Read Online The Wild Ones by C. Alexander London - Free Book Online

underneath him. He looked at Kit, his face folded in a frown. “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.
    Kit nodded. He didn’t really want to talk about it, but he knew that Uncle Rik had lost his sister, and he had a right to know what had happened. He needed to know
what
had happened, if Kit was ever going to understand
why
it had happened.
    Kit had learned something during his few hours in Ankle Snap Alley. Nobody did anything for free in this place. Everything cost something, and the price of Kit finding answers would be this: He would have to tell the story of what happened that day, he would have to say it out loud, and by saying it, he knew he would have to live it again in his mind.
    Sometimes telling a story hurt worse than living it, but sometimes telling the stories that hurt the most was the only way to survive.
    â€œI couldn’t save them,” Kit began. “I tried, but I couldn’t save them.”

Cha
pter Eleven
    A DEBT IS DUE
    THE dogs pounced on her because that six-clawed cat made them. And that’s why I came here.” Kit finished his story, leaving out nothing. The fur on his cheeks was damp, and he wiped his eyes with his tail.
    Eeni and Uncle Rik looked at him quietly, pity scratched across both their faces. But Kit didn’t want pity. He wanted to keep his promise to his mother, to grow up brave and quick of paw and to help Uncle Rik finish the work his parents had begun, just like she had told him to.
    Uncle Rik appeared to understand. “Did you bring the Footprint?” he asked.
    Kit pulled out his seed pouch and removed the stone with the small footprint on it. He passed it to Uncle Rik, whose eyes lit with awe.
    â€œWell, shave my tail, they really found it!” Uncle Rik exclaimed. “A real Footprint of Azban.”
    â€œLike, Azban, the First Raccoon?” Eeni asked, leaning forward to sniff at the stone with her tiny pink nose.
    Uncle Rik nodded.
    â€œYou mean . . . when I stole the pouch . . . I stole . . . ?” Her whiskers sagged as her jaw hung open.
    Kit nodded at her. “See why I chased you down?”
    â€œThat must be worth a fortune,” Eeni said. “There are collectors who’d pay anything you asked for a real footprint of one of the First Animals.”
    â€œOh, certainly there are,” said Uncle Rik.
    â€œIs that why they killed my parents? Just to get rich?” Kit was disgusted.
    â€œOh no,” said Uncle Rik. “The dogs who attacked your home did not want the footprint to sell it. They wanted the footprint to destroy it.”
    â€œWell, that makes as much sense as a platypus in a parachute.” Eeni shook her head. “Who’d go destroying something they could turn a profit on? Wouldn’t catch folk from Ankle Snap Alley throwing away an easy score.”
    â€œI fear the ones who did this are terribly close to AnkleSnap Alley,” said Uncle Rik. “In fact, Ankle Snap Alley is at the center of this entirely. Kit, do you know what this footprint means?”
    He remembered his mother saying this little stone could help stop a war, but he couldn’t imagine how.
    â€œIt’s a clue!” Uncle Rik exclaimed. “This is the clue your parents had been searching for their whole lives. This is the proof that Azban was real. And that Azban was here, long ago. This could lead us right to the Bone of Contention.”
    â€œI heard a mouse talking about the Bone of Contention,” Kit said. “He tried to give me a pamphlet.”
    â€œThat’s mice for you,” Eeni grumbled. “Always trying make everybody read all the time. As if reading ever helped anybody.” She crossed her arms and harrumphed.
    Kit cocked his head at Eeni, wondering what she had against reading, but right now, he didn’t want to get distracted. Right now, he wanted to know what the Bone of Contention was and why his mother believed it could