Chapter 1: The Cottage on the Hill I live in a little town called Pigbone.
Its full name is Pigbone-East-of-the-Mountains. I don't know if there is a Pigbone-West-of-the-Mountains. How could I? No one in our town ever goes anywhere.
"Why should we go somewhere else, Edward?" said my mother every time I complained about this. "We have everything we need right here."
I disagreed. What we didn't have was excitement.
Mother and I live in a little cottage at the edge of town.
Everyone in Pigbone lives in a cottage.
The only other kids in Pigbone are two older boys, who are kind of mean, and one new baby. So until Moongobble showed up, I sometimes got pretty lonely.
Behind our cottage is a big hill, very steep.
On top of the hill, right at the edge, sits another cottage, so big it's almost a house. It even has a kind of tower.
A long, twisty path winds up to this cottage, which had been empty for as long as I could remember. This cottage was where I went when I wanted to be alone. In fact, I spent so much time there I almost felt as if it belonged to me. So I was surprised, and a little upset, the day I saw smoke curling out of its chimney.
I ran to my mother.
"Someone has moved into the empty cottage!" I cried.
"Ignore it, Edward," she said. She wiped her hands on her apron and turned back to what she was cooking.
Mother was always cooking or washing or something. Sometimes I could help. Sometimes she just wanted me to get out of the way.
I decided this was a good time to get out of the way.
I also decided that the most out-of-the-way place I could get was up the hill.
I started up the narrow path that led to the cottage. The grass beside the path was as high as my shoulders. Bugs buzzed around me. The sun was warm. I started to sweat.
When I was about halfway up the hill, I turned to look down at Pigbone. I counted the cottages. Fifteen, just like always. Our cottage was the closest. The one farthest away-the biggest and nicest one-belonged to the Rusty Knight.
I started to climb again.
I was out of breath by the time I got to the top.
I had planned to go right up to the cottage door and ask who was living there. Then I saw something that slowed me down. Bursts of green light were coming out of the window!
I decided to do some sneaking. This was something I had practiced a lot, so I was very good at it.
Dropping to my knees, I crawled toward the cottage. I moved very quietly.
As I got closer, I heard voices.
"You know that's not going to work," said one voice. It was deep and raspy.
"Don't be so gloomy!" said the other voice. It was softer and had a friendly sound.
"I'm not gloomy," said the first voice. "I'm honest."
I crept closer. Soon I was just beneath the window.
Vines covered the side of the cottage. Using the vines for support, I lifted my head to peek over the windowsill.
I couldn't believe what I saw!
Copyright © 2003 by Bruce Coville