Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (28 page)

No Data Found.

“
Wybbil
and
c
atch
.
Search now.”

No Data Found
.

“
Hoogula
.
”

In mythology
,
the
Hoogula
is
doomed to ro
a
m below
Tullah
until the end of time
.
Half dog, half devil, a
single silver horn protrudes from his head, and he carries a white feather,
which he
use
s
to tickle unwary travelers to death
.
The
Hoogula
’s duty is to keep
Tullah
ns from finding the
Elboni
Stone
.

“Can’t they get anything right?
”
Glory
complained
.
“Picture of the
Hoogula
.”

No data found.

“Devil-dog.”

Please Narrow The Search Parameters.

“
Don’t do this to me
!
”
She
shook the Sliver in frustration
.
“Cancel. New Search.”

Clash
frowned
.
“Geez,
Glory
.
Don’t have a
hissy
over
a stupid
fairytale
.
I thought you were over this
Hoogula
crap.
”

Glory
sucked in a deep breath
.
The bums
bore little resemblance to
the
Wybbil
in the picture
.
What if they weren’t
Wybbil
s at all, but something else
?
 

“
Trolls
.
”
Since h
er
strange encounters as of late,
s
he felt open to about anything
.
“Search Now.
”

“
Glory
,
”
Clash
interrupted, sounding apologetic
.
“I
need to save free minutes
for homework.”

“Oh
.
”
Glory
reluctantly returned the Sliver.

“What’s the sudden interest in
the
Elboni
and
Wybbil
s
?
You don’t actually believe that
bull
, do ya?”

“I
did when I was little,”
Glory
s
aid
.
“
N
ow I
don’t know wh
at to believe.”

“
E
ven though they’re fun to believe in,
t
hose things aren’t real
.
Everybody knows that.”

Glory
exhaled deeply
.
“You’re right.”

Clash
took a handful of fireballs out of h
is
pocket. “Want one?”

“Sure.”

T
he school bus bumped along
and the two friends played
Space Raiders
, sucking on burning hot fireballs until their eyes watered.

During f
ifth period
,
Glory
reclined in her seat during
astronomy class, gazing up at the planetarium’s star
-
studded ceiling
.
The girl next to her
had fallen asleep
;
d
rool ran down her chin
, collecting in a pool on her shirt
. Ew. A couple of boys were shooting paper balls through their fingers. The smell of nail polish filled the air. Despite all the distractions Mr. Taylor’s every word held extra meaning today. She imagined the universe itself was sending her a message through h
im.

Mr. Taylor
talked about
black holes and dark matter, how science
hadn’t proved they existed yet. Even so
,
there was reason to believe
they did
.
He was
optimistic
that
the proof was out there somewhere
in the great beyond
,
just waiting to be discovered. That’s how
Glory
felt about the
Elboni
and everything that went with it
.
Lack of scientific proof didn’t mean m
agic
wasn’t real,
it just meant
Tullah
didn’t know how to find it
.

Mr. Taylor’s voice was smothered by the
plan hatching in h
er
head
.
As
s
he leaned
back in her chair,
staring into
fake
outer
space,
Glory
felt unexpectedly hopeful. If the midget bums were indeed
Wybbil
s
s
he had been overlooking a tremendous opportunity
.

Wybbil
s had
the
magic
.
Catching one by the toe meant
they’d have to give her whatever she wanted.
It seemed too fantastic to believe,
b
ut
s
he’d seen the magic with h
er
own eyes, felt it with h
er
own body.
One problem though—the
y wore
heavy
boots
.
Would catching a
Wybbil
by a boot instead of an actual toe count
?
She
planned to find out
.

After school
,
Glory
came home to
more snoring. Grandpa was napping in his rocking chair as Nana folded laundry on the couch. George sat in
a
laundry basket
making
vroom
-
vroom
noises.
He leapt
up
when he saw Glory to hug
her
around her legs.

“Love Gwowee,” he said.

She picked him up
and
kiss
ed
both cheeks. “And Gwowee loves George.” Then he struggled to get down. As soon as his feet touched the floor
,
he climbed back into the laundry basket.

“
Me
d
w
ive,”
George
said
with a toothy grin.

“
Don’t forget to signal
,”
Glory
said.
“Hey,
Nana, where is
everybody
?
”

“Your father’s working on the well pump
.
Everybody else
—
w
ho knows.”

 
“Perfect.”
Glory
pressed her palms together like a cartoon
villain
with a dastardly plan.
“
Now I can
begin prepar
ations
for the next bum
...
er,
Wybbil
invasion
without having to answer a bunch of questions.
”