PIPPI WRINKLED HER BILL AT THE SIGHT of the salt marsh, where mist drifted around gnarled trees and black water lapped at a soggy path winding between clumps of reeds. Old Jir lived in the marsh, and the Kulipari were staying with him, so Pippi took a breath and followed Darel and Gee.
She immediately regretted the breath. The marsh smelled like badly pickled fish to her. But at least she was able to keep up with the others by waddling fast on her knuckles. She'd been practicing her walking and was pretty proud of herself.
"Would you please just tell me?" Gee asked Darel again.
"Just wait!" Darel said. "We're almost there."
"Of course, your periwinkle majesty," Gee said with a deep bow. "Your wish is my command."
"Okay, okay!" Darel flared his nostrils in annoyance before continuing. "You know how I keep saying this whole thing with the Veil isn't only about us? Not just about the Amphibilands, I mean?"
"Sure," Gee said. "You keep saying there's something else we need to do, but you never say what you mean."
"Because I didn't know! Except 'It takes all kinds' got me thinking. How are we supposed to beat the scorps after we lower the Veil?"
"We can't," Gee told him. "That's the problem. That's why you keep croaking on about 'We need to have faith in the Serpent.' Like we're going to beat Marmoo over the head with rainbows."
Darel snorted. "We need faith and a plan."
"What kind of plan?"
"We need allies, Gee." Darel hopped past a clump of swamp reeds. "We need help from outside the Veil, to stand with us."
Gee looked at Pippi. "Like the platypuses."
"Exactly! Warriors from around the outback."
Pippi made a face when her knuckles sank into a swampy puddle on the path. "We're not exactly warriors."
"Entire battalions!" Darel croaked to Gee. "Entire armies. The problem is, we don't know anyone from outside."
Gee nodded slowly. "But the Kulipari do."
"And so does Pippi," Darel said with a grin.
"Oh!" Pippi swallowed. "I never really left the riverbend."
"You must know someone." Gee thought for a second. "How about this? Who's got the best food?"
"This is serious, Gee," Darel scolded.
"I am serious. Haven't you heard the saying 'An army marches on its stomach'?"
"I think that only applies to gastropods," Darel said.
Pippi was too embarrassed to ask what a gastropod was, so she just fwapped her tail against the ground. Then something splashed in the swamp nearby, and she wrinkled her bill uneasily.
"Anyway," Gee said with a snort that made Pippi think he didn't understand, either. "Who else can we ask for help?"
"There are possums," she told him as they followed the winding path past a spidery hillock of grass.
"What are they like?" Gee asked.
"Shy," she told him, "but nice."
"And they've got those cool tails, right?" Gee wiggled his butt. "Maybe they could use them as whips!"
"I kind of doubt that," Pippi told him. "Ooh, I know! How about fish? There's carp, lungfish, perch, gudgeon—"
"You're a gudgeon," Gee said. "Fish can't fight scorpions."
"Oh, right." Her bill tingled, which reminded her of food. She looked into the misty swamp. "How about shrimp? I love shrimp."
"Then you're in luck," Quoba said, landing suddenly beside her.
"Eeep!" Pippi chirped in surprise as Gee leaped in shock and blurted, "Don't do that!"
"Sorry," Quoba said with a glint of humor in her eyes. "I thought you saw me there."
"You did not!" Darel laughed. "But why are we in luck?"
The tingle returned to Pippi's bill, and she smiled. "Can't you smell that?"
Darel sniffed. "Is that barbecue?"
"Yup—Ponto's special recipe," Quoba said, pointing with her staff. "Grilled shrimp in a spicy grub marinade."
Gee licked his lips. "I love shrimp!"
"I love grubs," Pippi said.
"I love grilled and spicy and marinade!" Gee said.
Quoba laughed and led them toward Old Jir's house, a stump with round windows and a small twig door. They followed a stony path around back to a mossy lawn that sloped toward a forest of reeds. A flowering wonga-wonga vine climbed the wooden tables on the lawn, and Old Jir and Burnu sat at the biggest table while Ponto stood at a fire pit, wearing an apron and a chef's hat.
Instead of using tongs or a fork, he glowed briefly whenever he reached into the fire with his bare hand to turn the shrimp, using his poison to protect himself from the heat.
"Show-off," Gee called.
Ponto grinned at him and flicked a charred shrimp into the air. A tiny arrow flashed across the lawn, stabbed the shrimp, then pinned it to a plate on the biggest table.
"He's not a show-off!" Dingo announced, holding up a tiny bow with matching toothpick-arrows. "I'm a show-off!"
Her fingers blurred as she released a barrage of tiny arrows. The cloud of toothpicks peppered a wonga-wonga vine, then shot directly at Pippi. Before Pippi could even blink, she felt a dozen tugs at her fur. She squeezed her eyes shut … but didn't feel the slightest pinprick.
Then she heard the croak of Dingo's laughter. "There! Now you're dressed for a party!"
When Pippi opened her eyes, everyone was looking at her and smiling—even Old Jir—because Dingo's arrows had pinned pretty white flowers with red speckles to her fur, as if she were wearing a dozen corsages.
Her bill curled in embarrassment. "I look dumb."
"You look pretty," Darel said.
"No," Gee said. "She looks platypretty."
Pippi smiled shyly. Then everyone grabbed plates of grilled shrimp, and Ponto and Gee argued about barbecue recipes. Pippi switched to fly chips when her mouth started to burn from the spicy marinade, and she complimented Old Jir on his potato grub salad.
After a while, the conversation turned to the inevitable scorpion invasion.
"We could stomp them into jelly," Burnu said. "Except Quoba and I aren't at full power."
"You can't beat Marmoo," Old Jir said, gesturing with a toothpick. "Nobody can beat him now."
Burnu snorted. "I'd take him with one leg tied behind my back."
"Sure you would," Dingo said, tossing a shrimp into the air and catching it with her tongue. "You're the golden frog, Burnu. You're just disguised as a wart-head."
"I knew the golden frog, and even he couldn't have beaten Marmoo," Old Jir said. "Not since the spider queen wove nightcasting into Marmoo's carapace."
"Wait!" Darel's eyes bulged. "You actually knew the golden frog?"
"What's a golden frog?" Pippi asked.
"Ancient history," Old Jir told her with a dismissive wave of his pale hand. "Which cannot help us now. We need to focus on survival."
"We need allies." Darel set his plate aside and explained what he'd told Pippi and Gee. "And we need to bring them here before Yabber takes down the Veil."
"Except we don't know when that'll be," Dingo said.
"As soon as he can," Darel told her. "Just like the Serpent said. Yabber thinks he'll need at least a week, maybe more." He rubbed his face. "Anyway, Pippi says maybe the possums can help."
"I've been thinking," Pippi said as she toyed with a flower behind her ear. "What about the land crayfish?"
"Do you know them?" Darel asked Quoba.
She shook her head. "No, we stayed near the Coves and the swamp."
"The land crayfish … ," Old Jir said thoughtfully, looking to Pippi. "I haven't heard of them since before the Veil rose. You think they might help?"
She shrugged. "The Stargazer says they're nice."
"How about the paralysis ticks?" Dingo asked. "We've seen them a bunch of times."
"We've fought them a bunch of times," Quoba reminded her. "They're loyal to the spiders."
"Oh, right," Dingo said. "There's the burrowing cockroaches?"
"Yuck," Ponto said with a shudder. "I'm sorry, but—yuck."
"Lizards," Darel said. "They know how to fight, and Captain Killara already helped us once."
"They're mercenaries," Burnu said sourly. "I wouldn't trust them as far as you could throw Ponto."
"What about birds?" Pippi asked. "Herons or kingfishers?"
"No way," Darel said. "No birds."
"Yeah." Gee patted his gut. "This belly is irresistible to flying death beasts."
Pippi ducked her head. She'd forgotten that frogs were afraid of birds of prey. "Not just any birds! The Stargazer sometimes talks about the harrier hawks. And the ghost bats might still come after us. We need an ally who flies."
"She's got a point," Ponto said.
"She's also got flowers in her fur! Birds aren't going to help us. Pippi's platyposterous!" Gee paused, hoping for a laugh. "Get it? Platyposterous?"
"So that's the plan," Burnu said, ignoring Gee. "Search for allies, beg them to join us before the Veil falls, and keep our finger pads crossed that Darel's not going to get us all killed."
