"Monica Hughes - Devil On My Back" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Monica)

"How on earth...?"
"In that little pool over there. It was easy. I just waded in and caught them through their gill-flaps.
Then I found a sharp stone to fillet them and put them on the hot rocks to roast. They should be just
about done by now."
"How did you start the fire?"
 "Don't you remember ancient history? Rubbing two sticks together. Nothing to it. Here, help
yourself."
Tomi burnt his fingers picking a pink piece of fish off the stone. He bit into it gingerly. "Delicious,"
he said with his mouth full. "Ow, burnt tongue!" He scooped cold water from the river and drank from his
hand.
Never had a meal tasted as marvelous as the creamy fresh fish seasoned with wood smoke and
hunger. The fire, which Denn kept fed from a pile of driftwood, sent flames and sparks crackling
cheerfully into the black sky. Beyond the circle of light were the black dangers of the forest, but within it
they were as safe as in a magic circle.
When every scrap of fish was finished, Denn dug into the shimmering embers with a stick and
rolled out half a dozen blackened objects. "Edible roots," he said smugly. "Watch you don't burn
yourself."
Tomi broke one open with a clean stick. An appetizing smell gushed out with the steam. He
nearly dropped it, and Denn showed him how to hold it in a double layer of green leaf to protect his
hand. The flesh was sweet and mealy and very satisfying. By the time he had finished two roots he
couldn't eat another thing. He yawned vastly.
"Sleep first if you want to," Denn suggested. "I'll keep the fire going and wake you when I get
tired."
"Hmm." Tomi curled up by the fire. The grass made a soft bed beneath him. The stars above
were almost too thick to count. Ten... twenty... forty-two... forty-three...
***
Denn was shaking his shoulder. The fire was a bed of dull red ash on which a couple of pieces of
driftwood smoldered. The darkness was very close around them.
"It's all my fault, Tomi. I fell asleep and let the fire die down, Tomi, there's something out there
and it's coming closer."
Tomi s eyes strained into the darkness. He could see nothing. "What sort of something?"
"I don't know. Horrible. There!"
A snarling spitting sound broke the silence. The whole forest seemed to gather itself together to
listen. Even the rivers voice quietened. In the center of the dark two lights glowed like faint red coals.
Another snarl shattered the dark. Much louder. And the twin coals were closer.
"Tomi, you've got to stop it. Now!"
"Me? I don't know how..."
"You've got the weapon. In your pocket. Oh, hurry!"
Tomi's hand was in his pocket, feeling the strip of stuff that he had discovered before. He pulled
it out and let the knowledge of it flow into his fingers. He groped in the dark until his hand found what felt
right, a smooth round pebble about the size of a hen's egg. He dropped it into the wide part of the band,
whirled the whole thing round and round his head and with a sudden jerk freed the stone.
He heard the hiss of its passage through the waiting dark. There was a thud, a grunt, a heavier
thud. The two red lights were no longer there. Tomi shivered and felt sick. Had he really killed it? A living
thing? He wanted to throw the weapon away, out into the river, but perhaps there were other creatures
still lurking in the dark.
"Get the fire going, can't you?" he said over his shoulder.
"I've put on more wood but it won't catch."
"Fan it with a leaf or something. Blow on it. Hurry, Denn."
Two more red coals appeared out of the blackness a little to the right of the last. Tomi groped for