The Triumphant Tale of Pippa North

by Temre Beltz

  What Pippa hadn’t counted on was how agonizingly slow Ferdinand was.

  “Um, Pippa, are you coming?” Ernest asked a few feet ahead.

  “Yes, I’m . . .” Pippa let out an exasperated sigh. She gritted her teeth and gave a hearty tug on Ferdinand’s lead rope. “Right behind you!”

  But Ferdinand plopped suddenly down in the soupy mud. As if he were bored, he stretched his neck to the side, curled back his lips, and snatched up a generous mouthful of grass.

  “Ferdinand!” Pippa admonished. “This is not a hero’s behavior, let me tell you that!”

  Ernest jogged back to Pippa’s side. “Remember, Pippa, your loyal companion is supposed to be a mirror.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that I behave like this?” Pippa said. “Ferdinand’s acting like no one else exists in this world except for him!”

  “I think Ferdinand’s problem is that he doesn’t know who he is yet,” Ernest said softly. “He’s acting like any horse would act, because he doesn’t know that he’s a fire horse.”

  Pippa felt her cheeks grow warm. She stared down at the lead rope in her hands. “Well, whatever it is he’s doing, it’s not helpful right now. Light or no light, I think we’re better off getting along without him. We’ve really only got one more place to search, so I’m going to tie him up here, if you don’t mind.”

  Ernest, however, wasn’t paying any attention to what Pippa was doing with Ferdinand. He looked instead in the direction of the forest that Pippa had gestured at. The one that lay just to the left of Castle Cressida and was marked with a somewhat ominous sign that read: “Triumphant Training Forest . . . Beware!”

  Ernest’s face paled. He shook his head from side to side. “Oh, uh, Pippa, we don’t actually go in there. Like ever.”

  “But it says Triumphant Training Forest. How can you train in a place that you never visit?”

  “That’s just it. The sign’s old. The forest is too. And super creepy. I mean, I’ve never actually been in it, but sometimes it makes noises. Mistress Peabody said that Triumphants are much more civilized these days, and that it would be silly to send us into such a barbaric place.”

  “By civilized, is she referring to the way she’s taught you all how to politely say ‘Stop,’ as if that’s supposed to work?”

  “I, um . . .” Ernest frowned. “That sort of hurt my feelings, Pippa.”

  Pippa’s shoulders sagged. “Oh, Ernest, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to. I think I just get . . . angry sometimes.”

  “Angry?” Ernest asked. “But why do you care what Mistress Peabody is teaching us? You’re still waiting to hear back from your fairy godmother, remember?”

  “I don’t know how I can help it. Mistress Peabody’s so-called training isn’t helping you, it’s hurting you.” Seeing Ernest’s blank expression, Pippa went on, “Ernest, villains are villains for a reason. They’re dangerous.”

  “I guess so,” Ernest said. “But a villain would never actually hurt us. It’s against the rules.”

  “But what if they break the rules, Ernest? What then? All it takes is one villain to do something . . . unthinkable.” Pippa sucked up a breath. “In fact, I think we came awfully close to that happening when Ms. Bonecrusher came to visit.”

  Ernest’s jaw dropped. And then he lowered his eyes. “How come I never thought about any of this stuff?” he said softly.

  “Because you’re brave,” Pippa answered without hesitation. “But you still need a good teacher.”

  Ernest looked nervously in the direction of the Triumphant Training Forest. “So you really want to go in there?” he asked.

  “Don’t you think we ought to at least try?”

  Ernest swallowed. He reached into the deep pockets of his robe and pulled his umbrella back out. He held it solemnly in front of him. “For Leonardo,” he said, and then looked expectantly in Pippa’s direction.

  “Oh!” Pippa exclaimed. She fumbled around in her pocket until she found her umbrella too. She laid it across Ernest’s and echoed just as solemnly, “For Leonardo.”

  And as the two of them ventured closer to the forest, slicing their umbrellas through the air, Pippa couldn’t help thinking that she could almost, maybe, imagine more scenarios like this—adventuring side by side with Ernest, scouring the woods for a lost soul—and that maybe the greatest thing about being a hero had nothing to do with the rewards and perks lavished by the Chancellor, but in simply doing what was right.

  Pippa’s and Ernest’s umbrella slicing slowed a bit when they approached the border of the forest, where the tree roots slithered across the ground like snakes and the withered leaves shuffled to and fro like restless ghosts. Red eyes blinked at them from the shadows.

  “Um, Ernest, do we know what sort of creature those eyes belong to?” Pippa whispered.

  “That would be bats,” Ernest whispered back. “Shall we tell ourselves they’re really just like cute, flying puppies?”

  “Yes, let’s do that,” Pippa said. And then a moment later, she asked, “Did that help you at all?”

  “Nope, not at all,” Ernest said. “Let’s get Leonardo and get out of here.” He threw back his head and shouted at the top of his lungs, “LEONARDO! LEO-NAR-DOOOOO!”

  The bats did not seem to appreciate the disturbance of their quiet solitude. Nearly one hundred pairs of red eyes flew open, and when the first bat lifted off a tree branch, all the rest followed. Hundreds of bats swarmed through the air. The sharp prick of their wings tangled up in Pippa’s ponytail, and when she raised her hands to shield her face, their warm bodies beat against her arms.

  Beside her, Ernest yelped, “Not puppies! Not puppies! Definitely not puppies!” And although Pippa tried to grab hold of Ernest’s hand, it proved nearly impossible. She found herself stumbling forward alone. The bats’ squeaking drowned everything else out. And when the flock finally began to thin, when only a few could be heard flapping their wings to catch up, Pippa couldn’t see Ernest anywhere. Despite entering the forest to find Leonardo, all Pippa had managed to do was lose Ernest.

  “Ernest?” she cried. “Ernest?”

  But nobody answered.

  Trembling, Pippa lifted her umbrella. She held it out in front of her and began to traipse slowly through the forest. She scrambled over a thick fallen log and gasped when she sank her foot into a mud puddle that squished up and over her ankle. The hem of her once plush but now sopping royal blue robe caught on a scraggly branch, and her teeth chattered so violently it was giving her a headache. The forest was so much different without Ernest by her side, so much less welcoming. And, for the first time, Pippa found herself longing not just for home but even for Castle Cressida.

  “Oh, honestly, Gulliver, it’s nothing but a spit of rain!” A man’s voice rolled toward Pippa.

  Pippa froze. She hadn’t expected anyone else to be in the forest! It was the Triumphant Training Forest after all, and according to Ernest it was properly abandoned. Not to mention, it was the dead of night. All the Triumphants were sleeping, and surely no one else had an authorized permit for this hour. A cold wave of fear washed over Pippa as she saw the approach of two extraordinarily tall and skinny shadows. With nothing left to do, she dove beneath the nearest fallen tree trunk and tried very, very hard not to think of how many spiders loved to make their homes in piles of wood.

  “If you had endured the sort of rainstorm I endured two weeks ago, you might have a different opinion,” the man, Gulliver, replied. “And this rain reeks of swamp life. You don’t think the Swinging Swamp will follow us, do you, Victor?”

  “Follow us? You mean on its little legs?” Victor paused for a moment and then exploded, “Of course it won’t follow us, you numbskull! Now either hurry up so that we can get the stage area measured or tell me excellent things about myself.”

  “Maybe you can tell me excellent things about myself,” Gulliver mumbled to himself.

  “What was that?” Victor snapped.

  It was quiet for a ful
l five seconds before Gulliver replied in a falsely cheery voice, “Nobody can make things disappear the way you can, Master Von Hollow.”

  Victor Von Hollow didn’t seem to detect the note of insincerity. “Who, me?” he said with a chuckle.

  Pippa held her breath and pressed her body deep into the log as the two men stomped by. Once they had passed, she lifted her head up the tiniest smidge. She realized instantly why their shadows had looked so tall and skinny—they were wearing very tall and skinny hats. They were magicians! But Pippa couldn’t imagine what business a magician had on Triumph Mountain. Magicians weren’t in the same category as witches, but they certainly weren’t known for doing good things. Although her first thought was that Mistress Peabody should be alerted right away, her immediate and sinking second thought was that Mistress Peabody wouldn’t do a single thing because she would refuse to believe it. How could anyone ever do any real hero’s work if they couldn’t see the real problems that needed fixing?

  Pippa was so distraught over it all that when a voice whispered softly into her ear, “Hi, Pippa,” she yelped out loud, delivered a swift elbow jab, and whirled around only to see Ernest’s round face wincing in pain.

  “What was that?” Victor Von Hollow called out sharply.

  There was no time for apologies. Pippa yanked on Ernest’s shoulders and pulled him down beneath the log with her. Her heart thumped so wildly, she was certain Ernest could hear it too.

  “Hmph, probably some sort of little forest creature,” Gulliver said.

  But Victor Von Hollow traipsed nearer to the log that Pippa and Ernest were hiding under.

  “Since when do forest creatures sound like little girls?”

  “Who are they?” Ernest whispered in distress.

  “Shhh!” Pippa insisted.

  “Beats me,” Gulliver said. “But since when do those scaredy-cat Triumphants roam around a dark forest in the middle of a rainy night?”

  Scaredy-cat Triumphants? Pippa was certain that was a first. Unless it was the sort of conclusion that lots of citizens were coming to, but no one dared say out loud.

  “Oh, look at that,” Victor Von Hollow said. “You’ve dropped your umbrella, Gulliver.” And before Pippa and Ernest could breathe a word, before Gulliver had time to exclaim that he didn’t bring an umbrella, Victor Von Hollow swung his head down beneath the log, wrapped his spindly fingers around Ernest’s umbrella, and gave it a mighty yank, never mind that Ernest was still attached to it.

  Ernest and Victor Von Hollow took one look at each other and screamed. Victor Von Hollow tossed Ernest and his umbrella to the side while Pippa rolled hastily out from beneath the log, ready to run.

  “Come on!” she shouted.

  But Victor Von Hollow brought his fingers to the brim of his hat and a snarling black panther appeared in Pippa and Ernest’s path. Ernest’s eyes widened. He grabbed ahold of Pippa’s hand and spun her in the opposite direction. Victor Von Hollow, however, was too quick. A trio of cobra snakes hissed menacingly at them.

  The second magician, Gulliver, pressed out of the shadows, and Pippa’s breath caught in her throat. It was Council member Slickabee! The same magician who had escorted her to the Triumphant examination and was (somewhat) present on the day of the Loyal Companions Ceremony, though he had wandered away with his notebook before the big reveal. Victor Von Hollow hardly seemed like the sort of company a Council member should keep, but Pippa was more focused on not being recognized. Fortunately, her mud-streaked face, along with Council member Slickabee’s tendency toward self-absorption, proved a perfect disguise.

  The gravity of the situation seemed to hit Pippa and Ernest at the same time. They exchanged terrified glances. When the trio of hissing cobras slithered a bit too close for comfort, the only recourse they had were the umbrellas, which now seemed rather silly.

  Pippa opened her umbrella first, and Ernest immediately followed suit. She held it out like a shield, but that hardly seemed to deter the cobras. Without any warning at all, one lunged straight for Pippa! Though she danced backward, she held her umbrella steady. The snake collided against it and disappeared in a puff of green smoke.

  Pippa’s jaw dropped.

  Ernest’s did too. And then, with his cheeks flushed, he stepped boldly toward the next cobra and exclaimed, “Come meet my magic umbrella!” And that cobra disappeared in a second puff of green smoke.

  “Oh, pooh,” Victor Von Hollow said as if sorely disappointed. He touched his fingers to the brim of his hat and nearly a dozen more cobra snakes appeared. By this time, however, Pippa and Ernest knew how to make short work of them.

  Victor Von Hollow frowned. “Gulliver, grab hold of those two ruffians!” he commanded.

  Not wanting to wait around for that, Pippa and Ernest sprang up and prepared to sprint away, but they were once again a hair too late. Council member Slickabee plucked them up by the collars of their soggy robes. He dangled Pippa and Ernest in front of Victor Von Hollow.

  “If you ask me, babysitting shrieking children hasn’t a thing to do with staging a showcase,” Council member Slickabee said with a pout.

  “No one asked you, and you’d do well to hold your tongue!” Victor Von Hollow hissed.

  But Council member Slickabee shrugged. “You don’t know Griselda the way I do. You could spell out the whole plan, and it wouldn’t matter. She’d never believe a word of it, and especially not from a couple of kids.”

  Pippa shifted uncomfortably. If the magicians had a secret plan Mistress Peabody wouldn’t want to believe a word of, it must be an especially rotten one.

  Suddenly, the loud neigh of a horse weaved through the forest. Pippa recognized it immediately as coming from Ferdinand. Did he know she and Ernest were in danger? Was he coming to rescue them? The way fire horses were known to do?

  Pippa’s heart quickened unexpectedly with hope, exactly the hope that came from having a loyal companion.

  Council member Slickabee’s head snapped up. “Did I just hear a horse?” he asked.

  “Impossible,” Victor Von Hollow said.

  But the sound came again, and this time louder.

  While still dangling Pippa and Ernest off the ground, Council member Slickabee began to fidget in place. “I thought you said there weren’t any fire horses on Triumph Mountain anymore,” he said to Victor Von Hollow a bit accusingly.

  Ernest piped up, “Nobody thought fire horses were on Triumph Mountain anymore, but recently a new herd was discovered.”

  Pippa’s eyebrow shot up. She didn’t know if one fire horse constituted an entire herd but judging by the aghast expression on Victor Von Hollow’s face, Ernest was on to something.

  And all around them, the ground began to shake. The forest took the thunder of Ferdinand’s hooves and tossed it back and forth against the massive trunks of the trees for added effect. It sounded, indeed, like an entire herd was on its way.

  Council member Slickabee promptly dropped Pippa and Ernest into the mud. He brought his fingertips to the brim of his hat and exclaimed, “It’s been a pleasure, Victor. But I have a Council position to think about, as well as a life—my own, of course—to preserve. I’m sure you’ll understand.” And in the blink of an eye, he disappeared off Triumph Mountain.

  Victor Von Hollow’s eyes came to rest on Pippa and Ernest. He glared at them and then, in a chilling tone, he said, “I never forget a face,” as if he planned to see them sometime in the future, maybe soon, and that when he did, things were not likely to go well for them.

  Still, he brought his fingertips to the brim of his hat, and he too disappeared.

  Ernest and Pippa were again all alone. And not a moment later, Ferdinand came tearing through the underbrush, looking as muddy and bedraggled as ever, with two meager flames blazing on his mane.

  But that hardly mattered.

  In that moment, Ferdinand was exactly the horse she and Ernest needed.

  And in Pippa’s eyes, he couldn’t have possibly looked more magnificent.


  Perhaps Ferdinand wasn’t so bad after all.

  But perhaps magicians were far worse than she’d ever imagined.

  Twelve

  Saved by a Sinkhole

  In the dormitory of Razzle’s School for Meddlesome Boys, sleep had never been a restful activity for Oliver. But on that night, instead of merely sleeping with one eye open, he lay fully awake, hands balled into fists at his sides and boots fully laced up in case he needed to make a run for it.

  After breaking into Headmaster Razzle’s office and setting Master Von Hollow’s horses free, Oliver was practically oozing guilt out of his pores. But when he had snuck back into school no one had been waiting to seize him. No one had even been waiting to question him. Everything seemed as “normal” as it ever had.

  Oliver rolled up onto his hands and looked out toward the window, expecting to see nothing more than a bit of swamp fog or perhaps a few swarms of gnats. Instead he saw something sparkling. Oliver blinked. The Swinging Swamp was not known for sparkling; if it had been, the magicians might not have spent so many years trying to find a way out.

  The sparkle, however, was looming larger, or perhaps it was moving closer, and before Oliver knew it, a fluffy doughnut came streaking through the window and right onto his lap.

  Oliver grabbed hungrily for the doughnut, but the moment he touched his finger to it, it exploded into a sugary cloud and transformed into a letter. Oliver’s jaw dropped. The only person he was expecting a letter from was a fairy godmother, but he never imagined he’d hear back so quickly.

  Trying to see by the murky swamp light, Oliver pressed his face so close to the letter that it touched the tip of his nose. Curiously, the letter smelled as delicious as it had looked. He read hurriedly:

  Dear Oliver,

  I’d be lying if I said your letter wasn’t the best one I’ve ever received.