Rise of Allies (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 4) (10 page)

“Ugh!” Dani burst out at last, stopping in her tracks just inside the entrance of the zoo. “If I have to hear you say that word one more time, I am going to
scream
!”

“Huh?” Jake gave her a startled look. “What word? You mean Light—”

“Jake,” Isabelle chided.

Dani glared. “Yes.
That
word.”

The blockhead frowned, looking utterly confounded. “What? Why?”

“Stop me, Isabelle,” Dani said through gritted teeth. “I’m gonna give him another nosebleed.”

Jake snorted at her. “What’s wrong with you?”

Fuming, Dani stared at him.

“She was really worried about you, Jake,” Isabelle said with her usual tact.

“Aw, c’mon, carrot.” The rascal grinned in his annoying way and took a step toward her. “I’m all right! See?” He held his arms out at his sides.

“Jake, you had
blood
dripping out of your ears and nose, like you got caught standing too close to an explosion! It’s only the first day of the Gathering, and already you could have died. As if you don’t already have enough enemies out there, this time you did it to
yourself
! Why didn’t you just
stop
?”

“You’re the one who told me to keep going!” he exclaimed. “I nearly did quit, but then I heard you cheering for me. So I kept on.”

Dani pursed her lips. Maybe that was why she was so angry at him. Angry at herself was more like it. He could have died, and it would have been at least a little bit her fault.

He gazed at her, no longer looking quite so cocky. “You know how much this means to me.”

“Aye, that’s why I told you to keep on,” she admitted begrudgingly. “But, still. Is it really worth your life?”

“I pushed myself too hard. I realize that now,” he cajoled her. “Believe me, I have no desire to do that to myself ever again. But these were special circumstances. I had to impress the Elders.”

“Hang the Elders!”

“Ah, come on, don’t be such an old mother hen!”

“Mother hen? Ugh! Boys are so
stupid
!”

“Hey! I’m not,” Archie protested innocently as Dani shoved past him in frustration.

Marching ahead of her companions into the zoo, she passed under the arched entrance.

She had taken only a few, angry strides up the wide center path when she stopped short, turned, and stared into the first cage. She blinked rapidly, then shook her head to clear it. She looked a second time, certain her eyes were playing tricks on her. But, no.

The impossible sight remained.

Slowly lifting her hand, she pointed and asked: “What the deuce is
that
?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Strange Creatures

J
ake and his cousins ran to catch up to her. He was keen to see what had her looking so befuddled. It was better than stewing over her yelling at him again—as usual.

What a nag!
But he brushed off her scolding with only a slight twinge of guilt. He did not need Dani O’Dell’s permission for whatever he wanted to do in life.

Still, he hadn’t meant to scare everybody like that. He was well aware that Dani thought she couldn’t live without him, but he had no intention of dying anytime soon.

Then he put her typical-girl’s oversensitive reaction out of his mind and raced into the magical menagerie with his cousins.

A placard on a wooden post near the entrance was painted as a map, showing how the green, quiet refuge of the garden-like zoo was divided up into habitat areas suitable for the animals inside. The first enclosure on the right, Jake discovered, was made into a swamp.

This was what had got Dani’s attention.

Mysterious dead trees without branches stuck up from the murky water here and there, and when Jake looked at them, he had the same reaction she did.

He blinked, shook his head, then wondered if there had been something stronger in that headache powder than ordinary medicine.

“That…can’t…be,” he said slowly, staring at the slimy brown fish climbing up the dead trees, inch by slow, wriggling inch.

Archie and Isabelle, who had been to the magical zoo before, exchanged a knowing glance and started laughing.

“But they’re fish! How can they…” Jake started. “Fish can’t climb trees! Shouldn’t they be swimming?”

“How can they even breathe?” Dani asked wonderingly.

“Their gills have adapted! Come, there’s loads more to see!” Archie beckoned them on, his dark eyes twinkling behind his spectacles.

“But, Archie…there are
fish
in the
trees
,” Dani said.

“I know. Isn’t it marvelous? Hurry up, before it gets dark. They’ll be closing soon.”

They ran after him. The next habitat was a dusty corral that held five huge tortoises, each one big enough to ride on. Unfortunately, none of them were moving, asleep inside their shells.

“Is that all they do?” Jake asked, unimpressed.

“What, do you want them to dance?” Archie countered.

“Hey, wake up, turtle! We want to see you!” Dani picked up a tiny piece of gravel and tossed it at the nearest one. The pebble plunked off its armored shell.

“Don’t do that,” Archie chided.

“What?” she retorted with a shrug.

“Hey,” said Jake, frowning at the placard posted by the big, boring turtles’ pen. “Whoever made this sign is an even worse speller than I am. That’s not how you spell tortoise, is it?”

“It’s spelled correctly,” Archie said, smiling. “They’re not tortoises. They’re Tritoises.”

“What?” Then Jake let out a yelp. The creature Dani had thrown the pebble at woke up, but when it peered out from under its shell, not one but
three
leathery turtle heads emerged at once.

“Tritoise—a three-headed tortoise!” Archie said triumphantly while Dani nearly screamed, jumping back from the fence. She clung to Isabelle, giggling wildly in shock, but Jake just stared in disbelief.

Archie and Isabelle greatly enjoyed their reaction. It took a while for them to get over the three-headed tortoises, but eventually, they moved on to the next cage—and this one was very much a cage. It was as big as a large, room, but had very strong metal bars.

“The Common Yeti,” Jake read aloud from the sign, then he glanced again at the ape-like creature sitting silently, sullenly in the corner, picking insects out of its light-brown fur. “That’s odd. The yetis we saw at the North Pole last Christmas were white.”

“That must be his summer coat,” Dani remarked. “Maybe they only turn white in the snow.”

Jake looked askance at her. “What, like rabbits?”

Archie grinned and pulled them on to see the next amazing creature. They exclaimed in surprise at the sight of the High-Grazing Heifers stretching their long necks up to eat the leaves off the trees like giraffes—only, they were cows.

The six-legged Oliphants with their long ivory tusks were a wonder to behold in the next, well-fortified pen. The kids watched them shoveling hay into their mouths with their trunks while their gray ears flapped slowly to ward off the evening’s mosquitoes.

The only beast that really scared them was the horrible Venomous Tython, whose cage came next. The front half was a tiger: furry feline head, tufted ears, great fangs, and front paws with scythe-like claws. But the back half of the Tython was that of a giant serpent, though its tiger stripes continued down the scaly, snake half of its body. Thankfully, the sign said the creatures only existed in the deepest reaches of the Asian jungles.

It hissed at them from behind the bars, a forked tongue darting out of its tiger mouth as it dragged itself closer.

They all stepped back.

“The Tython’s bite is poisonous,” Archie explained. “Like a serpent, it dispenses venom through its fangs. There’s no known antidote.”

“Ew,” said Dani.

“I hope that’s a very strong cage,” said Jake.

Almost as horrid was the nearby Fairy Stinger, a scorpion as big as a beagle, with long, green mossy-looking hair to camouflage it perfectly in the sorts of forests where fairies loved to dwell. An odd, glowing lure dangled off the end of its deadly tail, and as it huddled against the big rock in its cage, they could hear a weird, purring sort of hum coming from the creature.

“Am I insane, or is that thing singing?” Jake asked.

Archie nodded. “That’s how it lures fairies in. They hear the song and are drawn by the light on its tail, and as soon as they fly close enough—
wham
!” He lunged at Dani, pretending to catch her in big scorpion claws.

She screamed, and the Fairy Stinger fled behind its rock and went quiet.

Archie laughed heartily. “Got you.”

Dani smacked him, but couldn’t help laughing, too.

“What is that thing thinking about, Isabelle? Just wondering,” Jake said.

She shook her head. “I can’t read insects.”

“Arthropods. Honestly,” Archie said in a longsuffering tone. “Don’t you people know anything?”

“It’s scary, whatever it is,” Dani said.

They moved on, but halted when they came to the wide, open pasture where the Dreaming Sheep were bouncing around, guarded by a winged sheepdog.

“Crikey, those things can jump.” Jake tilted his head back to follow the long, arcing trajectory of one of the woolly, cloud-white sheep floating far above. Most of the flock were only jumping about six to ten feet off the ground.

“They only have one-eighth of our normal gravity,” Archie said.

The shaggy, winged dog barked at the floating sheep to come back down, and when it didn’t listen, he flew up after it and herded it back to the others.

“They’re only getting started for the night. They’re mainly nocturnal, obviously. By midnight,” Archie added, “they’ll be leaping up over the towers of Merlin Hall.”

“Well, they’d better not accidentally land in that thing’s cage.” Dani pointed back at the terrifying Tython.

“The angel dog won’t let them,” Isabelle said.

“Hey, there’s the zookeeper or veterinarian or whatever he is!” Jake said suddenly, pointing. “Maybe he can tell us where to find Red before they close. C’mon!”

They hurried toward the tall fellow in a white lab coat, who had just thrown some food into another lightly guarded habitat with a tranquil pond.

Archie was the first to call to him. “Excuse me, sir, would you be able to help us?”

“Oh, hullo. What can I do for you children?” When the zookeeper turned to them, Jake and Dani stifled gasps.

He was a Green Man, about seven feet tall with a mossy beard, barky brown skin, and twigs and branches coming out of his head like wild hair. Vines twined here and there around his body. Jake tried not to stare, recalling what Archie had told them about these folk in the carriage on the way here.

Green Men had existed in Europe for centuries, he had said. In pagan times, they had been treated as demigods. You could tell the females by the flowers that sprouted from their heads.

The Green Folk had often been mistaken for airy nature spirits, but Archie had explained that was a misconception. They were as solid as any flesh-and-blood being, but could
seem
to disappear because they could conceal themselves as trees and, by holding perfectly still, could go unnoticed by any passersby.

Very gentle souls, they helped things grow, obviously possessing a green thumb to match their green bodies. They could coax the earth to produce bumper crops, but they also were good with animals.

In the carriage, Archie had also told Jake and Dani a bit about the Green Folk’s ancient ways: They slept standing up and barefooted, letting the vines and shoots that twined about their legs root down into the ground each night as they rested. They’d sip water, but were never seen eating food, for they fed on sunlight through the green leaves they had for hair.

Lastly, they were terrified of fire.

A sudden, discreet jab from Isabelle’s elbow reminded Jake to quit staring.

“We’re closing for the night soon,” the Green Man said.

“Yes, we know,” Archie started to say when Dani interrupted with a gasp.

“Ho! Wasn’t there a lizard on that branch a moment ago?” She scanned the pen. “Where’d he go?”

The Green Man glanced into the cage, then smiled at her. “Oh, he’s still there. He’s just being shy.” He tapped the placard on the cage:
Invisimeleon
.

“We don’t mean to interrupt your work, sir, but we’re looking for the Gryphon that arrived a few days ago for his molting. This is his owner.” Archie nodded at Jake.

“More like he owns me,” Jake said wryly as he finally recovered from the shock of meeting a Green Man up close.

“You’re Lord Griffon?” The Green Man stared at Jake as if
he
were the oddment. “How do you do? I hear you had quite a time of it with your Assessment today.”

Blimey, did the whole world know he had fainted today like a little girl? His smile was half a wince. “I’m just glad it’s over. I was hoping to check on Red—?”

“Certainly, I’d be glad to show you to him. I’m Dr. Reginald Plantagenet, by the way. I’m the keeper and all-round veterinarian here.”

“So, you are the right person to ask about how Red’s been doing?” Jake asked.

Dr. Plantagenet nodded and beckoned for them to follow him onto the path that wound uphill to the right. “The molting process is always difficult, especially for a gryphon. You know how proud they are. In his current state, he’s probably only going to want to see his master. I think he’s really embarrassed.”

Dani stifled a giggle. “Is he bald?”

“As a plucked chicken, my dear.”

“Oh, my goodness, the poor thing!” Isabelle exclaimed.

“We don’t wish to cause the poor beast any extra anxiety,” Archie said. “Why don’t the rest of us wait here and let Jake go up to see him alone?”

The girls agreed to this, but Dr. Plantagenet warned them not to leave the path. “The animals start getting restless as the sun goes down,” he said rather ominously.

They nodded, wide-eyed.

Then Dr. Plantagenet escorted Jake alone the rest of the way up the hill. “He made a nest up here among the boulders as soon as he arrived,” the Green Man remarked, pointing as they climbed the slope.

“Is he eating all right?”