Back at Nim’s oak, Ronin continued to berate Nod for leaving the pod. “Stay with the pod, that is all you had to do!”

“Yeah, but I just thought that—” Nod started to respond when Ronin continued, “Do you ever think about anyone besides yourself?”

M.K. stood up and took responsibility. “It wasn’t all his fault,” she said. “The queen gave it to me and I should have been with it.”

“And you,” Ronin said to M.K. “I expected as much from him, but I thought you would know better.”

“We’re really sorry,” said Nod. “Okay, we just—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Ronin said. “That was the last part of the queen that I—that any of us may ever have.”

“I will do whatever it takes to help you get it back,” M.K. promised him.

“I appreciate the enthusiasm,” said Ronin as he saddled his bird. “But Wrathwood is too dangerous.”

“You can’t go alone,” she insisted. “What about the whole leaves and tree thing that you said? Nim! Tell him!”

Nim tried to be reassuring. “Look, kid, the moon’s almost up. That’s bloom-or-die time. So if no one has a better plan—”

“What if we sneak in, in disguise?” Nod suggested.

Ronin laughed and said sarcastically, “Great idea. I’ll go as a grasshopper, and you can be my cricket lady friend.” Then he added, “I don’t have any Boggan armor handy, do you?”

M.K. piped up. “I know where we can get some.” She then hopped on a bird and grabbed the reins. As Nod jumped on behind her, she said, “You might want to hang on.”

M.K. spurred the bird into flight, a little shaky at first, but eventually got the hang of it. Nod held on tight, and Ronin followed behind, unsure of how he felt about the plan.

A short time later, M.K., Ronin, and Nod peered through the window of M.K.’s father’s house.

“Over there,” M.K. said, pointing to a display across the room. Boggan artifacts lined the shelves.

M.K. squeezed through the barely opened window, and Ronin and Nod followed.

From their perspective, the house was huge. To M.K., especially, it seemed like a brand-new place.

But there was no time to explore. They needed to get across the room to the shelves. Ronin leaped off the windowsill first.

Nod, wanting to show off, slid down an open tape measure, used the padded desk chair as a trampoline, and grabbed a cable to swing himself to the base of the shelves.

“Come on,” he urged M.K.

She smiled, finally confident in her new size and skills. She stretched like an athlete, gave herself a running start, and jumped.

But she wasn’t quite as successful as Nod. Instead, she bounced off the objects that Nod skillfully sprang from, logrolled on a couple of pencils, and ultimately landed with a thud on her bottom.

“That was awesome. Here,” said Nod, extending his hand to help her up.

M.K. was embarrassed as she took his hand. Then she looked down to see her right leg was covered in a dust bunny—hair, lint, and other yucky stuff. She kicked at it, but it wouldn’t come off. “Ew! That is some static cling!”

The more she tried to rub it off, the more static it became. She reached to brace herself on the metal wheel of the desk chair.

Nod shouted, “No, that’s metal, don’t touch tha—”

BLAM!

Because of her small size, the second M.K. touched the metal, the static shock blew her backward. She was out of the dust bunny, but her hair stood at attention.

Nod went to help her up again and received a little residual zap when he grabbed her hand. “Ow!”

“Knock it off,” Ronin said seriously.

Nod and M.K. looked up to see Ronin already on the shelf above them. They climbed up to join him and took a closer look. They were amazed by what they saw: There were Boggan and Jinn artifacts all over the shelf, including bird-skull helmets and bat-skin clothes.

“You know, some of this stuff looks familiar,” said Nod. “Hey!” He pulled a saddle down. “That’s my saddle! Where are we?”

Suddenly, there was a BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

They turned to see M.K.’s father, Bomba, walk past the doorway, holding an old shoebox. In their scale of time, he walked in slow motion.

“Ohhhh, it’s where this guy lives!” Ronin said to M.K.

“I can’t believe it!” added Nod. “He’s been crashing around the forest like a bear for years. Most Stompers just come and go. But this guy’s relentless.”

“Stompers?” asked M.K.

“Yeah,” replied Nod. “You know, like us, but big and dumb and slow. Always stomping on things . . . Stompers.”

“And this one is obsessed with finding us,” explained Ronin. “Obviously that’s a security risk. Can’t have one of his big fat feet stepping on Moonhaven.”

Nod joined in. “One of his ginormous, flabby, dirty, stinky—”

“Okay! I got it!” M.K. said.

“So we’ve been throwing him off the trail,” said Ronin.

M.K. looked puzzled. “You’re just messing with him? But he’s found all this stuff.”

Ronin shook his head. “He only finds what we want him to find. Look at his map—we’ve got him looking everywhere but where we are.” He pointed to an unmarked spot on Bomba’s forest map, far away from the area with the pushpins clustered in it.

“I love how this guy talks,” said Nod, adopting a much slower way of speaking. “Loook aaaat thisss flooowweerrr.” He and Ronin cracked up.

M.K. was obviously not amused. “It’s his life’s work!”

But Nod and Ronin continued to make fun of Bomba. “IIIIIIIIIIII hurrrrt myyyy ellbooooowwww!” Ronin cried.

“You’re being idiots!” M.K. said. “He’s my dad,” she finally admitted.

Ronin and Nod instantly stopped goofing around.

“He’s what?” said Nod.

“I’m a Stomper,” said M.K.

Nod thought she was joking. “What happened? You got shrunk?”

“Yes,” M.K. said, in all seriousness. She pointed to Ronin and added, “Which he knows!”

“Seriously?” Nod said to Ronin.

Ronin nodded. “It’s been a weird day for everybody.”

M.K. put her hands on her hips. “You got a problem with Stompers?”

Nod suddenly became somber. “A Stomper squashed my uncle.”

“Oh my gosh! Really?” M.K. said, feeling terrible.

Nod grinned. “Nah, I’m just messing with you.”

M.K. rewarded Nod with a swift shove, and Ronin couldn’t help grinning. Then she turned and saw Bomba looking at some family pictures.

“I guess she’s right about me,” Bomba said sadly out loud. “All I seem to be able to do is drive people away.”

“No, Dad! You didn’t!” M.K. shouted. “I’m here!” Her angry words from that morning had affected him, and she’d do anything to take them back. But she couldn’t. So she tried yelling again: “And you’re right about all of it! Don’t stop looking, not now!”

But Bomba didn’t hear her. At most, if he listened carefully, her voice would be a faint, high-pitched squeak.

However, someone else could hear those high-pitched squeaks . . .