Treasure Guardians I: Treasure Guardians, #1

By Ben White

The mysterious town doesn't seem to have a name. That's part of what makes it mysterious, maybe. I mean I don't know. I'm just guessing. None of the Treasure Guardians have thought to name it, although Candy Stocking has whole notebooks full of observations about the town, and Liquorice Cupcake has drawn hundreds of pictures of the streets and views and monsters and everything, and Trouble Fox has explored pretty much everywhere even if getting her to talk about anything is a chore and a half, and Clover Pirate has battled monsters all over the place, and Obviously Lemonade and Peppermint Star have been around for longer than anyone else, apart from Mrs Hoot and Mistress Tabitha Maybenot of course, so I guess they know a lot about the place, the town I mean, and if there's a secret candy gathering point in the town that Choral Singalong doesn't know about then, well, I don't know, she's just really good at finding secret candy gathering points, is what I'm saying, and then Flower Turnip, well she mostly just sleeps a lot but she's a nice girl. You'd like her.

This new girl, though. What's her story? She doesn't have a special Treasure Guardian weapon and she doesn't have a special Treasure Guardian treasure pouch, she doesn't even have a name. I don't even think she can do any special attacks, although maybe she could use her little teddy bear for something, I don't know, or her red and white striped skin, I've never seen anything like that before, could it be some kind of power?  Or is it just a skin condition?  I guess we'll find out. Sometime. Maybe. Or maybe not. The thing about this mysterious town is that, yes, it certainly is full of mysteries. But the thing about mysteries is that sometimes they're better left unsolved...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clover Island Publishing
• Release date: Feb 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386613152

Book preview

Chapter One

Wake Up?  Mysterious Girl In A Mysterious Town

There was a girl with white and red striped skin, who woke in a town nobody could remember.  The girl's hair was straight and black, with braids in front of her ears.  The braid in front of her left ear was tied with a green ribbon, and the braid in front of her right ear was tied with a red ribbon.  She had green eyes and, as I just said, white and red striped skin.

There was a reason her skin was like that, but she wouldn't learn this for a long time.

The girl was wearing a light blue nightgown with little white snowflakes.  She didn't have any shoes on, but her feet were covered with thick woollen socks.  In the girl's hand was a small teddy bear.  It was pink with a red scarf and a cute little red and white hat.  It was wearing a tiny bracelet with cupcakes and jewels on it.

The first thing the girl thought was, what a strange street.  I've never seen a street like this before, all made of little flat rounded stones.

(It was in fact a cobblestone street, but the girl wouldn't learn this until later.)

The second thing the girl thought was, what a strange town.  I've never seen buildings like these before, all made of stone and wood and covered in vines like leafy green snakes.

Most of the houses were green or brown.  Just a few of the houses were purple, but the colour was pale and the paint was peeling off.  They all looked very old.  One of the houses didn't have a roof.  There was just a hole where a roof should have been.  It was as if a passing giant had peeled the top of the house open to have a look inside.

Off to one side of the street there was a square stone block, and on top of this square stone block there was a statue of a girl wearing a long dress and a tiara.  Maybe she was supposed to be a princess, but there was no way to know for sure.  The statue looked very old.  It was crumbling and greenish, but it seemed like once it had been a different colour.  Maybe blue.

The girl (that is, the girl who had woken in this strange place, not the statue girl) looked up at the sky.  It was orange with fluffy pink clouds.  The girl couldn't see the sun anywhere.  She wondered if it was setting, because everything looked golden and warm and lovely.  It was beautiful, but it also made the girl feel lonely, because there were no people around to see how pretty everything looked.

Oh yes.  That was the really strange thing about this mysterious place.  It seemed to be deserted.  The girl was completely alone.

She went to one of the buildings and looked through a grimy window.  There was nobody inside, and it looked like nobody had been inside for a very long time.

Well, the girl said, mostly because she wanted to hear someone talking, even if it was just herself.  She didn't get to say anything else, because at that moment she heard shouting voices, and running footsteps coming closer.

At first the girl felt excited, because someone was coming and she wouldn't be alone.  But then she felt scared, because she didn't know what kind of people they would be.  So she hid behind the statue.  The statue girl was just a little bit bigger than she was, so it turned out to be quite a good thing to hide behind.

Peeking out from her hiding place, the girl saw a group of children run to the middle of the street, just where she'd woken up.

Where did they go? one of the girls shouted.  She had bouncy blue-black hair and dark brown skin and mostly purple clothes.  Her name was Choral Singalong, but the girl wouldn't learn this until later.

I'm sure they came down this street, said another of the girls.  She had short pink hair and brown skin, and she was wearing a white and purple school uniform.  Her name was Candy Stocking, but the girl wouldn't learn this until later.  Look, here are some of their hairs.

I don't care about their hairs!  We have to catch them! Choral Singalong said.  She stomped around for a bit.  We NEED those buob bones!  I want to eat curry tonight!

Buob bones? the girl thought.  What in the world are buob bones?  And what do they have to do with curry?

By the way, 'buob' can be a pretty difficult word to pronounce.  Some people like to say it like the word 'blob', but with a u instead of an l.  But really, you can say it however you like.  Nobody will mind at all.  The buobs themselves don't care.  The only thing buobs care about is finding food.  So if you see a buob, don't get too worried about how you say the word 'buob'.  Don't get too worried about being eaten, either.  Buobs only eat things that are smaller than they are.  So the only reason to be worried, if you see a buob, is if it's bigger than you are.

In that case, in a situation where you are standing face to face with a buob that is bigger than you are, you are allowed to be as worried as you like.

Anyway, getting back to this mysterious group of children.  I already told  you a little about Choral Singalong (the noisy stompy girl with blue-black hair) and Candy Stocking (the calm clever girl with pink hair), but there was someone else with them, too.  Her name was Flower Turnip, and she had tanned skin and pretty pink hair.  It wasn't pink like Candy Stocking's hair.  It was a different shade.  Also, it looked like petals.  When Flower Turnip was sorrowful her hair would wilt, like a flower that needed more water.  When Flower Turnip was joyful her hair would bloom, like a happy flower.

At that moment, as Choral Singalong stomped around looking for buobs and their bones, and as Candy Stocking stood there thinking, Flower Turnip's hair couldn't decide what to do.  So it was just hair that looked like petals, not really joyful and not really sorrowful.  That's how it was for most of the time.

Muluu, Flower Turnip said.  She said this word a lot, but the girl (still hiding behind the statue and watching) wouldn't learn this until later.  We have lots of carrots and cucumbers.

But I don't want to eat just carrots and cucumbers, Choral Singalong said.  I want to eat curry!

If you want to buy the ingredients to make curry, Candy Stocking said, we need to find those buobs.  Maybe Trouble Fox knows where they went.  She's the best at hide and seek, after all.

Trouble Fox was the fourth and final member of this group of girls.  She was the smallest of them and she stood a little way apart from the others.  She had orange hair with two sidetails, both on the right.  They poked out through holes in the brown cap she wore.  She hadn't said anything while the others talked.  She just stood there, staring at the old statue at the side of the street.

Now Trouble Fox looked at Candy Stocking, and she shrugged.

Not that I care, she said.  But the buobs went that way.

She pointed down the street, and the other girls went running off in that direction.

Trouble Fox didn't follow them straight away.  She looked back at the statue first.

Her eyes were light brown and narrow, and they had a mischievous glint.

Hm, Trouble Fox said, then she ran after the others.  She didn't have any trouble catching up.  Trouble Fox was quick.

Once again, the girl was left alone.  She wondered if the children had been good or bad.  She thought that maybe they were good, and that maybe she shouldn't have hidden from them.

Then something happened that made the girl REALLY think that she shouldn't have hidden from the children.

The thing that happened was this:

Monsters.

Chapter Two

Run, Run, Run!  Escape From The Monster Trio

It began with a noise.  It was a kind of rustling scratching snuffling sound.  It wasn't very loud.  In fact it could be called quiet.

But then the girl realised something that was a little bit scary:

It was not a quiet noise.

It was a far away noise.

And it was getting louder.

So whatever was making the noise was getting closer.

Then the girl saw them.  The things that were making the noise.  They came from the house which didn't have a roof.  They climbed out of the hole in the top.

The girl was frozen.  She couldn't move.  She was too scared.  She was too shocked.

She had never seen even one monster before, let alone three of them, climbing down the outside of a house close to where she was standing.

Actually, to be precise, the house wasn't that close at all.  There were at least ten other houses between where the girl stood and the house without a roof.  So it was actually quite far away.  But when you can see monsters climbing out of a house, even 'far' seems much too close.

All of the monsters had rough green skin and thick purple hair.  At the end of their long arms they had paws like an animal but with fingers like a person, except instead of fingernails they had long black claws.

Each of the monsters had a different face.  One of them had a face like a dog.  One of them had a face like a hedgehog.  One of them had a face like a cat.

You may have guessed by now that these monsters were buobs, like the group of children had been chasing.  If you guessed this then you were right; well done you.  You might remember that you don't need to worry about buobs unless they are bigger than you, because buobs only eat things that are smaller than they are.

Well, I'm sorry to say that all three of these buobs were much bigger than the girl.  They were even bigger than you.

They didn't see her at first.  They were too busy climbing down the house.  Then they were too busy snuffling at the stone street.  But then the one with a dog's face stopped snuffling and looked up.

At that very moment the girl became unfrozen.  She could move.  So she very definitely DID move.  She ran as fast as she could.  As fast as she had ever run.  Of course she couldn't remember anything, not even her own name, but she still felt that this was the fastest she had ever run in her entire life.  She was right, too.

Behind her, the girl heard the dog face one make a noise.  It didn't bark or howl like a dog might have done.  The noise it made was like a mouse's squeak, but ten times louder and a hundred times scarier.  It was a long, loud, horrifying SCREECH.

There was one lucky thing that the girl found out, then.  She found out that she could run very fast, even in socks.

There was one unlucky thing that the girl found out, too.  She found out that these monsters could also run very fast, even without shoes.

But then there was another lucky thing, which was that the girl had a head start on the monsters.  She could run fast and they could run fast but she was ahead of them, so as long as she got to safety soon they wouldn't be able to catch her.

But then there was another unlucky thing, which was that the girl had never been here before and didn't know where a safe place was, so she soon found herself at a dead end.  Some of the buildings had collapsed across the street.  It was such a mess and there was so much splintered wood and bits of stone walls and even things like broken furniture that there was no way to get through.

Behind her, the girl could hear the horrible screeches of the monsters.  They were getting closer.  She ran to the side of the street, to the door of one of the buildings.  But it wouldn't open.  It was locked or stuck.  She ran to another door but it was the same, locked or stuck, and the next was the same too, locked or stuck and now the girl could see the monsters and there was only one door left to try, so she ran for the door and the monsters ran for her and she reached the door just before they reached her—

But the door was locked.

Or stuck.

It didn't open.

HELP! the girl screamed, because there was nothing else left to do, except squeeze her eyes tightly shut and hope, oh hope, that this might just be an awful nightmare.

She didn't wake up, though, because this was not a nightmare.  This was actually happening.  She was really trapped in a dead end street in a strange town wearing only her nightgown and socks with three horrible monsters about to leap on her.

Except then something strange happened.

Or, to be precise, didn't happen.

The thing that didn't happen was this:

The monsters didn't leap.

And then something else strange happened.

There was a voice, loud and brave:

GET AWAY FROM HER YOU BUOBS!

The girl opened her eyes.  The three monsters weren't looking at her.  They were looking at a girl standing in the middle of the street.

Come on then! the girl shouted.  She had wavy ocean-coloured hair and a black pirate hat and an eyepatch.  The eye that wasn't covered by an eyepatch was red and looked very mean.  Oh, and she had a sword.  That's probably important to mention.  Her name was Clover Pirate, but the girl wouldn't learn this until half a second later.  My name is Clover Pirate and I'm not scared of ANYTHING!

The buobs made their horrible screeching noise, and they all leapt at Clover Pirate.

The girl gasped and covered her eyes with her hands.  The monsters were big and Clover was small.  There was no way that one small girl could beat three big monsters.  Even if she had a sword.