Chapter 1
Rocket Boulsworth, Jade, Brandon, Archie and Dibber (with Wayne the II) were in the Ballabungie village shop. Jade was cuddling Wayne the II, Archie just sat there looking at The Oldest Man in the World aka Dibber's granddad, Brandon was examining the stuff in the back room, Rocket was browsing Dibs' granddad's bookshelf and Dibber was looking out the window to see if he could spot Bethany Summer. Suddenly Rocket shouted with excitement (making Wayne the II bark with fright), "Look at this book, everyone!"
The others crowded around Rocket in curiosity. What had Rocket found? It was a book, filled with information about a creature that lived on Dirgelmor. "It's about The Wild Cat of Dirgelmor, a mythical creature they say lives on our island." Rocket eagerly explained to the equally keen others.
"We have to tell Alli about this!" Jade added.
As they went to the door, Dibs' granddad said, "You can borrow it for a while, but watch out, it's –" but he didn't get any further because Rocket and his friends had gone.
Outside, in the sunshine, Dibber thought for a moment then shouted with delight, "Finally, I will show Bethany Summer that I, Dibber Sparks, am not an idiot in her eyes!"
At the Knot, Rocket and his friends were racing up to Alli, full of beans. "What is it that you're so desperate to tell me?" Alli said grumpily. She wasn't looking at them, just getting on with her chores.
"Alli, you'll never guess what! We've found out that there's a wild cat of Dirgelmor," Dibber quickly said.
Alli seemed impressed. "Wow! A wild cat of Dirgelmor! That's amazing. I want to see it."
Rocket looked at everyone. They were all so enthusiastic about the creature that he couldn't turn them down. "All right," he said at last, "We'll look for it tomorrow."
Dibber looked at him in confusion. "We can't go tomorrow!" he said in realization, "We're at school. If we skipped all our lessons, just to look for this creature, our parents will be looking for us instead!"
"Let's go after school then." Rocket pointed out.
At school the next day, Dibber was telling their classmates about The Wild Cat of Dirgelmor. "I'm telling you guys, it's real!"
"Oh yeah, and what's it going to do to you? Attack you?" sneered Jonathan.
"As if!" Rocket rolled his eyes.
"I don't know if it's real, but we're going to prove to you that it exists!" shouted Jade.
Archie stared at Jonathan and wasn't sure that it was real, but he was willing to help Rocket and the others look for it.
It was after school and later on, at the Knot, Dibber was just walking up the road with his bicycle. He saw Peter Boulsworth, getting on his daily jobs. "Hi, Mr Boulsworth," he said cheerfully, "Where's Rocket and the others then?"
"They're getting on with their chores. They should be finished in about half an hour."
The next minute Dibber saw Rocket, with Wayne the II on a lead and Jade walk past with buckets of cow feed. "I'm ready to go." he said enthusiastically.
"Dibs! Can't you see that we're in the middle of doing our chores right now?" argued Rocket.
"I'll help you out. What can I do, Mr Boulsworth?" Dibber asked.
"You can help me with shovelling the cow dung out." Peter Boulsworth said optimistically. He and Sarah were always in need of an extra pair of hands. So Dibber helped out with the manure.
Before long, all the chores were done. "Now we can go and look for the creature!" exclaimed Dibber excitedly. Rocket packed a bag with things that would be useful, including the book. They all then hurried off in the direction of the countryside.
"The book says that the creature is as big as a tiger!" Rocket cried with interest, as they were walking away from the Knot. "It also says that its eyes were like discs in the sun, and its coat markings were horizontal stripes."
"Isn't that a marbled cat?" asked Alli.
"And, look! It has ears of a lynx! It likes climbing trees, like a leopard, and living near water, just like a jaguar." Rocket continued. They were getting deep into the forest now. "It also has teeth that are as sharp as stanley knives."
"Isn't that a lemur?" questioned Brandon. Rocket took no notice and kept on reading. "Its tail is as long as a snow leopard's!"
Next they all looked at Dibber, who was slowly walking, and staring into space. "Are you thinking about Bethany Summer again?" cooed Jade.
Unfortunately, Dibber tripped over a rock.
"Are you all right?" probed Alli.
"Yeah, sure." replied Dibber. "I'm not thinking about Bethany Summer! I was trying to picture the creature. I can see it now, except that it looks a bit…grey."
"FYI, Dibs, is that is the same colour as a cheetah." Rocket explained.
"Are you sure you're not making it up, Rocket?" Alli asked.
"If you really want to know, then have a look at it." Rocket retorted. He passed Alli the book.
"Rocket! This is a fiction book!" she replied crossly.
"What?" shouted Rocket in total shock, snatching the volume from her hands to see what had caused her to say such a thing.
"It's not real?" squeaked Jade.
"Great," cursed Dibber. "This is so not going to impress Bethany Summer."
"Um, Rocket," said Alli, peering around. "Where exactly are we?"
Suddenly the gang fell into deep silence, especially Archie, but then again, he always was silent.
"Aah…" mused Rocket, "I don't know…"
It would have been appropriate at that moment for somebody to play a "wah wah wah wah wurgh" sound effect.