The Ice Castle Read online

  “Hold on, Daisy. What if something awful is behind that door?” he asks. “What if this castle really is haunted?”

  I listen with my ear against the cold door. “Well, I don’t hear a thing!” I whisper. Then I turn the knob, open the door, and . . .

  SSHHHHWOOOOOSHHH!

  A blast of icy wind blows us right off our feet, and we slip-slide on our bottoms down the hall, out the door, and across the drawbridge. The Snow-nimals turn back into snowballs and scatter.

  “What was THAT?!” I cry, jumping to my feet. “Did you see anything?”

  Posey scrambles closer to me and points.

  I turn to see where he’s pointing and—hold on to your snow boots!—something is standing in the castle’s doorway. And it’s not a ghost. It’s so not a ghost.

  Naklin

  And it’s huge. And it’s furry. And oh my gosh . . . It’s waving at us! It’s a real live abominable snowman! And it is the cutest, fluffiest thing I’ve ever seen!

  Posey clings to me like a koala bear.

  We’re gonna be friends with this guy! I think as I walk toward the Ice Castle wearing Posey.

  The abominable snowman welcomes us in with a nod. He’s so big that he accidentally bumps into a bookcase and ice books tumble to the floor. He lets out a deep laugh and picks them up.

  “I’m Daisy!” I say, introducing myself and pretending not to notice his clumsiness. “And this is Posey.”

  “HELLO, DAISY!” he booms in a voice as big as his body. “HELLO, AND-THIS-IS-POSEY,” he says, like Posey’s name is a whole entire sentence. “MY NAME IS NAKLIN,” he goes on. “I’M A YETI.”

  “Wow, I thought yetis lived in caves!” I blurt out, and I hope this doesn’t sound rude.

  He laughs, and the ice chandeliers above us jingle. “MOST YETIS DO,” he says.

  Posey lets go of me and slides to the floor. “Could you speak a little quieter?” he asks. “We wouldn’t want to shatter the Ice Castle.”

  “Sorry,” Naklin says in a smaller voice. “It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken to anyone with such little ears.”

  “Why were you in the tower?” I ask.

  Naklin sighs long and low. I can tell this yeti has a story, so Posey and I plop onto an ice sofa to listen.

  “I moved in after the king and queen left,” he explains. “It was so beautiful and cold—I loved it so much! Then one day I climbed the tower to see a snow-bow.”

  Posey pokes me in the side. “A snow-bow is a rainbow made of snow,” he whispers in my ear. And of course now I want to see one.

  “When I came back down, the door had blown shut,” Naklin goes on. “I’ve been trapped there ever since.” He shakes his head at the thought of it.

  I pat Naklin’s furry arm. “Oh no. How long were you stuck?”

  He slumps forward. “Five years,” he says sadly. “I was so lonely, even though yetis like to be alone.”

  “Why didn’t you call for help?” Posey asks.

  “I did!” says Naklin. “Yetis sing for help like this.” Then he lets out a mournful cry that echoes through the snow.

  I grab Posey’s arm. “That’s the creepy sound the Snow-nimals must have been hearing! The castle was never haunted! Naklin was singing!”

  Naklin looks down at his ginormous feet. “Oh yes, yetis are not very good at singing,” he says.

  Posey and I laugh.

  But there’s still one thing I don’t understand.

  “The tower door wasn’t locked,” I say. “Why didn’t you just open the door and walk out?”

  “Open the door?” he repeats.

  “Yes!” I say. Obviously. But then I think that maybe a door isn’t so obvious to a yeti. Most caves don’t have doors, let alone doorknobs. “Hold on,” I say. And then I slide to the closest door and show Naklin how it works.

  “THIS MEANS I COULD HAVE GOTTEN OUT THE WHOLE TIME?” Naklin realizes loudly. He bangs his forehead with his paw.

  “Well, now you know!” I say, not wanting him to feel like a total sillyhead. Then I have an idea. “Want to come play in the snow with us?”

  Naklin claps his furry mitts.

  We all run outside and call the Snow-nimals.

  POP!

  POOF!

  POP!

  The Snow-nimals come to life one after the other. They are no longer afraid.

  We play another game of snow-berangs. Naklin can throw one halfway around the WOM and back. Next we make snow angels and build igloos! Then Naklin spies my bed-sled.

  “What is that?” he asks.

  “Do you want to try it?” I offer. “Just jump on, and the bed-sled will do the rest.”

  The yeti sits on my bed-sled, and it creaks under his weight. When he slaps the covers like reins, it takes off.

  “Uh-oh,” Posey says.

  I catch a snowflake on my tongue. “Uh-oh what-oh?” I ask, but I’m not sure I want to know the answer.

  Posey looks in the direction Naklin took off. “Bed-sleds always go back to where they started,” Posey explains.

  Then my eyes bug out because I remember where it started . . . right under the door to my bedroom!

  My Room!

  I jump on Posey’s bed-sled.

  “Come on!” I shout. “Maybe we can catch him!”

  Posey scrambles on board and we take off. We zoom to the door that leads to the Real World. My bed-sled is parked right below it. I look up, and sure enough, the door to the Real World hangs open—what’s left of it. Naklin nearly ripped the door off.

  “Naklin!” I cry. Then I see something furry falling toward us. But it’s not Naklin, it’s Sir Pounce, and he’s flying with all four legs sticking straight out. FLUMP! Sir Pounce lands on the bed with us.

  “MRRROW!” that silly cat mews. I calm him down and look back up at the door, wondering how to get in. Then I see Naklin’s big furry face appear in the broken doorframe.

  “HELLO, DAISY AND AND-THIS-IS-POSEY!” calls the great yeti. “I OPENED MY FIRST DOOR!”

  I stand on the bed-sled and wave my arms. “Move out of the way!” I cry. “We’re coming up!” Then I ask Posey, “How do we get back up?”

  He smiles. “Just bounce on the bed!”

  I hold Sir Pounce as we bounce off the bed, and—ZOOP!—we’re back in my room.

  “DOORS ARE SO MUCH FUN!” Naklin booms excitedly.

  I put my fingers to my lips, hoping he’ll quiet down.

  “Yes, and good job!” I whisper. “But keep it down or my mom will hear.”

  That’s when I see my room, and it’s a total disaster. My bed is smashed! My dresser drawers are pulled out and cracked. My toys are everywhere! Sir Pounce sniffs the debris.

  “Is this your home?” asks Naklin.

  What’s left of it, I think, nodding.

  “It’s very small and much too warm for a yeti,” he says. “May I go home now?”

  My shoulders relax. What a relief!

  “Of course,” I say. “Adventures are fun, but it’s always nice to go home.”

  Naklin gives Posey and me a very furry group hug. He smells fresh and chilly like a crisp winter day. Then we give him directions back to the Ice Castle.

  Naklin sits down with his furry legs dangling through the open doorway.

  “TOODLE-LOODLE-LOO!” the giant yeti shouts. Then he leaps through my floor.

  “Toodle-loodle-loo!” Posey and I shout back as Naklin disappears into the WOM.

  Then I hear a sharp knock on my real bedroom door.

  Gadzooks! It’s my mom! Again!

  Posey’s Trick

  “Hold on!” I cry.

  I was supposed to be cleaning my room this whole time, and now it’s completely trashed. I can’t tell Mom what happened. Obviously.

  “Blankets!” Posey whispers.

  We yank the blankets off my bed and throw them over the broken furniture and the hole in my floor. It looks like a super-amazing blanket fort! The mess is hidden, so I open the door.

 
“Welcome to Fort Blanket!” I say casually.

  “Wow, Daisy, you’re always full of surprises!” she says. “And I have a surprise for you, too!”

  “Oooooh!” I cry. “I love surprises.” Even though I’ve kind of had enough surprises for one day. Obviously.

  “Lily and Jasmine are coming over for a snow day celebration!” she says. “Now make sure your room is picked up before they get here.”

  “No problem, Mom!” I say, pretending like it’s no big deal. But as soon as she leaves, I can’t pretend anymore. A yeti-smashed bedroom is a very big deal. “Posey, my room is in a million pieces! What should I do?”

  Posey leaps out from under one of the blankets.

  “You wanna see a trick?” he asks.

  I heave a big sigh. “No, not now,” I tell him. “Not until this room is clean.”

  Posey starts his trick anyway. He claps his hands three times and throws one of my blankets over me.

  “Voilà!” he shouts.

  “Not funny,” I grumble from under the blanket. But when I pull it off, my room is totally back to normal! My furniture is fixed, my toys are put away, and my bed is made!

  I twirl in a circle. “Posey, how did you do that?”

  I give him a great big squeeze, and Posey laughs. “You said you didn’t want to see the trick,” he says.

  Then he sits down by the opening in the floor. “I should get going. I want to visit Naklin and make sure he got back to the Ice Castle. Those bed-sleds can be tricky.”

  Now it’s my turn to laugh. “Bring earplugs this time!” I tell him.

  “I will!” Posey says as he jumps through the door. “Bye, Daisy!”

  “Bye!” I shout as the door closes and disappears. Now my floor is just a plain old floor again.

  I stretch out on my bed and watch the snowflakes drift down. Sir Pounce is curled up next to me. Everything is falling-snow quiet.

  This is the magic of a snow day.

  Check out Daisy Dreamer’s next adventure!

  Today is Friday, and that means it’s park day! My best friends and I go to the park every Friday after school. Today we head straight to the basketball court.

  I love the court because it’s the best place to ro-o-oll on my skateboard. Lily loves it because it’s the best place to play basketball. And Jasmine loves it because it’s the best place to draw on the smooth surface with sidewalk chalk. It’s the perfect place for us. Obviously.

  I slalom around Lily. ZOOMIE! ZOOM! ZOOM! She dunks a three-pointer or whatever.

  I whiz past Jasmine. ZOOMIE! ZOOM! ZOOM! She’s drawing a picture of Posey.

  “Hi, Posey!” I shout as I fly by.

  The picture of Posey pops to life—as in, real life.

  “Hi, guys!” he shouts back.

  I’m so distracted that I skate right into Lily.

  WIPEOUT!

  Lily and I bumble-tumble to the ground.

  “Oopsy-daisy!” I cry. Lily and I untangle ourselves and check for scrapes.

  “Are you okay?” everyone asks at the exact same time!

  “JINX!” we shout, and then we crack up. We are definitely best friends.

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Holly Anna has always had a wild imagination. When she was little, she used to doodle drawings that would transport herself and her friends to a wonderful world of make-believe. Now she visits other worlds through writing. Holly lives in San Jose, California, with her family. They have four cats: Rocket J. Squirrel, Le Mew, The Honest John Wookenchops (a.k.a. “Wookie”), and Noel.

  Genevieve Santos is an illustrator born, raised, and living in San Jose, California, and sole proprietor of a small stationery company, Le Petit Elefant. Her love for animation started at a young age, and is what drives her to draw the slightest observations. She also has an insatiable weakness for ice cream.

  Little Simon

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  First Little Simon paperback edition November 2017

  Copyright © 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Also available in a Little Simon hardcover edition.

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  Designed by Laura Roode

  Jacket illustrations by Genevieve Santos © 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  This book has been cataloged with the Library of Congress.

  ISBN 978-1-4814-9893-7 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-9892-0 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-9894-4 (eBook)