DIANA AND THE MONSTERS

Chapter Three

"A Clown For Lizards"

The pot was getting hotter and hotter. Diana still had no shoes and her feet were getting really really hot. She started dancing from foot to foot cause the pot was burning her feet.

"Look at this!" the lizard lady who wasn't a lady at all said. "How funny!"

Lizard men and lizard ladies and lizard boys and lizard girls all came and saw Diana dancing in the hot pot. And they all laughed and clapped their froggy lizard hands with long black fingernails.

The chief saw her. "She too funny to cook!" he said. "She will be my clown until she stops being funny. Then we will eat her!"

So they got Diana out of the pot and put chains on her and made her a clown. And she'd dance for the lizard man chief and he'd laugh and laugh until he fell down and hurt himself. The lizard chief was very very fat. And when he fell down he'd roll.

Now Diana didn't like being a clown. She wanted to be a hero. But the chains were too strong to break. She pulled and pulled and pulled and just hurt herself.

Diana was a clown for three days. And she hated it! On day four the lizard chief rolled to where she was. Diana was really mad. And she kicked the lizzard chief in the butt. Now nobody likes to get kicked in the butt. And the lizard chief was really really mad. He got up. "You not funny no more!" he said. "Now we cook you!"

Diana didn't want to go back in the pot and cook. So she hit the lizard men with her chains. They yelled and ran and got spears. And they made her go back to the pot.

But Diana didn't get back in the pot. A lizard man yelled "It's the ogre!"

The ogre was twelve feet tall. He was fat. He was really hairy. He had a great big giant club with spikes on it. His club was bigger than anybody you ever seen and he was lots bigger than his club.

All the lizard men went to fight the ogre. Diana ran. The chains were heavy but she was strong. So she ran and ran. But she was lost. Where was her village? She didn't know.

Diana ran to the lake. She couldn't swim. The chains were too heavy. They'd pull her down and she'd sink and go glug glug. Diana didn't want to sink and go glug glug.

She ran to the left. The ground was soft and squishy. Her feet went squish squish squish squish squoosh! She tried to pick up her foot. It didn't move. She tried to pick up her other foot. It didn't move. She looked down. Her feet were in the ground. And the ground was getting closer! No she was sinking!

Oh no! Diana was in quicksand! Now what?