Read Online The Prince Who Fell From the Sky by John Claude Bemis - Free Book Online Page A

bitterly.
    Dumpster clicked his teeth. “Liar.”
    “They were killed,” the dog said. “By the Ogeema’s guard. Only I survived. I have nothing left. Just let me go.”
    “Don’t look for pity from us, cur.” Bristling his whiskers at Casseomae, Dumpster whispered, “He may not seem it, but that cur’s dangerous. My da always said,
‘Desperation makes killers of katydids.’
There’s no telling what he’ll do or when he’ll be back for the pup. Best finish him and rid ourselves of the worry.”
    The dog dashed, but Casseomae cut him off again. The dog lowered his head, looking up at her with piteous eyes. “Please, let me pass. I mean no harm to any of you.”
    Casseomae heard the desperation in the dog’s whine. He had to fight simply to stay alive, because his kind were hunted and despised by all the inhabitants of the Forest. This dog was an outcast. Casseomae knew what it meant to be an outcast.
    She backed onto her haunches, opening a passage. “Go.”
    Dumpster squeaked, “No, you idiot bear!”
    She put her paw down on his tail, holding Dumpster in place as she addressed the dog. “But if I see you again, dog, I’ll figure you’re here to hurt the cub—”
    “I’d never hurt a Companion!” the dog barked.
    Casseomae glared at him. “Go before I let the rat loose on you.”
    With a quick glance at the child huddling behind Casseomae, the dog scampered out from the cave with his tail tucked and disappeared into the night. The childran to the entranceway. He called out and then turned back to Casseomae, chirping rapidly.
    “Probably mad we drove off his slave,” Dumpster mumbled.
    “Come back in here, cub,” Casseomae said. She nudged him gently with her snout. The child stared out into the dark for a few moments before lying down.
    Casseomae plopped to the ground, blocking the entrance.
    As Dumpster shuffled under the debris, he said, “I’ve got a bad feeling that cur will be back.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    T hey traveled along the highway through the morning with no scent or sign to suggest that the dog was following them, but Casseomae could not get him from her thoughts.
    A Companion. That’s what the dog had called the cub. Before the rat and the cub, she’d never known what it was to have companions. Except for the spring feasting, the fall matings, and her time spent rearing Alioth many summers ago, she had lived a solitary life.
    Bears did not enjoy the tribal companionship that viands like deer and rabbits shared. But the dog was not so different from the wolves or coyotes, who stuck together in packs. With his pack killed, did the dog think he could form a new one with the cub?
    “Why are the curs considered the Faithful?” she asked Dumpster.
    The child was ahead of them, swinging a thin metal stick he had broken from a car and hopping around like a frog from one side of the highway to the other.
    Dumpster trotted beside Casseomae. “Because they served the Old Devils.”
    “I know that,” she grunted. “But I’ve heard that hogs, for instance, were servants to the Skinless Ones back in those days. They’re not hated like curs or even called Faithful.”
    “It’s different,” Dumpster said. “Those clans were captives. They were slaughtered for meat. But curs lived
with
their Skinless masters. They ate their food. They helped the Skinless hunt the rest of us down.”
    Watching the child playing ahead, she said, “Any signs of your mischief?”
    “Not yet,” he panted.
    “You sure this is the right way?”
    “Sure I’m sure. They might be traveling out in the Forest beside the highway. Stormdrain would know better than to risk being in the open. Too easy for voras to sniff his mischief out. They’re out there. We’ll find them.”
    Casseomae heard the hesitation in his voice but decided not to say anything.
    At midday, she foraged chickweed, while the child atemore of his food, tossing the wrappings to the ground. Dumpster was nosing through the leaves for seeds