[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
"You are asking for a lot of precision, Prince Jake," Ax said. "We have
no instruments. Stru-ments. Not even primitive human instruments.
Struuu-ments. Mints? In-stru-mints?"
"We have to make an educated guess, Ax. And don't call me 'prince.'"
"Yes, Prince Jake."
Tobias had come to rest on a high lamppost. Hawks have amazingly good
hearing, so he could still hear us talking.
I looked up at him. "Tobias? You're the one who keeps track of entrances
and stuff. What's your best estimate?"
"And don't forget, we could use some privacy for morphing," Jake said.
Tobias opened his wings and flew up and up. He inscribed a swift,
irregular circle in the sky, then came back to roost.
place.>
It turned out to be a toolshed. It was in the backyard of a house that
was empty and had a decrepit "For Sale" sign in the weeds of the
overgrown front yard.
The house was on the main road, sandwiched between a convenience store
and a place that sold hot tubs. There was a lot of noisy traffic going
by all the time. Some distance behind the house there was a forlorn
little park. Just a few trees, some picnic tables, and a lumpy sort of
hill with rocks jutting out of the soil. It didn't look like anyone had
lived in the house in a long time.
The toolshed was rusted tin with a dirt floor. It was empty, except for
some bags of potting soil and a rake.
"Perfect," Jake declared. "A little cramped, but perfect. But once
we're all in mole morph, it'll be roomy enough."
Cassie cleared her throat. "Dm . . . maybe I should have mentioned this
earlier. But it's not about all of us being moles at once. Not at first,
anyway. I mean, only one mole can dig at a time."
We all stared at her as we let that bit of information sink in. Somehow
I'd had images of us all down underground digging away together. Now I
was getting a very different picture.
"We're gonna be down there alone?" Marco yelped. "Underground? Dirt
pressing in all around us? No air?"
Cassie shrugged. "Well, you'll be a mole."
"Well, then it's all right," Marco said with shrill sarcasm. "We'll be
moles, so it's okay to be under twenty feet of dirt with no air."
"Oh, you big baby," I said. "No problem."
I say these things. I don't know why. They just pop out of my stupid mouth.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Marco said, placing his hand on my shoulder, "we
have a volunteer."
What could I say? I had to tough it through. "Okay. Fine, Weenie-boy.
I'll go first."
It was hot in the little shed with all of us crammed in there. Hot and
airless. And already I was feeling a little claustrophobic.
You know, the fear of tight spaces.
I focused my mind on the image of the mole. And by whatever weird means
the morphing technology works, I began to change.
The first thing I noticed was that there was more room in the shed. The
bodies that had been pressed close were getting farther away. I was
shrinking.
But I wasn't shrinking at the same rate all over. My legs and arms were
shrinking much, much faster.
FLUMP!
My butt hit the floor!
"Whoa!" Jake yelled. "Catch her!"
Jake and Cassie grabbed me. Just in time to keep me from falling over.
Too late to save my dignity.
Marco started giggling. "Heh heh, ha ha ha ha!"
Cassie was snorting desperately, trying not to laugh.
My legs had shriveled away, leaving nothing but feet. My arms were
nothing but hands. I was still a human being, but with feet alone where
my legs should have been.
Jake and Cassie held my shoulders and balanced me upright. I was like
one of those blowup clowns you punch and it rolls back. I was
sitting down, waving my toes and fingers and wishing I could strangle
Marco.
"Wait till it's your tuuuuurn, nyarco!" I yelled. But my face chose that
moment to start pushing out and out and out.
They laid me down on my face finally, since I was now about two feet
long. Thick black-brown fur began to sweep across me, transforming me
from mostly human to mostly mole in appearance.
My face just kept bulging outward, forming a fantastically long, ratlike
snout.
But while most of me seemed to be shrinking, my hands seemed to be
growing. Relative to the rest of me, anyway. I was growing hands like
claw-tipped shovels. Big, flat, hairless, hard, with stubby claws on the
ends of each "finger." My hands twisted as I watched, turning outward.
My eyes went dark. I thought I was totally blind. Then I realized, no, I
could still see. But all I could see were vague lines between dark and
light. I was practically blind, but not completely.
Almost blind. With hearing that was dim and distant, like listening
through a door. Even scent was nothing special.
However, a new sense reared up to fill my brain. Touch! My nose was
insanely alive and so sensitive to touch I could feel the air currents
around me.
Deprived of vision and much of my hearing, I felt panic. I was
supposed to go digging down in the ground like this? Blind? Half-deaf?
And yet ... I felt the earth beneath my shovel hands and my ratlike back [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl karpacz24.htw.pl
"You are asking for a lot of precision, Prince Jake," Ax said. "We have
no instruments. Stru-ments. Not even primitive human instruments.
Struuu-ments. Mints? In-stru-mints?"
"We have to make an educated guess, Ax. And don't call me 'prince.'"
"Yes, Prince Jake."
Tobias had come to rest on a high lamppost. Hawks have amazingly good
hearing, so he could still hear us talking.
I looked up at him. "Tobias? You're the one who keeps track of entrances
and stuff. What's your best estimate?"
"And don't forget, we could use some privacy for morphing," Jake said.
Tobias opened his wings and flew up and up. He inscribed a swift,
irregular circle in the sky, then came back to roost.
place.>
It turned out to be a toolshed. It was in the backyard of a house that
was empty and had a decrepit "For Sale" sign in the weeds of the
overgrown front yard.
The house was on the main road, sandwiched between a convenience store
and a place that sold hot tubs. There was a lot of noisy traffic going
by all the time. Some distance behind the house there was a forlorn
little park. Just a few trees, some picnic tables, and a lumpy sort of
hill with rocks jutting out of the soil. It didn't look like anyone had
lived in the house in a long time.
The toolshed was rusted tin with a dirt floor. It was empty, except for
some bags of potting soil and a rake.
"Perfect," Jake declared. "A little cramped, but perfect. But once
we're all in mole morph, it'll be roomy enough."
Cassie cleared her throat. "Dm . . . maybe I should have mentioned this
earlier. But it's not about all of us being moles at once. Not at first,
anyway. I mean, only one mole can dig at a time."
We all stared at her as we let that bit of information sink in. Somehow
I'd had images of us all down underground digging away together. Now I
was getting a very different picture.
"We're gonna be down there alone?" Marco yelped. "Underground? Dirt
pressing in all around us? No air?"
Cassie shrugged. "Well, you'll be a mole."
"Well, then it's all right," Marco said with shrill sarcasm. "We'll be
moles, so it's okay to be under twenty feet of dirt with no air."
"Oh, you big baby," I said. "No problem."
I say these things. I don't know why. They just pop out of my stupid mouth.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Marco said, placing his hand on my shoulder, "we
have a volunteer."
What could I say? I had to tough it through. "Okay. Fine, Weenie-boy.
I'll go first."
It was hot in the little shed with all of us crammed in there. Hot and
airless. And already I was feeling a little claustrophobic.
You know, the fear of tight spaces.
I focused my mind on the image of the mole. And by whatever weird means
the morphing technology works, I began to change.
The first thing I noticed was that there was more room in the shed. The
bodies that had been pressed close were getting farther away. I was
shrinking.
But I wasn't shrinking at the same rate all over. My legs and arms were
shrinking much, much faster.
FLUMP!
My butt hit the floor!
"Whoa!" Jake yelled. "Catch her!"
Jake and Cassie grabbed me. Just in time to keep me from falling over.
Too late to save my dignity.
Marco started giggling. "Heh heh, ha ha ha ha!"
Cassie was snorting desperately, trying not to laugh.
My legs had shriveled away, leaving nothing but feet. My arms were
nothing but hands. I was still a human being, but with feet alone where
my legs should have been.
Jake and Cassie held my shoulders and balanced me upright. I was like
one of those blowup clowns you punch and it rolls back. I was
sitting down, waving my toes and fingers and wishing I could strangle
Marco.
"Wait till it's your tuuuuurn, nyarco!" I yelled. But my face chose that
moment to start pushing out and out and out.
They laid me down on my face finally, since I was now about two feet
long. Thick black-brown fur began to sweep across me, transforming me
from mostly human to mostly mole in appearance.
My face just kept bulging outward, forming a fantastically long, ratlike
snout.
But while most of me seemed to be shrinking, my hands seemed to be
growing. Relative to the rest of me, anyway. I was growing hands like
claw-tipped shovels. Big, flat, hairless, hard, with stubby claws on the
ends of each "finger." My hands twisted as I watched, turning outward.
My eyes went dark. I thought I was totally blind. Then I realized, no, I
could still see. But all I could see were vague lines between dark and
light. I was practically blind, but not completely.
Almost blind. With hearing that was dim and distant, like listening
through a door. Even scent was nothing special.
However, a new sense reared up to fill my brain. Touch! My nose was
insanely alive and so sensitive to touch I could feel the air currents
around me.
Deprived of vision and much of my hearing, I felt panic. I was
supposed to go digging down in the ground like this? Blind? Half-deaf?
And yet ... I felt the earth beneath my shovel hands and my ratlike back [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]