THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 13
THE TRAIL TO THE NURSERY 🌿
TurboTAD followed the enormous trail through the reeds.
“The nursery comes first. If this leads there, we follow it.”
Marno stayed low over the churned silt. “It pushed through the roots. Didn’t go around them.”
“Signals still moving,” Nibble said over his detector. “Fast.”
They accelerated beside a current that bent the lily stems. Minnows scattered, exposing an old Builder channel beneath the grass. The trail crossed it directly.
“TurboTAD!”
Marno had stopped at a cracked support leaning over the channel. Water hammered against it as he pressed a flipper to the fracture.
“If this breaks, the stones fall across the nursery flow.”
“How long?”
“Not long.”
TurboTAD looked along the trail into the reeds, then towards the nursery.
“Keep it standing, Marno. Nibble, stay with him.”
“You’re going alone?” Nibble asked.
“For thirty seconds.”
TurboTAD secured the key against his harness and fired his booster. Green light streaked behind him as he raced ahead.
The detector screamed.
“TurboTAD—wait!”
He turned. Its violet signals had split: half clustered around Marno’s support, half raced after him.
Both groups stopped at exactly the same moment.
The water went strangely still.
TurboTAD slowed beneath a curtain of lily roots. The trail ended in a deep hollow, with no turn or second path leading away.
“It didn’t keep going!” Nibble called behind him.
A bubble rose from the hollow. Another followed.
The pond floor beneath TurboTAD moved.