3 Reading

CHAPTER THREE Reading Ted, Nancy and Willow stomped through Grimwood. Frank glided slightly ahead of them, leading the way. Willow was singing a cheerful song. Waffle waffley- woofley hey! I am going to sing all da-OW! Nancy had thrown a conker at her head. 'Shut yer cakehole,' said Nancy. 'You're giving me earache.' Ted looked at Willow and gave his friend's paw a squeeze.

'Sorry,' he whispered. 'I think she's just a bit nervous. About the dreams and stuff.' Willow grizzled and rubbed her adorable nose. 'Well, I hope that doctor can give her some medicine for being a snotty old GRUMPYPANTS,' she said. The gang reached the edge of the Swamp of Despair. It was muddy, smelly and for years had been almost impossible to cross. But the kindly Mayor of Twinklenuts, a squirrel called Crusty McTavish, had tasked the Twinklenuts beavers to build a log bridge over it. Now everybody could skip merrily over the swamp this way and that, which was very useful indeed. Ted sniffed the air. 'Willow,' he said. 'Have you been eating Cosmic Knobblers?' 'No! Why, have you got some?' asked Willow, peering around for her fave mushroomy snack. 'No, but I can smell something terrible,' said Ted, pinching his nose. 'I thought it was coming from your bottom. You know what happens when you eat Cosmic Knobblers.' Willow raised her nose to the sky and twitched it a few times.

'Naaah… that's not my brew,' she said. 'Aww,' said Ted. 'You look so cute when you do that twitchy nose thing.' 'WAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUURGH!' yelled Willow. She threw herself at Ted and pinned him to the ground. 'If I've told you once I've told you a gazillion times: DON'T CALL ME CUTE.' 'Mmmmmmmf!' said Ted, which meant 'sorry', but he had a small angry rabbit on his face, so it was hard to tell. 'I can smell something weird too,' said Nancy, ignoring the furry scrapping going on next to her. 'And it ain't the normal terrible smell you get around the swamp. It's like… an extra terrible smell.' She looked around and noticed something else. 'Hiya!' said a worm. No, not that. Something else else. It was a massive footprint.

'Oi… you two… stop scrappin' and look at this,' said Nancy. Ted and Willow lolloped over. 'Woooaaaah,' said Willow. 'That is MASSIVE!' Was it a foot? Was it a paw? Was it a hoof? Was it a picture postcard of Paris by night? It was hard to tell. 'There's another!' said Ted. 'And another!' The footprints trailed past the Swamp of Despair, deeper into a part of Grimwood the animals rarely ventured. The weird smell was getting stronger, too. 'Maybe it's a STINK MONSTER!' hooted Willow, her eyes getting bigger by the second. 'Maybe it's… BIGFOOT!' 'Crumbs!' said Ted, feeling a little bit wobbly all of a sudden. Frank swooped down to see what all the fuss was about.

'Aah, it'll probably just be a random badger passing through,' he said. 'Come on, let's keep moving.' Nancy yanked her little brother along. 'Come on,' she grunted. 'You heard him. Let's get to the library. I ain't staying here just to bump into some stinking weirdo badger.' Twinklenuts Library was a small building made of higgledypiggledy stones. Frank rapped his beak on a heavy-looking oak door. After some time, the door slowly creaked open. 'Heeeeeeeelp meeeee!' came a tiny voice. 'Door… so… heavy…' Ted looked down and saw a very small mole attempting to open the door. 'Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry,' said Ted. Nancy pushed past him and shoved the door open, flinging the little mole backwards through the air. Frank picked up the mole and dusted him down a little. 'Sorry, Arthur,' he said. Arthur shook his head, adjusted his hat, pushed his glasses up his snout and muttered to himself. Everyone followed him as he trotted down a few steps and walked into Twinklenuts Library. It was a surprisingly huge room with a high ceiling, absolutely packed with bookshelves. Wooden ladders were fixed to the walls, in order to reach the shelves at the very top. Chairs and blankets were scattered

around the place, as well as a cluster of desks, and lots of small lamps. 'Cor,' said Ted. He loved the library so much. It was his kinda place. Frank swooped around the huge room, eventually perching on a wooden beam next to his pigeon pal, Dr Khan, who was engrossed in a book. 'Hello, pal,' hooted Frank quietly. 'Ah! Mr Owl,' said Dr Khan, who has a voice that's sort of posh but also friendly but also extremely serious. 'Just reading about an eighteenth century explorer called Dame Margaret Wimples. Absolutely fascinating creature.' 'Dr Khan,' said Frank, furrowing his gigantic eyebrows. 'I was wondering if you could chat to my young foxy pal over here. She's been having bad dreams.'