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from days long ago. Of course, the centerpiece of the crypt was the long casket that held the bones of Flavius Faun. The casket was quite ornate, and it was carved with a very life-like relief of the legendary creature.
    Day after day, Kendra and her friends searched for the secret tunnel that might allow them escape into the outside world. A week passed, and they had still found no trace of the tunnel.
    “I wonder if this secret passageway even exists,” Kendra said as she, Oki, and Ratchet walked home one evening after a particularly long day of searching.
    “Well, you can’t expect to find it under your nose, as Bumblebean would say,” Ratchet declared.
    Kendra managed a laugh, for the professor had indeed become very fond of saying that very thing at the start of each day.
    “Well, I loathe that crypt,” Oki declared. “It’s so dark and gloomy. Plus, I don’t like the idea of thinking that Flavius Faun is buried down there.”
    “He won’t hurt you,” Ratchet said. “He’s just a pile of bones now.”
    “The point is, I’m already terrified, and the adventure hasn’t even begun yet,” Oki said.
    “Just use your onion trick,” Ratchet told him. “Remember, you used to always try to not think of onions, and then you’d be so distracted that you’d forget you were scared.”
    “Not anymore,” Oki informed the raccoon. “I used to think of onions (or try not to think of them), but then I met that plant on our last adventure that turned me into an onion because it could read my mind. So now I try to not think of turnips.”
    “That doesn’t make any sense, Oki,” Kendra told her whiskery little friend. “If you were to meet that same plant, he would just turn you into a turnip instead of an onion.”
    “True,” Oki said. “But one of Professor Bumblebean’s books said that onions are the favorite food of Izzards. So I’d much rather be turned into a turnip. I don’t think anyone would want to eat a turnip. Not even an Izzard.”
    “The mouse has a point,” Ratchet said. “You know, you will make a good slave, Oki.”
    “No, not a slave, Ratchet!” Kendra scolded. “An apprentice .”
    “Yeah, that’s what I meant,” Ratchet said. “Sorry, we inventors aren’t so great with words.”
    “Well, maybe you can invent our way out of the land of Een,” Kendra suggested. “Finding Professor Bumblebean’s secret tunnel just isn’t working.”
    A smile suddenly appeared across the raccoon’s masked face. “You know what, Kendra? That’s a great suggestion!”
    “Oh, no,” Oki groaned. “What are you cooking up now, Ratchet?”
    “You’ll find out, my young sla—I mean, apprentice,” Ratchet said, patting the tiny mouse on the head. “We’ll be up late tonight—I’ve just had the most brilliant idea!”
    Oki groaned again.
    Kendra herself had to wait until the next morning to learn about Ratchet’s idea. On her way to the crypt, she stopped by the raccoon’s laboratory to see what her two friends had invented. Now the thing about Ratchet’s inventions, as Kendra knew, was that they were rarely practical. There was his weather clock, for example, which released a sample of the weather outside so that you knew how to dress in the morning. But the problem was that it worked almost too well, and soon, Eens all over Faun’s End were being awoken by gusts of gale-force winds, or tidal waves of rain, or—in one unfortunate case—an avalanche of snow.

     
    “I just need to work out the kinks,” Ratchet had said at the time, which was pretty much what he said whenever one of his inventions experienced a hiccup.
    Of course, nothing could have prepared Kendra for Ratchet’s latest harebrained plan. As she came into the raccoon’s yard, what should she see but a giant firecracker pointing up towards the clouds! A long fuse trailed out behind the firecracker, but the most frightening part of the device was the fact that Oki was strapped to a tiny seat at the top. The little