When Weirdos Write: Kidnapped

When Weirdos Write: Kidnapped

Beth woke up and opened her eyes. She didn’t get up, but lay with her face towards the wall, thinking. She knew that she was going to do something exciting today, but she could not think what. Beth closed her eyes and fell asleep again. She dreamed that she was flying through the air, supported by a huge gleaming badge. She woke up again with a start. She had suddenly remembered what she was going to do today, because her dream had reminded her. Beth leapt out of her bunkbed and shook Grace awake.

“Wake up, wake up!” she shouted. “We have another meeting today, I just remembered!”

Grace yelped and sat up suddenly, so that her head collided with the top of the bunkbed.

“Ouch.” She moaned, rubbing her head.

But Beth didn’t hear her. She was already running downstairs into the kitchen. Alex was sitting at the table, packing his backpack.

“There you are!” He said as Beth skidded to a halt in front of him.

Grace came into the room rubbing her head. She was holding two backpacks.

“Here you are Beth.” She said to her, handing over a turquoise bag with the When Weirdos Write (WWW) logo emblazoned on the front. Beneath it, there was a delicately stitched picture of a barn owl.

Beth took the bag and put her lunchbox inside it. She attached her WWW badge to her chest.

“Thanks for the lunch mum!” Beth called outside, where her mum was eating breakfast.

Then, she stuffed a notebook, pencil case, book, first-aid set and walkie-talkie into her backpack.

“Right, we need to go.” Alex said, swinging his own green backpack onto his back and walking out the door.

Beth and Grace called goodbye to their mum, and then followed Alex.

They walked up the stairs onto the roof and ran to the end of it looking around to check that they were alone. Then, all three of them ducked under a tent that was set up on the roof. Grace crouched down and the others followed her lead.

“One, two, three!” Beth whispered.

They all screwed their eyes shut. Beth could feel the familiar sensation of her arms slowly transforming into feathered wings, her toes curling and thinning into claws, and her nose and mouth contracting and changing into a pointed beak. Soon, the transformation was complete. Beth looked down. She was completely unrecognizable. She was now a barn owl. Beth looked around at the others. Grace was already licking her fur, and Alex was scuttling around the tent, his spikes bristling. There were only two things that gave away the fact that they were actually humans under their disguises: one, that they could still talk, and two, that they did not eat each other.

“Mudga and William should be arriving soon. Do you know if Giving Tree will be coming with them?” The tabby cat asked.

“No, we will go and pick him up.” The hedgehog answered.

Beth the barn owl, Grace the tabby cat, and Alex the hedgehog walked, and in Beth’s case, flew outside the tent and hopped onto the wall. Beth had to pick Alex up with her claws, as he was too small      to get up on his own.

Five minutes later, Beth could see a speck flying towards them in the distance. The speck came nearer and nearer until they could just make out the shape of an eagle. Flying behind the eagle was a sleek peregrine falcon. Mudga landed on the wall next to them.

“Sorry I’m late.” The eagle apologized.

“Don’t worry.” Grace said. “Are you ready to go?”

Grace climbed onto Mudga’s feathered eagle back and shuddered.

“I never like this ride.” She said, as her claws clenched on the joints of Mudga’s wings.

“Hey, ouch!” Mudga squawked. “Please don’t claw me!”

“Sorry!”

Alex climbed onto Beth’s back and sat huddled in the sling that was slung around her neck. Next to her, William spread his blue-grey wings and took off. Beth followed, and Mudga took up the rear. Beth could hear Grace meowing in protest.

“We really need to create something that Grace can sit in! I’m sure I’ve got millions of scars from where Grace has cut me with her claws!” Mudga complained over the howling of the wind.

“Don’t pretend I enjoy it any more than you do.” Grace grumbled.

Beth grinned (or at least she tried to, it’s hard to grin when you are an owl). Mudga and Grace grumbled every time. Suddenly Beth winced. Alex had curled up into a ball and his spikes were sticking through the sling into Beth’s back.

Half an hour later, Mudga swerved and dived towards a rooftop looming bigger below them. Beth and the others followed, touching down lightly onto a flat roof. Grace jumped gratefully off Mudga’s back onto the roof. Alex rolled off Beth’s back in a tight prickly ball. Grace meowed loudly to tell Giving Tree that they were there. In two minutes, he came out of the door and onto the roof, swinging his khaki coloured backpack onto his back.

“Hi everyone!” He said.

Then, he screwed his eyes shut and began to transform. Within 20 seconds he was a magnificent kingfisher. Giving Tree stretched out his wings and took off. He circled around the other animal’s heads twice, then landed on his claws.

“Where are we going to have our meeting this time?” The kingfisher asked.

“I thought we could go to the top of the Rixos Hotel.” Alex suggested as he climbed into the sling on Beth’s back.

Everyone agreed and so they took off.

Beth landed onto the top of the Rixos Hotel and let Alex out. William landed beside her and shook out his feathers. Once everyone had landed, they all squeezed their eyes shut and transformed back into their human state. Beth flopped down onto the floor and opened her backpack.

“It’s exhausting flying so much!” She remarked.

“Yeah!” William agreed.

Everyone pulled out their notebooks and pens and flipped them open.

“Right, did we finish the story we were last writing?” Grace asked.

“Yes we did. Except we didn’t read it out, there wasn’t any time.” Giving Tree replied. “Who wants to read it out now?”

“We can all read a chapter each.” Beth replied. “I’ll start.”

Beth took out a book titled, ‘The Misfortunes of Mr. Blake.’ It was a very small book, and had been handwritten by all the members of WWW.

“Mr. Blake was mowing his garden and trying to read the newspaper at the same time.” Beth read. “He was a very old man and his face was as lined as if somebody had crumpled it up in their fist. He had a bad leg that he had injured in the war, so he had to use a walking stick to get around. His neighbours had suggested many times that he should get a carer to look after him in his old age, but he had adamantly refused, saying that he was perfectly capable to get around on his own, without some random person looking after him.”

Mudga was reading chapter five of the book:

“As Mr Blake continued his shouting match with Sophia, his walking stick suddenly...”

But she broke off. Mudga had heard something.

“What is it?” Alex and William asked at the same time.

But Beth had heard it too. By looking around at the others, she could tell that they had just heard it too. She stared around at the others, terrified. Beth knew perfectly well that they probably shouldn’t be up at the top of a five star hotel without permission. The voices they had heard were getting louder. They were gruff male voices, and they were coming nearer every moment.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Grace whispered urgently, her eyes wide. “They will be here any moment, so we need to scarper!”

She hurriedly shoved all her things into her backpack, zipped it up, and put it on.

Everyone copied her. The voices were now apparently at the top of the stairs. Beth squeezed her eyes shut. Again, she felt the familiar sensation that happened every time she transformed. This time however, she wished that she would become a barn owl quicker. The tingling that ran through her body seemed to be ten times slower. Finally, she opened her eyes and stretched her wings out wide. Beth heard the bolt on the door to the roof of the hotel slide back.

“Quick, quick!” Beth called frantically. Thankfully, everyone had transformed and Alex was now climbing into the sling on Beth’s back. Finally, Grace was clinging to Mudga’s back, Alex was tucked safely in Beth’s sling, and Giving Tree and William were stretching their wings and cawing impatiently.

“Let’s go!” Giving Tree whispered, as the men behind the door managed to push it open.

“Hey, get them!” The stouter of the men shouted.

Beth lifted into the air. The others all followed.

“Seriously? They are only animals!” The other man answered, shaking his head.

“Ok, how often do you see a tabby cat riding on the back of an eagle?” The first man argued.

Suddenly, without warning, the man lunged at Mudga. He managed to catch hold of her claw and Mudga shrieked in protest. Grace meowed, and almost slipped off! Giving Tree lunged and swiped his claw at the man’s face. The man howled in pain and clutched at his face, letting go of Mudga. They all took off, Grace wedged tightly between the wing joints of Mudga’s back. Giving Tree took the lead and they all followed, having no idea where he might take them.

Less than ten minutes later, they all landed in a park some way off from the hotel.

“Phew! That was close!” Beth exclaimed, squeezing her eyes shut, about to transform.

“No! Don’t change yet!” William shouted. “There are people around, I’m sure they will notice if one moment there is a barn owl and the next there is a human girl.”

Beth agreed, and then noticed Grace. She was cowering under a tree and looking very ill. Beth hopped over to her. Grace was trembling very hard and was trying to stay upright. Beth knew that flying, plus almost falling off and getting caught, was a bit overwhelming. Beth nudged her gently with her beak, to try and keep her upright.

“Come on, let’s go to the bathroom, we can transform there, then have our lunch. After that we should probably go home.”

Grace nodded and stood shakily to her feet. Beth guided her to the bathrooms, and Mudga followed.

After transforming, they ate their lunch under a tree. They all chatted happily about what had happened. Then, they all agreed that it was time to go home. They changed back into animals in the bathrooms, and met back outside. When Beth flew out of the bathroom into a tree, and Mudga joined her, she saw that Alex was the only other one there. Looking around, she saw Giving Tree and William come and perch in the tree beside them. Then, Grace came bounding back into view. Beth was about to hop down to let Alex into her sling, when a small boy walked towards him. He knelt down and looked at Alex closely, who had not noticed anything, as he was looking up at Beth expectantly. Beth clicked her beak warningly and jerked her head in the direction of the boy. Alex looked around, but too late. The boy reached out his chubby hands and picked Alex up! Alex squealed and curled into a ball. Beth was not too worried, as long as Alex was put down again, everything would be fine. But, the little boy put his face as close as possible to Alex’s spines and said, “My Mummy won’t let me keep you is she sees you! And so, I’m going to hide you till I get home!” He was about to pocket Alex, but said, “You need a name! Hmm, I will call you… Spiky!” The boy looked delighted at his genius, and put Alex in his pocket with a grin. Then, he bounded off.

Beth turned to the others.

“What do we do?” She demanded, terror etched in every feather of her face.

Grace meowed up at them and beckoned with her paw. They all rose into the air, and followed her from a height. They watched as she ran up to the boy and blocked his path. They boy stopped and stared at her, his head to one side. Then he stepped to the left, as if seeing what would happen. Again Grace blocked his path. The little boy stepped to the right. Again Grace blocked his path. He whined in frustration. He moved side to side, trying to get past, but Grace did not let him. He was getting really annoyed now. Suddenly, Grace lunged for the little boy’s pocket. He screamed as he was knocked flat onto his back, Grace scrabbling inside the twitching pocket for Alex. Then there were footsteps. A lady screamed and ran forwards to the boy. She swatted Grace away, screaming for her son, then picked the boy up and kissed him all over. However, Alex was still kidnapped. Grace looked up at William, Beth, Mudga and Giving Tree and nodded. Somehow they all knew what to do. None of them wanted to hurt, but would do whatever it took to rescue Alex. Giving Tree, being the smallest of the three birds, dived for the pocket. Mudga dived for the woman’s head. The woman screamed again and tottered on her high heels.  They were starting to draw a crowd. Although she stayed up, William swooped down at her and then swerved just in time so that they would not collide. It worked. The lady fell flat on her face and dropped her son. The boy reached into his pocket screaming and held

out Alex.

 “Eat him! Eat him! Not me and Mummy! Not me and Mummy! Eat him instead!”

Beth was relieved. She swooped down and caught Alex in her claws, then flew away to a very high tree. The others followed and flew into other trees so as not to catch attention to themselves, which was proving impossible as an eagle, kingfisher, barn owl and peregrine falcon were not usually seen around this place. Grace slunk into a bush below them and transformed back into her human form. Alex was dropped carefully into the bush by Beth, where he transformed. Beth hopped into the thickest part of the tree, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and then transformed. When she had turned back into a human, Beth toppled off balance and crashed to the ground off the branch she had been sitting on. She lay there, her brown hair fanned out around her. Beth hauled herself up with a groan. She tried to stand up, but yelped in pain and fell down again, clutching her ankle.

“I think it might be broken.” She groaned to the others, who had all transformed and were now crouching around her.

“Oh dear, what should we do?” Mudga asked as she examined Beth’s foot. “Are you sure you can’t walk on it?”

Beth shook her head dolefully.

“Allrighty then!” Mudga exclaimed, and with Grace’s help they hauled Beth to her feet.

“Will you be able to fly if you transform?” William asked her.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Beth answered. And with the other’s help she hid behind a bush and transformed. Beth rose into the air and was delighted to find that she could fly. Mudga lifted the sling off Beth’s back.
“I think William should carry Alex instead today.” She said wisely.

Beth clucked her beak and flew off in the direction of the others. She tried to land but fell over again.

“You should probably stay in the air.” Grace said, swinging the sling onto the now transformed peregrine falcon. She picked up Alex the hedgehog and placed him into the sling. It was now getting late, and almost everybody had gone home, so the rest of them transformed where they were. Grace jumped onto Mudga’s back, and they all took off.

Beth landed on the roof, exhausted. She wasn’t even strong enough to transform so just lay there, her leg twisted underneath her, throbbing with pain. Grace and Alex changed back into human form and hurried over to help her. As they lifted Beth up, she squeezed her eyes shut and transformed. Than with Grace’s help, she hobbled downstairs to her Mum. Alex closed the roof door behind them just as the sun disappeared. Beth limped into the kitchen, where her Mum and Dad were both making supper. Beth’s Dad whirled around and ran over to her. He picked her up and lay her down on the dushak. Beth’s Mum hurried over and examined her foot.

“Oh dear, oh dear. Where have you been all this time? You have been away for ages, we’ve been worried sick!” She exclaimed ecstatically.  

“Sorry, it’s been a long meeting.” Grace replied.

Beth’s mum tutted as she cleaned and bandaged Beth’s ankle.

“Well, hopefully that will heal soon enough.” She said, standing up.

As they all sat down at the kitchen table, Beth smiled to herself. Despite my ankle, she thought, that was a wonderful adventure, and the best meeting yet!

The End