Read Online Dingo: The Dog Who Conquered a Continent by Jackie French - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jackie French
Ads: Link
dog, and catch the lizards that ran about the rocks. She crunched them raw, but he could cook his now.
Despite his loneliness he laughed. Food, shelter, warmth, the dog â life was â¦
⦠no, not good. But better.
CHAPTER 35
The Dog
It was good to have a camp with fire and meat and bones. Camp life was familiar for a rubbish dog. Bony Boy caught more food too.
She needed food, especially now. Something different was happening to her. She didnât know quite what it was, but she knew what she needed.
She ate and ate.
Each night when Bony Boy slept she left his fire and hunted in the darkness, finding her way by smell, not sight. At last she found it â a crevice, deep in the rock. A place where a dog might hide in safety, where even Bony Boy would never look. It was too small for the big lizards to get into, too deep for hawks or eagles, too high for crocodiles.
She waited. She ate; she hunted with Bony Boy.
Then one morning she knew the time had come.
She walked slowly up to the crevice, crept on her tummy into the darkness and lay down to wait.
CHAPTER 36
Loa
Clouds gathered like clustered islands on the horizon every day now. Rain scattered across the grasslands â not the proper rain of the Wet, but enough to bring pale green shoots of grass through the cracked dry plains. Thunder growled behind winds that shifted back and forth, bringing long birds that strode through the new grasslands.
The land changed. Great tides turned the swamp into a small sea twice a day, retreating to leave driftwood, new banks of mud and sand, and giant shellfish or tiny cone shells to be roasted on the coals, the flesh within sea-sweet and tangy.
His knee was healing. Too slowly â he wanted to be able to run and leap and climb properly again. But he could put weight on it now, though he still needed to keep it bound, as any twisting made it swell.
He was hauling more driftwood up to the fire when he saw a creature move out of the corner of his eye.
He dropped the bundle of wood in shock. It was â impossible!
The creature was the size of a person and on two legs so at first he wondered if it was human: if thispeculiar new land had people with tails. The animalâs feet were huge, its head small, its ears cocked up like the dogâs. The creature saw him, blinked, then bounded off â¦
It was leaping, not running. He stared at it as it vanished behind a cliff. Had he imagined it?
He tried to picture the creature again. Was it dangerous? No. Its eyes were close together, like a grass eaterâs, not on either side of its head like a meat eaterâs, like a manâs or a pigâs or an eagleâs. This animal was to be hunted, not a hunter.
But what kind of animal hopped?
Where was the dog? If the dog could see the creature, chased it, heâd know it was real. But where was she? He realised he hadnât seen her since the night before.
He was used to waking up to find her gone, but she always came back sometime during the day, nosing curiously at whatever heâd caught to eat.
âDog! Here, girl!â
No dog appeared. Loa began to pick up the fallen wood.
Sheâd be back.
Â
The dog wasnât back by dusk.
He sat by the fire, piled high with wood to make a good blaze, for comfort rather than warmth. Heâd raked some of the coals away to cook a giant water snake heâd found caught in the newly lush swamp, grabbing its neck before it could strike him and lashing it down hard to break its back.
He didnât think the big snake was poisonous, not like the thin deadly sea snakes, but he was going to cook it well anyway. The aunties said that long cooking made a snake safe.
What would the aunties be doing now? It was almost as though they were no longer real. But somewhere the camp went on, with its high sleeping platforms, its laughter and friendships.
The loss of his clan hurt like a wound. He missed friends the most â other hunters to share
Despite his loneliness he laughed. Food, shelter, warmth, the dog â life was â¦
⦠no, not good. But better.
CHAPTER 35
The Dog
It was good to have a camp with fire and meat and bones. Camp life was familiar for a rubbish dog. Bony Boy caught more food too.
She needed food, especially now. Something different was happening to her. She didnât know quite what it was, but she knew what she needed.
She ate and ate.
Each night when Bony Boy slept she left his fire and hunted in the darkness, finding her way by smell, not sight. At last she found it â a crevice, deep in the rock. A place where a dog might hide in safety, where even Bony Boy would never look. It was too small for the big lizards to get into, too deep for hawks or eagles, too high for crocodiles.
She waited. She ate; she hunted with Bony Boy.
Then one morning she knew the time had come.
She walked slowly up to the crevice, crept on her tummy into the darkness and lay down to wait.
CHAPTER 36
Loa
Clouds gathered like clustered islands on the horizon every day now. Rain scattered across the grasslands â not the proper rain of the Wet, but enough to bring pale green shoots of grass through the cracked dry plains. Thunder growled behind winds that shifted back and forth, bringing long birds that strode through the new grasslands.
The land changed. Great tides turned the swamp into a small sea twice a day, retreating to leave driftwood, new banks of mud and sand, and giant shellfish or tiny cone shells to be roasted on the coals, the flesh within sea-sweet and tangy.
His knee was healing. Too slowly â he wanted to be able to run and leap and climb properly again. But he could put weight on it now, though he still needed to keep it bound, as any twisting made it swell.
He was hauling more driftwood up to the fire when he saw a creature move out of the corner of his eye.
He dropped the bundle of wood in shock. It was â impossible!
The creature was the size of a person and on two legs so at first he wondered if it was human: if thispeculiar new land had people with tails. The animalâs feet were huge, its head small, its ears cocked up like the dogâs. The creature saw him, blinked, then bounded off â¦
It was leaping, not running. He stared at it as it vanished behind a cliff. Had he imagined it?
He tried to picture the creature again. Was it dangerous? No. Its eyes were close together, like a grass eaterâs, not on either side of its head like a meat eaterâs, like a manâs or a pigâs or an eagleâs. This animal was to be hunted, not a hunter.
But what kind of animal hopped?
Where was the dog? If the dog could see the creature, chased it, heâd know it was real. But where was she? He realised he hadnât seen her since the night before.
He was used to waking up to find her gone, but she always came back sometime during the day, nosing curiously at whatever heâd caught to eat.
âDog! Here, girl!â
No dog appeared. Loa began to pick up the fallen wood.
Sheâd be back.
Â
The dog wasnât back by dusk.
He sat by the fire, piled high with wood to make a good blaze, for comfort rather than warmth. Heâd raked some of the coals away to cook a giant water snake heâd found caught in the newly lush swamp, grabbing its neck before it could strike him and lashing it down hard to break its back.
He didnât think the big snake was poisonous, not like the thin deadly sea snakes, but he was going to cook it well anyway. The aunties said that long cooking made a snake safe.
What would the aunties be doing now? It was almost as though they were no longer real. But somewhere the camp went on, with its high sleeping platforms, its laughter and friendships.
The loss of his clan hurt like a wound. He missed friends the most â other hunters to share
Similar Books
