League of Extraordinary Robots, Yolanda Jackson [leveled readers TXT] 📗

asked Sir Porcupine.
“My wand is not working,” said Wisker. He looked the wand over and over from one tip to the other. “Here’s the problem,” he said at last. “Someone has tampered with the magic seal and golden dust has either broken off or been smudged off.”
“Now what do we do?” asked Sir Porcupine.
“The only way to fix this is to find the master of all wizards, Jeronomo,” answered Wisker, studying his wand carefully to see if he could possibly have missed something.
“Who is he and where can we find him?” asked Sir Porcupine.
“In the Death Valley,” answered Wisker, as he looked with disgust at his wand. “Someone has really mistreated this wand. The queen probably let her spoiled son Harry play with it.”
“I am so sorry that has happened,” said Sir Porcupine. Sir Porcupine was an ordinary human, not a magical one like Wisker, and he felt a personal responsibility when one of his own people did something that hurt others.
“It’s not your fault,” said Wisker to his friend. “But now getting out of Mayfair has just become much harder. There are wanted signs all around and bounties placed on our heads.”
“How come the people of Mayfair never come to this forest?” asked Sir Porcupine curiously. “It seems like such a nice place. to play and have picnics.”
“Because of the king,” answered Wisker. “The king is afraid he’ll lose his power of being ruler and forbade the people ever to leave the land of Marfair. There are many more lands out here and the king is so greedy that he has locked his people in Mayfair. He is afraid that if they see another world that they like better than Mayfair that they will decide to stay there and never come back.
But right now we have some serious business to attend to and a long task ahead of us. Even if we could get to the land of the Bots, we could not stay there. We have a responsibility to free the people of Mayfair from the tyranny of the king and queen.”
“But we are wanted by the entire land of Mayfair and beyond,” said Sir Porcupine. “The palace has put out a hefty reward for our capture and we have no choice but to try our best to escape. You know what will happen to us if we’re caught.” Sir Porcupine put his hand up to his throat protectively as he thought of the guillotine that the queen was having set up in the public square in Mayfair.
“We have no other choice but to try our best to escape,” said Wisker. “And to do this, we have to travel down the forbidden parts of the land. First we must go to the Wood of Berlington.”
Wisker and Sir Porcupine began to walk. “I can feel an evil aura over us,” said Wisher, who, being a magical being, could sense magical things, even though his wand was broken.
“You know the Woods of Berlington is haunted don’t you?” asked Sir Porcupine.
“Yes I do,” answered Wisker. “Now keep your head down and pull your hood over head.” He did the same thing himself as he spoke. “We don’t want people to recognize us from our wanted posters if we can help it.”
The Burlington woods were very scary. The trees began to whisle and the rocks began to taunt the two passer bys by calling out, to them. “You silly men, why do you come to Burlington woods?” called one of the rocks.
“Pay no attention to them,” Wisker told Sir Porcupine. Sir Porcupine nodded, but Wisker could see that Sir Porcupine was very much afraid and he would comfort him by smiling now and again.
Soon the dirt began to move like a winding snake under their feet. “Run,” cried Wisker and the two men began to run, faster and faster. Suddenly Sir Porcupine tripped on his cape and fell to the ground. Before he could get up a gain, out of the dirt rose a large three headed dragon, with ivory horns coming out of its faces and heads. The dragon was an ash color, with the tip of his tail a bright fluorescent
orange. The dragon’s scale flaked off as it pounded on the dirt, trying to squash Sir Porcupine.
Wisker ran out in front of the dragon, trying to save his friend. “Stop!” he ordered,, in that tone of voice which only wizards are able to command. “My wand isn’t working, but the dragon doesn’t know that,” thought Wisker to himself.
He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the monster. “I said stop!” he thundered.
The dragon was so afraid that it ran back into the earth, leaving nothing more than a large hole. “That was close,” said Wisker, tucking his wand carefully away.
“Why was it so afraid of your wand?” asked sir Porcupine.
“Many years ago wizards ruled the land and they had mighty powers, even greater than they have today. Dragons remember this and are fearful of the powers of wizards.”
Sir Porcupine and Wisker hurried along the path. The forest was slowly coming alive. The trees and the e plants were beginning to change colors, their fangs and tongues smelled fresh blood. The plants sent out their roots to gather the trespassers. Soon once again the dirt moved and the roots of the plants and trees were after Wisker and Sir Porcupine.
“We must jump into the lake,” Wisker told Sir Porcupine. The two men ran and took big leaps, first this way and then that as the roots of the plants began to chase them. With one push off, the two men flew into the air and made a big splash into the air. The trees and the plants cried out in anger and frustration; they had missed out on their food.
Little did Wisker and Sir Porcupine know that they were being watched as they hurried along. Behind a large rock was an unknown creature that stood about four feet high. The creature had red scales, big black eyes and a glowing halo above its head. Its hands and feet were webbed, sort of like a ducks and its tiny ears could hear the slightest movement. The creature watched for a little while, then slightly wiggled its right ear and disappeared into a green mist.


Meanwhile in the lake Wisker and Sir Porcupine were being pushed and shoved around by the strong waters. Wisker managed to hold onto a tree limb which seemed to give him a secure respite, at least for a little bit. “Porcupine, Sir Porcupine,” he called softly, trying to locate his friend, but Sir Porcupine was no where to be seen. If Wisker had but known it, Sir Porcupine was having his own adventure, tumbling down waterfalls. Wisker called out to his friend again, but it did no good, there was no answer. The two men were now apart, both following down the river going about their separate ways.
Wisker held onto the tree limb with all his might, trying to decide what he should do next.
One part of him would have liked to have given up, but he kept in mind all of the people that he had left behind, all of the people who had risked their lives to save his, and he knew that he must keep on going, that he owed his life to the many people of Mayfair and he must do all that he could to save them. “Failure isn’t an option,” he thought to himself. “I also must do all that I can to find Sir Porcupine. He risked his life to save me and I can’t just throw away my life without doing all I can to rescue him.” Wisker listened carefully to see if he could hear anything of Sir Porcupine but although the areas was anything but quiet, there was no sound of a human voice.
“Porcupine, I will never forget you,” called out Wisker at the top of his voice. “I will find you someday.” Wisker listened carefully to see if there was an answering call but although Wisker didn’t know it, his call was drown out by the crashing waves of the water hitting the rocks.
Wisker wiped away a tear and then carefully pulled himself up onto the banks of the river to rest, for just a tiny bit. Wisker held his head and began to cry. “The one companion who was dear to me I have lost,” he said to himself. “I could not save him.”
Suddenly the leaves and shrubs began to rumble and Wisker could hear the trotting of hooves becoming louder and louder. Wisker quickly jumped up and hid behind a large stone. After a moment he peeked out and saw five headless riders conversing with each other, using some sort of hand signals to communicate. They turned their bodies this way and that as if somehow they were looking around and for a moment, Wisker thought he had been spotted, but the headless riders just turned away and rode off.
Wisker’s knees were shaking so badly that he fell to the ground. He began beating his hands in the dirt in frustration until they began to bleed. The blood, being the blood of a magic wizard, gave off an odor different than that of ordinary humans and suddenly out of the woods came a bunch of blood thirsty diamond ants. These ants are small with a spec of a diamond on their heads. They live off the blood of dead animals or in this case, bleeding wizards.
“Get out of here you blood suckers,” shouted Wisker in an angry voice, but the ants weren’t about to leave until all of the blood on the ground had evaporated through their skin. When this had been accomplished, they turned their attention to Wisker and his bleeding hands, but Wisker began to beat at them with his magic wand and since he proved to be a good aim and to kill several with one blow, they quickly gave up and ran for the shelter of the forest.
Wisker could feel himself starting to sink into a state of depression, but he quickly shook himself and refused to give into it. “Soon I may have to face even more demons,” said Wisker to himself, as he gathered his thoughts and began to move on. I must do my best to keep my wits about me. Many people risked their lives for me; I can do nothing less than to do the same for them. I will need to quickly find a safe shelter where I can rest for a little while if I hope to remain alive.”
Wisker continued along the path for a few more miles and suddenly it began to snow. Wisker turned and was going to turn back from the cold but it was too late, the woods were beginning to disappear. Everything seemed to have disappeared and Wisker found himself surrounded by snow. He was so cold and hungry that all he could do was cry. “It is my fault,” he told himself. “I never should have come this way. I should have waited and thought out a different plan. Now Sir Porcupine is lost and I am probably going to freeze or starve to death and I won’t be any help to Sir Porcupine of