Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures

"Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures" is a fantasy novel, written and comically illustrated by German author Walter Moers.

The story follows the progress of a young Wolperting (a dog-like creature) named Rumo, as he travels through the land of Zamonia and learns the perils and perks of the world and people. When an entire city of Wolpertings called Wolperting, where civilized Wolpertings go to live, socialize, and even play chess goes missing it is up to Rumo to save the day and his true love, Rala. Rala is captured by General Ticktock and tortured to learn more about death.

The novel takes place on the fictional continent of Zamonia, which is also featured in Moers' previous effort "The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear". While "Rumo" is not a sequel to "Bluebear" the two do have many parallel events, and returning characters such as Volzotan Smyke and Professor Nightingale.

We follow the title character "Rumo" from his being raised as a puppy by a kindly breed of creatures named Hackonian Dwarves. Rumo can visualize his smells as colored threads- and there's a thread that's constantly hanging above him- a silver thread. He doesn't know why, but he knows he must follow it. Unfortunately, all of the Hackonian Dwarves and Rumo are kidnapped by the Demonocles, a breed of giant Demons that delight in eating living things alive. While in the Demonocles' prison, Rumo meets and is befriended by the Shark Grub Volvotan Smyke, a prominent character in "Bluebear." Smyke teaches him how to speak, and watches as he grows into a Wolperting- a strong canine creature with horns. They eventually devise a plan to escape the Demonocles' clutches, which is successful. Rumo and Smyke have some adventures together, but eventually they decide to go their separate ways, since Smyke wants to find civilization, and Rumo wants to follow the mysterious silver thread. After some stumbling around, Rumo follows the silver thread to a city called Wolperting, full of Wolpertings just like him. Rumo finds the source of the silver thread- a beautiful girl named Rala. One day Rumo arrives in Wolperting, back from a trip to get a present for Rala, only to find the entire city is deserted. The only clue is a huge hole in the ground, which as it turns out, leads to the underground kingdom of Hel. Rumo must rescue Rala and the residents of Wolperting from the clutches of Gornab the 99th, Ruler of Hel, and the evil General Tic-Toc.