Knowing Vexler was with us made me less worried for Barker. Sure, they’d have to battle with six massive Snerbs, but at least now there were two of them and they both knew what they were doing. Vexler had single-handedly trained me for survival in the Dungeons of Snerbville for months. She’d taught me to climb, protect myself with a toothpick spear, and avoid danger whenever possible.
But we didn’t need any of those skills at the moment. What we really needed was someone small enough to sneak through what amounted to a mouse hole, and that someone was me. I took one last look behind me and saw paintballs flying and some sort of green electrical charge shooting through the air.
“You were made for this moment, Tilda Huxley,” I said.
And for once in my life, I believed it.
I ducked into the hole and found myself in a tunnel about as wide as a roll of toilet paper. Light pulsed like a heartbeat at the end of the tunnel—blue and purple and green and orange—and I wondered if maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe the queen of the Snerbs was bigger than a cruise ship. Maybe she was bigger than the Statue of Liberty . . .
But then my jaw dropped. Because when the tunnel came to an end, I found a cave no bigger than a living room recliner—and here I discovered the big boss, the head honcho, the queen bee, the . . . okay, you get the idea.
“You’re just a tiny ol’ thing,” I murmured. “How’s it going?”
I figured making conversation would keep the queen of the Snerbs happy, but I’m not sure it would have mattered, because wow, she was really small.
How small?
For someone as big as you—and by that I mean a normal sized human being, the queen of the Snerbs would be about the size of a marble. For me, since I’m small like she is, I could have set her in my hand and she would have been like a furry bowling ball.
And you want to know the best part? She was pink, like I’m pink. A beautiful, perfect pink, like my hair and my nails.
She blinked her one eye at me like she was seeing something unusual, which she was. Probably she had never seen a person before, and if she had, they would have been gigantic and scary. But here I was, small like her, a girl like her, and confused like she was. Her rubbery arms moved gently up and down, like a soft wind was blowing through them, and she made a silly sort of squeaking sound as if to say, “Why, hello there.”
“Hello to you too,” I said. “It looks like you’ve been quite busy.”
I said this because she was sitting on a throne, or more accurately a rock, and all around her the floor was carpeted with tiny glowing balls. They came in every color, they were furry, but they didn’t appear to be alive. These weren’t baby Snerbs; they were something else.
The queen expanded to twice her size like a blowfish and her eyeball grew larger, then she deflated back to the size she had been. She made a funny burping sound.
“You’re making these, aren’t you?” I asked.
I’m not making this up, the queen of the Snerbs rocked forward and backward like she was nodding yes.
“What a little miracle you are,” I said.
I watched as one of her floppy arms came to rest on the rock like a slide facing the cave floor, and a little glowing ball rolled out. It bounced softly against some of the other balls and came to a stop.
Here was the one Snerb in all the world who was making something instead of eating everything in sight. It was creating, and it was creating a lot.
If I had to guess, I would say there were thousands of tiny Snerby Balls in the queen’s throne room. In your hand, each one would be the size of a ball bearing.
“You must be tired,” I said.
The queen nodded again and her eye drooped almost closed.
I sat down and let my legs dangle over the edge of the tunnel into the cave, and then I lowered myself down onto the ground as Snerby Balls drifted out of my way like balloons.
“What I’m wondering is, could I take a whole bunch of these with me?” I asked.
The queen of the Snerbs made a wet purring sound, like a kitten drinking a milkshake. She nodded again and her eye looked like it was smiling.
These things she was making—they were for me. I felt it in my bones. They were part of a solution I didn’t understand, but I just knew it was incredibly important.
“Thank you,” I said. “I don’t know what they’re for, but I think they’re for something good.”
The queen purred happily again, as if her work was finally finished, and then she closed her eye.
Apparently, my company was boring because clearly the queen of the Snerbs had fallen asleep.
I took my backpack off and dumped out everything that was in there, which wasn’t much. At the bottom was the plastic bread bag, folded neatly and waiting for me. I laid it out flat and began scooping. I scooped until the bag was full to the top and glowing like a small nuclear power plant. Full of all those Snerby Balls, it was way bigger than me. I’d have to drag it behind me through the tunnel, but the Snerby Balls were very light, not even as heavy as a mini marshmallow.
Once I’d scooped up every last one of the Snerby Balls, I took one last look around. The room seemed a little lonely. It reminded me of my cardboard box, if you want to know the truth. It was just rocks and the queen, who had woken up. She rolled off her rock throne and purred against my leg.
“You want to come with me?” I asked.
The queen of the Snerbs nodded, staring up at me.
“I’m going to pick you up now,” I said, and so I did. “And put you in my backpack.”
I set her gently in my backpack and zipped it partway closed so she could see out if she wanted to.
“Ready for an adventure?” I asked.
She squeaked happily and blinked three times fast.
The plastic bag of Snerby Balls was a lot bigger than I was, long and skinny like a loaf of bread. It was light but awkward to drag up and out of the throne room, and it barely fit down the tunnel.
As I made my way toward the exit of the little cave, the outside world rushed in. Sloshing and roaring and crashing! As soon as I poked my head out, it was obvious Barker and Vexler were in trouble. They were in the middle of the open cave, surrounded by six giant Snerbs staring down at them.
“I’m out of paintballs!” Barker yelled. “We might have to retreat!”
“And leave Tilda?!” Vexler yelled above the din. “Never!”
She had the Snerb-O-Matic hose in her hand. I’d seen that thing in her lab many times, but never in action. From what Vexler had told me, I thought it would spew smog the Snerbs would be attracted to, but she must have made some modifications. She screamed like a warrior heading into battle and a jagged green line burst out of the hose. When it hit one of the Snerbs, it melted some of the fur and left a little brown patch. The Snerb glanced down with its mighty eye and its orange hair grew back. It appeared the Snerbs actually liked being shot with the green laser. They were lining up to take turns.
“Snerbville, you’re full of surprises,” I said.
I ran along one of the walls as fast as I could and waved my free arm back and forth. It was so loud neither of them would have heard my small screams.
I had to get Vexler and Barker’s attention, but how?
And then I remembered! Barker had given me the Flare Flinger! It was strapped on the outside of my backpack. I stopped, spun, and yanked it free.
“Come on, Flare Flinger,” I whispered.
For some reason, the queen of the Snerbs chose this moment to stick one of her rubbery arms in my ear and root around in there. It was weird and gross, but she could do her thing and I’d do mine. I hurled the Flare Flinger as hard as I could into the air.
Just as Barker had said, the spinning action activated the device. Sparks flew around its edges as it rose into the air and exploded into a shower of yellow and red. It even made a fun bang sound, which I appreciated. The queen of the Snerbs made a wet and sloppy ooooooooh sound. Apparently she was fond of fireworks too. So we had at least one thing in common. I made a note to talk about that later.
Right now, I was waving my arms furiously at Barker. I kept waving until he looked in my direction, and we locked eyes. He quickly scanned the area and pointed to the exit for the cave, where we would be safely away from the defender Snerbs.
I took off at a sprint, running along the wall as Barker and Vexler backed up in the same direction, holding off the approaching Snerb attack.
I felt it before I saw it—a giant eyeball staring down at me—and then I realized the plastic bread sack had sprung a leak. It must have gotten snagged on a rock along the way. Glowing Snerby Balls were falling out behind me.
The biggest Snerb of them all had taken notice.
A slobbery roar filled the cave as the boss of the defenders sloshed and rolled its whale-sized body toward me. Pinned against the wall, I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands. I felt myself getting picked up, who knew how far off the ground, moving fast. When I dared to peek at the outside world again, I was sure I’d be entering the goopy mouth of an angry Snerb—
“Hang tight, we’re almost there!”
It was Vexler! Somehow, she had jumped between me and certain death, scooped me up, and run for safety. Firing her green laser beams from one hand and carrying me in the other, she sprinted toward the narrow cave entrance as the bread bag full of Snerby Balls dangled from my hand. I’d lost maybe fifty of them, but there were still over a thousand in the bag. A moment later, we reached the entrance to the cave, where it narrowed and the giant creatures couldn’t get to us.
“Are you okay?” Vexler asked as she held me in the air in front of her face. “Talk to me, Tilda! Are you okay?!”
I smiled at her. “I’m fine, other than the fact that you’re squeezing me pretty hard.”
She pulled me into a hug, sobbing with relief. I hadn’t realized how scared she must have been for me and, I had to admit, it was nice to have an adult with us after such a dangerous day.
“Thank you for coming to find us,” I said.
Barker raced into the cave, out of breath but happier than I’d ever seen him.
“It’s wild out there,” he said. “But it looks like we’re all here in one piece.”
“Yes we are,” I said. “Just like you to save the day.”
Barker looked like he was going to deny that he’d had anything to do with winning the day, but then he nodded and gave me a half smile.
Vexler set me down on the ground and wiped tears from her eyes.
“I’m just glad you’re in one piece,” she said, looking in the direction from which we’d come. “Time to get you home.”
“Not yet,” I said, holding the plastic bag of Snerby Balls. “I think I found something important.”
I took my backpack off and unzipped the top. The queen of the Snerbs popped out, glancing back and forth between Vexler and me with her one eye.
“Who’s this little creature?” Vexler asked.
“The queen of the Snerbs,” I said.
“Fascinating. She could be important to our work. Let’s keep her nice and safe, shall we?”
Vexler opened a fanny pack and set the queen inside, where she seemed perfectly happy to relax.
I reached into the bread bag and took out one of the balls I’d collected.
“I call them Snerby Balls,” I said. “Pretty sure I have about a thousand in here. The queen makes them.”
Vexler looked at it curiously. She held her arm out and I dropped the glowing Snerby Ball into her palm—small as a pea in her hand. She removed a tablet from her pocket. Scanning the Snerby Ball with the device, she tapped the screen many times. She scanned it again, furiously drumming out commands on the tablet and shaking her head.
Vexler stared at the Snerby Ball in her palm and laughed, which was something I’d never seen her do before.
“You found it,” she said, smiling like a kid hugging a puppy. “You actually found it.”
“Found what?” Barker asked, leaning in closer.
Vexler shook her head in disbelief and looked me right in the eye.
“You found the missing element.”