Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers (2 page)

UNCLE GRIFFINSKITCH now moved at a pace that would definitely leave all snails behind, downhill, up-hill—or any hill. Kendra had never seen her uncle go with such quickness, and for once, she was the one who had to keep up.

She had only been keeping up for a very short time when a small gray mouse came darting around a corner in the path, running so fast that he blundered right into Uncle Griffinskitch. The old wizard was sent to the ground in an explosion of white hair.

“Humph! Who’s in such a hurry that he can’t mind where he’s going?” Uncle Griffinskitch grumbled, pulling himself up from the dust.

“Why, it’s Oki!” Kendra exclaimed.

Oki was not only Kendra’s best friend but also an after-school messenger for the elders of Een. The mouse was very excitable by nature and was now panting so hard that he could barely speak.

“I’m sorry, Elder Griffinskitch,” Oki squeaked. “I didn’t mean to bump you! But I was just on my way to find you. Something terrible has happened!”

“I know,” Uncle Griffinskitch said sternly. “I saw the dark shadow.”

“It’s worse than that!” Oki exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” Uncle Griffinskitch asked.

“I can’t say for sure,” Oki replied. “But the elders have called an emergency meeting, and you’re needed right away, Elder Griffinskitch. It’s something very serious!”

“I must make greater haste,” the old wizard declared. “Kendra, get back home, and mind yourself. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Kendra started to object, but it was clear her uncle wasn’t in the mood to argue. Without further fuss, the whiskered Een turned and headed down the path.

“Did you see the shadow, Oki?” Kendra asked as soon as her uncle was out of sight.

“No, but I heard it,” Oki told her, seeming to shiver at the very thought of the shadow. “And whatever it was, it made an enormous hole on the lawn in front of the Elder Stone.”

“Really?” Kendra said. “This I’ve got to see.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Oki said.

“Oh, come on!” Kendra urged. “It’ll be fun. Just follow me. I know a shortcut!”

She turned and disappeared through the blades of grass.

“You know, it’s not normal for an Een to seek out adventure,” Oki twittered as he reluctantly followed after her.

“Well, you’re always telling me that I’m not a normal Een,” Kendra called over her shoulder.

“That’s true,” Oki said. “I’m more Een than you are. I never crave adventure. In my experience, adventure can mean only one thing: danger!”

“Oh, what could happen?” Kendra asked. “It’s just a giant hole.”

“Exactly,” Oki said. “The perfect sort of thing for a tiny mouse like me to fall into.”

“Oh, I won’t let that happen,” Kendra told him, and she quickened her pace across the forest floor. To her, the giant world seemed a peaceful place again. The soft summer light was smiling upon the mushrooms and wildflowers, and she could almost forget about the dark shadow. But the silence was not to last.

“There’s no way I’m going anywhere near that Elder Stone, you slug-brained, foul-winded, barf-infested fur ball!” came a sharp voice.

“Who said that?” Oki squeaked.

“It came from that direction,” Kendra said, pointing through the trees.

Just then, they heard a second voice: “I’ll have you know you’re speaking to Ratchet Ringtail, perhaps the most talented and respected inventor in all the land of Een!”

“More like Ratchet Rattlehead if you ask me!” the first voice retorted.

“Ratchet?” Kendra cried, throwing a startled glance in Oki’s direction. “What’s he up to now?”

“You can bet it’s trouble, whatever it is,” Oki said. “You know Ratchet!”

Kendra nodded, for she did indeed know Ratchet—all too well. He was one of her favorite friends, though in truth most Eens looked upon him as a troublemaker. Ratchet the raccoon considered himself an amateur wizard and an inventor with extraordinary talent. No one knew exactly what that meant, though Kendra had long ago come to the belief that Ratchet simply invented with the help of what little magic he thought he knew. His inventions were rarely practical. There were his time boots, for example, with their long toes curling at the ends so that they pointed behind you. The boots were meant to take you back in time and, to Ratchet’s credit, they actually worked—sort of. Unfortunately, you kept bumping into yourself coming the other way, so the journey into the past always ended up being a rather short one.

“I just need to work out the kinks,” Ratchet had said at the time, though if he ever did, Kendra had never found out. Most of Ratchet’s inventions seemed to collect dust on the shelves of his laboratory.

Still, the thing about Ratchet was that he always listened to Kendra. In many ways, he treated her just like an adult. That was worth a lot in Kendra’s book, whether he was a wizard, an inventor, or even just a troublesome animal.

“All your friends are animals,” Uncle Griffinskitch had told her once.

It was true, of course, but it had never seemed to bother him before Elder Burdock Brown had come by one day and pointed out as much. Burdock had only one eyebrow. It was dark, shaggy, and it stretched across his forehead like an angry

caterpillar. Kendra wasn’t sure if Burdock was grumpier than her uncle, but he was certainly more expressive. No simple humph would do his opinions justice.

“Simply put, your niece is strange,” Kendra had overheard Burdock tell her uncle one day. “It’s not normal to be hanging out with animals all the time. They’ll turn her into a wild thing.”

“Come now, Burdock,” Uncle Griffinskitch had said. “You’re wilder than most Een animals.”

“We’re talking about Kendra!” Burdock had snapped. “She’s got a mind of her own, that girl.”

“Some would say that’s a good thing,” Uncle Griffinskitch had muttered.

“It’s the kind of thing that leads to trouble,” Burdock had retorted. “There are strange thoughts floating about that child’s mind. I’d be worried if I were you.”

Uncle Griffinskitch had only responded with a humph.

“Be that way then,” Burdock had grumbled. “But I say she takes after her mother, and that’s trouble enough for us all.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that sour old bore,” Ratchet had told her afterwards, when she had come to him in a rage. “I don’t care what he says about us animals. As for you, you’re all right in my book, Kendra.”

And that’s why she liked Ratchet. He always made her feel better.

Kendra and Oki scrambled through the tall wildflowers and soon found the raccoon. He was sitting in the middle of a small pumpkin patch, his snout twisted in a fierce scowl. The pumpkins had all been carved with faces, just like jack-o’-lanterns, and were glaring back at Ratchet with scowls even more fierce than his own.

Then, to Kendra’s surprise, one of the pumpkins spoke: “What, nothing to say, Rattlehead?”

“I was lost in thought for a moment, if you must know,” Ratchet retorted.

“Yes, I’m sure it’s unfamiliar territory to you!” the pumpkin hissed.

Just then Ratchet looked up to notice Kendra and Oki. “Well, hello there, my young friends,” the raccoon said with a grin. “I see you have stumbled upon my latest invention.”

“Er . . . invention?” Kendra asked. “What exactly are the pumpkins supposed to do?”

“Well, they’re my new helpers,” Ratchet explained.

“Helpers!” the biggest pumpkin cried. “More like slaves! We didn’t sign up for this! Emancipation! We demand emancipation!”

“I don’t even know what that means,” Ratchet declared.

“It means freedom,” Oki piped up. “But what are you going to do with your pumpkin helpers, Ratchet?”

“Well, the first thing I reckon I’ll do is use them as boats,” Ratchet explained. “You know, I can use them to ferry folks up and down the river.”

“How will the boats stay afloat?” Kendra asked. “Won’t water pour through their faces?”

“Of course not,” Ratchet replied indignantly. “They’re magic faces after all.”

“Magic! You masked muffin-head!” the nearest pumpkin snickered. “You wouldn’t know magic if it nipped you on the tail!”

“What’s wrong with your jack-o’-lanterns?” Kendra asked. “They don’t seem very . . . er . . . polite.”

“Oh, don’t worry about them,” Ratchet said. “Their bark is worse than their bite.”

“And your stench is worse than that,” a small yellowish pumpkin told the raccoon. “I’ve come across Goojuns with sweeter breath than your horrible, fly-maiming, worm-curling odor!”

“I ought to make you all into soup,” Ratchet grumbled. “Or maybe a big pie. How about that?”

“Oh yeah?” the biggest of the pumpkins sneered. “How about this?” He puckered his mouth and let the pumpkin seeds fly, spitting them at the raccoon in rapid fire.

“Ouch!” Ratchet cried, as the seeds bounced off his head.

“Maybe you should carve less angry faces in your pumpkins,” Oki suggested. “They might not be so rude then.”

“Is that so?” Ratchet muttered, gently rubbing his head. “And what do you know about inventing?”

“Never mind that,” Kendra interjected. “What about the shadow, Ratchet? Did you see it?”

“Of course,” the raccoon replied. “You’d have to be as blind as old Treewort Timm to miss it. Actually, I was just on my way down to the Elder Stone to see what I could find out.”

“We had the same idea,” Kendra said. “There’s a giant hole in the ground that we want to take a look at.”

“Well, come on then,” Ratchet said. “We’ll take one of my boats.”

Before Kendra or Oki had time to object, the raccoon turned and began rolling one of the pumpkins down towards the River Wink. The pumpkin, of course, yelled and cursed the whole way, and Ratchet had to keep apologizing over his shoulder to his young friends. Of course, they were more amused than anything else, and it wasn’t long before they reached the river’s edge.

“Oh, wait a minute,” Ratchet said. “I need an oar.”

He disappeared into the nearby shrubs and soon reappeared with a long pole. “This will do,” he said.

“How do we get in?” Oki asked Ratchet.

“We just have to remove the lid,” the raccoon replied. Grabbing hold of the pumpkin’s twisted stem, he removed the roof of the large boat, and the three friends clambered inside.

“You’re all too fat,” the pumpkin complained. “We’re sure to sink, you bloated blobs of blubber. Emancipation! I demand emancipation.”

“Oh, just behave yourself,” Ratchet warned. He used the pole to push off from the shore, and they were soon on their way down the River Wink.