10 DlG IT!

CHAPTER 10 DIG IT! Ha! Take that!" Rip yelled, practicing his fencing moves. "Hey, Rip!" Alexander called, running over. "Look what I found last night." He opened the notebook. "The worms were warning us about monsters called tunnel fish!"

"Wow," Rip said, reading the page. "So the worms popped up to avoid becoming tunnel-fish bait?" He looked down. "But wait that means fish monsters are tunneling under us right now!" A dirt pile nearby trembled. Something underneath burrowed straight for the boys. Alexander stepped back. Rip drew his foil. POP! A purple fish burst from the ground. It had spiky fins, mean-looking eyes, and a mouthful of teeth. It would have been terrifying, except it was the size of a pickle. The tunnel fish chomped a worm near Alexander's foot and then dug back underground. Rip sneered. "Tunnel fish are weenies! We can just smoosh 'em!" He stopped sneering. "Hold on, Salamander... what's that?"

Another dirt pile rumbled and then SPLOTCH! A silver tunnel fish the size of a dolphin shot out of the ground. It swallowed the purple fish in one bite and plowed back underground. Alexander gulped. "I guess they come in all sizes," he said. The boys looked at each other and took off running.