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- Herausgeber: Little Tiger Press
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Serie: Little Animal Rescue
- Sprache: Englisch
Fliss loves animals and will do anything to save them! Join her on her adventures to save wild species in danger. When Fliss volunteers to help at her cousin's birthday party in a jungle gym, she doesn't expect to end up in the rainforest in India! And if that wasn't exciting enough, she soon makes a new friend – a tiny tiger cub, left behind when its family fled from a flood. The little tiger is bursting with energy and Fliss can't believe her luck – playing with an actual tiger cub! But as the flood water rises, the time for games is running out, and to save her stripey friend, Fliss must face monsoons, dangerous creatures and the darker side of nature... LITTLE TIGER RESCUE is perfect for fans of Holly Webb, the ZOE'S RESCUE ZOO series and animal-lovers everywhere!
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Seitenzahl: 66
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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For two little tigers, Ella and Olivier
– Rachel
CONTENTS
Chapter One
“Let’s be wild monkeys!” Ella shouted, waving her arms. The little children copied her, spilling their drinks on the table. Fliss pulled a face at her best friend. Ella was supposed to be helping!
“Don’t encourage them!” she pleaded. “Look at the mess!”
“We’re in the jungle, Fliss. What do you expect?” said Ella.
The children laughed.
“We’re in the jungle, Fliss. What do 2you expect?” Freddie repeated.
Fliss tried hard not to laugh. Her cheeky little cousin Freddie was celebrating his fifth birthday with a party at Jungle Fever, a big new jungle-themed play centre in town. Fliss and Ella were there to help organize some games, but when Freddie’s mum stepped outside to make a phone call, they found themselves in charge of his birthday tea. Most of which was now on the floor.
3“I think they’ve finished eating,” said Fliss.
“Great, let’s go and play,” said Ella, jumping up and down. “Last one to the trampolines is a stinky hippo!”
Fliss looked at the state of the room. Her heart sank. She loved trampolines but she couldn’t leave the place looking like this, could she?
“You take them, Ella,” she said. “I’ll catch up in a minute.”
The children dashed out and Fliss began stacking the plates as quickly as she could. A member of the Jungle Fever staff entered the room with a bucket and mop.
“No, no, no. That’s our job,” the man said kindly, taking the plates.
“But the mess – I feel terrible 4 about it…” Fliss read his name badge, “Luke.”
“Don’t worry, we’re used to it,” he said. “Did you enjoy the jungle-themed food?”
Fliss’s tummy rumbled, remembering the fruit platters that had arrived and gone in a flash.
“Actually, the hungry monkeys scoffed the lot before I got a chance to try it!” she said.
“Here.” Luke handed her a drink carton. “Have some mango juice. You’ll need the energy if you’re going to chase wild animals all afternoon!”
Fliss laughed and slurped the juice – it was deliciously thick and sweet.
“I’d better go and find the others before they go totally wild,” she said. 5
Feeling better about the messy room, Fliss went off in search of the party. The play centre was enormous, with lots of different activity zones, but eventually she found everyone. They had finished on the trampolines and were now in the Monkey Climbing Room. It had a giant climbing frame that reached all the way to the ceiling, surrounded by safety nets. Ella was swinging across high horizontal bars, while Freddie and his friends watched from below in awe.
“Can you do that, Flissy?” Freddie asked.
“Fliss isn’t strong enough,” Ella called from up high. “You need stamina, like Ella the Great.” 6
“Ella the great … big baboon, more like!” Fliss teased.
The children laughed and started making baboon noises.
“How rude!” Ella said with pretend shock. She dropped from the bars and chased Fliss round and round until they both fell on a crash mat, giggling and 7 gasping for breath.
“Play with us! Hide-and-seek, hide-and-seek, hide-and—”
“OK, Freddie, we get the idea!” Fliss laughed. “We’ll count to twenty. Starting from now! One… Two… You’d better run…! Three…”
Freddie and his friends screamed with delight and scattered like rats, looking for hiding spots. Fliss and Ella covered their eyes and carried on counting.
“They’ve gone everywhere!” Ella said, peeking through her fingers. “It’ll take forever to find them.”
“Let’s split up,” Fliss suggested. “We can be like sheepdogs rounding up sheep!”
“Does everything with you always have to be about animals?” Ella sighed dramatically. 8
“Yep!” Fliss grinned. Fliss loved all animals, and wanted to be a vet when she grew up. She’d already taken the vet’s oath – a promise to care for animals in danger.
On the count of twenty, Ella went left and Fliss tiptoed right, around the base of the huge climbing frame, keeping her eyes peeled for Freddie and his friends.
The jungle decorations at the play centre were amazing. There were murals on the walls, toy animals in the trees, plants made of plastic and rubber. But where were those naughty children hiding? It didn’t look as if they were in the Monkey Climbing Room any more.
Fliss started to explore the other zones. She checked the Forest Floor Trampolining Room and the swings in 9 the Treetop room – but there was no sign of them. Then something caught her eye – a curtain of rubbery vines. Behind it there was a doorway, and a sign: ‘Deep Jungle Maze’. And from somewhere inside the maze, Fliss heard giggling. Aha!
“Coming to get you!” she called, and ran inside.
The make-believe jungle was thicker here. Pathways wove in and around tall plastic trees and bushy ferns made from felt. There were hidden speakers with sound effects: rainfall, monkey hoots, cheeping birds. But Fliss couldn’t hear giggling any more.
“Where are you?” she called, walking deeper and deeper into the jungle.
By the time she reached the centre of 10 the maze – Explorer’s Rest – Fliss was totally confused. She hadn’t heard another peep out of the children. In fact, she hadn’t seen or heard anyone at all.
She sat down on the bench. No one would mind if she stopped for a moment of peace and quiet. Filled with a sense of calm, she listened to the toots and whoops and sounds of the jungle. Closing her eyes, she imagined what it would be like to actually be there…
Chapter Two
Fliss was dreaming she was a jungle vet, caring for sloth bears and leopards, when she was woken by a sound – an almighty shriek! She sat upright and rubbed her eyes.
“Freddie?” She stood up. “Freddie, is that you?”
Reeech. There it was again! Reeech.
The noise was harsh, like a dull scream. Was someone in trouble? Was a child lost in the maze, or perhaps 12someone had climbed a tree and got stuck?
“Hang on!” she called. “Stay where you are. I’ll find you.”
Fliss went back through the winding pathways, pushing through the dense greenery, searching every twist and turn for a lost child. But there was nothing.
Reeech. Reeech.
“Where are you?” she shouted.
Just then, there was a rustle in the trees straight above her head.
“Who’s there?” she called, looking up. “Are you all right?”
A long-limbed shape swung down from a branch in front of her and then disappeared, quick as lightning, into the jungle behind.
What was that? Fliss froze and waited. 13
Nothing else moved. There was no sound. Not even a rustle in the trees.
“Just a cuddly toy,” she said to herself. “A cuddly toy that came loose from a tree and fell down, that’s all.”
Fliss wasn’t shaken but the strangeness of what had just happened made her more alert. She walked on, eyes and ears open. Bit by bit she realized that the maze room was changing. First it 14was the air, which had become warmer and damp, and then it was the path. Previously it had been rubber, now it was slightly squelchy and covered in leaves. Perhaps the Jungle Fever play centre had some air-conditioning problems, and definitely some plumbing problems – her sandals were getting wet! She should find someone and tell them.
Suddenly an explosion of whoops and squeaks pierced the air. It sounded like a child’s toy zapper. Fliss laughed, relieved that someone else was in the maze with her.
