The Swamp Boggles

  To Sam Duxbury, the real Sam

  (although you’re much better at catching!)

  Contents

  1 The New Guardian

  2 Searching for Clues

  3 Mr Bony Hands

  4 A Lucky Escape

  5 Catch!

  6 The Yellow Gem

  7 Under Attack!

  8 Expect the Unexpected

  9 In the Woods…

  The Shadow Files

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  The Shadow Woods…

  Very few people ever enter the Shadow Woods. The crooked trees press closely together, their branches reaching out like skeletons’ arms. Strange whispers echo through the quiet air, and eyes seem to watch from the shadows. Anyone who does go in soon leaves, their skin prickling with fear. For these woods are like no others. Hidden deep within them is a gateway to the Shadow Realm – a dark and chaotic world where all the mischief-making creatures like goblins, boggles and trolls live.

  Many hundreds of years ago, the Shadow Realm creatures could pass freely between our world and theirs, but they caused so much trouble that it was decided the gateway between the two worlds must be shut for good. Yet no one knew how to do this, until a locksmith with magical powers made an iron key and then slotted a gem from the Shadow Realm into its handle. The secret had been found! The locksmith forced as many shadow creatures as he could back into their own world and locked the gateway firmly behind them.

  From that day on, the locksmith became the Guardian of the Gateway, watching over the precious key and stopping the few shadow creatures left in this world from causing too much trouble. As he grew old he passed his powers on to his grandson, who in turn passed the powers on to his. For hundreds of years, the Guardianship has passed down from grandparent to grandchild, and the gate has always remained safely shut.

  But now for the first time, disaster looms. The shadow creatures have stolen the iron key! Luckily, there was no gem in its handle when it was taken, but there are six gems from the Shadow Realm hidden somewhere in our world. If the shadow creatures find any of them, they’ll be able to slot them into the key and open the gateway, letting hordes of villainous creatures loose to cause mayhem and trouble.

  Only one girl stands in their way… and her name is Sophie Smith.

  Take that, you ugly goblin!” Sophie spun round, her blonde ponytail flying, her right leg kicking upwards. She missed the target and huffed out a breath, cross with herself. Then her green eyes gleamed with determination and she ran forward again, this time spinning closer and lashing out faster. “Hi-ya!” she yelled.

  THUNK! Her foot connected with the large white pillow that her grandfather was holding up.

  “Better, but still not good enough!” he said sharply. “Do it again, child. Harder, faster!”

  Sophie sighed. Since she had become the new Guardian of the Gateway three days ago on her tenth birthday, her grandpa had been insisting that she practise her fighting skills whenever she could. Sophie went to tae kwon do classes three times a week in the town hall, and loved any type of sport. In fact, she really wanted to be a stuntwoman one day, but even she was finding the practising hard going. Grandpa just never seemed pleased with anything she did.

  It didn’t seem quite fair. Sophie knew that if she was fighting a real shadow creature, the Guardian magic would make her extra strong and fast. But, without a shadow creature around, she was just her usual ten-year-old self, fighting her very fit grandfather! Sophie’s grandpa wasn’t like most of her friend’s grandfathers. He always dressed in black, went swimming and running for miles every day and never let her win a fight if he could help it.

  “Can we stop soon?” Sophie asked hopefully. She and Grandpa had been training for over an hour now, and she was getting hungry.

  “Stop?” Grandpa Bob looked as if she had just asked if she could fly to the moon. “You’re the Guardian, Sophie! You must train. When I was first chosen to be the Guardian, I trained for hours every day. You must prepare, or else you’ll never get the key back from the Ink Cap Goblins.”

  Sophie shifted uncomfortably under his piercing blue gaze. She didn’t need reminding of the mistake she’d made. The day before she’d become the Guardian, she’d accidentally let a goblin steal the magic key that unlocked the gateway to the Shadow Realm. Now the goblins were trying to find a shadow gem to fit into its handle, so that the key would work again. Sophie was determined that she’d find all the hidden gems before they did. She’d found one already, so at least she was off to a good start – even if her grandfather didn’t seem to think so!

  “And again!” Grandpa said, holding up the pillow.

  Squinting her eyes, Sophie imagined that the pillow was Ug, the leader of the Ink Cap Goblins. She pictured his knobbly face, his white flaking skin, his dark scheming eyes… She ran forward, this time spinning and aiming a backwards kick.

  “Take that, you stinky… Whoa!” She staggered as her grandfather grabbed her foot, pulling her off balance and making her fall over.

  “Ow!” She sat up indignantly. “Grandpa! What did you do that for?”

  “If I could do it, so could a shadow creature.” Grandpa Bob pursed his lips. “You must never show weakness or let them get the upper hand. Always expect the—”

  “Unexpected,” Sophie finished the sentence for him. He said the same thing every training session! She grinned suddenly. “Does that mean I can expect school to be cancelled for the rest of term, or Anthony to be less annoying? They’d both be cool.”

  Grandpa fixed her with a gimlet stare. “This is no laughing matter, Sophie.” Reaching into the pocket of his waistcoat, he pulled out a black belt with a purse sewn into it. “Now, this is for you. It’s to keep the gems in when you find them. I think it’s too risky to leave them hidden around the house. The goblins could get in and get to them. If you keep them in this purse belt, then you’ll always know they’re safe.”

  “Unless the goblins get it off me,” Sophie pointed out.

  Grandpa raised his eyebrows. “But that won’t happen, will it?”

  “No, of course not,” Sophie said, trying to sound sure.

  “Wear the belt at all times,” he instructed.

  Sophie couldn’t resist. She looked at him innocently. “Even in the bath?”

  Grandpa frowned.

  Sophie bit back her smile. He really didn’t have a sense of humour. “Sorry, Grandpa! I promise I’ll wear it whenever I can – and those goblins won’t get it off me.” She tightened her ponytail. “Now, where were we?”

  Her grandpa held up the pillow. “Practising fighting. Attack again. Do it—”

  “I know: harder, faster, stronger and without getting hurt.” Sophie sighed. She squared up to him again. “Just call me Indestructo Girl!” she said wryly.

  Taking a breath, she began to fight.

  Deep in the Shadow Woods, Ug, the king of the Ink Cap Goblins, was sitting on a throne made out of a mouldy old tree stump, with an ivy crown perched wonkily on his large head. Black splodges covered the crumbling white skin on his squat body. Three other Ink Cap Goblins grovelled in front of him.

  “Numbskulls!” Ug glared at them with his beady black eyes. “Worm brains! The whole lot of you are a useless bunch of maggot heads! Useless!” Jumping up, he marched over to them. “What are you?”

  “Useless, great King Ug – OW!” yelped the three goblins as he kicked each of them in the bottom.

  “It’s been three days since I used my great cunning and cleverness to steal the key.” King Ug pulled a large iron key from his pocket and brandished it in front of the end goblin, who had a nose like a potato. “And yet I still can’t open the gateway because of this!” He pointed to a hole in the
key’s handle. “Tell me what this is, Potato Nose.”

  “Um, it’s a hole, King Ug,” stammered the goblin.

  “I know it’s a hole, idiot.” King Ug rolled his eyes. “But what’s so important about this hole, Potato Nose?”

  Potato Nose’s black eyes darted nervously. “It’s… um… it’s… a very round hole.”

  King Ug thwacked the goblin over the head with the key. “A round hole! You caterpillar-brained compost head! It’s not the shape that’s important, it’s what’s missing from it! In this hole there should be a shadow gem. So, why haven’t you found me one yet? Why? Why? WHY?”

  “Um, King Ug?” The goblin next to Potato Nose, who had very big feet, stuck up his hand helpfully.

  “Yes?” King Ug sighed.

  “We did find one, didn’t we, three days ago, but the Guardian beat you up and you let her keep it.”

  “Let her keep it!” King Ug spluttered like he was a volcano about to explode. “I did not let her keep it! I was forced to give it up when you three cowards deserted me! You’re all useless, and so…” He narrowed his eyes cunningly. “And so, I have decided to call in reinforcements.”

  “Reinforcements?” echoed Potato Nose.

  King Ug rubbed his hands together, making black gunge drip out on to the forest floor. “Yes! Sneaky, slimy reinforcements, who will get one of the gems for us.”

  “Who is it?” cried all three of the goblins.

  King Ug smiled craftily. “Just you wait and see!”

  I don’t think I’m ever going to be good enough for Grandpa,” sighed Sophie to her best friend Sam later that afternoon as they sat cross-legged on the floor in her bedroom. An old leather book lay on the carpet between them. Sophie fiddled with its cover with a sigh.

  “I know he wishes Anthony was the Guardian instead of me.”

  Anthony was Sophie’s twin brother. He and Sophie didn’t get on at all. Anthony hated the fact that Sophie was as good at sports as he was, and just as strong. “Anthony probably would be a better Guardian,” added Sophie glumly.

  “No way!” Sam exclaimed.

  “Yes way.”

  Sam shook his head so hard that his red hair stood up. “Anthony would be a useless Guardian. I bet if he saw one of those Ink Cap Goblins we met the other day, he’d scream and look like this…” He pulled a bug-eyed face. “Or this!” He pulled another face, crossing his eyes and pulling his ears out. “You were really brave, Soph. You fought those goblins and beat them. If it hadn’t been for you, they’d have got away with the green gem.”

  Sophie felt much better. “You were braver than me,” she said generously. “I had my Guardian superpowers to help me fight, but you were just you and you still fought them.”

  Sam shrugged. “Couldn’t leave you to fight them on your own.”

  Sophie glowed. When she had first become the Guardian, Grandpa had told her that no one must know, but Sam had found out by accident and since then he’d been helping her. She was very glad. He was incredibly good at figuring things out, and though he might not be the best at throwing and catching things, he was the best friend in the world, and she knew that he’d never let her down.

  “I think we need superhero names,” Sam declared now. “Actually, you’re OK. You can just be The Guardian. But I need to be called something. I’ll be… I’ll be…” He thought for a moment. “I know! I’ll be Book Boy!”

  Sophie looked at him teasingly. “Book Boy? Oh, yes, I can just see those goblins running away, yelling, ‘No, no, not Book Boy! Don’t let that Book Boy get me!’”

  Sam grinned. “They’ll tell their little baby goblins terrifying stories about me and run for their lives when they hear I’m coming! They will live in fear of The Book Boy!”

  Sophie chucked a large stuffed dragon at him. “Stop messing!”

  He threw it back, but she didn’t even have to duck. It sailed past her shoulder and hit the bin.

  Sophie giggled. “Good throw, Sam – not! Now come on. We have to start looking for clues that tell us where the remaining five gems are hidden.” She opened the book on the floor. It was bound in brown leather with its title on the cover in faded gold letters: The Shadow Files. The pages were very thin, and covered with drawings and notes made by all the different Guardians of the Gateway. There was information about the different shadow creatures they’d each encountered, so that any Guardian coming after would know how best to fight them.

  Sophie flicked through the yellowing pages. “Grandpa says the clues will all be in here somewhere, in case the Guardian ever needs to find the gems.”

  Sam frowned. “What I don’t get is how come your grandpa doesn’t know where the clues are. He’s had the book for fifty years and seems to know it inside out, so why doesn’t he know which pages the clues are on?”

  “Oh, I asked him that when we finished training today,” said Sophie, remembering. “I meant to tell you earlier. Every time a new Guardian takes over, the magic moves the gems, so that they’re hidden in places where the new Guardian will be able to get to them. Then new clues appear magically in the book.”

  Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “So that explains why the green gem was in Mrs Benton’s cottage!”

  Mrs B was the Smiths’ housekeeper. She lived just down the road from Sophie, and the green gem had been hidden in her basement. They had found it on the first day Sophie had become the Guardian.

  Sophie nodded. “I know, I wondered about that too. So now we just have to find the rest of the clues and track down the gems.” She looked down at The Shadow Files and shook her head. “I just wish it wasn’t such a very thick book. There are so many pages to read!”

  Sam grinned and beckoned for the files. “Aha, this is where you need Book Boy. Hand it over!”

  As Sophie pushed it towards him, there was the sound of someone coming up the stairs, half singing, half chanting a rhyme:

  “Boys go to Mars to get lots of cars,

  Girls go to Mars to get lots of bras…”

  Sophie and Sam grimaced at each other. There was no mistaking Sophie’s twin, Anthony.

  “Boys go to Jupiter to get a computer…” Sophie’s door was flung open. Anthony stood there, smirking. “Girls go to Jupiter to get even STUPIDER!”

  “Get out of my room!” Sophie shouted. She’d only just managed to throw her dressing gown over The Shadow Files before her brother saw it.

  “Who’s going to make me get out? Your boyfriend?” Anthony made a kissy-face. He looked like Sophie, with thick blonde hair and a slim, athletic build, but his eyes were different – while Sophie’s were green and friendly, Anthony’s were blue and smug. He put on a sing-song voice: “Sam and Sophie in the lavatory, K-I-S-S-I-N—”

  “OUT!” Sophie shouted, leaping to her feet, her hands balled into fists.

  Anthony jumped out of her reach. Sophie was just as strong as he was, and she practised her tae kwon do a lot more, so she usually beat him in a fight. “My pleasure. I wouldn’t want to hang round with you two losers anyway!” he flung over his shoulder as he ran away.

  Sophie banged the door shut behind him. Why did she have to have a twin brother like Anthony? He’d been even more annoying than usual the last few days. She knew it was because Grandpa was suddenly doing stuff with her, and Anthony was jealous. Ever since she could remember, Grandpa had spent a lot of time with Anthony. Now she knew that he’d only done so because he’d thought Anthony would be the next Guardian. But the magic hadn’t chosen her twin, it had chosen her. The first girl Guardian ever.

  Thinking of Grandpa’s dour expression as he’d helped her train that afternoon, Sophie straightened her shoulders. I’m going to prove to him that I’m just as good a Guardian as Anthony would have been, she promised herself. Better, even!

  “Look, Soph!” Sam shoved the book across the carpet at her. It was open at a drawing of a round, squat creature with big ears that stuck out sideways, huge flat feet and enormous hands. The title was Thunder Trolls. But Sophie wasn’t
reading the title. She was looking at the four-line verse that Sam was pointing to at the bottom of the page. She read it out:

  “High in an old place

  The yellow gem can be found

  Hidden on a dusty shelf

  Strange wares all around.”

  “The yellow gem!” Sophie gasped, meeting her best friend’s excited eyes. “Sam! You’ve found one of the five clues!”

  Sophie and Sam both re-read the clue. “So the yellow gem is hidden on a shelf somewhere old,” mused Sophie, chewing the end of her long blonde ponytail.

  Sam frowned and rubbed his chin. “But loads of buildings around here are old. That doesn’t help.”

  He pointed to the last line. “‘Strange wares all around.’ What does that mean?”

  Sophie made a wild guess. “Maybe wares are things you wear? So the gem might be in a wardrobe, or in a clothes shop…”

  Sam shook his head. “I’m sure ‘wares’ doesn’t mean that. I’ve heard the word before, I just can’t remember what it means.”

  They looked at each other, puzzled. “I know – the dictionary!” Sophie raced for her desk, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Then she remembered that she had let Mrs B have her dictionary for a jumble sale a few months ago, because she never used it. “Oh, how can we work out what it means?”

  “Just keep thinking,” said Sam.

  Sophie thought all afternoon and all evening, but she didn’t come up with any good ideas. She couldn’t even ask Grandpa about it because he was out that night and then went running in the morning. Never mind, she thought as she got ready to leave for school. Sam and I can talk about it today. Maybe he’s found a dictionary and has worked the clue out.

  “Have you got your school bag, Sophie?” checked Mrs Benton. She had grey hair and rosy cheeks.