“Now this is what I call a celebration!” said Mr Mouse.
With Dot, Wizzie and Cambor, Poolbear and Drindel Zildith, he was standing with a plate heaped high with goodies in the hall of the Extrapolation Extraordinary.
Well, he was standing on it really – he was a mouse in heaven, in the middle of a circle of goodies!
He hopped over and broke a little piece off what looked liked a creamy cheese, with orange and golden flecks in it.
“Mmmmmmmmm!” he said, smacking his mousey little lips. “Now that is good!”
“Have you tried these round purple things?” said Wizard. “They’re GREAT!”
He put a paw up and stopped a silver tray with two little wings on the side that was floating past. It dipped slightly so that he could take another one of his faves.
“TOTALLY delicious!” he said, scooping up another one. The silver tray floated off. “Your dad should make these at Doggydos!”
Dot grinned. “Don’t have too many Wizzo” she said. “You’ll get overweight again.” They were nice though, she thought. And I’m sounding just like Mum!
It seemed ages ago that they’d all been at the Extrapolation Extraordinary, the big daily meeting of the Zildiths which had been gate crashed by Cruncher.
Now, instead of the rows of seats like a huge theatre, the hall had been completely changed: it was like a grassy valley, sloping upwards as before, but dotted with little stone tables, each with its selection of food and drink: delicious snacks in strange shapes, made from the fruits created by the gardener of Phargon, Hornbeam Zildith; sweets that melted in your mouth, with creamy honey tastes, nuts and berries in a warm ice cream (that was weird!) and drinks of all colours.
Well, of any colour really: all you had to do was breathe unto your glass what colour you wanted, whether it should be fizzy or ordinary, and whether it should be sweet or sour, creamy or clear – and the glass did the rest for you.
Everything was served by the floating trays, which never seemed to run out of food and drink! And even if you ate quite a lot, you never felt sick. Perfect!
All around them, Zildiths were talking, laughing, telling jokes or showing tricks – even Zamelqa the Regent had something special to show: a dance in which she could leap into the air and just stay there, up above the floor, until someone clicked his fingers and she floated gently down again.
“Nice, isn’t it?” said Poolbear, as Dot took a drink of her latest choice. “I call that one Frangipani Fizz!”
“And how did you like your Acclaim, Miss Dorothy?” said Drindel, beaming at her.
Dot went pink. It had been VERY nice, but kind of embarrassing too!
As the Zildiths had come out from Phargon in their thousands, making their strange singing, sighing sound, the cachou tree had gently bent forward – and placed Dot and her friends gently on the ground in front of all their friends in Phargon.
A huge roar of applause came up from the crowd – and clapping too, but a special kind: not just patting the palms of their hands together, but patting the back of each hand two times, then clapping the ordinary way in a special rhythm.
With three hundred and sixty five pairs of Zildith hands all going together it got quite noisy! But WHAT a welcome!
Then Zamelqa the Regent of Phargon had held up her hand.
“Miss Dorothy” she said in her beautiful, musical voice. “You have saved Phargon – and the memory of the Internet. You have restored Drindel, the Day of 23, to us, so that now information from all the year round can flow once again to everyone who needs it. Thanks to you, or memory is reborn!”
“HURRAH! HURRAH!” went all the Zildiths, and then fell silent again.
“And” Zamelqa went on “You have been victorious over the powers of destruction and harm – and even brought us a trusty new friend from the place where we would least have expected to find one – the foul caverns of the cyber rat kingdom.”
She smiled and bowed at Cruncher, whose ears went pink. “Don’t mention it, lady!” he said, shuffling his big black biker boots and pretending to polish the handlebars of his cyber bike.
“So now” she said “We are restored, thanks to - MISSDOROTHY.COM!”
She spread her arms wide – and as she did so, Dot felt herself gently lifted off the ground by the Children of the Casement (just as they’d done with Drindel in the cyber rats’ cave) and the next moment she was in Zamelqa’s arms, folded into one of the warmest hugs she’d ever had!
Once again, the applause had echoed round the hall at the entrance to Phargon.
Dot couldn’t remember the next bit very well, she was so embarrassed – she knew she’d made a speech after Zamelqa’s big hug, but couldn’t remember a word of what she’d said. She just hoped it had made some sense, that’s all!
“Nice, wasn’t it?” said Drindel, giving her a nudge and bringing her back to the present, the happy sounds of the celebration party and the delicious smells of the food of Phargon.
“Yes… mmm… ” smiled Dot, though she still felt a bit shy about it all. She didn’t know what to say, so she came out with the first thing that popped into her head. “Er, ummm, what does ‘Acclaim’ mean?”
Poolbear chuckled and Cambor smiled his serious smile. They knew what Dot was feeling!
“Well!” said Drindel, raising his eyebrows and grinning. “There are plenty of books here in Phargon, aren’t there? Why don’t we all go and find out?”
