The story and the book of Ndbag The boogeyman

The spider seemed slightly mollified and scuttled forward onto his palm. Ndbag carefully reached up to the web, so that the spider could get back to its home.
“There you go. No real harm done.” Ndbag smiled. “Next time you can scare me!” he offered enthusiastically.
The spider shot him another dark look and went back to spidering.
He watched the spider going about its business a bit longer and finally wandered off. There was so much to do and to discover up here. Cobwebs, dust bunnies, spiders, of course, and one time he had found a really old sock. As far as Ndbag was concerned, socks, just like wine and cheese, got better with age. He smacked his lips as he remembered the taste of that sock. I had been pure wool and hand-knit, without any cotton or synthetic fibre to influence its taste, and it had been lying around for so long that a lot of dust had settled onto it, too.
Maybe he could find another sock like that. He ran off to the far side of the attic. There were some old suitcases and boxes stacked haphazardly. He gave them a cursory inspection only, since he had sifted through their contents long ago. They contained nothing that was of interest to him. He sighed and wandered around between them, wondering if there were any socks hidden away somewhere. Finally, he gave up and sat down with his back against one of the rafters. He yawned and stretched. Maybe a little nap up here might be nice. As he stretched, his little hand brushed against something that rustled.
Forgetting all about his nap, he got up to take a closer look. There seemed to be something wedged behind the rafter, in between the wood and the roof tiles. He touched it carefully. It appeared to be a folded piece of paper. He tried to pull it out, but did not have much success at first. Only when he braced himself against the rafter with one foot, did the paper budge. Paper and boogeyman tumbled across the floor and landed in a heap against one of the boxes.

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Ndbag sat up and shook himself. He liked dust, but not all over his fur. He sneezed once, wiped his nose and muttered to himself, before remembering the paper. He sat down again and examined it closely. It was yellow with age, dog-eared and one side had a tear in it. This was strange. Why would anyone hide a piece of paper up here? He could understand hiding socks, so they would mature and be extra yummy, but paper? 


He unfolded the paper carefully and studied it. It seemed to be some kind of map. Why would anyone hide a map up here? He looked at it more closely. It was hand-drawn and contained all kinds of strange symbols. Then he gasped. There was a large X with the word “Treasure” next to it.
“Treasure!” he exclaimed.


He jumped up excitedly, ran across the floor, and clambered out of the little vent on the side of the roof. He slid down the roof tiles and landed inside the rain gutter. He ran along its length and finally jumped feet first into the drain pipe that led down. Usually that was his favourite part of the way back down, since it was like a big slide for the little boogeyman, but today he hardly noticed. He was clutching the treasure map tightly. He could not wait to show it to Mylene. He landed in the flower bed, jumped up and shook himself, then ran into the garage and made his way up to Mylene’s room.