Up In A Heaval Read Online Free PDF

he agreed or disagreed. In time I got his story.”
    “I wish I'd thought of that! I just never realized he didn't belong there. There's a lot more to this job than I thought.”
    The zombie Sludge returned. “All schlear,” it reported.
    “All clear,” Breanna repeated. “Let's go open the dungeon gate.”
    They walked down outside the castle, between the wall and the moat. There was a large door. “We closed this when there was a storm,” Breanna said. “Then never got around to opening it again. Now I feel so stupid; of course that's when we trapped Drivel inside.” She put her brown hands on a plank and pushed it up, freeing the door.
    Umlaut pulled it open. “Drivel!” he called. “It's all clear. We can leave now.”
    The serpent emerged, blinking in the bright light.
    “I'm—we—we're sorry,” Breanna said awkwardly. “I apologize to you for trapping you in there. We just didn't realize.”
    Sesame nodded. Then she glanced at Umlaut.
    “He doesn't care to swim in that moat,” Umlaut said. “No offense. He's not a zombie. Is it okay to use the bridge?”
    “Sure. Whatever you want.” Breanna got out of the way.
    Sesame slithered smoothly up the bank and to the drawbridge and on across it. Umlaut followed. “Thanks!” he called as they reached the outer bank.
    “We'll check those other letters,” Breanna said. “Come back in a day or three and we'll let you know.”
    “Okay.” Umlaut walked on, pacing Sesame's slither. But that reminded him of the letters. “Why don't we check where they came from?” he suggested. “You can smell the trail?”
    She could. She slithered to the side to parallel the moat and soon picked up the scent.
    “What it is? Human?”
    Sesame tried but was unable to convey what had delivered the letters, except that it was neither human nor serpent. There had been a number of trips, and the scent trail seemed to have existed for at least six months.
    “Why would anyone or anything deliver letters from Mundania to Castle Zombie?” Umlaut asked rhetorically.
    The serpent had no idea.
    The trail bore west through the deepest jungle. Here dragons and other dangerous creatures lurked, but Sesame smelled none of them by the trail. The trail itself was a bit sticky, as if someone had poured noxious goo on the ground to mark it. Maybe that repelled the other creatures.
    Then it crossed a small river. They had no trouble with this; they both swam across. There were leathery-backed tooth-mouthed green allegories in it, but they eyed Sesame and decided not to make an issue.
    But there was no trail on the other side. The serpent sniffed and sniffed and could not find it.
    “It must go lengthwise under the river,” Umlaut said. “It could come out anywhere. We'll have to search the whole length of it.”
    Sesame sighed. They started in, following the river upstream. It wound around, trying to distract them, but they held firm—and did not find the trail.
    “I wish we had some magic help,” Umlaut said.
    At that point a cat appeared. It was male, reddish, and reasonably plump. It approached them as if it wanted to make their acquaintance.
    Umlaut considered, then decided to question the cat in the same manner he had questioned the serpent. “Do you understand me?” he asked.
    The cat nodded.
    “Are you looking for us?”
    Another nod.
    “Do you know where the letter trail resumes?”
    Another nod.
    Well, now. Umlaut focused, questioning the cat in more detail. Suddenly he recognized it: “Sammy Cat!” he exclaimed. “The one who came with Jenny Elf, before she got married and settled down. The one who can find anything.”
    Except home, it turned out. It seemed that Sammy Cat had felt a bit out of place among the werewolves—Jenny was now a princess of werewolves—so had decided to go on his own mission. He had changed his mind but was unable to return to the werewolf island and Jenny because that was now home.
    “Maybe we can make a deal,” Umlaut suggested.