The Fallen Star by Tracey Hecht

Author:Tracey Hecht
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944020064
Publisher: Fabled Films Press
Published: 2017-03-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

PAT, PAT, PAT

“This mission is loco, I tell you! That aye-aye could be anywhere. We’re never going to find her!” The sugar glider stomped his feet then promptly flung the mud off his toes. The Brigade-mates were traveling back through the marshlands just south of the springs, and the ground had turned soggy and soft. “Not that I mind, if you want to know the glider’s truth,” Bismark continued. “I must say, that Iris is the nastiest, stinkiest-smelling amiga I have ever met. She startles the eyes! She offends the nose!”

“The nose…” mused Tobin. “Yes.”

“Thank you, mon ami. I was born to provide these kinds of valuable insights,” Bismark said. He turned to Dawn. “Hear that, my love? I speak the truth! Even our own malodorous muchacho agrees with me.”

“No, Bismark,” said the pangolin. “I meant I could use my nose to track Iris!”

Tobin eagerly began sampling the odors of the earth with his long, keen snout. “I remember her particular scent well,” he said, poking through curtains of reeds. “Kind of tangy.… A little damp.… Somewhat stale.…”

Bismark grimaced, but Dawn gave an encouraging nod.

“Let’s sniff, let’s sniff,” muttered Tobin. The pangolin picked up his pace, sending mud splashing behind him, but he quickly drew to a halt.

“Did you find something?” asked Dawn.

“Already, compadre?” asked Bismark. “Perhaps I underestimated your schnoz!”

“Oh goodness, no,” said the pangolin. “I’m sorry…I…” Tobin swallowed hard, trying to block out the terrible, burning pain that had forced him to stop.

Dawn eyed the pangolin, cradling his belly, then padded toward him. “You’ll be okay,” she whispered. The fox placed her paw on Tobin’s scales and gave him a tender pat. “Just concentrate. You can lead us to Iris. And that’s our best chance at getting you a blue flower.”

Encouraged by Dawn’s words, Tobin squeezed his eyes shut to focus on his keen sense of smell instead of the burn in his belly. Then, with a determined breath, he proceeded through the brush, extending his snout this way and that.

Dawn and Bismark followed behind him until, after several twists and turns, he paused and snapped his eyes open.

“Oh goodness!” he cried. “I think I’ve got something!”

Shuffling his legs toward a bed of moss, the pangolin furrowed his brow in concentration. He was inhaling the air faster, deeper, and louder, and his nostrils started to tingle and twitch. “Ooh! I…I think I…I think I…ah…ah…ah-choo!”

Tobin’s body rolled backward with the force of a mighty sneeze. Then, opening his eyes, he tried to spot what had tickled his nose.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going with that thing!” squeaked a thin, high-pitched voice.

Alarmed, Tobin squinted and turned his head in all directions. “Who’s … who’s there?” he asked.

“Down here!”

Tobin looked down at his claws. “Oh my!” he said with a jump. The pangolin had indeed tracked down a creature with his impressive nose. But it was not Aye-Aye Iris. It was a woylie: a tiny, furry, mouse-like marsupial, poking its head up from the moss.

“And be quiet!”

Another popped out from the grass nearby.

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