Atticus Claw Goes Ashore by Jennifer Gray

Author:Jennifer Gray [Jennifer Gray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571305322
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2014-09-20T04:00:00+00:00

The map was the size of a poster. A strip had been torn from one corner: the strip that Fishhook Frank had used to write the message in the bottle, Atticus guessed. It was the same thick yellow paper.

Atticus found his eyes were glued to the map too. It was covered in extraordinary pictures drawn in different coloured inks. It showed mountainous waves and swirling whirlpools and jagged flashes of lightning. It showed a sea swarming with creatures that Atticus had never seen before and a ship battling for survival amidst the writhing tentacles of a giant squid. It showed fire spouting from a conical mountain and a path that led into the mountain under a waterfall of lava.

Atticus’s eyes travelled downwards. Deep beneath the mountain lay an underground lagoon.

And in the centre of the lagoon, across a path of stepping stones, was an X.

‘That’s where it be,’ Mr Tucker said. ‘X marks the spot where the caarrsket lies.’ He placed a thumb on the bottom right-hand corner of the map.

‘Where are we at the moment, Herman?’ Mrs Tucker asked.

Mr Tucker placed his other thumb on the top left-hand corner furthest away from the X. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘We’s got to cross all this to reach it.’

‘Mr Tucker, when you went in search of the casket before with Fishhook Frank, how far did you get?’ Michael asked.

Mr Tucker scratched his beard-jumper. ‘We’s sailed through the Sea of Calamity and past the Whirlpool of Doom,’ he remembered. ‘We’s survived the Storm of Stupefaction. It was when we got partway through the Ocean of Terror that disaster struck.’ His hand went to his wooden leg. ‘That’s where the magical sea creatures be,’ he explained. ‘Including the man-eating plankton.’

Man-eating plankton?! Atticus hoped they didn’t eat cats as well – only men.

‘Is that what the little green things with big teeth are?’ Callie asked, pointing at the swarm of strange sea creatures.

‘Aye. They nip worse than piranhas, they do,’ Mr Tucker said. ‘Strip the flesh off your bones in seconds.’

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