Treasure Trove (9781743583548)
CONTENTS
Lola was in her bedroom, staring at the wooden blocks scattered all over the floor.
Before school that morning, she had built a
wonderful
palace in the middle of her room.
Now there was no palace. There was just a mess!
And Lola knew who had made that mess.
Nick!
Why couldn't her brother leave her things alone? Why did he always have to break her stuff?
She'd spent ages making the palace, and now she'd have to start all over again.
Just then, Nick appeared at her bedroom door. He was holding the yellow plastic door from her palace.
âThis is mine,' he told her. âSo I took it back.'
âDid you
have
to knock the whole thing down?' asked Lola.
âI didn't knock it down,' Nick said in an annoying voice. âI just took my door out. It's not my fault it was right at the bottom.'
Lola groaned.
Nick shrugged. âAnyway,' he said, âwooden blocks are no good with plastic ones. They don't match.'
Then he bounced off down the hallway.
Lola gritted her teeth.
She wanted to say,
You're not supposed to come in my room!
Or,
You weren't even using that door until I needed it!
But she knew there was no point. Even if she told on him, Mum would just tell her and Nick to sort it out themselves.
And then she'd tell Lola to
tidy up!
Lola had a better idea.
She picked up her favourite toy Buddy and went over to the toy box at the end of her bed.
Lots
of kids have toy boxes.
But this was no
ordinary
toy box.
Lola opened the lid and climbed inside. As soon as she shut the lid above her, the toy box filled with light and started to shake.
Lola closed her eyes as she jiggled around, holding on tight to Buddy.
Then the flashing lights and shaking stopped, and everything was still.
Lola took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Then she pushed open the lid and got out.
Lola had climbed
into
her toy box, but she had climbed
out of
â¦
She had climbed
out of
an old steam train!
Lola wasn't in her bedroom anymore, that was for sure. She never knew
where
in the Kingdom her toy box would take her.
But she had never been anywhere so dark before. She couldn't see much at all!
That's unusual,
thought Lola.
âBlast my buttons!' said a voice. âWho turned off the lights?'
Lola smiled. That was her toy Buddy, who came to life in the Kingdom.
Buddy was a learn-to-dress clown. He had buttons and poppers, zippers and buckles.
Lola
loved
bringing Buddy along on her toy box adventures. He always made Lola laugh.
Buddy also knew all about the Kingdom. It was where toys came when they weren't being played with at home.
âWhere in the Kingdom are we?' Buddy wondered out loud.
Just then, Lola heard a noise. It was a quiet noise.
A
knock, knock, knocking
noise. Almost like someone was tapping something.
âWe should explore,' said Lola, but she felt a bit scared of the dark. She wondered if Buddy was afraid too.
Then there was a burst of light. Suddenly, all the buttons on Buddy's clothes were
glowing
brightly!
âThat's better!' said Buddy.
âNow we can see what's what.'
Lola shook her head. âIs there
anything
buttons can't do?'
âClever things, buttons!' Buddy said proudly.
Lola grinned. She thought he looked a bit like a Christmas tree, but she kept that to herself.
Looking about, Lola could now see why it was so dark.
âOh,' she said. âThat is a surprise. We're
underground
!'
Lola gazed around.
She and Buddy were inside a tunnel made of rock. Their train sat on tracks that disappeared into the darkness ahead.
There was water dripping from the roof of the tunnel. Big puddles shone in the light of Buddy's buttons.
Buddy was looking
very
worried.
âWhat's up?' asked Lola.
âCould be a problem here!' he said. âBy my stuffing there could.'
He looked nervously at the puddles of water on the ground.
âThey don't look that deep,' Lola said.
âBut I'm not
waterproof
,' Buddy reminded her.
âThat's OK,' Lola said, scooping him up. âI'll carry you! We can't have a soggy clown now, can we?'
Lola hopped off the train with Buddy in one arm. She started walking along the tracks.
Buddy's shining buttons lit the way like a torch.
Lola made a special effort to splash in the puddles, because there were no grown-ups there to tell her not to.
She
didn't care about wet shoes! But she made sure to keep Buddy nice and dry.
Lola and Buddy had just gone around a bend when they had to stop.
Huge rocks were scattered across the tracks. It was a
dead end!
âWe've come the wrong way,' Lola said, and turned to go back.
âWait!' said Buddy. âLook.'
Looking down, Lola saw that there were foot prints in the mud.
Hundreds
of foot prints!
Lola popped Buddy onto a dry rock. Then she bent down.
Some of them were round. âThese look like teddy-bear prints to me, Buddy,' Lola said.
But some prints were clearly made by boots. And in the middle of each boot print was the letter
N
.
Lola studied the boot prints. There was something very odd about them, but she couldn't quite work out what.
