Quietly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled himself to take the creature down with his sword, but the moment he reached in his hand and the edge of his blade brushed against the creature's neck, it let out a roar as it twisted and swiped at Quiggly's head, slicing off most of his hair. With what was left of his hair still hanging out from the sides of his head, the poor little creature looked like a scarecrow that was about to be burned at the stake. But Quiggly did not fall, and in his hand he held the hilt of the sword, still in its scabbard. Then, he let out a loud cry, swung his sword, and swung it like a baseball bat, hitting the creature on its head with so much force that it was knocked to the floor, flat on its back. Now freed from the monster's hold, Quiggly took a big, deep breath and held it. "I'll get him," he said quietly to himself. "Even with half his hair gone, and the blood rushing to my head, and my vision blurring, I'll get him." Quiggly jumped to his feet, but as he stood and looked over the battlefield, his vision cleared and he found himself in the midst of a fight with the creature he just subdued, whose once-scarred face had healed, and whose eyes were now filled with murderous intent. It jumped to its feet and charged Quiggly, swinging its mighty tail wildly back and forth as he held his sword before him, waiting for his chance to strike. The creature charged at Quiggly, swinging its tail up into the air, and Quiggly prepared himself, bracing himself for the painful attack. The tail came swinging down, crashing into the top of his head and knocking him clear off his feet. As he tumbled backwards, a few feet off the ground, he felt the creature's breath in his face, felt his bones cracking as he hit the ground, and saw his long, blond hair dangling from the sides of his head. "I've done it," he said, as the creature slowly lifted him up into the air, just as it had the little gray mouse, and Quiggly prepared for the creature to twist and snap his neck. But, again, he was spared, and again he was lifted off the ground and dropped into the dirt, hard, by the creature, knocking the wind from his body. He was too stunned to move from the pain in his ribs, and could only lie on the ground and take it. As the creature stood above him, the sunlight on the wall behind its head reflecting off its eyes, Quiggly thought he saw the sun shining through the creature's eyes, through his own eyes, and wondered if the beast was going to kill him. And as it leaned down and looked down at him, he gasped and saw the yellowish, foul-smelling substance dripping from the creature's nostrils and out of its eyes and mouth, and he knew then that the monster had been poisoned. Quiggly lay motionless on the ground, barely breathing, barely moving, not daring to move, for fear of the creature's death-blow. He was a mouse under the heel of a bull, and he knew he was doomed, but somehow he summoned up the courage to lie there, and let the creature decide when it would end his life. He was too small to outrun the beast, and there was nowhere for him to run to, anyway. He could only lie there and hope that it would not decide to kill him, even if it wanted to. Then, in a flash of motion, and with the quickness of lightening, the sword in Quiggly's hand flew up into the air, and into the creature's mouth, as the heavy head swung down, and smashed it down with all the power of Quiggly's arms. The creature's head was twisted to one side and its snout was shattered and spewing the foul green liquid and its gray nose split, and the creature gasped and then coughed up the liquid that had flooded into its lungs, and gagged as it let out a final moan. Then, it lay there, its eyes rolling back in its head, its tongue hanging limply out of its mouth, and all the fight gone out of it. The beast was dead. Quiggly rose slowly from the ground. He had not made it to safety and he knew it, but he knew he was alive and he could breathe and he could feel the cool grass under his feet, and he could see the sunlight on the walls and the open sky above his head, and it was the best he could hope for, he knew. And then, he looked over at his sword, lying not five feet from his hand, and next to it, the creature's paw, still clutching his blond hair. The giant beast had perished, and Quiggly, just an inch short of his goal, was the victor. He looked around the field, saw his friends, all of them, he was sure, were dead, but he saw no one, save, of course, for a little mouse that had been hiding in the shadows, away from the mayhem, who smiled and bowed, to the little warrior. The little mouse was a wizard, as was Quiggly. He was also one of the first knights of the realm. His name was King Quiggly, the first true Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. He was the hero of Oogaboo and the reason for Oogaboo's greatness. He was Quiggly the Quick and he would go down in history as one of the best knights who ever lived, and when Quiggly the Quick was born, all of Oogaboo knew that his name would be remembered for all time. Lumpy Space Prince and Stumpy the Stegosaurus ## Copyright Information Quiggly and the Seven Suns. Copyright © 1999 by Bill Myers. All rights reserved. Reprinted by Permission of Little, Brown and Company, a Division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Hachette Book Group, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. The Library of Congress has catalogued the original print edition as follows: Myers, Bill. Quiggly and the seven suns/Bill Myers. p. cm. ISBN: 978-0-8050-7913-7 [1. Dinosaurs—Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.M97564Qu 1999 [Fic]—dc21 99-040966 First Edition: August 1999 v3.0_r1