Puddlejumpers Read Online Free Page A

coming when you will journey to the Most Dark, a terrible Trogg wasteland where sap never runs and water never flows and the fires burn hot and forever. Wawaywo—you will lead us in battle against the Troggs. You are the Rainmaker.”
    When the baby started to cry, Cully fell silent.
    In the nights to come, he would tell other stories, happier ones, but tonight the truth needed to be told. As the sun came up, ending the first night of Shawn Frazier’s education, Cully did his best to make the baby laugh. When funny faces didn’t work, he stood on his head and spit acorns. Shawn giggled for the first time and Root and Runnel laughed so hard they fell right off the rail.
    Fixing a bottle in the kitchen, a sleepy Russ heard something hit the floor in the nursery. He hurried in, but all he found was Shawn in his crib fingering an acorn. Mystified, he took it away before the baby could swallow it, then noticed three more right next to him. How on earth did acorns end up in Shawn’s crib?

    After a week of temperatures nearing one hundred degrees, a warm rain drenched the Warbling River plateau. Root went out to collect fresh rainwater for Shawn’s bath from the puddle behind the barn. Glad to be out of the house and in the rain, he was catching droplets on his tongue when another Puddlejumper suddenly burst through the puddle. Root ducked, barely avoiding the Jumper’s landing.
    It was Chop. At nine inches, he was the smallest Puddlejumper. He was also the most irrepressible, and now he was speaking so fast that Root couldn’t understand him. Root made him take a breath and slow down.
    â€œMa bata-pa, Wawaywo,” he declared emphatically. Chop wanted to see the Rainmaker. Root knew he’d left the Kingdom without permission and had jumped against explicit instructions, but he also knew he’d be impossible to turn away. He decided to allow him a glimpse of the baby, but only if he agreed to return immediately afterward to the Underneath.
    As this was Chop’s first experience with humans, Root expected him to be as cautious as he’d been. Instead, he made a beeline for the house, racing ahead through the rain. Root caught him just before he barged into the kitchen, where Russ was making breakfast. He made Chop dry his feet so he wouldn’t track mud across the floor. When Russ opened the fridge, they scampered past him and down the hall.
    Runnel rarely lost her temper, but when she saw Chop, she spun like a top, leapt into the air, somersaulted, and landed on his chest, pinning him to the carpet. She was steaming mad—if they were discovered, the human might take the baby away. When Root explained that he’d already agreed to let Chop see Wawaywo, she reluctantly stepped aside. She knew that Root wouldn’t go back on his word.
    Chop zipped up the leg of the crib, where he stared wide-eyed, almost forgetting to breathe. When Shawn reached out and grabbed his hand, Chop nearly fainted. Runnel, quick to forgive, offered Root a knowing smile, remembering their first encounter with the Rainmaker.
    At the sound of Russ’ approaching footsteps, the Puddle-jumpers scattered. Camouflaged among some stuffed animals, Root and Runnel watched, horrified, as Chop made the mistake of hiding in the diaper pail. They remained perfectly still while Russ changed Shawn’s diaper, but could barely look when he opened the bucket’s lid with a foot pedal and dropped the messy diaper inside. It landed with a squishy thud.
    Later, after Root and Runnel finally got him cleaned up, they escorted Chop back to the puddle to make sure he returned to the Underneath.

    Toward the end of summer, Root and Runnel confronted a new problem. Unfortunately, Chop had bragged to anyone who would listen about his encounter with Wawaywo, and now Puddlejumpers from near and far were jumping puddles to get their own glimpse of the baby. There were even a few who pilfered a sock, bootie, toy, or