The Dragon's Code is the very first book of Thea Stilton's spinoff series of the Geronimo Stilton series, and it serves as an origin story of how the Thea Sisters, the true main characters of the series, came together.
Description[]
- What is the Dragon's Code?
- I couldn't believe it when I, Thea Stilton, was invited to teach a journalism class at the prestigious Mouseford Academy! Once I arrived, I met five amazing students. And when another student disappeared, it was up to us to help solve the mystery. Holey Swiss cheese, it was an incredible adventure!
Plot[]
One night after a long day of work, Thea receives a strangely fancy letter with a red wax seal from a mailman, and she finds that she was invited to teach a journalism course at her alma mater Mouseford Academy, and should she accept, she is to head to Mouseford to begin the new semester. Without even thinking twice, she prepares her clothes and heads out to Whale Island on her catamaran in spite of a bad weather forecast for the next few days.
After finding and accosting the driver of the hydroplane that almost ran her catamaran over, Thea meets five girls: Pamela, Nicky, Paulina, Colette and Violet, who turn out to all be Mouseford freshmen who just so happen to also be taking Thea's journalism course. After their brief meeting, it's time for the group to head to Mouseford Academy. Thea heads up first to meet Octavius de Mousus, the academy's current headmaster and the presiding headmaster during Thea's college years. While in the middle of Thea and Octavius catching up and having tea, a loud crash sound coming from the library leads them to Hans Ratson, a freshman who accidentally knocked some books off a shelf trying to get a book titled Booby Traps: A Beginner's Guide.
After that situation with Hans Ratson is sorted out, Thea and Octavius return to Octavius's study and watch the five girls head up, and interesting things happen: Nicky beats them to the academy in no time flat, Colette dumps her obscene amount of luggage on the ferry driver (who apparently offered to carry them for her), Violet confronts Colette about the whole situation which results in bickering, and Paulina takes note of the shift in wind direction from south to north, which indicates that a storm is coming to Whale Island.
Thea and the girls take some time to unpack their luggage, and later that evening, Thea finds Nicky and Paulina in the dark hallways, the two needing help reaching the cafeteria. Thea offers to help them, but herself not having been to the academy since her graduation years ago, they predictably get lost and end up in a peculiar basement that was off-limits to students to begin with. Boomer Whale, the school janitor, catches them, scolds them for "sticking [their] snouts where [they're] not allowed" and brings them to the cafeteria, where the headmaster tells Thea about an urban legend involving students disappearing in the basements, Thea tries to encourage Violet to make friends, and Hans Ratson grows more and more suspicious with every moment he's around-- having turned up at the last minute and being tired enough that he turns in early. As Ratson leaves, Midge Whale, the school cook, gives him almost the exact same warning as Boomer Whale, which Thea finds incredibly strange.
The next morning, Thea finds the hydroplane pilot from the previous day serenading someone (who is heavily implied to be Colette), Midge and Boomer bicker about having lost six fondue pots, a garden hose and a rake, respectively, and Hans Ratson for some reason is gone from his room, having replaced himself on his bed with a stereo playing a snoring soundtrack on loop. Shortly after Thea reports Hans Ratson's disappearance to Octavius, Boomer reports that someone must've been wandering in the cellars, judging from the cellar door not having been closed properly, and a book owned by Ratson that Boomer found on the stairs. To investigate the matter, Boomer, Octavius, Thea, Colette, Nicky, Pamela, Paulina and Violet enter the cellar to search for Hans Ratson.