CHAPTER FOURTEEN 
CHAPTER FOURTEEN 
DID YOU HEAR THAT?!” Jonah asked Malcolm nervously. “Is someone in trouble?”
Malcolm gulped. “I hope it wasn’t trouble that made that scream.” The two looked about, frightened and confused. The sun’s rays reached over the treetops, brightening the red and yellow leaves that drifted to the ground. “Let’s keep moving.”
“Hoo, hoo! Move to the place where you must race. Hoo hoo!” They looked up at a large, brown horned-owl staring straight ahead. “Hoo, hoo! Go and go slowly, for it’s coming fast! Hoo, hoo!”
“Uh, look, my name’s Malcolm and this is Jonah.”
“Hoo, hoo! Not the one you claim, not the one you believe! Hoo, hoo!”
“Owl, do you know where the kingdom is?”
“Hoo, hoo! Do you know where you are? Hoo, hoo! For you’re not standing on the forest floor! Hoo, hoo!”
“What in the world is he talking about?”
“Hoo, hoo! The travelers’ feet, the ground you don’t meet. Hoo, hoo!” The owl stretched and lightly flapped its wings.
“Don’t ask me!” Jonah said. “I can’t understand a thing he’s saying.”
The owl cleared his throat. “Ahem…Look below you!! Hoo, hoo!”
Malcolm and Jonah slowly looked down. There was no grass under their feet, and no weeds or leaves—only a crispy, almost transparent black skin. Malcolm froze. To their left and right the long skin extended past the trees. He scurried up a sycamore and looked down. The pug stood on the shed skin of a nearly fifty-foot-long snake. Thunk! Jonah watched Malcolm faint and fall from the tree, dropping into a pile of leaves.
“Malcolm!” The dog ran to him. “Are you alright?”
The raccoon rubbed the back of his head, stunned. “Yeah…I’m okay. But the forest isn’t.”
“Hoo, hoo! The forest is stirring, the monster’s about!”
“Malcolm, what is it?” Jonah looked scared.
“It…it’s a snake!” The two examined the enormously long skin on the ground.
Jonah gasped. “Where—?”
“Underneath you…”
Jonah jumped in fright.
“No, it’s just the skin. It shed its skin here.” Malcolm grabbed it with both hands.
Jonah looked closely and suddenly it was obvious what it was. He looked at both ends of what seemed to be a snake skin with no head or tail, disappearing into the trees. “Whoa! Huh…How big is this thing?!”
“I don’t know exactly, but—”
“Hoo, hoo! The myth or the monster? Hoo, hoo!” Jonah reached for an itch behind his ear and the owl spotted his black foot. “It’s you! Hoo, hoo!” He jumped out of his nest and spread his large wings, soaring down to the dog and raccoon.
Malcolm readied himself, thinking the owl was coming to attack. But the bird landed in front of them, kicking up a pile of fallen leaves. “You! You’re the…uh, I mean, Hoo, hoo! The one, they say, the one who…” The frustrated owl sighed. “Ah, who am I kiddin’? You’re King Pugsly’s son!” Jonah and Malcolm exchanged a glance. “Am I right?” The owl stared at them. “Oh, c’mon, you can’t hold out on me now!” His eyes opened wide.
“Uh…y-yes, I am,” Jonah said hesitantly.
“I knew it! Ha! Only the son of King Pugsly could have one black foot like yours.” The owl laughed.
Malcolm was curious. “Hey, why are you talking, uh… normal to us now?”
“Oh,” he snorted. “Ummmm…because this is how I talk.”
Malcolm put his nose in the air. “Well then what was all that…” He flapped his arms against his sides and darted his head around. “Hoo, hoo, race to the place of the chase…with a face, hoo, hoo, hoo!”
“Oh, tee-hee, yeah…” The owl blushed. “I don’t know. I guess I just get a kick out of making people think.”
“Think about what–how dumb you sound?” Malcolm frowned.
“Well, it works!” Jonah said.
“Look, fellas, we shouldn’t be hanging around here too long. That scream wasn’t far away.”
“Whose scream was it?” Jonah asked.
The owl pointed at the giant snake skin with his wing. “That.”
Jonah gasped. “That?”
“Yeah… that.”
Malcolm put two and two together. “And I guess that would be—”
“It,” the owl finished.
“Farangis?” Macolm gasped.
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think so.”
“I haven’t gone back to the barn since I left the others, so maybe he is still alive!”
The owl stared at the shed skin. “No one has seen this monster and lived, but you can sure hear it move through the woods…and smell it! Boy you can smell it from far away! Even those of us in the trees aren’t safe.”
Jonah cleared his throat. “My name is Jonah, and this is Malcolm.”
“Forrest.” The owl nodded.
“Forrest, we need to find the kingdom, and quickly from the way it sounds. Can you help us?” Malcolm asked.
“I can’t lead you there—it’s time for me to go to sleep. But head west through the pastures. Once the evergreen trees start to get scarce, look for a tall hedge tree standing all alone. If you reach the road then you’ve traveled too far. There will be a hole in the ground not far from that tree. That is where the kingdom is.”
“Thank you, Forrest,” Malcolm bowed.
“My pleasure. Oh, and if you don’t mind, let’s keep this little secret about me talking to you to ourselves.” He winked at the two.
Jonah smiled. “We can do that.”
“You’d better hurry and warn the others. If that was indeed it we heard screaming, it sounded mad! Hoo, hoo!” The owl flew over the trees. Jonah and Malcolm had a long journey ahead of them.