Bad Yeti Read Online Free PDF Page A

starting to wish I’d taken on the hunt alone.
    Europa sidled up to me. “It’s okay. I’ve got your back.”
    “Thanks, E.” I cuffed her on the shoulder because I didn’t want to get overemotional.
    “Hey.” Amethyst stood up. “I’m still in. It’s all right, dude.”
    The three of us looked at Calamity. Calamity looked at me.
    “It wouldn’t be the same without you, Cal. Please?” I wheedled. “Do it for me?”
    “I hate you,” she said, but she didn’t sound like she felt that way at all. Then she shouldered her sword. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s move.”
    We set off into the great unknown on a search for yeti-related awesomeness.
    #
    We found the yeti sitting on one of the rare benches that lined the walking trails. I’m no expert on cryptid body language, but the creature looked depressed. It was sitting with its enormous claw-tipped feet dragging in the dirt, its shaggy head in its hands. Next to me, Europa let out a wordless sound of pity. It was barely audible, but the yeti reacted like we’d sounded a bullhorn. It leapt to its feet, shoulders hunched like it expected something to pop out at any second and hit it, or maybe pelt it with eggs and drop a tarp full of feathers on its head.
    Maybe my reputation had preceded me.
    I had to stop it before it ran off again. Eventually, the lazy chaperones were going to notice that they had extra ramen packets, which meant missing LARPers, which meant they would actually have to
do something
—and I didn’t want to find out what that something was. Plus, I was hungry, and all I had in my bandolier was an old granola bar. Ideally, this adventure would be over by lunchtime.
    “It’s okay,” I said, dropping my sword and bandolier on the ground and taking a step forward with my hands held out. “We’re here to help.”
    The yeti’s head swiveled toward me, but I couldn’t see its eyes this time. As I tookanother step forward, its nostrils flared, catching my scent.
    “My name is Jonah. Do you speak? Do you have a name?”
    It hunched over farther and farther as I got closer, like it had delusions of turtle-ness and might try to pop its head back inside its body. I barely came up to its waist, but for some strange reason, the yeti was afraid of me. And now that I was closer, I could see raw, red rings of flesh around its wrists. I recognized the marks immediately because I’d worn mine with pride for weeks after the whole zombie incident. The yeti had been cuffed.
    “Did someone hurt you?” I demanded. Now I was pissed. Yetis were a thing to be cherished, and if someone had hurt this one, I was going to go medieval on his ass. The thought alone made me furious enough to hit something.
    Was that why he’d fallen onto the tent? Had he been running from something? Had he jumped from a plane that was taking him to the mad scientist’s secret lair, where they were going to perform horrible experiments on him? If so, I hoped the lair was somewhere close so I could go there and put them out of business. No one messes with yeti when Jonah Grable is around.
    The yeti took one look at the fury on my face and let out a pitiful whimper. I felt like a total jerk.
    “Is he hurt?” Europa exclaimed, and within seconds, she’d shouldered me aside and was cooing over the yeti’s injuries. “Oh, you poor thing. Let me help. It’s okay.” And slowly but surely, she coaxed the giant beast to sit back down, and he let her touch his shoulder, his arm, and finally his huge claw-tipped paws. She cleaned and bandaged his wounds, talking quietly to him the whole time. I couldn’t even feel jealous that she was the first one to make physical contact. After what he’d been through, he deserved a little TLC.
    Finally, Europa finished and turned to look at me. “This isn’t a costume, Jonah.”
    I nodded as the importance of what we’d found started to dawn on me. I was going to be the guy who’d caught a real live yeti. Kate had been on CNN after