The Polar Bear Explorers' Club by Alex Bell (life changing books to read txt) 📗

we have no horned geese here. We only have spotted geese. They can’t fly because their wings are too small, but they make up for that in other ways. Come along and we’ll have tea.’

The frosties fluttered off and the explorers followed them, their boots crunching on the winding white shingle path. The geese were quite a noisy bunch and kept up a continuous honking in the background. They walked through the trees to where several tables were set with crisp white tablecloths and china teacups. The tables were all different sizes, ranging from human-sized to fairy-sized.

‘I thought you said you didn’t get many visitors?’ Stella said.

‘We don’t, but we like to be prepared just in case,’ the frosty replied. She gestured towards the largest table. ‘Please do sit down.’

The explorers took their seats and Koa settled herself at Shay’s feet. Stella peered at the nearby trees and decided that they were quite odd-looking, with their leafless branches, and trunks as smooth and white as bleached bone. Multi-coloured glass jars hung from the branches, and Stella thought they were lanterns at first, but then some of the frosties fluttered up, pulled egg cups out of them, and set them on the table before the explorers.

They were, without doubt, beautiful egg cups, fit for a king in gold and royal blue, with intricate scrollwork and embedded crystals that put Stella in mind of the jewelled egg Felix had brought back with him from the Orient. But, even so, she couldn’t help being a little disappointed. When the frosties had mentioned a tea party she had imagined tiny cupcakes, and iced buns, and jelly dragons, and sticky jam roly-polies. Perhaps even some cream éclairs and purple macarons. Stella had a great fondness for purple macarons. But, instead, the frosties announced that they were to be having goose eggs for tea.

Stella didn’t want to seem ungrateful for the goose eggs, so she made sure to thank the frosties again for their hospitality before asking if they knew of anywhere nearby where they might be able to find more food.

‘We lost most of our supplies when we were split up from the rest of our expedition,’ she explained, ‘so we’re going to need to stock up on provisions.’

A frosty sat on one of the overturned teacups, twirled his moustache and said, ‘You’ll get food and other supplies at the Yak and Yeti.’

‘The Yak and Yeti?’

‘It’s a luxurious hotel,’ the frosty said. ‘The most luxurious hotel you’ve ever seen. They’re very friendly there. And helpful.’

One of the frosties perched in the tree above giggled and was quickly shushed.

‘How do we find it?’ Stella asked.

‘It’s on the other side of the rainbow.’

Ethan narrowed his eyes suspiciously. ‘Is that a riddle? I hate riddles.’

‘It’s not a riddle. Just follow the rainbow and you can’t go wrong,’ the frosty said.

The others returned with the goose eggs, and Stella immediately saw that these were no ordinary eggs: the eggshells were completely gold, and spotted with shiny silver freckles. The explorers each received an egg and then a basket of cutlery was put in the centre of the table. Instead of the teaspoons Stella had expected, she saw that there was a total jumble of utensils – everything from steak knives to oyster forks to honey stirrers. She also saw a set of wooden chopsticks, as well as a popcorn fork, cookie dipper and pickle spoon.

‘What does this one do?’ Ethan asked, reaching for one of the utensils. ‘Remove warts?’

‘That’s an artichoke scraper,’ the moustached frosty said politely.

‘When do you need scissors to eat your food?’ Beanie asked, holding up a silver pair and frowning at them suspiciously.

‘Sounds like another riddle,’ Stella said.

‘Those are grape scissors,’ the frosty replied. ‘And before you ask, these other ones are a marrow scoop, asparagus tongs, cake breakers, pitta bread opener, lobster cracker, crab pick, folding fruit knife and, of course, that one there is a moustache spoon.’

‘A moustache spoon?’ Stella snatched it up curiously. ‘But what’s it for?’

‘To protect a gentleman’s moustache when drinking soup, of course,’ the frosty said. ‘Really, don’t you have fine dining where you come from?’

‘Do you really need all this stuff for eating goose eggs, though?’ Ethan said, poking at the cutlery with his finger. ‘I mean, are there any egg spoons in that lot or is it all just stupid things like banana forks and parsnip scissors and bacon prongs?’

A tall frosty walked out onto the middle of the table, smiling. ‘These are magic eggs, my young friends,’ she said. ‘All you have to do is think really hard of what food you would most like to eat, and the egg will provide it for you.’

They all gaped at her.

‘Are you serious?’ Stella said at last.

‘Quite serious,’ the frosty replied. ‘Each egg will provide you with one savoury course and one dessert course. You just have to picture it inside your head. Imagine it so hard you can almost smell it in the air or taste it on your tongue. Then use a spoon to crack it open, just like you would with a normal egg.’

Stella stared down at the egg in front of her. After going through the various options in her mind she finally decided on soup, mostly because she wanted to use the moustache soup spoon, but also because it would help warm her up. She closed her eyes and thought as hard as she could of the hot, fresh, creamy tomato soup that she and Felix enjoyed at home, with little croutons floating on top. When she could practically taste it she opened her eyes and used the moustache spoon to break off the top of the egg.

The gold shell came away easily and tendrils of steam rose up, along with the delicious smell of piping hot tomato soup. Stella exclaimed in delight and, having seen her success, the others were quick to grab utensils from the basket and conjure up meals of their own.

Beanie had a fish finger sandwich, Shay had barbecued