by Asia Citro
“Plaster?” I asked. “I don’t want to do crafts right now. I want to figure out what that creature was.”
“Oh, but that’s exactly what we’re going to do!” Mom said. “I’d come with you to see the footprint, but your dad might be a little suspicious if we both took off into the forest without inviting him along.” She winked. “So I’ll show you how to make a mold of the footprint you can bring back to show me.”
“Whoaaa, cool!” I said. Sassafras, in his excitement, jumped onto the container. I grabbed him and sat with him in my lap on a kitchen chair.
“Okeydokey, let’s see here,” Mom mumbled as she grabbed a measuring cup and used it to fill a water bottle with two cups of tap water. Next she pulled out a big plastic ziplock bag and another measuring cup. She measured four cups of plaster of paris powder into the bag, then sealed it shut.
“When you get there, you’ll need to find a bunch of small sticks and one big one.”
“Sticks! Got it,” I said.
“Use the small sticks to make a circle around the footprint. They’ll help keep your plaster from flowing everywhere.”
“Meow!” said Sassafras, and I nodded.
“Then take this water,” she held up the water bottle, “and add it to this bag of plaster.” She held up the ziplock bag as Sassafras touched his nose to it and stared inside. “Use the big stick to mix it until it’s smooth. Then carefully pour it into the center of the footprint until you fill up the whole footprint right up to that stick border.”
“OK, got it,” I said. “Then what?”
“Then play for about thirty minutes. After that, check the plaster with your finger,” Mom continued. “When it’s hard to the touch, gently wiggle the plaster out of the ground and bring it home to dry overnight. After it’s completely dry you can use a damp paper towel to clean off any remaining dirt.”
A big grin spread across my face. “This is so cool!” I hopped up out of the chair and gave my mom a big hug. “Thank you!!!”
CHAPTER 6
MAKING A MOLD
Sassafras and I followed all my mom’s steps to mix and pour the plaster. Now we were just waiting for it to dry.
In my earlier rush to get home, I guess I’d forgotten my underwater viewer by the stream.
“Whoops!” I said. I picked it up and peeked in at the merhorses. I found the one with the really pretty mane that had been so upset earlier. It was fine. No fighting.
Sassafras came over and bumped his head into my leg. I scratched under his chin and he purred. “I guess that merhorse was feeling grumpy.” I shrugged. “There must be something in the air—Pip was so grumpy yesterday, too. Huh.”
I looked down at my cat, but he was staring at some grass that was moving nearby.
He chattered and his tail twitched.
Oh! Maybe the creatures who left the footprints were back!
I scooped him up and tiptoed closer.
“Awww, it’s just a sweet little bunny, Sassafras,” I whispered in his ear. He strained to get free. “No way, buddy. You are not going to chase that cute bunny!”
I held him a bit tighter and sat down quietly to watch the bunny. It took a giant bite of grass and then chewed and chewed and… Wait. Didn’t it sound like a much quieter version of the sound I heard at the stream earlier? And the sound I heard in my garden with Pip? I closed my eyes and tried to remember.
“Oh gosh, Sassafras! I think that weird noise we keep hearing is CHEWING!”
In my excitement I’d forgotten to whisper. The poor bunny froze for a moment before bolting into the forest.
“Sorry, little guy,” I whispered after him, then set Sassafras down.
I glanced at the bunny tracks just to be sure, but they looked like regular bunny tracks. So whatever was making that louder chewing noise was not a bunny. Or not a normal bunny, anyway.
Sassafras huffed and trotted over to the plaster mold. He pawed it once.
“Do you think it’s ready?” I poked it with my finger. It seemed pretty solid. I wiggled it back and forth a few times, and it came free.
CHAPTER 7
CHEWING?
“Mooom!” I burst through the doorway and almost ran into her. “Oh, whoops! You’re right there.”
We both laughed.
I held out the footprint mold. “And whatever the creature is, it chews. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what those noises were. And there might have been a few of them—it sounded like more than one and there were a LOT of these footprints.”
“Huh.” Mom ran her finger along the outline of the footprint. “This is going to sound strange, but what were your friends’ moods like when you heard the creatures?”
“Both times they were SO grumpy! It was like, all of a sudden, too!”
Mom nodded. “Huh. So… years ago when I was much younger, I found a strange footprint in the forest. I think it looked like this one. I was so curious I asked two of my forest monster friends about it. One of them said it was a creature that makes everyone grumpy, and the other had a funny name for it. I should have written it down in my science journal!”
“OH! I think I know. Pip was talking about a grumpie. No… that’s not quite it. Hold on a sec.”
I dashed to my room, grabbed my Thinking Goggles, popped them on, and raced back to the kitchen.
“A bad case of the GRUMPLETS! That’s what he said.”
“Yes! That’s it. That’s what she called them—grumplets! But I haven’t seen any footprints since then. I had forgotten about them until you showed me this.” Mom handed the footprint mold back to me.
Mom put an arm on my shoulder. “Since the forest monsters seemed to know about them, I think your best bet is to go ask—”
“GORP!” we said at the same time.
Sassafras immediately started purring.
CHAPTER 8
FOREST
MONSTERS
Sassafras and I didn’t have to hike far before we heard the faint sound of music playing.
I grinned down at Sassafras. “Forest monster dance party!”
We ran into a clearing where a large group of young forest monsters were dancing to the music—including Gorp!
Sassafras, wild with happiness, bounced over to Gorp. He was purring SO loudly.
The young forest monsters spotted my cat and gasped. They huddled together on the other side of the clearing, shaking in fear.
Gorp stopped dancing and grimaced a bit. He reached out a finger gingerly and tapped Sassafras on the head.
A young monster screamed.
Sassafras fell over purring and rolled on the ground, begging for more pets from Gorp.
Gorp called to his friends, “See? It’s OK. He’s a friend. He won’t eat you, I promise!” He hesitated a moment, then reached out and tapped Sass once more.
Several monsters shook their heads. None of them came any closer.
Gorp gave me a big hug. “How are you? You and Sassafras out for a hike?”
“We came to see you!” I held out the plaster mold we’d made of the footprint. “Do you know what creature’s footprint this is?”
Gorp turned it a few different ways before shaking his head and handing it back to me.
A few of his friends crept closer to get a better look, and I tilted the mold toward the brave monsters. “My mom and I think it might be a grumplet.”
One of the monsters said, “I’ve heard about grumplets before!”
“You have?” I cheered and started walking toward her. Which meant Sassafras followed me.
The monster hid behind a friend.
“Oh, sorry!” I grabbed Sassafras and took several steps back across the field. “What do you know about them?” I called over.
She peeked out from behind her friend. After seeing that Sassafras was restrained, she took a step closer and said, “My grandma tells a story about them when I’m in a bad mood. When she was a little monster, they had the most perfect summer—not too hot and not too cool. But then the
forest got a bad case of the grumplets. Everyone fought and argued instead of enjoying the wonderful weather. Eventually when the seasons changed, the grumplets moved on. So there was a happy ending and all that.”
“Hmmm…” I tapped my chin. “Maybe the grumplets migrate with the seasons?”
Sassafras wiggled in my arms and chattered at the group of monsters.
“Shhh, Sass! I know you want to love on the monsters but they’re afraid!” I scolded.
One monster backed up to get farther away from Sassafras. A monster behind him shouted, “OUCH! You stepped on my foot!” and shoved him.
“It’s not my fault you’re ALWAYS IN MY WAY!” yelled the first monster and shoved him back. And just like that, all the monsters on the far side of the field were pushing and shouting.
“UGH. You RUINED our dance party!” shouted the monster who’d been helping me.
“What?” I asked.
Gorp, who was standing closest to us, turned and headed over to the group of loud fighting monsters, calling, “You guys are being SO RUDE!”
I was so surprised by the whole thing that I loosened my grip on Sassafras. He wriggled out from my arms and bounded over to the grass behind the monsters.
They were so wrapped up in fighting that they didn’t even notice my cat! “This has GOT to be the grumplets again,” I whispered to myself and followed Sassafras on my tiptoes. Hopefully this time we’d get a peek at those troublemakers!
As I caught up to Sassafras, I heard the weird chewing sound again. Sassafras and I slowly parted the grass and saw a group of… grumplets? They were so little and cute I almost squealed, but I pressed my mouth shut, took a breath, and reminded myself that it might be my only chance to observe them. I needed to be a scientist and focus on gathering as much information as I could.
I couldn’t see their feet through the grass, so I couldn’t tell if they matched the footprint mold. I looked at their mouths. They were definitely chewing. It was the same sound from before. But what were they eating?
I watched a grumplet that wasn’t chewing step a bit closer to the monsters, then put a hand up in the air and wiggle its fingers. After a little wiggling, it reached up on its tippy toes and grabbed something. Then it pulled that thing into its mouth and began to chew. Another grumplet did the same. The more they pulled and chewed, the louder the fighting monsters got.
I leaned forward to see if I could tell what they were eating. Oh! Something seemed to shimmer in the light a little. Almost like a spiderweb? I leaned even farther forward and squinted my eyes. Yes! There were tiny, almost invisible, sparkly strands floating from the top of the monsters’ heads over the grass and into the hands of the grumplets! I leaned a teeny bit farther forward to see better…
And then I fell.
With a very loud THUD.
CHAPTER 9
GRUMPLETS
I popped up just in time to see wide-eyed grumplets leaping backward and running off to the forest. As they turned to run, the airy, sparkly strings they’d been pulling on snapped and vanished. The grumplets were small, but they were FAST. There was no way Sassafras and I could catch up with them.
I sighed and brushed off my pants. My hand bumped the footprint mold in my pocket.
“Oh! We can at least see if their footprints are a match. Help me find some tracks, Sass!”
We hunted through the grass in opposite directions.
“Meow!”
Sure enough, my cat had found a patch of mud with some footprints in it. I held up the mold. It was an exact match.
I ruffled Sassafras’s fur. “Great work!”
We turned back toward the clearing, but all the monsters were still fighting. So Sassafras and I trudged toward home. I hoped we could get to the bottom of this whole grumplet thing. If not, the summer was going to be LONG and frustrating, filled with grumpy, fighting magical friends! That would be such a bummer since the weather was so perfect for playing outside.
Back at home, I popped my Thinking Goggles on my head. “There must be some way to get the grumplets to leave.”
I plopped down at the kitchen table. “OK. Let’s write down what we know so far.”
I focused on what I saw while they were chewing. They were taking something from my friends. And it was thin and sparkly. I tapped my fingers on the table. I thought I smelled popcorn. I looked around—no popcorn. “OK, Thinking Goggles, what does popcorn have to do with this?” I closed my eyes and thought of the last time I’d smelled popcorn like that. “The county fair! Oh! The popcorn machine was by the cotton candy machine. Oh! Oh! The sparkly strands from my friends looked just like cotton candy!” I clapped my hands.
Sassafras wove in between my legs.
“What could be coming from my friends that’s like cotton candy, and losing it makes them grumpy?”
“Mrrowww?”
“Something… sweet… and happy. Wait.” I scooped up Sassafras and put his forehead against mine. I looked into his eyes and asked, “Do you think it could be joy?”
CHAPTER 10
APHIDS
“Let’s ask Mom, Sassafras!” I grabbed my science journal and peeked out the kitchen window and saw her in the garden.
Mom stood up and waved when she spotted us running toward her. “Hey, Zoey! Just the girl I wanted to see—look!” She pointed at my kale.
I bent down next to Sassafras who sniffed the leaf and purred. “Oh, wow! The aphids are almost gone. Thank goodness.
They were such PESTS!”
The Thinking Goggles suddenly felt tight on my head. “Oh my gosh! Mom! That’s it! Maybe the grumplets are a forest pest! But instead of eating kale, they eat my magical friends’ happiness! I saw them and—”
“You saw some grumplets?” Mom’s eyes got wide.
“Yeah! They’re really cute. Anyway, I saw them pulling these weird sparkly strands, which looked like cotton candy, off my friends. Do you think that could’ve been their joy, Mom?”
“Interesting! That does sound like a good explanation to me. So, if you’re right and they’re pests eating something you don’t want them to, what do you think we should do?” Mom tapped my science journal and winked at me.
I plopped down in the dirt and wrote in my journal while Sassafras chased a butterfly.
“Oh, that’s a good idea!” I exclaimed.
Mom smiled. “Tell me more!”
“Well, at the market, Nina said I could try a trap plant like nasturtiums for the aphids. A trap plant is basically something yummier than the plant they are attacking.” I looked over and the butterfly had flown away, so now Sassafras was chasing a grasshopper. “OK… so if the grumplets want to eat my friends’ happiness, what would taste better than that?”
I paced around the garden. “What tastes like happiness? Happiness… happiness …”
I tasted the sweetness of the cotton candy from the fair on my tongue.
“CANDY!”
CHAPTER 11
PIP (AGAIN)
“Why are you shouting about candy?” called a voice from the forest, and out hopped Pip.
“PIP!” Mom and I cheered.
“You were right,” I told him. “Grumplets were making you grumpy the other day.”
“I really did have a bad case of the grumplets?” Pip asked.
“Yep!” I nodded. “Sassafras and I saw them causing trouble with the forest monsters yesterday. I’m pretty sure they’re eating all the happiness from magical creatures.”
Pip wrinkled his nose. “Happiness is another weird thing to eat.” Then he shrugged. “Makes more sense than kale, though.”
I rolled my eyes. “I think if we can get them to eat candy instead, they’ll leave you guys alone!”
Dad peeked into the kitchen and called, “Hey, honey?”
Mom patted my head. “It sounds like you guys have this handled. Tell me what you learn later!” She sneaked Pip a quick kiss and headed into the house.
Pip touched his cheek and smiled, then turned bac
k to me. “So, how do we get them to eat candy instead?”
“Hmmm…” I said. “Oh! Are you willing to help me try something?”
“Of course!” he replied.
“Great—you two wait here, and I’ll be right back.”
Once I filled my backpack with all the stuff I needed, I set out for the meadow where the monsters had been fighting earlier. I told Pip my plan along the way.
When we got there, I laid out a little napkin as a frog-sized picnic blanket and handed Pip a small bag of chocolate candy. Then I scooped up Sassafras and hid in the bushes at the edge of the field.
“OH, THIS IS SOOO GOOD!” Pip shouted as loudly as he could while pretending to eat a bite of candy.
He looked around. Nothing. “I AM SO, SO, SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!” he shouted again while taking a fake bite.
“I AM JUST OOOZING HAPPINESS RIGHT NOW. JUST SO MUCH HAPPY RIGHT HERE IN THIS MEADOW!”
I sighed. Maybe this wasn’t going to work. Grumplets might not understand what he was saying. Or they might be on the other side of the forest. Or…
“Mrrowww!” Sassafras’s ears pricked toward Pip.
I leaned forward (but not too much this time) and saw the grass on the other side of Pip rustling. “Yesss!” I whisper-shouted. “Grumplets!”
But then Pip frowned and stood up. “THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA.”
Oh no. A grumplet scampered close to Pip. It wiggled its fingers and started pulling and chewing. Other grumplets joined in. They were eating Pip’s happiness!
“UGH. IT’S NOT EVEN WORKING,” Pip yelled as he threw the bag of candy on the ground. The candies rolled out, and one landed at the feet of a grumplet.
I held my breath.
The grumplet looked down and poked the candy with its toe. Then it reached down for the candy. It held it up. Sniffed it. Sneezed. And then… IT ATE THE CANDY!