The Flompers of Faulderville by Cassie Sipes (best novels for beginners txt) 📖

in there speaking with her also. Sunshine was very apologetic, asking him to please forgive her, she wasn’t aware of the rules. “And please don’t be angry with Lorali, she meant well.” Sunshine added. The Mayor looked into her big blue eyes and turned to see Lorali had the same eyes, “Did Grandfather pair you with Lorali?” Sunshine smiled, “Yes, he told me she would be a very good friend. And so far he is right.” She winked at Lorali, who looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry Sunshine, for getting you in trouble and putting you in danger.” Mayor Brett gasped, “Danger? What happened when you went to the bridge?” Lorali’s eyes grew bigger; she hesitated and answered “nothing, I just meant it could’ve been bad…” Brett nodded his head in agreement. “You two girls stay out of trouble, you hear me?” he said as he walked out the door.

Out of Trouble

Sunshine and Lorali decided they would stay out of trouble, and stay in Faulderville today. They walked around talking; Lorali introduced Sunshine to the other Flompers in the village. Sunshine wanted to find out what a Flompers duties are, “do we have tasks to perform…” She followed Lorali to the edge of the village, where she found many Flompers washing roots and picking honey suckles, “when you get a little older, you get jobs to do to help out.” Lorali explained. Sunshine asked, “What do we do until we are a little older?” Lorali smiled, “Follow me…”
They walked a little way down a path along the outskirts of the village. It was grown over somewhat with grass and weeds, not a very well traveled road. Sunshine stopped for a moment and looked at Lorali, “are we leaving Faulderville?” “No, not really…” Lorali responded. Sunshine smiled, “good enough for me.” When they had walked just far enough to lose sight of the houses, Lorali said “We are almost there” Sunshine rubbed her furry little hands together with anticipation.
Suddenly she heard the sound of rushing water, as the two girls passed through some bushes Lorali said, “This is what we do until then.” As she said this she jumped into a large creek with a scream a laugh and a big splash. Sunshine watched this with a little fear of jumping in; will we get into trouble for this? She wondered to herself. Surely not! How could this be bad? Sunshine had made up her mind, and she jumped into the water with her friend.
As they splashed and played in the water, Lorali looked up into the woods on the other side of the creek and stopped playing. Sunshine said “What’s the matter?” Lorali pulled her friend close and pointed to the trees saying, “Do you see its eyes?” Sunshine scanned the tree line quickly, trying to see whatever it was Lorali was seeing. Soon her eyes caught glimpse of what appeared to be two glowing red eyes. “Is that??” was all she could say. “Yes, it looks like a rupin…” Lorali responded. With that they both slowly started backing up to the side of the creek to get out. Sunshine was out of the water first and reached down to help Lorali up. When she looked back up the eyes were gone. She asked Lorali, “I thought they were kept out of Faulderville?” Lorali looked down, “they are, with this creek. It goes all the way around grandfather and the other villages. The rupins are afraid of water, and it’s too wide for them to jump.”
“Oh my goodness, that’s what you meant when you said we weren’t really leaving Faulderville!” Sunshine exclaimed. “I’m sorry Sunshine; I just wanted you to have fun!” Lorali said as she followed Sunshine down the path back toward the village. “I don’t like being scared, plus we told Mayor Brett we would stay out of trouble!” Sunshine said as she kept walking quickly. “I know, I know, I’m sorry Sunshine. Please don’t be mad at me.” Lorali pleaded. “I’m not mad. Not really. That really scared me. I just want to be safe, and stay out of trouble like we said… for real this time.” Sunshine had stopped walking and was now facing Lorali. “Okay Sunshine, we will be good and stay out of trouble.” Lorali answered back.
They were almost all the way back to the village when they heard something coming up behind them. They stopped and it stopped, they started walking faster and it got faster, so the two girls began to run. Big Green jumped out in front of them with Sheriff J.R. sitting on his back. “Wow girls!” he shouted “where ya headed in such a hurry?” “There’s something behind us!” they exclaimed. Sheriff J.R. looked past the girls, but saw nothing in the distance. “I think you two girls are a little spooked. I don’t see anything.” He said as he scratched his furry chin. Big Green bounced back and turned around, “You two get back to town, Grandfather has an announcement for the forest.” They looked curiously at each other, and started back to the village walking quickly.

The Secret

When they got back into the village, they found all the other Flompers gathered together whispering and gesturing toward Grandfather. They looked up in his direction and saw that he had his branches all stretched out, with newly grown flower buds covering him. To call attention to all the woodland creatures Grandfather was waving his outstretched branches around and around causing a loud roaring sound. Sunshine’s eyes were glued to Grandfather in surprise; she had never seen or heard such a thing.
Once he had every creature’s attention, Grandfather began to speak:
“Now, there is no reason for panic, but Flomper Fogle has come to me with a bit of disturbing news. It seems that the rupins have begun to test the waters so to speak. This causes me much worry for you my dear children. So for now, Sheriff J.R. and Mayor Brett I will need you two to get with Sheriff Christian and Mayor Kase to start rounding up the other Flompers and begin building a wall around the forest with the only gate being at Fogle’s bridge. This is all for now, I am so sorry to have to tell you this, but it is for your own safety.”
With this Grandfather’s branches went back to their outstretched positions, and the woodland creatures all began talking amongst themselves. “Flompers! Flompers! Mayor Brett and I are going to go meet with Christian and Kase to discuss the plans for the wall. We will be back in a day or two, until then please, please do NOT leave Faulderville.” J.R. then turned to Sunshine and Lorali and said, “I am being serious girls, I know you have an eye for adventure, but the rupins can really hurt you.” “Okay, we will stay here.” They both agreed. Mayor Brett walked over and started to speak, when Lorali interrupted him “We know, we know, stay here and don’t do anything…” she rolled her eyes. Mayor Brett shook his head and added, “You know, there are fun things you can do here.” Lorali put her hands on her hips and said, “I will TRY to find us something around here to do.”
The sheriff and the mayor left for the other village on their side of the forest. Sunshine looked at Lorali and smiled, “things are gonna be just fine, right? I mean Grandfather won’t let anything happen to us.” “Of course” was the response that she received. The two girls stood there and watched as the mayor and the sheriff walked off into the distance and then slowly out of sight. Lorali turned to Sunshine and said, “Well, ready?” Sunshine looked a bit confused and asked, “For what?” Lorali laughed and replied, “Are we really gonna just sit here?” Sunshine shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, I guess I kinda thought that was the idea…” Lorali grabbed her hand and pulled her into town and then beyond the houses. Sunshine said little as she was tugged and dragged through town; she barely had time to think about what was happening.
Once they were on the other side of town Lorali slowed down and Sunshine had a moment to think, and ask “What exactly is the plan?” Lorali looked down at her feet; she kicked the dirt a little bit and scratched her shoulder. “You do have a plan, right?” Sunshine asked, but Lorali just stood there. This was the first time Sunshine had ever seen Lorali so quiet, it was a little scary for Sunshine. “Do you have a plan?” was the only question Sunshine wanted to ask… But before she could get the words out, Lorali raised her hand and pointed her tiny little finger straight ahead. The two girls had made it all the way across the village and were standing on the edge of a ravine, water was rushing by so quickly that it roared, but what took Lorali’s breathe away was standing on the other side of the ravine.
It was enormous, standing taller than any Flomper they had ever seen, and its body was covered with very colorful things. They weren’t sure what it was it had on, but it wasn’t hair, that was for sure. It was looking across their village, across the forest, toward Grandfather. The two girls just stood there, afraid to move or say anything. Soon the thing turned, put its fingers to its mouth and whistled very loudly. As it began to walk away two large black creatures leaped from the bushes and followed it. Lorali reached over and grabbed Sunshine by the hand and pulled her into some bushes. “Those were rupins!” Lorali whispered to Sunshine. “What!?” Sunshine exclaimed as Lorali threw her hand over Sunshine’s mouth. “What was the giant thing? Was it a Flomper?” Sunshine asked in a whisper. “Not any kind of Flomper I’ve ever seen before.” Lorali stated. “Maybe we should go back and stay put like we told Sheriff JR we would do.” Sunshine looked to Lorali for a response to her idea, but instead she heard Lorali’s idea. “We need to get across this ravine and see what that thing was. And why it seemed to have power over the rupins!”