Dragon of

FORTT Jh4E
 Geronimo Stilton

the Dragon
Fortune
Epic Kingdom of fantasy adventure

Scholastic Inc.
Copyright © 2015 by Edizioni Piemme S.p.A., Palazzo Mondadori,
Via Mondadori 1, 20090 Segrate, Italy. International Rights ©
Atlantyca S.p.A. English translation © 2017 by Atlantyca S.p.A.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume
any responsibility for author or Aird-party websites or their content.
GERONIMO STILTON names, characters, and related indicia are
copyright, trademark, and exclusive license of Atlantyca S.p.A. All
rights reserved. The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Based on an original idea by Elisabetta Dami.
www.geronimostilton.com
Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920, 557 Broadway,
New York, NY 10012. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are
trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Stilton is the name of a famous English cheese. It is a registered
trademark of the Stilton Cheese Makers’ Association. For more
information, go to www.stiltoncheese.com.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this publication may be reprcxiuced,
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of the publisher. For information regarding peimission, please
contact Atlantyca S.p.A., Via Leopardi 8, 20123 Milan, Italy; e-mail
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
e-ISBN 978-1-338-15940-0
Text by Geronimo Stilton
Original title Grande ritorno nel Regno della Fantasia 2
Cover by Silvia Fusetti
Illustrations by Silvia Bigolin, Federico Brusco, Carla Debemardi,
Alessandro Muscillo, and Piemme’s Archives. Color by Christian
Aliprandi
Graphics by Marta Lorini and Daria Colombo
Special thanks to Kathryn Cristaldi
Translated by Julia Heim
Interior design by Kay Petronio
First edition, September 2017
 A Thousand
Silver Violins

1
t all started one spring at the €fii€lC of
dawn. I was having a dream. No, scratch
that. I was having a NIGHTMARE!

\ posted and , j

and turn®*'
In my dream a familiar face hovered over me.
Blossom, the sweet Queen of the
Was it
Fairies? It sure looked like her, but when 1
 A Thousand Silver Violins

peered eloser a sjiivqr ran down my fur. It

wasn’t Blossom at all. It was Wither, Blossom’s
evil twin sister!
She was surrounded by strange flying ereatures.
They looked like witches with wings. In fact, they
were . . .

THE DARK FACIES, j

The dark fairies grabbed their
and began to play. Unfortunately, it wasn’t happy
dance music (you know, the kind that makes you
want to kick up your paws). This melody was
disturbing.
Next the fairies began to sing.

OF THIS m «• • • .. •

THE TORN...
 A Thousand Silver Violins

What did that mean? It couldn’t be good. The

dark fairies are not known for their kindhearted
nature.
I woke up squeaking. Then I ju.'Hnp^cJ out of
bed so fast I juTTlpCc] right out of my pajamas.
Well, okay, I didn’t really jump out of my pj’s, but
you get the idea. WHAT A NIGHTMARE!
 A Thousand Silver Violins

I rubbed my eyes ti-ying to CPdSC the image

of those dark fairies. I had met them during one
of my recent trips to the Kingdom of Fantasy.
On that trip. Wither had ordered the fairies to
imprison her sister.
Luckily, not to brag or anything, I saved the day!
That’s right, I rescued Blossom I As a reward, the
queen named me Pril^CC Fcarlcss, Pril^CC
Oi* tl]C \Vil]gcd Ol^CS. she also gave me a pair
of cool and a blue winged ring. The
ring had jp€cial pou)€n. It
allowed me to travel to and from
the Kingdom of Fantasy.
Just thinking about my fantastic adventures
made me smile. Don’t get me wrong, these trips
were never easy. They were filled with dangerous
treks, WCKED SPELLS, and bonifying creatures.
But the friends I made in the Kingdom of Fantasy
were worth it!

6
 Right then I noticed the clock on my nightstand.
Rats! I was Icctc for work!
I threw on my clothes and raced outside.
It was the first day of and I expected
to see the sun shiltiltg, flowers and
birds singing in a blue sky. Instead . . .
There was a f northern wind... The
sky was filled with (3B/3S7 GHQ^IDBS
And the only birds were black crows shrieking,
Cml Cml Cmf

8
 You couldn’t smell the sweet scent of flowers.
Instead there was the disgusting scent of sulfur!

TCSQ 'Bfflira

Q&Q®QS

DM0Q m fflzaQD

9
A Thousand Silver Violins

It was a

strange,
no,
the strangest,
no,
the super-strangest
spring morning!

11
Flap! Flap! Flap!

■
 As I raced down that f IIWI I street, I noticed
something else that was strange.
All the rodents I passed had DAPK (°R(Li05
under their eyes. They looked like they hadn’t
slept a wink.
"Good morning!” I ealled to BoBBTf
BaBBLeSHoUt. the mouse who ran the
newsstand. "How are you?”
"Exhausted,” Bobby mumbled with eyes half-
closed^Tor some reason I was up -boiSin^ and
turBiBg^all night long.”
 Flap! Flap!

Next, I passed the florist, MlISS QAR^EI^IM.

She had bags under her eyes, too, and she was
Yawninc up a stoiTO. How strange.
Finally, 1 spotted my fiiend -pr^ttjjpaw^
pedaling by on her bike. 1 waved but she didn’t see
me. She just stared straight ahead with a sleepy,
glazed look in her eyes. What was going on?
A Cihiii ran down my fur, and this time it wasn’t
from the cold! A minute later I heard the sound
of flapping wings . . .

FLAP! flap! FLAP!

It felt like someone was tapping me on the
shoulder. A ghost? I shivered. Then I spotted a

feather ^
on the gi’ound. I picked it up.

16
 Flap! Flap! Flap!

I wondered where the feather eame from, but

there was no time to figure it out. I was late!
At last, 1 arrived at The RodenVs Gazette.
FROZEN FUR BALL6! I almost forgot to
introduee myself! In ease you don’t already know,
my name is Stilton, (S%il<yn. I am
the publisher of The RodenVs Gazette, the
most famouse newspaper on Mouse Island!

17
 Snore ... Zzzzzz!

here was I? Ah yes, I was standing

at the door to my office when I
heard the most peculiar sound.

bunch of mice snoring. How

 Snore ... Zzzzzz!

I entered the office and gasped. Almost

everyone was sleeping! What a SNorePesti
I hated to break up the slumber party, but
how else could I find out what was going on? So
I cleared my throat and squeaked really loudly,
“Good morning, eveiyone!”
My coworkers woke up with a start, rubbing
their eyes and complaining,
“What a terrible sleep I had last night!’’
“Me, too!”
“I dreamed of strange dressed in
bkeki”
“Me, too—they were playing'ulo/i/n&X”
Everyone gathered around trying to figure out
why they all seemed to be having the same CRAZY
NIGHTMARE.
I listened, but I didn’t say a word. I was thinking.
Could these dreams have something to do with
WITHEII and the DARK PAIRIlf?
22
 Snore ... Zzzzzz!

No, that wasn’t possible! The dark fairies lived

in the (Kingdom ofTantasy, not in the real
world!
Suddenly, a nagging thought hit me. A while
ago I had misplaced the Ring that
Blossom the Queen of Fairies gave to me. It’s the
ring that can transport me to the Ktn^doiU oj'
TuntUSy. Luckily, I found it and put it in my
Nl^HtStaNP drawer for safekeeping. But was
it still there?
 Snore ...

No one on Mouse Island knew about the ring,

but I was suddenly worried.
I scampered home to check on the enchanted
ring.
Outside, the weather had gotten worse. The
air was The f CI6 was thick. And
the wind was so strong it was messing up my
previously good fur day!
It was then that I heard that strange sound.

FLAf! fLAP! FLAP!

I turned around, but again I didn’t see anything.

On the ground / spotted another ^

snow #
 Who? Who? Who?

iow I was really worried. Someone was

'following me!
I seampered inside and LOCKED the
door behind me, gMveriog with fear.
Just when I thought things eouldn’t get any
scarier I heard a sound . . . T^-p! T^-p! T^-p!
Someone was tapping on my window!

P WHO? ?
’ ■ , WHO?? ? ,
WHO??? ?
Terrified, I looked out.

26
 Who? Who?, Who?

"Aaaah!” I screamed.
Outside the window there was a massive snowy
white staring at me with enormouse

fifoldeii e^^es!
Around her neck she wore a golden
pendant.
The owl flapped her wings . . .

FLAP! fLAF! FLA?!

Her eyes never blinked.
So that’s who had been following me in the fog!
But why?
I opened the window to stop the stsii"iri.g
coo-test and right then a voiee next to the
owl called out, "Sir Knight, I mean Prince, I
mean . . . well, do you have it?”

30
 Who? Who?, Who?

Huh? Who was out there and what were they

looking for?
The voiee CfdAlied impatiently, “Okay,
come on, what are you waiting for? Aren't you
going to check?"
Only then did 1 recognize the voice. It belonged
to 6CRIBBLEH0PPER, my frog friend and my
first official guide to the Kingdom of Fantasy!
I stuck my snout out into the clouds to see if I
could spot him and shrieked.
A crab’s claw reached out and PillCHeD my
 Who? Who?, Who?

It was Chatterclaws, another old friend

from the Kingdom of Fantasy! Chatterclaws was a
descendant of the renowned Crustacean Dynasty
and worked for the queen as a WPlTTflC
messenger.
“How’s it going. Prince?” he asked, but
before I could open my mouth he chattered
on. “Nah, tell me later, we’re in a rush here.
WHatSHeRfaCe, I mean Queen Blossom, is
waiting. So go get the wwtchamacallit,
I mean the PLmg, and let’s go!”
“Well, um, sure, er, but what’s going on?” I
stammered. -
Right then a tall knight with a long UI^5
CdpS climbed through my window. It was
RLUE RIDER’ another friend
from (surprise, surprise!) the
Kingdom of Fantasy!
“Hello, mouse, I have ARRIVED!

32
 Who? Who? j fcWHO?

Everything’s under eontrol!” he declared.

Now, I must confess, when I first met
Blue Rider i thought he was a total
braggart. His favorite saying is, ‘1 dfD
the best of the bestr
But since then I have What’s
learned that he has a going on?

HUCB heart.
He spends his days
defending the HELPLESS
and the Hopeiess
What’s more selfless
than that?

Blue Rid er
is the son of Azul, the Ancient One
with the Sapphire eyes. He met Geronimo on his
sixth adventure to the Kingdom of Fantasy. He is
known as the hero of the hopeless. He likes to say
he is the best of the Lest (not to mention daring,
courageous, and charming)]
 A Crow's Feather!

lue w6>/6d his sword in the air and

reminded me about the Winged Ring,
f “Where is it?” he asked.
I turned on my bedroom ligfft and led Blue
over to my nightstand table. Then I opened the
drawer and . , . gasped! The ring was missing!
Blue Rider stared at the empty drawer and
observed, “I don’t see a ring in this nightstand,”
“But . . . but. . . but. . . that’s where I put it!”
I eried.
Seribblehopper popped out from behind Blue
Rider and eroaked, “Wait, you put a
objeet in the drawer of a nightstand? Seriously?”
Then he pieked up a as black as
ink that was next to the nightstand, “Hey, look at
this! It’s a crow’s feather!” he declared.
34
 A Crow's Feather!

is a
feather/

Next, he pointed to Xtadfis

near the nightstand. “That looks
like the clawprint of a CrOUIl”
he went on.
Finally, he pointed to a peek
mark on the nightstand. “And

•sprint! that looks like a CTOIU S peck

mark!'’ he finished.
So it was a crow who stole
the ring!
But how?
Blue Rider gasped. “This can
- this is a only be the work of the evi!
neck tv'-rrtat/f,
and leqei^dary ...

^RUEl,
36
 A Crow's Feather!

“Oh no!" Chatterclaws wailed. “Scribblehopper

is right. Prince! Why would you put the 8nch3nt6d
ring in a whatchar^acallit, i mean, nightstand
drawer? What were you thinking? Who would
leave a precious tJhiTlSolinnolbOb, er, treasure,
in a drawer? Any evil, rotten, no-good criminal
could steal it! Or maybe . .
Blue Rider interrupted Chatterclaws with a
wave of his sword. Thank goodness! That crab
could go on for hours if you let him!
“You need to come with us to the OCitigdoTH
C^TUTltUSyV’ Blue declared. “This is serious!"
I didn’t really understand how losing the
enchanted ring could cause major problems, so
my friends explained it to me.
Apparently, the Winged Ring was pure
crystalired energy and gave enomiouse
power to whoever owned it. Thanks to me, once
Wither got her hands on the ring, her powers

37
Wi
,ROWBAR
V
THE ^
jRUEl ^
In the Kingdom of Witches, in an enormouse
dried-out baobab tree, live 333 crows that
are so dark you can’t even see them at night!
They have shiny copper beaks that are as
sharp as razors because they sharpen them
every morning at dawn. These crows are cruel
and deceitful. Beware if you meet one. They
cannot be trusted!
The prince of these dark crows is called
Crowbar the Cruel. They say that he is
m
capable of stealing anything. For this reason
the dark fairy Wither ordered him to steal
the Winged Ring from Geronimo.
In addition to stealing. Crowbar is said
to have another talent. He is capable of
changing shape. He can transform from
a crow to a knight, depending on the
situation.
Rumor has it, Crowbar is engaged to
marry Wither. What a rotten pair that
would be!
 A Crow's Feather!

multiplied by 1,000 percent! The energy from

the ring also opened up a PASSAoE between the
real world and the Kingdom of Fantasy. Gulp!
Was Wither about to invade Mouse Island with
her dark fairy amiy?
Scribblehopper eroaked, “Didn’t you notiee this
morning that things have already started to change
in your world? Didn’t you wonder why there was
all this fog in the springtime? Didn’t you see
all of the black crows flapping all over the
place? Didn’t you smell that DDSQO^lSTfDCOQ
sulfur smell? You know, it smells like rotten
e^^? You can’t miss it. Hmmm, have you
thought about seeing a doctor? Maybe you need
to get your SNiPPse checked out.”

40
 Let's Get Hopping!

h what a nightmare! Why hadn’t I put

“Well, let’s get If we leave

now, we’ll reaeh the CRYSTAL CASTLi
by dawn!” Seribblehopper said.
“Prepare to defend yourself,” Blue Rider added.
“The Fairy Court will judge you for your foolish
aetions.”
At this, Chatterelaws B1IR9T into tears.
He blew his nose on my tie.

9oV>'
 Let's Get Hopping!

“Oh, Prince, this is the saddest day in my entire

whatchamaeallit, life!” the erab wailed. “The
Fairy Court will SkeiOer you! But don’t woriy, I
promise to come visit you in the you-know-what,
prison, eveiy single day. Well, okay, maybe not
every day. I like to spend the weekends with my
lovely wife, CLSSSyCLSWS. And not on Tuesdays
or Wednesdays, ’eause that’s when I like to go
digging for treasure. And Mondays and Thursdays
I reanange the furniture in the Chatterhouse
and . . .”
Scribblehopper covered the crab’s mouth.
“Quiet, you’ll seare him. Don’t tell him that
almost everyone in the Kingdom of Fantasy is mad
at him! Don’t tell him they will throw rotten
tomatoes at him! Don’t tell him that they
changed his name from
to the FOOUSH ONE,
Mous^ Los^ jS^!”

43
 Let's Get Hopping!

Blue Rider slung his ann around my shoulders.

“It’s okay, FOOLISH ONE,” he said. “I am
your friend and I will try to d0p0Tld you in
eourt even though it won’t be easy.”
*You will find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571 at the end of the book.

“He can’t go to the %ing<£om (^'Fantasy

in that suit and tie. He needs a piS^uiSe,
Sciibblehopper observed. He raeed out of the
room and returned lugging a huge chest
behind him. Huh? Where did that eome from?
I didn’t have time to ask. The ehest had
something etched in Fantasian* on it.

\ot of disguises in

44
 Let's Get Hopping!

“I think he should dress like a

whatsitcalled, |o(>xfer!” Chatterclaws
suggested.
"No, he should dress like a frog!”
Scrihblehopper insisted. lobster

Chatterclaws pinc[\6(l his nose. "No

way, frogface! It would be much
better if he dresses like a slimy pile
of whatchamacallit, the
crab yelled.
"RIDICULOUS!” Scrihblehopper
responded, hopping up and down in
anger. "He’d be much more believable
if he dressed up like a of alga®

Before long, the two them began to

fight, proposing all kinds of disguises,
one more absurd than the next.
"He should dress like a blowfish!” pad
"No, a

45
 THE lilAHY DISGUISES
OF FOOLISH OHE

or maybe like a
green elf...

Um, maybe I
should have dressed
or maybe like a
like a frog ...
fairy ...

or perhaps a
Jester...

or why not like a prince or how about a

witch ...

tRnswer on
 Finally, Blue Rider cut
them short. ‘That’s enough!
FOOUSH ONE doesn’t
need to attract attention. He
should dress like a plain old
traveling mouse.”
Blue Rider dug around in
the chest and pulled out a Poolisk One \
gresN tuiMic.ahat -—
with a RED feather, a hooded cape, and a leather
bag.
As soon as I changed I heard the sound of
wings.

PlAp.i f lap! FlAPi

Outside, the snowy owl was waiting. Then we
climbed on her back and she took off, soaring

’X X
 As we flew, a dark shadow
suddenly descended upon us. It was an
enormouse crow with a copper beak, with
feathers as black as ink and sparkling eyes.
He stuck out his 8l^ai*p talopS to grab me,
but Blue Rider slashed the evil bird’s foot
with his sword.
“Cwwf How dare you attack Crowbar
the Cruel!” he yelled angrily. “Crowbar will
make you pay for this! Cmwwl” F
Then he turned and flew away into^^
the slooTty night.
 Ranettf cheese vinilst That twister stunk
like rotten eggs! Oh, why hadn’t I brought my
nose plugs? Have you tried them? I use them
sometimes when I’m taking out stinky trash.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, 1 was headed for
the OCingcfom of Tantasy. As we flew,
thunder EP,
LIGHTNING FLASHLP.

Finally, at dawn we spotted

the GWi

54
 1. Kingdom of the Invisible 9. Kingdom of the Fairies 20. Kingdom ofthe
Spiders 10. Kingdom of the Sea Southern Giants
2. Empire of the Ruby 11. Rainbow Valley 21. Land of Time
Dragons 12. Talking Forest 22. Kingdom ofthe Silver
3. Desert of Eyes and Ears 13. Kingdom ofthe Dragons
4. Land of a Thousand Northern Giants 23. Realm ofthe Towering'^
Shadows 14. Kingdom ofthe Elves Peaks I
5. Land of Nightmares 15. Kingdom ofthe Diggerts 24. Land of Toys
G. Kingdom of the Fire 16. Land of Trolls 25. Green Gounty
Dragons 17. Kingdom ofthe Witches 26. Bright Empire
7, Kingdom of the Pixies 18. Land of Sweets
I 8. Kingdom of the Gnomes
8.Ki 19. Land ofthe Ogres

9^ ^
 3. Woods of Goodness 14. Crystal Castle

4. Pretty-Skade Plain 15. Sweetwater Lake

5. Pink Forest 16. Brigkt Hopes Way
6. Turquoise House 17. Green Gate

7. Flowery Mountain 18. Fairy Quarter

8. Tootk Fairy’s Manor 19. Happy Trails Station

9. Fountain of Youtk 20. Gazeko of Love
10. Silver Akyss 21. Petal Way
11. Fairy Godmotker’s Tower 22. Tke Forest of Nympks
 Kingdom of the Fairies
-*i
 The Magical
World of the Fairies
i^Who is Queen Blossom of the Flowers?i^
Blossom is the Queen of the Fairies, She lives in her
Royal Palace known as the Crystal Castle, Blossom
is the heart of the Kingdom of Fantasy, Her wish is to
bring peace and happiness to the entire kingdom,

l^The Dynasty of the Winged OnesUr

Blossom belongs to the Dynasty of the Winged Ones,
the founders of the Kingdom of Fantasy, Her sister,
Wither, has passed to the Dark Side ,,, and has
become her most dangerous enemy!

l^The Making of Sir Geronimo of Stiltoni^

The Kingdom of Fantasy has been in danger many
times. Every time. Blossom has called Geronimo
Stilton to help her. Because of his loyalty Geronimo
has been named Knight of the Silver Rose; Knight
of the Treasured Gemstones; and Fearless, Prince of
the Winged Ones, among other things. Blossom and
Geronimo are now BFFs!
 The Great Fairy Council
Queen Blossom is powerful, but still she must obey the
Great Fairy Council, or Fairy Court, which is made
up of the seven wisest fairies of the kingdom. Judge
Strictwings leads the court. She is tough but fair.

r
The Laws of
THE Kingdom of Fairies

I Every fairy must respect the laws of the Kingdom

of Fairies,

I Every fairy must obey the Great Fairy Council,

I Every fairy will only use magic powers for good,

I The greater a fairy's magical powers, the greater

the fairy's responsibility,

I Every fairy must defend the Kingdom of Fairies,

even if it is dangerous,

I Every fairy must protect the secrets of the Kingdom

of Fantasy from those who might misuse them,

► Every fairy who breaks the laws will lose all

fairy powers and will be exiled forever.
 What a Furbrain!

s we approached the Ciystal Castle, I

began to make out the shiniraeriTig
towers and bll\e flct^S. I couldn’t wait
to see Blossom, In fact, for a
second, I thought I spotted her
behind a window.
The owl landed in front
of the castle. A huge crowd
made up of the inhabitants
of the Kingdom of Fantasy
had gathered. What a nice
UJ6|COfplng COfPtPittee, I thought . . . until
it hit me!
Splat! That’s right, someone in the crowd
had thrown a WftCW tOmatO at me!
“It’s him!” the crowd cried.

62
 What a.^^^-Furbrain!

“It’s FOOLISH ONE, the mouse who lost

the ring!”
“Now the Kingdom of Fantasy is in danger,
because Wither stole it!”
“I heard he kept the ring in a nightstand drawer.
What a fiCJD’&ffafilil!”
I was in shock. At one time, everyone in
the Kingdom of Fantasy loved me. They even
considered me a hero. Now they thought I was a
traitor!
Rat-munching rattlesnakes! How could
$unK So low?
I have
Luckily, Blue Rider drew his sword. “Leave
FOOLISH ONE alone, or you’ll have to deal
with me!” he warned.
Blue Rider led me to the back of the castle.
He knocked on a door and a peephole opened.
“Umm, are you friends or enemies?”
a little voice asked.

63
 What a, *Furbrain !

“Friends!” Blue Rider responded.

“Umm, do you have a pass?” the voice
continued.
Blue slipped a rolled-up
scroll in the peephole.
Jmm, SO what’s
3 password?” the
v^oice added.
“Oh, give me a
break! You know
me, Boils! It’s
Blue Rider! Now
let me in!” the
knight demanded.
At that point
the little door
opened and a
gi'een face peeked
out that I, too.

66
 What a.^^^-Furbrain!

recognized. It was

>Oils
^ the ehameleon!^^^^

“Sony, but you know you can never be too

careful! These are dangerous times here in the
kingdom/’ he said.

Boils
is a little cliameleon wko
changes colors to klenJ with
kis surroundings. In tke past,
ke worked as a spy for tke trolls and for
tke Queen of tke Witckes. Tken ke met
Geronimo and changed kis ways. Fun fact:
Boils will do anything for candy!

67
Here is the map of Crystal
Castle, Blossom’s palace, at
time of our arrival!

King
 White rose labyrinth

Fairy
library

Chatterclaws

ScribblehoppeK ^
Boils
Geronimo
itairw»

Blossom’
i) study Blossom’s throne f
used to be on the /
Fairy ground floor of the /
Acl
Council’s castle, in the great
central ceremony

ILstudy
room. Now it’s the
meeting place of
the Great Fairy '
^

Council, led by
the head judge, ^
Strictwings. fu:
 Blossom's Secret
Quarters
I was nervous after the tomato-throwing
bit, but I entered the eastle and followed
ji. Blue Rider down a hallway to a painting of
Blossom.
The knight looked around
to eheck for spies, then
he put his hand on the
painting. It spun around.

vvayf

passage/
 Blossom’s Secret Quarter

revealing a P A ^ ^ A ^ 0 that led to the

f$6CB6T Q0ART6RS^of the Queen of the Fairies!
The SBFiell ©f l?©SeS filled the air. And there
before me was Queen BloSSOin! “Welcome back
to the Kingdom of Fantasy, my friend,” she said.
Whew! Well, that was a relief. At least Blossom
wasn’t going to start pelting me with overripe
toTUflltoeS. Still, 1 could tell by her expression
that she wasn’t going to throw me a party, either,
“My Queen, 1 am here to set things right,” I
squeaked.
She smiled sadly and said, “I know you didn’t
mean it. But you did not take proper care of the
ftingf. It was no ordinary ring, and
you left it in the drawer of your nightstand.”
What could I say? The queen was right. I should
have put the ring in a locked box in my basement
(except I don’t have a basement). Or I could have
put it in my refrigerator in a \

71
Crystal Castle
 Blossom’s
i Secret Quarter^

chunk of cheese (although I might have eaten it

by accident). Well, either way, IMteetD
up!
“Vm sorry,” I squeaked.
Blossom shook her head. “It’s okay.” She sighed.
“I never imagined Wither would have the courage
to reach you all the way in Mou$e i^la^d!”
Then she added, “Even worse, I just found

okay

76
 Blossom's Secret Quarters

out that Wither has called together the Great

Witcl) Coui^cil to elect a new Queen of the
Witches!”
Huh? That didn’t make SENSE . “But isn’t

^^lackle
their queen? And Wither is
her friend, right?” 1 asked.
“Not exactly. You see, friendship and loyalty
don’t exist between witches,” Blossom explained.
“Instead of being thankful to Cackle for raising
and protecting her, WITHER is now trying
to steal her throne! The ftjngf has
multiplied her magic powers by 1,000 percent.
But let me explain the stoiy of the legendary ring
so you will understand why it’s so important. . .”

77
 The Story of the
Winged Ring

This is the true story. No, really, don't believe

anything else that anyone tells you!

Bling Bling Makes a Ring! a.

The ring was designed for the first of the Winged Ones,
King Regal. The king asked Gnome Bling Bling, the
Master Jeweler, to make the ring since he was the expert
in making magic jewelry. Bling mixed silver extract
from all the lands of the Kingdom of Fantasy so that
everyone could control it. Then he fused it with the fire
from all the volcanoes so its power could reach the heart
of whoever wore it. Then he nu)lded it in the waters
of all the lands for purity and dried it with the air of
all the winds so that its power would have no limits.
Finally, Bling decorated it with scented rose so that it
smelled like a freshly picked flower.
 Ring Power!

The Winged Ring multiplies the power

of whoever wears it by 1,000 percent!
It should only be worn by Winged Ones
or those whose hearts are pure.

Shhh . . . It's a Secret!

The ring has a secret. It is made up of perfectly

equal measurements that match the golden
ratio of everything that exists in nature.
 A Nightstand?

ight then I heard a voiee eeho through

11* the eastle. ‘The Great Faiiy Council is
now called to order! Blossom and
FOOGISM ONE, present yourselves before the
.. f
-ilSrr^-at Fair^ C©urt!” ^
* - > ‘f. "
“This is it,” Blossom said, leading me down a
long, twisting crystal corridor. First we turned
left, then right, then right again, then left. Fm
telling you, this place was a total maze! For a
minute I thought we might be lost forever! Oh,
what a NIGHTMARE!
Finally, we ended up in the enoraiouse ceremony
room. There were e%H seated on chairs
 A Nightstand?

in front of us. Above them hung a plaque that said

in Fantasian*, Fairy Law is the same for all.
JuDOe st^iCTwINGs swore us in. "Do you
swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?”
When we agieed, she ordered us to sit.
Blossom sat down and faiiy Rulewings began to
question her.

*You will find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571.

81
 A Nightstand?

“Is it true that you. Your Majesty, gave the

Wangled to this rodent?”
Blossom whispered, “Yes, it’s true.”
Rulewings continued, “Is it true that you
'You can find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571.

told this rodent that he should take care of it?”

Blossom sighed. “Yes, it’s tme.”
Rulewings insisted, “Is it true that he
brought the ring to the real world and
put it in the drawer of his nightstand
and Wither stole it?”
Blossom tried to defend me,
“Yes, it's true, but it was all
my fault. I should have WAEN6D
him . . .”
Then Rulewings quoted FaIRY LaW #6,
which states.

This writini is on the Fain) CoiArt’s desK.Trtj to translate it.*

 A Nightstand?

"EVERY FAIRY MUST PROTECT THE

* SECRETS OF THE KlHGDOM OF FAHTASY *
FROM THOSE WHO MIGHT MISUSE THEM."

Because Blossom had broken law #6, the judge

said she could be sxilsd forever!
Everyone watching the trial g^Jp€c3 in horror.
At the same time they seemed to be shooting
daggers in my direction. I felt a mouse-sized
headache coming on. It was my fault the queen
was in trouble!
Before I could think, the judge had turned
her attention to me. She asked me my name, my
address, my phone number, my height, my weight,
and if I liked PIZZA or I answered
all of her questions, even if they seemed a

PI f y§
 A Nightstand?

little strange. 1 mean, what mouse doesn’t prefer

pizza?
Finally, the judge got around to the reason I
had been called before the council.
"Is it true that you received the Win€f<!,d
Ring from Queen Blossom, but instead of
keeping it in a safe place, you put it in the
pRAWER of a nightstand?” she asked. "I mean,
what were you thinking? Who puts something so
precious in an unlocked drawer? I could see if
you put a flashlight or a book in your drawer, but
 A Nightstand?

an enchanted ring? Reaiiy?”

Rats! This was all my fault. 1 couldn’t
defend myself. There was only one
thing left to do . . . Beg.
"Please!” I implored. "Give me another chanee!
I will search the entire Kingdom of Fantasy until I
find the ftJnGf! 1 will CLIMB every
mountain. I will S'Wim every ocean. Well,
maybe I’ll take a boat. I’m not the best swimmer.
Still, I’ll find it!”
"We will return with our dectston,” said
Strietwings, leading the fairies out of the room.
 The Secret Alliance

^ M s we waited for the fairies to return, I

approached Blossom. “Your Majesty, I
promise I can fix this mess!” I squeaked.
Blossom lowered her voice, “Only one thing
can save us. You need to ask the help of the three
members of the Sccrct Alliai^CC:

The j^lever J^hameleon

and the

Lady of Dreams
88
 The Secret M Alliance

“Okay, great! Where ean I find

them?” I asked.
“First you must reach the
Bright Empire where
all the wizards and sorcerers of the
Kingdom of Fantasy live. There you
will find Mel the Magnificent, the
Clever Chameleon, and the Lady of
Dreams.”
I jUHflpsd to my paws, ready
to take off, but the queen grabbed
my paw. She insisted I listen to
her story explaining the SCCrct
alliance she had foimed with the
three wfeardS.
It went something like this . . .

89
 _ ^ VL\)t mov^ _
of t\)t
Secret JSlUnnce
^ thousand
years aifo, Cackle
chose Mel the
Magnificent for
her husband ...
What a catch/

cw'he wanted to
unite the power
of the witches and
the power of the
fje could take over the
Kingdom of Fantasy/ wizards.
(Cackle’s
troops

surrounded

the Bright
Attack them, my warriors]
Empire ... We will win!

JIfilut then

I, Blossom,

came to

help ... A
Blossom, the Queen of Fairies,
order you to leave!

!9nd that

is how our

secret alliance

begfan ...
^iow can we repay you,
dear Queen?
 Sparkle Flower

fter Blossom finished telling her story, she

showed me a lpJlJiuL<Lrrib that she wore
-around her neek. It was made of four of
the purest BLUE CRYSTALS, whieh Sj^aFklpcl
like stars.
“When you meet my friends, show them
this pendant so they reeognize you. It is ealled
JparKle floiiuer, the pendant of the seeret
allianee! We each have one,” she explained.
It seemed kind of SiLLjf to name a pendant, but
I didn’t want to insult the queen, so I just nodded.
‘Take care not to lose the pendant. Foolish
One,” Blossom continued. “It represents the
Pov/eR f RieNpSHiP. It will bring you courage
in your darkest moments.”
Then the queen gave me a map and explained

94
 Sparkle Flower

how to reach the Bright Empire. Believe me, it

didn’t sound easy. First I had to take the Read ©f
Illummated H©pe, away from the City of Fairies.
Then I had to follow it in the same direction
that the sun rises (east!), and then I would
walk along toward Green Connfy. There I
would reach the GBQQDG QflTFQ and enter the
and continue on the Green
PQth until I found the Circle of the Twelve
Green Guardians. After I passed some kind
of test the guardians gave me, I could enter the

Bright EMPiREr-"
Whew! I was exhausted just
about this journey! Still, I put
pendant around my neck ai
promised to do my best.

95
 This flower'shaped pendant is made up of four
of the purest skj'Colored quartz crystals. Nothing
can darken its splendor, because it reflects the
rays of the sun like a mirror. Its light will light up
the heart and mind of whoever wears it!
 THE SECRET ALLIANCE
^17
Blossom, the Lady of Dreams, Mel the Magnificent,
and the Clever Chameleon represent the four virtues
that give strength to the secret alliance.
 PURITY

Blossom is also known as the Flower Queen,

the Lady of Peace and Happiness, She Who
Brings Harmony, She is the Queen of the
Fairies and of all of the Kingdom of Fantasy.

Her skin shines of crystalline light. Rosebuds

and diamonds are braided in her hair. She seems
very young, and yet her reign has lasted an
infinite time!

Blossom of the Flowers, within the secret

alliance, embodies the virtue of PURITY. Only
a pure heart can understand what is just.
 STRENGTH

Mel is called the Magnificent because he is the

most powerful wizard in all of the Kingdom
of Fantasy, Throughout his long life he has
dedicated himself to the study of the Magic
ArtSy traveling far and wide through the
Kingdom (that is how he learned all of the
known languages!).

In addition to the golden crown, he always

carries his trusted Wandress, the most powerful
magic wand that exists (he is the only one who
can control it!) and the Magicarium, his Book
of Magic Spells,

Mel embodies the virtue of STRENGTH, Only

a strong mind can work on Magical Studies
without desiring power.
 FANTASY

The Lady of Dreams has skin as white as snow,

a mouth as red as a cherry, eyes as blue as
cornflowers, and hair as golden as wheat.. .
She reigns over the marvemouse Mountain
of Sweet Dreams, which is always covered in
soft, fluffy clouds. No one has ever visited the
mountain, but anyone can dream about it. Go
ahead! Can you picture it?

The Lady of Dreams is the member of the secret

alliance who embodies the virtue of FANTASY.
Anyone with an imagination is lucky because
they will always have hope. They can dream of
answers that others cannot see and best of all
they can dream in vivid color!
 WISDOM

Born in the Thousand-Year Land, Clever,

also known as Clev, is a member of the Lizard
Population, His skin is leathery, his scales
sparkle, and as a chameleon he can match his
color to the surrounding environment and become
invisible. He is a master of all martial arts, and
invented the Study of the Split Tongue, Using
the vibrations of certain words, he can strike his
enemies as if he were using a powerful sword.
He can also fight using a wooden cane that
transforms into a thousand different weapons.

The Clever Chameleon embodies the virtue

of WISDOM. His strength is his experience
throughout his life. All the leaders of the
Kingdom of Fantasy seek his advice.
 Sparkle Flower

At that moment, the fairies returned to the

ceremony room. I was a wreck! My FATE and
that of the Kingdom of Fantasy depended on their
response!
“Foolish One, you will now be sentenced!”
Judge Strictwings announced.

She continued, “We have decided it is your

fault that the V^ancf^td tting was stolen. But
we have also decided to give you 9 Second
chance. You will leave at once to find the ring,
but if you don't bring it back within one moon —
that is twenty-nine days — Queen Blossom will
be exiled. And a new queen — or a new
king — will be crowned.”

106
 Sparkle Flower

At those words the ENORMOU/E

door of the Ceremony Room opened and the

fireat Jlttendant
oftheU/caS«((a U/eaSc(j entered. He wore a red
eoat with gold trim and a funny wig on his head.
SHAKING a
golden
small
hell. he yelled,
"Inhabitants of
the Kingdom of
Fantasy! Hear
ye! Hear ye!”
Willard the Weaselly

T he room fell silent as the weasel

eontinued to shout at full volume, “I am
here to present the smartestest, noblestest,
handsomestest, and all around bestest . . .

^ RlNcf^ILL'^RP

also known as Lord of the Spotted Fur, Hero of a

Thousand Battles (or mueh less). Defender of the
Furrybellies, and most of all . . . Of thO
Throne of the Kingdom of fantasy!"
He stopped to eateh his breath, then went
on, "And with him, his sister will also make her
entranee, the ehaiTningestest. . .
 Willard the Weaselly

RiHc*SS ‘%(LLWMfNA!
Prince Willard entered the room with his nose
held high. He had white fur, and his tail had a
black spot on the end. He wore a velvet cape
and earned what looked like a voyal sc^plcv.
Willard’s sister, Prineess Willamena, was dressed
in a faney pink ball gown.
 fC€ U/rCLARP tfff WMSfLLif

velvet cloak wit

pearls Iroxn tke
Mermaid. Sea

tip ^
anakerchiet/ ^
witk kis initials
His TITLES: Prince Willard tke Weaselly of tke Seven Tail
Dynasty, Sire of tke Tliickcoats, Great Ckomper of Perfect
Pizzas, etc.
His PERSONALITY: He is convinced tkat ke is tke most
intelligent, tke most cunning, tke most kandsome in all tke
Kingdom of Fantasy! Don’t tell kim ke’s wrong!
His WEAKNESS: He loves pizza kut tends to overeat and end up
witk a stomackacke!
His SECRET: He is madly in love witk Martina tke marten weasel,
known as Priss, Princess of tke Rococo Dynasty.
 I Aunt Waiter
kyi^EASEL, THE SINGER

iffr Willard

WiLLAMENA
f: Count Ferret ;i
If OF THE Ferrets, I Great-GRANDMOTHER
" WiLLAMENA's FIANCE/ WiLLAMENA, THE TRUE
HEAD OF THE FAMILY
 Willard is the thirteenth prince of the Seven Tail
Dynasty. Since the existence of the Kingdom of Fantasy,
the Weaselly Weasels have been trying (unsuccesfully)
to take the kingdom from the Winged Ones...

V Rosy Weasel,
f ROSE COLLECTOR
Grandmother
Bauble Weasel,
JEWELRY COLLECTOR Trendy Weasel,
EXPERT DECORATOR

Aunt Sew Sew

Weasel, professionai
SEAMSTRESS j

Dressy Weasel,\
FASHION expert}

Cresty Weasel, ?
EXPERT IN NOBLE Artsy Weasel
CRESTS THE ARTIST
 IVe Got Everything!

I illard turned to the erowd. Then he said

. in a high-pitehed voice, “Citizens of
the Kingdom of Fantasy, I am here to
announce to you that I am ready to become the next

KING KINGDOM FANTASY”

Eveiyone looked horrified. I wasn’t surprised.
Who would want a squeaky-voiced weasel as a
ruler? Willard just yammered on and on. “I’ve got
eveiything I need — the CROWN. the C9p6’
the scepter, the charm, the wit, the invitations to
the ceremony, and the pizza for the celebration!”
The crowd began to grumble, but
Strictwings silenced them.
The judge thanked Willard for his offer but
explained about her decision to give me another

116
 IVe Got Everything!

chance. "Foolish One will have one moon’s time

to find the WangfCid If he fails, we will
ehoose a new queen or king for the W«Sc!6«n„
she told the weasel.
Willard looked as if he might explode. His
eyes bugged out. His nostrils flared. Even his
curls tightened in anger. He pointed at Blossom,
"Exeuse me, miss, but you should not be trusted.
I mean, your twin sister is WITHEI{. I know
your gartfi!”
Then he pointed at me. "And you, rodent, are
a disaster! They don’t call you Foolish One for
nothing!” he screeched, rny whiskers.

Youchlik
>fou are
^ disaster!
 IVe Got Everything!

Willamena joined in, “Yeah, we ean’t tmst you!”

She stuek out her high-heeled shoe and
stomped on my tail.

Double youcb! j'V

trust you:

Then Willard bciokcd me on the head

with his seepter as Willamena thwacked her fan

on my ears Ttiplc yOUcll!

 IVe Got Everything!

“Please/’ I begged Strictwings. “Don’t listen to

them. I promise I’ll return. Rodent’s honor.”
The fairy stared at me for a 1.0JM43 time.
In fact, she stared at me for so LONG I
started to get self-conscious. Was it my fur? Did
I have something in my TEETH?
At last, she banged her gavel and declared,
“Foolish One, I believe you are truthful. You will
leave now to find the ring, and you will return
within ONF MOON!

. ^
LUNAR CYCLES . .

, 1
NEW
2
FIRST
1 . •
. *
•
3.
PULL
i 4
LAST
MOON •QUARTER . MOON QUARTER

1 Tke moon takes approximately twenty-nine cjays to complete 1

1. ' its cycle arountl tlie eartli. Duriii^ tliis tune it lex}lzs different

sun.

122
 IVe Got Everything!

“Oh, brother,’’ the prince of the weasels huffed.

“Now I’ve heard everything. That mouse will
never come back. Li&r, liar, paints ein
fire!
“You said it,” his sister agreed. “Just look at
him. Who could trust that shifty face?”
But Strictwings didn’t listen. She adjourned the
court.
As the fairies were leaving, BloSSOltl hugged
me. “Good-bye! Good luck! And please be careful.

V\\be
\>ackl

123
 IVe Got Everything!

my friend!” she said,

I smiled. Don't get me wrong, I was scared out
of my fur, but I didn't want to look like a scaredy-
mouse. So I waved good-bye and took off for the

Would I make it?

Who knows.
I was sure of only one thing.

I would do everything I could to

make it back alive!

124
 It's All Foolish
One's Fault!
left the Kingdom of Fairies feeling scared
/■«) but hopeful. Sure, the journey would be
DilNGEROlJS but at least I had a map.
What? Did you forget? Blossom had given me a
detailing the path I
would need to reach the
BRIGHT EMPIRE
I pulled the hood of my cape over my head
so no one would recognize me. Then I checked
my bag. It contained everything I would need for
the trip: bread, cheese, a cup, utensils, a flint rock
for lighting seven faiiy flowers, and
a king-sized bed. Well, okay, I didn’t bring the
bed, but that would have been C02V.
Ah yes, I was headed off on the long, winding

126
 Here Is t/ie ,^gp
B ossom ^ave rrieV

Tkis way for

tke Kin^tlom

„(tkeG„„n.e.

Tkis way to \ iit^i Green g

tke Kingdom of County^Nj^^
tke Pixies

Tkis way for Cut-off

tke Kin^c^n street

of Troks '

Enckanted City
 ^It's All Foolish One's Fault!

As I trudged along, I did my best to blend in

with the other inhabitants of the OCiiydoill oj'
TutltUSy heading along the same road.
They were all gossiping about Wither, Blossom,
Pnnce Willard the Weaselly Weasel, and you-
know-who. (Shh! I mean. Pi6 of course!)
‘T wonder if we will get a new queen or king?”
"Too bad. Blossom was the best!”
 ^It's All Foolish One's Fault!

“Yeah, she was Gtwtpoys and KilPlD

and beautiful..
“It’s all Foolish One’s fault!”
“What a ■foO’&D’afilB!”
I sighed. They were right. It was dll fTlV fdUlt.
I felt lower than the lowest sewer rat.
I walked on and on for seven days and seven
nights. Cheese stieks, I was tired! At night I had

TERRIBLE NI«IITMAREi where I

saw the dark fairies and heard their sad music.
 Caww! Cawww!
Cawwww!
efore long, I had finished all the food
Blossom had given me. I walked along the
road with my stomach ^FOWlill^ up
a storm. If only I had taken a few cheesy pRptiSiH
bars for the road!
It was then that I saw an old, familiar bird
fly by. It was the slyest raven in the Kingdom of
Fantasy . . .

ttEVERWINOi
Even though I was dressed in my disguise, he
recognized me immediately. “C ^ f Well,
look at that! If it isn’t my old pal the M©IU)SE
IPI^OI^ilCE!” he squawked. “But wait, I heard
you are no longer called knight or Sir Geronimo.

132
 ^ww! CawwwI^^^J^^Cawwww!

What do they call you . . . Simpletonsnout? Or

was it Forgetfulface?”
One thing you should know about Cleverwing:
He is a total ViS6 Still, I needed his help,
so I didn’t protest. You see, Clevei*wing canied
with him at all times a €|olclen cbcst. Inside,
he sold all types of merchandise.
“I could use ...” I began.
He interrupted me. ‘Tut on the breaks, stop,
halt. I know what you need ... a WEWMMDI6E!”

is tke slyest raven in all tke Kingdom

of Fantasy. He comes from tke ancient
Ravenwing Dynasty, tke only ravens

cleverwing isn’t evil, kut

ke’s very greedy. He carries
a gold ckest and sells
everytking from dragon fire
xtinguiskers to gnome skoes.
 J3aww! Cawww! * Cawwww!
You will find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571.

“Even a freshly hatehed raven just out of the

egg would recognize you!'’ he continued, “What ^
you need is an authentic secondhand APPLE
TREE costume. It comes complete with moss,
worms, snails, red ants, and a bird’s nest. It costs
ft's a deal!
five gold faiiy coins.
Take it or leave it!”
To convince me, he pulled out
a wanted poster written in
Fantasian with my face on it.*
“Okay, but actually \
I need provisions as y
well,” I explained.
The bird snickered.
“All right, then I will
propose a deal. I will
sell you the disguise
for five gold coins and
if you give me two
 ^ww! Cawww! Cawwww!

more coins, I will give you my provisions! And,

as a FREE GIFT with purchase, a book of
raven recipes . . .
"Take It or leave ft Cawww!”
I accepted and gave Cleverwing seven of the
90U coins that Blossom had given me.
He helped me put on the tree disguise. "Careful
not to bend over. If you do, you’ll lose the ttggS
in the nest,” he warned.
He gave me the bundle with his provisions,
adding, "Here’s a little bit of free advice: If I were
you. I’d watch my bag. As soon as you enter Green
County you’ll meet a bunch of little thieving

"Squinny wonns, you can barely see them,

you furbrain! They are sprites wearing GPeeiu
Leaves! If they see you pass by they won’t think
twice about snagging your bag! ” He snorted before
taking off. "Caww! It’s a pleasure tricking ... I

135
 TREE COSTUME
Apples

Bird’s
NEST

Birds

Red ants

Moss WITH
WORMS AND
SNAILS
 ^ww! CAwww! CAwwww!

mean doing business with you. Foolish One!”

After he left I opened the bundle and ... my
apples Sell in disappointment!

Yum! Here are ^

the provisions!

137
 IfyiSAOMft wm
(ARTWWORin CRW
; AMO ay 5fVUC^ CAWftKo'

LARVA
PUOOIMO

P^5TRy flLUO
Wire AMT CRTAft I TURRy 5PIOLR y.
1. PSr( kj
ay ceiATW
f roTTW cm
'I Live V)0RW5

ay sMice (^Rawoftf?
5AH0V)1CW lt(aA65
 CLEVERWING’S

Roaches with
Fly Bits
(spaghetti with
OLIVES AND cheese)
IHOWORMTS;
for four people: \ box of spa^etti,'/? jar of tomato sauce,
1 can, of sliced black olives, ] cup shredded mozzarella cheese,
W cup grated Parmesan, 1 tbs olive oil, pinch of salt

D1R1CTI0H5:

With the help of an adult, put four quarts of water in a

pot. f\dd olive oil and salt, hrin^ water to a boil, stirring
frequentijj. Cook spa^etti until desired tenderness, about
6-10 minutes.

When pasta is cooked, drain and return to pot. hdd

mozzarella and olives, ^eat until cheese is softened.

In a separate pot, heat up

sauce, then pour over
finished pasta. 5erve
With grated Parmesan.
 ciIeverwincI’s
JOKEY JOKES

What do worms leave around their baths?

SCtAi^ €0.rt^l

What kind of math do birds like?

Where do you put barking dogs?

li^ 0. ^otl

Why don't fish like basketball?

Tl^e^Ve o( f^e hetf

Why do cows go to New York?

To see i^e mooS<co>^sl
 What did the duck say when she bought lipstick?
if oh mti [

What do you call a wet bear?

cA. Jlrizz^t^ ^eaA .

Why don't cats play cards in the jungle?

Tl^efe too ^

y' What is a snake's favorite subject? ^

What do you call a pig that does karate?

Why did the witches lose the baseball game?

Tl^eiV

Where do mice park their boats?

 Through the Green
Nightmare!
^ nd that is how, dressed as an apple tree,
I continued my vIOLIRNEY toward

It was a terrible trip, because the tree costume

will find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571.

was really uncomfortable!

The bark my tail!
The WORMS tried to crawl in my ears!
The birds at my head!
The KE1D /SRflTS pinched my paws!
Finally, at dawn, I found a in Fantasian*
along the trail.
 The sign pointed to a piVTH that headed into
the woods . . .
Soon I entered a thick forest of trees. The
trees were so tall they barely let any sunlight
in. A carpet of dried leaves covered the
path, crunching under my pawsteps. Cntncbi
Crniichi Oh, what a fright!
At dawn on the third day I reached a clearing.
For some reason the place gave me S'fifffS!
I could swear someone was watching me, but I
couldn’t see anyone!

145
 Through the Green Nightmar^

I felt someone yank on my tail, pull my whiskers,

and pinch my ears . . . but there was no one in
sight!

heard the
th©^

of branches and . . . someone stole my bag!

I had arrived at the GliQflBDCnQ of the

ilTTlt TwiVtUG

Even though my bag was gone I tried to give

myself a pep talk. At least I still had JparWe
fjouuer, the magical pendant Blossom had
given to me. ,
anrf walked
I »nd walked
until finally I reached an CJfORMOU/E
148
 Tke Little Tkieving Sprites
live on tke edges of Green County. Tkey
are so oknoxious tkat tke otker pixies
kicked tkem out of tke kingdom. Tkeir
king, Spriteness, is tke cousin of Spratly
of Sprets, tke King of tke Green Pixies.

Tke Tkieving Sprites sew tkeir clotkes

from green leaves, wkick makes tkem
invisikle in tke forest. Tkis kelps tkem
steal from anyone passing kyl

op the LlTT^^ Queen of thb

SpRI’T®^ Thieving
 Through the Green Nightmar^

tree whose branehes were 111 PUP

together to foiTti a really tall gate. It was the

** OF Gree'n
^COUKTT,-^
i i* >

152
 The Bad
News Was .

he good news was: I made it to the

gate. The bad news was: The gate
was elosed!
How would I enter? I felt a little silly, but
I decided to ask the gate. “May 1 come in?” I
asked politely.
Strangely, I had the feeling that the Green
gCBg .cam .at. m.
Gate was WATCHING me. And right at
that moment it rumbled,

> V(H0 ARi YoyuOVJVJ"?

DO VOVJ
Gulp!
“1 am the PI^DI^Ci, umm, I mean, I was the
prince, but well, now they call me FOOLISH
ONE,” I babbled. “I’m here on a veiy important
mission for Queen Blossom. Will you open up
and let me pass?”
“Well, Fooooolish One,” the gate answered. “If j
you want to enter, you must solve the riddle of
The Green Puzzler.
HAS Koof^
TREE, AHP
^^VIARP but
CH%%SX^
I had no idea!
So I squeaked, “Well, to be honest,
I don’t understand a cheese rind
of your puzzle so I’m just guessing
balloon? a
here. Could it be a
uaterneton? a SlCikM UCiUO?”
 Have tde answer
To tHe rxi&e,
beginning, end, and
xHe miMel

Help Geronimcr
solve the Green
. Puzzler! A
 The Bad News Was ..

The gate stayed closed.

I thought about down in sobs.
Maybe the gate would feel sony for me. But a
minute later a group of friendly nightingales
landed on my shoulders.
“We know the answer to the riddle/’ they said,
whispering it in my ear.
I repeated it out loud and the Green Gate swung
open.

TO green

159
1. Forest of tlie Green Wfiippers
2. Forest of tKe Green Caners
3. Forest of tKe Green Biters
4. Forest of tKe Green Stingers
5. Forest of tKe Green RusKers
6. Forest of tKe Green Trippers
2. Forest of tKe Green Trappers
8. Twelve Green Guardians
 The Seven Green
Forests

found myself before the first forest, the forest

Ip of the (iRFfN Here grew
trees that were like weeping ^
willows, with really long
branches that went down to the
ground. Right then they began
to sNsice . Next thing I knew
a long branch reached out and WfV0Ck@'Ct me
in the tail! Now I understood why the forest was
called the forest of the (iRFRN WHI^^RR^!

Wfhack! wlhack!
whac/ti
I ran quickly to the next
gi'ove of trees, the forest ^
oftheCPeew cawens
162
 The Seven Green Forests

Too bad the second forest was just as bad as the

first. The trees had loziQ' branches that were
like canes. They smacked me on the head!

Smack;
I was so busy fighting off the Caners I didn’t
notice the shrubs with the strange
flowers. Why were the flowers so
strange? They had ECfllUlRtP teeth!
They were the GREEN BITERS

“Help!” I squeaked, grabbing my tail.

I took off like a shot.
To my relief 1 ended up in what
appeared to be a quiet clearing. fhew!
A moment later I felt something prick
my paw. Rats! It was the GfCen StingCfS!
The Green Stingers had long R(}lNty thoms.

163
 The Seven Green Forests

Holey cheese, how do I always end up in the

scariest places in the kingdom?! This forest was
like no other. Not only were the plants alive, they
all had BAD ATTITODGSi Oh, where was a good
plant counselor when you needed one?
Right at that moment, the giound began to

s hdi^Q
Giant plants were galloping .
toward me. They were the
GREEN RUSHERS\^ -

Gallop! Gallop^
Gallop!
1 ran down the path, but a moment later 1 ended
up with my snout it'! on the ground!
The plants had stuck out their roots and had
made me trip! They were the GREEN TRIPPERS!

164
 The Seven Green Forests

I lay on the ground staring at the dirt. For a few

minutes nothing happened. Was it over?
I sat up, feeling relieved . . . until
suddenly, beneath my paws, a bunch
of giant holes opened up! They
were the ,
and they were trying to
gobble me up!

By some miracle, I managed to escape from the

CREEN FORE/T/ What a
nightmare!
I sat on the path catching
my breath. At that moment
I noticed a patch of SiaMt
RaspbeRRieS growing near V
me. They looked so RED and JUICY and I
delicious. My stomach grumbled. I was starving! ^

165
 THE SEVEN GREEN FORESTS
OF GREEN COUNTS

Green Whippers
Are the best
whippers in
the kingdom.
Stand back!

Green Owners
Love to whack
everyone with their
thin branches. Vouch!

Green Riters
Have flowers with
supersharp teeth!
 GItEEN STINGERS
Use their thorns
and spikes to sting
everything in reach!

Rushif §
Have powerful roots
they use to gallop
faster than a unicorn!

Rude and unpredictable,

they love tripping those
who least expect it!

MRfcErJ ta^PPE:a5
Capture, trap, and
swallow ... they are the most
dangerous plants in the kingdom!
 The Seven
0 Green Forests

I know they say you shouldn’t eat berries in the

vi[d , but I was so hungiy. Maybe if I just tried a
little one. Then, before I could pick anything . . .

168
 You're Not a Tree!

hree chestnut trees yelled out, “Stop

ri0bt there!”
“We know you’re not a tree, you’re a
mouse!”
“Keep your paws off the beppies!”
I gasped. “But who are you?” I squeaked. This
place was getting nuttlGlT by the minute. First
the trees in the woods were out to get me and
now three chestnut trees were screaming at me.
“We are the

the trees snarled. “We patrol the grounds of

Cownfy ’
“I promise I haven’t done anything wrong!” I
squeaked. “I was just minding my own business.”

170
 Tke Tkree Ckestnut Trees
kave powerful trunks and strong kranckes and are
known as tke legendary Ckestnut Trees. Tkey are
legendary kecause long ago Mel tke Magnificent
used a magic de-rooting spell, wkick allowed tke
trees to pull up tkeir roots from tke ground. Now
tke tkree krotkiers can wa Ik and even run]

Tke Tkree Ckestnut Trees patrol all of Green

County making sure everyone respects tke Green
Laws] Tkeir names are Ckester, Nutley, and
Trunks Ckestnut. Tke Ckestnut Trees kail from
tke renowned Ckestnut family. Tkey provide
Mel tke Magnificent witk tke kest ckestnuts.
^ Tkey ’re kis favorite snackl

Chester Nutley Trunks

Chestnut Chestnut Chestnut
 You're Not^^^h^a Tree!

The Three Chestnut Trees snorted, ELBOWING

one another with their branches.

“Will you listen to this mouse? Minding his

own business. What does he think, we were just
germinated yesterday?!”
The first tree my ear. “Listen, mouse,
we heard you’ve already done a lot of damage
since you entered the Kingdom O^
TufltUSy. You can’t fool us!”
The second tree yanked my
tail. “We know you lost
the Winged Ring.
Even a seedling
would know not to
put it in a nightstand
drawer!” he huffed.
The third tree stomped

172
 You're Not, Tree!

on my paw. “Where did you put your garbage?

Have you been litteH the forest?!” he
demanded.
The trees pieked me up and shook me until
some of my apples popped off.
“Tm not a litteri110US6!” I yelped.
“What about Have you been lighting
IFII^EC?'’ the trees snarled.

173
 You're Not. fcA Tree!

I shook my head. "I haven't lit a fire since I

entered Cotiinfy, rodent’s honor!”
“We saw how you looked at those TdSpberrieS.
You looked ready to pick them!” they continued.
Uh-oh. They got me there. I had been Ahddlvn^
over those raspberries like a starving cat at a
fish festival! t ’m Sony I was really hungry,”
I apologized. “But I promise I didn’t eat a thing!”
One of the chestnut trees lifted me up by my
tail and swung me around until I was so
I could hardly see the forest past the trees. “Sure,
sure. That’s what
they all say! ‘Oh
no, I didn’t throw
my garbage around!
No, I didn’t set any

I didn’t eat any precious

fruit!”’ he mimicked.

174
 You're Not, Tree!

Finally, Fd had
enough. After all, -
I love nature! So
I explained to the
ehestnut trees
that I OSdI^
trees, plants, and
all things gieen.
I even throw ^
a party every
to Then I told them I was on an
important mission and I needed to reach the

JIf If IE®Ef GUffil*?

The trees talked it over and agreed to let me
continue on my way. However, they insisted on
accompanying me. “This way we can make sure
you don’t do any damage to our grounds!”

175
 You're Not, Tree!

And that was how, dCCOmpdllied by the

Three Chestnut Trees, I reached the

The chestnut trees pushed me toward the Circle.

“Go on, from now on they will be the ones to set
you straight!” they said.
One of them put a sack of CANDIED CHESTNUTS
in my hand and told me, “When you get to
 You're Not> ,A Tree!

bring him these candied chestnuts for us. Tell him

the Three Chestnut Brothers send their regards!
Got it?”
Another one shoved a CANDIED CHESrNUr in
my mouth. “Not that you deserve it,
but we want you to have a good,
memory of us,” he muttered.
I thanked the trees and
approached the Guardians. I
must admit I was a little distracted. That chestnut
was

177
 •!»
The Circle of the
Green Guardians

w he Circle of the Green Guardians was

made of a magic circle of

IWIJVE OAKJRE
These were ancient plants surrounded by an
enchanted fog. Their trunks were gigantic, their
branches knotted, and their leaves were thick and
green.
Their leaves the wind in a peculiar
way. I coughed. Either I was losing it, or those
trees were one another!
“Um, greetings, your LeaPyLOPDSlmean,
honorable bRanCH WaHPS ..I spUttereL

178
 THE CIRCLE OF THE
GREEN GUARDIANS
They are alive and talk by rustling their leaves.
During a full moon, they can transform into
Wizards of Light. They were put at the edge of
the Bright Empire by Mel the Magnificent to
ensure that only the worthy could enter.

Here are their names:

Fronds Greenleeif: the most welcoming wizard
Oaky Woodthin^: the most delicate wbard
Trunks <Aeornstron^: the strongest wizard
Barkabee Hardbark: the most severe wi:&ard
ClorophijUis GreenbMd:the liveliest wizard
Sapheart flyleaf the most^eneroi^s wizard
f^T^ddy Sweetleaf: the yoi^n^est wizard
Rooty Wellplanted: the wisest wbard
Oakland l^arkster; the most decided wizard
Foliaye fSloomsby-.theyreenest wbard
Treely «Rcornish: the oldest wi:^ard
Leafly Happyblade-.the happiest wbard
 So
much for
making a
good first
impression!
Oh, how were
you supposed to
address a TALKING
TREE as tall as a ten-
stoiy building?
 JThe Circle of the Green Guardians^

“I am dressed as a tree, but Fm actually a mouse,”

I continued. “They call me FOOL^ISH
ONE, and Blossom sent me on a very
important mission. So I, um, need to enter the

where Mel the Magnificent reigns. In fact, I really

need to speak with him.”
Suddenly, twelve voices whispered at once:
“If wa/lt to enter the B^^g^t mpiP®,

step DP now aftd ^how tjoLp desire,

iVe will fet ^01) pass 'this wcTc
But o/ift) If tjoLp Mapt is pup«.

U/c honor Bfo^s^*^ pr^t^ctop,

We follow her rtles aftcl d^n't dis^^espect her."

I nodded impatiently. “Great, I understand, so
can I go in?”
The oaks held out their branches.

183
 The Circle of the j Green Guardians^

“Not so fast! ^oD must taKc a

test. Sot cm pass!”
Right then I remembered
flouuer, the pendant
of the seeret allianee. I held it up,
hoping the trees would skip the
^ test and let me through.
Unfortunately, the plants just shook their
leaves. t>ious« that wfff not do, you fo^t
th« Pins. w€ can't trust ‘j^uj”
At this I turned r©cl as a tomato. What could
1 say? The oaks were right. Putting that ring in
my nightstand drawer had ruined my reputation.
No one trusted me anymore. Rats! But I didn’t
have time to dwell on my MISTAKE because
the giant oaks began shooting questions at me.
“Before you take the test, tell us who you are.”
“Why?”
“Because we need to know if you’re a wi-beh

184
 .The Circle of the Green Guardians^

or not!”
“I’m not a Vi-bdll!”
This went on and on for twenty million hours.
Well, okay, maybe they didn’t question me for
that long but you get the idea. Those oaks sure
were suspicious! First they were convinced I was a
witch, then they were certain I had witch relatives.
Then they said I must be friends with witches.
At last, they handed me a scroll.
“Fill this out and that’s all you need. If you
pass, you may proceed.” I took the scroll. Holey
cheese, there were a lot of questions! This might
take me all CUtd ni^fdb. Using a goose
feather and BLUCBCMY JUICE ink, I began
jotting down my answers. I felt like I was back in
school. Only, failing this test wouldn’t just mean
a bad grade. It would mean the end of Queen
Blossom!

185
 Abe ^ A FBIENP OF THE Wings'

1. What clothing do you pkefer out of these three;

Jl. lon^ (^ctrK dress, patent leather shoes, <

and a pointi| hat
B. it black ti^nic with a black cape and
a brooch shaped like a bat
C. ofl white ti^nic, a silver sword, and a ma^ic
wand made of an olive branch

- i^HICH COMRHNION ANIMAL DO HOU PREFER?

,R. <R black cat that knows ma^ic

B. <R talking crow that knows howto sat) ma^ic spells i
C. <R white dove that flies freeli)

HAT WOULD you CHOOSE

AS A TRANSPORTATION METHOD?

H.H fljjin^ broom

B. Jt black dragon that spits fire
C. .R winded horse
 WOULD you DO IF HOU FOUND yOURSELF
IN M BEWITCHED FOREST AT NIGHT?

JR. Gather nettle plants to stuff Jjour pillow

B. Gather poisonous mushrooms and
fro^ saliva to maKe a ma^ic spell
C. Run in fright

5. If you met a werewolf, you would:

S\. Share the latest gossip about the
Kingdom of Witches
B. .flsK for a tuft of its fur for a spell
C. Staij awai}

<!^6^ho would you choose fora tflrvel

COMPANION?

Jt.Jt black dragon who loves plates of spicij peppers

B. olt little o^re who loves fresh meat
C. Jt woodland ^nome who loves desserts
 Test Results

Friend of the Fairies

If ijoiA chose C for mani) of i)our answers then i)oM '
are a lo^al friend of the fairies, ^ou love U^ht,
nature, and Kindness, ^ou have a^ood and
affectionate heart and believe Blossom is^
the undisputed ‘t’^een of all of the
Kingdom of Fantasy!

Friend of the Witches

If ifou chose ofl or B for most of i|our answers, ijou
are a friend of the witches, you love darK clothing,
pointed hots, blacK certs, and bats, you liKe^ertherin^

poisonous mushrooms for potions and

spells, and fljjin^ on a broom, you
want Wither to rei^n over the
Kingdom of Fantasi}. Urn, are
ifou a mtch bij chance?
 ^ . mgnoua chestnnt,.
j ~ hawthorncherry magnolia
^ sflcamoreoiiuechestiirt pomegranate hnii.,
Z^poplaroliue ch^tnut"*
haioftorn dierrg oak Orange beSCh elm pear Chsstnat apple ^
\\ dpplG mulberry linden sycamore birch elm ihden'
§pp||Q0 3lin0nd
ch€|ry oak orange beech elm spruce chestnut J^^P^^jChoStnilt
pineeucalyptusmagnoliaGim beech.ash oliue.
/p -iJff magnolia almond cedar pine appl^ linden s^moreoliue chestnut pme -
“ figPGarhazIenutsequoiaCIlGStnutcedarpearfig o
sequoiabirch chestnut |)fffh molben^ pine orange haiDthorn birch hcrilg
fig geu) magnolia OllUG poppg oliue chestnut hatothomcherrg magnoOa
hainthorn cherry magnolia birch hollg seifuoia elm pine
birch maynoua weeping luilipu) maple beech cypress gem
f a/n;, birchnapoito
' ‘ I® • ^ oliuefiaoearcheiTUMkoSsbeech lindensucamoreoliwecgpress
uionyuanuraiiycimoui-u--
linOen tig Olhiefig eucalyptus pear magnolia elm chestnut cherry elm mi
lt3Ll omit' niagnmia chestnut cberrg win pear magnolia seqnoiaelm magnolia Cherry ^
orange oak Cherrg birch pine mulberry eucalyptus magnolia
hamthomflg olive cherrg encalgptus ^camore olivechestnutpine
. " sgcamore birch cherrg oak beech eim spruce chestnut
cHestnut cherrg eucalyptus _ ;, birch magnolia pme jiq.
mapte chestnut , maplefig chestnut pear

CV cO ^^ ,^tree
( mo tree
trpp tree
t,-p.
^ iucc tree tree tree L- ^
tree tree tree -
tree tree tree i -1, '
it? X lice tree tree tree r
I; tree tree tree tree irre^
^ (tree tree tree tree tree ^
^ ' tree tree tree tri
I: tee tree tree tre,
S t tree tree itw
- tree tree ,n
^ tree
tree tree tree tree
I Hidden Faces
 Hugging A Tree

"FS gave the oaks my test and waited. Not to

brag, but I was feeling pretty CONFIDENT
jli After all, asAunt Ratsy always says,
“You can never go wrong if you tell the truth!”
Still, after a while I heard the Green Guardians
muttering among themselves, “The mouse passed
the exam. Do we let him through? How do we

know his is in the right place?”

My whiskers cfTPOOped. The oaks still didn’t

trust me. What else could I do? Give blood?
Donate a lung?
Then I had an iD£n
Spreading my paws as wide as I could, 1

192
 Hugging

wrapped them finnly around the tree. Yep, you

got it! I gave that tree the wannest ever!
Suddenly, through the rough bark I eould feel my
mouse heart and the oak’s heart BCATINC
together as if they were one. The sweetest feeling
of PBDQCODSDODl!? flowed through me, filling
me up with a feeling of peace and joy.
The oak said, “Your heart is tnie, of this Tm
sure, for it is beating, strong and pure.”
Then all the other oaks stretched their branches
toward me, singing,

. fo the

castleoS9°'-*\ •
■Veltte Wizard, ■-

194
 Hugging A Tree

I slipped out of my apple tree disguise and

scampered off toward that

I had arrived in the BRIGHT EMPIRE,

the fahumouse kingdom governed hy Mel the
Magnificent, the Great Wizard of Light!
It wasn't long before a white-and-gold CdStle
materialized before me. Wow! What a place! I
took off running.
After all, time was ticking . . .

VIOULD f manage
to RGTURW
OtlE MOON CYCIG'?
My heart RIGID under my
fur as I pushed through the fog. At last, I reached
the castle known as XPahklc ||ock'

196
f HEBIJKJHT ^

Wftcrc it is toCd of
how FooCisfi One was
hit Mnth- a wand By
MeC the Magnificent
and reeeived three
magic gifts ...
It was founded in a secret time, in a secret way,
witk a secret formula made Ly tke tkree most
powerful wizards in tke Kingdom of Fantasy:
Mel tke Magnificent, tke Clever Ckameleon,
and tke mysterious Lady of Dreams.

Tke tkree skared tke same ideals for peace.

Tkey kave fougkt togetker in a tkousand kattles,
wkick kas strengtkened tkeir friendskip.

Queen Blossom joined tke wizards in a kard-

fougkt kattle against tke witckes.

From tkat moment, tke secret alliance was

formed. It is made up of Blossom of tke
Flowers, Mel tke Magnificent, tke Lady of
Dreams, and tke Clever Ckameleon.
0 The Mysterious
Ancestry of Wizards

In tke Kingdom of Fantasy tkere are fairies

and witckes, kut tkere are also otker magical
creatures. Tke Wizards of Ligkt live in an
immense part of tke kingdom keyond tke
enckanted mountains . . .

Tke wizards pass tkeir time reading magic

kooks and testing out spells. Tkey are peaceful
creatures and use tkeir talents to comkat tke
dark forces of evil. Besides spell and potions,
tkey re not too kad at magic tricks, eitkerl
Security Measures:
Tke Wizards of Liglit
kave a unique power. Tkey
can kecome invisikle at
any time! In addition, tke
entire Brigkt Empire is
invisikle to anyone outside Coai of a
it. Only tkose ckosen ky tke
Green Guardians may enter. Mel tke
Magnificent came up witk tkese special
security measures to keep out evil powers.
No witckes allowed!

The Bright Empire

Tke Brigkt Empire welcomes you,
believe in love tkat is pure and true.
May your tkougkts he filled ivitk warmtk and virtue,
May sincerity skine in all tkat you do!
 Circle of tke Green Guardii 8. Harmonyville, tbe Land

Sparkle Rock Castle of Enchanted Elmdies

Magic Rock Forest 9. Wand Forest

Magical observatory 10. Magic Market

Mystical Waterfall 11. Crystal Cavern

6. Great Magic bbrary 12. Mountain of Enchanted

Snow
7. Wizardburg, where books
k are written 13. Wizardess Peak
14. Fountain of Trutk 19. Great Cl aw Castle

15. Pointed Hat Peak (Cl an of tke Bears)

16. Sincere Lake 20. Clearwing Castle

(Cl an of tke Owls)
17. Tkicktail Castle
(Cl an of tke Foxes) 21. Von Wild Palace

18. Skarptootk Castle 22. Dreamreflector Lake

(Cl an of tke Wolves)

 Anyone Home?

t the castle door there was a tall knight

wearing SPaRKiy sUveR aRHPR.
When I got closer I realized that the
armor was empty! It was a

The knight lowered his lance to block my way.

“Allright, then... Who are you? Where are
you going? What do you want? Yada, yada,
yada,” he said in a dull voice. I guess it was boring
asking the same questions over and over.
I cleared my throat. “I am FOOLISH ONE.
Tm here to see Mel the Magnificent and —” I
began.
“Why didn’t you say so!” the knight interrupted,
leaping aside to let me pass. “Come on in!”

208
Sparkle Rock Castle
 Great Magic Council room) 10. Mel’s apartment
5. Mirror room 11. Tke secret Magicarii
 The ghost knight pushed open the heavy door,
and I entered the e^S-ble. I found
myself in a large foyer with fancy ^oldQII arches.
I expected someone to greet me, but there was
no one around. “Anyone home?” I yelled. No
response. Something told me I should give up the
7 idea of a . e ,
 At that moment I heard piano MuSic...
I decided to follow the music. I took a
eandleholder and began walking.
Cheese niblets! What a fright!
Along the corridor there were
tens . . . hundreds ... no thousands of doors.
I’m not pulling your paw! The castle was one
 Anyone Home?

enoraiouse n^sse ! I went from room to room

following the music.
Suddenly, the music stopped and I heard

©I'
I ran in its direction until I reached a room that
was empty. There was no fumitu no books, no
pictures . . . just an enormouse
in a frame decorated with oak leaves and acorns.
As I looked at the mirror, I got the impression
that someone was looking at me. But I was alone
in the room . . .

OR WAS I???
 Mel THE Magnificent

minute later, I heard another sneeze.

I
But still I didn’t see anyone!
Then someone sneezed again.
Holey cheese balls, the sneezes were coming
from the mirror!
Turns out that mirror opened just like a POOR.
On the other side there was another room, lit up
by a candelabra on top of a

w'

A man in a white robe sat

playing the piano. It was
 Mel the Magnificent

Mel stopped playing when he saw me. "Oh,

ZiP and ZAP it, that’s why I’m sneezing
my face off! There’s a mouse in the castle! I’m
to mice!”
He pointed a finger at me. "Is it possible to
get just a thousand years’ peace without
someone coming to bother me? Oh well, since
you’re already here, talk, mouse.”
Then he waved his WAND in the air. "But
make sure you’re telling the truth or I’ll wand
you!”
I hurried to explain, "I am here on a mission
from our beloved Queen Blossom. She asked me
to warn you, the Clever Chameleon, and the Lady
of Dreams that her throne is in DANGER!
The minute I mentioned Blossom, the
Wizard brightened. "Oh, well, if you’re here on
behalf of my friend Blossom that’s a different
thing. How is my dear friend?” he asked.

220
 the

Maoicarium
tke kook of ma^ic

Sparkle
Flower
tke pendant

of tke secret

alliance
W ANDRESS , Lj
tke telescopic .\ ^

wand ^ -1 WS

Mel tke Magnificent, tke Great Wizard of Ligkt,

also known as Melvin, Wizard witk tke Wand,
tke Lord of Eternal Spells, tke Protector of
True Justice, and most of all, tke Great Solver,
He Wko Is Akle to Find a Solution Even Wken
Tkere Is Nonel
Not much is known about Mel the Magnificent, and
he's not talking! He lives alone, works alone, and prefers
to be alone. (Too bad everyone is always asking him
for help!) He is incredibly knowledgeable, and loves to
read books and paint. He speaks all the languages of

Mel’s crou’i^
the kingdom including TroUese, Witchish, Giantino,
and Mermadian. He also knows the language of
plants, the mysterious Green Language. He is the best
musical composer in the Kingdom of Fantasy and
wrote the '^Anthem of the Bright Empire.** He plays
the piano, along with many other instruments. He is
the greatest genius in all of the Kingdom of Fantasy
and loves inventing bizarre machines. For example,
he invented the Foggerator, a machine that makes
Enchanted Fog. He uses his magic wand, known as
Wandress, to protect the Bright Empire.

P.S. He is allergic to mice!

\^ookofmap/c

St/tH

*^0fasses
 Mel the Magnificent

I explained about Wither and the STOicn

and how Blossom might lose her title.
"What a disaster!” the wizard exelaimed. "Who
was the foot who let the ring get stolen?”
RatS! I was hoping I wouldn’t have to explain
that part of the stoiy. "Um, er, aetually, it was me,”
I admitted.
Mel snorted. "Well, I can’t say I’m surprised.
You do have the look of a fool, he pointed
out. Then he JA9PED me with his elbow and
smiled. "Okay, I’m just playing with you. I already
know you lost the ring. I just wanted to see if you
would tell the truth.”
The wizard lifted his wand and a cloud of
shot out. "And now by my wizardly
powers I hereby agree to help you in your quest
to save our dear or my name isn’t . . .

224
225
 How Typical!
el put his wand down and looked me
in the eye. “Okay, let’s hear it. What’s
the big piam How are you

going to fix the situation?” he asked.

I blinked. “Uh, well, I thought I would go to
Wither, alone, and um, get the ring,” I mumbled.
The wizard slapped his thigh. “Ha, ha, ha!
Wow, what a CLEVER idea!” he hooted,
rolling his eyes. “And tell me, how do you plan on
surviving?”
“Er, um, I guess I was c-e-eounting on you,” I
stammered.
Mel lifted his anns to the sky. “Well, of eourse
you were! How typieal! Everyone counts on me!
‘Magnificent do this, Magnificent do
that!’ How is it possible that I am the only one

226
 How Typical!

who can fix anything in this kingdom?!’’

Exasperated, he smacked his wand
against the ground. "I’m telling you, I am fed up
with all this helping out! Seriously, what about
my problems? Who helps me out? Nobody, that’s
who!” he eried.
Uh-oh. The wizard was getting himself so
up I decided I’d better leave.
But when I turned, Mel GEABBeD me by the tail.
“Who told you to leave?” he demanded.
1 gulped.
 How Typical!

“I said I was fed 14 p, I didn’t say I wouldn’t

help you!” he insisted. “Follow me!”
He headed toward the comer of the room and
lifted a WHlSfe® W08D that was covering . . .

AJi
tJtOEMOlSi

^TAL#
“Check it out, mouse! With this magical ciystal
ball I can see eVerf^thing that happens in
the 'KiH0({otn Tantasy, and more! And

with this powerful ball I followed you

during your whole trip. Just between us, I have
never seen a more foolish rodent than you! How is
it possible that you always get in so much trouble,
FOOLISH ONE?”

228
 The Ball of Marvels

el passed his hands over the CRYSTAL

Idifer which immediately Bll'lt USDS)
v9 light blue. “Okay, first things first,” he
mumbled. “Let’s see how that ring got stolen.
BALL OF MARUELS, show me Foolish One’s
 The Ball OF Marvels

The image of my house in NEW MOUSE

City on Mouse Island appeared in the ball!

“Now, BALL OF MARVELS, show me inside

Foolish One’s house!” Mel continued.
The image changed and now you could see
my kitchen. Then, to my embarrassment, I saw
myself scarfing down different types of cheesy
dishes. I remembered that day. I was trying out
new pecipes “Yum! This is good!” I
squeaked after each bite.
The wizard snickered as he continued to shout
commands. “Ball, show me how the Winged Ring
was STOtfN!
I leaned in close. First, I saw myself going to
sleep. Next, I saw the window open and a large
CPOW landing on my nightstand. With one wing
he opened the drawer. Then he grabbed the ring
in his beak and flew out the window.
The wizard grunted, “So that’s how Wither did

233
 The Ball OF Marvels

it. She sent a crow! If only a CGRTAIN S0M60NG

hadn’t put that ring in a certain place we wouldn’t
be in a certain mess.”
I groaned. I mean, I felt awful, but how many
times did a CeRTAlNSOMeONe have to apologize?!
Mel rubbed the ball, and we watched
as the crow delivered the ring to
Wither It’s hard to repeat
what happened next. It was SO
terrifying! The crow changed shape
and transformed into a young warrior!
"Thank you, my betrothed! Now that I have the
ring, my power will be unmatched! At last I will
become the next Queen of the Witches!”
Wither cackled.
Mel turned pale. “Oh boy. This is bad. That
wasn’t any crow, it was the Shape Shifter . . .”

Tke Skape Skitters

are creatures of tke Kingdom of Fantasy tkat are capakl
of ckanging tkeir form from kuman to animal.
 "Crowbar
V
^TBE ^
^RUEl,
He pointed the WAND toward the ball,
ordering, “Ball of Marvels, show me what
Wither is doing now!”
The magic ball showed Wither in the Kingdom
of Witches. She was building a right in
front of Cackle's that was taller, iCARllR , and
QQIOQIIQ than hers!
She dancec/

a myste’

235
W^at
 o.
ctl

JO'S-

**‘<3-ow(,artKeCt'^^^'
Flowers
 The Ball OF Marvels

“\n the najie oj Withei?,

I vill ^ 0^g^^e,
\ will i't i>eJ<oi>e dawB,
It will ie no
I Will «se myr^upe,
TO put things to^etbe-P,
\ will make i-t rfapk and 8ti?ob^'
10 withstand deadly weather,

tall and dapk and Sopep seaP^-

^ jlnd definitely haunted,
Vlith nw Pietupe on the walls,
■ftey, ive got it, | flaunt i't’
JSr \ want it tall, I want it bi^,
I want it wopthy of a queen,
\ want it facing the west wind. • •
%o Sn -the fiP8t one to be seen-
oh, and one nope little thiht'
and then that’s all thepe iS,
\ need a nagieai assistant,
to handle all wy bia!”
 The Ball OF Marvels

Then the witeh waved her wand in the air, and

a BLACK CAT appeared. It had yellow
eyes, really long whiskers, and an ear-piercing
Meowwwi
Wither smiled evilly. ‘T have the RING. I
have the castle . . . and now I have the assistant,

X M^NpCe,
"WTEHiNGCpT”
 The Ball OF Marvels

Twisted rattails! The cat looked as IVIl as

its boss!
Mel turned off the CRYSTAL BALL
with a wave of his wand. “Well, that’s that.
You’ve made a real mess of things, FOOLISH
ONE. The only way to fix it is to go to

and get the Winged Ring back from Wither. If

you’re lucky, you’ll make it back alive,” he said
with a sigh. . ^
'G-go to ?” I stammered.
“Couldn’t I try c-c-c-calling first or maybe sending
an email or t-t-text?”
The wizard snorted. “Couldn’t I send a text?!”
he shrieked, imitating me. “Foolish One, your
FOOLISHNESS astounds me! I can’t. . .”
He was interrupted by ^3

243
 Siiiilence!

el slipped under his c

■n|w# and turned, motioning me to follow.
W He headed toward one wing of the
castle where there was a sicn in Fantasian,*
You can find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571.

We headed quickly down a hallway. On the way,

we passed many doors with many signs hanging
from them: Spell Room, Magic Laboratory,

244
 Siiiilence!

Professor’s Lounge, Wizard Gym, Magic

Library, Enchanted Cafeteria.
“Welcome to the School for Wizards! All that
racket is coming from the first-year students/’
Mel explained. “It’s a really undisciplined class.
But I’ll set things straight. What else is new?

to the rescue!”
There were pictures with class portraits along
the walls. I rubhed my eyes, thinking I was
dreaming . . .

^ere mmmi

245
 Siiiilence!

Mel stopped in front of the door to a classroom

that read First Y^ars — Beginner
on it.
He flung' open the door and yelled.

SILENCE!
There was total chaos
in the classroom.
One wizard was
making QSlSZZdlS.

® Another was playing with

boils of magic light.
In one comer three wizards
were tiying new and wacky
CQQDBDQS.
248
 A little wizard
with red hair
was drawing a funny
picture of Mel on
the chalkboard.

Everyone was yelling and laughing and running

around.
As soon as the class saw Mel they sprang into a
of frenzied action.

249
 A few minutes later everyone was seated quietly
in their places with innocent looks plastered on
their faces.
Mel walked over to the picture on the board and
looked it over carefully. “For those of you who
don’t know, JLt is spelled
with an ‘i’ not an ‘a,’” he observed dryly.
Then with a wave of his MA(§^?C WAND
he fixed the spelling and erased the drawing of
himself. He replaced it with a much more serious
self-portrait.
With a second wave of his wand he took all of
the little wizards’ wands and slipped them in a
drawer of the desk. With a third wave of his
wand a list of the appeared
on the board. “Copy these ten, no, one hundred,
no one thousand times, and then (if you’re lucky)
I will give your wands back!” Mel ordered.

252
tM l*iagrc Lawj
1) A real ^izarcl seeks out the
4oo<3 an<J avoids the tad.
2) A real wizard tehaves their
test, tecause with ^reat power
comes 4reat responsitili^.
5) A real wizard tells the truth.
A real wizard uses rha^ic for
4ood and notle reasons.
g) A real wizard uses iha^ic onl;)^
when necessary.
Q) A real wizard keeps their wand
in a Safe place.
7) A real wizard never Wastes
their powers on silly spells.
 Recognize Me?

ight then a little wizard who had been

working QQDDQ'lPIIW at her desk stood
up. "It’s not fair! I didn’t do anything
wrong! Why am I in trouble?!” she protested.
"But that’s just it, Wolfy!” Mel deelared. "You
didn’t do anything! You should have stopped the
rest of the elass. You will do the ASSIGNMeNT just
like everyone else. No special treatment here.”
The little wizard rolled her eyes. "What else is
new, Unele,” she muttered.
Mel turned to me and said, "Foolish One, meet
my nieee, d

MMiroHV
Wolfy seemed like a strange name for a wizard,
but I’m not exactly an expert on wizard names.

254
 Recognize Me?

"It’s an honor to meet

you,” Wolfy said, politely
shaking my paw. "I know
evei’yone calls you Foolish
One, but my friends and
I have been following
your adventures. To me,
you will always be the
Prince.”
One by one Wolfy’s friends stepped up to shake
my paw.

IftaxY FaxY
IbwHvia
EKVtTlHK
256
 Recognize Me?

The wizard Owlivia was the last to introduee

herself. I couldn’t put my paw on it, but she seemed
so familiar. Was it her Iwfnkli eyes? Her
curious expression? The familiar-looking pendant
in the shape of an owl she wore around her neck?
Where had I seen them before?
“Don’t you recognize me, Prince?” she said
with a wink. “We’ve already met.”
Before I could say “squeak,” she suddenly began

Now I knew where I had seen Owlivia before.

She was the enonnouse white owl who had flown

260
 Recognize Me?

me from Mouse Island to the Kingdom of Fantasy!

“You might want to file your PHVfNBILS,
Prince/’ she remarked. “You were holding on so
tight on the trip over I lost a ton of feathers.”
I blushed.
OH, HOW
 Where's My Throne?!

’ atisfied that the young

. were once again working hard, Mel led
me back to his study. “Okay, so where was
I before I was so R(JDE1.Y interrupted?”
he griped. “Ah, yes, I was about to help you save
Blossom. So first things first, I will summon the

: Groc^t Couivcilr’
He pulled a white velvet string that was tied
to a 60LDIIIBIU “Wizards of the
Bright Empire, look alive! The Council of Wizards
is now in session!” he cried.
Then he waved his wand in the air singing,
“Wider, bigger, maKe more space! Brighten
up this small dark place!”

262
 ^^9cfs

X/, ■ ^

"Srt * '""’>«"««?*»». ♦...‘^^s

l^q [e;s(j3puBM wizaed sigem atSeui pjBziMJapucm[3A»mo!3em|isds3!&i)(; jjfr)\^ '>»

jo^ooqp««^
wizard wizard wizard ,
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^
I vX
r^ A % ” %. \
wizard wizard Wizard S/O#^ • ^ 8 * \
. Wizard Wizard wi- "«■
zardwizard
f i
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I

Xr:

''aVffl^ l&arrf Wizard waaid wizard wizard

‘^n ,. f: Wizarijw^rd . wiza^w..
g wizard wizard wizard wizard
^ <> s| wizard wizard wizard wizard
Xaos’ wizard wizard wizard wizard
wizard Wizard wizai'd jaci w^d wizard wizard
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wiza^W^rd wizard
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wizard
 Then he be^n
to twirl around ^
and around so fast, ^
just watehing him was ^
making me As
he spun, the room seemed
to grow bigger and
Wg^cr Cheese rinds!
Were my eyes playing
trieks on me?
Finally, the wizard
stopped spinning and
waved his wand in the air with
a flourish. "That’s it! The
room is big enough. And
now for some furniture!”
In a loud voiee he began
to sing, "One, two, three,
four, chairs and tables.

266
lamps and more! Five, six, seven,
eight, my books and bookshelves
would be great!”
The walls filled up with shelves
that had bOOfeS of all kinds on them.V
So this was the wizard’s famous

madieal

Legend had it, Mel’s libraiy

contained the most precious books
of spells in all of the KitigdoiTl oj'
Tantasyi
With another wave of the wand,
Mel conjured up heavy gold-
embroidered silk curtains for
the windows. And when he
pointed the WAND toward

267
the floor, expensive cfeeoT(®a-bive rugs
appeared. Then he yelled, “I’m still waiting for
those chairs! And soft pillows, pairs and pairs!”
of chairs in all kinds of
fahrics and styles swirled into the room. Pillows
round and square, many with 0olcl tdSSols,
rained down, too.
 The wizard looked around, nodding in approval
until his expression clouded over. “Oh, zap
it! Where’s my throne? I need my throne!” he^
screeched.
Suddenly, a super-heavy throne dropped right
on my paw!

^oachhhbhbbhhhhhl
“Do you mind getting your paw out from
under my throne?” Mel huffed.
 Where's My Throne?!

I was about to protest when he ordered, “Have

a seat.”
Right then a /TOOL landed on my other
paw.
“Ow!” I squeaked.
Mel shook his head. “You really are a
FOOl^'ISH ONE,” he commented. “Here,
have some tea and pastries.”
Without warning, a tea kettle crashed down,
Sl0Shin(| hot tea on my tail.
“Aiyee!” I yelped.
“Seriously, mouse? Can you go tvtfoseconds
without getting into trouble? Here, sit down next
to me so I can keep my eye on you,” the wizard
ordered.
Then he held a hand to his ear. LISTEN,
mouse, they’re coming!”
I put my paw to my own ear but I have to say I
heard nothing, nada, zip.

270
 Where's My Throne?!

"Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” the wizard

eommanded. "I don’t have all day here!”
I was beginning to think the wizard had lost
a few morbIttS when I heard the sound of
fGGt l^unnfng, How strange. There was
no one in sight!

271
 Look at All
THE Wizards!
el noticed my puzzled expression and
whipped out a pair of tPidtlCUldl?
glasses. “Here, take these, mouse.
They’re i
,^/C\^A^/tED MtAffEf
that will allow you to see everything,” he explained.
As soon as I placed the glasses on my nose the
whole room came into focus. I could

^^ohhh! see thousands of wizard?

I hurrying around.
“Huny, hurry!” they
whispered to one another.
“Take your seats. Mel the
Magnificent is about to speak!”
“I have called you here on an

272
 Look AT All THE Wizards!

important matter,” Mel announeed,

“But first I made eveiyone . . . wait
for it. . . lAa^ic CooWes!”
The room went erazy. Apparently, Mel’s
Magic Cookies were a crowd favorite. I took a
nibble. Tasty, yes, but nothing compared to my
GllfiG)GQ)l!aite Gllfieesy Gllfiews. (Shhh!
Don’t tell the wizard!)
After the wizards had eaten, Mel got down to
business. “Time to

TH
THfNk.

THINK- th ,^^
THINK...
We need to find a way to help Foolish
One so we can save Blossom!” he said.

273
 Council

Kteomer and baixlt

Brusn and Floss
Wizard professors of
Wizard dentists
_ magic gymnastics

Sinmier eind Sante

Wizard cooks

Flora and Fauna

Wizards of natural secrets Rnyme and Reason
Wizard advisors J
 Dewey and Decimal
Jewel ^em
d and Gt
Wizard librarians
Wizard jewelers

Primsy and Proper

Wizards of etiquette

Leap and Twirl .

Wizards of dance-

ScriLLL
les and Wor
Wizard scribes
 ick and Cement
Hot and Cold
Wizard meteorologists

Spray and Sniff

Wizard perfumers
Snow and Ten
Wizard interpreters

I
Hue and Palette
.Wizard painters
 Hemmy and Stitcn
Wizard tailors
Divide and Selfie tke wizard ■
Multiply A wanderer wko travels
Wizard alone tkrougk tke
accountants Kingdom of Fantasy j

Mayke and Perkaps

Seek and Find Indecisive wizards
Wizard

Gi^^les and Riddles Harmonia and Tuner

Wizard joke makers Wizard music teackers
 Where Are His
Muscles?

^he wizards leaned foiward as Mel laid

W! out the whole sorry story. He explained
Jl: about WiTHEH and Crowbar the
Cruel and the stolen Ring and
blah, blah, blah. It all added up to bad news for
Blossom!

280
 Where Are
Q His Muscles?

As soon as Mel mentioned the ring, the wizards

all began to complain. “Who was the FOOL^
who failed to protect the ring?”
“How could he be so careless?”
“What a
“Ahem, yes, what a simpleton,” I chimed in,
hoping no one would realize I was the one they
were complaining about.
Too bad Mel rijtte4 me out. “It was him!” he
said, pointing.

281
 Where Are
Q His Muscles?

The whole room turned to glare at me. Oh,

where was a good disappearing spell when you
needed one?!
"WeTe in trouble,” Mel continued. “Wither is
calling for a

mw TIUEii?
to be elected . . . and we all know who she’ll be
voting for . . . her wicked self! We need to help
the mouse reach the Kingdom of Witches
and retrieve that ring.”
Eveiyone looked at me doubtfully.
“Him? We’re sending a clieese-chomping
mouse to the Kingdom of Witches?’’'^^’^^
“He’ll never make it back alive!”
“Where are his MUSCLES? '—*
“What are his magic powers?”
Mel nodded in agreement. “He is a puny thing,
and to top it off, he has no poweipi.

282
 Where Are
Q His Muscles?

But there must be some way we ean help him in

the name of our queen. Blossom.”
Mel waved his hand over the
BALL OF MARUELS. Before long
a picture appeared. It showed a
huge ^oldon safe wrapped in heavy
metal chains. "Looks like this is
where Wither keeps the Winged
Ring. She put it in the WICKED SAFE,
the safest safe in the Kingdom of Witches.”
With the magic wand he made an

appear.
"Take this, mouse, and be careful not to lose
it. This is Operv-up, tfie EncfiiintedKey. It
opens eveiything, and I mean eveiything — all
the lock/ in the Kingdom of Fantasy, including
the WICKED SAFE!
283
 Where Are
Q His Muscles?

Mel peered once more at the ball. “It will be

tricky to get into Dark Castle, so I’d better give
you a disguise. I can make you a
QdDBQD or a wicked wizard or an
iiriL NUNTlMAN/’hesaid.
Then he looked me up and down. “No, I’ve got
it. I’ll dress you like a

Again Mel studied the ball. “The trip will be

long and difficult. Wither has lots of allies all over
the Kingdom. I’d better give you my personal
dragon, ^ ^

rURAGON or Fortune A
if it ^ ^ ^

Just bring him back without a single scratch, got

it?”

284
 Opon-up
Encfianiea

3 am Op<?n-up,
^ am a magic V'?-
^ can open an^ loc\^,
bricl^, stone, or roc\^-
^ «’or]^ onlv for {}[<> goo^.
in eperp neigliborHo®^-
Pui^me aott^n if ^ou arc ^

^ burn ^our Hat^^

make pou madl

Open-up is a magic l^ep t^at opens all locl^s

in l\\e Kingdom of ^antas^. St mas created
Cfi)izard C^Jolten Rocl^ and can do its job onlp if
it is in the hai^^ of those mho are acting mith
good intentions. Sf one hos bad intentions, the
;_ ho? «?ill burn thoir bond. ^
 Second Glfc

ooms long i^clloro

cars fingernails

nose ujouen algae ^

rotten moss
hair clothing ^
The Goof^ Ogres are ver^ small and per^
stinhv- Snstead of h^l^ rotten moss on
their heads, and poisonous mushrooms growing
in their ears! Their nails are long and yellow
and covered in mold. Thei? wear clothes woven
from swamp algae, tohe showers in vulture pee,
and grease their hair with drool!
'^4
 ^ ^be^birdG»ift^

'JilGHTBRIGHT,

^ faster than ^
fSf /;,/'sfrongesf breeze, ^
W ^ mv heart is
^ r ' at easel ^
^ ®^zarH is m^
Hf"^V^^m^ 9<?nerous I^eeper,
^ ^ ^lis love m^
it
vjp ^
^ grotps deeper. V ]
M
^ Ke is made up of t^e lig^f of stars and lias ^
v^ ejetraordinai^ strength. Kis feet l^icl^ tlie strongest
blows, liis tail can wipe out an^ enem^?, and \[o
^ breatlies a deadli^ rai^ of ligljt. Kis epes are tlje ^
* purest stars, and along liis spine seven stars ,p
sliine. ISut tlie most ejjtraordinain? star is liis
^-'\/ iieart: i\e is inci owner, CQel
tlie ^Magnificent.

4-
 A Stinky Disguise

I
couldn’t wait to see Lightbright, the Dragon
of Fortune. A dragon made up of
twinkling stars sounded incjCjIccjL
Unfortunately, 1 had to
wait for the sun to
go down for the
official meet and
greet. It seemed
LIGHTBRIGHT was
awake only at night
because he fed on
starlight!
The wizard raised
his wand and prepared
to conjure up my ogie
disguise.

288
 A Stinky Disguise

“Any way you could make me a

friendly wizard costume instead?'’
I asked.
“Must I spell everything out for
you, Foolish One?” Mel huffed. “If
you show up at Dark Castle dressed
in a friendly white wizard costume,
Wither will think you are from the
Bright Empire, she’ii feed ®apmad®
bat poop • •
you to Menace, the Chattering Cat!
Then he said,

vulture \>ee

8oaj> froih kat

^^yfool drodV
^tinkjfool Jroo\, ^ ^ n

Ktv^ flieg t/iick a8 8ouV

 What Are You
Doing Here?

s soon as I was disguised as an ogre, I

looked in the mirror and let out a scream.
" Aaaargh! ”
1 was truly horrible-looking!

1 was tiying my hardest not to gag when the

door to the Great Magic Council room flew open
and a young wizard strode in. It was Wolfy, Mel’s
niece!
“Niece, what are you doing here? You are not
allowed into the Great Magic Council yet! You are
still an apprentice!” Mel the Magnificent
shrieked.

292
Coroe hei-e
bott\e’.

Wolfy is tke daugliter of Howler, tke

King of tke Wolves, of tke Magic
Wolf Clan; and
of Melissa, \ VX\o^

Mel s sister,
of tke Brigkt
Wizard Clan.
Ske kas two
amazing gifts,
tke power of tke
Wolf Clan (tke ability to
transform into a wolf) and
tke power of tke Brigkt Ones
(tke ability to perform
magic). Even as a ckild,
I v^aot Wolfy kas been able to
Cl caVce
turn into a wolf, move
objects, read minds,
and perform spells.
Ske is brigkt and
stubborn just like
ber uncle]
 What Are You Doing Here?

Wolfy marched up to her unele. “I am

volunteering to aceompany this mouse to Dark
Castle. He has no chance on his own/’ she
said.
“And you have HO ChdllCCof going!”
Mel responded. “You haven’t finishe^/your
apprenticeship! It’s way too

■V

294
 Wolfy $t0.l!Tip0€t her foot. She was the
smartest wizard in her class, and her uncle knew
it. It wasn’t fair that he always treated her like a
baby. Then she had an idea. “Why don’t you test
me, Uncle, to see if I am ready?” she suggested.
Reluctantly, Mel agreed. He would give his
niece three that only real wizards
would know how to pass. “Ready?” Mel asked.
“Of course!” Wolfy responded confidently.
For her first test, Mel me three apples
into the air, one after the other. “Show me that
you know how to use your wand with precision,”
he said. “Let’s see how many apples you can hit.”
Wolfy waved her WAND and struck the
three apples in just one shot! The HPPLES
were surrounded by a blue light and fell to the
ground. A second later they transformed into a
delicious-smelling apple cake!
Everyone exclaimed, ooooooif r.
295
 With another touch of her
wand, Wolfy covered the
cake with whipped cream
and powdered cinnamon.

“AAAAAAWf”
the crowd exclaimed.
Then with another touch
of her magic wand, she cut
the cake into pieces and
served it to everyone on
lillie silver pialeionce
again everyone cheered,
ooooooi/r.
Mel tasted the cake and
LICKED his lips. “Not
bad! Now show me that you
know how to complete a
Transformation spell.”
Mel pointed at me. “Turn

1
 Zap’-

that mouse . . . into a

mosquito! he
ordered. [
Wolfy took her ''
wand and pointed it
at me. I didn’t even have
time to say “squeak” before
I was transfoimed into a
mosquito!
WT/OA f» everyone
exclaimed in admiration.
I, on the other paw, flew
all around, buzzing
frantically.

Thankfully, Mel ordered

that Wolfy turn me back
into a mouse, and that
 What Are You Doing Here?

worked, too! WHEW!

Mel scratched his head. He knew Wolfy was
good, but he hadn’t realized she was this good,
whatasurprise... surprise... surprise...
surprise...
 What Are You Doing Here?

Finally, Mel said, "Show me that you know how

to tame a

He whistled and a Stoim Dragon appeared at

the window. They are the wildest dragons in the
Kingdom of Fantasy!

S'EcoDw n^'Esrr:
^efransjhrmation spell!
 What Are You Doing Here?

Wolfy approached the dragon’s faee as it huffed

Holey Swiss sliees! What a seaiy sight! One

flaming puff from that dragon and the little wizard
would be tbiastl
Wolfy didn’t flinch. Instead she let the
P humongous StoiTu Dragon sniff her hand. Then
she began to scratch him behind the right ear.
0000/ crooned the dragon happily. Next
Wolfy scratched behind his left ear. AHH!
The dragon sighed, closing his eyes.
The little wizard smiled. "Will you take me for
a ride?” she asked the dragon.
The dragon hesitated, but when Wolfy offered
to scratch his ears while they were flying, he
grinned. Then the dragon lowered his head, and
Wolfy jumped on his back. They took off into the
sky.
All the wizards ran to the window to watch
them.
wow they cried as Wolfy had the dragon
do a few loop-the-loops.

301
 Not Ranger!

( ell. Uncle, I passed your tests!” Wolfy

said proudly, climbing off the StoiTn
Dragon.
Mel the Magnificent nodded. He had to admit,
the kid was pretty good . Still, she was
only a kid. “Okay, you can go,” he agreed. “But

is going with you.”

“Not Ranger/” Wolfy whined. “He won’t let
me do anything fun!”
“That’s exactly why I chose him,” Mel explained.
“You need someone who can keep an eye on you!
Take it or leave it!”
Of course, Wolfy agreed. What choice did she have?

304
Tkis strange silver armor
Lekaves like a real knigkt
(ke even knows kow to
watck Sparkle Rock, Mel’s
castlel) kut ke is completely
empty inside 1 Before Mel
found kim, Ranger was
a rental costume in a
Halloween party store.
His kig dream was to one
day kecome a real knigkt
wko went on real adventures.
Mel, wko sees and knows everytking, found
tke armor and named kim Ranger. He made kim
tke Gkost Guardian of tke Brigkt Empire. Now
Ranger spends kis days at Sparkle Rock defending
it from intruders.
Ranger takes kis jok seriously kut does find
it a little koring. Most of kis days are spent
questioning visitors at tke castle door. Ho kum.
He is kig on appearances and spends a lot of time
kining kis armor.
 Not Ranger!

Then Mel elapped his hands and we heard the

sound of aiTuor.
Ranger, the Ghost Guardian, Cliwk,
clmk&d into the room. I reeognized him. He
was the knight from the front of the eastle.
“Hello again/’ I said, stieking out my paw to
shake his hand.
“No time for ehitehat, mouse,” Mel interrupted.
“Eveiyone, listen up!

MtefCmmei/
will start tomorrow at midnight. That means
Foolish One, Ranger, and Wolfy, you need to
leave immediately. LIGHTBRIGHT, the
Dragon of Fortune, will take you to Dark Castle.
But remember, you need to finish your trip before

306
 Not Ranger!

daybreak. LIGHTBRIGHT will vanish at the

first RAYS of the sun.”
Wolfy beamed. ‘Thanks, Unele! I always wanted
to ride LIGHTBRIGHT. ril take good care
of him. And don't worry, five got this all under
control. I already mapped out the route so that
we will arrive before the SIHIISI rises. Piece of
cake!” she said confidently.
I was glad someone was confident. The idea of
going to Ddrk Castle on such a scary mission
filled me with dread. Still, like it or not. . .

TO

307
 Two Spy Hats

followed eveiyone out of the room on

fjp paws. Oh, what had I gotten myself
into this time? Then again, at least I didn't
have to go to the witches’ kingdom all alone.
Wolfy waved me off when I tried to thank her.
S she said. ‘This will
show Uncle Mel I’m not a li't'tle girl
anymore! Are you ready? We’ll leave right after

I followed Wolfy to the wizard donnitories.

Inside the room, Wolfy’s friends OwllvlS, R6XY
F6XY, and ftEARTlHA. were super-excited.

308
 Two Spy Hats

“You were great, Wolfy!” Owlivia exelaimed.

“Congrats!” Roxy added.
“Was it hard to transform Foolish One baek
from a mOSqUltO to a mouse?” Beartina asked.
“It was almost impossible!” Wolfy admitted.
“For a while I was afraid he’d have to remain a
mosquito forever!”
Stars swam before my eyes. I pietured myself
as a mosquito, buxzing around for the rest of
my life. What a total nightmare! I would lose my
fur and I would have to live on blood. SlfCM.I
Plus, how would I communicate with my friends
and family? I was glad I didn’t have to find out!
I was still thinking about IHOSqUitOS when
Roxy said, “We have a © I F T for you, Wolfy.

“You’ll wear one and you’ll give the other to

310
 Two Spy

Wither/’ Owlivia explained. She held out two

pointy witch hats. Each one was decorated with
an enormouse sparkly RUBY in the middle.
The friends plunked one of the witch hats
on Wolfy’s head. Beartina placed the other hat
carefully in a solid-gold hatbox with the Fantasian
letters WOTF* etched into it (they were the
initials of Wither of the Flowers).
Then the three friends sang:
'"ou will find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571.

“A UAT For yQ^J vJiTeU, f®®’ \

^ iT S roAoe Qp jyg-r pQ^ 1^'

\ on m you wTLL wo'^.

SeeiiETg roL£> botij m?6H pxv v-o'^' ^
Wolfy tapped the hat on her head with tears in
her eyes. “Aw, you guys are the best. I mean it,
what would I do without you?” she cried. Then
she hugged her friends happily.
Wolfy had never heard of a spy hat so her
friends explained what it could do. Apparently,
 Two Spy jj^ Hats
—

when Wither put the hat on her head, it would

communicate with Wolfy’s hat. “This way you
can find out where the ^ is hidden!”
explained Roxy.
Then the three friends pointed their MA(^?C
wan P5 at the hats.
They sang: ^
“THESE H4tS will WORK AS f.
^ AtlD EVERy tmA6E wiLL Vi SUf»^'’"
wHATonE§eegT^g^^e^g£ES.ToJ-'
So WOLFy wfLL Know WUAT TO t>®*
j v/o\ty-

Zap!
 The two spy hats ttd. They looked
so cool I began to feel drab and ridiculous in my
GaaM Ogre disguise, ah, wen. as
my gieat-grandma Ratsy always told me, “Th6
Clothes don’t maKe the mouse!”
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the four friends
united their wands and sang.

'“^eproOTSe on our
'yi(L
^ ^ Yvxa^ic ^
^ Out ^riencJsKip i§
^o?tketrickegttonJg/»
 The hat charges
BLJICK PEJIRL:
to moonlight.
the hat’s switch

RUBy<
T^sed to control
the vob^me of the
transmission of
information

J This hot observes and listens to evertjthin^

# Wither sai|S and does. The hot then transmits the

jS information to the second hot, which Wolfi) wears.

P How^did the three wizards make the %i) Hat?

^ Wit^ a powerful ma|ie|pell!

/ $ *** *''3

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ,
The Seven Von Wild
Brothers
his trip will be DANCKROIJS,
but I’m ready. How about you. Prince?”
Wolfy asked.
I gulped. What if . . .

XocVce^ O'* fed rrie

turned me he#* cat?;
 The Seven Von
¥ Wild Brothers

With my whiskers ireMUin’g in fright

I Stammered, “Well, um, I g-g-g-guess. B-b-but if
we got in t-t-trouble we could ask Mel for help,
right?”
Wolfy frowned. “We won’t need help! Not from
my uncle!” she insisted. “But if we did I’d just call

U)c i^cticn

"VOn Wild
“Ah, the Von Wild brothers,” Roxy muiTnured.
“They’re so strong and powerful and nice,
and they’re also veiy CUTE.”
It was then that the door opened and the Von
Wild brothers entered.
319
 r'^

N
 The Seven Von
¥ Wild Brothers

The seven young wizards entered the room,

Eaeh wizard put his hand over his heart and
yelled his name.

324
 The Seven Von
¥ Wild Brothers

The oldest one spoke up. “Foolish

One, you are our favorite hero! Even
if you messed up by allowing the
rang to be stolen, you can count on
the seven Von Wild brothers!'’

~Seek and Find teach Geography and Magical Explorations.

Wolfy smiled. “You see. Prince! The Von Wild
brothers can be our backup. They can turn into
ORAGDI^S , and they have the power of the
elements."
Right then one of the brothers’ cell phones
began to buzz.

^UZZl
Who knew wizards had cell phones?
“We need to go!’’ Striker cried. “Our break is
over. Professors and Rfld* do not
tolerate lateness! Last time we were late they
made us recopy the map of the OCitigdoiU
(Fantasy thirty times!’’
325
 The Seven Von
¥ Wild Brothers

Then they ran out of the room as quick as

MSMmmc
"Let’s find the perfect WitCH plS^U|S6 for
Wolfy to wear to Dark Castle,” said Roxy, She
pulled out a huge chest filled with costumes.
I saw a clown’s wig, a bear suit, and
even a cat costume! How scary!
 The Seven Von
¥ Wild Brothers

Then Wolfy got dressed in her witeh eostume

and I fainted with fear!

She put on the witch costume

and I fainted In fright!
 The Magic
Magicarium

loify umss her wand over my

I head and I came to.
“Seriously, Prince? Does this seem like
the time to D^socau?” she gioimbled. “I hope

^V,\S seem 1^^ you’re not going to pass

^,ree‘o<aiV.,
•.
out when we see the real
witches.”
So much for sympathy.
Wolfy was just like her
OucW®* uncle Mel.
“Well, um, it’s
only because I
wasn’t expecting
it. When we are at
Dark Castle i
328
 The Magic Magicarium

won't I mean. I’ll do my best, well I’ll

give it my best shot...” I muttered. Did I mention
I’m not the mouse? Okay, let’s faee
it. I’m a certified SCarcdy-tllOUSe!
Just then I looked out the window. The sun was
about to set. There was no time to woriy about

You will find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571.

^ — it was almost time to
go! I checked that Open-up, the key, was in my

bag, took the QQDQ ElQDjOISQ

Wolfy’s luggage, and followed the \^IZ3RP down
the hall.
TM£ @HCST @UARSmN,
led the way as we crossed through big rooms
and small rooms, 3MALL0R rooms and
BICGCR rooms, up the stairs and
down the stairs, and down the stairs and up
the stairs, and then up, up, up, up, up until we
reached a GOIflDEn DOOR
that had Fantasian* writing on it;

329
 The Magic Magicarium

HbliPI
Wolfy pushed the door and went in. She pointed
to a large book open on a lectern.
“That is the Maybe one
day my uncle Mel will let me use it. It contains
eveiything really useful that a wizard needs to
know,” she said.
Then she touched the cover gently and, as
if by some spell, the pages and
turned on their own . . .

^fllp
Next, Wolfy told me the ^ of the
Magicarium . . .

330
 ^^icariulfe
Tke Mag icarium is Mel tke
Magnikcent's personal kook
of magic.
He is a talking kook and
is Mel's most trusted advisor.
He is also tke only one in tke
kingdom wko can kandle Mel’s stukkorn
attitude!
His pages were written ky kand witk
enckanted ink ky Bulker tke Great, tke
founder of tke magical dynasty of tke Brigkt
Wizards. Tkey were written on a scroll tkat
came from tke rare Glowk ulkous plant, wkick
only klooms every kundred years on Mount
Skiner on tke nigkt of tke first full moon of
summer.
 Tke Mag icarium is a Look witL immense
power. In tke Lands of tke wrong person tke
kook could kecome extremely dangerous ... So
Mel keeps kim in a secret room.
Tke Magicarium dreams of living new
adventures witk new friends and using kis power
to kgkt witckes. Tkat’s wky ke decides to follow
Wolfy and Foolisk One on tkeir adventure.
 Lightbright, the
Dragon of Fortune C7

^^^^bed... and climbed... and climbed..

e left the Magicarium and continued
toward the tallest tower,
r where the Dragon of Fortune was
waiting for us. By then I was huffing and
puffing like a passenger train on the New
Mouse City Express! Plus, the golden hatbox
and Wolfy’s luggage weighed a ton. How much
could one little wizard pack? “The Magicarium
is . . . puff . . . really . . . puff . . . extraordinary!
It almost seemed like . . . puff.. . it was alive,” I
told Wolfy.
Finally, we reached a SMALL DOOR . . .
entered a narrow stairway .

and climbed-••

334
^. and the golden hatbox
was
heavy . . .
and heavier . . .
and heavier . . .
until finally we reaehed the
top of the highest tower and
saw a dragon. He was

with the light of

the first stars of the
evening. And he was
ENOI^MOUSE!
It was really him . .

iKsHTBRieHT,'-
THE',
*IIrA6CN or I miUNE
 Roar!!!

esides the enoiTnouse dragon, I was

hoping a few of the wizards might have
gathered at the top of the tower to say
good-bye. Maybe with a CAK£ or [I]/3[LI1Q0GOS
or a three piece band or . . . Well, okay, I
didn’t really expeet all of that, but a wave good¬
bye would have been niee. After all, who knew if
we would even make it baek alive!
But when I mentioned it to Wolfy, she just
snorted, “No one dares to elimb up here.
LIGHTBRIGHT isn’t exaetly what you would eall
a friendly dragon.”
Before 1 eould say another word a huge voiee
 Roar!!!

I was so scared I nearly jumped out of my fur!

The dragon roared again and said, “I know
who she is — she’s Wolfy, Mel’s niece. And that
scrap METAL is my old friend. Ranger, the
Ghost Guardian. But I’ve never seen you before,
mouse. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t
incinerate you!”
Mdliy tt)<7zz ahe i i a ! if only I could blink
my eyes and wake up in my cozy mouse home! I
tried blinking but nothing happened. Rats!
So instead, I stammered, “I need a ride to
Dark Castle so I can find the Winged
R-Ing and save Blossom...”
He interrupted me again. “Tell me
something I don’t know. Everyone in the ^
Kingdom of Fantasy is talking about it.^
They also say that you’re the fool who ^
lost the ring in the first place!”* ^
Wolfy approached the dragon, string

343
 Roar!!!

him right in the eyes. I must say, the dragon’s eyes

clear as
were pretty spectacular. They were as
^ water and as bright as the stars. *
k “Dear LieHTBRIGHT,” she said calmly. “My
uncle gave me peiTnission to ask you for a ride.
And well, we’re sort of in a rush.”
At that moment, the pendant of the secret
alliance that I had around my neck
lit up in the mOOIllight.
The dragon saw it and
smiled for the first
time.

344
 Roar!!!

“He is wearing the pendant of

the secret alliance. If Blossom gave it to
him, that means that she trusts him, so I
will, too,” he said, lowering his head. “Now climb
aboard and I’ll take you to Dark Castle
before the sun comes up!”
Wolfy and Ranger climbed on the dragon’s back,
and I followed with all the bags. Then the dragon
leaped into the air.

And he began to flap his powerful wings . . .

345
little voice yell out, “Wait! Tm coming, too!”
We turned to the right, but we didn’t see
anyone!

HOW STRANGE!
We turned to the left but still no one!

HOW VERY STRANGE!

We looked behind us but again, nothing!

HOW VERY, VERY STRANGE!

Then finally we looked up and saw . . . the
Magicarium, toward us like a
butterfly, pages like they were
wings! He landed on the dragon’s back, and Wolfy
grabbed his spine. Lift off!
As we rose into the sky I turned back to see all
the of the great council and all the.
students from the school of magic waving. I
spotted Beartina, Owlivia, Roxy, and even the
Von Wild brothers.
They had all come to say good-bye after all!
Then the sky lit up with a magical wish . . .
 o
I Did It Again!

^ he Dragon of Fortune waved his

powerful wings, andJCew...

■Did
'andf(^w...
and Hch ■

JlCeU^.

^ni
“Well, I have to say, I did it again! If it weren’t
for Iv®^, we would have never even made it
this far. Thanks to me we’ll reaeh Dark Castle
before DWTA^M!”
The mstled his pages.

"4>
fUP
 1 Did It
O Again!

“Far be it from me to brag, but if it weren’t for

me, we’d have no S60’]p€-b Sp6llS to battle
the witch,” he insisted.
Creak. Creak. Creak. The Ghost
Guardian leaned forward. “Don’t kid yourself. If
it weren’t for me, we might as well turn around
right now. I’m the only one who knows how to
fight!” he bragged.
Lightbright let out a ritAlME -filled snort.
'MSWSFIASH! Who is taking you to
Dark Castle in one night? If it weren’t for me,
this whole journey would be a bust!” he sniffed.
As everyone argued we started speeding
through the sky so fast I saw
I didn’t know if I could take any more
so I reminded my new friends
that we would be much better off if we worked
together. “There’s no T’ in team!” I added, quoting
my great-uncle Longwhiskers.

353
 I Did It Again!

From that moment on the quarreling stopped

and we flew in pea.ce until I realized something
was wrong . . .
A really strong wind was pushing against us,
and it was cold and stinky. Rancid rat hairs! It
iras the evil northern wind!
It was harder and harder for the dragon to
move foiward. He was growing more and more ^

... RNB r'isn' ■

. . : flWB I
The flaps of his win ^

weakei'
andweakeTandoui-^-X,niox^

fc •
 . .slowly.. .sWv’"'
• slowl
,towiy...slowly:. :v .

slowly, . .sV° ^
• ■

MePs words came to mind: '‘Remember to get

there before the sun rises, because the stai’r^
will vanish at the first rays of suri!”
Oh no. A chiU ran down my fur. The sky was
BRIEHTEnmE all around us. There wasn't
much time left. The sun stmggled to peek out
over the horizon. We had to get LIGHTBRIGHT
to fly faster, but how?
“Maybe if I sing the secret dragon song,"
mumbled LIGHTBRIGHT. “That always gets me
going." He tipped his head back and sang.
The dragon sped up, but still it wasn’t enough.

355
 1 Did It
O Again!

Instead I fell on a soft pile of leaves in a swamp,

“I’m SAFE: I didn’t even get one
scrateh ...” I started to say when Ranger fell on
my head , . .

Bonk!
Then Wolfy . ..

BAAHC!
Then the Magicarium . . .

Booo/I/Jif,
And finally the bags and the (extremely heavy)
solid-gold hatbox . . .

At which point I

360
 Spoiled Cheese and
Rotten Eggs!

hen I opened my eyes I almost fainted

again from the smell.
The wind was blo ITig the
ineredible, indescribable, unmistakable stench of

g? (S

w
It smelled like withered flowers, rotten mold,
sour milk, spoiled cheese,
and rotten eggs 1
 Spoiled Cheese &■ Rotten Eggs*

We had arrived in the Kingdom of

Witches! Far off in the suiamp I
saw the shadow of two castles. One
was Cackle’s castle. I recognized it
immediately, because I had already
been there on one of my previous adventures.
The other CQStl6 was the one I had seen in
the ball of marvels. It was Dark Castle, the new
BEWITCHED castle that Wither had built in
one night!
That was where we needed to go . . .

Z > TO
W1T1
ONE moon cycle?
Kingdom of Witches

1. Dark Castle 8. Restless Gkost Cemetery

2. Pale Gkost Peak 9. Buzz Buzz Swamp
3. Wicked Witck Woods 10. Moldy Mountain

4. Black Swamp 11. Nigktm are Forest

5. Lake of Tears 12. Giant Scorpions
6. River of Regret 13. Fortress of Fear
7. Bare Bones Desert
 Do We Have
TO Go In?
s we trudged toward the Dark Castle my
fur got with mud,
. and gnats flew in my ears. If only I could
take a hot, bubble bath!
Meanwhile, the vultures stared at us with evil
eyes . .

368
4

Do We Have to Go In?

How scaryi ikmW

•raising.
"i-rifn'
^ilgf -
"All right eveiyone, here’s the plan,” Wolfy
<Sk
announced as we walked. "We’ll knock on the
castle door and I’ll say that I am WITCH,
/LYELLA of the Seven Scams. I come from
the faraway Dukedom of Slyville and I’m here to
attend the Great Witch Council. I’ve brought with
me CRUMBLEDUMPY, my pet ©gP©
(the Prince); and my bodyguard (Ranger, the
Ghost Guardian). Then I will hold up the solid-
COLD hatbox with the spy hat inside and
explain that I have brought a very special gift for
Wither.”
Just as Wolfy finished speaking, we looked up
and saw a menacing castle before us. It was Dark
Castle!

floiisfiary'.’ How
 Do We Have TO Go In?

^^0 VIE REAUv 60

^0 VIE REAttV jQ 60 'V
^0 vit R^Aitr TO GO
I whined.
“Get a grip!” she commanded. “We're going in
whether you like it or not. And remember you
need to act like a real ogre. Lots of buRPlH^,
grumbling, and iibtiStot> farttugi
 Do We Have TO Go In?

TOQiT'

"Plus, I can't be nice to you in there," she

warned. "Witches are mean to their ogres."
"Fine," I said with a sigh. Who says
is not a team player?!
The Magicarium closed his eyes and clamped
his pages shut so you eouldn’t tell that he was a
living book.
Then Wolfy took a long, deep breath and said
“Okay, lefs go!''

373
 Knock! Knock!

earfully, we approached the castle.

Squeak, what a terrihle W^tCh StWCht •
V i •• 4 - t i
Then I knocked on the^dooL" “ C J C -

KflOCftI KlfPCK!- '

But no one opened.
I tried again.

Kifocm Hhocm
But there was only silence.
I gathered my courage and tried one more time.

KifOCiti nhOCKi
This time a deep voice yelled, “Hey, do you have
WOOD for brains? Don’t you know you need to
knock three times on a bewitched castle door?”
374
 Knock! Knock!

I jumped back. “Who said that?!”

“Who do you think is talking, oak-tree brain? I
am, the door. obviously!”
Two big evil eyes and an enormouse mouth
appeared on the door.
Then it thundered, “Are you coming in or not?
I have other things to do with my time!”
The added, “But first wipe your
feet, ogre!”
We entered and the door closed suddenly.

A marble sculpture was pointing to a stairway.

“Huriy up!” the sculpture said. “Go that way, to
the Witch’s Stairway!”
The carpet I was walking on Uelled, “Come
on, what are you waiting for?”
Along the walls there were POt^TRAlTS
of famouse witches.
I tried not to _ when I spotted the

377
 Knock! Knock!

biggest portrait of all. It was of her! You know,

WITHER!
A VUlTURr demanded Wolfy’s doeuments
and she showed him her (fake!) witch ID card.
"I’m here for the Great Witch Council. This is
Grumbledumpy, my (IGRE ; and my bodyguard.

378
^ i

IHE MOST LUXURIOUSLY

bewitched castle
IN ALL OF THE
Kingdom of Fantasy

Breakfast is served at
 Jd.
Oh, This Old Thing?

I ith a glance, the vulture ehecked

L Wolfy over. He looked at her hat and
the binding of the Magicarium and
the silver armor of the Ghost Guardian, But
he was especially interested in the golden
hatboi
"Great goose feathers! What have we here?”
Wolfy replied, "Oh, this old thing? It’s just a
tiny little GIFT for Wither.”
She sniffed and added, "It contains a witch’s

How magnificent/
 Oh, This Old Thing?

hat identical to my own woven with5°l-'l<

“[■fiRPAD, adorned with a giant ruby
and d.ecoB'a.ted with an exquisite
©CD®©®
Then she offered gold coins to the vulture.
“Can you send this to Wither on my behalf?'’ she
added.
The vulture pocketed the money, squawking,
“Oh, of course, dear Lady Slyella. I will
give it to Wither, our Dark Lady. And
I hope you will be happy in our very
best room in the castle. Bewitched
Room Mumher Thirteen, in the Hat’s
tower, with a panoramic view of Sy22 Sy22
swamp!”
Wolfy gave the vulture another handful of coins
and he bowed. “Thank you. Lady Slyella. I am at
your service. My name is Dismal, but you can
call me Dissy.”

383
 Oh, This Old Thing?

Meanwhile, a really LONG line of witches

had foiTned and they had begun to complain.
“Come on!”
“What’s taking so long?”

“It’s nearly nigiltfsll!

Dismal cawed, “Oiitts Slid slrtiils, you

must excuse me. Lady Slyella, I must check in the
other guests. Remember the Great Witch Council

begins atmilll6)lNllI©lHI1f!”0

384
 Oh, This Old Thing?

Dismal gave Slyella the map

of the castle and the key to
our room.
“Grumbledumpy, bring
my tmnk to room number thirteen! she
ordered, stomping her foot.
I lifted the HEAVY trunk over my head.
DUCHf

385
 Pee-Yoo!

I e followed the map as we headed

, through the bewitehed eastle. It was
full of triip'doors and bewitehed
objeets. There were Cl.f’psts that tripped
*. you, miiTors that
ehanged your appearanee, and
tail-pinching doors
that (what else!) pinehed
your tail! The pietures on
the walls stuek out their
tongues and the statues
bopped you on the head!
The suits of armor
standing in the hallways
me. Then they
tried to pick a fight with

. . . prankster
ijiirrors . . .
the Ghost Guardian. What a
scary sight!
Dark Castle was equipped
with everything that a witch
could need. There was a
special SflUQDQ, a wicked
clothing and accessories
dark, dank
store, and a
dining hail. We even
passed a witch shoe store
where witches were tiying
on the latest footwear.
Pee-yoo! The grcNCH
... rude pictures,
was awful! and...

... poking
aripor/
 Where is the
Warty Toad? |

if you need a Lrand-new troom, a magic wand, or a new^ V '

witck flat, you’ll find it kere at Wicked Outfitters. We
even kave ingredients for magic potions from A for
Aggressive Aardvarks to Z for Zekra ZomkiesI
 r How many ^
lice do you see'
k in the salon?

In this salon you will

illkbecome more horrendous than ever,
tlianks to our team of lice wko specialize in aestketic
treatments! Pimpleton tke louse will make enormouse
warts grow on your face. Dentalton will give you tke perfec
I tootkless witck’s sneer. Clipperton will put knots in your
\ kair, and Facialton will turn your skin a sickly yellow.
 Calvin Stickpin, tlie witckiest faskion designer in tke |||
kingdom, will advise you on tlie kest dress for every 'J
occasion! Veils of giant spiders, kat wings, roack and green-
\ keetle rkinestones, and tke scales of tke Giant Salivating
\ Centipede will adorn your most korrific garments. J
 r Find the
other shoe that
matches this one!

Any self-respecting witck needs skoes wortky of ker

stinky feetl We kave evening wear, swamp Loots,
flying skoes (tkat latck to your Lroom and never fall
offl) , no-slip witck slippers, and morel
Pari, Pani

How many^
trolls can you
i count in the
^dining hal^
Attention; Dark dress required — no exceptiojisl
Please park krooms in tlie designated parking
lot. All magic assistants must wait outside wliere
tkey will ke provided witli refreskments including
rotten algae stew and snake-pee pasta.
 Grosselda Grim witch

e had almost reached our room when

we met a cat with black ficJC wearing a
magician’s long starry cloak. It was ...
"Vow will find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571.

1 MENpCE.
™6iFTTEfifNGCjfT,
So this was Wither’s witch assistant!
I recognized him from the Ball of Marvels.
He was sharpening his with a nail file
and guarding a door that had Fantasian writing
on it.*
He stared at us suspiciously and said, ‘'Meow!
I am Menace, the Chattering Cat! And who,
MEOI^ , are you?”
I tried to stay calm. Seeing a cat was bad

400
 Ma^ic kat

l^ecaee, t^e

Wkite kair

He is tke guardian of
tke witck sckool and
kas a very desired
position. He is
Keys to Witker' s personal
tke witck
witck assistant]
sckool
He kas dark,
skiny klack fur and
one wkite kair on tke
tip of kis tail. According to witck tradition, tke
kest witck assistants are klack cats witk one single
piece of wkite kair.
His passion is telling magic jokes (tkougk tkey
are purrfectly awful!). His responsikilities include:
polisking Witker s magic wand every day witk wasp
poison, ironing ker cloak, skopping for magic potions,
guarding tke witck sckool, and ckasing rats (rat soup is
one of tke witckes’ favorite diskes).
But akove all kis most important and secret duty
is eavesdropping to find out tke juiciest gossip to
tell Witkerl
 Grosselda Grimwitch

enough, but a cat who worked for a Wlcked

witch was enough to make me VMS OUT
on the spot! “I’m, um, Grumbledumpy, the ogre
and, uh, this is my owner, the wizard, I mean, the
witch StyCUd,” I mumbled.
Menace sniffed. “Meow! You don’t smell like an
ogre,” he said. “You smell like a, meow, mouse!
And you don’t act like an ogre. You act like a
mouse!”
Just then I remembered what the wizard had
told me about acting like an ogre. I let out a
loud . . . burp! And an even louder .. .
“Slyella likes mice. That’s why I smell like
them,” I lied.
I have no idea if the cat bought my fib
because suddenly we heard Wither’s cackle.
“MEUKNAAACCUKl I need you! Huiiy up,
you sack cf fleas!”
He ran away, huffing, MEOW Coming, my

403
IDafk,iJ“een-
Next, a witch walked by
wearing a long train that was
held by two bugs. “Make way for
the director of the witch school,

aka Teacher of All Things

Witchy, aka Lady of Drool, aka
Ms. Gross, coming through!”
As soon as the procession
passed by, Wolfy whispered
in my ear: “Those fools are
headed for a miserable life.
Witches have no friends
because they are mean, nasty
liars. Yep, being a WITCH
 Grosselda Grimwitch

,S NOT •
iT’^ NOT Fun!'
svpeh gross
4»D stinSI^'-
“The worst part about being a witeh is that
they ean only use magie to do bad things/’ Wolfy
added. “What fUN is that?”
Curious, I peeked inside the elassroom. There
were a lot of little witches telling bad witch
joikes

405
 WHY ABE SOME EELS ELECTBic?
BECAUSE THEBE’S A CUBBENT IN THE WATEB!

WHY COULDN’T THE SALAD SLEEP? WY Mm 7® cv^tMc

because it TOSSED! msnc? ^
Hee. hee, hee; u, h,
 ^ ^ why DOESN’T THE
Vow BO ocjWAfs CIV rr ^ TUBKEY GAMBLE?
tJVEYMW ITS FEATHEBS BiPPED OFF!

WHY IS THE MOBNiNG AiB SO coLD?

because it STAYS OUT ALL WGHT LONG!

Hee, hee, hee!

WHY IS A HEADACHE SO GOOD IN SCHOOL?

BECAUSE IT always PASSES!
 j How many ^
witches can you
count in the i
school?

exclusive witch school tounded by Wither ot the

rs only gives a diploma to tkose wko kave proven
nselves truly ugly, truly evil, and truly stinky]
idition to your diploma, you receive a witck kat,
magic wand, kroom, and witck’s assistant! j
 The Rules of the
Dark Witch School

•#*1 ■§“ ^11 students must wear the uniform: a black

cape that^oes down to your feet with bat-win^-
shaped sleeves and the emblem of the witch school
with its motto: “Badder is better!”

2"^ ^11 students must respect the school hours.

Classes begin at midnight and end at dawn.

“§■3^ All students must never brush their hair, take a

bath, brush their teeth, cut their nails, or change their
socks for at least a year, and they must smell like a trash
can in summertime! Basically, the stinkier they are, the
better!

All students must obey the director, Grosselda

Grimwitch, who can expel anyone if they are caught
doing something nice!

All students must take care of their helpers

including feeding them, walking them, and picking up
their droppings. Otherwise they will be fined.
List of
spider
students
dress
to fad

Keys to
all tke

^ Superior!^ train

Dragon-skin skoes

Grosselda is tke stinkiest, most untrustwortky traitor

in tke Kingdom of Fantasy. Ske was Cackle’s ad visor
until ske betrayed ker wken Witker became tke most
powerful witck. In exckange, Witker kas named ker tke
director of tke Dark Witck SckooL
Ms. Gross kas a weak spot for skoes. Ske kas
kundreds of tkem, and tkey are all stinkyl
Her kelpers are two giant bugs, Bugeroo and
Bugad oo, wko kold ker long train and skine ker skoes
tkree times a day!
 The Hat Tower

fter we left the classroom, we began

climbing the steep steps leading to the

Ratioower
“Are we there yet? I need to OIL my joints,”
the Ghost Guardian huffed.
“This place is so humid. I better not get mold
onmypages,”the whined.
If you ask me, I should have been the one
COMPLAINING. I was carrying Wolfy’s
heavy luggage and the book. If only books
had legs!
Holey cheese bsills, I was exhausted!
When we passed a BDSia@ on the wall I
shivered.

412
 S and climbed...
I -dand climbed...

^ and climbed...'^
J ^Jand climbed...

n
and climbed...
Jand climbed..
i

climbed... ^

I land
i and climbed...

■gand climbed...:
I and climbed...

(inu ciiiiiDeu....n
I6 ^and
^ ^
climbed...

•and climbed...
•c xiandcliml

ll O
Still I climbed ...
Still I climbed .
 The Hat Tower

Time fiying^
viouio WE
M oNe wool c7ci^
Finally, we reached the top of the stairs and
there was our room, room number 13! Could
we be more unlucky?!
When I opened the door, I jaSpei. It was a
dark, dank, stinky mess. There were thorns on the
blankets, cobwebs in every comer, and a table full
of stinky food in the middle of the room. What a
nightmare!
The gloomy room had a view of the

iiizz l#AM^

Quickly, I helped Wolfy get ready for the Great

Witch Council. She teased her hair and sprayed

414
 The Hat Tower

herself with 0 [D perfume. She dusted

her faee with dead-roach powder and sprinkled
on her broom. At last she was ready.
“Let’s go!” she said bravely. “It’s almost
 you find i
the key with the
^^bat keychain?^

x^-Wat
 Dong! Dong! Dong!

t that moment, a bell began to ring:

X)0-V0, i)OArG, DO\C, ootvo,
OOAfO, tiOtVC/, Z)0-V0, -DOA^G,
i)OA^Ci, Z)OArG, i)OA^0, DOtvCi...
Twelve gongs, it was WlII®lNllI©lfilir!
We quiekly went down the stairs and reaehed
the entranee to the Great Witch Council. But
Dismal blocked our entrance. “Invitation,
please!” he demanded.
Wolfy turned to me. “Grumbledumpy, show
Mr. Dismal the she commanded.
I turned pdle because (obviously!) we didn’t have
an invitation. I muttered, “Well. . . um ... er . ..”
She gave me a kick in the tail. “You left it at
home, didn’t you, ogre?!” she shrieked.
Then she turned to the vulture, “Ah, Mr. Dismal,

418
 Dong! Dong! Dong!

you can’t find good help anymore. Am I right or

am I right?”
She sighed dramatieally. “Alas. I’ve eome from
so very far away. Anyway, ean you COT me a break
here, Mr. Dismal? Or should I call you D?”
Dismal extended his mangy wing
and Wolfy gave him a sack of
GOLD MOMEY
The vulture bowed low.
“Young Lady Slyella, please
go ahead, there are three seats
in the orehestra section for
you!
^t’s all your fault!
 Dong! Dong! Dong!

Then he stepped aside and we entered

Uitef!^ Council ^om

Inside the room the witehes were behaving
like, well, witches. They were screaming and
yelling and throwing around r0tt6n tomatoes
and eggs.
I spotted Grosselda and then Menace. As soon
as I entered the room the cat began to sniff around

suspiciously. SNIFF! SNIFF!

Squeak, how scaiy!
Wolfy quickly sat down because the two
ENEMIES Cackle and Wither were already
taking their seats. Wither was wearing the Spy
which spaf/slei under the lights. Right

420
 Dong! Dong! Dong!

then the erowd became sftPMr

I noticed Cackle wore a worried
expression instead of her usual evil
one. How odd. Was her face on a
scntifLiNc strike?
At that exact moment a black
crow with a copper beak burst through
a window, sending flying
eveiywhere. 'XQQQCIWW! CQQQQWW!” He settled
on the gi'ound next to Wither. Then
he began to spin and
so fast, just watching him
made my eyes water. Too bad ogres
don’t cany tissues!
When the bird finally stopped
he had transfomied
into a dark-haired prince. It was
Crowbar the Cruel, the Prince of
Darkness!
 Dong! Dong! Dong!

Crowbar, or should I say the prince, whispered

something in Wither’s ear. Wither giggled. Then
he said, "You look beautiful. Love the dress.'’ And
Wither replied, "Oh, this old thing, I just pulled it
out of the dirty laundry.
The prince beamed. "Nice! Clean laundry is so
disgusting.” Wither nodded, staring drCSIllily
into the prince’s eyes.
For a minute the whole room just watched
the two, transfixed. Did they realize they were
§6bbinS in the middle of a meeting of the

Eventually, Cackle interrupted. "I hate to break

up this party, you two, but we are here to decide
who will be the next queen. It’s up to the WITCH
POPOLATION!”
Then Cackle turned to all the witches. "Vote
426
for ni6 and we will conquer the
entire Kingdom of Fantasy!
she shrieked.
Wither IdUyhcd scornfully.
"The Kingdom of Fantasy
is just the tip of the
forme. If you
vote for me, we will
have power over the
whole univeTpiei’
Then she lifted her hand
up to reveal a sparkling ring.
“Vyq got it! Fve got the

♦ y
 Dong! Dong! Dong!

Wither laughed shrilly.

C!
<D

^ -:o-. •<:..
.. ^v'^ean povv-g^^ c ^ ^

^^ytiingl”

Then Menace, Wither’s assistant, stood up. “If

you want Cackle, put a TOCGD^fQ stone in the

428
 Dong! Dong! Dong!

ballot bowl. If you want Wither, put a black

Stone in.”
When it was time to count the STONES,
everyone sat on the edge of their seats.
Wither paced back and forth. Cackle •cheMeA
her nails.
But as soon as Menace emptied the ballot bowl
it was clear who the winner was. All the stones
were black!
"I won!” Wither yelled, breaking out her dance
moves. She did the Bad Brmmm
(spinning like a cyclone) and the
iVlTCH (moonwalking while
cackling).
Then she ripped the wand from Cackle's grip.
“Leave at once!” she shouted. “There’s
a new Queen in town!”
Cackle stonned off screaming, “Til be back!”
over her shoulder.

429
 Dong! Dong! Dong!

And all the witches sang,

strange, figurei '*' ^

^reat QurelJ
^f'^^^‘^Car£k’ss/reseemeiio6^’
sM is ffer euevff m-
 Zap!

o celebrate Wither’s vietoiy the witches

let out bolts of lightning with their
magic wands.

^upli aaf •

/
A flame singed my whisker. /

^ squeak!
 Zap!

Without thinking I yelled at the top of my lungs.

turned toward me.

Menace stalked over to me, licking his
whiskers. “Meow! Meow! Meow! I knew it! You
squeak like a II10US€, you stink like a II1CUSC,
you even have ears like a II10US€! You’re no
ogre... ycu arc a mouse!”
Wither turned and glared at me closely. Sour
spider spit! I recognize you! You’re the
prince, no, I mean, you’re the Foolish One, my
goody-two-shoes sister. Blossom’s, little friend!
You’re the t?0l?(s>G’£l8GQ who let me steal the
ring!” she cackled.
Suddenly, Wither squinted at Wolfy. She
muttered, “Hey, you, with the hat like mine!

433
 Zap! ^

You remind me of someone . . . but who?’’

Then she shouted, “\ RCCOCNIZC you,
you’re Wolfy! You are the niece of my sister’s
greatest friend, and my worst: enemy.

Ha, ha! What luck! You’re my hostage now!”

Wither grabbed my 1)9^ and laimmaged through
it until she found the
“Well, looky looky, this is Mel the Magnificent’s
precious book of spells! It really is my lucky day!
I should buy a lottery ticket!”
Then she threw the bag out the vtfindovtf
without realizing that Q[?Q[I1°0D[?, the enchanted
key, was still inside.
She waved her wand at the magic book,
shrieking, “The power of wmt is great and

434
just, ril turn this book into hhH !”
The flames crackled, surrounding the book,
I closed my eyes — it was too sad to watch the
^^icariuth bum.
But when I opened them, my jaw hit the floor.
The nes hadn’t

a single page

^QOOb,tbatMagicari,^.^
inily magic

all the witches exclaimed.

435
 Wither was furious. She grabbed the book from
the fire, picked up a pair of razor-sharp scissors,
and cried,

“wXrtc biXues,
Immediately, the silver scissors began to cur
Well. .. they tried to cut, but it was impossible to
cut the pages of that magic bookl
Annoyed, Wither threw the scissors to the
ground and they
 Zap!

The witches were more and more impressed,

and Wither was more and more /HCGCGQ^yBE.

she THOUGHT and THOUGHT and

THOUGHT
Then the witch Grosselda whispered something
in Wither’s ear. The new Dark Queen lit up. “Yes,
yes. You’ve got something there. What imtates
a book? Being being cur
or . . . getting Wft! And Tve got the perfect
muddy, smelly water a book would hate!” She
snickered.
Without another word she opened the window
and threw the book out, right into the Stifiky
moat surrounding the castle!
I watched in horror as the book sank into the
water in a cloud of bubbles.

439
 Tears came to my eyes.
The poor Magicarium!
Wither said, snickering, “As for you, I will use
you as hostages to get everything I want from
good old Mel!”
It was already dawn when seven Dark Knights
appeared. They were led by their grim leader,
6leal( of the seven Dark Knights. “You will follow
me to the most secure prison in the kingdom,
the efiyc.! he
announced.

441
 Zap!

He snatched Wolfy’s wand and snapped it in

two. S<^3p? “Let’s go!” he ordered.
But Wither held up her hand. “Not so fast,
|i-b"bl^ WiSK^TPcf!” she screeched at Wolfy.
“Do you really think I was bom last century? I
know you wizards carry more than one wand
around!”
She LIFTEP Wolfy’s sleeve and pulled out
a second, SMALieB wand.

THE
Witches
CHEEIIED!
442
 (jueen
^^traorJimry,
piie, an9 ffuper 6‘Cary!
S'^e’spure evil at it^ led
^oyh tde ead un^
to tde h)est!

=■

^
^ ^Tm.^
 The Thousand
Eyes Cell

^ he seven Dark Knights, led by Bleak and

Menace the cat, dragged us to a small
'You can find the Fantasian alphabet on page 571.

black door that was locked by SQVGn

bronze lo< :s.
There was a sign written in Fantasian.*

The Dark Knights pushed us through the

door, and up a dark, narrow stairway . . .

444
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 As we climbed up that nightmarish staiiway,
the knights poked us with their spears. Youch!
Right then Menace let out a loud meow! "Who
poked me in the tail?” he whined, staring at us
suspiciously.

Why would the knights be attacking the

cat? Then 1 heard Wolfy chuckling to herself.
Something told me she still had some magic up
her sleeve even if she had lost her wand!
Finally, we reached a cell as DARK as night.
The knights shoved us inside and bolted the door.
mNtw’WTOwmmw
Tke Tkousani Eyes Cell
To imprison ker victims, Witker created tkis
Lewitcked prison tkat no one can escape from.
(Well, actually tkere is a way to escape, kut only
Witker and Grosselda know tke secret. Skkkl)
 Suddenly, I noticed something strange. There
were many tiny blinking lights throughout the cell.
,Then it hit me. These weren’t lights, they were
AMD iniNDDDDS Of
There were eyes on the wall, eyes on the ceiling,
and even eyes on the floor!
Now I knew why this place was called the
Thousand Eyes Cell. We were being watched by

VfOUlD ifVER

ONt cYClt^ •'* >

 % * *

* ®^9^ “^® ’^‘'•®^’^®u W S«&«i?. ^

|je ®tel& 3®’^ e^ei.

One by one the thousand eyes began to elose.

And the sound of snoring filled the room,

s*Oftfr
SNOOORE! ’ ^AttC'
sNOOOOORt.
A minute later, Menaee the cat meowed, “Pssst,
meow, I need to talk to you, wizard lady!”
How odd^ What could the cat want from
a jailbird? Or should I say, jailwizard?!
 The Thousand Eyes Cell

“Lady Wolfy, I know you stole my only

WdlllTli I1II0DIR and 1 want it back!” the
cat hissed. “Without that nsLgic hair 1 have
no nagic powers. Lm just a kitty without a
clue! A purrpectiy plain old feline! Meow, how
embarrassing!”
Wolfy snickered. “Lve got good news and bad
news for you,” she said. Then she lowered her
voice. “The good news is that I do have your white
hair. The bad news is that to get it back you must
help us escape ft*om this creepy
eyebaU^|p^*lijB<^i ”
At this the cat began meowing up a storm. He
sounded like he just lost the winning ticket to a
lifetime supply of tuN3 ROLLS. “Meow, 1 want
my hair! I want my magic! 1 want my mommy!”
he wailed.
Wolfy held fimi. “No escape, no hair!”
she insisted.

450
 The Thousand Eyes Cell

Lucky for us the cat agreed. I couldn’t wait to

get out of there. Even though the thousand eyes
were shut, all of that snering was enough
to send me straight to the nna.dzTLOUSC
center!
“Just don’t tell the boss I helped you escape,”
the cat pleaded. “If Wither finds out, she’ll
incinerate me!”

451
 Get Out!

, enace pushed us down the stone steps

of a spiral staircase. Luckily it was only
I MIDDA V and all the witches were
sleeping. It didn’t take us long to reach the exit.
At the exit, Wolfy gave Menace his magical

452
white hair. He shoved it in the

COU M»i^[L[LD~@M
he wore around his neck for
safekeeping.
Then the cat pushed us out,
warning us to never tell how we escaped.
He slammed the door behind us with a thud.

I sighed. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to

get out of the prison, but we still hadn’t found the
Winged Ring. "If only we could find thejj £
that holds the ring,” I muttered aloud.
To my surprise, Wolfy was already ten steps
ahead of me. "You UNDERESTIMATE
me. Prince.” She “Thanks to the

w® Sj0y feats
453
I already know where the safe is!’’
It turned out the safe was in Wither’s
IsbotMtOty, whieh was the safest room in
the eastle. I wondered what made it safe. Was it
guarded by a ‘two-iecijeJ ITiOTiS'fier?
Or a f imE-B'REArtniNer,

454
 “But, Wolfy, how will we find this room?" I
asked.
“No problem," the young wizard replied.
“We just need to get the
back. He wasn’t destroyed when he fell in
the moat. He’s magical and therefore he is
INDESTRUCTIBLE. He can find the
Isbotstory. There’s only one little problem.
You will have to in the moat to get
him, Prince.”
I blinked. I stammered.
"Yes, you! Ranger can’t go in the water because
his joints will Ruer It’s up to you.
Prince,” Wolfy insisted. Then
added, "Just remember to watch out
for the swamp crocodiles
she

and the
and the poisonous
c
BITTER CHEDDAR BISCUITS!
Instantly my whiskers began whirling
with fear. In fact, they started WHIRLING so
fast they lifted me off the ground and I flew far,
far away never to be seen again! Okay, okay, that
didn’t really happen but you get the picture. I was

SCAI{E1) out of my fur!

"Don’t worry, Knight! As my uncle Mel says,
there’s a SOLUTION to every problem,”

456
Wolfy assured me. Then
she gave me three tips: 1.
Bop the crocodiles on the
nose (they had sensitive
noses!); 2. Feed the
fish COOKIES
(so they wouldn’t
be hungiy); and 3.
Tickle the serpents (they
were super-ticklish!).
Down at the moat we
saw lots of tiny bi^ibbles
coming up, as if something
was BREATHING
down there . . .
Was it the Magicarium?
If it was the book, why
didn’t he just swim up?
Unfortunately, there was
only one way to find out. I plugged my nose
and jumped in , . .

o©

dense
OQ
Q
I saw the snouts of crocodiles and,
following Wolfy’s advice, bopped their noses. It
worked! They backed
away!
Score one for the
mouse!
Next I found myself
facing the
teeth of the ranged
 A cookie

Quickly, I
popped the cookies
in their mouths. They
^WMlOWfP
them up in one bite, then swam away.
Squeak, all that was left were the dangerous
tiaMiih ierpenti!
But as soon as I tickled
their tails the serpents
slipped away in fits of
laughter.
I swam Cil©©I|S)©ll®
and, finally, I saw the
book. Clasping algae
hadBlilDiP
around him and was holding him down. Rats!
I didn’t have time to untie the knots so I found
a sharp rock and cut the
 Get Out!

Then I noticed something in the mud, so I

grabbed it. It was my bag! I took it, put the
under my arm, and . . .
■■
Up AND Down...Up AND
Down ... Up and Down !

f climbed from the moat as Wolfy cheered,

knew you could do it, Prince!’’
“I

“I didn’t, but good job,” the Ghost Guardian

muttered.
Meanwhile, the book flipped his muddy pages.
 Up and Down ... Up AND Down

Mud ed in my direction. Ugh! Now

I really resembled a miidmofisfet espeeially
after my swim in that moat! Oh, where was a
nice outdoor shower when you needed one?!
"Oops, sorry about that. Foolish One.” The
book chuckled. "And thanks. You showed real
courage. Without you who knows how long Fd
be held prisoner by the 01^08!
That was one strong plant!”
I turned red. “I wasn’t really courageous, I
was scared,” I mumbled.
liemg s<xmed

but gomg cmywuy''

the book replied. "I know I read that somewhere.”
Right then Wolfy interrupted us. It seemed that
the spy hat had some news. Wither was sleeping,
so it was the perfect time to steal back the Winged
Ring. ^ ^ ^ Mr
 ^Up and Down .. , Up AND Down...

Ghost Guardian lamented.

Things were not looking good. How would
we get back into the Dark Castle without
anyone noticing?
Just when it seemed our adventure had come to
an end I noticed Wolfy grinning. Huh? Was her
/PY HAT telling her jokes? Then she bent
down and lifted the hem of her witch’s dress.
Tied to her ankle was a realf^JlNY’’wand!
“Every wizard needs thRee MA^?( WAND5!”
: ’’she announced.
 JJp AND Down ... Up AND Down...^

^ /C "The FIRST one is the one they take from you,

^ the secoND is the one they look for . . . and the
/* THIRD is the one that no one expects to find! And
that’s the one that can save you!”
Then she pointed the WAN D at the
Magicarium and said, "Oh magic book, enchanted
and bold, show me the secret that’s never been
told!”
The Magicarium leafed through his pages until
he stopped at one page. Suddenly, words
appeared on the page . . .

Wolfy repeated the spell over and over until, .,

467
We had ALMOST
reached the top of
the tower when
magic broom
that made the
northern wind
 Up AND Down...^

The strong wind my fur.

R
We hung on to the book for dear life, but soon
we were all losing our grip.
COOD-BYE , mouse, it was nice knowing
you!” Ghost Guardian yelled.
COOD-BYE , everyone!” I cried.
Then I closed my eyes, fearing the worst. Would
wecrash into a rock?
Or slam into the ground? Or smash
against the castle wall?

473
 Click!

waited and waited and waited and waited.

^ But nothing happened. Instead, the
somehow managed to
fly us safely to a window right outside Wither’s
secret laboratorjj. The window was covered by thick
wooden shutters that were locked. So I pulled out

and stuck the key in the lock. I turned the key

holding my breath. It worked! The
shutters opened, so we jumped inside!

474
 Click!

Too bad I landed on my tail.

I was about to crtf out but Wolfy covered my
mouth. ''Sssshhhf We can’t let them find
us!” she warned.
 I nodded. I was one
^ step closer to finding the
^ ring. One step closer to
leaving Dark Castle
One step closer to reuniting
with Blossom. One step closer to
my cozy Honae scjxi.ea.1?:
lioiiae!
But when Wolfy asked where the
safe was located, her hat grumbled,
"The other spy hat didn't tell me.
And now that ^OOL is sleeping!"

478
 Click!

We looked everywhere for the Si

We looked under tables. We looked ^
under chairs. We looked in chests and caldrons.
Then suddenly, I Tti\PP%X) on a purple
rug in the middle of the room.

479
 Click!

Right then I noticed that on the ground there

w.. .KEYHOLE:
I grabbed Open-up, the enchanted key. I put
the key in the keyhole.
I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to
turn the key, until all of a sudden it went . . .

480
 Click!

A HATCH opened and I saw a tiny golden

safe locked with . . .

481
 The Winged Ring

hanks to the enchanted key, I opened

all seven locks.
And when I opened the safe I
found ... the Wmgfcd l^mg!

It
f©,..

482
 The Winged Ring

Cheese niblets, I was beyond excited!

We had completed our mission!
Now all we needed to do was escape
from the witch’s tower without being
DISCOVERED and return to

CRYSTAL CASTLi
in time.
But when I reached out to grab the ring
something happened I never expected. The safe
bit me! That’s right, Wither’s crazy golden safe
had POINTY teeth! It stared at me with evil
evpt and then . .. ChomDi
 The Winged Ring

That rotten safe bit my paw!

Before I eould eatch myself 1 yelled out at the
top of my lungs, "Ouehie!”
At the same time the safe alerted the queen,
screaming,

“Hvrry,
THE RING IS IN DANCErI

Wither woke up IMMEDIATELY.

She was furious! Her eyes burned like embers.
She grabbed her WAN D and began shooting

tKi«(tiyK

As soon as she recovered from the shock,

Wolfy held up her third TTD^giC

485
 The Winged Ring

She crossed wands with Wither and yelled out

proudly, “En garde, witch! You don’t scare me!
I you to a duel. Winner gets the
ring!”
Wither shot Wolfy a, well, VffTHERiNE look
(what else?!). “You’re making a mistake, a big

488
 The Winged Ring

mistake!” she screeched. “I will destroy you, you

little wizard, and your little mouse, too!”
Wither together her

^^ARK KNIGHTS:^^
The Knights dragged us out of the castle and
brought us to the
"Okay, Miss Smarty Wizard” — Wither
snickered — “I accept your CHALL£NCiE.
We will have a

SRa^tc J)Uel
And I will win!”
"It will be the duel of all times!” she
continued. "It will be spoken about for years, no
fOMVtt in the Kingdom of Fantasy!”

489
 Take That!

olfy twirled around and transformed

irito a WOU- gnashing her teeth.
“I’m ready! Let’s go!” she shouted.
Wither sniekered. “Are you sure you’re ready?
Even to faee the ^di\lr\eS7”
The fairies began to play their violins,
Swfrffftg around Wolfy with their poisonous
melody. Uh-oh. Wolfy ealled for baekup.
In a FLfISH Owlivia, Beartina, and Roxy
appeared. “We’re with you, Wolfy!” they yelled,
quiekly changing shape.
 That!

fbwlivld s+ucj^ ouf her claws.

^EARTIH^ SWi?ED WITM ME» 9K'^S,

(^6xyimif> m TEETH.
Wither was furious. She called for her own
backup.

m MONSTffi OF THO FOUR BIROCTIOffil

Enormouse monsters of the north, east, south,
and west arrived on the battlefield. The^ were
scary monsters who used the power of let,
Mmm EARTH , and as weapons.
To combat the monsters, Wolfy called the

seven '^ON ^ILD BItOTtiEItS. The

brothers arrived and quickly transformed into
dragon-headed knights.

494
 The monsters and the seven Von Wild brothers
fought and fought and fought.
 The magic battle lasted straight into the night.
If only they had stopped for a Cllfi©©S©
break. I was starving!
I was listening to my stomach grumble when
Wither summoned
BLISTERING BLUE CHEESE? Not that stinky
beast.
Then Wolfy summoned LIGHTBRIGHT, THE
DRAGON OF FORTUNE. He arrived in a shower of
 • * •

The dragon and Stinkypus began to fight, blow

for blow.
Meanwhile Stinkypus’s terrible i
filled the air!
 That!

Still no one was defeated, so Wither ealled on

Toxic, the ^
r>SeonPHTO
with a thousand tatls^
Toxie strutted onto the battlefield looking
horrendous and frightening.
He shook his prnmmmmm
tail in the air. Then he reached
out and stung Wolfy.
Luckily, before she fainted she
summoned one more helper.
 That!

“I call on
Unity^
roc encBmteimicomi
Immediately, a magieal ^|]ll()Tli
appeared. One touch from her golden horn and
Wolfy was cured!
Wither ground her teeth in A MGER and
stomped her foot.
•1'" ,«» •*'«&, .vT?"
 With the last of her STRENCTH Wolfy
\a/ 'This is a joh for the

'c-o nu/. PiEl r-rtM,,*!

\ A moment later a strange lizard appeared

wearing a robe. No, it wasn’t a bathrobe. It was
more like a robe you would wear to do karate.
The lizard was small in size but he looked strong
and calm. It was the Clever Chameleon.
4LOOM had no petwer over him!
He extended his hands and began to absorb
Gloom’s BQBQ clouds and turn them into

Was it me? Or was thi

battle looking like it would
never end?
Of course, it was Wither’s
turn next. She called on her
fiance, Crowbar the Cruel, the Prince of Darkness.
An enormouse cloud made up of thousands and
thousands of flying crows appeared. The crows
were led by one crow that was iSf than
the others and had eyes ... it was
Crowbar the Crqeli
 Light Is Might!

t seemed that every warrior from the

TuTltUSy was getting in
on the act. Just like Wither predicted, it
was a battle to end all battles! Too bad it was
nevep-enciinsr!
I was considering proposing a TIME" OUT
(who could object to a nap?) when Mel said, ‘T
have an I PE 111. Let’s assemble the team of the

SECRET ALLIANCE
Maybe together we can defeat the witches.”
The Clever Chameleon, the Lady of Dreams,
and Mel stood in a circle.
Mel gave me a crystal wand. "You will take
Blossom’s place, mouse,” he instructed. "All you
have to do is have loving thoughts.”
510
 Light Is Might!

I closed my eyes. Then I ‘u’COQKIGtIl'L? of all the

c(iuC gfood tfun^s^ ta the w^onid.

We united our wands and yelled.

.V-/'
 Light Is Might!

At that moment a OO&IT

illuminated the battlefield. It grew and grew until
all of the witehes grabbed their brooms and fled
into the darkness.
Wither flew away, S O PI 3 JC-1 'R ^,

■MOUSE, 1 WILL HIT MY REVENSI!”

Then she waved her wand at me one last
time, and it shot out a flame. Luckily I jumped
back just in time for the bolt to miss me! But
then I noticed something else falling from
her broom. It hit the ground with a

Cheese and
crackers! It was the

Ring!
I was so happy I did three cartwheels, a

516
 Light Is Might!

backflip, and a split. Well, okay, I didn’t really do

(QY^JVjiSTI^S’ but you get the idea.

I was thrilled!
Then Mel eleared his throat.
"Hold on, mouse,” he said,

"You Still

need to
complete
the
mhdmt

518
 Are You Ready,
Foolish One?

he wizard shot me a serious look,

later. Let’s wrap up
this mission. Are you ready. Foolish
One?”
I gulped. How could luurap up the mission?
“Um, well, I ...” I stammered.
 Are You Ready,' Foolish One?

I scratched my head. I was hoping returning

the ring to Blossom would wrap up the mission.
But apparently I was wrong. Oh, what would
I have to do next? Climb a tr^dcheroLl/
mountain? Fight a FEROCIOUS monster? Give
up Cllfl©©S© for a week?
The Clever Chameleon tapped his cane on the
ground. "Listen, mouse. You are either ready or
you’re not. Which is it?” he insisted.
Finally, Mel explained, "Night is almost over
and the moon cycle is almost done!
The gap between the two worlds
must be closed by JcIWH! If
you are late. Blossom will lose her
tI»rone!”
Oops! I had completely forgotten about the
gap! Even though I had found the Winged Ring,
I still hadn’t completed my mission. But how
do you close a gap between worlds?

521
 Are You Ready, \ Foolish One?

and

4 -Sr

$
Between sobs I asked, “But what ean I do? I
have no idea how to elose a gap between worlds!
Oh, what a disaster. I ean’t believe I messed
everything up.”
The Clever Chameleon rolled his eyes. “The
gap ean be fixed,” he explained. “You just need
two things: a needle and thread!”
 ^RE You Ready,Foolish One?

Then he hit his cane on the ground and my

tears, which made a kind of puddt t.,aU
concentrated together and formed one L AI^GE

cmM mmt.

I picked up the needle and examined it. It

was TSiilWilFaEiWT- It was And it was
HEAVY
 Are You Ready,' Foolish One?

I took the HCCcCCc and put it in my bag. Then

I asked, “And where will I find the thread?”
The Lady of Dreams stepped forward. “To
repair the gap created by Wither and the
dark fairies you need a special thread! It must
be ... @ © D=iD B Kl like a happy dream,
like air, and RE/l/TAfir like eternal love!”
I blinked. Something told me borrowing some
thread from my grandma Stitchy wouldn’t do the
trick. So I asked, “Where can I find the thread?”

said the Lady of Dreams. “The words that you

sing will form the golden thread! Just be ready
to grab the words with the needle before they
thin air!”
The Lady of Dreams sang for me:

524
^RE You Ready,Foolish One?

^'”9 a song of love and joS’

And happ/„ess that can’t be desW®^
Of a«Wngs goodie hold so
And loords so light, and so s\»cot®’ .,
Each Word loiii be a string ol ft
That ties the gap and keeps 0“'
Words Of kindness, true ands«®
To form gold thread ten miles longT
• When the Dragon of Fortune arrived I fujuped
on his back. Then. I waved good-bye to Wolfy and
all my friends. . ‘ . •
"See you soon!'’ I called. I hoped I was right!
 Don't Think,
Just Do It!

^ he Dragon of Fortune went higher ,

and higher and higher-•

and higher and higher..-

and higher- and higher and higher.-

and higher, and higher
and higher, and higher
and higher. and higher

toward

Puffy elouds drifted by in the inky night. And

still the dragon continued to climb higher and
higher and higher past as the

528
moon grew bigger and
bigger and bigger in
the cold, silvery light.
Finally, the dragon
stopped. The gdP

between the two

worlds was right in
front of us. My heart
filled with sadness
because all around I
could hear the witches’
. . .
 Don't Think, Just Do It!

The dragon suggested that I sit on the moon so

I could sew in a nice bvigbi ligbl. So
I did.
“But HURRY with the sewing because I
disappear at the first light of day! And if you’re
late, I won’t have time to take you back to
Blossom!” Lightbright warned.
So I positioned myself on the moon, took the

cmikL
and, to make the thread, I remembered the words
that the Lady of Dreams had told me. Then

530
 With that golden thread I began to fix the

1
between the two w’orlds. The edges
of the tear were frayed, and it wasn’t easy’
to sew them together. Plus, fm not the best at
, sewing. Or, er, to be compfetely honest, 1 am a
I terrible sewer! I once tried to sew a button on
I my jacket and ended up sewing it to my by
I accident! Ouch!
^ Still, there was no time to worry about rny
V o ,
I skills. So I tried to remember what

III .“Dori’t
the Clever Chameleon had AclvijSecl:.

just', do iti'
I I concentiated on the words I was singing and
I ^ the love in my heart. ^0
I The POiNt of the needle went in ... . and
^ came out*. . . the thread brought the frayed
I edges closer together. I kept '^^QJJirtOV^ for what
I seemed like forever, stitch after stitch . . . until
 Crown Me!

f climbed aboard the Dragon of Fortune onee

more, and we flew at full speed toward
Crystal Castle. The new day was about to
dawn and the time to complete my mission
was about to end! That’s right, one moon eyele
was almost done since I had left Crystal Castle. It
seemed so much

. ^

Lightbright left me at Crystal Castle in that

magical moment when the fllftlMlT isn’t over
and the day has not begun.
I entered the castle with my heart
fast.
Now that I had the Winged Ring, would

536
Blossom go bact
to being the
Would the Fairies
forgive me?

A5e,maj.A

;OOt...

I opened the dooi

to the thront
ro'>m, looking
for Blossom, But the
throne was empty.
My friend was
on her feet in the
middle of all the
 Crown Me!

other fairies, just like any old ^ ^

fairy. And she didn't even have ^^ ^ ^ ^ v
her S^A.»KLIH©+ **;0'*A^ ^
crown on. Her Ci X IIiO were ^^ ^
filled with sadness. Oh no, Blossom wasn’t queen
anymore!

vi was a f:au

i-eturned!
bas
0<'®

Oh no/
 Crown
e Me!

The room was all ready to the

coronation of a new king. In fact,

RfNcf ^llLARP
tfff U/fWSfLLg
had already moved his entire court in and brought
everything for the ceremony to the castle!
The crowd muttered, "That’s FOOLISH
ONE, the one who lost the Winged Ring!
Looks like he didn’t find it. Now Blossom will be
EXILED
you want? \atet
 What About
THE Pizzas?
ight then Willard ran up to me. He was
already wearing a crown. Waving his
scepter, he shrieked, “So, Foolish One,
do you have the Winged Ring? Show it to us if
you have it. But you don't have it, ha, ha, haaa!
What are you waiting for?! Come on, Fm in a
hurry to take my seat on the THRONE!
Plus, I already prepared the celebratory banquet.
Get moving, my PIZZAS are getting cold!”
Ignoring Willard, I turned to the fairies. “Fairy
Court, I am here to return what was stolen from
you, the Rjngf!”

542
 What About ^
% THE Pizzas?

I slowly held out my paw. In it, the Wingf<i;€j

Ring was S ^ A R K Ifc* 1 ^4 CS!
The entire erowd YEIjIjED out at onee,

'‘oOOOOOHhHH !"
Blossom lifted her head, and I saw a glint of
hope in her eyes.
With dJM^P, Willard approaehed me and
tried to grab the ring, yelling hysterically,
“No way! This isn’t the Winged Ring. You ean
see quite clearly that it’s a PillIMEl Foolish One
is lying. You can see that he’s a liar! Don’t fall for
it! lam the new king of the Kingdom of Fantasy!

p.
The thPefte iS
mine, Rifftc, minef
But he was silenced by the oldest of the fairies,
who turned to me. “Well, IPI3DI^€li, is it true

544
 What About ^ THE Pizzas?

what you say? Is this really the Winged Ring?"

I gave her the ring to inspect.
She examined it, then she \m it in the air
and proclaimed,

"ate twil
*

■H-
returtveJ t°
^ ^
c#^tle! fi
*
The entire crowd cheered, "Hooray
for Foolish One, the new hero of
the Kingdom of Fantasy!"
I blushed and muttered, "Fm no
hero. Fm the one who LOST
the ring in the first place."
When I looked up JUDGe
StPiCtWilUGS was smiling
at me.
She said, "Thanks, Foolish
One. You have closed the gap
545
 What About THE Pizzas?

between Reality and Fantasy forever. You

have repaired your mistake. The Fairy
Court pardons you!”
Willard flipped his tail in anger. He grabbed
the ring and 13110 into it to see if it was really
fairy silver, ^
“Festering fur balls, it really is
the ring!” he
wailed. “And now I think I may
have Cjh.ippcd my tooth!”
He pulled his whiskers in despair. “So then I
won’t be the of the Kingdom of Fantasy!
But what am I going to do with this gold crown?
This can’t be happening! Tell me I’m dreaming!”
His sister Willamena cried, “But . . .
but ... but .. . this means that I won’t be the
sister of the king, either! So what am I going to
do with the /2e^ m/xjnt fsfo

546
 Then the two weasels sobbed together,
“And what will we do with the printed
And the pizzas
for the eoronation party! What will
thirty-three
we do with the
thoujand pizTiaj we ordered?'’
Eventually the two left, consoling
each other. “I guess we could use the
crown as a ‘P/owei»
And we could use the silver scepter as
a baseball bat," suggested one.
“And we could recycle the
invitations and use them
for our shopping lists for
the next thirty years,”
said the other.
Then they continued
on, L?C|<?N(§^ their
whiskers. “But what will
we do with the thirtg-three thoujanc]
pizzgj?”
"Well sinee we ean’t preserve them ... we need
to E4T them all ourselves!”
 What About ^ THE Pizzas?

“Yum! Yum! And we even have a thousand of

those fiZ>Z>Y tablets/’

Your
your
YumlYumfYii^,
Buuuu
'■'•'■rpp

549
 Long Live the Queen!

fter the weasels left, one of the fairies

of the Fairy Court announced, "Let the
Recrowning Ceremony begin! Once
again, a Winged One, Blossom of the
Flowers, will reign!”
Everyone clapped. Then Blossom Stood up
and the whole room grew I mean, really
silent. For instance, if I dropped a pin on the
floor, the whole place would have heard it. Not
that I had a pin on me. Why would I need a pin?
Although, I did need that needle to b^JLO' up the
gap between worlds . . .
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Blossom
began to speak.
"My beloved subjects, today we have learned
 Long Live THE Queen!

many lessons. Foolish One has taught us a lesson

about and loyalty. All of us mess
up onee in a while. So who are we to judge one
another? When given the ehance. Foolish One
rose to the occasion and proved he is a most
friend to US all!
‘And now I would like to thank you for
Q^en (^tfie *Kitigc(om
crowning me
ofTantasy. I will never take my job lightly.
I love you all so very much!”
The crowd exploded in a cheer that made all
the windows of Crystal Castle shake. “Long
live the qjjeen/”
The queen opened her arms, as if to nu9
all of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of
Fantasy . . . fairies and elves, wizards, dwarves,
and giants, gnomes and pixies, witches and
warlocks, ogres, the greenies, the fruits and
 Long Live THE Queen!

flowers and so many more. And a feeling of

«PORe Love.
filled the room! Ah, what an amazing thing!
Then one by one we all pledged our loyalty to
the queen.
Blue Rider took off his helmet and bowed
before her. “I, Blue Rider, swear my loyalty to
you!” he said.
Wolfy curtsied and said, “\, Wolfy, swear my
loyalty to you!”
One after the other, all of her olcl ^HCl
new friends Uned up to swear their
loyalty. She gave them all a smile that reached
deep into their heARTS as the crowd yelled.
I'V® Winged Ones!”

554
 «.tOYe,
. •' kindness
*■ tranquility ^ sweetness
toveic{ea(i?»l tove happiness
jrienoSnip attiance peace Sereility uamth sn»nd
friend Sght tenderness positivity goodness friend friendship hamony loya/ty
tranquititv feetins S00aTl6SS Mght tencferness
kindness friendship feeling avaitahitity loyalty tenderness hamony serenity collaboration harnony
presence friencC wantth tenderness generosity solidarity
synpathy ^ A ^well-being feeling kindness sweetness
attention Sw007Tl0SS gratitude care harrtony
friendship goodness hamony warnth _^friendship goodness «
;. love understanding love jriCTla friendship ..;
V positivity well-being gratitude alliance kindness .* •.
happiness wOTlCl0F ideal lAiarrtth trust •
•* ^t*cttrltrUC{G loving kindness CdF0 •*
feeling light tenderness presence friend love care * ’i
•*4 .* O'.
wonder warmth well-being
friend love care Xindness friendship sweetness
.*
. . .
: ^ *

' . affection trust

understanding warmth
soiiaaritv
tenderness
union
♦'.
V.
/♦

•V
 What Should I Do?

inally, it was my turn. I put my paw

ip over my heart and said, ‘Thank you for
forgiving me, Queen Blossom.”
She smiled. Then I asked, “Um, I was
wondering ... is there any way I can be called
Fearless, Prince of the Winged Ones,
again?”
Before she could respond, Mel me
 What Should I Do?

on the head with his wand. "Did you really think

it was that easy. Foolish One?'’ he asked. "You
can’t just get your title back the minute you give
back the ring.”
The Clever Chaheleoti nodded. "Yes, Foolish
One,” he agreed. "It is not that easy. Do you really
feel you deserve the title FEARL'ESS ONE
right now?”
I shook my head. "Uh, well, no actually. I have
never been fearless. But a mouse can dream,” I
mumbled.
At this the Clever Chameleon chuckled. "Good!
There is hope for you yet. I have straightened out
many others worse off than you. I can straighten
you out, too!”
Then he looked DeepiY into my eyes,
"Would you like to become aREl^lL HERO
of the Kingdom of Fantasy? Someone who can
always be counted on?” he asked.

557
 What Should

I nodded so hard I accidentally bit my tongue.

Ow!
"I wanth that from the bottom
I lisped.
The Clever Chameleon bowed his head. "Good,
young student. Now f'^II^W 1^6 to my refuge
onthe^PiCHT It is a
place beyond the Kingdom of Fantasy, because it
is outside of time and space. You will stay with
me until you have learned.'’
I hesitated. “Umm, how much time will it
take?”
He lifted his left eyebrow. "It will take a long
time. Or a short time. It all depends on
you!” he replied.
I gulped. 1 didn’t want to insult the lizard, but
I was missing my home squeak home. I stared at
the ground. Whdt Should I dO?
On the one paw I really wanted to follow

558
What Should I Do?

the Clever Chameleon and ifaRn

everything that I didn’t know about
beeoming a ITI^yil l!CINID©lnlir. But
when I thought about Mouse Island and
my family, my heart filled with

559
 Try Your Best!

was still deciding what to do when Mel

tK) elbowed me in the side. “MOUSE. this is
a great honor. If you don’t accept, you really
are a FOOL!” he muttered.
I nodded. Mel was right. I mean, how many
times does a clever lizard ask you to go on an
adventure with him?
“Okay, I have decided, i am coming with
you. Clever Chameleon. Thank you for accepting
me as your pupil,” I replied.
Clev closed his eyes, satisfied. "From now on
call me Never interrupt me
when I speak, do everything I say, and give
everything you’ve got. Any questions?”
I ‘C'heMeA my whiskers. This adventure
might be a lot harder than I thought. "I was

560
 wondering” I said, “If I’m gone too long. I’m
afraid my fRiettpS and FAMILY on Mouse
Island will worry about me. Do you know how
long this adventure will take?”
The lizard considered my question. Then he
said, “ does not exist in the Kingdom of
Fantasy, so no one at your will notice
you arc not there. As for the time it will take for
your education, that all depends on you, I just
expect you to do one thing:

Always try your Best!

At last it was time to leave. “We have a long,
dangerous, scary, tiresome walk ahead of us!”
said the chameleon.
7 I was exhausted already! I thought
^for sure we’d be taking a magical dragon or a
cloud !baHoo»\ 01
something. . •
* "Un>, MastE-r-, cJowe
have to walk?’^ I eoughed.
“He . *u)ho walKs
thinKs iiKe a'hawivthe
lizard replied. , *
 I pad no idea- what that meant. But it must
hav.e been something clever. After all, he was tho
CLEUER CHAMELEON! ' .
. When the lizard began walking I followed^ •
Mbl, Wolfy, and all.of my other .friends yelled.
Foolish One, see you soon!”
 Try Your Best!

I waved. I hoped they were right about the

“see you soon” part. I mean, don’t get me wrong,
traveling with the chameleon was exciting, but I
would still miss my family, my eciy mouse bed,
andmy BRIDGE
filled with yummy cheese!
We walked for five hundred days and
nights. All right, maybe it wasn’t that long, but
it sure felt like it! Eventually, we found ourselves
at the bottom of a very tall noantain
“Here’s the Road of Light!” said the
chameleon. “Here is the path we will climb to
reach my Come along now. We have
a lot of work to do if you want to become a true
FCdl?lCSS knight!”
He walked up that steep path, and I
followed. Of course, I was huffing and puffing.
Hmmm . . . Maybe I could start an exercise
program while I was at the refuge, too.

564
 Try Your Best!

Meanwhile I thought of the ineredible adventure

that had just ended . . .

I hatlfound the Winded

Rin^... Thegap between the two
worlds was closed...
Blossom was saved..
I did know one thing. I was ready! After all,
if I never had any fXClTlN<4 adventures, I
would have nothing to tell you, my dear readers.
I hope you liked this story.

566
% ^ G- ^^
^ • -yflYio •

^ ^e future? ^ *
f tj; - ( X-
FANTASIAN ALPHABET

/i
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A G H / </
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/ AT C M N O
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0 t2S‘ISb78<)
 About the Author
Born in New Mouse City, Mouse

Island, Geronimo Stilton is

Rattus Emeritus of Mousomorphic
Literature and of Neo-Ratonic

Comparative Philosophy. For the

past twenty years, he has been

running The Rodent's Gazette, New Mouse City’s

most widely read daily newspaper.

Stilton was awarded the Ratitzer Prize for his

scoops on The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid and

The Search for Sunken Treasure. He has also

received the Andersen 2000 Prize for Personality of

the Year. One of his bestsellers won the 2002 eBook

Award for world’s best ratlings’ electronic book. His

works have been published all over the globe.

In his spare time, Mr. Stilton collects antique

cheese rinds and plays golf. But what he most

enjoys is telling stories to his nephew Benjamin.

 The Dragon
Prophecy:
THE FOURTHADVENTURE
IN THE KINGDOM
OF FANTASY

The Phoenix
OF Fire: FOR Treasure: CHARMS: OF DESTINY:
THE HFTH ADVENTURE THE SIXTH ADVENTURE THE SEVENTH ADVENTURE AN EPIC KINGDOM OF
IN THE KINGDOM IN THE KINGDOM IN THE KINGDOM FANTASY ADVENTURE
or FANTASY OEIANTMY OF FANTASY

THE wizard's THE Ship of THE DRAGON

Magic WAND: Secrets: OF FORTUNE:
THE HGHTH ADVENTURE THE NINTH ADVENTURE THE TENTH ADVENTURE AN EPIC KINGDOM OF
IN THE KINGDOM IN THE KINGDOM IN THE KINGDOM FANTASY ADVENTURE
OF FANTASY OF FANTASY OF FANTASY
 Be sure 1
read all my
fabumouse
adventures!

Cheese Pyramid

#4 I'm Too Fond of

My Fur!
#23 Valentine's Day
Disaster

#28 Wedding #31 The Mysterious

Crasher

#32 Valley of the #33 Geronimo ond the #34 Geronimo Stilton, #3SAVery Merry
Giant Skeletons GoldMedol Mystery Secret Agent Christmas

#40 The Karate Mouse #41 Mighty Mount

Kilimanjaro

#42 The Peruliar

Pumpkin Thief
#47 Run for the Hills, #48 The Mystery in #49 The Way of
Geronimo! Venire the Somuroi

#52 Mouse in Spare!

#57 The Stinky #58 The Supe

Cheese Vacollon

Experiment

Hundredth Key
 Meet
:ONl^
He is a cavemouse—Geronimo Stilton’s
ancient ancestor! He runs the stone
newspaper in the prehistoric village
of Old Mouse City. From dealing with
dinosaurs to dodging meteorites,
his life in the Stone Age is full
of adventure!

CA\iEMiCi_ CA\<EMiCt

#1 The Stole of Fire #2 Watch Yoir Toil! #3HelpJ'nimHotlovo! #4TheFost(ind #5 The Greol Moise

CAMEMiCE CAUEMiCt,

#6 Doi't Woke the #7 I'm a Scaredy-Moose! #8 Sorfiog for Secrets #9 Get the Scoop, #10 My Aatosaoros
Dioosoor! Geroniitiol Will Will

#11 Sea Moaster #12 Paws Off the Pearl! #13 The Smelly Seorch #14 Shoo. Coveflies! #15 A Mammoth
 MeeT
CeRONiMO STiLTONiX
spacemouse the Geronimo
Stilton parallel universe
captain the spaceship MouseStar
While flying
ng through the
distant planets am meets crazy aliens
adventures are out wor d!
 Don't miss any of
those oxdting Ihoa
Sisters adventures!

Stilton and the Then Stilton and the

Ghost of the Shipwreck Secret Gty

Then Stilton and the Then Stilton: Big Trouble

Cherry Blossom Adventure in the Big Apple

Mystery on the Orient Express

Then Stilton and the ^ Thea Stilton and the Then Stilton and the
legend of the Fire Flowers Spanish Dance Mission Journey to the lion's Den
And fhetk out my fabumouso spetial editions!

Thea Stilton: Thea Stilton: Thea Stilton:

The Journey The Secret of The Secret of
TO Atlantis THE Fairies THE Snow

Thea Stilton: Thea Stilton: Thea Stilton:

The Cloud The Treasure The Land
Castle of the Sea Flower»HP’
 Meet
CltEEPELlAVON CaCRLEFUII
I, ^e/)(<mMna have a lot of mouse

friends, but none as Spooky as my friend _

CrEEPELLA von CaCKLEFUR! She is an

enchanting and MYST6SIOOS mouse with a pet

bat named Bftewfn^. Yl^B£ I’m a real ’fraidy
mouse, but even I think CrEEPELLA and her

family are Z3^C?[!DDiDiV7 fascinating. I can’t wait

for you to read all about CrEEPELLA in these

fa-mouse-ly funny and spectacularly spooky tales!

MEET
Gerooin)o Stiltooord
He is a mouseking — the Geronimo Stilton
of the ancient far nortW He lives with his
brawny and brave clan in the village of
Mouseborg. From sailing frozen waters
to facing fiery dragons, every day is an
adventure for the micehingsf jv

#1 Attack of thf #2 The Fomoese

Drggons Fjord Roce

GttfionAio Stifton fton~ ^^^^Geronffw ^tlftpn

MICEKINGS

#4 Stay Stroag, #5 The Myslerioit #6 The Heloiet

 Join me and my friends as
- we travel through time in
y these very special editions!

The Journey BACK IN TIME:

Through Time THE SECOND JOURNEY
THROUGH TIME

LOST IN
Against Time; THE FOURTH
THE THIRD JOURNEY
THROUGH TIME
Dear rodent
riends. . .
. . .^^ood-Lye
until tKe next
journey to tire
Kin^doipi of
Fantasy!
 Another adventure of
W epic proportions!^
I, Geronimo Stilton, traveled on the wings
of the Dragon of Fortune back to the
Kingdom of Fantasy! I was called there by
my friend Blossom, Queen of the Fairies,
who needed my help.

The enchanted Winged Ring had gone

missing! This was terrible news. The ring
allows its owner to travel between the
Kingdom of Fantasy and the real world —
which could be a dangerous power if it fell
into evil hands. Could I find the ring before
it was too late?

www.scholastic.com/geronimostiltony
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