Stirring Adventures and Mad Mods! Saving the world one questionable decision at a time.
This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which the children have too much and too little imagination to enjoy their meal.
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The next morning the twins found something in their net. They called it a fish, for it wriggled and had fins and lived in water. However, the fins (there were six) were evenly spaced around the back of the thing, making a ringed sort of tail. It had three eyes on either side of its head, and a great rounded lower lip that protruded over its upper lip. It was a rusty orange-pink in color, with a pattern of pale purple spots beginning lightly at its head and intensifying so that it was mostly purple at the tail.
Mirabelle held it in the net while Annabelle hit its head with the side of the pick. She worked quickly so that no one (including her) could get attached to the creature and forget it was supposed to be food. When it stopped wriggling they examined it and made quick notes and sketches in Mirabelle’s observation book before borrowing a pocketknife from Gerhardt. (For all the tools and assorted objects in their pinafore pockets, they did not happen to have a knife, comb, or handkerchief.)
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» They called and hallooed much louder, to drown out the whispering vines and their own panic. They were answered at last by a splash upstream. Adolphus had thrown a branch in the water. They retreated upriver to parlay.
“How can we answer you back with all that shouting?” Adolphus demanded.
“Never mind that!” Mirabelle interrupted. “It’s all those nasty vines over here unless we push back into the woods.”
“Bettina found the boat!” Annabelle said. “We need to find a way to get you all over here.”
The vines waved in the air as though seeking the source of all the noise. Gerhardt eyed them with distaste, running his finger along the string of his ammunitionless crossbow.
“Or you could cut through the woods and we could float down to meet you.”
They discussed this option at length. Finally Claire refused to do anything that might separate them further.
“Aaagh!” Gerhardt shouted and pointed to the river. “It’s swimming across!”
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» 
In which the children are separated in a strange and unknown place.
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They walked for hours. Annabelle made Bettina and Gerhardt hold her hands, glaring suspiciously at the underbrush for signs of attack. On the opposite bank Claire was anxious.
“What shall we do when it gets dark?”
“We need to all be together,” Mirabelle said. The river was wider here, but they could not see through the water.
“I’d like to know when it will get dark,” Adolphus said, staring up again. “I can’t see the sun! The whole sky is the same; there’s no bright point.”
“It must be behind the trees,” Claire said. “Oh! I wish we hadn’t lost all the rope!”
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which the children at last ascend to the surface of the earth, only to find themselves in more danger!
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The river did not quicken to throw them over a cliff. The cave broadened and the river slowed. The twins plied their oars for speed. Gerhardt, carving a name for their vessel into its hull, looked down and realized he had spelled “Mycelium” wrong.
“Hey,” he said, “there’s light.”
Ahead across the broad, flat water was a slit of blinding light, so welcome that the children stared into it until they had to close their eyes against it, and then saw the bright red impression of it against their closed eyelids.
They cheered and rowed toward it.
The cave mouth was low and they all had to lie down in the mushroom cap to pass through. With the yeti lying in there as well there was not enough room, so Claire and Adolphus jumped into the cold water and clung to the back of the boat, kicking to propel them back into the light.
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which we discover what Claire found.
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“This narrow cave will open into an enormous cavern,” Claire said. “I don’t know how big, I couldn’t see very far because I only have one of Mother’s algae lamps.”
“So that’s where that went,” Adolphus muttered.
“Shhh! Go on, Claire,” Mirabelle said.
“But there was light there! I think there were cracks in the cave ceiling, or vertical tunnels, because there were patches of light beaming down. That’s where these mushrooms are growing. This is one of the biggest. I chopped it down at the base, then made the pole and oars out of the stem.”
“That was clever and brave of you!” Annabelle said.
“It is nice to have a boat that doesn’t leak,” Gerhardt added.
“But next time, please tell us,” Annabelle said. “We were worried.”
Adolphus opened his mouth to speak. There was the muffled thump of a sharp kick to the shins, so all he said was “Ow!”
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which we learn of Claire’s fate.
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Gerhardt was gone. Mirabelle grabbed the net, kicked out of Adolphus’ grip, and leaned over the edge to look for him. She expected to see him bobbing in the current downstream with only the hope of catching onto Claire’s rope to save him, but Claire’s rope was no longer stretching into the blackness downstream. Instead, here was Claire herself, standing in a perfectly round boat with a surprised Gerhardt sitting beside her.
Mirabelle turned back and leaped at her siblings. Adolphus and Annabelle caught her. She grabbed Gerhardt’s shoe and reassured her horrified twin.
“He’s safe! Claire’s back; it’s time to go.”
There was little left on the ship worth taking. They loaded up the rope, the last of the food and tools, the algae lamp and their sodden winter clothing, and last of all the yeti, dragged onto the raft with considerable heaving and ho-ing.
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which Bettina’s excellent idea puts her siblings in grave danger.
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“Net yeti,” said Bettina.
“Yes, dear, it was a nice yeti,” Mirabelle said.
“Net yeti,” Bettina repeated pointing up.
Gerhardt looked up. In the dim light he saw the dark square of the open trapdoor, through which he had ascended many hours, or possibly days ago.
“The balloon net,” he said. “She means the balloon net.”
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which Annabelle loses her composure.
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Adolphus attacked the control panel with hammer and pliers, looking for wire or cable sturdy enough to hold the weight of any of the children. Having been forced to admit that he could not rebuild the airship into a raft before they all drowned, he was working on harnessing himself and his siblings to one or two of the gas balloons that even now kept them from sinking into the underground river.
Mirabelle and Annabelle were helping him, but the younger two were struggling to keep the yeti’s head above the water seeping into their ship. The creature was huge and heavy, and showed no inclination to float.
“If Claire hadn’t taken all the line without a word to anyone,” Adolphus muttered, “we’d be flying out of this mess by now.”
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which there is yet more arguing.
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Bettina came over and wriggled between Mirabelle and the gondola wall. The others paid no notice as their dispute became more heated. They were all shouting, or in the case of Gerhardt, muttering while bailing.
“Why don’t we do what we did before?” Gerhardt said. “Let a little gas out and tighten the net. If it doesn’t unstick us you can go back to yelling at each other then.”
“What if we get unstuck and plunge off the top of a waterfall without enough gas to pull us up?” Mirabelle asked.
“What if we just sit here until we die of old age?” Adolphus sneered.
“Why don’t we push you overboard and see how far to the waterfall?” Annabelle leaned forward, but whatever act of unsisterly violence may have tempted her, Gerhardt interrupted her.
“Claire? What do you think we should do?”
His answer was the rushing of the river and the scraping of the hull.
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» I which, I am sorry to say, there is squabbling.
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There was no more line left, so they untied coils and coils of it from the still sleeping yeti and secured Gerhardt with that. He scrambled up again, let a little gas out of each balloon, and fastened the net closer to the ship.
They sank closer to the river’s rushing water, and were on their way for a while. But before another ten leagues had passed, they were stuck again.
“What else can we pitch?” Claire asked, thinking aloud.
They looked around them. They had thrown all the rugs and blankets out the windows for Ulrik and the boiler crew back on the surface. They had tossed out all the furniture when they’d run aground in the tunnel.
“Water!” Annabelle seized a small barrel. “There’s plenty of water now, let’s dump it. There’s another one over there.”
The second barrel proved not to be water, but a sharp-smelling, eye-watering alcohol.
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