Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers by Lee Edward Födi Page A

do you think then?” Kendra asked.
    “I try not to think any more than I have to,” Jinx retorted as they came upon a long branch lying across their path. If you had been the size of a grasshopper, the branch would have seemed like an enormous fallen tree. Still, Jinx was no ordinary grasshopper, and she threw the branch aside as if it had been no heavier than a feather.
    Kendra and Oki looked at Jinx with amazement.
    “How did you become so strong, Captain Jinx?” Kendra asked the grasshopper.
    Jinx glared hard at the two young friends. “You are a pair of pestering twerps, you know that? Why should I tell you anything?”
    “Please, Jinx?” Oki asked. “Tell us how you got so strong. I heard you drank a magic potion.”
    “I don’t know how that’s any of your business,” Jinx scowled.
    “Then tell us about the monsters you’ve seen,” Kendra said.
    “Who’s said I’ve seen any?” Jinx demanded.
    “Well, have you?” Kendra asked.
    Jinx rolled her eyes. “Yes, of course,” she said. “If you must know, I saw my first Goojun on the same day I got my strength.”

    “Really?” Oki asked. “Oh, do tell us about it.”
    “I’m no storyteller,” Jinx grumbled.
    “Please?” Kendra begged.
    “I’ll tell you what,” Jinx said. “I’ll cut you a deal. I’ll tell you the story as long as Oki stops ‘eeking.’ And another thing! Don’t go blabbing this to all of Eendom. That’s all I need.”
    “Oh, we swear we won’t tell,” Kendra said.
    “Double-swear,” Oki added.
    “You don’t have to get dramatic about it,” Jinx groaned, rolling her eyes at them. “Well, it happened long ago, when I was just a nymph. Don’t ask me what that is, Kendra. That’s what a young grasshopper is called. Anyway, I lived in the Hills of Wight, which are a good day’s hop north of Faun’s End. My parents had sent me there to apprentice with my Uncle Jasper, who was a great sorcerer.”
    “Greater than Uncle Griffinskitch?” Kendra asked.
    “Well, I didn’t say that ,” Jinx said, sounding annoyed. She took a deep breath and continued. “But he was a great wizard nonetheless. Sometimes Uncle Jasper would go outside the magic curtain to look for plants that he needed for all his powders and potions. He was a potion specialist, and Eens and animals came from every corner because he could heal all types of sicknesses.”
    “Oooh,” Oki said. “Could your uncle cure Goojun pox? How about the squeezles?”
    “Of course!” Jinx replied, though in truth she sounded somewhat uncertain. “Now stop interrupting, and let me continue! One day I went with Uncle Jasper to collect his plants. We went deep into the Forests of Wretch, for we were looking for this special kind of moss that only grows in pitch darkness. If any light touches this moss, it shrivels up and dies. But there’s more than moss that lives in those woods.”
    “Like what?” Kendra asked, tugging nervously on her braids.
    “Goojuns actually,” Jinx said. “And that day we ran into a whole herd of them.”
    At the mention of Goojuns, Kendra looked at Oki and noticed a particularly strong “eek” welling up in him. But Jinx cast him a threatening glance, and at once, the mouse seemed to gulp down his terror.
    “Uncle Jasper and I hopped for our lives,” the grasshopper continued. “As I said, it was dark in the Forests of Wretch, and we got separated. Those Goojuns were everywhere. I couldn’t yell for Uncle Jasper because I knew they’d hear me. So I made my way as best I could. I hadn’t gone far when I stumbled upon Uncle Jasper’s pouch. He kept all his potions in it.”
    “But where was your uncle?” Kendra asked.
    “I don’t know,” Jinx replied with a grimace. “Since that day, he’s never been seen.”
    “Oh,” Kendra said sadly. “It sounds like what happened to my family.”
    “Well, I don’t know much about that,” Jinx said with some discomfort in her voice. “But the disappearances did happen in