LITMIR.BIZ

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nodded. `We all would, but what if they disappeared along with our fathers? What if we'd disappeared too?'

      `Or,' yawned a sleepy Lem, `because they didn't expect us to discover the truth until we were adults, maybe they were counting on us saving them from whatever happened.' Then he stretched and felt for his sword. `It's my turn to sit guard. Are the wolves still out there?'

      Lyla nodded.

      Next morning Celeste woke, for the first time ever with all her recent memories intact. It was a truly wonderful feeling.

      She pushed aside the ox-hide to find Lem sitting on a rock outside. He told her that there had been six wolves in the clearing during the night but they had all gone.

      She held her sword ready and cautiously checked the clearing that was full of broken branches and leaves from the storm.

      `How do you know there were six, Lem? And if there where that many why didn't they attack? They could easily have bitten through the ox-hide'

      `I told them not to.'

      An incredulous Lyla looked up from preparing a fire. `You what?'

      `The leader stuck his nose through a split in the ox-hide and I told him that he should not hurt us because we would not hurt him. Then I pushed our smoked meat outside to show him that we were his friends.'

      Lyla rolled her eyes in disbelief. `And he wagged his tail and thanked you I suppose. That's crazy!'

      `No it's not! He said that they wouldn't hurt us this time but, as they were servants of the Sender of Storms, he couldn't promise that they wouldn't attack next time. He also told me that the Sender of Storms has released other more fearful creatures into the Forest; creatures that even the wolves were afraid of.'

      Lyla gave up trying to light the fire, as the wood was too wet. `You're making this up! Since when have you been able to understand wolves?'

      Swift, ever loyal to his older brother, stepped up beside him. `If Lem says he can understand wolves then I believe he can.'

      Lem smiled a `thank you' at him before answering his sister. `It's not only wolves, Lyla. This morning I heard Celeste's snake complaining that she was squashing him.'

      Celeste felt for the green diamond snake that she wore looped around her neck like a necklace. `Now you are making it up! Splash is a girl snake and if she could speak she would speak to me.'

      `Splash is a boy and he does speak to you. You just don't understand him.'

      Lyla twisted a strand of her black hair behind her ear and eyed her brother suspiciously. `So when did you start understanding snakes and wolves?'

      `Since I sat on the moon dial. I can understand all the Forest animals. They speak to me in my head.'

      `What are they saying?'

      `That they're afraid and they are leaving the Forest.'

      Lyla looked surprised. `All of them? The squirrels, the possums, the wild pigs, the ox-peckers and the blue-tails?'

      `I can't talk to birds but the animals are leaving.'

      `Maybe understanding animals is Lem's magical gift,'said Chad, scratching one of his four braids. `You know, the one given to him by Queen Ona and Queen Hail. I mean by our mother and aunt. Maybe we all have our gifts now that the moon dial is broken.'

      Then his eyes lit up. `Heh! I can remember what we did yesterday.'

      `Me too,' Celeste said. `And Lem remembers the wolves. Can you remember anything before yesterday Chad?'

      Her brother put on his thinking-hard face and then relaxed. `No, just yesterday. What about you, Celeste? Can you remember what we did yesterday?'

      `We went swimming and ate peaches.'

      `Lem?'

      `We chased the ponies and Swift almost caught one.'

      `I did catch it. By its tail,' argued Swift.

      `So we remember yesterday but no further back,' concluded Lyla. `It must have something to do with the magic spell that our mothers put on the Forest. Do you think it's been broken?'

      The others looked at each other and shrugged.

      `So what about our gifts?' asked Chad. `I don't think I can do anything that I couldn't do yesterday. Can anyone else?'

      They stared at each other as if their gifts would show on their tanned faces. When they didn't, Lyla spoke up.

      `It's not magical and it's not a gift, it's just odd, but last night I had a dream and I never dream, never! I dreamt I was flying over a white and gold palace. Inside was a throne room hung with red and gold curtains and on a royal dais were five golden thrones. One was empty. On the others sat two queens and two kings.'

      Celeste edged closer. `What did they look like?'

      `They had no faces and their arms and feet were chained to their thrones.'

      `That's awful!'

      Lem, who loved listening to stories as much as telling them, edged closer. `What happened next?'

      `I woke up.'

      `Did you fly with bird wings or bat wings?' asked Swift, whose greatest joy was to pretend he was a bird and fly from tree to tree.

      `No wings. I just held my arms out and flew.' She showed them what she meant by stretching out her arms.

      `Dream flying might be your gift,' said Lem, while secretly thinking that his gift of talking to animals was a much better one. `But dreaming doesn't help us if the Forest is no longer safe.'

      `Unless we're supposed to find the palace I dreamed about before your precious wolves come back,' Lyla replied sharply.

      `And on the way we might find an oracle, elf-speaker, sand-reader or bone-diviner to tell us what the three moons' song means,' added Celeste who, being the peacemaker of the group, always knew what to say to stop an argument.

      It didn't take long for them to eat a cold breakfast, pack their ox-hide bags and choose their weapons. Then they took one last look at the cave that had been their home for longer than they could remember, stepped out into the clearing and pulled shut the ox-hide curtain for the last time.

      They stood in front of the broken moon dial, agreed they were doing the right thing, then set off for the river.

      `We could raft down it,' suggested Chad, as they walked single file along the path that, according to Celeste's diary, led to their favourite sandy beach.

      `Or swim down it,' said Celeste, who loved swimming more than anything.

      `Or build a boat and sail down it,' said Chad, whose efforts so far to build a boat had failed.

      But on reaching the beach they discovered they could do none of these things. The river was no longer a smooth waterway meandering past half-moon beaches and shaded by twain-nut trees. Instead it was a turbulent, log-filled torrent that had broken its banks and flooded the nearby meadows. Eyeing the debris spinning by they all agreed that entering it or floating on it would be too dangerous.

      `And it stinks,' complained Swift holding his nose against a powerful stench that hung over the water's surface.

      They were wading ankle-deep through an overflow when they saw something strange floating towards them. At first glance it looked like a log but as it came closer they saw that it had a row of yellow spikes running down its back to the tip of its long thin tail, a sharp tooth-filled bill and two beady black eyes. Swift was already fitting an arrow to his bow when Lyla pulled him out of the water and up onto the muddy bank out of reach of the advancing creature.

      `I think it's one of those scary things the wolves are afraid of,' she warned. `And there might be more of them.'

      `And it might not stay in the water,' added Chad, walking backwards so he could keep watch. Slimy things in water were not his favourite animals. In fact slimy things in water

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