Chapter 2: The Monster
Lori, Leni, Luna, Lincoln, and Lisa crawled through a hole in the tree house floor.
Wow, they said. The tree house was filled with books. Books everywhere. Very old books with dust covers. New books with shiny, bright covers.
"Look. you can see far, far away," said Lana. She and Lola were peering out the tree house window. Lincoln looked out of the window with them.
Down below were the tops of other trees. In the distance, they saw the Royal Woods library, the elementary school, and the park.
Lola pointed in the other direction. "There's our house," she said. Everyone else went to look out of the tree house window too and they saw their house. There was a white wooden house with the green porch Next door was their grumpy neighbor, Mr. Grouse. "Hi Mr. Grouse!" shouted Lana. "Shush!" said Lori and Lincoln. "We're not supposed to be up here." Lincoln glanced around the tree house again.
"I wonder who owns all these books," said Lucy. "I wonder too, Dudette," said Luna. Lincoln noticed bookmarks were sticking out of many of the books.
"I like this one," said Lola. She held up a book with a castle on the cover. "Here's a book about Michigan," said Leni. Leni gave the book to Lisa. Lisa turned to the page with the bookmark. "There's a picture of Royal Woods in here," said Lisa. "It's a picture of these woods!" Everyone looked at the picture of the woods.
"Oh, here's a book for Lana," said Luan. She held up a book about dinosaurs. A blue silk bookmark was sticking out of it. "Let me see it," said Lana. Lana set down her backpack and grabbed the book from her. "You look at that one, and I'll look at the one with the castles," said Lola. "No, you two better not," said Lincoln. "We don't know who these books belong to." Lana didn't listen and opened the dinosaur book to where the bookmark was. She couldn't help herself. She turned to a picture of an ancient flying reptile.
A Pteranodon. She touched the huge bat-like wings "I wish I could see a Pteranodon for real." said Lana. "Me too, little dudette," said Luna. "Me three," said Lynn. "According to my calculations," said Lisa. "The last ones were living 65 million years ago," she said. "What killed them off?" said Lynn. "We don't know why they went extinct, scientists are trying to find out today," said Lisa. Lana studied the picture of the odd-looking creature soaring through the sky.
"Ahh!" screamed Leni. "What?" said Lincoln. "A monster!" Leni cried. She pointed to the tree house window. Lori and Lincoln looked out the window. A giant creature was gliding above the treetops! He had a long, weird crest on the back of his head, a skinny beak, and huge bat-like wings! It was a real, live Pteranodon! The creature curved through the sky. He was coming straight toward the tree house. He looked like a glider plane! The wind began to blow. The leaves trembled. Suddenly, the creature soared up. High into the sky. Lincoln nearly fell out of the window trying to see it.
The wind picked up. It was whistling now. The tree house started to spin. Everyone was surprised.
"What's happening?" cried Luan. "Get Down!" shouted Lynn. Everyone started to hug each other. The tree house was spinning. Faster and faster. Everyone squeezed their eyes shut. Then everything was still. Absolutely still. Everyone opened their eyes. They were all there, the books, and their backpacks. The tree house was still high up in an oak tree. But, it wasn't the same oak tree.