Ben and the Spider Lake

by Angela Fish

  The white owl flew over roads and fields. He flew over a big river and Ben closed his eyes and hung on even more tightly. He was too afraid to look back at Lox in case he lost his grip. When he opened his eyes, he could see the Dark Mountains ahead of them and Hiboo glided down towards the lake.

  He landed near the bush where the peacocks had been, and Amara came out of her cave. Ben said the rhyme to make himself his normal size again. It was the same rhyme as before, except that he had to say ‘make me big from head to toes’ instead.

  Then Amara showed Lox where the spiders could live. There was a hole in the ground underneath the tree roots. Lox went inside and explored all the passageways and tunnels. When he came out he was very excited.

  ‘It’s perfect,’ he told Amara. ‘It’s bigger than the kingdom we have now and it seems to be in a very safe place. I think the Spider Queen will like it here. Thank you.’

  Amara said that they could come whenever they liked and that she would ask her seven night owls to help to carry all the spiders. So Hiboo took Ben and Lox back to the garden, and Lox said he’d find Ben after he’d seen the Spider Queen.

  Later that day Lox found Ben and Jess sitting in the shed and he told them that the Spider Queen had agreed to move to Spider Lake. He said that the spiders were already packing up their things and that he’d come back on Friday night. Ben called to Amara and when Hiboo arrived, Ben told him what was happening. The owl told Ben to call again when they were ready to leave.

  There was nothing else they could do but wait. Ben’s dad took them to the pictures that evening and they went to bed very sleepy, but happy.

  Jess was going home the next morning because her mother had a week’s holiday from work but she was sad that she wouldn’t be able to see Lox leave. Gran and Mum said that if she wanted to, she could come back the following Saturday as it was Gran’s birthday. Jess smiled at Ben and nodded her head.

  On Gran’s birthday Ben gave her a card and a plant for the garden. Then he waited for Jess to arrive.

  Ben had told Lox to be ready by Saturday evening, and had told Hiboo as well. He didn’t know how many spiders there were in the kingdom, or how many times the owls would need to fly between the garden and the Dark Mountains. He knew that it was only Lox who would come out in the daylight. That was why Amara had said that the night owls would carry the others. Ben was sad about this because he knew that he would probably be in bed when they took off.

  Jess arrived and went with Ben into the garden. Ben called for Hiboo and told him that everything was ready. Hiboo said that the owls would come as soon as it was dark. They knew what to do. He said that Ben must tell the spiders how to make themselves safe under the owls’ feathers, and not to be afraid. The birds would make as many journeys as they could and would come back on Sunday night if they had to.

  Ben and Jess sat on the grass and talked and talked. Jess was sad as well because she wanted to say goodbye to Lox but she had to go home at six o’clock. Ben fetched their books from the house and they read quietly for a while. Jess had just closed her book when Lox dropped down from the tree and landed on it.

  ‘You made me jump, Lox,’ she told him. ‘I wasn’t expecting that!’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Lox, ‘but I wanted to see you before we leave. The Spider Queen and everyone else wanted me to thank you and Ben for everything that you’ve done for us. We have to say goodbye now, but maybe one day we’ll see each other again. Who knows? Keep believing in the magic.’

  Jess looked at her flower bracelet. It was still fresh. ‘You’re right, Lox. We have to keep believing. Goodbye and good luck.’ She tried not to cry, and so did Lox.

  Ben held out his hand and Lox climbed onto it. It was the first time he had ever done that. Ben laughed as Lox’s feet tickled his hand but he tried to keep still so that the spider didn’t fall off. ‘Will I see you again before you go, Lox?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Lox replied. ‘I will go after everyone else. Amara agreed that Hiboo will carry me in the daytime. It doesn’t matter if the workmen are already here, I can hide somewhere safe, like in the shed. The Spider Wizard and his workers will take down the spider gate that’s in your garden, and the one at the other entrance of the Spider Kingdom. They’ll carry them to where I’m going to hide and Hiboo will carry those to the lake as well.’

  ‘Oh,’ Ben said, ‘I’d forgotten about the gates. I hope that they don’t get broken again.’

  ‘So do I.’ Lox waved his front legs about. ‘We had enough trouble the time the magpies stole one!’ He dropped onto the ground and ran towards the hedge. ‘See you tomorrow,’ he called to Ben.

  Ben and Jess went into the house for Gran’s birthday tea. There was a chocolate cake, and Ben asked his dad to find some candles for it.

  ‘Now, Gran, it’s your turn to say the birthday wish rhyme.’ he told her.

  Gran smiled. ‘If you say so, young man,’ and she waited for Dad to light the candles.

  Red, orange, yellow, green, purple, blue.

  Please make my birthday wish come true.

  She took a big breath and then blew all the candles out. Ben and Jess clapped and sang ‘Happy Birthday to You’.

  Then Dad took Jess home. She knew she couldn’t stay any longer as school started again on Monday.

  Much later, when Ben was in bed and should have been fast asleep, he heard a quiet ‘Hooooo’ in the garden. He jumped out of bed and looked out of the window. The stars were shining and there were no clouds. At first he couldn’t see anything, but then he saw something moving at the bottom of the big tree that was nearest to the house. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. The seven night owls were on the grass!

  Ben held his breath for a few moments, and then let it out with a whoosh. He couldn’t see any of the spiders but he knew they were there. He watched for a long time and then the owls took off. They circled around the garden once and then flew towards the Dark Mountains. Ben knew that they couldn’t see him, but he waved anyway.

  Ben climbed back into bed and listened carefully for any more noises, but it was all quiet. After a while his eyelids began to feel very heavy, and he was soon asleep and dreaming about owls and lakes.

  When he woke up it was morning. The sun was shining through the curtains and Ben could hear Scoot barking in the garden. Ben opened the curtains and laughed out loud. Silly Scoot was trying to jump up on one of the garden chairs, but he kept falling off! Ben could see that there were some sparrows pecking at the seeds in the bird feeder and the chair was underneath it. He wondered if all the spiders had been moved last night or if the owls would come again.

  Then he remembered what Lox had told him about Hiboo coming back in the daytime. He’d have to make sure that Scoot was inside, or at least on his lead when the owl came. He hoped it would be today.

  After breakfast, Ben went down to the bottom of the garden. He looked under the hedge and saw right away that the spider gate had gone. That meant that all of the spiders had been moved, and that Lox was hiding with the gates. He wondered where he was. Perhaps he’d gone into the shed after all.

  Ben went to look but when he reached the door he had a shock. Dad was emptying the shed!

  ‘What are you doing, Dad?’ Ben asked. ‘Why are you putting everything outside?’

  ‘I need to sort things out,’ Dad told him. ‘It’s so dusty in here. It needs a good clean. Look at all those cobwebs in the corner.’ He pointed up to the corner near the window. Ben wasn’t sure but he thought he could see something shiny up there. ‘Do you want to help me, Ben?’

  ‘All right, but shall I ask Gran for a brush, and some water in case we get thirsty?’ Ben hoped his dad would say yes, and he did.

  Ben ran as fast as he could to find his grandmother. She was just going out of the front door to visit her friend who lived at the end of the road. Ben told her what was happening.
He said that he needed to have some time alone in the shed so that he could help Lox to find another place to hide.

  Gran came back inside and said, ‘Leave it to me.’ Then she went into the kitchen and put the kettle on. She made a pot of tea and put some biscuits on a plate.

  ‘Now,’ she told Ben, ‘go and tell your dad that I’ve made tea for him. That should give you about ten minutes alone, but he might decide to take it outside. I’ll have to think of something to keep him in here. Go on, hurry up!’

  Ben scampered back to the shed and told his dad about the tea. When Dad went into the kitchen, Gran put the newspaper down in front of him, and asked what he thought about something that was on the front page, so he sat down at the table to drink his tea.

  ‘Lox, Lox!’ Ben called. ‘If you’re here you have to come out now or else my dad is going to sweep all the cobwebs away. Come on, I’ll help you move the gates.’

  Lox peeped out from behind a very big cobweb. ‘Thanks, Ben,’ he said. ‘I was really frightened when I heard what your dad said. The gates are up here. Can you reach?’

  Ben stretched as high as he could but he only managed to touch the corner of the web. He looked around the shed but there was nothing he could use. ‘Hold on,’ he told Lox. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’ Then he ran outside and carried in a garden chair to stand on. That was much better!

  He put his hand into the cobweb to find the spider gates. The web stuck all over his hand and he didn’t like that very much. It made him shudder, but he poked around until he felt the hard edges of the gates. They were quite heavy, even though they were small. They looked just like ordinary cobwebs except that the Spider Wizard had used his magic to make them hard and shiny. Now they looked like the gates at the front of a castle.

  ‘Found them!’ Ben shouted to Lox, forgetting that the spider didn’t like loud noises. Lox had covered his ears. ‘Sorry, Lox. Come on, climb onto my shoulder and we’ll find you somewhere safe. I think I know where we can go.’

  So Lox ran along the shelf and onto Ben’s shoulder. Ben kept hold of the gates and went back towards the house. He went inside and said that he wanted to fetch something from his bedroom and that he’d be back soon to finish working in the shed. Dad was still reading the paper and didn’t even look up.

  Ben climbed the stairs carefully. Scoot had been watching him in the shed and had followed him into the house. He wanted to know what Ben had in his hand. Maybe it was a biscuit for him! Ben was just putting Lox into his rucksack with the gates when Scoot jumped up at him.

  ‘Naughty boy,’ Ben scolded the dog. ‘Don’t do that. I’ll come and play in a minute. Now go outside.’ Scoot’s tail went down and he walked slowly out of the door. Ben didn’t usually shout at him. What had he done wrong?

  Ben made sure that Lox was comfortable and asked him when he wanted to leave. Lox said that if Ben could call for Hiboo to come in the afternoon, then it might be quieter in the garden. Ben told the spider that his dad was taking his mum to visit a cousin after lunch, so that would be a good time.

  He asked Lox how many flights the owls had made and Lox said ‘three times’, and told Ben how the Spider Wizard had spun a really strong web to stop the baby spiders from falling out. Then Ben went back to the garden to help his dad.

  11

  The Last Flight

  At four o’clock that afternoon, Ben called for Hiboo and then went into his room to fetch his rucksack. He carried it very carefully down the path and laid it on the grass under the big tree at the far end of the garden. He let Lox out of the bag and then put the two spider gates on the ground next to him. They sat and waited for the owl to come.

  Ben didn’t know what to say. Even though he hadn’t seen Lox very often, he knew that he was going to miss him very much.

  ‘Will I ever see you again, Lox?’ Ben asked.

  ‘I’m sure you will,’ Lox answered. ‘We have to believe that can happen, don’t we?’

  Ben just nodded. He was going to say something else but then Hiboo landed on the branch above his head. This was it. Time to go. Hiboo told him to tell Lox that everyone was settled in the new kingdom and they were waiting for Lox to bring the gates. The Spider Queen thought that their new home was perfect, and she had also met Amara.

  The white owl fluttered down to the ground. He’d said that he would carry Lox the same way as he had the first time, but that he would carry the gates in his beak. He promised to be careful with them and not to break them, so Lox agreed. Hiboo was just about to pick up the gates when Scoot jumped out from behind the tree, and started barking and running around the owl in circles. Ben had forgotten to tell Gran to keep him in the kitchen, and now he wouldn’t listen to Ben at all.

  Ben could see that Hiboo was frightened and he knew that Lox would be really scared. He called and called but Scoot wouldn’t stop barking, or come to him. Then Ben remembered the special reed that Amara had made for him. He hoped it was still in his rucksack. It was!

  Ben blew the reed hard and Scoot stopped barking right away. Ben blew it again and the dog came to him and sat at his feet. He patted his dog’s head. ‘Good boy, now stay there for a minute.’

  Then Ben knelt down in the grass and leaned close to Hiboo. ‘I’m sorry, he won’t do that again. Please tell Amara that I won’t forget her.’

  He whispered to Lox, who had uncovered his ears after Scoot had stopped barking. ‘Goodbye, Lox. I wish I could come with you now and see your new home, but I think I’d better not use the magic rhyme again for a while. If you need me to help you again, please ask Hiboo to come to me.’ Ben wiped away a tear that was running down his cheek. ‘Goodbye.’

  Hiboo spread his wings and Lox settled back down under his cobweb in the feathers. The white owl turned his head and looked at Ben. ‘Hooooo,’ he cried softly and then he took off. Ben watched him fly higher and higher until he was no more than a little dot in the sky. Scoot was watching as well, but he was quiet now.

  They went back to the house and Ben told Gran what had happened. She patted his hand. ‘Don’t be sad, Ben. You and Jess did a very good thing. You saved all the spiders from under the lane, and now they’ll be happy and safe at Spider Lake. That’s a good place for them to be, isn’t it?’

  Ben nodded. ‘Do you think we’ll ever go to the cottage again?’

  Gran rubbed the end of her nose. ‘Well, it’s funny that you should ask that, because your mum and dad were saying only this morning how much they liked it there. They don’t understand why we’ve never been before.’

  Ben looked up. ‘Does that mean that next summer we can go again? And can Jess come too?’

  Gran didn’t say anything. She just winked at him and put the kettle on.

  The Calling Rhyme

  Mountain breeze, wild and free,

  Carry my voice to the wizard’s tree.

  I call to Amara, send Hiboo to me,

  Swift as an arrow but silently.

  Did you miss Ben’s other adventures?

  Read on to find out how he met Lox for the first time.

  Ben and the Spider Gate

  Ben loves chatting to his wise Gran, playing computer games with his best friend Jess, and helping his dad to train his clever dog Scoot. Best of all though, he likes playing ball in the garden with Scoot. Then one hot, summer day Ben meets Lox, the gate-keeper of the Spider Kingdom under the garden hedge. Lox desperately needs Ben’s help before the end of the autumn, but can Ben save the Spider Kingdom without leaving the garden and going into the deep, dark wood? The leaves are starting to fall, and Ben and Jess must take a brave decision if the spiders are to have a safe winter. Talking to Gran, Ben begins to suspect that she might know more about his quest than she’s admitting.

  Ben threw the ball high in the air and Scoot jumped up after it and then chased it down the garden path. The sun was hot and after a while Scoot
lay down in the shade of the garden shed and rested his head on his paws. Ben began to feel sleepy as well and his eyes started to close.

  When he opened them again he thought he was still asleep and dreaming. He wasn’t a big boy any more, he was a very little boy. He wasn’t much bigger than one of the daisies that were growing in the grass!

  Turn over to see what happened when the Spider Wizard needed Ben’s help.

  Ben and the Spider Prince

  Lox, the gate-keeper of the Spider Kingdom under the hedge in Ben’s garden, asks Ben for help again. The Spider Wizard needs three special ingredients before the next full moon to make a magic potion to cure the Spider Prince, but can Ben find them in time? He meets some unusual creatures on his quest who are not all as scary as they first seem. Ben wants to tell his best friend Jess but she’d rather spend time with the new girl in school, so he asks his gran instead. They look for clues on the computer and in the library, but how much does Gran really know, and will she tell Ben a secret that will keep him safe from Spindra, the evil sister of the Spider Queen?

  Ben wanted to try out the magic rhyme so much but he knew he’d have to wait until Gran was ready to pass over the secret of how to use it. He went into the kitchen and pulled on his coat and his boots. His head was bursting with all the things his gran had told him. He just couldn’t wait for tomorrow!

  Ben took a deep breath then said the rhyme and did the actions. He realised that the grass was now taller than him. He’d done it! He’d made the rhyme work.