Lizard's Leap: Chapter Twenty Eight: Monkey's and Mirrors.

He’s been making excited hand gestures for days and we can’t understand what he’s trying to tell us. He uses sign language, you know, but this is eluding us. It’s obviously something very important to him. We’ve been through lots of books looking for pictures that would give us a clue, but we’ve come up with nothing. If you can find out what it is that he wants, that will take you to the final puzzle. It’s the most important puzzle of all, the one that, once solved, will save Kaleidoscope Castle.’

They felt very important. Wouldn’t it be great, they said, if they could be the ones to

save the castle from ruin? But first they had to solve the mystery of what was

bothering Monobo. They needn’t have worried. It was the easiest of all the puzzles to

solve and it only took them a few minutes and a little bit of kindness.

When Lidlia walked back into the room, Monobo had two pink hair slides donated by Vicki —one above each eye. When he’d been trying to read, his hair had fallen into his eyes. Vicki had identified the problem almost immediately and had leaped back home to get some bits for Monobo.

All he’d wanted was something to tie his long facial hair back. He was very proud of his new slides and turned this way and that, looking in the little vanity mirror that Vicki held for him. They all agreed that he looked very handsome and Vicki didn’t have the heart to take her mirror away from him so she let him keep that as well as the slides.

As they left the room Monobo had his head buried in his book but every few seconds he stopped to look at himself in the mirror.

It was announced by the castle crier, that after some light refreshments, they were to be presented to the king. Good King Luke himself would give them the final puzzle. They felt a little bit nervous but very excited at the same time.

In the kitchen they were introduced to the Chef. She was standing in the centre of an enormous kitchen turning a spit that had a whole pig roasting on it.

‘Oh my,’ she said, ‘I wish there was a quicker way to do this. Lookee here, it’s almost time to eat and I haven’t even got the pig roasted yet. My arms are killing me. I’ve been turning this thing for four hours and it’s still not properly cooked.’

‘It must be very boring doing that all day,’ Kerry said.

‘It’s not so bad, really. King Luke is very good to me. The last time I threatened to poison his food with arsenic, he provided me with my very own entertainment system. Look.’ She pointed to the corner of the kitchen where goldfish swam behind the glass door of a huge microwave oven.

‘Shall we tell her?’ Kerry asked.

‘Nah,’ Emma said. ‘She’s happy, bless her. And, anyway, we have a King to meet.’