Bubbles and Smush Read online

  Bubbles shrugged. He had begun to think the smell of Cl'rnce was leftover, and the dr'gon was not in the school. He’d probably escaped his sister. “Agreed. We'll find the secret tunnel again through these doors."

  Smush refused to move. "I don't think so."

  "I do." He pushed the doors open and stared. "Not good."

  Smush elbowed him out of the way. She sighed. "I knew it. No secret tunnel, and no more doors."

  Bubbles shoved her in. "Voices. We have to hide!" He smashed in behind her and managed to get the door shut. They had just enough room to shuffle around and examine the tiny room. This one was lined with shelves. The two lowest tiers had blankets on them. "Cl'rnce told me about a practical joke where he hid between some blankets. No one found him. We can do the same thing."

  "I don't want to play a practical joke. I don't care where Cl'rnce is. If he's not here, and Hazel is, then you're wrong. She didn’t do anything bad to him. He's safe. I want to go home." She sighed again. "And I'm hungry."

  Bubbles got his big head under her and lifted her to the second row of shelves. "Wiggle into that big blanket and be quiet. They're getting closer."

  Smush pushed her hat ahead, snaked in between the blanket's folds, pulled it over her so that anyone opening the door would just see a tangle of blanket, and sighed.

  Bubbles did pretty much the same and held his breath, listening.

  Hazel's voice stopped outside the closet. "I think we're under attack. I didn't expect it while Cl'rnce was away. I really thought he'd be the focus … but … it seems…."

  "Do you smell stinkweed?" a gentler voice asked.

  "Gaelyn, that's just Cook's soup. It starts out stinking and then … well, it's pretty good. Whatever Cook saw …"

  "Funny. Whatever it was just ran, didn't attack," Gaelyn said. "And all those other reports of some kinds of monsters coming out of closets … no actual attacks."

  "Hmmm. If Cl'rnce wasn’t away on his quest, I'd say he was pulling more of his practical jokes. He is on his quest, isn't he?" Hazel said.

  "Best to make sure. We'll need to go back to my chambers. I'll use my scrying crystal to see," Gaelyn said. "I'm afraid this does sound like Cl'rnce."

  When the voices faded down the hall, and it had been very quiet for five whole minutes, Bubbles said, "Did you hear that? They think we're pulling great practical jokes!"

  "Not what I heard," Smush mumbled.

  "Maybe we should try to pull some more."

  "She said Cl'rnce was away on a quest," Smush said. "We're looking for a dr'gon who is not a prisoner and not here. I'm going home."

  "My hide itches," Bubbles said and threw off the itchy blanket. He scratched and scratched.

  Smush jumped down from her shelf, her hat in her teeth, and started scratching too. "What was on those blankets?"

  Bubbles couldn't run his stubby claws over the itchy spots fast enough. "It could be itching powder! One of Cl'rnce's jokes? We have to get out of here. What do we do?"

  "We need water." Smush nosed open the door slowly, then wedged in and held it wide. She flipped her hat onto her head. “I smell water.” She pointed back down the hallway.

  "I'm not going in that kitchen again. Did you see the knife that dr'gon had? And he was making fire out of his nose!" Bubbles refused to follow her.

  "Not the kitchen. Where we need to go smells farther down the hallway and …" She trotted past the dining hall doors and stopped at a corner. She peered around, then leaned back and jerked her head for Bubbles to come. "I can really smell water now. Can't you?"

  Bubbles snorted Barforami snot out on the floor. "No. My nose is full of itchies and stuff."

  "Come on!" Smush hissed.

  Bubbles wanted to rub his hide against the walls, roll on the floor, anything to get the itchiness to stop. But he ran after her.

  When he caught up, she was standing in a doorway her head moving from side to side. She sighed and trotted in. He followed her and laughed.

  Smush had found an indoor lake! Water! He didn't wait for Smush; Bubbles launched himself at the big pool and dove in. It was pretty deep but didn't have fish or weeds. Not as good as it could be. But the water was warm, and his hide felt better in it. The itchiness stopped at once. He felt so good. And he was kind of tired. A little nap in the water would be perfect.

  "What about Cl'rnce?" Smush said from where she floated beside him, a contented hum making her words sing.

  "Later." Bubbles took a deep drink of the water, and let himself settle down to the bottom of the pool. He relaxed, and relaxed, and dreamed.

  Cl'rnce was about to tell Bubbles about the best practical joke in the world, when a spiked tail grabbed Bubbles around the middle and dragged him out of the water.

  "Well, the intruders. Barforami. Bubbles?" Her tail wrapped around his middle, Hazel held him over the edge of the pool like he weighed no more than a troll.

  Bubbles looked down at the hard floor beneath him and got ready to be dropped and to bruise his soft paws.

  Hazel put him down gently. Bubbles resisted the urge to shake off excess water and spray Hazel, but he glanced toward the door.

  "Nope," Hazel said, moving between Bubbles and the door. "I think you are our closet monster. You've created quite an uproar. You need to …"

  A slim wizard placed Smush next to Bubbles. "Two of them.” She pointed her hands at Smush and whispered what Bubbles hoped wasn’t a binding spell.

  Hazel nodded. "Now where was I?"

  Smush burped really loudly and yelled, "Run!" Neither Hazel or her wizard moved, but Bubbles added one of his best burps and headed for the doors. He was almost through them when something reached out invisible hands and held him.

  Snapping her fingers and making the burps’ smell change to something sweet, Hazel’s Wizard Partner said, “No. We need explanations."

  Hazel added, "Why are you two in the school scaring students, and cooks, and causing chaos? We thought we were under attack."

  "By closet monsters," the wizard said through a giggle.

  Smush squeaked, "Run," and tried to wiggle out of the invisible bonds holding her.

  "She's quite the farter," Bubbles said. "I'd run if I were you."

  Hazel snorted. The wizard laughed.

  Smush looked down. Bubbles followed her glance. Beneath her was a pile of small brown pebbles. "Run!" she said louder, and tried harder to get loose.

  Bubbles belched his longest, loudest, best. The wizard pinched her nose with one hand, frantically making signs in the air with the other. Bubbles and Smush were loose. They bolted out of the room and sprinted down the hall and right around the corner. Bubbles spotted an open door and sunshine at the end of the hall. The sun would bake their hides, unless they ran for their lives. And they would do that to get away from scary Hazel and the school full of dr'gons and wizards.

  They charged down the hall, both of them burping loudly and Smush yelling, "Run,” as they went. By the time they were out of the school building and bolting through the school's front gate, all Bubbles could hear behind him was gagging and screaming. He didn't dare stop. Smush ran past him, a blur of spotted Barforamous and red hat. So he sped up.

  Bubbles' skin was beginning to feel like dried leaves when they saw the river. A few strides later they both managed to fling themselves over the tops of the river weeds and into the cooling water.

  "What do we do next?" he asked. "They'll be here in no time."

  "I don't think so," Smush said. Holding her hat balanced on one paw, she ducked down and came up with a mouthful of weeds and something sort of white. She crunched on it.

  Bubbles stared through the river bank weeds, looking for the dragons. "Where are they?"

  "Covered in burps and butt bomb," Smush said then spit something out that landed next to Bubbles.

  He turned to her. "You mean those pebbles you … pooped? I’ve never seen those before. They really exploded on the dr'gons and wizards?"

  Smush laughed. "Oh, yeah. And it'
ll take them all day in that indoor lake to get it off."

  Bubbles laughed with her. "Cl'rnce is going to be proud of you. You have to tell him about your practical joke."

  "What? The bombs?" Smush settled her hat back on her head and ripped up another mouthful of weeds.

  "Yep! And our closet monsters. You heard them, they were scared. Cl'rnce will be proud of us. We did a whole day of practical jokes. Even if he wasn't here like he promised to teach us. What is this?" He nosed over the scrap of paper Smush had spit out. "Look! It's a note from Cl'rnce!"

  "What does it say?" Smush burped.

  Bubbles gave her a hard look. But he didn't see or smell anything. Relieved he said, "Says, ‘Bubbles, hope to be back in five days. Sorry. Hazel …’”

  "Hazel what? Doesn't it say anything else?" Smush burped again, and this time Bubbles thought he heard a voice singing a weird song. "Was I right about him being worried that Hazel would eat him?"

  "I don't think so. You ate the rest of the note. I bet the missing bit is about the quest Hazel said Cl'rnce went on." He listened as the weird song faded. "Hey, how did you make that?"

  Smush burped again, pulled up the weed with the blue flower and shook it at him. “Imagine if we both had that creepy song and my poop-bombs! We'd be the biggest closet monsters ever!"

  "I don't like closet monsters. I don't like that school.”

  Smush shrugged and paddled down the river to a thick patch of stinkweeds.

  Bubbles sighed. “I don’t want to, but if Cl'rnce doesn't come back in five days, we're going back to the school as closet monsters, and we'll scare Hazel … and everyone. And we'll … rescue Cl'rnce!"

  Smush snorted.

  Bubbles pulled up a blue-flowered weed, munched it, and thought he heard a much fainter song than Smush’s. Just in case, he checked to see if any little brown pebbles were floating behind Smush. Or himself.

  Join Bubbles and Smush in their other adventure Bubbles and Smush: Trick or Treats. You can read more about Cl’rnce and Great and Mighty in The Lazy Dragon and the Bumblespells Wizard.

  About the Author

  At seven years old Kath Boyd Marsh self-published her first fantasy on lined notebook paper, stapled together by her grandfather, and starring a creature based on her little sister- the ‘PB.’ Before Kath moved to Richmond, KY to write about dragons, wizards, and other fantastic creatures, she lived in seven states, Panama, and one very haunted Rhode Island house. The Lazy Dragon and the Bumblespells Wizard is her debut novel.

  kathboydmarshauthor.com

  CBAY Books

  CBAY Books is a small press out of Dallas, Texas, that specializes in fantasy and science fiction novels for kids and teens.

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  Kath Boyd Marsh, Bubbles and Smush

 

 

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