The Badlings

Chapter 22. One Monkey's Mischief

"No." Rusty clasped his face. Soft fur sprouted under his fingers. "No!" he shrieked and jumped to his feet.

"Don't freak out, please. We'll find a way to fix this!" But as she said it, Bells wasn't so sure. She couldn't take her eyes away from Rusty's back where a tail unfolded in a loop. His face darkened to black leather, as did his hands; the rest was overtaken by grey fur.

"It's that monkey," he said, "the one that sat next to me, it scratched me when we started falling!"

A terrible thought struck Bells. She quickly looked over her arms, her legs, then felt her face. "Did it scratch me too? Rusty, tell me, do you see any cuts?"

But Rusty succumbed to panic.

"This is awful!" he shrieked. "Pinch me, I'm dreaming! I want to wake up! Grandma! Grandma, get me out of here!" And he took off.

"Rusty, wait!" Bells dashed after him.

It was useless. Carried forth by his new monkey's agility, Rusty expertly hopped from tree to tree and soon disappeared.

Bells ran a bit more then stopped, blocked by an impassable tangle of vegetation. "That's just great," she muttered. "Why did you have to run, Rusty? How am I going to get through this?"

She peered at the liana that hung down like a green twisting snake, pondering if she should climb it, when a loud noise made her jump and wheel around.

Something smashed into the jungle, something heavy. Then something snorted, and something crunched.

It was the crunch of snow.

A gust of wind chilled the humid air. Bells' skin erupted in goosebumps.

"The Snow Queen," she whispered.

"Bells, look!" came a call from above. "I can climb trees like a monkey!" Rusty didn't resemble himself anymore, save for his tattered clothes. He wrapped his tail around a liana and whizzed down.

"Careful!" cried Bells. "You'll fall like that."

"No, I won't. This is fun!" He scratched his head. "Want to try? I can teach you. It's easy."

"Listen to me," said Bells desperately. "We can't climb trees right now."

Rusty's face wrinkled. "Why not?"

"Because we need to find Grand! And Peacock! And—" She broke off. "Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?" Rusty caught something in his fur and studied it, then quickly put it in his mouth.

"Rusty! Eww! You're not a monkey, you're a boy! We're in Mad Tome. A monkey has scratched you and you replaced it, don't you understand? And the Snow Queen just got here. She's after me. We need to find Grand and Peacock and get back to the duck pond."

Rusty blinked. "The duck pond?"

"Do you want to stay a monkey forever?" asked Bells.

"Totally! Look what I can do!" He scaled the nearest trunk and swung down from a liana, only to climb back up for another go, an amused expression on his leathery face.

Bells clutched her forehead. "You don't change, Rusty, monkey or not." Her words rang out uncomfortably loud. The jungle was silent. "Rusty?" She had a feeling of eyes on her, many pairs of eyes looking down from the canopy of leaves.

"Rusty!"

The branches shook and groaned. Scores of furry arms reached for Rusty at once and grabbed him, stopping his mouth. He struggled, mutely staring at Bells. Dozens of wrinkly faces exactly like his started giggling. It was the monkeys.