Read Online Akiko and the Great Wall of Trudd by Mark Crilley - Free Book Online Page B

the snow like a rag doll. Spuckler rolled when he hit the ground and scrambled to get back on his feet as quickly as he could.

    Throck darted over to him with three quick strides of his enormous legs. Spuckler tried to throw a punch but ended up missing by a matter of inches. Throck snapped his hands around Spuckler’s chest and tossed him at least twenty feet in the air. This time when Spuckler hit the ground he stayed right where he was, half buried in the snow.
    I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran over to where Spuckler lay and threw my arms around him. I pulled him up as best I could so that his head rested in my lap. Spuckler looked up at me for a moment, his eyes half open, half closed. He looked frighteningly weak.
    “Leave him alone!” I shouted at Throck as loudly as I could. I felt a single hot tear run down my cheek. My face was burning up and my heart was pounding like crazy, but not so much out of fear, more just because I was so . . . I don’t know,
awake
.
    Throck stood where he was and scowled at me.
    “You have no one to blame but yourselves,” he sneered. “You saw the signs. You chose to ignore them.”
    Just then Poog began to float out toward me and Spuckler. He stayed with us for a moment, then turned and floated right up to Throck, finally coming to a stop about three feet in front of his face.

    Poog was frowning. I’d never seen him look like that before. It was as if he were turning into an entirely different kind of Poog. He looked angry.
Really
angry.
    It got very, very quiet. Even Throck’s suit seemed to hiss less loudly.
    The two of them stayed right where they were, Poog staring at Throck, Throck staring at Poog. The tension between them was so strong you could almost
hear
it. And the weird thing was . . .
    . . .
Throck
was the one who looked scared.
    His eyes were open wide, his pale pupils quivering slightly. He seemed to require all his strength just to remain standing.
    I’m not exactly sure, but I think I heard Throck
say
something to Poog. I don’t know, it could have been just a cough, or the sound of his clearing his throat. But I think he
did
say something. If he did, then Poog simply chose to ignore him, because Poog stayed quiet the whole time, with a very cold, very
determined
look on his face. Nobody moved an inch.
    Suddenly Throck turned away from Poog and walked back toward his ship. Mr. Beeba, who had watched the confrontation between Poog and Throck with ever-increasing interest, looked as if his jaw would hit the ground.
    Throck climbed back up to the portal he’d come from just minutes before. He then turned to face us all one last time.
    “Think long and hard about what you’re getting yourselves into,” he said slowly and clearly, as if he were trying to carve the words into our brains, “because once you’ve reached Alia Rellapor’s castle . . .”
    He paused for what seemed like a full minute.
    “. . . there will be no turning back.”

Throck’s spaceship rocketed up into the night with a blinding flash of light. I’ve never been so happy to see someone go.
    We all huddled around Spuckler, worried that he’d suffered some kind of deadly injury. Gax seemed especially concerned; he was making all sorts of rattling and beeping sounds, as if he was very, very nervous. Soon, though, Spuckler was sitting up and talking again, acting as if nothing had happened.
    “I jus’ got the wind knocked outta me, tha’s all,” he said, sounding slightly embarrassed about how quickly Throck had defeated him. “Next time I’ll give ol’ Throck a taste of his own medicine!”
    Mr. Beeba and I looked at each other and smiled.
    When Spuckler had regained a bit of his energy, Mr. Beeba and I helped him to his feet. We walked him around in circles a couple of times, and before long he seemed to be back to normal.
    Poog was off by himself, still staring into the sky where Throck’s ship had disappeared. His face was tightened up into a look of great