “We’re trapped!”
Desperately, Dawn circled the pit, searching in vain for a foothold in its walls. She tried digging into ground, but the dirt was densely packed—it would take ages to burrow out. Even Tobin’s sharp claws would barely make a dent in the earth.
She growled in frustration. “We have to find a way out,” she said, looking to her friends. Her eyes darted back and forth between them. “Think! What can we do?”
“Worry not, my love,” Bismark said with a chuckle. “This is pas de problème for we flappy folk. Now please, por favor: watch, observe, and be awed!” The glider took a deep breath, puffed out his chest, and shot a wink at the fox. Then, taking a running start, he began to furiously wave his flaps. But it was no use. Bismark barely lifted off the ground, and, before he knew it— SPLAT!—he’d smacked face-first into the pit’s rock-hard wall.
Tobin watched his over-confident friend crumple into a heap on the ground. “Oh goodness, Bismark, are you okay?” The pangolin nudged the sugar glider’s side with his snout.
“Si, yes, of course I’m okay! What kind of question is that, pangolino?” Bismark sputtered, and scrambled to his feet. “I can foil any foe, vanquish any vermin, attack any atrocious aye-aye—” the sugar glider spat out some dirt and used a wad of saliva to polish his fur “—as soon as my flaps are clean.” He sputtered and polished again. “Ah yes, there we go. Good as—”
Suddenly, a loud cackle rang out from overhead. The sugar glider’s mouth snapped shut and he looked up. Aye-Aye Iris leaned over the rim of the pit, finger raised, malice burning in her wild eyes. “Lemurs!” she screeched, waving her long, bony fingers. “Fill the pit!”
“Quoi? What new crazy command is this? You’ve already filled the pit—with us!” Bismark cried. But before he could say another word, the sugar glider was hit square in the face with a clod of dirt. The hypnotized lemurs had begun shoveling large clumps of soil down on the Brigade.
“Oh goodness, they’re burying us alive!” Tobin cried, protecting his head with his claws as the earth rained down across his scales.
Bismark’s small chest began to heave. “Oh mon dieu… my worst dream is becoming reality,” he gasped. “I shall die with a soiled coat!”
Dawn’s brow creased with despair. The lemurs’ paws moved in a frenzied blur. Despite the pit’s considerable size, the dirt was already covering her feet …and it was nearly up to Bismark’s waist.
As the fox’s mind raced, Bismark’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Pah! The sugar glider was not meant for this sort of filth! This humiliating work!” In an attempt to stay clean, he shoveled flapfuls of dirt to the side. But his efforts were endless and useless: the dirt kept raining down, Bismark kept shoveling it away, and the ground just kept growing higher and higher.
Dawn growled and watched her friend shriek as another clod of earth splattered at his feet. Bismark leaped atop his tidy dirt mound in shock then shook his tiny fist at the lemurs.
And that’s when it hit her. The fox’s eyes widened. “Bismark, that’s it!” she cried.
At once, the fox raced to the sugar glider’s side and began to pack the newly dug soil so it would support her weight, too. “Tobin, Bismark, follow my lead! We can use all this dirt to our advantage and build our way out!”
With Dawn at the helm, the three friends shaped the falling soil into a ramp that would lead above ground. Tobin worked eagerly. The plan was a good one. Soon they would be free! But then, a tap tap tap caught his attention. The pangolin froze.
“Listen!” Tobin whispered. “Did you hear that?”
Dawn and Bismark paused and raised their ears. At first, they could hear nothing through the shower of dirt hurled by the lemurs. But then, they heard it, echoing down into the pit:
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Slowly, shielding their eyes from the falling debris, the Brigade-mates gazed up. Iris was staring at them, crouched on her haunches, her long, bony finger tapping at the pit’s rim.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Oh mon dieu, I can’t take this torture anymore!” Bismark shuddered. “We’re trapped, we’re dirty, and now we have to hear that terrible tapping again?”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Dawn’s mind started to spin. Why was Iris tapping again? What was she doing? The fox stared into Iris’s eyes. Then, suddenly, her chest tightened and she spun toward her friends. “Everyone, quick!” she shouted. “Prepare to—”
Before Dawn could finish, another noise echoed through the pit’s depths. But this time it wasn’t Iris’s fingernail. Instead, it was a faint click, click, click. And it was coming from the pit’s walls.
Click. Click. Click.
Suddenly, the lemurs stopped shoveling dirt in to the pit. The sugar glider’s brown eyes widened.
Click. Click. Click.
The sound was growing louder now, faster.
Click, click, click!
All at once, the pit’s walls began to tremble. Crumbs of dirt began to flake from the sides. The Brigade’s pile collapsed beneath their feet, and Iris let out an ear-piercing cackle. Then…
CLACK!
With a sudden flash, narrow tunnels opened in the walls—and blinding beams of blue light shot through them, into the pit. “It’s the star creatures!” cried Tobin. “They’re here!”
Chapter Twenty
THE STAR CREATURES, ILLUMINATED
“Oh
mon dieu, this is the end! Clicked to death by the faceless fiends from outer space!” Bismark screamed as the invaders swarmed into the pit from all sides. “We’re surrounded, mes amis! Quick, Dawn, hold me close for our final good-byes!” Bismark sobbed into the fox’s fur.
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK!
Dawn cringed as the glowers’ noise grew louder and sharper. The pit, lit only by the moon just moments ago, now shone brightly with hundreds of beams of blue light.
Tobin stared, aghast, at the light. Beneath the creatures’ eerie, blue glow, he thought he saw claws again …or, wait, maybe they were huge fangs. Whatever they were, they looked powerful enough to lop off his tail with a single swipe.
“Stop right there you ghastly glowers, you awful aliens, you foreign freaks!” Bismark yelped, tearing himself from Dawn’s haunches and waving his flaps like a maniac. “Do not take another…I don’t know…step? Jump? Moonbeam slide?” The sugar glider scrunched his face in confusion. “Pah! Who knows how you star creatures tango. But you catch my drift: stop this attack this instant!”
The invaders, however, paid Bismark no heed. In fact, they appeared to be moving even faster now, drawing closer to the trio with every passing moment.
“Oh goodness!” gasped Tobin. As the invaders approached, the pangolin saw something scarier than any claws or fangs. The star creatures appeared to have many eyes gleaming from their alien heads. Round, shiny, winking, blinking eyes. Tobin cowered in his scales and his stomach lurched. How many eyes did each creature have? Six? Eight? Ten? He couldn’t tell. And what kind of power, he wondered, did all those eyes have? Could they zap him? Fry him? End him with a single glare? “What should we do?” Tobin yelped.
With his body trembling and his insides forming a huge, hard knot, the pangolin swiveled his scaly neck from one friend to the other. Bismark cowered behind his flaps. And even Dawn, though she stood perfectly still, betrayed a glimmer of fear in her eyes.