Akiko and the Great Wall of Trudd (11 page)

We stuffed ourselves
with the sandwiches Yabby had packed for us. They were absolutely delicious, filled with all kinds of colorful vegetables and sweet slices of meat. There were also several purple pieces of fruit, and a whole bag full of Moolo Rings. We ate and ate and ate, devouring it all happily and
very
noisily.

After dinner we threw a few more pieces of wood on the fire so that Spuckler and Mr. Beeba could entertain us with hand shadows on the underside of the bridge. It was pretty amazing, all the different kinds of shapes they were able to make!

“Now,
this
, Akiko,” Mr. Beeba explained, “is a frimbo bird. I haven’t
quite
got the wingspan right, but you get the general idea. . . .”

“And
this
is a flyin’ saber-toothed mungasaurus,” Spuckler growled, “comin’ in to
eat
the frimbo bird!”

“Really, Spuckler!” Mr. Beeba chuckled. “Control yourself!”

They went on and on like that for more than half an hour. I even joined in here and there, making the shape of a dog’s head and a couple of other tricks I learned from my uncle Koji back in Middleton.

After Spuckler and Mr. Beeba’s little show was over, we all sat back and listened while Gax told a story about a giant spaceship he’d once been trapped on, and how he’d led a bunch of robots in a daring escape. He was really good at bringing the story to life, especially because he could make all sorts of cool sound effects as he went along. It was definitely the best robot story I’d ever heard. (Actually, it was the
only
robot story I’d ever heard, but you know what I mean.)

Finally Poog sang us a little song. It was a soothing, quiet song that seemed to wash over us like water, with beautiful airy sounds like flutes and strange, exotic harmonies that I could hear only if I tilted my head a certain way. Even with all the snow around, there was something very warm and almost tropical about the music.

Spuckler stoked the fire with plenty of wood so that it would keep us warm all night long. Gax said he’d add more wood later if the flames started to die down.

I suddenly found myself thinking about Throck, and the way Poog had stared at him, and the way he’d finally backed down and left us.

“Mr. Beeba,” I whispered as I watched the firelight flicker on the underside of the bridge, “who do you think Throck
is
? Why is he trying to stop us from going to Alia Rellapor’s castle?”

“Throck is as much of a mystery to me as he is to you, Akiko,” said Mr. Beeba. “My guess is that he works for Alia Rellapor. He’s probably been hired by her to prevent us from rescuing the Prince.”

I sat and thought that one over for a minute. If this Throck guy was just an assistant, I wondered how scary
Alia
would turn out to be. Still, it was reassuring to know we had Poog around to protect us. It was almost like having a guardian angel at our side. If not for Poog, who
knows
what Throck might have done to us?

“You saw how Poog and Throck looked at each other, didn’t you, Mr. Beeba?” I asked. “What do you think was going
on
there?”

“I’m not entirely sure, Akiko,” he replied, “but I suspect that Poog and Throck have met before. Maybe once, maybe many times.”

“Did you see the look on Throck’s face?” I asked. “He looked really, really
scared
.”

“He most certainly did,” Mr. Beeba answered, “and I can’t say I blame him. Poog has powers far beyond the likes of you and me. There’s no telling what he’s capable of doing in our defense.”

I turned and looked at Poog. He was floating near the fire, and his eyes reflected the flames as clearly as pools of water. He was still humming to himself, and he wore an expression of deep, deep concentration. I wish I could have known what he was thinking, if only for a moment.

We all curled up in the warm sand near the edge of the fire and got ready to go to sleep. I found myself looking back on everything we’d done in the past two days: our long walk through the grasslands, our perilous climb to the top of the Great Wall of Trudd, our delicious lunch at Yabby’s restaurant . . . Some of it already felt as if it had happened a very long time ago.

“Sleep tight, everybody,” Spuckler said as he folded his arms and rested his head on his chest. “Tomorrow we’re goin’ to Alia Rellapor’s castle!”

What a thought to try to sleep on!

Our journey was nearly at an end. Would we really make it to Alia’s castle the next day? I wondered what the place would look like. I wondered what
Alia
would look like. And I wondered most of all if we’d really succeed in our mission to rescue Prince Froptoppit. I thought all the way back to when I had first come to the planet Smoo, and how King Froptoppit had put me in charge of rescuing his son. In my mind, I suddenly had a very clear image of the King with his lanky arms, oversized ears, and enormous white mustache.

“I need you to be in charge of this mission,” he’d said to me that night. “And what’s more,
you
need you to be in charge of this mission.”

The fire crackled and popped, and I rolled over to warm the other side of my body. My head was filled with all kinds of questions. Normally I’d never have been able to fall asleep with so many things left to think about. But I was very tired, and my eyelids felt very, very heavy, and I knew that once I closed my eyes I’d be asleep in a matter of seconds. I took one last look at the firelight flickering across the beach as my eyelids slowly dropped over my eyes.

It was time to rest. We had a
very
big day ahead of us.

SEE WHERE IT ALL BEGAN:

Join Akiko and her crew on the Planet Smoo!

When fourth-grader Akiko comes home from school one day, she finds an envelope waiting for her. It has no stamp or return address and contains a very strange message. . . .

At first Akiko thinks the message is a joke, but before she knows it, she’s heading a rescue mission to find the King of Smoo’s kidnapped son, Prince Froptoppit. Akiko, the head of a rescue mission? She’s too afraid to be on the school’s safety patrol!

Read the following excerpt from
Akiko on the Planet Smoo
and see how the adventure began.

Excerpts from
Akiko on the Planet Smoo
and
Akiko in the Sprubly Islands
copyright © 2000 by Mark Crilley

Akiko on the Planet Smoo
and
Akiko in the Sprubly Islands

Published by Delacorte Press

an imprint of Random House Children’s Books

a division of Random House, Inc.

1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036

Appears by arrangement with Delacorte Press

All rights reserved

My name is Akiko.
This is the story of the adventure I had a few months ago when I went to the planet Smoo. I know it’s kind of hard to believe, but it really did happen. I swear.

I’d better go back to the beginning: the day I got the letter.

It was a warm, sunny day. There were only about five weeks left before summer vacation, and kids at school were already itching to get out. Everybody was talking about how they’d be going to camp, or some really cool amusement park, or whatever. Me, I knew I’d be staying right here in Middleton all summer, which was just fine by me. My dad works at a company where they hardly ever get long vacations, so my mom and I have kind of gotten used to it.

Anyway, it was after school and my best friend, Melissa, and I had just walked home together as always. Most of the other kids get picked up by their parents or take the bus, but Melissa and I live close enough to walk to school every day. We both live just a few blocks away in this big apartment building that must have been built about a hundred years ago. Actually I think it used to be an office building or something, but then somebody cleaned it up and turned it into this fancy new apartment building. It’s all red bricks and tall windows, with a big black fire escape in the back. My parents say they’d rather live somewhere out in the suburbs, but my dad has to be near his office downtown.

Melissa lives on the sixth floor but she usually comes up with me to the seventeenth floor after school. She’s got three younger brothers and has to share her bedroom with one of them, so she doesn’t get a whole lot of privacy. I’m an only child and I’ve got a pretty big bedroom all to myself, so that’s where Melissa and I spend a lot of our time.

On that day we were in my room as usual, listening to the radio and trying our best to make some decent card houses. Melissa was telling me how cool it would be if I became the new captain of the fourth-grade safety patrol.

“Come on, Akiko, it’ll be good for you,” she said. “I practically promised Mrs. Miller that you’d do it.”

“Melissa, why can’t somebody
else
be in charge of the safety patrol?” I replied. “I’m no good at that kind of stuff. Remember what happened when Mrs. Antwerp gave me the lead role in the Christmas show?”

Melissa usually knows how to make me feel better about things, but even she had to admit last year’s Christmas show was a big disaster.

“That was different, Akiko,” she insisted. “Mrs. Antwerp had no idea you were going to get stage fright like that.”

“It was worse than stage fright, Melissa,” I said. “I can’t believe I actually forgot the words to ‘Jingle Bells’.”

“This isn’t the Christmas show,” she said. “You don’t have to memorize any words to be in charge of the safety patrol.” She was carefully beginning the third floor of a very ambitious card house she’d been working on for about half an hour.

“Why can’t I just be a
member
of the safety patrol?” I asked her.

“Because Mrs. Miller needs a leader,” she said. “I’d do it, but I’m already in charge of the softball team.”

And I knew Melissa meant it, too. She’d be in charge of
everything
at school if she could. Me, I prefer to let someone else be the boss. Sure, there are times when I wish I could be the one who makes all the decisions and tells everybody else what to do. I just don’t want to be the one who gets in trouble when everything goes wrong.

“Besides,” Melissa continued, “it would be a great way for you to meet Brendan Fitzpatrick. He’s in charge of the boys’ safety patrol.” One thing about Melissa: No matter what kind of conversation you have with her, one way or another you end up talking about boys.

“What makes you so sure I
want
to meet Brendan Fitzpatrick?” The card house I’d been working on had completely collapsed, and I was trying to decide whether it was worth the trouble to start a new one.

“Trust me, Akiko,” she said with a big grin, “
everyone
wants to meet Brendan Fitzpatrick.”

“I don’t even like him,” I said, becoming even more anxious to change the subject.

“How can you not like him?” she asked, genuinely puzzled. “He’s one of the top five cute guys in the fourth grade.”

“I can’t believe you actually have a
list
of who’s cute and who isn’t.”

That was when my mom knocked on my door. (I always keep the door shut when Melissa’s over. I never know when she’s going to say something I don’t want my mom to hear.)

“Akiko, you got something in the mail,” she said, handing me a small silvery envelope.

She stared at me with this very curious look in her eyes. I don’t get letters very often. “Are you sure you don’t want this door open?” she asked. “It’s kind of stuffy in here.”

“Thanks, Mom. Better keep it closed.”

It was all I could do to keep Melissa from snatching the letter from me once my mom was out of sight. She kept stretching out her hands all over the place like some kind of desperate basketball player, but I kept twisting away, holding the envelope against my chest with both my hands so she couldn’t get at it.

“It’s from a boy, isn’t it? I knew it, I knew it!” she squealed, almost chasing me across the room.

“Melissa, this is
not
from a boy,” I said, turning my back to get a closer look at the thing. My name was printed on the front in shiny black lettering, like it had been stamped there by a machine. The envelope was made out of a thick, glossy kind of paper I’d never seen before. There was no stamp and no return address. Whoever sent the thing must have just walked up and dropped it in our mailbox.

“Go on! Open it up!” Melissa exclaimed, losing patience.

I was just about to, when I noticed something printed on the back of the envelope:

TO BE READ BY AKIKO AND NO ONE ELSE

“Um, Melissa, I think this is kind of private,” I said, bracing myself. I knew she wasn’t going to take this very well.

“What?” She tried again to get the envelope out of my hands. “Akiko, I can’t believe you. We’re best friends!”

I thought it over for a second and realized that it wasn’t worth the weeks of badgering I’d get if I didn’t let her see the thing.

“All right, all right. But you have to promise not to tell anyone else. I could get in trouble for this.”

I carefully tore the envelope open. Inside was a single sheet of paper with that same shiny black lettering:

And that’s all it said. It wasn’t signed, and there was nothing else written on the other side.

“Outside my window? On the seventeenth floor?”

“It’s got to be a joke.” Melissa had taken the paper out of my hands and was inspecting it closely. “I think it
is
from someone at school. Probably Jimmy Hampton. His parents have a printing press in their basement or something.”

“Why would he go to so much trouble to play a joke on me?” I said. “He doesn’t even
know
me.” I had this strange feeling in my stomach. I went over to the window and made sure it was locked.

“Boys are weird,” Melissa replied calmly. “They do all kinds of things to get your attention.”

Next, travel to the Sprubly Islands!

The mission to save Prince Froptoppit continues! Unfortunately, something happens to Akiko and her crew on the way to Alia Rellapor’s castle. They get lost—hopelessly lost—in their flying boat somewhere over the Moonguzzit Sea. Their only chance is to find Queen Pwip of the Sprubly Islands, a clairvoyant who can point them in the right direction. As Akiko, Mr. Beeba, Spuckler, Gax, and Poog attempt to locate the queen, they must survive a skugbit storm, make their way out of the belly of a giant sea snake, and sail the seas to safety. But the Sprubly Islanders aren’t at all like Akiko’s friends and neighbors back on Earth. When Spuckler and Mr. Beeba disappear one night, Akiko is left to fend for herself in this strange and magical new world.

Read the following excerpt from
Akiko in the Sprubly Islands
and continue the adventure.