Genre ~ children’s fiction, age 7-9
Publication date ~ August 21, 2023
Page count ~ 102
I am delighted to share an extract today ~ thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for organizing.
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Chapter 7
By now it was late. The firework displays were finished and most people had already walked home.
The streets were deathly quiet as a slow fog began to creep out of the park, roll across the main road and slip into side alleys. Max and Peregrine’s footsteps echoed off brick walls that were covered in eerie shadows made by the flickering street lamps.
‘It was a dark and scary night…’ whispered Max and instead of telling him off, Peregrine just nodded and his fingers moved to the duffle pocket where he kept his best gadgets.
A quick clatter of footsteps behind them made Max spin around. He peered into the gloom, his heart beating fast … but it was just a couple crossing the road, their legs weirdly hidden by the fog so they looked cut in half.
Max shivered and it wasn’t just the cold.
He jumped again as one of the dark shadows stretching across the wall moved. It crept away from the rest of the silhouettes and disappeared, as if something had slunk back into the fog as they approached. His monster ears picked up a faint scratching noise, like claws on concrete, claws that were trying not to make a sound.
Max swallowed and tried to keep calm.
He was just going to suggest to Peregrine maybe walking quicker when they turned a corner and a dark blur ran into them.
‘Ah!’ cried Max.
‘Oooofff!’ said Peregrine, falling over. ‘Watch out!’
‘Get out of my way!’ said the teenager who’d just collided with them. He scrabbled to his feet and Max could see he looked terrified. The boy ran off down the road.
The hair on the back of Max’s neck stuck up as a low growl came from the darkened basement steps of a nearby house. Max’s mouth went completely dry, his monster senses clanging in his head, telling him of extreme danger. The growl was answered by a long snarl from the other side of the street and the horrid sound of long claws clickity-clacking their scratchy way towards them.
‘I think we’re surrounded,’ said Peregrine.
‘I think I’m going to burp,’ said Max.
‘You do that, yes,’ said Peregrine, as enthusiastically as you can when you are whispering out of the corner of your mouth.
A door banged open behind them, and they both twisted around in alarm.
But it was just two families leaving a café that was shutting up for the night. Max’s Protect and Do Good Stuff distress signal said that, at all costs, whatever was growling and snarling could not be allowed to get past Max, down the road to those children and their unsuspecting parents.
Burp, he said to himself.
Nothing happened.
BURP!
Still nothing because it was incredibly difficult to burp when his mouth felt glued together.
‘Max?’
Don’t panic, Max thought. He scanned the fog, looking for clues. Nothing, it was deathly quiet and the fog, like the sea at low tide, was calm.
Max felt the hair on the back of his neck start to go back down. Whatever it was must have disappeared, slunk off, melted away, gone…
‘RAAARRRR!’
The wolf leapt out of the fog where it had been hiding, all teeth, tail and red eyes in the night.
‘WAAAA!’ cried Max, taking in more air than he’d ever done in his life. Just in the nick of time, Max was … MONSTER MAX!
‘ROAR!’ he roared and swiped at the wolf, who shot across the street and smashed into a wall.
‘OW!’ said Max – it had been like hitting an iron statue.
ZING! Peregrine had turned on his BUTT and become twenty feet tall with legs of steel just as another wolf jumped out of the fog, its teeth flashing white in the darkness. Peregrine kicked out and the wolf yelped. The wolf was strong enough to bend Peregrine’s leg. (The metal one).
‘Woooaw!’ cried Peregrine, as he wobbled and fell over for the second time in less than two minutes.
More shapes started to appear: ridged black backs of fur sticking out of the mist, slicing through the fog like sharks through water, right towards where Peregrine lay in a tangled heap.
Max wasn’t brilliant at maths but he did a quick calculation: with Peregrine down, there were too many enemies. Also, if they lost this fight, the werewolves would get to the house before Max could warn his parents.
RUN FOR IT.
‘ROAR!’ He roared one last roar, which did the trick. The wolves, unused to any sort of resistance, hesitated – they had seen their leader smashed against the wall by this big orange monster. Their delay bought Max precious seconds. He turned to Peregrine, grabbed the one remaining metal leg, and snapped it off.
‘Grerry sorry!’ he said. Then he slung Peregrine over his shoulder and bounded off into the night. Faster, he hoped, than any wolf could follow.
Book blurb:
Max can turn into a huge monster just by BURPING, and back again when he SNEEZES. Now Max and his best friend Peregrine realise that a dangerous pack of werewolves from Max’s home country of Krit are closing in on him and his family. But Max hasn’t told anyone about Sirius the tiny werewolf cub he found, smuggled home, and decided to keep…
Werewolf cubs are not just for Halloween
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Author Bio –
When Robin grew up he thought he wanted to be a cavalry officer until everyone else realised that putting him in charge of a tank was a very bad idea. He then became an assistant gravedigger in London. After that he had a career frantically starting businesses (everything from dog-sitting to cigars, tuition to translation)… until finally settling down to write improbable stories to keep his children from killing each other on long car journeys.
Robin plays most sports. Poorly.
Social Media Links –
https://www.instagram.com/robinbennettauthor/
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