I looked over at the blue moon. White clouds swirled across its surface, and I could see—
I clapped a hand to my mouth.
“That’s no moon,” I murmured. I could see continents: Africa, Europe, Antarctica …
I looked to my left, following the white streaks. They flowed into one long line, stretching far out into the darkness.
“Whizzing wombats,” I murmured. “I’m on the comet…”
I swallowed hard and stared at the blackness of space, at my entire planet like a big marble in the distance. Jimmy’s words echoed in my head.
It’s as real as Earth. More real, even. You can die here.
I knelt down, put my hand on the hard glass of the pillar, feeling the need to be on solid ground.
“Take me down,” I whispered. Nothing happened.
Down. I traced the word on the glass, clenching my teeth at the burn that filled me.
The Starfield obeyed with a final whimper.
When the pillar came level with Gruffy, he flew protectively beside me, but the Starfield delivered me safely to the ground.
“Are you all right, Doolivanti?” Gruffy landed next to me and we walked back to our camp.
I was in a daze, and I didn’t know what to say. The Ink King had said I didn’t belong here. Was that why the Starfield tried to shoot me at the Earth instead of showing me how to reach my dreams?
We arrived at the fire and, without another word, Gruffy turned around once, then crouched down as though nothing had happened. I laid back on the grass, looking up at the streaked sky and holding onto the necklace Dad had given me.
Narolev’s Comet. Narolev. I turned over and wrote the word out in the grass, saw it in my mind. I turned it around.
Narolev. Veloran.
Narolev was Veloran spelled backward!
I rolled over and stared up at the white streaks, at the barely visible Earth beyond them. Colossal cometoids! I was actually flying through space.
It made this place real in a way it hadn’t felt before. I mean, the idea that I was in a magical dimension was one thing. It was like imagining I was in a picture with fuzzy edges. But thinking that I was hurtling through the unforgiving airlessness of space, that put a hard edge to everything. Even scientists acknowledged that Narolev’s Comet was real, and that’s where I was. The thought swam around and around in my head. Around and around …
Sleep eventually got me, but I dreamed of rocketing through the stars.
CHAPTER 11
I woke to angry voices. What the what? I blinked and looked at the sky. The white streaks had faded and the sun was bright. It was morning.
“We already freed her. Already freed her,” Pip was squawking. “That was the mission. That was the mission. And you almost got killed. Almost got killed!”
“Squeak.”
I shook the sleep away and stood up.
“The Ink King has stolen the Doolivanti’s family. The Eternal Sea darkens daily,” Gruffy said. “Such injustice cannot be borne. We shall go there. We shall brace him.”
“This isn’t a game. Isn’t a game,” Pip squawked.
Gruffy lifted his head, his feathers rising around his neck. “I am playing no game. We do what must be done. There is no other—”
“You’re already in trouble. Already in trouble.”
“What price I must pay is beside the point.”
“Wait. What sort of trouble?” I asked, walking up to them as I rubbed sleep out of my eyes.
Gruffy shook his head. “It is nothing—”
“They’ll ground you for life. Ground you for life.”
Squeak chittered, smoothing out his whiskers.
“Enough, Pip!” Gruffy said.
“Your parents?” I asked.
“Your father will pull out your flight feathers. He’ll pull out your flight feathers.”
Then it dawned on me, but that was ridiculous! “Wait. You’re not an adult griffon? But you’re enormous!”
“Compared to his father, Gruffy’s a sparrow. He’s a sparrow.”
Squeak chittered again, and I realized he was laughing.
Gruffy looked like he might take a nip at the toucan. “I am almost seven! And I will not stand by while injustice—”
“You’re seven years old?” I asked.
“There are always injustices. Always injustices,” Pip squawked. “And me and Squeak getting eaten by your father would be the largest! It would be the largest! The Eternal Sea is a million miles away. A million miles away.” Pip flapped about, agitated. “And the Ink King is too strong. Too strong. Does anyone remember the Tree Bender of Garrulous Grove? Of Garrulous Grove?” Pip asked. “The Sky Captain? The Sky Captain? Even the Sand Spinner has not been seen lately. Not seen lately. They crossed the Ink King and now they’re gone. Now they’re gone.”
Gruffy pointed a talon at Pip. “All the more reason—”
“What does he mean?” I asked. The Tree Bender and the Sky Captain had to be Doolivantis. “What did the Ink King do?”
“You would take her right to him? Right to him?” Pip continued his tirade, ignoring me.
“I will protect her,” Gruffy said.
“You can’t even protect yourself. Protect yourself! The Ink King had you bound and gagged. Bound and gagged.”
Gruffy’s lion tail lashed.
“Wait a minute!” I said, raising my voice. “What did he do with them?”
“Squeak.”
Both Pip and Gruffy looked at the little mouse as though he had answered the question, then looked at me for my response.
I rolled my eyes. “I can’t understand him!”
Gruffy bowed his head. “My apologies. The Ink King visited them, and they vanished.”
“He killed them?” I asked.
“He’s powerful. Very powerful,” Pip said.
“We don’t know that for certain,” Gruffy said.
“You’re so concerned with being a hero that you’ll put her in danger! You’ll put her in danger!” Pip said. “That’s not what a hero does. Not what a hero does.”
“And my other choice is to let this villain win? I shall not!” Gruffy said.
“That’s not your responsibility. Not your responsibility! I’m going to your father. To your father.”
Gruffy jumped into the air, his wings creating a mighty wind. Pip flew hastily out of his reach. The sudden gale pushed me back; I shielded my eyes.
“SQUEAK!”
Squeak stood on his hind legs, paws out like a miniature emperor.
“Squeak,” he repeated, more quietly.
“We can’t let him take her there,” Pip protested. “We can’t—”
“I’m going anyway,” I interrupted. Everyone looked at me. “The Ink King has my family.”
“You don’t know that. Don’t know that,” Pip said.
“It’s the only lead I have. For a whole year, I’ve had no explanation for why they vanished. No chance to bring them back. I’ve been told to ‘move on.’ But Veloran changes everything. What if they have been here for a whole year? I can’t leave them trapped here with the Ink King. If there’s even a chance I can save them, I’m going to the Eternal Sea.”
Pip hovered, flicking his wings to keep himself aloft.
Gruffy landed, tucking his wings against his lion flanks.
“Squeak,” said Squeak with finality.
“No one likes a know-it-all. Likes a know-it-all,” Pip squawked peevishly.
Squeak smoothed his whiskers with his paws.
Ripple giggled, covering her mouth, and Gruffy made a clicking sound with his beak.
Pip’s flapping became agitated, and he changed direction, flying back and forth.
“Well, I’ll have to tell her, then. I’ll have to tell her,” he said, and took off toward the rising sun.
“Tell who?” I asked.
Gruffy, with that crook to his beak that I recognized as his smile, said, “His girlfriend.”
“Oh!” I said, co
nfused. “And how old is Pip?”
“About three. Which, to a human, would be about…” Gruffy thought.
“Squeak.”
“Yes. About sixteen.”
“And what about you? What would you be in human years?”
“I don’t think age—” Gruffy began.
“Squeak.”
Gruffy sighed. “About eleven, but griffons are different than humans in many—”
“Squeak.”
Gruffy cleared his throat, trying to ignore whatever Squeak had said.
I went up to the griffon and punched him on the shoulder. He swiveled his head to look at me.
“Nothing wrong with being eleven.” I said. “That makes us the same age.”
Gruffy looked at me for a moment, then the corner of his beak curved up. “I did not mean to imply…” But he trailed off and looked over my shoulder.
I looked in the same direction and—
“Eeep!” I said.
“Well then,” Gruffy said.
“Squeak,” said Squeak.
An enormous, multicolored forest towered behind us, and it had not been there a second ago!
There were giant purple trees, long and thin. Their branches drooped to the ground. Behind them was a taller blue tree, and farther back, over the treetops, I could see orange leaves, red leaves, and silver leaves on other trees. My gaze returned to the edge of the forest and a clump of giant white flowers that were almost as tall as the purple trees.
“Phazing forests…” I breathed.
“That is the Kaleidoscope Forest, Doolivanti,” Gruffy said.
“Yeah? How did it get here?”
“It is always there. It touches all parts of Veloran. That it is here is a good sign. It senses our need, as we must fly over it to reach the Eternal Sea.”
“It moves where it wants to go?” I asked.
“No, Doolivanti. It touches all parts of Veloran. But sometimes you may see it. Sometimes you may not.”
“Um, okay.” That didn’t make any sense at all.
“Now we must gather provisions, collect Pip, and return. Then we may begin our journey,” Gruffy said. “But at least one of us must stay so the forest will remain.”
“I’ll do it,” I said.
“I shall remain with thee,” Ripple added.
Gruffy nodded. “Do not enter the forest. It is safe at this distance, but fraught with perils within. Squeak and I shall return shortly.” Gruffy launched into the air and flapped out of sight.
I turned back to the forest and the giant white flowers. They were shaped like tulips. Their trunks were smooth and green and went straight up, separating into two other trunks, each bearing a giant white flower cup taller than I was. In between were shorter “trees.” They looked like rumpled orange sweaters on green coils. I stepped closer, marveling, and I heard a chorus of tiny giggles. I stepped back, and they stopped.
I turned to Ripple. “Did you hear that?”
“Verily.”
“Um, what?”
“I did.”
“That’s what ‘verily’ means?”
“Indeed, Lady Lorelei.”
“So you were agreeing.”
“Verily.”
We both paused, then laughed.
“Apologies, my lady,” Ripple said. “For thee, perchance I might say ‘yes’?”
“No. I’ll get it. My dad always said learning is a gift. Don’t change the way you speak for me.”
“Ah, a man of great wisdom, thy father?”
“Actually, he’s a bit of a goof.”
Ripple smiled gently.
I felt that dropping sensation in my stomach. Talking about Dad made me remember how much I missed him. I cleared my throat. “Anyway, you heard the giggles?” I asked instead.
“Verily.” Ripple nodded and winked.
“Then verily where did they come from?” I said.
“I thought thou didst make them.”
I stepped forward, and the giggles came again. Thin blades of grass curled gently around my purple shoes.
“Tis the grass,” Ripple said.
I jumped back. “Did I hurt it?” I knelt down and ran my fingers over the short green blades. They wriggled, tickled my hand, and giggled again. I felt warm tingles from my fingers all the way to my heart.
“They’re wonderful,” I said. “It’s like—”
A figure moved just beyond the giant white tulips, shaded by the thick trees, and I jumped to my feet. Sun flashed off something shiny, then the figure pulled back into the darkness.
“Did you see that?” I said, my heart thumping.
“Nay.” Ripple followed my gaze. “Twas a beast?”
“Something big. It might have had a sword or something metal.”
“Prithee, keep thy distance.”
I stepped forward, and the grasses giggled again. “Come out!” I said, but nothing moved. I went closer, nearing the first of the puffy orange sweater plants. I peered between the trunks, trying to spot the figure, but it was dark inside. Only a few paces into the forest, it was like the sun had gone out.
“Lady Lorelei…”
“I’m just going to—”
The orange sweater plant launched like a striking rattlesnake, wrapping around me. It was so fast I barely had time to turn. The orange “sleeves” were cool and soft, but strong. They yanked me deeper into the forest.
“Lady Lorelei!” Ripple started forward.
“No! Stay ba—”
The cup of a white tulip, towering over the patch of orange sweater plants, bent down and clapped its cup right on top of me. The sweater let go and the flower scooped me up. I sloshed around in thick water filled with things like coconuts. Above, the petals closed together almost completely, leaving an opening about the size of my head.
I clambered upright and jumped for it, grabbing the edges of the petals. They were firm, so I pulled up on them and poked my head out.
“Lady Lorelei! I am coming!” Ripple shouted, striding forward.
“No! Stay back. Don’t let them get you, too.”
“But thou art—”
“Just wait! There’s no point in both of us getting swallowed.”
“Thourt not hurt?”
“I’m okay. I mean, so far. There’s some kind of water in here.”
“Lady Lorelei, thourt the most intrepid maiden I’ve ever met.”
I couldn’t remember what intrepid meant. Dad had used it once. “I’m what? What am I?”
“Brave, my lady.”
“Oh, good. Well, thanks.” I looked around to find something that might—
Below, at the edge of the forest, a knight watched me. He wore armor so shiny, it looked like it was made out of mirrors. He was tall, his shoulders and arms exaggerated like a superhero. Great spikes of mirrored metal poked up from his shoulder plates and out of his gauntlets. His face was only two mirrors angled to a point where his nose would have been. He sat upon a giant pug dog with reins in its stumpy mouth. The pug’s eyes were also mirrors, glinting in the bright light, and it seemed to be looking at nothing.
“Ripple! Watch out!” I shouted.
The knight stayed a moment longer, then wheeled the pug around and dove back into the dark forest.
“Ripple, did you—”
“Verily! A man of mirrors!”
“A knight!”
“A what?” Ripple asked.
I craned my chin over the lip of the flower petal. “Ripple, you speak like Shakespeare in the Park, but you don’t know what a knight is?”
“Do they swim?”
I laughed. After a moment, I let out a breath and dropped back down into the bowl created by the flower petals. My arms were starting to hurt. “I need to get out of here,” I shouted out to Ripple.
“Art thou in distress?”
“Um, no.” The coconut things knocked against my shoes and stuck. “Not yet.” I shook one off, and it splashed into the ankle-deep water, which was thicker now. I picke
d one up. It was brown and oval and looked like a seed. And it was sticky. I had to shake it to get it off my hand.
“There are seeds in here!”
The flower suddenly moved, and I fell against the side of the bowl.
“Lady Lorelei!” Ripple cried.
The water sloshed over me, and the seeds stuck to my arms and legs and chest and back. The petals undulated from the bottom of the bowl, squeezing upward. The flower tipped and spat me out.
I spun across the grass in an eddy of sludgy goop, and the grass giggled. A few seeds twisted off as I tumbled, but most of them stuck.
Ripple hurried to my side. “Art thou injured?”
I stood up, covered in seeds and goop. “Ripple, did this flower spit all over me? Did I just get barfed up by a flower?”
Ripple giggled, putting a delicate blue hand over her mouth. The grass giggled with her.
I stood up, knocking off the sticky seeds. They were very reluctant to let go.
“Ho, Doolivanti!”
Gruffy and Pip flapped down from the sky. Squeak was riding atop Gruffy’s head, as usual.
“Squeak!”
“I guess she did. I guess she did,” Pip squawked.
I shook out my hands, flicking tulip snot onto the ground. Pip flapped backward out of the spray. Gruffy landed next to me, seeming not to notice the flecks that landed on him.
“Ew,” I said. “Just ew.”
“I should have warned you,” Gruffy said. “Everyone knows about the Tasting Tulips. But neither of you are from here.”
“Do they ever swallow people? I mean, like, digest them?” I asked.
Gruff clicked his beak. “No, Doolivanti. This is how they spread their seeds. They pick up a passing creature, cover it in seeds, and let the creature run away with the seeds attached to them. The creature will eventually clean them off somewhere, and more Tasting Tulips can grow. But the tulips are harmless.”
“I was just used as a human bee?” Mom called me “Lori-bee.” Sometimes just “My little bee.” Now I really was!
Gruffy cocked his head. “What is a bee?”
“You don’t have bees?”
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