âare you even remotely familiar with the basic rules of hide-and-seek? After tagging someone on the hiding team, a member of the seeking team escorts the captured hider back to base.â
Ruby looked puzzled. âAnd why would you want to do that?â
âBecause Iâve got to help my family stop yours from breaking the record for Longest Time to Remain Hidden in a Hide-and-Seek Match,â Arthur explained. âI know that sort of thing might not matter much to you, but it does to me. Itâs bad enough Iâve never broken a world record of my own . . .â
âWhy is that so important to you, Arthur?â Ruby shot back. âWorld records arenât so great, you know.â
âThatâs easy for you to say; youâve already broken one.â
Ruby sighed. âI wish I could give my record back.â
âYouâre not serious.â
âYouâd wish the same thing if youâd broken the record I have.â
âBut I donât know what record youâve broken. Remember how youâve never told me, no matter how many times Iâve asked?â
âBelieve me,â said Ruby, shaking her head, âyou donât want to know.â
âBut I really do want to know,â insisted Arthur. âAnd to be honest, I think itâs a bit weird you wonât just tell me.â
âRex and Rita would be seriously angry,â Ruby scowled. âGod knows, Iâve already shamed them enoughâjust ask them.â
âI canât see how you could have shamed them so much, being a successful world-record breaker. And anyway, isnât it sort of your mission in life to make your parents angry?â
Ruby contemplated this a moment, then narrowed her eyes. âDo you promise not to tell another soul as long as you live?â
âI promise,â said Arthur.
âDo you swear to gouge out your eyes and swallow them whole if you ever do?â
âI swear.â
The truth was Arthur had often considered gouging out his eyes and swallowing them whole, as a last-ditch attempt at getting his name in the
Grazelby Guide
âbut he didnât mention this to Ruby.
After an extended pause, Ruby drew a deep breath and looked Arthur straight in the eye. âWell . . .â
At that moment, there was a bloodcurdling scream.
In his sudden confusion, Arthur could not tell whether the scream had come from the girl in front of him or from some other source. When he heard the next scream a split second later, it was clear it had not been Ruby.
âWhat on earth was that?!â she cried.
Arthurâs face was now pale and panic-stricken. âI think itâs one of my sisters,â he spluttered. âShe sounds close byâweâve got to help herâcome on!â
Arthur tore through synthetic leaves and branches as he scrambled down the tree. He dropped to the ground and dashed off toward the screams with Ruby trailing just behind him.
They burst through a wall of artificial bracken into a narrow clearingâand froze in their tracks.
Ten yards ahead, dangling by one arm from an elevated Sim-o-Tree branch, Arthurâs little sister Abigail screamed in terror. While this in itself would have been distressing enough, it was the sight of what waited
beneath
his sister that turned Arthurâs blood to ice.
Rearing up from the ground below her, its snapping jaws inches from Abigailâs dangling feet, stood a gigantic bloodthirsty lizard, wearing a velvet smoking jacket and a monocle.
Midnight Snack
A nyone who has previously crossed paths with an uncaged Komodo dragon is a lucky individual indeedâeither lucky to be alive or lucky to be done with the dreadful business of being eaten by a Komodo dragon.
According to Dr. Scarwood, Arthurâs Wilderness Survival instructor, the Komodo dragon is the Worldâs Largest Species of Lizardâas well as one of its most brutal killers.
John O'Riley
Jill Gregory
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Aria Cunningham
Stephen Lloyd Jones
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Learning to Kill: Stories
Brenda Sinclair
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C. J. Cherryh