5 Swamp-hoppin

CHAPTER FIVE Swamp-hoppin' Pamela sat in her nest at the top of the Magic Tower. She adjusted her night-vision goggles. 'Ha!' she squawked. 'Finally, I have eagle-eyed vision!' Which was a weird thing to say, given that she was an eagle. She fiddled about with all the junk she had collected in her nest: old wires, bits of mobile phones and radios. She found a

rusty walkie-talkie and pressed the button. It screeched and buzzed to life. 'Agent Pamela reporting for duty,' she squawked. 'No alien life detected. Lasagne for dinner. Quite tasty. Over and out.' She continued to scan the skies, hoping to see something unusual. Then she saw the flash and glow of Sharon the Party Crow crashing into Grimwood. 'Invaders!' she cried. She adjusted her goggles and saw Ted and Nancy running over to help Sharon down from the tree. 'Hmm, the orange furries do not seem alarmed,' she said. 'Interesting.' Then she fiddled with some complicated-looking radio equipment and put some headphones on. Thanks to a higgledypiggledy network of microphones she had hidden all over Grimwood, she was now able to hear their conversation perfectly. 'A party crow? A glitter cannon?!' she gasped. 'I must meet this bird at ONCE.' After a nap, breakfast and a bath in an empty butter dish (for Sharon, at least), Ted and Nancy set off on the hunt for Twinklenuts. Ted ran after his big sister, trying to keep up. Sharon the Party Crow was sitting in his rucksack, honking on a kazoo every couple of seconds. 'Where are we going, Nance?' panted Ted. Nancy pointed at the ground.

'We're following the glitter trail,' she said. Ted looked down and saw a messy line of colourful sparkles. It was glitter that had fallen from Sharon as she had been blasted through the air. 'OI!' shouted someone from behind a large mushroom. 'Where are you lot going without me?' It was Willow. She was knee-deep in Cosmic Knobblers, her fave forest snack (even though they made her parp uncontrollably). Ted told her everything really quickly so don't worry, we won't have to go through it all again. The glitter led them past Bunnyville. They stopped for a bit and watched hundreds of small furry rabbits flinging themselves off the top of the very tall tree onto the pile of mattresses. 'It's the most exciting thing that's happened in ages,' said Willow. 'Well, since the waterslide we made out of dustbin lids, at least.' 'Guys, look,' said Ted, pointing at the path of glitter ahead of them. Everyone looked up and moaned. They were heading straight for the Swamp of Despair. The Swamp of Despair was a horrible smelly swamp on the outskirts of Grimwood. It was impossible to cross, because if you stepped on it, you'd get sucked down into gloopy, sloopy mud. Nancy had fallen into it once and had almost come to a very sticky end. Sharon's glittery sparkles had mixed in with all the mud.

'Look, it's turned into a disco mud pit!' hooted Ted. 'Yeah, and we'd still die if we fell in,' said Nancy. 'AHA!' shouted Willow, bouncing up and down. 'I gots a plan, I gots a plan! Let's use the mattresses! We could pile them high and then do a massive BOUNCE right over this stinky old swamp.' 'Great idea!' said Ted, hopping from foot to foot. Nancy scratched at her snout for a while. 'Your plan might not be entirely useless,' she said. 'We could use them like, you know, stepping stones.' 'But all those mattresses look really heavy and they're covered in bunnies,' said Ted. 'I know someone who can help,' said Nancy, with a grin. WHOcould it be? Is it… me?! Oh goodness, I haven't even brushed my hair. Wiggy the badger revved the engine of his Jeep. Behind him, a long, thick rope had been lashed around the tall pile of mattresses. About a squillion excited bunnies were holding the

mattresses together like a tangle of furry elastic bands. It was quite a sight. Wiggy honked his horn. Willow stood at the very top of the pile of bunnies, holding a megaphone. 'TUCK IN YOUR EARS AND DON'T LOOK DOWN!' she bellowed. She gave Wiggy the thumbs up. The wheels of the Jeep skidded in the mud. 'HEAVE-HO!' cried Willow. 'COME ON, EVERYBODY! LET'S GET MOVING!' A thousand tiny paws scrabbled until slowly but surely, the pile of mattresses started to move. Ted and Nancy sat in the back of the Jeep and looked behind them. The gigantic clump of bunnies, as big as a house, was being dragged through the woods. The rabbits began to scream and hoot in excitement. 'Faster!' they yelled. 'Make it go faster!'

'I can't watch!' whimpered Ted through his paws. 'Someone's going to get hurt!' Please can someone inform health and safety? This is ridiculous. Hang on. Am I health and safety? Oh no… Soon they reached the Swamp of Despair. The bunnies loosened the ropes and then dropped to the ground, cheering. 'That was the best fun EVER!' whooped Jacko, one of Willow's 276 siblings. 'Again, again!' Willow stood on the bonnet of Wiggy's Jeep. 'NOW, EVERYONE, CHUCK A MATTRESS AS HARD AS YOU CAN ONTO THIS HORRIBLE SWAMP,' she shouted. 'Hooray!!!' yelled the bunnies, who were up for anything. Soon, the mattresses were floating on the surface of the swamp like giant marshmallows in a sea of glittery hot chocolate. Nancy jumped onto the closest mattress. It wobbled and sank a little deeper into the mud. But then it held firm. Nancy looked up and grinned. 'It's working!' she yelled to the others. 'Come on!'