The Island of Dr. Libris Read Online Free PDF

he said nervously to the trees and bushes and the actors he figured were hiding behind them. “I know you’re back there. Here I come. It’s showtime.”

Rounding a bend, Billy came to a pair of massive wrought-iron gates set between twin columns of stacked stone.
    Each of the pillars anchored a green chain-link fence that ran through the equally green undergrowth in both directions. The security fencing looked like it encircled the entire island.
    The gates themselves were decorated with elaborate metal sculptures that were as amazing as the wood carvings on Dr. Libris’s bookcase: a fox staring up at a cluster of grapes, a rabbit chasing a turtle, a lion with a splinter in its paw.
    In the center of all the sculpted figures was a boxy black lock.
    “You there! Boy!”
    Billy nearly leapt out of his skin.
    A strong, golden-skinned man stumbled into theclearing on the far side of the locked gates. The guy looked like a star of the WWE or a bodybuilder who worked out sixteen hours a day.
    His bulging muscles glistened with sweat. Clumps of green grass stuck out of his curly black hair and beard. His headband was tilted sideways. The lion-head-and-fur cape on his back was missing a few fangs.
    Whoa
, thought Billy.
Hercules.
    “Don’t just stand there, boy!” cried the muscleman. “Help me!”
    “Um, hi,” said Billy through the bars of the gate. “You’re supposed to be Hercules, right?”
    “Yes. I am Hercules.”
    “Nice costume.”
    “Costume?” Hercules looked confused. “Foolish child. This is the hide of the Nemean lion that I cut off with a blade made of its own claws!”
    “Riiiight. Is this a theme park? ‘Fairy Tale Forest,’ maybe? Did Dr. Libris hire you to trick me and my mom?”
    “Please, mortal, do not speak in riddles. You are hurting the insides of my head.”
    “So,” said Billy, looking around, “where’s the big rocky guy?”
    “In the name of Zeus, boy—silence! Who sent you here?”
    “Poseidon.”
    “Poseidon? I do not understand.”
    “Well,” Billy explained, “Poseidon shoved me acrossthe lake with his spear, which, by the way, is an awesome effect. Is there a chain or something under the water like on a log flume ride?”
    “This is most confusing.” Hercules narrowed his eyes. “What is your name, skinny mortal?”
    “Billy.”
    “Billy? What manner of name is this?”
    “I’m like the goats that are gruff.”
    “What? More riddles?”
    “Sorry. I was making a joke. You know
—The Three Billy Goats Gruff
?”
    “By Zeus, I have never met even one of these goats you speak of.”
    “That’s because they don’t really exist. But then neither do you.”
    “What? I am Hercules! King Eurystheus tells me what labor I must do, and I go do it. He wants me to shovel horse manure for a year, I shovel it.”
    “Your king sounds like a great guy.…”
    “But I know not how to retrieve three golden apples from this garden of Hesperides.”
    Billy couldn’t believe he was actually having this conversation.
    But he was.
    “Okay, first off,” he said, “you’re in the wrong place. This is the island of Dr. Libris, not the garden of Hesper-whatever.”
    Hercules wasn’t listening. “The king wants the goldenapples,” he continued. “Antaeus wants to stop me. I throw the brute down, he gets back up. I tackle him to the ground, he grows stronger. How might I defeat one such as this?”
    “I don’t know. Bullies pick on me all the time, but I’ve never, you know, ‘defeated’ one.”
    Just then, the earth quaked. Trees quivered. Startled birds took flight.
    And a fifteen-foot-tall monster made out of rock stomped out of the forest and heaved Hercules off the ground in a bone-crushing bear hug.

Terrified, Billy grabbed the locked gate with both hands.
    He was glad he was on the side without any monsters.
    Antaeus had a blocky head, lumpy muscles, knobby knees, and a pleated leather chariot skirt. He looked like a rockier, browner version of the Incredible