14 HIPPOGRIFFS

Chapter fourteen, hippogriffs. "Erm, you should probably wait here," Pip said. I sat cross-legged at the base of the rocks where the hippogriffs nested, and Sassafras curled up in my lap. Wishy waited until Pip was far enough away and then floated over to me and Sass. Pip handled the tricky climb up easily with his large feet gripping the rocks. "Excuse me, sir and ma'am?" Pip called. We heard two loud eagle screeches as the hippogriffs answered Pip, who then explained our situation. "So, if you have any good hiccup cures…"

The hippogriffs screeched again. One of them stood and tucked its head down by its talons and then bobbed its head. It screeched one last time. "We will give that a try! Thank you so much!" Pip tromped back over to us. "Do you still have that cup and some water?" Pip asked me. I pulled out the small cup and water bottle from my backpack. "Excellent." Pip turned so he also faced Wishy far behind us. "They said to take a cup full of water, bend over, and drink it while you're upside down." I poured the Wishy-sized cup of water and gave it to her. After I timed her hiccups yet again, Wishy bent over and did her best to drink from the cup upside down. She straightened up and

brushed a drop of water from her forehead. "That was—hic—pretty tricky—hic—" I sat with my timer for a minute, then sighed. "Well… it didn't make the hiccups worse. But it didn't make them better, either." Pip put his hand on mine. "Don't worry, Zoey. I'm sure we'll figure it out… eventually." I thought of poor tiny Tiny back at the barn, and my stomach felt heavy. "I hope so, Pip." I looked around. "We're kind of by Gorp's house. Should we at least check with him?"