Dink And Donk Short Story & Audiobook Series: Episode 2 - Best Game Ever

Best Game Ever

Dink has a secret: her BubbleBus is broken, and she doesn’t want it fixed. Instead of the bubble-like transportation device bringing her to school on her tiny planet of Husharoon, every morning it delivers  her to a very different planet called “Earth.” It’s wonderfully cold there, with lots of space to shout and run around. It’s also the home of her new best friend, a moose named Donk.

“So, did you find any? Did you bring two? Or ten?” Donk pranced around Dink, peppering her with questions as soon as she arrived.

“Please tell me you found more, please please please?”

Dink pulled a small twinkling ball from her pocket. 

“Just one,” she answered. “One Hearring.” 

Hearrings were invented by Dink’s five parents. Once in your ear, the Hearring allows you to understand any language. Hearrings are how a certain alien and a certain moose are able to talk to each other.

“But you already have a Hearring,” said Dink. “What do you want with another one?”

Donk answered excitedly, “It’s gonna help us play Whack-Thwack-a-Hoolie!”

“Is that a game?” asked Dink. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“I made it up!” shouted Donk. “But I’ve never been able to play it!” 

“Why not?” asked Dink.

Donk got very serious. “Because you need twenty players.”

“Where are we gonna find twenty players?!” asked Dink.  

Donk pointed a hoof behind her. “There,” he said.

Dink turned around. Her eyes goggled and her jaw dropped. Just a stone’s throw away (if you’re a cracking good stone-thrower) were twenty of the hugest, shaggiest things Dink had ever seen. They had funny-looking horns on either side of their heads and their grunting was louder than anything allowed in Husharoon.

“Those are massive,” said Dink.

“Those are musk oxen,” said Donk. 

Even from this distance, Dink could smell them. The oxen’s grunting felt in her ear the same way their smell felt in her nose: funkier than anything on Husharoon.

Donk explained how they needed to get close enough to one of those beasts to attach a Hearring so they could ask it to play Whack-Thwack-a-Hoolie. Dink didn’t say “That’s the nuttiest plan ever!” 

 Instead, she pointed to a thumping-huge musk ox standing outside the herd and said, “Let’s try that one!”

Donk was so happy to have a friend like Dink. “We’ll need to sneak up on him,” he whispered. 

“We should tiptoe,” suggested Dink. 

“What’s a tiptoe?” Donk asked.

On Husharoon, you have to be quiet and polite. They have laws about it. So, Dink is one of the best tiptoers in the whole galaxy. 

“Just do what I do,” said Dink.  

Donk watched as Dink started tiptoeing very quietly toward the backside of the musk ox. No moose had ever tiptoed before, so Donk had to concentrate as he lifted one hoof and then another.

“Tip...toe...tip...toe,” he said to himself. “Look, Dink! I’m tiptoeing like a champ!”

Dink looked behind her and groaned. Donk may have thought he was tiptoeing, but he was actually clomping. 

“Donk,” Dink whispered. “You’re gonna get us noticed!” 

Indeed, the musk ox looked up from the patch of moss he was grazing on.  The ox’s eyes narrowed with suspicion at the moose. Dink froze in mid-tiptoe. Would the ox see her too? 

No. Donk’s tiptoeing was so bizarre, the musk ox was distracted long enough for Dink to attach a Hearring near his ear.

“Hi! I’m Dink and that’s Donk! What’s your name?”

“Aah!” yelped the ox. He then added in a slow, panicked voice, “I’m Tom, but...but what’s going on?!”

“Don’t freak out, Tom,” said Donk. 

“I’m freaking out,” said Tom.

Dink explained to Tom why he could suddenly understand their language. This made Tom calm. Then Donk explained that they needed Tom to convince all his ox-friends to play Whack-Thwack-a-Hoolie with them. This made Tom less calm. He didn’t like doing new things.

“I think I’ll just keep munching my moss,” said Tom.

Donk couldn’t believe his ears.  

“You’d rather munch moss than play the best game ever!?”

“Maybe if you described the game,” suggested Dink, “he’d be interested.” 

Dink was also curious to hear just what sort of game Whack-Thwack-a-Hoolie was. 

“Follow me!” said Donk, who began galloping toward a sheet of ice on the edge of the sea. Tom, however, didn’t move. 

“Ugh!” grunted Donk. “Okay, Tom. What if I showed you my secret moss patch afterwards? Then would you come?”

“Is the patch...big?” asked Tom.

Donk nodded. Soon, Tom lumbered onto the sheet of ice with Donk and Dink. Dink had never been on ice before.

“So slippery!” Dink shouted and laughed while sliding and falling on her bottom. Donk laughed too. Tom, however, looked uncomfortable on the ice. So, Donk  quickly explained his game. He picked up a rock the size of a hockey puck with his mouth  and dropped it on the ice. 

“Okay, Dink. You and Tom stand over there. You know the game’s called Whack-Thwack-a-Hoolie. So Tom, guess the first thing I do with this rock!”

“Lick it?” Tom was proud of his answer.

“No! I whack it towards you with my antler!”

Donk demonstrated, sending the rock whizzing on the ice toward Tom and Dink.

“So, now what do you do with the rock, Tom? Remember, the game’s called Whack-Thwack-a-Hoolie.”

Tom thought and then said, “...lick it?” 

Donk groaned. “No, you thwack it! Why would you wanna lick it?”

“I dunno,” said Tom. “I thought maybe the game was like Lick-Lick-Boogie.”

Donk and Dink were not expecting that answer.

“What’s a boogie?” asked Dink.

“It’s a little like this,” said Tom who – to Dink and Donk’s astonishment – slowly turned in a circle, then wagged his shaggy bottom back and forth. In the distance, the herd of musk oxen looked up from their grazing.

“Hey,” another ox said. “Tom’s playing Lick-Lick-Boogie.  C’mon!”

Donk and Dink suddenly heard a thundering of hooves and turned to see nineteen musk oxen galloping towards them on the ice. Donk was thrilled. He was finally going to get to play his game, with twenty players!

But as soon as the oxen all stepped onto the ice, a loud, scary sound ripped through the air.

“Donk!” yelled Dink, pointing at her feet. “The ice! It’s cracking!”

In a shaggy flash, all the musk oxen trotted back onto solid ground. But a large piece of ice cracked right under Dink’s feet and she fell into the water, sinking like a stone!

Donk called through the hole in the ice. “Dink! Dink, where are you?!”

After a tense moment, Dink’s head suddenly popped above the water. She was riding on the back of an immense, milky-white creature: a beluga whale! Dink clambered back onto the ice. With a squeak and chirp, the whale swam away. 

“Dink!” said Donk. “Are you okay?!”  

Dink nodded. But she was wet and very cold. Tom called out to them.  

“Come over here! We have just the thing!”

Donk carried Dink on his back over to the herd, who huddled around her. Their coats were so shaggy! Their thick breath was so warm! In no time, Dink was dry, warm and happy. 

But now she noticed her BubbleBus was glowing. She gave Tom and Donk huge hugs goodbye, promising to return as soon as she could. 

Aaaaand...POP! She was gone.

Tom turned to Donk and said, “Um...”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Donk. “C’mon, I’ll show you my moss patch.”

The End