Chapter 1: The Bad News

Elisabeth was washing Twilight, her horse, when she saw Timothy running towards her.

“Timothy, what’s wrong? You mostly walk everywhere,” said Elisabeth.

Timothy stopped when he reached her, and then said, “I have terrible news. Martha has been taken by Jackson.”

“I thought Jackson was on vacation. Remember the note his crow brought to us instead of flying to his grandmother’s,” said Elisabeth.

“I know it is strange,” said Timothy.

There was a pause for about a minute, until they started thinking that what if it was a false message.

Then Elisabeth said, “We need to tell Mukala. She will take care of this.”

So they got on their horses to tell Mukala.

When they got to her house, they saw a cat sitting on the front porch.

“Muffy!” cried Elisabeth. Muffy ran to her and let Elisabeth pick her up.

“She acts more like a dog,” thought Timothy.

Just then the front door opened, and Muffy jumped out of Elisabeth’s hands and ran inside. Mukala ran to Elisabeth and hugged her.

“I’m so happy to see you!” said Mukala.

“I’m sorry to break up the party, but I have terrible news. Martha has been taken by Jackson,” said Timothy. “She and I were in the forest, and she saw some berries and went to them. Just then I saw a rope on the ground that Martha was heading towards. ‘Martha, stop! It’s a trap!’ I said, but it was too late. She stepped right into it. It pulled her leg, and she flew into the air. Right when I was going to cut the rope with my knife, a tranquilizer bolt flew right into my arm. I was asleep until this morning. I looked up where Martha had been, and she was gone! I ran to Elisabeth and told her about it.”

Everyone was quiet, and then Mukala said, “Let’s go tell Lilly and Nathan about this.”

So they told Lilly and Nathan. Then they all agreed to go find Martha to rescue her!