Read Online The Dragon Tree by AC Kavich - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: AC Kavich
Tags: dpgroup.org, Fluffer Nutter
Ads: Link
rolled over with his back to Hiroki, and Hiroki watched in awe as the shirt on Billy back stretched and tore along the length of his spine.
Is that a spine?
Hiroki leaned in without realizing he was leaning, his eyes focused on Billy’s vertebrae as they rose and fell under his skin. Was it Billy’s breath that was lifting the bones that seemed to grow with each passing second? Or was his spine every bit as alive as the throbbing and expanding muscles on Billy’s arms and legs? What was happening to the skin under Billy’s arms? It was stretching out from elbow to shoulder. It was translucent, like the webbing of an amphibian. And what was the pulsing bulk at the base of Billy’s spine that pushed against his belt as if ready to break through his skin, as if ready to hatch?
Billy arched his back violently and unleashed a throaty scream. And then he opened his eyes and locked them on Hiroki’s.
Black eyes. No white.
Eva had finally worked up the courage to look down. She hadn’t thought her heart could beat any faster than it already was, but the sight of the churning water sent a new surge of fear through her blood.
Then she saw it – the rocky shelf that Billy had described! And just like he promised, it was shielded from the harbor by a curtain of rock. It was only about ten feet below her and a little to the left. She would have to move sideways a few feet, but she would touch down on solid ground in a matter of minutes if she kept moving. She had to keep moving.
But then Billy screamed.
Eva had a fraction of a second – maybe less – to process the sound. The ghastly rumble and the vibrations of the cliff wall could mean nothing but an earthquake. Her instant terror dissolved her deep focus, and her fraction of a second expired as a single thought filled up all the space in her mind.
I’m going to fall.
Thinking the nightmarish thought made it a reality. Her fingers slipped off the rope and her feet slipped off the rocks. She dropped only a few inches before the harness caught her weight, but the impact jarred her painfully and she spun away from the cliff. When she swung back toward the rocks, she was facing the harbor and could not see the inevitability of the impact. The back of her head stuck a bulging rock and lightning bolts surged between her ears.
She was dizzy with the pain and badly disoriented. She felt the sharp pinching of the harness against her legs, but she couldn’t quite understand the cause. Hanging heavy on the ropes and gently spinning, she raised her fingers to her hair and probed beneath it until she felt water. Thick, warm water.
She looked at her fingers. It wasn’t water.
At her waist, the oversized harness was twisted awkwardly. Too much of her weight was balanced on a single buckle. As the buckle bent slowly into a position it wasn’t meant to bend, one strap slipped through as if it were greased.
Eva’s body lurched to one side as one of her legs came free of the harness. Her sudden sideways inertia and the weight of her upper body sent her tumbling, and she ended up with her feet above her head.
“Hiro!” she screamed, awoken from her temporary confusion. “HIRO!”
The rope was far out of reach. She was dangling by only one leg.
On the plateau, only the sound of Eva’s scream could tear Hiroki’s attention away from Billy’s bizarre contortions. He scrambled back to the edge of the cliff and dropped to his belly to peer over the edge.
Is that a spine?
Hiroki leaned in without realizing he was leaning, his eyes focused on Billy’s vertebrae as they rose and fell under his skin. Was it Billy’s breath that was lifting the bones that seemed to grow with each passing second? Or was his spine every bit as alive as the throbbing and expanding muscles on Billy’s arms and legs? What was happening to the skin under Billy’s arms? It was stretching out from elbow to shoulder. It was translucent, like the webbing of an amphibian. And what was the pulsing bulk at the base of Billy’s spine that pushed against his belt as if ready to break through his skin, as if ready to hatch?
Billy arched his back violently and unleashed a throaty scream. And then he opened his eyes and locked them on Hiroki’s.
Black eyes. No white.
Eva had finally worked up the courage to look down. She hadn’t thought her heart could beat any faster than it already was, but the sight of the churning water sent a new surge of fear through her blood.
Then she saw it – the rocky shelf that Billy had described! And just like he promised, it was shielded from the harbor by a curtain of rock. It was only about ten feet below her and a little to the left. She would have to move sideways a few feet, but she would touch down on solid ground in a matter of minutes if she kept moving. She had to keep moving.
But then Billy screamed.
Eva had a fraction of a second – maybe less – to process the sound. The ghastly rumble and the vibrations of the cliff wall could mean nothing but an earthquake. Her instant terror dissolved her deep focus, and her fraction of a second expired as a single thought filled up all the space in her mind.
I’m going to fall.
Thinking the nightmarish thought made it a reality. Her fingers slipped off the rope and her feet slipped off the rocks. She dropped only a few inches before the harness caught her weight, but the impact jarred her painfully and she spun away from the cliff. When she swung back toward the rocks, she was facing the harbor and could not see the inevitability of the impact. The back of her head stuck a bulging rock and lightning bolts surged between her ears.
She was dizzy with the pain and badly disoriented. She felt the sharp pinching of the harness against her legs, but she couldn’t quite understand the cause. Hanging heavy on the ropes and gently spinning, she raised her fingers to her hair and probed beneath it until she felt water. Thick, warm water.
She looked at her fingers. It wasn’t water.
At her waist, the oversized harness was twisted awkwardly. Too much of her weight was balanced on a single buckle. As the buckle bent slowly into a position it wasn’t meant to bend, one strap slipped through as if it were greased.
Eva’s body lurched to one side as one of her legs came free of the harness. Her sudden sideways inertia and the weight of her upper body sent her tumbling, and she ended up with her feet above her head.
“Hiro!” she screamed, awoken from her temporary confusion. “HIRO!”
The rope was far out of reach. She was dangling by only one leg.
On the plateau, only the sound of Eva’s scream could tear Hiroki’s attention away from Billy’s bizarre contortions. He scrambled back to the edge of the cliff and dropped to his belly to peer over the edge.
Similar Books
