“How does this story end?” Sabrina asked. “We can’t stay up here much longer.”
“That depends,” Daphne said. “The Jungle Book is a collection of short stories. Technically, this part is over, and so the door might be down there.”
“You want me to fly down into that inferno?” Puck said.
“Yes?” Sabrina squeaked. She hoped her uncertainty was covered by the wind.
“You’re completely insane—a good quality in a wife. Hold on,” Puck said. His wings stopped flapping and the three dropped toward the ground. Sabrina was sure they were about to be splattered on the jungle floor when Puck’s wings expanded and caught an updraft of hot air. They glided to safety and touched down on the ground, surrounded by burning trees.
“Do you see a door?” Daphne asked as she scanned their surroundings.
“It could be anywhere,” Puck said.
Sabrina began to panic. Puck was right. She hadn’t read The Jungle Book from cover to cover, but she remembered lots of settings—the Council Rock, the human village, the giant snake’s lair—the door to the next story could be anywhere. Maybe they should have stayed in the sky. Maybe they would have been able to see it from up there.
She wondered how things could possibly get any worse when she got her answer. From out of the trees stampeded a herd of long-horned cattle. They tore through the jungle, their hooves grinding everything into pulp and their horns goring trees and bushes. Their panicked bellows rose above the noise of the roaring and crackling fire. The children leaped behind some ancient trees for protection, but unfortunately, another wave of cattle was approaching from that direction as well. Nowhere was safe.
“Don’t worry, honey,” Puck said to Sabrina. He spun around on his heels and she watched him hulk up in a disturbing transformation. One of Puck’s many abilities as a fairy was to change into a variety of different animals, which didn’t make it any less weird each time he did it. His arms grew in length and his shoulders hunched with dense muscles. As his whole body sprouted thick, black fur, Sabrina could tell he was transforming into a gorilla. He snatched the girls in his huge arms, climbed a tree, and plopped them all onto a high branch. A moment later he morphed back to his true form.
“We’ll be safe here,” Puck said as they eyed the sea of cattle below.
“Are you sure?” Daphne said. “Look!”
From within the stampede, Sabrina spotted a herd of creatures altogether unlike the cows. These were small, pink, and fast, with little legs and arms to scurry along the ground.
“Revisers!” Sabrina cried.
Everything that got in the way of the revisers was quickly devoured and vanished. In fact, the very jungle was disappearing—every inch was being replaced with an empty, white void.
“I vote that we get out of here!” Daphne shouted.
“I second that,” Sabrina said.
Puck’s wings unfolded and he grabbed the girls. Soon the trio was zipping along the tree line, high above the hungry monsters, but Sabrina felt far from safe. The entire world was vanishing, not just the trees and animals—even the night sky was being devoured. Each of the little pink creatures was an eating machine, chomping on the cattle, the trees, the ground, everything. The Editor’s words echoed in her mind.
Leave now or my revisers will devour you.
Daphne’s eyes were wide with fear. “They’re very fast.”
“Don’t worry. I’m faster!” Puck shouted. “Besides, would I let something happen to my fiancée and my future sister-in-law? While we’re on the subject, I was hoping we could discuss our wedding cake. I’d like to go traditional—you know, something stuffed with wild boar and drizzled with spider icing. What do you think, honey? Oh, and when do you want to go and look at engagement rings?”
Sabrina wondered if it would be better to shake herself loose and die on the jungle floor rather than take more of the stinky boy’s teasing. “You keep flapping your mouth, fairy, and I’m going to engage my fist to your lip.”
Just then, Puck’s body jerked to a sudden stop. All three of the children fell like stones. They landed hard on the ground and lay there for a moment, groaning in pain. Sharp agony raced along Sabrina’s hip and another pain ached in her right shoulder.
“I didn’t see that branch,” Puck said.
“Branch? It felt like a truck to me,” Daphne said as she crawled to her feet.
Sabrina sat up, nursing her wounds. She was sure her whole left side would be black-and-blue in the morning. “We have to keep moving.”
The three helped one another up and began to stagger forward. There was no path to follow and the exposed roots and heavy brush did not make walking easy. Before long, Sabrina could hear the hungry, chattering teeth of the Editor’s pets behind her. She turned and spotted one darting in the undergrowth several yards behind them.
How could she have chased after Mirror into this crazy book? She had signed their death warrant because she had made another dumb mistake . . .