Jake & The Giant (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 2) (6 page)

“I’m telling the truth! Some loon-bat in an opera cloak. An investor! He claimed to be a prince.”

“Oh, please,” Henry retorted.
“A prince?”

“He could be tel
ling the truth,” Miss Langesund chimed in cautiously as she now joined them in the
Defense
aisle. “There are a few wealthy investors wandering around here today, and some of them do have royal connections.”

“Whoever he was, he was mad as a hatter,” Jake mumbled, indignant that he should get
in trouble, when he had just saved everyone there from the possibility of a loon-bat on a rampage.

Some thanks!

Henry obviously wasn’t impressed. “Look, Jake, the floor is also cracked. Did you do this, too? Were you playing with the Super Strength Gloves? Tell the truth.”

“It wasn’t me
, I tell ye! Put on the Lie Detector Goggles if you don’t believe me!”

“Maybe I will!” Henry retorted.

“He’s telling the truth!” Isabelle called. She and Dani hurried over to them. Archie wasn’t far behind.

“See? I told you so,” Jake declared.

With her empathic powers, Isabelle was as good as the Lie Detector Goggles. Still, Henry frowned, unsure what to believe.

“T
here was some crazy loon-bat running around here messin’ with all the inventions,” Jake explained, but with Miss Langesund standing there, he couldn’t admit he had used his telekinesis to stop him. “When the gun jammed, I guess he just got bored and wandered off. He’s gone now.”

“Humph,” Henry growled. “You’d better watch your step, young man. I have half a mind not to let you come and see the
Langesunds’ surprise.”

“Miss
Langesund was just about to take us for a private showing of the big discovery she and her father unearthed,” Dani said.

“But if this is how you’re going to behave—” Henry warned.

“Oh, come, Monsieur DuVal, it’s over now, no harm done,” Miss Langesund cajoled him. “I’m sure this can be a boring place for a spirited young lad—except for Master Archie, of course. But now I have something to show you children that you are sure to enjoy.”

Their tutor was still frowning as the bespectacled lady-archeologist beckoned to them. “Come along, children, this way! Prepare yourselves for a marvel.”

“And when we get there,
don’t touch anything
,” Henry added with a pointed look at Jake.

“I won’t!” he said in exasperation.

Then Miss Langesund marched ahead of them; Henry beckoned to the children. With that, they followed her outside and headed across the campus, eager to see the surprise.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Brain Food

Alone in the forest, Snorri sat down to eat a lonely supper. He had trapped a twelve-point buck without much trouble, but for a giant, it was barely an appetizer.

Hungry and grumpy, he sat roasting his venison on the campfire he had mad
e outside the mountain cave he’d chosen for his shelter. He let out a disgruntled sigh, irked at himself. Why was he not happy?

As badly as he had wanted to escape Jugenheim, here he was, far away at last. But he hadn’t even been gone twelve hours yet, and he was
already feeling homesick.

H
e couldn’t help worrying. Who would feed his dear little sheepies, Zero, Chubs, Maxine, and all the others? Who would keep the nasty, sharp-clawed wolverines away from his chicken coop?

And w
hat if Princess Kaia stopped by for a visit, needing to talk to a friend? Who could she confide in if he wasn’t there?

Worst
of all, Snorri barely dared wonder what his punishment might be if the gods found out he had crashed down into man-world. What if Thor heard about it and came and bopped him with his hammer?

Still worr
ying and fretting to himself, Snorri prodded his campfire with a mighty pine branch, when all of a sudden, a crow flapped down onto the log across from him and said, “Hello!”

Snorri was taken aback. “Did you just talk?”

“Of course I did. I was talking to you!”

“Uh, hello.” He blinked in confusion. “
Sorry, no offense. I just didn’t know birds could talk—”
down here in Midgarth,
he had almost added aloud. But fortunately, he had remembered that he wasn’t supposed to be here, so he kept quiet.

“Well, we can,” the crow replied, giving its wings a small flick like a shrug. “We just don’t often choose to. Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

It was Snorri’s turn to shrug. Might as well enjoy some company, since he had no one else to talk to in this strange place. “All right.”

“I was noticing from my perch on the treetops just a moment ago that you seem out of sorts
, and it’s just, well, you’re awfully large. That is—” The bird cocked its head. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Uh, um…duh…” Worried over his trespass into the wrong world being discovered, Snorri stammered incoherently. You nev
er knew when Odin might be watching from his white throne up in Valhalla.

The crow hopped closer and lowered its voice. “I’m just going to put it out there, then. You’re a giant, aren’t you?”

Snorri stifled a gasp. “What gave it away?”

“Don’t worry, it’s all right! You can trust me,” the bird assured him. “I’m not going to tell anyone.” It flicked its tail feathers
, and when it leaned forward with a mischievous sparkle in its tiny black eyes, Snorri noticed that the crow had a sprinkling of white feathers on one side of its jet-black face. “But how did you get here? I thought Jugenheim was sealed off from Midgarth long ago by the gods! Cruel Odin, and hateful Thor!”

“Shh!” Snorri said anxiously. Only a madman spoke of the scary gods like that.

Of course, a little birdie couldn’t be expected to understand that. He cocked his head to the side. “Well, they’re the ones that separated the worlds, aren’t they? At least that’s what I’ve heard,” he added innocently.

“Yes, tha
t’s what they say, though it happened long before I was born,” Snorri told him. Indeed, the friendly little creature was so easy to talk to that Snorri couldn’t help himself.

He heaved a sigh and told the curious bird the whole story of how
Prince Gorm had made him miserable back in Jugenheim, how Princess Kaia would never see him as anything more than a friend, and how her father, fierce King Olaf, was probably going to make her marry Gorm the bully, then Gorm would be their next king.

King Olaf didn’t have any sons, just a daughter. That was Kaia, and it was not the giants’ way to let a lady be the king.

Absorbed in sharing his tale of woe, Snorri recounted to the bird how he had been stewing on all this as he cleared the rocks from his sheep meadow; how he had popped that big boulder out of the ground and accidentally made a hole; and how he had fallen so far out of the great Tree into Midgarth.

As sunset blazed in the west, he poured out his heart abou
t his misery living in Giant Land and his homesick feelings now—how he couldn’t win either way, and how back home, everyone thought he was a dunce.

The bird listened in sympathy, hopping about, asking a few th
oughtful questions, and listening patiently. Snorri thought him very kind.

D
one with his tale at last, he poked the fire despondently. The bird walked back and forth across the log in thought.

It ruffled its feathers as it came to some conclusion, and then it looked straight at him. “Snorri,” it said, “I can fix all this.
I mean it. I can help you.”

“You can?”

“You’d better believe it, friend! Crows are especially clever, you know, and giants, well, it’s no secret that giants—aren’t. It’s not your fault, of course. Odin made you that way. But I can help! In fact, I already have a plan that could change your life forever!”

“Really?” he exclaimed.

“And if you do exactly as I say,” the crow informed him, “you can return to Jugenheim a hero!”

“Me? A hero?” Snorri asked in wonder.

“Not just a hero, a king!” the bird declared. “Snorri, you are a giant of destiny! They’re wrong to underestimate you, all wrong! You deserve better than this—and if you listen to me, you shall have better. With my help, you can live up to your full potential! Then they’ll be sorry.”

“You really think so?”

The bird hopped up and down in excitement. “I do! With my help, you’ll show them all just how smart you really are! You’ll defeat this Gorm fellow, and you’ll be the one to marry Princess Kaia, not him. In fact, if you follow my instructions, I can make you the next King of Giant Land!”

“Me…?” Snorri could barely imagine it. “How?” he asked eagerly.

“Ah, ah, not so fast,” the crow warned with a sly gleam in its black button eyes. “If I tell you how to do it, you have to promise me something in return.”

“What
? Anything!” he said, slightly breathless with excitement and newfound hope.

“Oh, just a little favor,” said the crow. “Nothing for now, of course. But later, when you’re the King of the Giants, let’s just say
you’ll owe me one. I may need your help one day, and I just need to know that I’ll be able to call on you if that day should ever come.”

“For what?” he asked.

“Who knows?” the bird replied with another innocent-seeming twitch of its wings. “Hard to say. You never know what might come up. But giants can do things that other people can’t. Can’t they?”

“That is true,” Snorri said proudly. Giants might not be the smartest folk, but they were strong, and most of them were brave to the point of recklessness.

Like Gorm.

Just ask poor Old Smokey, the
rather elderly dragon who was continuously pestered by young male giants out to prove their manhood.

Snorri rapped his fist against his chest like Gorm and his bully friends would. “We are a warrior people!”

“Yes, I know,” the bird murmured. “And if you ever had a proper leader, you’d be an unstoppable force. So, then, do we have a deal, my friend?”

Snorri was barely paying attention, carried away with heroic imaginings of himself putting Prince Gorm in his place and winning the heart of Princess Kaia.

“Well?”

“Bird,
if you can make this happen, certainly! You’ve got yourself a deal!”

“Good, then. Done! Now, you’d better not forget your promise, Snorri. When someone crosses me, t
here’s a price to be paid. Consequences.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” he said impatiently, though he wondered what the bird could possibly do to him. Peck him? He brushed the thought aside. “
I’ll do my part if you’ll do yours. So, how do I win Kaia and become king? What’s the plan?” he asked eagerly.

The crow’s yellow beak almost seemed to curve into a sly smile. “First, we’re going to make you a potion to drink. It has some very specific ingredients that are usually hard to get, but we happen to be in luck. A quantity of this ingredient happens to be nearby. Now, once you drink this potion, then, ha, ha!—you will be transformed into the smartest giant that ever was! A giant
genius!
”

Snorri absorbed this information in awe. “What’s the special ingredient?” he asked in a reverent hush.

The crow told him.

Snorri’s shaggy eyebrows shot upward in surprise. “Come again?”

“Geniuses,” the crow repeated firmly. “Eight or nine of them at least. We need their brains.”

Snorri st
ared at him in shock. “You mean…in their heads?”

“Yes, in their heads, you great goose! The brains mu
st be pureed and stirred with a whisk, then dried to a powder and combined with a few more ingredients, mostly mundane. Feverfew and dewdrops, a little eye of newt. That sort of thing.”

“
I see…”

“Come now, are you a
fearsome warrior giant or not?” the bird asked crossly, seeing his hesitation. “You’re supposed to be mighty and ferocious. Can you even roar?”

“Of course I can roar, when I feel like it,” he said defensively. “But I didn’t
really come here to kill anyone.”

“Oh, so now you’re being
judgmental! If you’re too much of a goody two-shoes for my plan—”

“I’m not!”

“So, we need some human brains. So what? As a bird, I don’t usually like this saying, but if you want to make an omelet, then you’ve got to break some eggs.”

“Or skulls, in this case.”

“Genius skulls, exactly. But no worries, if it’s not worth a crown to you, along with the heart of your true love, then never mind! I don’t want to bother you—”

“No, no,
of course I’ll do it! I’ll catch them, like you said.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Snorri muttered. “I was just—a little surprised, that’s all.”

“All right then. Eight or nine
geniuses, as I said.” The crow finally seemed satisfied. “Keep them in your traps until it’s time. Remember, look for the ones with the crazy hair. If they have spectacles and a bowtie, even better. That’s the smartest kind. Especially if they’re talking to themselves.”

Snorri mumbled the instructions under his breath, doing his best to memorize all the bird’s points about where to go to reach the University down the mountain, and what sort of men to grab.

“Have you got all that, Snorri?”

“Yes, bird.”

“Good. Now, be careful! And don’t let these scientists catch you. You’re going to have to be stealthy,” the crow warned. “If they get hold of you first, they’ll do horrid experiments on you. As much as I might want to help you if that happens, I won’t be able to. Or certain gods might find out,” the bird added discreetly.

“Uhh, I understand,” Snorri rumbled. “Can’t have that.” The bird sure didn’t seem to like the gods.

“No, we can’t. So when you catch these men with the big brains, just keep them in their cages until I come back. Once you have the full amount needed, then we’ll make the potion. Good luck,” the crow added. It spread its jet-black wings and flapped into the air, disappearing among the trees.

Snorri was left standing alone by his campfire, barely able to contain his excitement about his change of fortunes.
King
Snorri…?

That had a nice ring
!

His earlier doubts about catching people and turning their brains into powder faded with surprising speed as he let his imagination bask in the glow of his newfound dreams.

Kaia by his side, a crown on his head, and all the other giants finally forced to show him some respect.

That bird better keep up his end of the bargain,
Snorri thought as he got to work building wooden cages to hold his future captives. For as anxious as he was to get home to Princess Kaia and his dear sheepies, there was no time to waste.

Gorm was wrong!
He wasn’t a loser, he was a giant of destiny, and he’d start catching geniuses tonight.