The ground below Nim’s tree burst open and Mandrake emerged, sitting atop a star-nosed mole.

“Excuse me, but I’ve lost something very dear to me,” he said mockingly. “It was left by a friend who’s—” Then he spotted Mub and Grub with the pod. “You found it!”

“If you want to take this pod, you’re going to have to go through us,” Mub declared.

“Relax,” said Mandrake. “I’m not going to hurt it. I need it alive.”

Grub put his hands on his hips. “Well, we’re the only ones who know how to keep it that way.”

Mandrake smiled cruelly. “Thanks for the tip,” he said, gesturing to his Boggan guards who grabbed Mub and Grub as he took the pod. They tossed the slug and the snail aboard the mole, and Mandrake spurred the animal back into its tunnel.

Ronin arrived a few seconds too late to do anything. He spotted Nod and M.K. entering through the window. Furious, Ronin stormed up to Nod and berated him for leaving the pod unattended.

In Mandrake’s lair, Mub and Grub huddled in a corner with the pod, surrounded by Boggans. Mandrake stood over them as he was giving a speech. He raised a spearlike object, and then Mub and Grub screamed.

“Please, stop!” begged Mub, in agony.

“My son was born on a night like this,” Mandrake told them while holding a spiny nut he used as a memory box. He pulled out a set of pointy teeth. “These were his baby fangs. And here’s the first skin he ever molted . . .”

“Your stories are boring and torturous!” Mub cried out.

Mandrake’s eyes narrowed. “The Leafmen took my son from me. So I took something from them. It’s basic etiquette: an eye . . .” He poked Grub in his eyestalk.

“Ow!” shouted Grub.

“. . . for an eye,” Mandrake finished, poking Mub in his eyestalk.

“Ow!” Mub moaned.

Mandrake sneered. “Tonight, your pod will bloom here. And what blooms in darkness, belongs to the darkness. So, soon I’ll have another little dark prince. I’ll destroy the forest with the very thing you hoped would save it.”

“I hate to break it to you,” said Grub. “But it doesn’t say that in the scrolls.”

A wicked smile crossed Mandrake’s face. “It does in the part I have.” He held up the piece of the scroll that was missing from Nim’s.

Mub and Grub looked at each other. They knew they were in trouble, that the pod was in trouble, and they had no idea what to do next!