LEGO Friends: Mystery in the Whispering Woods (Chapter Book #3) Read online

  Andrea smiled. “Haven’t you guys ever heard of

  a dramatic pause?” Her smile faded, and her voice

  Chapter 4:

  A Spooky

  Legend

  23

  went dark and spooky again. “Like I was saying, the

  first mayor of Heartlake City had a very loyal horse.

  All he had to do was whistle, like this”—Andrea

  pursed her lips and gave a soft whistle—“and the

  horse would come galloping over. One day, the

  horse and his master were on a ride deep in these

  very woods. Suddenly, they were chased by a pack of

  hungry wolves!”

  24

  “Yikes!” Emma cried, covering her mouth.

  Mia looked skeptical. “There are no wolves

  around here.”

  “This was a long time ago, remember?” Andrea

  said. “Anyway, the brave horse galloped as fast as he

  could to get them to safety. But, suddenly, the path

  was blocked by a wide, deep river.”

  “Oh, no!” Olivia exclaimed. “What happened?”

  Andrea’s voice grew even lower. “The wolves were

  still coming. There was nowhere to go. So the horse

  plunged into the rushing river! He tried to make it

  across—but he got swept away. His master grabbed a

  floating log and made it to shore.But the loyal horse

  was lost in the swirling water.

  “To this day,whenever the wind whistles through

  the trees just right,” she paused again, making the

  eerie two-note whistle,“it’s said that you can hear

  the Phantom Horse galloping through these woods

  in search of his long-lost master.”

  25

  “Stop!” Emma squeaked. “I’ll never be able to

  sleep tonight!”

  “Come on.” Mia rolled her eyes. “A ghost horse?

  That’s not very scary.It’s not like a ghost shark or

  crocodile or something.”

  Olivia shrugged. “The way Andrea told it was

  pretty scary.”

  “Yeah,” Stephanie agreed. “Andrea is an awesome

  storyteller!”

  26

  “Thank you, thank you.” Andrea stood and took

  a bow as her friends clapped.

  Mia stood up, too. She stretched her arms over

  her head and yawned. “Well, I think that’s enough

  spooky stories for one night,” she said.“Let’s put

  out the fire and get ready for bed.We have a lot of

  science mystery work to do tomorrow, after all!”

  Chapter 5:

  Thumps in

  the Night

  27

  Late that night, Stephanie was dreaming

  about watching Mia ride her horse, Bella. The

  horse galloped toward a huge jump. Her hooves

  thundered.

  “Go, Mia. Go, Bella,” Stephanie mumbled.

  Ka-thump. Ka-thump.

  Groggily, Stephanie

  opened her eyes. She thought she had heard

  something. Had it just been her dream?

  KA-THUMP! Now Stephanie shot straight up. It

  sounded like Bella’s hooves had just hit the ground!

  “What was that?” Stephanie exclaimed.

  28

  Emma’s eyes opened. “Steph?” she asked. “Is

  something wrong?”

  “Sorry,”Stephanie whispered back. “I thought I

  heard something.”

  Emma rubbed her eyes. “What did you hear?”

  Stephanie paused. “This is going to sound dumb,”

  she said. “It sounded like a horse’s hooves.”

  “What?” Emma cried.

  “Ssh!” Stephanie hissed.

  It was too late. The other girls had woken up.

  “What’s going on?” Andrea mumbled.

  29

  “Stephanie said she heard the Phantom Horse!”

  Emma yelped.

  “No, I didn’t,”Stephanie insisted. “I heard

  something

  . But I don’t know what it was.”

  Just then, a low whistle sounded in the distance.

  “What was that?” Andrea cried.

  Emma gasped. “It was the whistle the rider from

  the legend used to call his Phantom Horse!”

  Mia shook her head and yawned. “Come on,

  guys. We’re just getting spooked because of Andrea’s

  story. There’s no such thing as ghosts. It’s probably

  an owl or the wind.”

  The girls remained quiet for a few minutes. But

  there weren’t any other strange sounds.

  Stephanie shook her head.“Sorry, guys. I was

  probably just dreaming.” Her eyelids were already

  starting to droop. “Let’s go back to sleep. If we hear

  anything else, we’ll get up and look around.”

  30

  By the time Stephanie woke up again, it was

  morning. Her friends were all still asleep.

  “Time to get up!” Stephanie called.

  Emma groaned and pulled her pillow over her

  head. Stephanie nudged her with her toe.“Rise and

  shine, sleepyhead!”

  “I’m hungry.” Olivia stretched. “Let’s eat.”

  The girls headed to the trailer. When they

  reached it, they stopped short.

  “Oh, no!” Olivia cried.

  The coolers were wide open, the lids knocked

  aside. All their food was scattered everywhere!

  31

  “What happened?” Andrea asked. “How did the

  coolers get opened?”

  Emma gasped. “The ghost ate all our food!” she

  exclaimed with wide eyes.

  “Don’t be silly,”Mia told her. “Ghosts don’t eat

  food. Besides, it looks like most of it is still here.” She

  bent over and picked up an orange.

  “Not all of it.” Olivia held up the bag of hot-dog

  buns. Half of them were gone.

  “I’ll bet it was the Phantom Horse!” Emma

  insisted. “It heard us telling its story and didn’t like

  that, so it took our food.”

  Olivia rolled her eyes. “Emma, come on,”she

  said. “Squirrels and raccoons like food, too.” Olivia

  turned to Stephanie. “Maybe that’s what you heard

  last night—an animal knocking over the cooler.

  That would explain the thumping noises you heard

  when you woke up.”

  “It could be. . . .”Stephanie replied. Her face had

  gone a bit pale. “But that cooler was closed up tight.

  32

  I even put a blanket on top of it so no squirrels or

  animals would get into it. It’s like something

  knew

  to

  knock it over. Like something was watching us when

  we opened it.”

  Stephanie looked around at her friends, worried.

  “What if the legend is true?”

  Chapter 6:

  Olivia’s

  New Plan

  33

  Mia couldn’t believe her ears. Did her friends

  actually believe there was a ghost?

  “This is silly,” Mia insisted. “There’s no such

  thing.”

  “Are you sure?” Emma asked. “

  Something

  stole

  our food last night.”

  “I heard weird noises,” Stephanie added.

  “And we

  all

  heard that spooky whistle!” Andrea

  exclaimed.

  Mia sighed. “That doesn�
��t mean there’s a ghost.

  We just have to figure out what really happened.”

  34

  “You mean like—a mystery? ” Olivia smiled.

  “Girls, I think we may have found a new science

  project!”

  “What do you mean?” Emma asked.

  “We’re supposed to explore a mystery of nature,

  right? ” Olivia waved her hand at the trees. “Well,

  something mysterious is happening out here. We

  should investigate to figure out what it is!”

  Stephanie frowned. “Is researching a ghost

  allowed?” she asked.

  35

  “Let’s find out.” Olivia ran to the camper and

  grabbed Ms. Russell’s handout. “‘Step one,’”she read.

  “‘Find something in nature you don’t understand.’”

  “Check!” Andrea declared.“We don’t

  understand what is messing with our food and where

  those strange noises came from.”

  “‘Step two,’” Olivia continued. “‘Study the

  mystery.’”

  “We can do that.” Stephanie nodded. “We can

  look for clues like footprints and stuff.”

  “Don’t you mean

  hoof

  prints?” Emma said.

  “‘Step three,’” Olivia went on. “‘Research the

  mystery.’”

  “We already know the legend of the Phantom

  Horse,” Andrea said.“But we

  could

  research the

  history of it. We could see if there’s actually a river

  where the horse would have fallen in. I’m sure the

  ranger’s station will have maps and stuff.”

  “‘Step four: Draw a conclusion,’” Olivia finished.

  “We can do that once we complete the other steps.”

  36

  “Then it’s settled.” Stephanie grinned widely.

  “Our new project is proving whether or not the

  Phantom Horse exists!”

  “I’ll bet no one else in class will be ghost hunting

  for their project!” Andrea clapped excitedly.

  “True.” Mia still looked hesitant. “But if this

  doesn’t work, we can still go back to observing the

  leaves, right?”

  The five friends exchanged eager glances.

  “Agreed!” they said.

  37

  As they ate breakfast,Stephanie worked out a plan.

  “Mia, you’re our animal expert,”she said. “You

  and I will look for animal footprints around camp.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Mia said.

  “Olivia, you’ll be in charge of the camera,”

  Stephanie said next.

  “Okay.” Olivia licked peanut butter off her

  fingers. “I’ll go set it up to take pictures every few

  minutes. If a wild animal is sneaking in while we’re

  not looking, maybe we can get a photo of it.”

  Stephanie nodded. “Andrea and Emma, maybe

  you can walk to the ranger’s station and see if they

  have a map of the woods?”

  “Got it,” Andrea said. “We can check for rivers

  like in the legend.”

  “All right.” Stephanie brushed her hands clean.

  “Time to investigate!”

  Stephanie and Mia headed off into the forest

  while their other friends got to work. They circled

  38

  the woods near their campsite several times, looking

  for animal footprints. Mia walked slowly, scanning

  the ground. Finally, after several laps around, she

  spotted some fresh paw prints in a muddy patch near

  the forest trail.

  “Stephanie, check this out,” Mia called.

  Stephanie came running over. “Those look

  like the paw prints my cat leaves in her litter box,”

  Stephanie said thoughtfully.

  39

  “Close.” Mia crouched down and pointed. “See

  how this animal’s claws left marks by the toes? That

  means it’s a canine print.”

  “Like a wolf?” Stephanie asked.

  “Or a fox.”Mia nodded.“It’s about the right size.”

  “Would a fox steal our food?” Stephanie

  wondered aloud.

  “Maybe.”Mia shrugged. “We should take a picture

  of this print and see if we spot any others like it. Let’s

  go grab Olivia and ask her to bring the cam—”

  Mia was cut short by a cry from the clearing.

  The two friends looked at each other.

  “That sounded like Olivia!” Stephanie exclaimed.

  “Let’s go!”

  Chapter 7:

  A Close Call

  40

  Unaware of the excitement back at the campsite,

  Andrea and Emma were outside the ranger’s station

  studying a map.

  “It looks like there should be a creek somewhere

  over . . . there.”Emma pointed out into the woods.

  “On the map, it seems kind of tiny to be the river

  from the legend. But let’s go look for it, anyway.”

  The two friends followed the winding forest trail.

  It twisted and turned deep among thick groves of

  trees, growing shadier as they went.

  “How far is it?” Andrea asked.

  41

  Emma checked. “It’s hard to tell. This map isn’t

  very detailed.” She glanced ahead. “For instance, that

  fork in the trail isn’t on here. I don’t know which

  way we should go.”

  “Let’s split up,” Andrea suggested.

  Emma looked nervous. “Are you sure? What if

  we run into the ghost?”

  Andrea giggled. “If you get scared, just yell ‘help’

  really loudly, and I’ll come right over. I promise.” She

  gave Emma a gentle shove toward the left-hand fork.

  “Go on. It’ll be fine.”

  42

  As soon as Emma started down her path, Andrea

  turned to the right. She pushed past low-hanging

  branches on the trees. It was dim and shadowy in the

  forest. Dry leaves crunched under her feet.

  She continued along the narrow trail, farther and

  farther away from Emma. Suddenly, a strong gust of

  wind rushed past. It kicked up the leaves and swirled

  them around her shoes.

  It really is quiet out here

  , Andrea thought.

  Then, very softly, the breeze

  whooshed

  through

  the leaves. To Andrea, it sounded like a low, gentle

  whistle quietly fading away.

  43

  “That was weird,” Andrea murmured, feeling her

  heart beat a little faster. The noise didn’t sound like

  the whistle they’d heard the other night. But it didn’t

  sound like the normal wind blowing, either.

  Suddenly, something moved in the thick tangle

  of bushes behind her.

  “Emma?” Andrea stammered. “Is that you?”

  Andrea spun around, feeling spooked. Her foot

  slipped off the trail—and into nothingness!

  “Help!” Andrea cried loudly. She was slipping

  down a rocky embankment!

  She reached wildly for something to hold onto.

  Her hand closed around something soft.

  Whatever she had grabbed held taut, and Andrea

  stopped sliding. She dug her heels into the dirt and

  looked down. She had stumbled upon an empty

  ri
verbed in the woods. A small trickle of water ran

  along the bottom. But at one time, the creek must

  have been much larger.

  “That was close.” Andrea sighed in relief.

  44

  Then, her heart pounded again. She had been

  so startled by her fall that she hadn’t realized what

  she was holding was strong but soft . . . kind of like a

  horse’s tail!

  Andrea whipped around. Clasped tightly in her

  fists was a loose, gnarled tree root.

  45

  Phew

  , she thought as she climbed back up.

  I’m

  really letting my imagination get the best of me!

  Then, she frowned.

  Still, I heard that whistle. . . .

  Just then, Emma came rushing toward her.

  “What happened?” she asked.“I heard you scream.”

  “I slipped,” Andrea said, her voice shaky.“I

  almost fell into that.” She pointed down into the

  rocky gully.

  “Whoa.” Emma followed her gaze. “Is

  that

  the

  creek?” She glanced at the map and back into the

  empty gully. “Now I get why the water is so small on

  the map. The bed is all dried up. Andrea, I think you

  found our legendary river!” Then she looked at her

  friend. “Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

  “No, I’m all right.” Andrea breathed. “I grabbed

  onto this.” She pointed to the tree root. “But I

  thought I heard something, just before I fell.”

  “Like what?” Emma asked.

  “A whistle, high up in the trees,” Andrea replied

  slowly. “For a moment, I could have sworn . . .”

  46

  Andrea gazed at the root for a long while. Finally,

  she looked back up at Emma. “Are you sure you

  didn’t hear anything?” she asked.

  Emma shook her head. “Now

  you’re

  starting to

  creep me out,” she said. “I didn’t hear anything. Only

  you when you called for help.”

  Andrea looked back down at the rocky creek bed