Sea-ing is Believing! by Steven Butler

Author:Steven Butler [Butler, Steven and Lenton, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781471178740
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re saying to yourself: ‘THAT WAS WEIRD!’ and you’re right … it was! That moment with Viscera Von Tangle brought back my little tingle of worry and started me wondering if Abe wasn’t being entirely truthful about something. And it didn’t take long to find out what.

ABRAHAM’S OFFICE

By the time we reached the other side of the Briny Ballroom, I could tell Mum and Dad thought something seemed a bit odd too, and they were whispering to each other. I think Dad was just getting ready to question Grandad Abe about what the piskie princess had said, when the old ghost interrupted us all.

‘We’re here!’ he cooed merrily.

Abe was floating above a shiny circular symbol on the floor, right between the helter-skelter slide and the seahorse carousel. It was about the same size as the rug in my bedroom that Hoggit loves to roll on and scratch his scales, and as we got closer, I could see it was the shiny emblem of a wreath of twisty octopus tentacles, a bit like the ones that had appeared on the reception desk earlier that morning.

‘This way,’ Abe said, ushering me to stand on the gleaming shape. ‘There’s something I want you to see. One at a time!’

I stepped onto it and waited for something to happen, but nothing did…

‘What’s occurrinating?’ Maudlin griped.

‘I want to show you my office,’ Abraham said. ‘It’s marvellous!’

Maudlin glanced about grumpily. I could tell she’d lost her patience for all this exploring.

‘This isn’t an office!’ she blurted.

‘No…’ Abe replied, then gestured to something above and behind us. ‘But that is!’

‘Well, I never!’ Mum beamed, following his ghost finger. ‘Whatever next?’

Abe was pointing to a large platform nestled in the highest branches of the tree in the middle of the dance-floor. It had been completely hidden from view when we were over near the Atilantus station, but from here I could clearly see shelves packed with dusty books, desks and globes, framed maps, charts and bizarre clockwork gadgets hanging on chains, all nestled among the silver sculpted leaves, like the most unusual treehouse I’d ever laid my peepers on.

‘What’s up there?’ I asked.

‘Lots of things,’ said Abe. ‘If there’s one place you might find out more about… about…’

‘Oculus?’ Dad asked.

‘Yes,’ Grandad Abe said, as a look of sadness crept across his face. ‘If there are any clues about Oculus, they’ll be the in my office.’

A pang of curiosity sparked inside my chest and I smiled reassuringly at the old ghost.

‘Righty ho,’ Abe said. ‘You just need to stand on the symbol, face the Under-Oak and say in a nice clear voice, “UPSIDE OUT, INSIDE DOWN!”’

‘What a load of NONKUMBUMPS!’ Maloney scoffed. ‘I’ve never heard such grumblish.’

‘I’m afraid it’s the only way to get up there,’ Grandad Abe said.

Before Maudlin could moan for another second, I planted my feet wide, glanced up at Abe’s tree-office and shouted the special words.

‘UPSIDE OUT, INSIDE DOWN!’

Almost instantly, the tentacles on the symbol beneath my feet started twitching and moving.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.