Orville Mouse and the Puzzle of the Clockwork Glowbirds (Orville Wellington Mouse Book 1) Read online

  Books by Tom Hoffman

  Paperback versions available online

  at Amazon or Barnes and Noble

  The Eleventh Ring

  The Thirteenth Monk

  The Seventh Medallion

  Orville Mouse and the Puzzle

  of the Clockwork Glowbirds

  Orville Mouse and the Puzzle

  of the Shattered Abacus

  An Orville Wellington Mouse Adventure

  ORVILLE

  MOUSE

  and the Puzzle of the

  Clockwork Glowbirds

  by Tom Hoffman

  Copyright © 2016 by Tom Hoffman

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Tom Hoffman Graphic Design

  Anchorage, Alaska

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Tom Hoffman

  Visit my website at thoffmanak.wordpress.com

  Email: [email protected]

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing: 2016

  ISBN 978-0-9971952-3-1

  

  With lots of love

  for Molly, Alex, Sophie, and Oliver

  A very special thanks to my wonderful editors

  Beth, Debbie, Sophie, Alex, and Amanda

  for their invaluable assistance and excellent advice.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 - The Orange

  Chapter 2 - Sophia’s Gift

  Chapter 3 - The Clockwork Glowbirds

  Chapter 4 - The Blue Triangle

  Chapter 5 - The Book Emporium

  Chapter 6 - The Blue Door

  Chapter 7 - Orville’s New Teacher

  Chapter 8 - Pavorak Gorge

  Chapter 9 - The Mad Mouse of Muridaan

  Chapter 10 - Flight of The Glowbird

  Chapter 11 - Inside the Cube

  Chapter 12 - Proto

  Chapter 13 - The Rising Storm

  Chapter 14 - Proto’s Discovery

  Chapter 15 - Welcome to Periculum

  Chapter 16 - Cry of the Gnorli

  Chapter 17 - Sophia’s Revelation

  Chapter 18 - The Blue Mouse

  Chapter 19 - A Sticky Wicket

  Chapter 20 - Tasty Little Cakes

  Chapter 21 - The Gnorli Bird

  Chapter 22 - The Looper

  Chapter 23 - The Door

  Chapter 24 - Sophia’s Plan

  Chapter 25 - The Senyph Ocean

  Chapter 26 - The Letter

  Chapter 27 - The Forest Wolf

  Chapter 28 - A Monastery in Ruins

  Chapter 29 - Monks of the Blue Robe

  Chapter 30 - Orville’s Dilemma

  Chapter 31 - The Secret

  Chapter 32 - Home Again

  Chapter 33 - A Beautiful Lesson

  Chapter 34 - Back in a Blink

  Chapter 35 - Stop.

  Chapter 36 - The Scream

  Chapter 37 - Sophia’s News

  Chapter 38 - The Ring

  Chapter 39 - Best Friends

  “The cave you fear to enter

  holds the treasure you seek.”

  –Joseph Campbell

  “Our truest life is when we

  are in dreams awake.”

  –Henry David Thoreau

  An Orville Wellington Mouse Adventure

  ORVILLE

  MOUSE

  and the Puzzle of the

  Clockwork Glowbirds

  Chapter 1

  The Orange

  A gentle breeze carried the delicate fragrance of ten thousand newly bloomed orange blossoms across the balmy summer air. It was far too early in the season for the trees to be bearing fruit, but the intoxicating scent of the blossoms floating through the grove was more than enough to satisfy Orville Wellington Mouse. Besides, strolling alongside Orville beneath a gloriously radiant summer sun was his best friend in the world, Sophia Mouse, and that alone made him supremely happy.

  Sophia had moved to Muridaan Falls only one year ago, dropping like a bossy know-it-all gift from above into Orville’s life. He was drawn to her immediately, even though at first blush it would seem the two mice had little or nothing in common.

  “Isn’t this an amazing place, Sophia? I could sit under this lovely orange tree for a hundred years and dream my life away.”

  “I wish there were oranges on the trees. The blossoms smell nice, but I’m hungry, and we only get oranges in Muridaan Falls in the summertime when the train can get through the mountain pass.”

  “That’s quite true of course, but doesn’t this seem like an exquisitely magical world to you? You know, enchanting and the like?”

  “And the like? Are you trying to sound smart? I guess it’s kind of enchanting. Hey, look at that monster tree over there. That is huge, and it has bright blue leaves. I’ve never seen a tree that big, not even back on Quintari, and they have some colossal trees there.”

  Sophia was always comparing Muridaan Falls to her former home on the planet Quintari. Most of the time Orville didn’t mind, but he liked Muridaan Falls just as it was and sometimes the things Sophia said bothered him just a little bit. Of course he never said anything to her because Sophia was his best friend in the world and the very last thing he wanted to do was hurt her feelings. Besides, when he thought about it there was nothing wrong with being proud of where you came from.

  “Creekers, I never noticed that tree before. Look at the size of it! It has to be at least a thousand feet tall and five hundred feet wide. Look at all the glowbirds, chirping and tweeting. There must be a hundred of them just on that one branch.”

  Orville and Sophia made their way out of the picturesque orange grove and over to the enormous tree.

  “What kind of tree do you think it is?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t recognize the leaves. It doesn’t look like anything I’m familiar with on Earth or on Quintari. The leaves are sky blue and form perfect circles. I’ve never seen a tree like this before, and I know a lot about trees.”

  Sophia plucked one of the leaves from the tree and examined it, then held it out for Orville to inspect. She gazed at Orville for a moment, then grinned and said, “Hey, I bet you can’t do this.” There was a blink of light and a fat juicy orange appeared in her paw.

  “Creekers! How did you do that? You made an orange pop out of nowhere! That’s incredible!”

  Sophia laughed and gave him the orange. “It’s just a little gift from the universe for my best friend in the world.”

  “Thanks, we can share it. It looks delicious. Really though, how did you do that?” Orville glanced up at Sophia. He could see her mouth moving, but instead of hearing her answer he was hearing a loud, irritating rattling noise. “What is that noise? Do you hear it? It’s driving me crazy.”

  And then, in less than a blink Orville Wellington Mouse was back in his bed listening to his window rattle wildly in the roaring north wind that screamed down from the towering snow-covered peaks surrounding Muridaan Falls.

  Chapter 2

  Sophia’s Gift

  “Unnhh. So cold. Why did that dream have to end?” Orvil
le peered out from under his covers into the darkened room. A tiny sliver of dawn had found its way over the top of the mountains and into his bedroom, enough light that Orville knew if he didn’t get up now he would be late for school. He gingerly poked one paw out from under the covers and felt around on his bedside table for the box of matches, quickly pulling them back into his little cocoon of blankets. Then, with a loud groan he flung off the covers, sat up in bed and scratched a match on the side of the box. It flared brightly, causing him to squint as he reached over to light his bedside lantern.

  “School. Unnhh. Thank goodness I only have one more–” Orville never finished his thought. He never finished it because his eyes were frozen on something that should not be.

  “Oh, no. No, no, no!” He glanced furtively around his room, searching for any skulking nocturnal intruders, but found only the darting shadows from his flickering lantern. His insides had turned to ice, but it had nothing to do with the frigid north wind roaring down from the mountains. It did however, have everything to do with the fat juicy glistening orange resting comfortably on his bedside table.

  “Oh, no. How did that orange get here? It’s not possible. It can’t be real. First there were the bird feathers, then the round blue leaves, and now this. I feel sick. I think I’m going to throw up. Wait, maybe it’s not really there. It could just be my imagination.” Orville reached over and tentatively tapped the orange. “Urggh. It’s real. Just like the leaves and the feathers.” He climbed out of bed, reaching for his clothes, then stopped, his gaze returning to the orange.

  “I wonder if it’s tasty?” He plucked the orange off the table and proceeded to peel it, the skin practically falling off in his paw.

  “Mmm... it smells good.” He separated one of the juicy segments and popped it into his mouth.

  “Whoa, this is delicious! So sweet. This might be the best orange I’ve ever had, not to mention the scariest one I’ve ever had.”

  With a long sigh he began to get dressed, finishing off the very tasty but terrifying orange along the way.

  “I’d better dispose of this peel on the way to school. We haven’t had an orange in Muridaan Falls since last summer. I’d have a difficult time explaining to Mum how it got here, especially since I don’t have the slightest idea where it came from.” He stuffed the orange peel into his pocket and headed downstairs to breakfast.

  “Morning, Mum.”

  “Good morning, Orville. Are you all set for your last day of school? Are you excited? It’s going to be a new world for you now that you’ve finished your schooling. When do you start working full time at the Book Emporium?”

  “Oh, it will be a couple of months until the store opens again. Master Marloh said things are slow now, but business will get back to normal once they finish adding the new rooms. The store will be twice as big as it was before. Master Marloh said I only need to work a few hours a day until they’re done with all the building.”

  “Well, it sounds like you’ll have a nice break between school and your new work. Better finish your breakfast, Sophia will be here soon. She’s quite a lovely young mouse isn’t she?” Orville’s Mum watched closely, gauging his reaction to her comment about Sophia.

  “I guess so. She’s just a friend.”

  “Oh, I know that, I was just chattering on. I think it’s wonderful that she wants to attend the Symocan Institute of Mechanistic Studies. I’m certain she’ll be accepted. She’s quite a brilliant mouse.”

  Orville nodded. “She’s the smartest mouse I know.” Orville was not entirely thrilled with Sophia’s plan to attend the Symocan Institute, located fifty miles north of Muridaan Falls on the other side of the mountain range. In fact, he didn’t like the idea of her going away at all. She was his very best friend, and he didn’t have friends to spare.

  With breakfast finished and the table cleared, Orville threw on his heavy winter coat and grabbed his backpack as he dashed for the front door. “Bye, Mum!”

  “Bye, Orville! Have a wonderful last day of school and say hello to Sophia for me.”

  Orville’s mom grinned as Orville slammed the door behind him. She had become quite fond of Sophia.

  Orville immediately spotted Sophia trudging through the deep snow toward his house. “Hi, Sophia!”

  “Hi, Orville. Have any more strange dreams?”

  Orville raced down the stairs toward Sophia. “Uhh... well, sort of. I dreamed you were from that planet called Quintari and you made a fat juicy orange appear in your paw and told me it was a gift from the universe.”

  Much to Orville’s surprise, Sophia did not laugh the way she usually did at his odd dreams. Instead, she stared intently at him with a complicated look on her face.

  Orville had always been extraordinarily good at gauging the feelings of other mice. When he looked at Sophia’s face he saw a combination of surprise and concern, with a smidgeon of elation, bewilderment and fear tossed in. He could also see Sophia’s brilliant and inventive mind was spinning at top speed. He could almost hear her brain clicking and clacking, and he hadn’t even told her the part about the fat juicy orange appearing on his bedside table.

  “What? Why are you looking at me like that? It was just another one of my crazy dreams.”

  “I know. It’s just an odd thing to dream about someone. You know, to dream that your best friend is from another planet. Did anything else happen in the dream?”

  “Well, there was a giant tree with round blue leaves.”

  Sophia’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Really? What did it look like exactly?”

  Orville was about to reply when he heard the voice. He didn’t want to hear it, but nonetheless, there it was, echoing in his mind. “You may trust her. She is your eternal friend and you may trust her always.”

  Orville had heard the voice since he was a mouseling, but was still surprised every time it spoke. He had eventually come to believe that everything the voice said was true, even though sometimes it spoke in riddles or told him stories that didn’t make much sense at the time. Later on they usually made sense, though. He had also come to believe that the source of the voice was not another mouse, but came from a deeper part of himself. It was a little like having his conscience talk to him. He thought about what the voice had just said. It was true, of course, Sophia was his best friend and he knew he could trust her always. He decided to tell her about the orange.

  “Umm, if I tell you something, will you promise not to think I’m loopy? And promise not to laugh at me? You’re my best friend and I don’t want to have you not like me.”

  Sophia’s face softened. “Of course I promise. You’re my best friend too. I would never laugh at you.”

  “Well, the orange you gave me in my dream... when I woke up this morning it was sitting on my bedside table.” Orville couldn’t help himself, he had to turn away so he wouldn’t see the look on Sophia’s face.

  “What did you say?”

  “There was a real orange sitting on my bedside table this morning. The fat juicy one you gave me in my dream.”

  “You’re certain it was real?”

  Orville reached into his pocket and pulled out the peel, holding it up for Sophia to see. “It’s even worse than that. It’s happened twice before. Once there were seven glowbird feathers on my dresser, and once there were thirteen of those round blue leaves scattered across my floor.”

  “Creekers. Double creekers.” Sophia took the peel from Orville and held it to her nose, sniffing it. “Triple creekers.” Her eyes were fixed on Orville as she rubbed her furry chin with one paw. Finally she stopped and pursed her lips, studying Orville’s face intently.

  “Orville Wellington Mouse, you are my best friend in the world. If I share a deep secret with you, will you promise never to tell a soul and not think I’m weird and spooky? Oh, and not laugh at me or run away?”

  “Huh? Well, of course I promise all that.”

  Sophia glanced around to see if any mice were watching them, then extended her arm toward
Orville. There was a small flash of light and a fat juicy glistening orange appeared on her paw. She held the orange out for Orville to take. “Just a little gift from the universe for my best friend in the world. It’s called shaping.”

  Chapter 3

  The Clockwork Glowbirds

  Two months had passed since Sophia’s surprising revelation that not only was she from the planet Quintari, but she was also a proficient shaper. Orville had read a little about shaping in storybooks when he was small, but he always thought it was just a fanciful tale told to mouselings. He’d heard of Quintari, but Sophia was the first Quintarian mouse he’d ever met.

  The frigid winter had transformed into glorious summer, and the warm afternoon sun found the two best friends hiking up the rocky trail that led to the falls, discovered over two hundred years ago by Muridaan Mouse, the original founder of Muridaan Falls. Sophia was sharing her abundance of knowledge with Orville as they wove their way through the dense spruce trees.

  “You’re not listening. I told you before, it’s not magic. Shaping has nothing to do with magic. It’s just plain science, based in the deep physics. If you weren’t so busy dreaming about other worlds in science class you might have figured this out already. It’s very simple. I learned all about it back on Quintari when I was just a mouseling. Now, please listen carefully. Everything in the world is made of energy. A table, a spoon, a planet, a galaxy, a mouse – they’re all made of compressed energy. Physical matter doesn’t really even exist, only energy does. Scientists on Quintari have known this for over a thousand years. When two objects collide it’s just two energy fields repelling each other. The tricky bit about how shaping works is that a mouse is made up of two parts, its physical body and its mind. When I say ‘mind’ I don’t mean the mouse’s physical brain. The mind is the part of you that exists outside of space and time.”