The Spider Gnomes

Sophie and the Shadow Woods

The Spider Gnomes

Linda Chapman & Lee Weatherly

Illustrated by Katie Wood

Dedication

To Georgia Purcell, Lucy Jones and Jessica Jones whose names were almost in it!

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

The Shadow Woods

Chapter 1 - The New Clue

Chapter 2 - Spider Invasion

Chapter 3 - A Curtain of Cobwebs

Chapter 4 - Escape!

Chapter 5 - Sam Behaving Strangely

Chapter 6 - A Nasty Bug

Chapter 7 - Cobwebs for Supper

Chapter 8 - The Spider Gnomes

Chapter 9 - A Cobwebby Encounter

Chapter 10 - Run For Your Lives!

Chapter 11 - In the Woods…

The Shadow Files

What’s next in store for Sophie

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Shadow Woods…

Very few people ever enter the Shadow Woods. The crooked trees press closely together, their branches reaching out like skeletons’ arms. Strange whispers echo through the quiet air, and eyes seem to watch from the shadows. Anyone who does go in soon leaves, their skin prickling with fear. For these woods are like no others. Hidden deep within them is a gateway to the Shadow Realm – a dark and chaotic world where all the mischief-making creatures like goblins, boggles and trolls live.

Many hundreds of years ago, the Shadow Realm creatures could pass freely between our world and theirs, but they caused so much trouble that it was decided the gateway between the two worlds must be shut for good. Yet no one knew how to do this, until a locksmith with magical powers made an iron key and then slotted a gem from the Shadow Realm into its handle. The secret had been found! The locksmith forced as many shadow creatures as he could back into their own world and locked the gateway firmly behind them.

From that day on, the locksmith became the Guardian of the Gateway, watching over the precious key and stopping the few shadow creatures left in this world from causing too much trouble. As he grew old he passed his powers on to his grandson, who in turn passed the powers on to his. For hundreds of years, the Guardianship has passed down from grandparent to grandchild, and the gate has always remained safely shut.

But now for the first time, disaster looms. The shadow creatures have stolen the iron key! Luckily, there was no gem in its handle when it was taken, but there are six gems from the Shadow Realm hidden somewhere in our world. If the shadow creatures find any of them, they’ll be able to slot them into the key and open the gateway, letting hordes of villainous creatures loose to cause mayhem and trouble.

Only one girl stands in their way… and her name is Sophie Smith.

Chapter 1 The New Clue

I’m a Swamp Boggle and I’m coming to get you!”

Sophie peered cautiously round the tree trunk as the voice grew closer. There he was! She jerked back again, hoping he hadn’t seen her. Wait, she told herself. Let him get nearer…

She counted to ten. Her fingers tightened on the trigger. Now!

Darting out from behind the tree, she lifted her bright orange mega-soaker and fired a jet of water straight at Sam, her best friend. “Got you, you stinky Swamp Boggle!” she yelled.

Sam counter attacked, shooting water back at her. Sophie dodged away, diving to the ground and rolling over before leaping to her feet again.

“Hi-YA!” Dropping her mega-soaker, she jumped into the air, kicking out with her right foot in a tae kwon do move. She timed it closely because she didn’t want to hurt Sam really. He staggered backwards in surprise as her foot missed him by just a few centimetres.

“Whoa!” He tripped and landed on the grass.

“Ha!” said Sophie, dusting her hands down.

“Don’t mess with me, Swamp Boggle!”

She didn’t get to gloat for long. Sam pulled the trigger on his mega-soaker, drenching her legs with water. “Gotcha!”

Sophie squealed. Leaping up again, Sam chased her round his garden until their water pistols finally ran out and they both flopped on to the patio. Sophie’s blonde ponytail was dripping and Sam’s red hair was flattened against his head.

“I’m wet through!” Sam panted.

“Me too, but it was fun!” Sophie’s green eyes shone. “Isn’t it nice just to do something normal for a change.”

Sam grinned. “You mean fighting Ink Cap Goblins and Swamp Boggles isn’t normal?”

“I suppose it is normal for us now,” said Sophie. A week ago, on her tenth birthday, she’d discovered that she was the Guardian of a magical gateway hidden deep in the woods behind her house. Her grandfather, the previous Guardian, had explained she had to stop the shadow creatures from ever opening it. Sam was the only person apart from her grandpa who knew the secret. Sophie was very glad he was helping her.

Sam stretched his legs out. “What do you think Ug will do next to try to find the gems?” Ug, the King of the Ink Cap Goblins, had stolen the key to the gateway and was trying to find one of the six hidden shadow gems. The key wouldn’t work without one of them.

“Whatever it is, I bet it’s something horrible,” answered Sophie. She touched the pouch under her jeans, where she carried the two gems she and Sam had found so far. There were still four others hidden around the town of Upper Gately, where they lived – and they had to find them before Ug did! But who knew what plan he’d come up with next? After she and Sam had defeated him, he’d sent the scary Swamp Boggles to try to find one of the gems.

Sophie shivered, remembering how they had just barely got away from the slimy creatures. She hoped they wouldn’t have to deal with any more shadow creatures… but she had a feeling that they would!

She reached for the leather notebook that was lying on the patio behind her. The Shadow Files was written in fading gold letters on the front. It contained notes made by the past Guardians on all the different shadow creatures they’d encountered.

“If Ug sends another creature after the gems, it could be any of these,” she said, flicking through its pages. Slime Imps, Fire Goblins, Wolf Trolls – each looked worse than the last! “Let’s read the clue for the red gem again.” The Shadow Files had clues to help the new Guardian find the gems. Earlier that morning, she and Sam had discovered the third clue, hidden in tiny letters at the bottom of the entry on Snake Sprites. “We must be able to work it out.”

Sam turned to the correct page and read:

“Hours and minutes

Near clouds and sky

The red gem is hidden

Way up high.”

“Any ideas yet?” Sophie looked at him hopefully. Sam was really brainy, and excellent at working stuff out. But this time he seemed as stumped as she was.

“No, none. The gem’s hidden somewhere high up… but how can hours and minutes be near the sky? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Let’s go back to my house,” suggested Sophie. “Maybe Grandpa will know what the new clue means.”

As Sam picked up the mega-soakers, Sophie noticed a long line of spiders a few metres away, marching across the patio. “Hey, look at all the spiders!” she exclaimed.

“That’s weird,” said Sam, staring down at them. “Spiders normally hide when it’s hot outside. They like cool, dry places.” Sophie raised her eyebrows at him, and he shrugged. “What? Spiders are fascinating creatures.”

“Mmmmm, really fascinating!” she teased.

“They are, actually. Spiders are cool,” Sam informed her. “Did you know some spiders can jump up to fifty times their own length? Some of them use their web silk to make lassoes to catch prey, and others make parachutes with it.” His forehead creased as he looked at the spiders again. “I wonder why so many of them are out at the same time though?”

Sophie shrugged, bored of the spiders. “Maybe one of them’s having a spider party, and texted his friends to say come and have some flies! Come on, let’s go.”

She went to the back door. Taking one last puzzled look at the spiders, Sam followed her.

Deep in the Shadow Woods stood King Ug, the leader of the Ink Cap Goblins. His ivy crown rested wonkily on his dome-shaped head and his white flaky skin was covered with black blotches. He was talking to two squat figures in the shadows.

“Well? Do you think you can get one?” he demanded.

“Yessss,” one of the figures hissed, waving four of its eight legs. “We shall find a shadow gem, no matter what.”

“Those idiot Swamp Boggles said the same thing,” snorted King Ug. “They failed me. Numskulls!”

There was the sound of snapping jaws. “Ah, but we shall not fail you. We know how important it is that we shadow creatures all serve you, King Ug – you are the Keeper of the Key!”

King Ug smiled proudly. The key to the gate hung round his chest, and he reached up and touched it, feeling the empty space where a shadow gem needed to go. “How will you manage to get into the town unseen?” he demanded.

There was the sound of leg joints cracking. “We have many spiessss with many eyessss,” said one of the figures. A line of tiny spiders marched past on the ground. “They will search the humans’ town and find a gem for us, and when they do we shall fetch it and bring it here. Nothing shall stop usss!”

“Excellent!” chortled King Ug. He adjusted his crown. “I can see it was extremely clever of me to call on the Spider Gnomes for help. When you succeed, the gem will be mine and I shall finally open the gate.” His small black eyes gleamed as he imagined the fun that millions of shadow creatures would have, wreaking havoc in the human world.

All he needed was one small gem…

Chapter 2 Spider Invasion

OK, this is really weird. There are even more spiders here,” Sam said as he and Sophie walked towards her house. They lived on the same road, Sam near the town and Sophie at the end, in a house that bordered on to the Shadow Woods.

Sophie groaned. “Forget the spiders, Sam! Race you to my house! Last one there is a squashed bug!”

She charged off with Sam pounding after her. Sophie just managed to beat him. “Hi, Mrs B!” she called as they tumbled in through the front door.

Sophie’s parents were archaeologists and were away working for a few months, so Grandpa and the housekeeper, Mrs B, were looking after Sophie and her twin brother, Anthony.

Mrs B was in the kitchen. “Hello, you two! Come and meet Nigel. I’ve just collected him.”

Sophie smiled as she remembered. “Nigel’s the parrot Mrs B is looking after for a few weeks,” she explained as she and Sam kicked off their trainers. “She’s keeping him here. Let’s go and see!”

They hurried into the kitchen. On the table was a large birdcage with a grey parrot inside. He had a curved black beak and white feathers round his eyes. Seeing Sam and Sophie, he walked sideways along his perch.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” cooed Mrs B. “Say hello, Nigel.”

The parrot put his head coyly to one side. “Hello, Nigel.”

Sophie grinned.

“No, no, just say hello,” Mrs B told the parrot. “Go on.”

“Hello. Go on,” the parrot gabbled.

“How about hiya?” suggested Sam. He turned to the parrot. “Hiya!”

“Fire!” the parrot screeched. “Fire, fire, FIRE!” He bobbed excitedly up and down.

Sophie giggled. “What about Pretty Polly? Can you say Pretty Polly?”

“You’re a wally! You’re a wally!” cackled the parrot.

Mrs B blinked as Sophie and Sam fell about laughing. “Oh, dear! I’m not sure he should be saying that!”

“He’s brilliant!” cried Sophie. “We should record him and show him to everyone at school.” She saw her grandpa’s mobile phone on the side. “Here. Let’s give it a go with this.”

She tried using the camera on the phone to film Nigel, but the parrot didn’t seem to like the idea. He screeched loudly every time she held the phone up in front of him.

“Wow, is he noisy or what?” said Sam, raising his voice over the din.

“I think you’d better stop now, Sophie-duckie,” said Mrs B. She covered the parrot’s cage with a dark cloth and Nigel fell silent. “That should calm him down. It makes him think it’s night-time, so he’ll go to sleep.”

Sam nudged Sophie. “You’re a wally!” he squawked. They both started giggling again.

Just then there was a yell and Anthony, Sophie’s twin brother, shot in through the door. Like Sophie, he had blonde hair, but his eyes were pale blue instead of green.

“There are spiders everywhere in the house, Mrs B!” he cried. His voice shook. “They keep coming into my room through the window, and they’re on the landing and in the hall. There’s a massive one on the stairs!”

Spiders again! Sophie and Sam looked at each other in surprise. “We’ve got loads at my house too,” said Sam.

“And we saw some more on the way here,” added Sophie.

“Oh, dear, there must be an infestation. Here, take some of this.” Mrs B went to the cupboard under the stairs and passed Anthony a can of lemon furniture polish. “Spray it on your windowsill.”

Anthony frowned. “But I want to get rid of the spiders, not clean my room!”

“Yes, but this will keep the spiders out,” Mrs B told him. “Spiders don’t like strong flavours like lemon or eucalyptus, so if you spray a scented furniture polish on the windowsill they won’t cross it.”

“They also love cardboard,” chipped in Sam, “so make sure you don’t leave any cardboard boxes lying around.”

Anthony rolled his eyes. “Trust you to be a freaky spider expert, geek-brain!”

“Shut up!” Sophie said angrily. It was OK for her to tease Sam, but not Anthony. He and his friends were always picking on Sam at school. “Least Sam’s not afraid of spiders like you. Chick-chick-chick-chick chicken!”

Anthony scowled and kicked out at her.

“Stop that, both of you,” Mrs B said. “Anthony, go on – take the spray upstairs and put some on your window ledge.”

“Wish I had a spray that would work on you two,” Anthony muttered to Sophie and Sam as he passed. Sophie pulled a face at him.

“Now, I wonder why there aren’t any spiders in here,” said Mrs B, looking around the kitchen.

“It’s probably because of Nigel,” Sam told her. “Spiders really don’t like birds, because birds eat them.”

“Maybe we should get more parrots then,” suggested Sophie, lifting the corner of the cover over Nigel’s cage.

“FIRE!” he shrieked, flapping his wings.

Mrs B quickly pulled the cover back down. “Maybe not! Now, I suppose I’d better go and help Anthony with all these spiders.” Picking up a broom, she bustled out.

Alone, Sophie and Sam looked at each other. “What do you reckon is going on?” said Sam in a low voice.

Sophie shook her head. “I don’t know!” Just then she caught sight of her grandpa through the window. He was standing by the fence that separated the garden from the wood. “Come on! Maybe Grandpa’ll know!”

They hurried outside. Sophie’s grandpa was staring at the ground and scratching his short grey hair. He didn’t look like most grandfathers and was very fit – he went running and swimming every day.

“Look at this!” breathed Grandpa as they came running up. “Hundreds of spiders – and they’re all coming out of the Shadow Woods!”

Sophie’s scalp prickled as she stared down at the long line of spiders moving through the grass. “They’re everywhere inside – and at Sam’s house too.”

Grandpa gazed grimly into the woods. “Something is going on with the shadow creatures. I just know it is.”

Sophie grinned, unable to resist. “Your spider sense is tingling, Grandpa!” she said, thinking of Spider-Man.

Sam sniggered too, but Grandpa didn’t look amused. “Sophie, this is no—”

“Laughing matter. I know,” sighed Sophie. Grandpa was always telling her that she didn’t take things seriously enough. He’d been amazed when she’d become the Guardian. The job of protecting the gateway had never gone to a girl before, and Grandpa had assumed that Anthony would be the next Guardian after him. But the magic had chosen Sophie instead – and now she was determined to prove that she was the right choice.

“Should we go into the woods and see where the spiders are coming from?” she said eagerly.

Grandpa shook his head. “It’s too risky. We should look through The Shadow Files first, and see if anything like this has ever happened before.” He fixed her with a stare. “You have a worrying tendency to just go jumping into things, child. Remember: think before you act! Now, have you got The Shadow Files with you?”

Sam nodded and took the book out of his bag. “Oh – and we found the clue for the red gem!” He opened the page and showed it to Grandpa.

“Excellent!” Grandpa read it over quickly. “So, have you worked it out?”

“Um… no,” Sophie admitted.

Grandpa scowled. “Well, then, what are you doing, standing round here talking? You two get to work on the clue, and I’ll read through The Shadow Files and see if it says anything about spiders.” Taking the book, he strode inside.

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