‘Yes. I couldn’t leave Heckle out there alone. But… what I was really trying to say was that, well, maybe if I hadn’t found the heroes and got them up onto the Hustleway, they’d be over in the Bonelands by now – with Morg…’
‘You risked your own life looking after our guests, Iggy,’ Goldpaw said. ‘You have done the kingdom a great service – at a time when it needs it most – and so, under the circumstances, you are forgiven for trespassing outside the Boundary for Safe Keeping.’
‘Looking after us?’ Fox scoffed. ‘I’d hardly call a frantic dash through the jungle being looked after!’
Fox glanced at Fibber, expecting him to say something equally unpleasant about their escapade. But he didn’t. He just stood there in his suit, looking small and afraid and decidedly less impressive than usual. Something about the panther, it seemed, was making him behave almost politely.
Goldpaw’s whiskers twitched and when she spoke to Fox there was an unmistakable edge to her growled words. ‘I imagine what you are trying, very unsuccessfully, to say is: Thank you, Iggy.’
Fox, who had never thanked another person in her life, looked blankly up at Goldpaw and then at Iggy.
Heckle shifted on Iggy’s shoulder. ‘The one with the red hair is wishing Iggy and his annoying parrot – Oh! What rudeness! – would just clear off.’
Goldpaw tilted her head at Fox, then she looked back up at Iggy. ‘Hurry home now – your parents will be worried about your whereabouts. I will take things from here with our guests.’
‘Heroes,’ Fox prompted. She had grown rather fond of the term after hearing Iggy use it.
‘We’ll see,’ Goldpaw said quietly.
Fox felt an uneasiness slide under her skin. The Lofty Husk wasn’t throwing her weight around or being rude and yet it still very much felt as if the panther was in control of this conversation. There was a wild kind of power that seemed to ripple beneath Goldpaw’s fur.
‘Good luck,’ Iggy said to the twins as he turned to leave. ‘It was… quite nice to meet you both.’
Fox made it a rule not to care what other people thought of her, but she could tell that Iggy’s faith in her and Fibber had dimmed in just the short time they had known each other. And she was a little miffed because it had felt pretty good having someone believe in her for once. As she watched Iggy dismount his unicycle, swing down between the branches and scamper through the glowing undergrowth, she felt disappointed that being adored had only lasted such a short while.
Fox turned back to Goldpaw and was met by two dark, disapproving eyes.
‘I will say this once and once only: manners matter, especially out here in the jungle. Should you forget to say excuse me when passing a tantrum tree you may well get walloped to death. Should you forget to say please to a whitegrump when asking for a favour you may well get gorged through the heart. And, should you forget to say thank you to an Unmapper who helps you, you may well find that the next time you are in a pickle they do not help at all.’
Fox turned to Fibber, hoping he would say something, but her brother was listening obediently. Fox guessed he was still rattled by their fall from the Hustleway, but she wasn’t going to let a little tumble get in the way of her businesslike approach.
She channelled her most purposeful posture and followed it up with a glare in Goldpaw’s direction that she instantly regretted because it made her eyeballs wobble.
‘You are very much not what I was expecting,’ the panther said. And then, after a pause, she added: ‘But, then again, apparently Casper Tock did not look like much and he went on to save the Unmapped Kingdoms and the Faraway from doom. So let us hope, for everyone’s sake, that you improve beyond first impressions.’
Goldpaw began to walk, her enormous paws soft and silent as they picked their way through luminous blue plants with bells for flowers and shimmering purple ones dusted with glitter. The twins followed, bickering away to themselves as they left Timbernook behind.
‘Names if you please,’ Goldpaw said. ‘We don’t have much time.’
Fibber muscled past Fox to draw level with the Lofty Husk and Fox could sense a renewed sense of purpose to him now that the quest seemed to be about to start in earnest.
‘I’m Fibber Petty-Squabble,’ he said. ‘The clever, organised one who’s going to find the Forever Fern.’ He jabbed a thumb in Fox’s direction. ‘And that’s my sister, Fox. I have no idea why she’s here.’
Fox edged past a prickly red plant and scowled at her brother. ‘Shut it, Fibber. I’m far more likely to find the fern. All you’ll do is—’
‘You will find it together,’ Goldpaw said sternly. ‘Your chances against Morg and her Midnights will be greater if there are two of you.’
The twins exchanged an appalled look.
‘What are these Midnights?’ Fox asked. ‘What are we up against, really?’
The clanking of the tree frogs rattled through the jungle as Goldpaw led them on into a tunnel of shrubs that folded over them and were dotted with glow-in-the-dark flowers.
‘Monkeys,’ Goldpaw said.
Fibber blinked. ‘Monkeys? Is that all?’
Goldpaw growled and the flowers in the tunnel trembled. ‘Morg’s monkeys are creatures filled with such terrible darkness that the whole jungle falls silent with terror when they approach.’
Fox frowned. ‘So you’ve seen these monkeys then?’
The panther nodded. ‘Seen and injured them. But we cannot seem to kill them. They find their way back to the Bonelands after every raid and, when they return here, they are just as strong as before. There is something unnatural about these monkeys, mark my words; the very darkest magic is keeping them alive.’
Fox raised an eyebrow as she followed Goldpaw through the tunnel. How dangerous could a monkey really be?
But had Fox seen what was unfolding back in Timbernook at that very moment, had she
