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Chapter 1: The Cottage on the Hill

I live in a little town called Pigbone.

Its full name is Pigbone-East-of-the-Mountains. I don't know if there is a Pigbone-West-of-the-Mountains. How could I? No one in our town ever goes anywhere.

"Why should we go somewhere else, Edward?" said my mother every time I complained about this. "We have everything we need right here."

I disagreed. What we didn't have was excitement.

Mother and I live in a little cottage at the edge of town.

Everyone in Pigbone lives in a cottage.

The only other kids in Pigbone are two older boys, who are kind of mean, and one new baby. So until Moongobble showed up, I sometimes got pretty lonely.

Behind our cottage is a big hill, very steep.

On top of the hill, right at the edge, sits another cottage, so big it's almost a house. It even has a kind of tower.

A long, twisty path winds up to this cottage, which had been empty for as long as I could remember. This cottage was where I went when I wanted to be alone. In fact, I spent so much time there I almost felt as if it belonged to me. So I was surprised, and a little upset, the day I saw smoke curling out of its chimney.

I ran to my mother.

"Someone has moved into the empty cottage!" I cried.

"Ignore it, Edward," she said. She wiped her hands on her apron and turned back to what she was cooking.

Mother was always cooking or washing or something. Sometimes I could help. Sometimes she just wanted me to get out of the way.

I decided this was a good time to get out of the way.

I also decided that the most out-of-the-way place I could get was up the hill.

I started up the narrow path that led to the cottage. The grass beside the path was as high as my shoulders. Bugs buzzed around me. The sun was warm. I started to sweat.

When I was about halfway up the hill, I turned to look down at Pigbone. I counted the cottages. Fifteen, just like always. Our cottage was the closest. The one farthest away-the biggest and nicest one-belonged to the Rusty Knight.

I started to climb again.

I was out of breath by the time I got to the top.

I had planned to go right up to the cottage door and ask who was living there. Then I saw something that slowed me down. Bursts of green light were coming out of the window!

I decided to do some sneaking. This was something I had practiced a lot, so I was very good at it.

Dropping to my knees, I crawled toward the cottage. I moved very quietly.

As I got closer, I heard voices.

"You know that's not going to work," said one voice. It was deep and raspy.

"Don't be so gloomy!" said the other voice. It was softer and had a friendly sound.

"I'm not gloomy," said the first voice. "I'm honest."

I crept closer. Soon I was just beneath the window.

Vines covered the side of the cottage. Using the vines for support, I lifted my head to peek over the windowsill.

I couldn't believe what I saw!

Copyright © 2003 by Bruce Coville