SHOUTING!

  Dust settled and there was complete silence. Just debris and destruction.

  Florence was scrunched over, using her body to protect her friends.

  Her back had taken the brunt of the fallen rubble. Her dress was in tatters, her glasses were broken, and her fur was tangled.

  ‘YOU ALL OKAY?’ she croaked.

  Amelia, who had held Squashy safely beneath her, looked up to see Florence grimacing. Her eyes were closed tight. ‘I FINK IT’S SAFE NOW . . .’ she said, straightening up slowly. She paused. ‘OH . . .’

  ‘Florence!’ cried Amelia, crawling out from underneath her. ‘Are you hurt?’

  Florence finished straightening up, then raised her eyebrows.

  ‘ME BACK’S FINE,’ she finally said. ‘BUT I FINK IT’S SAFE TO SAY ME KNICKERS ARE ON SHOW . . .’

  She turned around and, sure enough, her dress had been completely shredded, revealing her patterned knickers.

  ‘GOOD JOB I WORE ME BEST PAIR, EH?!’ said Florence with a grin.

  Amelia wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. So, she did both.

  She and Grimaldi hugged Florence tightly.

  ‘You saved us!’ Amelia choked through a sob. ‘Thank you!’ Squashy nuzzled into Amelia’s chest and squeaked twice.

  ‘Okay, we’d better hurry and find Tangine before the whole mountain collapses once and for all!’ said Amelia urgently.

  ‘Um, guys,’ said Grimaldi. He was staring up above them, looking very concerned. ‘Look! ’

  The friends looked up and could see the glow of the moon miles above their heads. The core of the mountain had completely collapsed, creating one huge crater – and the friends were at the very bottom.

  But the strangest thing of all was the magical light which glowed out from the insides of the newly exposed mountain walls.

  It was now clear where Grimaldi had been stuck. Hundreds of tiny tunnels wove around each other like chaotic spider webs, and they sparkled fiercely, shining a glittery light on the friends’ upturned faces.

  ‘Wow,’ said Amelia. ‘It’s like a tiny yeti has been burrowing inside the walls of the pits!’

  ‘And it also looks as though they’ve been using Tangine’s glitter polish!’ said Grimaldi, squinting at the glimmering trails.

  The thought of Tangine’s glitter polish made Amelia’s heart swell. ‘Oh, Tangine,’ she sighed. ‘I really hope he’s okay.’

  Amelia looked at the treasure map, which was almost in complete tatters. She just hoped that there was still enough of it to lead them to Tangine and the missing yeti treasures. Squashy kept sniffing at the map and making strange noises.

  ‘Squashy!’ said Amelia, gently placing him on the debris. ‘I need to see where the X is so you’ll have to stop sniffing around it for a moment.’

  Then Amelia gasped. ‘Wait a minute . . . it looks like the X is right underneath us,’ she said.

  ‘WELL THAT CAN’T BE RIGHT. THERE’S NUFFIN’ UNDERNEATH THE RUBBISH PIT,’ said Florence. ‘WE’RE AS FAR DOWN AS THE PITS GO.’

  She took the map from Amelia and grunted. ‘HMMM, YOU ARE RIGHT THOUGH . . . I’M BAFFLED.’

  ‘We’ll never find Tangine now!’ said Amelia, feeling hopeless. ‘All the X leads us to is a big pile of rubbish – with a mountain full of rubble on top!’

  ‘And to make matters worse, I can’t see any way out of here,’ said Grimaldi, holding his glowing scythe up to get a good look around. ‘The tunnels are far too small for Florence to climb through and all the original big yeti ones have collapsed!’

  Suddenly, with a triumphant squeak, Squashy pa-doinged through a gap in the rubble into the rubbish below and completely disappeared.

  ‘Squashy!’ yelled Amelia. ‘Hey! Come back! What are you doing?!’ She reached into the rubble where Squashy had disappeared, but instead of finding the little pumpkin, her hands went straight through a very mouldy brain-pie.

  Ignoring the ripe smell of long-forgotten food waste, Amelia rummaged around, flinging half-eaten scab-cakes, dregs of wilted spinach and the odd limb; a big toe narrowly missed hitting Florence in the face.

  ‘HEY, HEY, CALM DOWN,’ Florence said, placing a paw on Amelia’s shoulder.

  ‘We’ve already lost Tangine. I’m not losing Squashy too!’ cried Amelia in a panic.

  ‘I’LL GO GET SQUASHY . . .’ said Florence. ‘WHAT DO YETIS DO BEST?’ She flexed her bicep. ‘WE DIG. LOOK OUT!’

  Like some kind of super-yeti, Florence threw aside great mounds of rubble until she reached the rubbish pit below. She then ploughed down with great speed through the smelly mulch until she revealed a grubby Squashy at the very bottom.

  He looked up at Florence, Amelia and Grimaldi and waggled his stalk from side to side.

  ‘Is that . . . a trap door?!’ said Grimaldi, pointing towards where Squashy was sitting.

  ‘I FINK IT IS!’ said Florence. ‘GOOD WORK, SQUASHMEISTER!’

  Amelia clambered down to the little pumpkin and hugged him tight. ‘Oh, Squashy, I’m so relieved you’re okay!’ She looked at the trap door. ‘Do you think this is where Tangine and the treasures could be?’

  ‘THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT!’ said Florence.

  She grabbed the big round handle on the trap door and pulled, but it didn’t budge.

  ‘IT’S STUCK!’ she said, before yanking at the handle again.

  Florence clenched her paws, drew back and punched the trap door with all her might. But it still didn’t open.

  ‘BURSTING BLISTERS!’ Florence yelled, rubbing her sore knuckles. ‘NEVVA IN MY LIFE ’AVE I NOT BEEN ABLE TO SMASH DOWN SUMFIN’ WHEN I’VE NEEDED TO.’ She frowned, raising a furry fist again. ‘I REFUSE TO BE OUTDONE BY A DOOR!’

  ‘Wait!’ said Amelia suddenly. ‘If it did originally lead to an ancient glittery stash, I can’t imagine the door would just open easily. Maybe we need a password or something?’

  ‘HMMM, YOU COULD BE RIGHT,’ said Florence. ‘BUT HOW ARE WE GONNA GUESS WHAT THE PASSWORD IS?’

  ‘Oooh, maybe it’s something yeti-related?’ Amelia suggested.

  ‘Prance!’ said Grimaldi loudly. ‘Fluff !’ He looked excited. ‘Hugs!’

  Florence pulled on the door, but it didn’t open. ‘IT’S NOT WORKING,’ she said.

  ‘Shouting! ’ said Grimaldi.

  ‘OI,’ Florence replied.

  Amelia stared intently at the door.

  ‘STARING AT IT WON’T WORK EITHER,’ said Florence after a few minutes of silence. ‘IT’S NO GOOD. WE’VE LOST TANGINE, THE PITS ARE GONNA COLLAPSE AND I’LL ’AVE TO MOVE AWAY. THAT’S IF WE’RE NOT SQUISHED BY THE MOUNTAIN FIRST.’

  She slumped down, plonking her big, furry bottom on to the trap door.

  CLUNK!

  The trap door opened right up, and Florence disappeared through it bum-first.

  CHAPTER 15

  THEY’VE SQUIDGED OUT SOME OF MY HANDSOME

  ‘FLORENCE!’ yelled Amelia and Grimaldi in unison. ‘Are you okay?!’

  ‘ALL GOOD!’ Florence’s voice echoed. ‘I FINK A BUM-BUMP WAS THE KEY! CAN’T BELIEVE I DIDN’T FINK OF THAT!’

  Squashy squeaked and pa-doinged straight through the trap door. Amelia and Grimaldi followed, landing with a PLONK.

  Amelia looked round. They seemed to be in a secret pit. A pit that was covered in shelves and dark green bottles. Underneath their bottoms, they were perched on top of a big and uncomfortable glittery pile.

  ‘Wait a minute.’ Grimaldi shone his scythe over the pile and Amelia gasped. It was all of the yetis’ missing treasures! With quite a few bites taken out here and there. Amelia recognised Derek’s bubble flute, Jane’s flamingo-dragon knickers and Clemence’s Glitteropolis Garnet necklace, amongst many other missing things from the pits.

  And best of all, there in the middle of the secret pit was a very dishevelled looking . . .

  ‘TANGINE!’ Amelia, Florence and Grimaldi all cried out.

  ‘Finally!’ cried Tangine, clambering towards his friends through shimmering objects.

  He was covered in dirt, his hair looked as though he’d been electrocuted, and he was missing a shoe.

  ‘I ’AVE NEVER BEEN SO ’APPY TO SMELL UNICORN FART AND MAGNIFICENCE!’ said Florence, scooping Tangine up into a big hug.

  ‘Speaking of SMELLING, you guys smell horrendous. Where have you been ?!’ asked Tangine.

  ‘In the rubbish pit,’ said Grimaldi. ‘That’s after I was stuck in a tiny tunnel in the wall.’

  ‘I’m not even going to ask what you were doing in the bin,’ said Tangine, turning his nose up at Grimaldi.

  Then he raised his eyebrows. ‘Did you say you were in a tiny tunnel in the wall?’

  ‘Yup,’ said Grimaldi. ‘I think I found half your shoe in there too.’

  ‘Forget the shoe. It’s a wonder I didn’t lose half a limb! I’ve been dragged and squidged and squeezed through that tunnel more than once you know,’ said Tangine, folding his arms. ‘I was stuck in that same tunnel when you couldn’t find me, Amelia. It leads back to the hole in the wall under my bed! But I’ve since realised WHAT made that tunnel . . .’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Amelia asked, looking concerned. ‘Who did it, Tangine? Who keeps trying to kidnap you? Is it the same creature who took all the yetis’ glittery treasures?!’

  ‘You need to see it to believe it,’ said Tangine, waggling his eyebrows. He pointed upwards.

  Amelia looked up and gasped. One by one, pairs of tiny green eyes appeared and multiplied in the dark cracks and crevices of the pit. Squashy began squeaking and trying to bounce up the walls.

  ‘Come out and show yourselves, you little pests!’ Tangine called out.

  Slowly, one by one, out rolled lots and lots of fluffy white balls with wide toothy mouths and bright glowing eyes.

  One of the strange creatures rolled all the way down into the stash of glittery items and began frantically licking at a pair of glasses. Another rolled on to Tangine’s head and began nibbling at his hair.

  ‘THESE are your culprits,’ Tangine said, rolling his eyes.

  Squashy was VERY excited and began bouncing around squeaking at every one of the strange creatures.

  ‘What the bats . . .?’ Amelia breathed.

  ‘ARE THEY . . .?’ Florence began.

  Grimaldi cautiously approached one of the creatures to get a closer look. ‘They look like . . .  fluffy pumpkins.’

  ‘Whatever they are, they’re incredibly annoying!’ said Tangine. ‘When we all went back to our pits after the meeting, a load of them popped out from under my bed. When they saw me, they went positively loopy. They started licking my wings and it tickled so much that I fell over, and they carried me right off through the hole in the wall under my bed all the way to THIS PLACE!’ He spread his arms out. ‘I’m pretty sure they’ve squidged out some of my handsome, dragging me through the tiny tunnel.’ Tangine patted his face. ‘I FEEL less handsome. Do I look less handsome to you?’

  ‘IT’S ’ARD TO TELL IN THIS LIGHT,’ Florence replied.

  Tangine scowled and shooed one of the strange pumpkins away. ‘Awful little things,’ he muttered grumpily.

  ‘PUMPKINS!’ said Amelia, pacing back and forth. Her mind was whirring. ‘It’s all making sense now!’

  ‘I’M GLAD IT DOES TO YOU, COZ IT MAKES NO SENSE TO ME,’ said Florence.

  ‘Did you listen to ANYTHING I just said?’ moaned Tangine. ‘My wellbeing is AT RISK right now. I could really do with some of my EveryKing Sparkles polish. My cheeks are horrendously dry, and it doesn’t help when these ridiculous little pests keep licking and nibbling at me!’

  ‘That’s IT!’ said Amelia, picking up one of the fluffy pumpkins.

  She opened its mouth gently and noticed that it was FULL of glitter. She leaned in a little closer, and got a whiff of the fluffy pumpkin’s breath.

  ‘Unicorn fart and magnificence . . . ’ muttered Amelia. She placed the creature down carefully.

  ‘Tangine, I think you’ll find that these wild pumpkins are responsible for eating your EveryKing Sparkles polish. And then, soon after your glitter polish went missing, everyone’s glittery items began to disappear. Think about it . . .’ Amelia continued. ‘They must have got a taste for glitter and become addicted.’

  Tangine gasped. ‘And they must have been the ones trashing my room trying to find more!’

  ‘MY QUESTION IS, WHERE ’AVE ALL THE FLUFFY PUMPKINS COME FROM IN THE FIRST PLACE?’ said Florence.

  Amelia felt like she was going to explode as all the puzzle pieces fell into place. ‘I think I know EXACTLY where they’ve come from! And your Grand-yeti Clemence plays a part in all of this!’

  ‘REALLY?’ said Florence, looking even more confused.

  ‘Grand-yeti Clemence told me all about the pumpkin seeds she’d planted a few months ago,’ said Amelia slowly.

  ‘ERR, YEAH,’ said Florence. ‘BUT NUFFIN’ GREW.’

  ‘Nothing grew that she could SEE,’ said Amelia. ‘When it’s too cold, like it is here in the yeti mountains, pumpkins burrow down for warmth.’

  ‘HEY! IT’S NOT TOO COLD HERE!’ said Florence, miffed.

  ‘Not if you’re covered in thick furry hair, Florence,’ Grimaldi said with a grin.

  ‘Exactly, Grimaldi!’ Amelia exclaimed. ‘Look . . .’ She rubbed at the pumpkin’s soft furry belly, making it purr. ‘They have thick white fur to keep warm – just like a yeti! And not only that; they have huge teeth for burrowing and glowing green eyes to see in the dark. It all makes perfect sense.’

  ‘BURROWING!’ said Florence suddenly. ‘THE FLUFFY PUMPKIN FINGS HAVE BEEN BURROWING. THAT’S WHAT CAUSED ALL THE TINY GLITTERY TUNNELS IN THE WALLS!’

  ‘I think they’ve been using the hole under my bed as their way in and out of the walls,’ said Tangine.

  ‘I guess that also explains why Florence’s dad found Margot’s tiara in your pit,’ said Amelia. ‘One of the fluffy pumpkins must have dropped it on their travels.’

  ‘Oh man, I bet everyone thought I was the thief !’ said Tangine, putting his head in his hands.

  ‘DON’T WORRY, THEY’LL FINK DIFFERENTLY WHEN THEY SEE THESE WEIRD LITTLE GUYS . . .’ said Florence.

  ‘We never doubted you,’ said Amelia with a smile.

  ‘Thanks Amelia,’ said Tangine.

  ‘We thought something was strange after I found an old treasure map behind a picture frame in your room,’ said Amelia. ‘But it doesn’t look like there was ever any real treasure in here. Before the wild pumpkins brought in the yetis’ glittery things, of course.’

  ‘So why would someone hide an old map leading to this place?’ said Grimaldi. ‘There’s just a load of bottles – not one bit of treasure to be seen.’

  ‘OH, I DUNNO ABOUT THAT,’ said Florence, looking closely at the shelves on the pit walls. ‘I FINK THE “TREASURE” IS ALL AROUND US . . .’

  CHAPTER 16

  A VERY WEIRD AND STICKY SITUATION

  The pit was filled with bottle upon bottle of bright green, bubbling liquid. Florence pointed at the label on one of the bottles. It read:

  TERRENCE SPUDWICK’S VINTAGE

  SUPER-BELCH

  ‘Wait a minute,’ said Amelia. ‘Didn’t your Grand-yeti Clemence say Terrence was her dad?! We were drinking some of his super-belch at the party!’

  ‘I thought Clemence said the few bottles she had were all that was left?’ said Grimaldi.

  ‘CLEARLY NOT!’ said Florence, studying the old map, then looking at the bottles. ‘THIS . . .’ she prodded the map – ‘MUST BE GREAT GREAT GRAND-YETI TERRENCE’S MAP! ’E MUST’VE DUG A SECRET PIT TO STASH ’IS VINTAGE SUPER-BELCH, THEN MADE THIS MAP SO ’E’D REMEMBER WHERE IT WAS!’

  ‘The pit I was staying in was Terrence’s old room, so that would make sense!’ Tangine added.

  ‘I bet your Grand-yeti Clemence will be VERY glad to know there’s more of this stuff !’ Amelia giggled, picking up one of the bottles of super-belch.

  ‘That’s if we ever get see Clemence again!’ said Grimaldi. ‘We’re kind of stuck down here at the moment.’

  ‘GRIMALDI’S NOT OVER-WORRYING FOR ONCE,’ said Florence. ‘WE ARE KINDA STUCK. WITH ’UNDREDS OF BOTTLES OF BELCH AND A LOAD OF WILD PUMPKINS. A VERY WEIRD AND STICKY SITUATION INDEED.’

  ‘Well, we need to find a way to get ourselves AND the wild pumpkins out of here safely,’ said Amelia.

  ‘But there’s no way out!’ said Grimaldi, hugging his scythe. ‘There’s no yetivator, no stairs, not even a slide we can crawl back up . . . because EVERYTHING is a pile of rubble! There’s just one HUGE hole in the middle of the mountain which is WAY too high for even me to float through!’

  ‘And my delicate fairy wings can’t fly that high in this cold climate,’ said Tangine sadly. ‘Wait a minute, Grimaldi . . . you said float !’

  ‘’E JUST SAID ’E CAN’T FLOAT, TANGINE,’ said Florence. ‘NOW SHUSH. WE’RE TRYING TO FINK OF A PLAN TO GET US OUT.’

  ‘No, I mean, the vintage super-belch will help us float!’ said Tangine, picking up a bottle and opening the lid. He guzzled down a few mouthfuls and began to rise up from the ground. ‘THIS, my friends, is our way out.’

  Florence let out a joyous fart. ‘OH, MY GLOBULE! TANGINE, YOU GENIUS!’

  ‘This stuff is SUPER strong, right?!’ Tangine continued. ‘So, if we drank the WHOLE lot, that should give us enough float to get—’

  ‘ALL the way to the top of the mountain! ’ Amelia finished in excitement.

  ‘Exactly!’ said Tangine. He kicked out a foot a bit too enthusiastically and got a toe stuck in Florence’s ear.

  ‘Little did your great great Grand-yeti Terrence know his secret recipe would save a bunch of best friends one night,’ said Amelia with a big smile. ‘Hopefully your Grand-yeti Clemence won’t be too upset that the very last of the secret super-belch will be gone forever?!’

 

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