I don’t want that, Stella thought to herself. I don’t want any of this. This isn’t me!
With her spare hand she reached up for the tiara, pulled it from her head and flung it into the snow. Shay and Beanie rushed forwards to help, and the three of them hauled Ethan up over the side, along with the goose, who instantly flapped off, honking loudly and irritably, obviously quite cross about the whole affair.
‘Ethan, I am so sorry,’ Stella said.
‘It’s fine,’ Ethan said, holding up his hand. ‘It’s fine. I like dangling off the edge of a cliff whilst a goose pecks at my face. Really.’
Wordlessly, Beanie handed him another penguin plaster, and Ethan stuck it over the new cut on his cheek.
‘I’ll find some way to make it up to you,’ Stella said, feeling terrible.
‘I’ve only myself to blame,’ Ethan replied. ‘I should never have threatened to turn you into a blind mole-rat. That was terribly rude of me.’
He gave her another one of his rare smiles and Stella couldn’t help hugging him, despite his complaints.
‘Thank you for saving Dora,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry she pecked you.’
Stella felt she never wanted to see the tiara again, and was all for burying it in the snow and forgetting about it, but the others persuaded her to take it home. At the very least, an ice princess’s magic tiara would make a fine addition to the collection of curiosities on display at the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club. So the tiara was put back in the top-hat box with the cabbage, and then they all piled into the sled and carried on to the ship.
To their enormous relief, the Bold Adventurer was still there, bobbing gently in the icy sea. A few sailors were loading the last of the supplies on board when they approached, so they left them with instructions not to open the top-hat box unless they wanted a very nasty surprise, said goodbye to the animals, and then hurried on board. There were lots of explorers from both the Ocean Squid and the Polar Bear expeditions milling around on deck, who immediately rushed over to greet the junior explorers when they appeared. They were the last to arrive, and everyone was pleased and relieved to see them all in one piece.
‘Captain!’ Stella called, spotting Captain Fitzroy on the other side of the deck.
He turned at the sound of her voice and gave Stella a low bow as the junior explorers made their way over. ‘Miss Pearl,’ he said. ‘I am delighted to see you. And the rest of you too, of course. We were starting to fear the worst.’
‘Do you know where my dad is?’ Shay asked.
‘Captain Kipling is in the luggage room, and so is your uncle, I believe,’ Captain Fitzroy said, looking at Beanie.
The two boys said goodbye for now to the others and hurried off in the direction of the luggage room.
‘What about Felix?’ Stella asked. It seemed strange that he wasn’t there, watching out for her, and she was suddenly afraid that he might have been hurt, or worse – lost – during the expedition.
‘Mister Pearl is currently involved in an altercation with some other explorers,’ Captain Fitzroy replied, tilting his head. ‘It sounds like a most energetic argument. But then explorers do specialise in those, I understand.’
Stella realised he was right. She could clearly hear the sounds of an argument somewhere close by.
‘It sounds like it’s coming from the wolf pen,’ Ethan said.
The two of them quickly made their way over to the other side of the bridge. Stella could hear Felix’s voice, and he definitely sounded very angry, which wasn’t like him at all. Stella wondered what on earth they could be arguing about. Ethan pulled back the canvas flap and the two of them peered inside to see a dozen or so explorers crowded into the wolf pen.
‘You can’t take the wolves,’ one of them was saying. ‘They’re the property of the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club.’
‘And they will be returned to the club in due course,’ Felix replied impatiently. Stella saw him then, right at the back of the pen. There was stubble on his jaw, and he looked rather more dishevelled than usual but, other than that, he was exactly the same as ever. ‘I will pay for the use of the wolves when I return to the club.’
‘But you won’t return to the club, you madman!’ the explorer replied. ‘You’ll be a skeleton in an igloo!’
‘If I am to be a skeleton in an igloo,’ Felix replied, ‘then that’s surely no one’s affair but my own. I cannot prevent this ship from leaving, but I can take these wolves to go and search for Stella and the others by myself.’
‘You won’t be by yourself,’ another explorer said. It was Ethan’s father, Zachary Vincent Rook. He stepped forward to stand beside Felix. ‘This man may talk a lot of silly nonsense about fairy rights and such forth, but he is quite right about this matter – we cannot leave our children behind in this forsaken frozen wasteland. They will certainly perish. And I will not abandon my son. We must remain behind to search for them. These wolves are coming with us, and anyone who attempts to prevent us from leaving will be turned into a singing cucumber without any further warning.’
Stella heard Ethan gasp beside her. He raised his voice and said, ‘That won’t be necessary, Father,’ but his words were drowned out beneath a chorus of furious responses from the other explorers.
‘No one threatens to turn me into a cucumber!’ one of them cried. ‘No one!’
‘It’s an outrage!’
‘An affront to the clubs!’
‘You shall both be reported.’
‘I say that allowances ought to be made for Rook,’ a large explorer with a ginger moustache said. ‘After all, he’s recently lost one son, and who can blame him for not wanting to lose the other?’ He pointed at
