“I suppose you are wondering why I have called you here, mes amis,” François said gravely.

We had just arrived in London, where we had been instructed to meet François at a high-end hotel downtown. The hamster and the head penguin were already there, so we knew this was important. We listened eagerly as François spoke.

François produced a pile of papers from his briefcase. “I have here the top-secret information,” he began. “We have reason to believe that there may have been, shall I say, sabotage, concerning the chess tournament that is to take place at the castle this weekend. Scotland Yard has requested that I look into the matter. Because you were such a great help to me in solving the case of the jewel heist at the Louvre, I have called you here.”

“A very valuable set of crystal chess pieces that was to be used in the tournament is missing,” he continued, as he showed us several photos and a couple of exquisite chess men. “I have brought some samples so that you can see what we are looking for.” We all gasped in amazement when we saw the delicate, sparkling crystal chess men. “Wow!” Panda exclaimed. “Those must be worth a lot of money!” François nodded. “Oui, mon ami,” he replied. “And it is our job to find them before the tournament begins.”

We went to the hotel room picked up Little Alexandre, who had not been at the meeting because he already knew all the information about the case. Together we got on the London Underground. After consulting several maps of the area, François divided us into teams, and when we got to the edge of the city, we split up to start our search.

Panda and I started out down a country road, while the others went in the opposite direction. After walking for what seemed like forever, we saw a huge castle looming in the distance. Panda immediately ran past me toward it. “Come on, Foster!” he called. “This must be the castle! Let’s check it out!”

By the time I caught up with him, Panda was already inside the main door. There were stone steps leading to what looked like some sort of a passageway. “Dude,” he said, his voice echoing along the stone walls. “This is so cool! It’s a real medieval castle!” I hesitated. “Umm, I don’t really want to go in there if it’s evil,” I said doubtfully. Panda laughed. “I said medieval, not evil,” he said. “Medieval times were like the 1200s, when there were knights in shining armor and damsels in distress. I read about it online. Let’s go inside. It’s perfectly fine.”

When we got to the end of the stone passageway we came into an elaborate, modern hall with a crystal chandelier and finely polished floors. There was no one in sight, so we decided to see what was at the other end.

“Hello?” said a voice at the end of the hall. Imagine our surprise when we almost bumped into a man who looked like he was made out of metal! I jumped aside, and Panda threw out his arms and backed up in alarm. “Ow!” said a small voice behind him. It was Little Alexandre, whom he had accidentally hit in the nose. “Alexandre!” we exclaimed in unison. “How did you get here?” Alexandre sounded a bit out of breath. “I wanted to come with you instead of going with the others,” he explained. “I followed you, but you were going too fast and I almost got lost. I have only now caught up with you.”

“May I help you?” The deep voice sounded slightly amused. Suddenly we realized that in the commotion of seeing Little Alexandre, we had forgotten about the metal man! We all jumped when he spoke again. “My name is Sir Grimald. I live in this castle. And who, pray tell, do I have the pleasure of addressing?” We introduced ourselves and explained the reason for our visit, to which Sir Grimald listened with interest. Then Alexandre spoke up timidly. “Please, sir,” he asked, “But are you really made out of metal?” Our new friend laughed heartily. “Oh no, I’m just wearing my armor today. I usually wear it when I’m on guard here in the castle.”

“It’s time for my break,” Sir Grimald continued. “Let’s go outside. These castles can be very dark and musty, and it’s important to get enough sunshine for your Vitamin D level.” We all went down to the side lawn and sat down on the grass, where we continued our conversation. “So that’s our mission,” I said when we finished our explanation. “We have to find the missing crystal chess pieces before the royal chess tournament. Do you have any idea where we should start?” Our new friend thought for a minute. “I’m guessing it would be a good idea to check the forest,” he said slowly. “But that’s so far away you’ll probably need to fly. My friend, Lady Felicity, has a falcon that can probably give you a ride there.”

Lady Felicity turned out to be beautiful, and she was very nice. Her falcon was eager to help and wanted to leave right away. After a brief discussion it was decided that Panda should be the one to go with the falcon, since, after his many experiences with birds, he had long ago ceased to be afraid of being carried through the air by them. Before we knew it, the falcon had picked up Panda in his beak, and we watched them disappear into a mere speck against the sky.

After what seemed like forever, they arrived back at the castle. Little Alexandre and I were waiting for them on the balcony. After the falcon deposited him on the ground, we listened in fascination as Panda breathlessly shared the information he had gathered on their trip.

Panda told us that the view over the castle was breathtaking. He had been careful not to start a conversation with the falcon, remembering what had happened to the hamster in New York when the seagull had given him a ride to the Brooklyn Bridge.

When they got to the forest, the falcon set Panda carefully down on the ground. “Just call me when you’re ready to go back,” the falcon said cheerfully. “I’ll just be visiting some of my relatives nearby.” Panda thanked him and started off down the path, wondering if this had been a good idea after all.

He hadn’t gone far when he heard a rustling sound in a nearby tree. Looking up, he saw a baby raccoon looking down at him. “Are you a real panda?” the raccoon asked curiously. “I’ve never seen a panda in these woods before.” Panda answered in the affirmative and explained his mission. “The crystal chess pieces are very valuable,” he concluded. “Have you seen anything like that here?” The baby raccoon thought for a moment. “I don’t know what chess pieces are,” he admitted, “but I know we raccoons like shiny objects. If you’d like to come with me, we can go ask my family and friends.” Panda accepted the offer immediately, and together they set off for the raccoon colony.

“Chessmen?” asked one of the adult raccoons in answer to Panda’s questions. “I don’t even know what those are. But we did find these at the castle the other day. Pretty shiny, don’t you think?” Panda hesitated. “Umm. yes, they are,” he replied. Then an idea occurred to him. “Could I borrow them to take to the castle? Just to show my supervisor?” he asked nonchalantly. “It would only be for a few days.” The raccoon hesitated. “Well, I don’t really want to part with them,” he replied politely. “But if you’d like, I can bring them to the castle myself.” It was agreed that the raccoon would meet them at the castle, and Panda called the falcon for the flight back.

We let François and the others know what was going on, and when the raccoon arrived we all met back at the hotel. The raccoon laid the chess pieces out on the table for us to see. He gasped when François told him they were the crystal chess pieces that had gone missing from the castle. “Oh my word!” he exclaimed. “We had no idea what they were! We found them in the game room at the castle, and since nobody was around, we thought we’d might as well take them.”

“We put them in the dungeon for safekeeping. Later, we distributed them among ourselves, to use as decorations for our nests. Of course we’ll give them all back right away!” François said that since the raccoons hadn’t intended to steal the chess pieces and were willing to give them back, no charges would be filed.

In a flurry of excitement and activity, the raccoons led us back to their colony to retrieve the rest of the chess pieces. Sir Grimald went with along in case we should run into any trouble. We got back to the castle game room with the crystal chessmen just in time!

While we were in the game room waiting for the tournament to begin, we decided to try our hand at chess ourselves. It was Panda and the raccoon against François and me. Throughout the game, Little Alexander looked over Panda’s shoulder and whispered in his ear. After several amazing moves, they won the game! François turned to me confidentially. “Little Alexandre is a very good player of the chess,” he said.

“That was a good game!” Panda said, as we set up the board for another round. But just then we heard an announcement that the tournament was about to begin. We all hurried to the main hall to watch.

Because we had helped find the missing chessmen, we were given front row seats. We watched, awestruck, as some of the best chess players in the world competed for the championship. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Then, suddenly, we noticed that Little Alexandre was gone!

“I didn’t see him leave,” the hamster said when we gathered during the intermission. “I just turned around and he was gone!” François looked worried. “The Little Alexandre, he is often too independent for his own good,” he said. “We will just have to stay here and hope he does not get into trouble.” But when the intermission was over and the match started up again, we were amazed to see Little Alexandre up on the stage with the chess players!

We watched as Little Alexandre won match after match. François muttered animatedly to himself in French, while the rest of us held our breath. Finally, the tournament was over. Little Alexandre had won the championship!

The crowd went wild as Sir Grimald held him up for all to see. This was the first time in history that a kitten had ever won the royal chess tournament. A huge dinner celebration followed, and we were all invited.

As we waited for our meal to be served, we congratulated Little Alexandre and reminisced about our visit to the castle and the new friends we had met. Then, it was time to head back to Fresno. We could hardly wait to tell Mom all about our adventure!