“That was awesome,” said Cleo, jumping to her feet.
Luke looked back across the moat. Stumper and Little Bennett were already striding through the water, and the rest of the tribe had appeared in the courtyard behind them, led by the enraged Medicine Man. “I think we’d better run…” he said.
Resus shook his head. “Not when we’ve got these guys to help us.” He took a handful of seed from his pocket and held it out. The nasterns scurried over. “Remember what Stumper said? Feed them well and they’ll do just about anything…”
He grabbed hold of the nearest bird by its neck and swung himself onto its back. “Anyone fancy taking the quick way home?”
Luke and Cleo didn’t hesitate. They jumped onto the backs of two of the other nasterns and, with a click of their heels, sent the birds racing down the side of the hill towards the forest. They clung on tightly.
“Get back here!” raged Stumper, emerging out of the water and running after them. Despite his wooden leg, the troll was fast when he was going downhill, and before long he had almost caught them up.
“I’ll make you pay for this. I’ll eat you all alive!”
Resus grinned over his shoulder. “You said it yourself, it’s better to cook us first!” he shouted. “And for that you’ll need fire…” He plunged his hand into his cloak and pulled out a flaming torch. Leaning backwards until he was lying almost flat on the nastern’s back, he gripped its neck with one hand and touched the flame to Stumper’s wooden leg with the other.
The dry, dead wood of the artificial limb burst alight almost instantly. It snapped, and with a squeal, the troll tumbled to the ground, landing face first in a pile of dung.
Resus pulled himself upright and put the torch away. “We’ll send the birds back to you, Little Bennett!” he called over his shoulder.
“OK,” replied the huge troll, waving at the trio’s retreating backs as he stopped to help Stumper back up onto his remaining foot. “See you later!”
“YOU IDIOT!” bellowed Stumper, his muck-covered face turning purple with rage. “You’re almost as stupid as that bone-headed, talentless Medicine Man!”
“WHAT did you SAY?” roared a voice. Stumper spun round to find himself surrounded by trolls, the furious Medicine Man at their head.
“I, er…” Stumper stammered. “I mean…”
“Take him BACK to the VILLAGE,” the Medicine Man ordered. “I have a new MAGIC TRICK I would like to try out – SAWING A TROLL IN HALF!”
Luke, Resus and Cleo arrived at the Hex Hatch just as the sun began to set. They climbed down from the nasterns and Resus treated the birds to the remainder of the seed from his pocket.
“Do you think they will return to Little Bennett?” asked Cleo.
“Who knows?” said Luke. “Maybe they’ll just keep themselves to themselves for a while.”
Resus watched them with a smile as they sat down where they were and curled up into their little bush shapes to sleep. “You don’t think I’d be able to take one of them home with me, do you?” he asked.
Cleo snorted out a laugh. “Where would you keep a five-stone budgie?”
“Fair point,” laughed Resus. And with a final look at his ancestor’s homeland, he climbed through the Hex Hatch and back into Scream Street. Luke and Cleo followed.
The sky glowed red from the approaching sunset as they wandered towards the central square. “Are you guys going straight home?” Cleo asked.
“What, and miss the fireworks?” smiled Luke.
Cleo looked at him, confused. “Is it still Vampire New Year?” she asked. “I thought that was last night.”
“Not those fireworks,” said Luke, his eyes twinkling. “Follow me…”
Sir Otto Sneer spotted the trio as soon as they stepped into the square. He leapt from his stool and waddled towards them angrily. “What did you freaks do to my doorway?” he demanded.
Luke looked over at the shimmering lights that made up the doorway back to the real world. Only five colours remained – blue, yellow, purple, green and orange – and it was true, the entrance seemed to have shrunk a little. “We didn’t do anything,” he said sweetly.
Sneer bit down hard on his cigar. “You’ve done something to one of the relics, haven’t you?” he growled. He pointed to Resus’s cape and thrust his hand out towards the trio. “Whatever else you’ve got in there, you’d better give it to me – right now.”
“With pleasure,” said Resus, sweeping his hand out from under his cloak and slopping a lump of reeking, grey troll dung into the landlord’s hand.
Sir Otto yelped in disgust and hurled it to the ground, staring at his filthy fingers in horror. Then he turned and raced away towards Sneer Hall, cursing the children as he went.
“I thought you hated that stuff!” exclaimed Cleo, holding her nose.
“I do,” said Resus. “But I figured it would be rude to go all that way and not bring Sneer back a little souvenir.”
Luke laughed. “It doesn’t look like he was too happy with your choice of gift.”
“Well, if he doesn’t want the stuff, we can sure make good use of it,” said a voice. The trio turned to see Doug and Berry lurching towards them.
Doug eyed the troll dung with glee. “It’ll make a wicked mudpack – perfect for Berry’s complexion!”
“It’s all yours,” said Resus. “Unless, of course, Luke wants it…”
“No, really!” insisted Luke.
“Why, thank you, children,” beamed Berry. She bent to scoop up the dung and the zombies limped away.
Resus brought out from his cloak the golden casket of relics and opened it up. “OK, then,” he said. “What’s next?”
“The bottle of witch’s blood was the second relic we found,” said Luke. “So I guess it should be the next one we give back.”
Cleo yawned. “Just tell me you don’t want to go now.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I’ve had a bath!” exclaimed Resus.
Luke laughed. “Sounds like a good idea,” he said. “But before I do anything else, I’m going home to see my mum.”
Tommy Donbavand was born and brought up in Liverpool and has worked at numerous careers that have included clown, actor, theatre producer, children’s entertainer, drama teacher, storyteller and writer. His non-fiction books for children and their parents, Boredom Busters and Quick Fixes for Bored Kids, have helped him to become a regular guest on radio stations around the UK and he also writes for a number of magazines, including Creative Steps and Scholastic’s Junior Education.
Tommy sees his comedy-horror series Scream Street as what might have resulted had Stephen King been the author of Scooby Doo. “Writing Scream Street is fangtastic fun,” he says. “I just have to be careful not to scare myself too much!” Tommy had so much fun writing the first Scream Street books that he decided to set Luke, Resus and Cleo another quest so he’d have an excuse to write some more.
You can find out more about Tommy and his books at his website: www.tommydonbavand.com
Other Scream Street titles
1: Fang of the Vampire
2: Blood of the Witch
3: Heart of the Mummy
4: Flesh of the Zombie
5: Skull of the Skeleton
6: Claw of the Werewolf
7: Invasion of the Normals
Coming soon!
9: Terror of the Nightwatchman
10: Rampage of the Goblins
For Luke Donbavand,
the star behind Scream Street
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
First published 2010 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Text © 2010 Tommy Donbavand
Illustrations © 2010 Cartoon Saloon Ltd
The right of Tommy Donbavand to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-3214-8 (ePub)
ISBN 978-1-4063-3215-5 (e-PDF)
www.walker.co.uk
Attack of the Trolls Page 6