“Sugar glider is marsupial like kangaroo. Female marsupial got pouch for baby. Look.”

  By the light of Thudd’s face screen, Andrew could see a little slit where a belly button would be.

  “Well, it’s sleeping,” said Judy. “We can hide from the snake and it won’t even know we’re here.”

  Eek! squeaked Thudd. “Sugar glider is snake candy! Sugar glider big enough for snake to smell, feel heat.”

  Andrew examined the opening of the hole. “I don’t know if the hole is big enough for the snake to get in,” he said.

  “But it’s sure going to try,” said Judy.

  For a moment, the only sound inside the hole was the sugar glider snoring.

  “I have an idea,” said Judy. “Andrew, go see where the snake is now.”

  Andrew peered over the edge of the hole. The snake was curling around the tree trunk. Andrew could see its thin black tongue flicking in and out of its mouth.

  “It’s coming up,” said Andrew. “But it’s moving slowly.”

  “Get into the pouch, Bug-Brain,” said Judy.

  “Huh?” said Andrew. “Snakes eat sugar gliders.”

  “Not if there aren’t any sugar gliders to eat,” said Judy. “We’ll rumble around inside her pouch. If we’re lucky, she’ll wake up, scoot out of the hole, and glide away before the snake gets here.

  “Come on,” said Judy. “And be careful not to wake her up till we’re ready.”

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “If this works, we save us and the sugar glider.”

  Andrew crept quickly to the middle of the furry sleeping body. He began wiggling his way into the pouch, feetfirst. It was like getting into bed with sheets tucked tightly under the mattress. Inside the pouch, it was hot and damp.

  The sugar glider gave a little sigh and shifted in its sleep.

  Judy had trouble getting in. She kicked Andrew in the head. She poked the sugar glider in the belly.

  The sugar glider stirred. It shook itself. It rolled onto its feet and stuck its head out of the hole in the tree trunk.

  Zih-zuh zih-zuh zih-zuh, it chattered.

  meep … “Sugar glider afraid,” Thudd said.

  The sugar glider scurried onto the branch outside the hole and stood on its hind legs.

  Sss sss sss, came a hiss. It sounded close. Ssssssss …

  A scaly yellow-and-black head rose above the branch. From the sugar glider’s pouch, Andrew looked into the snake’s black eyes. The snake’s tongue darted so close, Andrew could have touched it.

  Suddenly Andrew’s stomach seemed to jump into his mouth. The sugar glider had flung itself from the branch. The skin between its front and back legs was stretched tight like a kite. They were sailing through the jungle!

  The wind in Andrew’s face made his eyes water. He looked down through the leafy layers of jungle speeding by and got dizzy.

  The next instant, they jolted to a stop. The sugar glider had landed on the branch of a small tree. She was licking her paws like a cat.

  “Eeeuw!” shrieked Judy. “There’s something wet and rubbery in here. It’s squirming against my leg!”

  Just then, a tiny, skinny dark tail poked out of the pouch between Andrew and Judy and disappeared. Then a little pink head no bigger than a baby’s fingernail peeked out for an instant.

  “Aaack!” Judy hollered. “It’s a worm with a head!”

  “Noop! Noop! Noop!” said Thudd. “Baby sugar glider. Called joey. Joey born small as grain of rice. Joey live in pouch, drink milk from mother for lotsa weeks.”

  Judy wrinkled her nose. “Let’s get out of here,” she said.

  While the sugar glider was busy grooming herself, they snuck out of her pouch.

  It was a short climb down to the rainforest floor. The light was dim. The canopy of leaves blocked the sunlight.

  Thick roots tangled over the wet ground. As far as Andrew could see, the forest floor was covered with fallen leaves, smashed fruit, and brightly colored funguses. Now and then, a damp leaf shuddered—as though something were moving underneath.

  Andrew walked along a mossy root and sniffed the smells of the jungle floor.

  Like wet dirt, he thought. And rotten things and sweet, flowery stuff.

  The air was alive with buzzes and hisses and croaks. Judy poked Andrew’s shoulder. “You saw the river, Bug-Brain,” she said. “So which way is it?”

  Andrew looked around. Then he pointed toward a thicket of vines with leaves as big as elephant ears. “Um, the river is that way … I think.”

  SAVED BY THE SMELL

  Judy pushed her face next to Andrew’s. “You’d better be right, Bug-Brain,” she said. “Or else we’re jungle chow.”

  The deep shadows of this place gave Andrew the spooks. “Let’s get going,” he said. “We have to get to the river.”

  “And we’ve got to find the ghost mushrooms before we get there,” said Judy.

  They began their trudge across the rainforest floor.

  The jungle floor buzzed and chattered. Here and there, dead leaves twitched.

  Kakaka kakaka … came a sound from behind them.

  Andrew turned to see a slender flying insect, long as a pinkie finger, darting above a dark lump on the ground.

  Then two legs—long, thin, dark, hairy legs—shot up from the lump. The lump was a fat, hairy spider. Its legs clawed the air, reaching for the insect. From leg to leg, the spider was the size of a dinner plate.

  Andrew froze. “That spider looks as big as Godzilla!” he whispered.

  meep … “Tarantula,” said Thudd. “Called bird-eating spider! Eat lizards, snakes, frogs, birds!”

  Kakaka kakaka kakaka …

  “It’s making weird sounds,” said Judy.

  meep … “Called barking spider, too,” said Thudd.

  “Spider in big fight with giant wasp called tarantula hawk. Cuz female wasp hunt tarantulas.

  “If wasp sting spider, spider not able to move. Then wasp lay egg inside spider. When egg hatch, baby wasp eat spider alive.”

  “Yuck!” said Judy. “That is soooo disgusting!”

  meep … “In lotsa places, people eat tarantulas. Taste like crab meat!”

  “Neato mosquito!” said Andrew.

  “Aaaaack!” Judy gagged.

  With one of its front legs, the spider was scraping hairs off the front of its body. Then it flung them at the wasp!

  “Duck! Duck! Duck!” squeaked Thudd. “Tarantula hair got lotsa poison!”

  The fierce battle was scuffling closer to Andrew and Judy.

  “Let’s get out of here!” gasped Judy.

  meep … “Hide behind gympie-gympie tree!” said Thudd.

  He pointed to a small, pretty tree with heart-shaped leaves the size of pizzas.

  “But no touch! Gympie-gympie tree got hairs on leaves, hairs on trunk. Every hair is tiny glass needle filled with strong poison.

  “If animal touch gympie-gympie tree, hairs dig into skin. Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! Even spider not touch gympie-gympie tree.”

  Andrew and Judy scurried behind the gympie-gympie tree. They watched as the tarantula and the wasp charged each other. At last, the tarantula scuttled under a thorny bush. The wasp flew off.

  “Let’s go,” said Andrew.

  Careful to stay away from its horrible hairs, Andrew and Judy crept away from the gympie-gympie tree. They continued their trek over the wet, slippery leaves.

  The light was getting dimmer. They strained to see the glow of ghost mushrooms on the shadowy forest floor.

  Suddenly Andrew felt something grab his ankles.

  “Erf!” he cried.

  The next instant, he was upside down!

  Eek! squeaked Thudd, clinging to the edge of Andrew’s pocket.

  “Aaaack!” hollered Judy.

  They were upside down and speeding away!

  They were heading for a long black snout attached to a small head with beady black eyes! The animal’s body was completely covered with long, sharp brown quills.

  “Yowzers!” cried Andrew.

  “Noooooo!” cried Judy.

  “Echidna!” squeaked Thudd. “Spiny ant-eater! Nose feel electric signals from living things. From ants, from bugs, from Drewd and Oody!”

  Just as they reached the dark tunnel of the echidna’s mouth, the tongue stopped reeling them in.

  Snoof snoof, sniffed the echidna.

  Judy shuddered. “We’re going to be eaten by a pincushion with a head,” she moaned.

  Then, as fast as the echidna’s tongue had reeled them in, it spun them out and shook them off.

  Judy and Andrew landed in a brown slimy puddle. The echidna turned and waddled away.

  “Cheese Louise!” shouted Judy. “We got lucky!”

  “I wonder why it didn’t eat us,” said Andrew.

  meep … “Drewd and Oody still smell like peppermint,” said Thudd. “Maybe echidna not like peppermint.”

  Andrew and Judy wiped the slime off as best they could and trudged on.

  As the day grew late, the colors of the rain forest faded to black and gray. The screeches and screams died away. Now the jungle chirped and chittered and whistled. The air felt like a cool velvet blanket against Andrew’s skin.

  Andrew stopped and sniffed the air. “I smell something fishy,” he said. “We’re getting close to the river.”

  Judy peered into the shadows. “I see lights!” she said.

  THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS GETTING SMALLER …

  meep … “Ghost mushrooms!” squeaked Thudd.

  “I never thought I’d be so happy to see a fungus,” said Judy.

  They picked their way through the darkness toward the little lights.

  The ghost mushrooms surrounded a huge tree trunk like a necklace. The cap at the top of each mushroom looked like a glowing, pale green parachute.

  Judy stood under one of the mushrooms. “We’re too small to break off chunks of these mushrooms,” she said.

  meep … “Cap of mushroom got lotsa thin, thin sheets underneath,” said Thudd. “Sheets called gills. Gills got tiny spores. Spores make baby mushrooms.

  “Gotta climb up stem of mushroom, pull off gills.”

  Andrew and Judy shinnied up a mushroom stem. The gills were as thin as tissue paper. They were almost as close together as the pages of a book.

  Andrew and Judy ripped off bits of the soft, spongy gills and tossed them to the ground. Tiny round spores rained down like twinkling fairy powder.

  Before long, a circle of glowing shreds surrounded the mushroom.

  “Okey-dokey!” said Thudd. “Got enough pieces now.”

  Andrew and Judy climbed down the stem and gathered up the bits of mushroom in their arms. The mushroom heaps were bright enough to light their path.

  Andrew spied a streak of moonlight on water. “The river!” he shouted.

  meep … “Careful, Drewd!” squeaked Thudd. “Lotsa strange stuff near river. Fish-catching spiders! Toad that spray deadly poison!”

  “Thanks, Thudd,” said Judy.

  At the riverbank, their feet sank in the squishy mud up to their ankles. They plodded along until they found a little pool of water at the edge of the river.

  Andrew placed his pile of mushroom gills on a pebble. From a pants pocket, he pulled a small paper-wrapped square. The wrapper was printed with the word UMBUBBLE.

  Andrew pulled off the paper, popped the blue square into his mouth, and chewed.

  He blew a bubble as big as his head. Andrew kept blowing until the Umbubble was bigger than he was, till it was as big as a Ping-Pong ball.

  “Whew!” Andrew sighed. He rolled the Umbubble onto a leaf.

  “We’ll stick the mushroom pieces on the inside so Uncle Al can see us,” said Andrew.

  Then Andrew rolled the Umbubble to the edge of the water. He found the small hole in the Umbubble where he had blown air into it. He shoved his head through the hole, then his shoulders, then the rest of him.

  “Hand me all the mushroom pieces, Judy,” he said. “And come on in.”

  Judy heaped the shreds in her arms and shoved them through the hole. Then she pushed herself inside the Umbubble.

  “Stick the pieces on quickly,” said Andrew, “before the Umbubble dries and gets hard.”

  Andrew and Judy worked fast to cover the inside of the Umbubble with the glowing fragments.

  When they were done, Andrew sealed the Umbubble by pulling the edges of the hole together. “It’ll be ready in a few seconds,” said Andrew.

  Judy tapped the Umbubble. “Feels like plastic,” she said.

  “Now we get the Umbubble into the water,” said Andrew. “Just walk inside it like a gerbil in a wheel.”

  They walked, and the glowing Umbubble rolled into the little pool.

  Moonlit ripples of water pulled them away from the dark shapes on the shore. Soon the river current picked them up and raced them away.

  All of a sudden, the Umbubble came to a stop.

  “We must be caught on something,” said Andrew.

  He peered through a space between the mushroom pieces. The Umbubble had washed up against something—something big.

  “Looks like a log,” said Andrew. He squinted. “A log with eyes!”

  meep … “Platypus!” said Thudd.

  “A platypus!” said Andrew. “I’ve always wanted to see a platypus. But I always thought I’d be bigger than the platypus when I saw it.”

  “Platypus!” said Judy, trying to get a good view. “The bizarre-o mammal that has a beak like a duck and lays eggs.”

  meep … “Got beaver tail and webbed feet,” said Thudd. “Platypus beak feel electricity from animal muscles. Find prey same way as echidna.”

  “And we’re right next to its beak,” said Judy.

  The Umbubble rolled over a wave. On the other side of it was a flying-saucer shape.

  “What’s that lump in the water?” asked Judy. “It’s headed right at us.”

  Eek! squeaked Thudd. “Numbfish! Numbfish make electricity. Make big shock to catch prey!”

  Suddenly Andrew’s stomach lurched as the Umbubble flew up, spun around, and plopped back into the water.

  A powerful tingle began in Andrew’s toes. It jangled up to his head like lightning and pounded his skull like a hammer.

  Black-and-white spirals twirled in front of his eyes. Then everything went completely dark.

  Andrew was having a dream about octopuses battling platypuses when he heard a little voice.

  meep … “Wake up, Drewd,” squeaked Thudd.

  Andrew rubbed his eyes. “Huh? Wha?” he mumbled sleepily.

  meep … “Umbubble get shock from numbfish,” said Thudd. “Drewd been sleeping long time.”

  Andrew’s head wasn’t pounding anymore and the spirals were gone, but he felt a little dizzy.

  Why does the top of the Umbubble look so far away? And why is it getting farther away? thought Andrew.

  Ga-nufff … ga-nufff … gnewww …

  Andrew looked over at Judy. She was snoring—and she was tiny, tinier than before. And she was getting tinier every second.

  Holy moly! thought Andrew. It must be the electricity. The electricity from the numbfish is shrinking us smaller!

  meep … “Look, Drewd!” squeaked Thudd. “Lights of village!”

  Indeed, as Andrew peered through the Umbubble, he saw lights on the bank of the river. He saw the dark outline of a boat—and the familiar shape of Uncle Al!

  The Umbubble whammed against something and stopped suddenly. The jolt sent Andrew and Judy flying through the Umbubble. Andrew landed against Judy.

  “Super-duper pooper-scooper!” said Andrew. “We’re caught in Uncle Al’s net!

  “Wake up, Judy! Uncle Al’s here! We’re getting rescued!”

  But Judy just rolled over and kept on snoring—and getting smaller.

  The boat was almost on top of the Um-bubble now.

  The next moment, the Umbubble swooped into the air. Between the mushroom pieces, Andrew saw Uncle Al’s giant fingers.

  Something tapped the Umbubble.

  Ping!

  It cracked. Andrew, Judy, and Thudd fell onto Uncle Al’s palm and bounced onto his wrist.

  Uncle Al beamed a flashlight on his open hand. His smiling face glowed like a full moon.

  “Super-duper pooper scooper!” cheered Andrew. “We’re safe!”

  TO BE CONTINUED IN ANDREW, JUDY, AND THUDD’S

  NEXT EXCITING ADVENTURE:

  ANDREW LOST

  IN UNCLE AL

  In stores July 2007

  TRUE STUFF

  Thudd wanted to tell you more about carnivorous plants and platypuses, but he was busy keeping Andrew and Judy from being gulped by a python and stung by a gympie-gympie tree. Here’s what he wanted to say:

  Most plants use their roots to take up all the food they need from the soil. But rain-forest soil doesn’t have much food. That’s why some rain-forest plants catch insects and some other small animals—they need the extra nutrition.

  Rhinoceros beetles might be the strongest animals on earth. One rhinoceros beetle could carry 800 other rhinoceros beetles on its back! A human who was as strong as a rhinoceros beetle could carry seventy cars!

  Australia has ten thousand kinds of spiders, more than any other place in the world. And new kinds are being discovered all the time. Australia also takes the prize for spiders with the strongest venom.

  There are different kinds of rain forests. Rain forests in warm areas near the equator are called tropical rain forests or jungles. These are what we think of when we hear the words rain forest.

  There are a few rain forests in cooler areas, too. These are called temperate rain forests.

  The plants and animals in the two kinds of rain forests are quite different. In tropical rain forests, trees usually have large, broad leaves to capture as much sunlight as they can. In temperate rain forests, most of the trees have needles like pine trees. There are more different kinds of plants and animals in tropical rain forests.

  But all rain forests get lots of rain—at least a hundred inches of rain each year. (A six-foot-tall person is seventy-two inches high.) Some rain forests get 400 inches of rain in a year!

 

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