Stay Strong Geronimo! (Geronimo Stilton Micekings #4)
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 Oofas, 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
TRAP
The most famouse
inventor in Mouseborg
BENJAMIN
Geronimo’s nephew
THEA
A horse trainer who
works well with all kinds
of animals
BUGSILDA
Benjamin’s best
friend
And the evil drAgons
!
SIZzLE
The cook
. . .
GOBbLER THE PUTRID
The fierce king of the
dragons is a Devourer!
The dragons are
divided into 5
clans, all of which
are terbifying!
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.
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.
Geronimo Stilton
MICEKINGS
Scholastic Inc.
STAY STRONG,
GERONIMO!
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 978-1-338-08870-0
Text by Geronimo Stilton
Original title La rivincita delle topinghe!
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 Becky James
First printing 2017
drAgon
Alert!
It was a
splendid
fall morning in
Mouseborg, the capital of Miceking Island.
The
colorful
leaves waved in the gentle
breeze.
Most micekings are
warriors
, but I
don’t like fighting. I decided to sneak away
for a walk in the woods. There, I would find
inspiration
in nature, and —
Sorry, I haven’t introduced
myself! My name is
Geronimo
Stiltonord
, and I am a
mouseking and a
scholar
.
That morning,
I was a hungry
scholar! I filled my backpack
with
one
small
barrel of fjordberry
juice,
two
loaves
of bread, and
three
wheels of super-
stinky Stenchberg cheese.
At the last minute,
I added cheese wheel
number
four
. Physical
exercise gives me a
big
appetite
!
I whistled as I headed
toward the woods. I strolled
until I found myself in a silent
clearing
surrounded by nature.
But before I could unpack my picnic, the
sound of a horn rose up from Three Lookouts
Cliff.
too-toot!
Too
-
Toooooooot!
Squeak! It was the
dragon alarm
!
Oh no! Dragons!
the shield
mouselet
megA chAllenge
When the dragon alarm soun
ded, everyone
in the village was supposed to run to face the
dragons. Did I mention that the dragons are
fierce
and terrible and always starving for
fresh
miceking meat?
I ran back through the woods and
rushed
to the village in record miceking
speed. When I arrived at the Great Stone
Square, the other micekings were already
there.
“
Draaagons!
” I yelled.
Oddly, nobody else was yelling. Or
running
for the catapults. I ran over to
Quick,
get
your
weapons!
Copper Ironpaws
, the village
blacksmith.
“Copper, didn’t you hear
the
alarm
?” I asked. “Bring
out the swords, the shields, the
sledgehammers
!”
The blacksmith just stood there like a
cheese log
and didn’t answer.
I looked around. All the other
micekings were just standing
there, too.
“
Holey cheese!
” I shouted. “Why
isn’t anybody getting ready to
fight
the
dragons?”
Nobody answered me.
“What is
WRONG
with you rodents?”
I asked.
Then
Sven the Shouter
,
our village leader, marched up to me.
“Geronimo, you smarty-mouseking!” he
shouted. (He always
shouts
. How do
you think he got his name?) “Here you are
at last!”
“
Sven! The d-d-d-dragons!
” I
stuttered.
He smacked my back with his massive paw.
“There aren’t any dragons, you mollusk! We
sounded the alarm to get you out of your
hiding place
.”
“I wasn’t hiding,” I protested.
Go sit down!
“So says sven the shouter!”
“Spare me the
excuses
, smarty-
paws,” he said. “We’ve
been
LOOKING
all over for you. It’s time
to start the competition!”
“
Competition?
What
competition?” I asked.
“Horns and thorns, don’t be a
cheesehead
!
Just go sit in your spot at the judges’ table.
That’s an order!” Sven shouted.
the other micekings yelled.
I
sighed
. So much for my picnic!
Only then did I notice that a
stage
had been built in the village square. It
was decorated
festively
. But, by my
whiskers, I couldn’t think of what competition
could be happening that day.
The
GREAT BEARD CHALLENGE
to
determine the mouseking with the thickest
beard had been a few weeks earlier.
The
Stinky Codfish Festival
was
always held the first week of spring.
The
Miceking Games
, which
attracted micekings from all over the island,
were planned for the summer.
So . . . this must be the
Shield Mouselet
Mega Challenge
! Female warrior micekings
are known as Shield Mouselets. Each fall,
they compete to see who is the
bravest
,
strongest
, and
smartest
.
Everyone loved the challenge — except me!
Sven always made me judge, and it always
got me in
big trouble
.
After I took my seat, my cousin
Trap
slid
into the chair next to me.
*
To read more about Ratilde, check out my adventure
The Famouse Fjord Race!
“Trap, are you on the judges’ panel, too?”
I asked.
He chuckled. “Of course! A judge has to
understand
courage
,
strength
, and
intelligence
. And since I am brave,
strong, and smart, I’ll be the
perfect
judge!”
We heard an amused laugh behind us and
turned to see a large female mouseking:
Ratilde
. “If anyone can judge the
courage
of a mouseking, it’s me!” she
boasted as she sat down in the third judge’s
chair.
Trap and I nodded. Ratilde was captain of
the ship
Beauty of the Seas
, and
there wasn’t a single mouseking sailor who
was
braver
than her.
*
“We all need courage to judge this contest,”
Good luck!
Come on,
Thea!
Go, Helga!
Ready to judge?
Well . . .
Karina will
win!
Thanks!
Yay, Thora!
SHIELD MOUSELET
THORA
Sven the Shouter’s daughter
is charming, brave, and good
at everything she
tries — and I
have a big
crush on
her!
HELGA
She is as sweet as she is
strong — and she makes
Trap blush.
I whispered to them
both.
“Why?” Trap asked.
“Because there can
only be one
winner
,”
I replied. “And then
we are left with angry
losers!”
Just then, I saw
that
Thora
was a
contestant this year.
She is
Sven’s
daughter — and my
secret crush
. I
gulped. I had to pick
Thora as the winner,
right?
The other
contestants
were Helga, Karina,
MEGA CHALLENGE
Karina
This mouseking is
fast, agile, and does
everything with flair.
Thea
My sister, Thea, is a
brilliant rodent! She
loves
adventure and
competitions.
and my sister, Thea.
I
gulped
again.
How could I vote
against Helga, who
is so
strong
? Or
Karina, the
FASTEST
mouseking around? Or
my own
talented
sister, Thea?
I could smell
trouble
already . . . but then I
smelled
something
else. Something very
strong.
I
sniffed
the air.
“What is that strange
stench?” I asked.
Ratilde snorted and
passed me a clothespin
What a smell!
to put on my nose. “Here you go, you
wimpy
mouseking
!” she said.
Then I saw that the
smell
was coming
from the braided sash that would be awarded
to the winning Shield Mouselet. It was made
out of
hot peppers
! Rotten ricotta,
those peppers had such a
strong scent
that they were making my eyes water!
Ratilde nudged me. “Look, smarty-
mouseking, even Trap has
watery
eyes.”
Logi Peppers
Logi peppers are very strong
hot peppers that are used in our
famouse miceking hot pepper
sauce, the hottest sauce there
is! These peppers have a much,
much, much stronger smell than
even stinky miceking garlic.
“It’s not
the peppers,”
Trap said.
Then I noticed that Helga
was
smiling
at him. My big
cousin has such a
tender
heart!
Begin the megA
chAllenges!
Sven the Shouter climbed onto the stage.
“Citizens of Mouseborg, hear me!” he shouted.
“Only the
bravest
,
strongest
, and
smartest
contestant will win the Shield
Mouselet Mega Challenge!”
the crowd cheered.
Sven raised his paw in the air. “Let the
competition begin!”
The first event was the
shell
challenge
. Each contestant
had to throw a
razor-sharp
shell at a straw target.
“So says sven the shouter!”
SHIVERING SQUIDS!
My whiskers!
Bull’s-eye!
Those shells had points as sharp as
DRAGONS’ CLAWS
.
Thea’s shell passed so close to me that it
trimmed
the ends of my whiskers! But
she hit the
bull’s-eye
and won
the contest.
I’m all
tangled up!
I need more
rope!
The second event was the