It took just a couple of minutes to reach the evil clearing. Guy Diamond was the only bright, shiny object in the gloomy surroundings. He and DJ Suki walked slowly, looking around for Evil Cloud Guy.
They saw no one.
“So where is he?” DJ Suki asked. “Where’s this Evil Cloud Guy?”
“How should I know?” Cloud Guy said, picking his teeth.
“You said he’d be here!” Guy Diamond said.
“I said he might be here,” Cloud Guy corrected him. “Or that he’d probably be here. Actually, I forget what I said.”
Guy frowned. “All I know is I don’t see a guy who looks like you with a black mustache and a beard, and I don’t see the missing rainbows. We’ve come all this way for nothing!”
Cloud Guy patted the air with his blue hands. “Okay, calm down. Did you think Evil Cloud Guy would just be standing here with all the rainbows, waiting for us to come and catch him?”
Guy Diamond looked at his feet. Actually, that was pretty much exactly what he’d been thinking. Or at least hoping.
“He’s undoubtedly lurking somewhere, scheming in his dark lair,” Cloud Guy explained. “That’s what evil dudes do.”
DJ Suki took a couple of steps toward the entrances to the shadowy tunnels. “Should we start searching these tunnels?” she asked. “Maybe he’s hiding in one of them.”
Cloud Guy put a hand on her shoulder. “Uh, no. I don’t think we should start poking around in those tunnels. That’s just asking for trouble. As in, CERTAIN DEATH! Death…death…death…”
Guy Diamond studied Cloud Guy’s face, trying to get a good read on his intentions. Was he stalling? Would he go off and disappear, then come back wearing a fake mustache and beard, pretending to be Evil Cloud Guy?
DJ Suki put her face close to Cloud Guy’s. “Then what do you suggest? What are we supposed to do?”
Cloud Guy smiled calmly. “We won’t go to Evil Cloud Guy. We’ll get Evil Cloud Guy to come to us.”
Guy Diamond looked confused. “How are we supposed to do that?”
“Well,” Cloud Guy said confidently, flicking his fingers and lacing them behind his head, “lucky for you, I know exactly how to coax Evil Cloud Guy out of hiding.”
“And how is that?” DJ Suki asked skeptically.
Cloud Guy looked around. He beckoned to DJ Suki and Guy Diamond with a finger. They moved closer to him, and the three of them leaned into a huddle, putting their heads together.
“He can’t resist a chance to be evil,” Cloud Guy whispered. “That’s his weakness. Okay? Since we know that, we can use it against him.”
“How?” Guy Diamond whispered back.
“Listen and learn,” Cloud Guy said, straightening. In a loud voice, he said, “Oh, look! A sweet little kid’s drawing! He spent all morning drawing it! He’s SO proud of his drawing! It sure would be a terrible shame if someone ripped it up!”
He stood still, waiting.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, up in the sky, they heard chuckling. They looked, and saw a cloud sprout legs and walk down a tree. He was the same size as Cloud Guy. In fact, he looked exactly like him—except for his black mustache and short black beard.
Evil Cloud Guy.
“It’s him,” DJ Suki hissed.
“I guess Cloud Guy was telling the truth,” Guy Diamond whispered.
Evil Cloud Guy looked around for the child’s drawing he’d heard Cloud Guy talking about. But when he saw Cloud Guy, he walked right up to him and stood there, facing him.
“So,” he growled, “it’s you.”
“So,” Cloud Guy said, “it’s me.”
They circled each other with their hands out, ready for anything.
“Where’s the drawing?” Evil Cloud Guy snarled, his eyes narrowing.
“What drawing?” Cloud Guy asked inno-cently.
“You know perfectly well which drawing I mean,” said Evil Cloud Guy. “The one you were talking about. The one by the sweet little kid, that he spent all morning making. Where is it?”
“Oh, that drawing!” Cloud Guy said. “Funny thing about that drawing. Turns out it wasn’t a drawing at all. It was a leaf.” He stopped circling Evil Cloud Guy and bent to pick up a leaf from the ground. “This leaf, as a matter of fact.”
Evil Cloud Guy stared at him. “You mistook a leaf for a child’s drawing.”
“Yup.”
“That he spent all morning on.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And that he was really proud of.”
“Correct.”
Evil Cloud Guy looked disgusted. “If it were anyone else, I’d say that was ridiculous. But because it’s you, I believe it.”
Cloud Guy smiled. “Thank you!”
DJ Suki had heard enough of this talk about a drawing that didn’t even exist. She ran up to Evil Cloud Guy and pointed at him. “Why did you steal the rainbows?” she said.
Sneering, Evil Cloud Guy slowly turned and looked DJ Suki up and down. “And just who are you supposed to be?”
“I’m not supposed to be anyone,” she said, shrugging. “I am DJ Suki.”
Evil Cloud Guy raised his eyebrows. Then he laughed. “Ha, ha, ha, ha!”
Guy Diamond stepped up next to his friend. “What’s so funny? She asked you a question! Why did you steal the rainbows?”
“Who are you, Sparkle Nose?” Evil Cloud Guy asked, giving Guy Diamond a withering look.
Guy folded his arms across his chest, matching DJ Suki’s pose. “I’m Guy Diamond,” he said in his strongest voice. “The Troll who’s asking you why you stole the rainbows!”
Putting his hands behind his back, Evil Cloud Guy took a couple of slow steps away from Guy and DJ Suki. “Well, I’d never heard that Trolls are so rude. You barge into my evil clearing without knocking or saying hello. Then you accuse me of being a thief! Without the slightest shred of evidence, I might add.”
Cloud Guy noticed something. “Um, excuse me, but you’ve got something in your fluff.” He reached over to the back of Evil Cloud Guy’s head and pulled out a small, colorful scrap. He held it up for all to see.
“Look at those colors!” DJ Suki cried.
“Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet,” Cloud Guy observed. “In that order.”
“That’s a piece of rainbow!” Guy Diamond exclaimed. “Where’d you get it?”
“Gimme that!” Evil Cloud Guy snapped, snatching the striped scrap out of Cloud Guy’s hand. “That’s not a piece of rainbow! It’s a piece of…gum!”
“Fine,” Cloud Guy said. “Chew it.”
Evil Cloud Guy looked at the colorful fragment in his hand. Then he looked at the others, who were staring at him, waiting. He popped the scrap into his mouth.
PTOOEY! He spat it out onto the ground. “Yuck! Who knew rainbows tasted so bad?”
“Rainbows!” Guy Diamond said accusingly. “AHA! I knew it! Where are they? What have you done with them?”
Evil Cloud Guy began to slowly back away. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Then he turned and ran!