The Mysterious Message (Geronimo Stilton Micekings #5) Read online

  Welcome to the Ancient

  Far North . . . and the

  World of the Micekings!

  WHERE THEY LIVE: Miceking Island

  CAPITAL: Mouseborg, home of the Stiltonord family

  OTHER VILLAGES: Oofadale, village of the Oofa Oofa, and Feargard,

  village of the vilekings

  CLIMATE: Cold, cold, cold, especially when the icy north wind blows!

  TYPICAL FOOD: Gloog, a superstinky but fabumouse stew. The secret

  recipe is closely guarded by the wife of the miceking chief.

  NATIONAL DRINK: Finnbrew, made of equal parts codfish juice and

  herring juice, with a splash of squid ink

  MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION: The drekar, a light but very fast ship

  GREATEST HONOR: The miceking helmet. It is only earned when a

  mouse performs an act of courage or wins a Miceking Challenge.

  UNIT OF MEASUREMENT: A mouseking tail (full tail, half tail, third tail,

  quarter tail)

  ENEMIES: The terrible dragons who live in Beastgard

  Meet the Stiltonord Family . . .

  GERONIMO

  Advisor to the

  miceking chief

  THEA

  A horse trainer who

  works well with all kinds

  of animals

  TRAP

  The most famouse

  inventor in Mouseborg

  BENJAMIN

  Geronimo’s nephew

  BUGSILDA

  Benjamin’s best

  friend

  . . . and the EVIL DRAGONS!

  GOBBLER THE PUTRID

  The fierce king of the

  dragons is a Devourer!

  The dragons are

  divided into 5

  clans, all of which

  are terrifying!

  1. Devourers

  They love to eat micekings raw —

  no cooking necessary.

  2. Steamers

  They grab micekings, then fly over

  volcanoes so the steam and smoke make them taste good.

  SIZZLE

  The cook

  3. Biters

  Before eating micekings, they nibble

  them delicately to see if they like

  them or not.

  4. Slurpers

  They wrap their long tongues around

  micekings and slurp them up.

  5. Rinsers

  As soon as they catch micekings,

  they rinse them in a stream to wash

  them off.

  Copyright © 2015 by Edizioni Piemme S.p.A., Palazzo Mondadori, Via

  Mondadori 1, 20090 Segrate, Italy. International Rights © Atlantyca S.p.A.

  English translation © 2017 by Atlantyca S.p.A.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any

  responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  GERONIMO STILTON names, characters, and related indicia are copyright,

  trademark, and exclusive license of Atlantyca S.p.A. All rights reserved. The

  moral right of the author has been asserted. Based on an original idea by

  Elisabetta Dami. www.geronimostilton.com

  Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920, 557 Broadway, New York,

  NY 10012. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered

  trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  Stilton is the name of a famous English cheese. It is a registered trademark

  of the Stilton Cheese Makers’ Association. For more information, go to

  www.stiltoncheese.com.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded,

  decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information

  storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic

  or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written

  permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, please

  contact Atlantyca S.p.A., Via Leopardi 8, 20123 Milan, Italy; e-mail foreignrights

  @atlantyca.it, www.atlantyca.com.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are

  either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any

  resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events,

  or locales is entirely coincidental.

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-08873-1

  Text by Geronimo Stilton

  Original title Nella terra degli Uffa Uffa

  Cover by Giuseppe Facciotto (pencils) and Flavio Ferron (ink and color)

  Illustrations by Giuseppe Facciotto (pencils) and Alessandro Costa (ink and

  color)

  Graphics by Chiara Cebraro

  Special thanks to Tracey West

  Translated by Emily Clement

  Interior design by Kristine Brideson

  First printing 2017

  A Peaceful

  Evening for

  Geronimo!

  It was a peaceful spring evening in

  Mouseborg, the capital city of Mouseking

  Island. The stars shone brightly in the

  sky. A gentle breeze blew in from

  the sea. Crickets chirped a

  soothing song.

  Sorry, I should

  introduce myself:

  I am Geronimo

  Stiltonord, and

  I am a mouseking.

  Not a very fierce,

  fighting mouseking,

  but a scholarly one.

  Chirp!

  Chirp!

  Chirp!

  1

  A Peaceful Evening for Geronimo!

  Ow, my back!

  2

  And that night

  I had returned

  home after a

  terrible day!

  1 During

  morning exercises,

  Sven the Shouter, our village chief,

  had forced me to do 333 sit-ups!

  At noon, dragons had attacked our

  village! They were looking to lunch on

  fresh miceking meat. I fought

  Narrow escape!

  2

  bravely (well,

  as bravely as

  I could. I have

  WEAK muscles

  for a mouseking).

  3

  And after

  that, my sister,

  Thea, had

  asked me

  Oof!

  to help her

  rearrange all the

  furniture in her house!

  I was so tired that my whiskers

  were drooping!

  So I was very happy to retreat to my

  house for a peaceful, quiet night. My plans

  included:

  A light dinner of aged miceking

  cheese and herring soup . . .

  3

  A Peaceful Evening for Geronimo!

  Reading a book of legends about

  the famouse miceking explorer Erik

  the Furry . . .

  Ending with a soothing cup of tea

  before bed . . .

  I had just finished setting the table when I

  heard a knock at the door.

  Who is it?

  A Peaceful Evening for Geronimo!

  Bam! Bam! Bam!

  Why, oh why, did someone always
have to

  INTERRUPT me when I was eating?

  As I peered through the peephole, I heard

  the deep voice of our village chief.

  “Open up, you smarty-mouseking! So

  says Sven!” he shouted.

  A chorus of micekings behind him cried

  out,

  “So says sven the shouter!”

  Clattering cuttlefish! How many of them

  were out there? And what did they want from

  me?

  “Well, lazy bones?” Sven yelled. “Are

  you going to open up?”

  You should know that Sven is known as

  the Shouter because he shouts very

  5

  A Peaceful Evening for Geronimo!

  loudly! And when he’s angry, his shouts

  could make the walls of your house shake. So I hurried and opened the door before the chief could shout again.

  A crowd of miceking warriors pushed

  into the house. They took seats in my chairs,

  on my tables, on my bed, and even in the

  rafters. Shivering squids, Sven had called a meeting of the Miceking Assembly in my house!

  The warriors whispered to one another,

  “What could it be?” They were excited for a

  mystery to solve!

  Then Sven spoke, “Micekings of

  Mouseborg, I have gathered you here

  for a matter of great importance.”

  The micekings listened in silence,

  leaning forward in their seats.

  Sven turned toward the foreman of the

  6

  Shhh!

  Silence!

  Listen to me!

  Stocker

  finnbrew

  factory. “Stocker! Tell

  us what you found.”

  Stocker looked

  surprised.

  “Me? Found? What?”

  Great salty

  sardines, what

  kind of mystery was

  this?

  Stocker is the foreman of the

  factory that makes finnbrew,

  the most popular miceking

  drink. He guards the barrels

  of finished finnbrew. He’s a

  very slow-moving mouseking.

  When you ask him a question,

  he stares at you like a frozen

  codfish!

  The Mysterious

  JUG

  Sven turned as red as a pepper. “Stocker,

  stop acting like a sea slug and tell the

  others what you told me!”

  the

  “so says sven the shouter!”

  micekings chanted.

  “Hmm. Let’s see,” said Stocker. “Where

  should I start?”

  “Start at the BEGINNING!” Sven

  demanded.

  Stocker nodded. “Okay, then. I will start at

  the beginning,” he said. “As you know, every

  night I take a walk around the outside of the

  factory.”

  “Yes, we know,” Sven said impatiently.

  “I check to make sure that all the barrels

  9

  The Mysterious Jug

  of finnbrew, left outside to ferment in the

  sun, have been brought inside,” Stocker

  went on.

  “By my beard, get on with the story!”

  Sven shouted. “At this rate, it will take you

  all night to tell it.”

  Stocker’s fur was not ruffled. He

  kept talking. “So tonight, during my usual

  stroll, I noticed something floating in

  the water by the dock. So I walked over to

  get a better look, and . . .”

  “Aaaaand?” all the micekings

  shouted, making my house shake as if

  it were made of fjordberry jelly.

  “And . . . I saw that it was an

  amphora.”

  An amphora is a clay jug with two handles.

  But what was so important about Stocker

  finding a jug?

  10

  What is that?

  The Mysterious Jug

  “I pulled it out of the water,” he continued.

  “I opened it. And inside I found

  a . . .”

  “Aaaaaaaa?” the micekings

  squealed.

  “A parchment!” Stocker

  finished. “There was a

  message written on it, but I don’t know

  how to read, so I ran to Sven.”

  “And I decided to come directly to

  Geronimo,” Sven said. “Now read this

  message, smarty-mouseking. That’s

  an order!”

  “so says sven the shouter!”

  Stocker handed me the parchment, and I

  began to read the message:

  12

  Well, what

  does it say?

  “I declare . . . to shake . . . um . . .

  strong mouseking! . . . sail the stormy

  seas . . . um . . . dragon . . . stinkiest . . .

  you . . .”

  “Geronimo, quit joking around!” my

  cousin Trap exclaimed.

  “I’m not joking around,” I protested.

  “These are the only words I UNDERSTAND.

  I can barely make out two runes in a row!”

  13

  The Mysterious Jug

  “You’re supposed to be the smarty-

  mouseking!” Sven shouted. “Figure it

  out!”

  “But, but, but . . .” I sputtered.

  Trap took the parchment from my paws.

  “Leave it to me, cousin! In addition to being

  an inventor, I’m also an expert

  at messages in bottles, secret codes, and

  invisible clues!”

  Let’s see . . .

  14

  * The original letter was written in runes, the miceking

  alphabet. This is a translation for you readers!

  I declare

  to shake.

  strong mouseking!

  sail the stormy sead,

  dragon.

  stinkiest

  you

  The Mysterious Jug

  Trap examined the parchment carefully

  (forward and BACKWARD, up and down,

  from close up and far away).

  Then he announced his conclusion: “Brave

  Sven! The amphora probably wasn’t closed

  tightly. The salt water from the fjord has

  erased almost everything that was written

  here. And so . . . the original message is a

  mystery!”

  16

  A Message from

  Yan

  the Yawner

  While Trap continued to study the

  message, our village chief paced the

  floor of my house, muttering about what

  to do next.

  “Holey cheese!” Trap

  cried out suddenly.

  “What’s this seal

  at the top of the

  parchment?”

  “Let me see!” Sven

  yelled, grabbing the

  parchment from him. His

  eyes got wide.

  “Why, this is the coat of arms of Yan

  17

  Yan

  the yawner

  Yan the Yawner is the chief

  of Oofadale, where the Oofa

  Oofa live. He’s called “the

  Yawner” because it’s said he

  can yawn 1,007 times in a

  row without dislocating his

  jaw. His motto is, “Why do

  tomorrow what you can do

  next week?”

  the Yawner, the

  chief of Oofadale!”

  Sven exclaimed.

  “Salty sardines!


  Then this must be a message from him!” Trap said.

  A

  LOUD

  murmur rose up

  from the micekings.

  This could be a

  very important

  message!

  The micekings

  were jumping out

  of their fur

  with curiosity. They

  started to

  guess

  what the meaning

  A Message from Yan the Yawner

  of the message might be, based on the few

  words I had read.

  “Why, it’s clear!” declared a tall, muscular

  mouseking. “It’s a challenge sent by the Oofa

  Oofa!

  THEY WANT TO ATTACK US!”

  “What if Oofadale is being attacked by

  dragons?” another mouseking

  wondered. “And Yan the Yawner is asking for

  help from the strong,

  brave warriors

  of Mouseborg!”

  A third mouseking spoke up. “They’re

  insulting us! They think we’re stinky!”

  I had my own theory. “It could be that

  Yan was just writing a simple message of

  greeting to a friend,” I suggested. “This

  very well could have been a

  PERSONAL

  letter that was lost and arrived here by

  accident. We all know how the miceking mail

  works . . .”

  19

  It’s a

  challenge!

  Is it a declaration of war?

  It’s an

  insult!

  Um . . .

  Hmm . . .

  If you ask

  me . . .

  They’re asking for help!

  What do we do?

  I don’t believe it!

  No way!

  I don’t know!

  A Message from Yan the Yawner

  But nobody took me SERIOUSLY.

  “By my beard, Geronimo, you must

  be the most foolish smarty-mouseking

  in miceking history!” Sven scolded me.

  “Didn’t you see the coat of arms? It’s

  clearly an

  official

  message of some kind.

  Therefore we must respond in an

  official

  manner.”

  Sven paced the room, twirling his beard

  and thinking. The micekings eagerly

  waited to hear our chief’s decision. Finally,

  Sven cleared his throat.

  “If the village of Oofadale is in danger,