Traps and Specters (12 page)

N
oah and Richie stepped into Little Dogs of the Secret Prairie and were met with a blast of hot air and blinding light. A dusty grassland reached out in all directions, patches of tall grass and cacti rising from the landscape. The hard ground was pitted with countless holes that hundreds of prairie dogs dove in and out of. Far across the sector, a colorful light blinked on and off—the entrance into the City of Species. About fifty yards from the cave, the Descenders chased the prairie dog with the flag. The teenagers hadn't geared up, which meant the scouts still had a chance.

“There they are!” Noah called out. “Let's go!”

The two boys raced forward, their feet sweeping up clouds of dirt. Far ahead, the prairie dog with the flag dove into the ground. The Descenders came to a sudden stop, and Tameron dropped to his knees and shoved his arm into the hole, all the way up to his shoulder. When he pulled out his empty hand, the Descenders began to walk in circles, scanning other holes.

The scouts leaped over prairie dogs like miniature hurdles and quickly caught up to the four teenagers.

To Noah, Sam said, “There's no way you can win this. You know that, right?”

Noah shrugged. “We'll see.”

Prairie dogs were racing around in zigzags, diving in and out of the holes. None carried the flag. Noah considered the sweeping web of tunnels beneath them and realized the flag could be anywhere across the prairie by now.

Sam suddenly took off running. He smacked his wrists against his hips and raised his arms out to his sides, opening zippers across his jacket. Feathers spilled out from their leathery confines and fell neatly into place across his back. At the same time, thin telescopic rods shot out from the ends of his sleeves, spreading more feathers. In only a few seconds, his wings were complete, and the Descender jumped into flight. Twenty feet above, he hunted for the flag, his flapping wings stirring up dust.

Taking Sam's lead, Hannah tugged the pull-loops on her boots, and her thick soles swelled to five times their original size. She sprang forward, crossing twenty feet to where a prairie dog had just poked its head up from a hole. She landed, a cloud of dirt swirling up around her legs, and plucked the prairie dog out of its hole. She checked for the flag, saw it wasn't there, and dropped the animal. Then she lunged to another distant spot and scanned the holes.

“Real fair …” Richie said.

Tameron, standing nearby, heard this. “Kid … fare is for the bus.”

Noah stared overhead as Sam flew by. Coasting on wide wings, the Descender looked like something out of a fairy tale. His long silver feathers fluttered as he flapped his arms a single time, creating a gust of wind that raised dust and scattered prairie dogs.

“Noah!”

Noah turned to see Richie on his knees, his arm buried to his shoulder in a hole. His big glasses lay in the dirt. “A little help over here?”

Noah rushed over. “What are you doing?”

“My arm!” He kept his scream to a whisper. “A prairie dog popped up with the flag! I tried to grab it and
this
happened!” He pulled back to show how his arm wouldn't budge.

Noah squatted down. “What do you want me to do? Pull?”

“I sure don't want you to
push
!”

Noah eased in behind Richie and wrapped his arms around his waist. “I'll pull on the count of three,” Noah said. “You push. Got it?”

Richie nodded.

“One …”

Noah braced himself, planting one foot.

“Two …”

He tightened his grip.

“Three!”

He squeezed and pulled, and Richie's arm popped out like the cork from a champagne bottle. The boys shot backward and fell into a heap, their arms and legs entwined. A few prairie dogs crept up and sniffed Noah's cheek and Richie's rear end.

The ground around Noah suddenly shook. He tipped his head back to see a pair of purple leather boots—platform boots with huge, ten-inch soles. Hannah. From his position on the ground, Hannah's bright red bangs seemed to be cascading down her face. She smirked and said, “That's certainly the first time a Crosser's been outwitted by a prairie dog.”

Before Noah could respond, something exploded from the ground about thirty feet to his left. What looked like a cloud, Noah realized, were butterflies, thousands of them. Different sizes and patterns, they flew in erratic paths, weaving through one another as they streamed from a three-feet-wide hole in the ground, their wings snapping color across the blue canvas of the sky.

“No way …” Richie marveled.

More and more butterflies filled the air. Prairie dogs scattered and flashed their round rear ends as they dove into holes. As Sam flew over the butterflies, his wings drew them across his body and the Descender seemed to burst with reds and blues and yellows.

“What are they doing?” Richie asked.

Hannah stood with her hands on her hips, perfectly calm. “It's a handoff.”

“Huh?”

Before Hannah could answer, a prairie dog jumped out of the ground with the flag in his mouth. He took a few steps toward the hole with the butterflies and dropped the flimsy flag inside it. The butterflies immediately reversed direction and disappeared back into the hole. Within seconds they were gone, and so was the flag.

Sam touched down and folded his wings across his back. To his friends, he said, “Let's go!” and fell feetfirst into the butterfly's hole. Tameron and Solana chased after him. Hannah lifted her eyebrows at the scouts and allowed a big bubble to burst against her face. With the quick lap of her tongue, she wiped away the residue, then dove more than twenty feet through the air and disappeared headfirst into the hole, leaving the scouts alone with the prairie dogs.

“Wow,” Richie said after a few seconds. He picked up his glasses and planted them squarely on his face. “That kind of stuff—you know, the earth exploding with butterflies—it never really stops impressing me.”

Noah said, “You know where that tunnel goes, right?”

“My guess is the Secret Butterfly Nets.”

Noah nodded. They ran to the hole and stared into it. A wave of fear crossed over Noah. The scouts had never been to the sector attached to the butterfly house in the Clarksville Zoo. For them, this was uncharted ground.

“What do we do?” Richie asked.

“Exactly what the Descenders did. We jump in.”

“And what if we go
splat
on the other side?”

“We won't.”

“How do you know?”

“Think about it, Richie. Butterfly
Nets
.”

Richie's jaw fell as he realized what Noah was getting at.

Marlo suddenly touched down on Noah's shoulder.

“You're just in time,” Noah said to the kingfisher. “Tell Ella and Megan there's been a change of plans—we're headed to the Secret Butterfly Nets!”

Marlo glanced into the big hole, chirped once, then flew into the air.

Noah turned to Richie and said, “C'mon—we got a flag to catch.”

One at a time, they jumped feetfirst into the hole, leaving Little Dogs of the Secret Prairie behind.

CHAPTER 17

C
rossing the Secret Kangaroo Kampground was no problem for Ella and Megan. They'd trained in here dozens of times and knew the best way across it. Over a forested campground sat hundreds of tents with velvet flaps for entrance doors. Used to test the magic for gateways throughout the Secret Zoo, the tents portaled to one another. The quickest path across the sector involved using the best combination of portals. Ella and Megan magically made their way across in a matter of minutes.

As the girls stepped through the magical divide into the City of Species, they immediately spotted Blizzard. The coal-black tip of his long snout twitched and wriggled as he pulled the familiar scents of Ella and Megan out of the air. He lowered his rump and the girls climbed on, Ella in the forward spot.

Ella said, “Take us to Little Dogs of the Secret Prairie!”

The polar bear softly growled and headed off down the street. But he only got a few feet before Marlo swooped down from the treetops and landed on his snout, chirping wildly. Blizzard stopped and paid attention. Then the kingfisher jumped into a new direction in the air and the big bear followed.

“What's going on?” Ella asked. “Why are we turning?”

“Looks like there's been a change of plans,” Megan answered.

“I hope these guys know what they're doing.”

As usual, the City of Species teemed with commotion and excitement. Animals strolled down colorful sidewalks and skipped across branches. Children rode lions and giraffes, and adults, dressed in thin green jackets, marched with clipboards and briefcases.

Blizzard chased Marlo down a wide, dark alley. The polar bear splashed through a shallow river full of fish and turned onto a new street, frightening off a group of skittish emus. He soon stopped at a glass building with ten sides—a decagon. Rising more than a dozen stories into the treetops, its clear panels were framed with steel. A wide banner read “Sector 77—The Secret Butterfly Nets.” Inside, an unimaginable number of butterflies were sweeping across the glass, flashing their vibrant hues.

“That's what a tornado trapped in a crayon factory would look like,” Ella pointed out.

Marlo dipped down and landed on Blizzard's head, appearing like a blue bow in his white fur.

The girls turned their stares to the thin strips of velvet hanging at the building's entrance only a few feet away. There was no sign of the flag, the scouts, or the Descenders.

CHAPTER 18