Ravenspell Book 2: The Wizard of Ooze Read Online Free PDF

to tie up her dog, but when she picked it up, she found out that it was a giant, dead worm. It measured twenty-four feet long.”
    “Aye,” Lady Blackpool said. “Worms are ancient things and can grow to be large indeed.”
    News of this frightened Amber. She’d never heard of such monstrous worms.
    “Oh,” Ben remembered, “but there are lots of different kinds of worms! Some scientists say that if you took all of the worms in the world, they would weigh more than all of the rest of the animals put together. There are worms that can live in your stomach, or in a dog’s heart. There are carnivorous worms that eat bugs, and worms that swim in the sea, and worms that can eat your brain, and worms that glow in the dark.”
    “Indeed,” Lady Blackpool said, eyeing Ben strangely. “Many and varied is the evil of worms. They can also be powerful magicians. Did you know that?” She looked around.
    “No,” Amber said, for she had never heard of magical worms.
    “Yes,” Lady Blackpool said, “they are powerful in the ways of magic. And they hunger for our flesh. But they are patient creatures, too. They know that each of us will die and that they will feast upon our flesh in the end. So seldom do they resort to violence.”
    Bushmaster leaned forward and said, “Aye, most worms are patient, but not all. A worm may not have paws, but even a worm can be grasping.”
    “Well put,” Lady Blackpool said. “We have just such an evil worm to deal with.”
    Ben suddenly seemed to recall something else. “We have some of the biggest worms in the world living right here in Oregon! They’re called Oregon giant earthworms, and they can be three feet long, even when they’re not stretched out.”
    Amber looked squarely at Ben and begged, “Is there anything else that you can remember—anything at all? It might be helpful.”
    Ben searched his memory. “Yes,” he said. “There is one kind of worm that is more dangerous than all the rest: the Alaskan bull worm. I learned about it on SpongeBob SquarePants. It’s huge. Its tongue is longer than the bodies of most snakes, and if you try to fight one, you can grab its tongue, and then the worm will swallow you whole!”
    The mice and voles that surrounded Amber trembled at the thought, and their eyes grew wide.
    Poor Thorn fainted.
    “Worms can indeed be cunning creatures,” Lady Blackpool said. “And dangerous. We must take care. They live beneath the ground, you know, and in the daytime they dig deep below and sing to each other, songs of loss and loneliness. Sometimes, you can hear them singing in their burrows. They also sing prayers of death and decay.”
    “I’ve heard them,” Bushmaster affirmed, “many times. They long for the rotting of leaves, for the death of fleshy creatures. They sing of the feasts that will come at a time when all things are laid waste.”
    That sounded ominous indeed. Lady Blackpool bent her head in thought. “Tonight,” she said at last, “Amber and Ben must begin a long journey so that they may replenish their spent powers.” Amber’s heart pounded in fear at the idea of being left alone in the wilderness with a bunch of wild worms. “But I will go with them, for tonight we must spy on this great worm and see if we can discover his plans.”
    Upon learning that Lady Blackpool would come, Amber let out a long sigh of relief.
    * * *
    And so that night, they took their journey by starlight and moon glow. With Bushmaster the vole leading the way, Ben, Amber, Lady Blackpool, and Thorn climbed high into the hills and crept beside a streambed, where they watched a river otter diving into the black water and bringing up wriggling trout to crunch in his teeth.
    A soft wind blew through the fir trees, as if the earth itself were breathing gently in its sleep.
    They listened unafraid to the piercing cries of screech owls and the distant hoots of great horned owls and the gentle bark of the fox.
    Ben relished the journey, especially the