Cry of the Taniwha Read Online Free PDF Page B

cooked.’
    Matt recognized this as the start of a story. He smiled and asked, ‘And whose heart was that?’
    ‘Kataore’s,’ replied Hone. ‘The big taniwha from around here.’ He paused for a while to let that sink in, before continuing: ‘Some say Kataore was a dragon, others that he was more like an eel with legs. But all are agreed that he started life as the pet of one of the chiefs in the area. However, as time went by Kataore got so big that lizards and birds were not enough to keep him fed and he started eating humans. He got bigger and bigger, and soon he would take several people a day, eating them whole in one gulp.’
    ‘Did he prefer males or females? Matt asked with a chuckle.
    ‘It would have to be females,’ replied Nan. ‘We’re much tastier than men.’
    ‘Yes, my dear. As always, you are right. In fact, Kataore developed a taste for beautiful maidens. But that was also his downfall. For one day he ate the most beautiful girl in the whole of Rotorua. Tuhi was her name, and on the day she was killed she had been going to Ohinemutu to be married. Well, her husband-to-be was so upset that he vowed to slay the taniwha. He got together a party of many men and marched to Tikitapu. They located Kataore in his cave over there.’ Hone pointed across the lake to where the land rose steeply from the water. ‘The warriors taunted Kataore until he came out, whereupon they attacked him. The battle raged for many hours, until eventually they killed him up on that ridge. Then they chopped him up, cooked the heart and had a big feast. Hence the name Te Ahi Manawa.’
    Matt looked over to the steep land which was now covered with pine trees. ‘Is the cave still there?’
    ‘I believe so. That’s the same Whakarewarewa forest that you can see from our place. They do a lot of mountain-biking in there. One of the tracks is called the Taniwha Track.’
    ‘But there’s no taniwha anymore, is there?’ said Matt.
    Hone looked at him sideways. ‘I didn’t say that. Kataore may have been killed, but if the warriors left any of the flesh around that would quickly turn into a new taniwha.’
    Matt rolled his eyes. ‘And I bet the cyclists see them all the time.’
    ‘Oh, they do,’ said Hone, seriously. ‘Every day. They just don’t recognize what they’re seeing. A taniwha can take many forms, and you wouldn’t know it was one until you harmed it in some way.’
    ‘And what would happen then?’
    Hone looked directly at him. ‘You’ll find out if you ever harm one,’ he replied, mysteriously. ‘I only hope that it never happens.’
    That evening, sitting in the lounge after dinner, Matt realized that he would have to find something to do or he’d go mad. The television programmes that Nan and Hone watched were of no interest to him, and the only books he could see were either about cooking or famous sportsmen, neither of which he would want to read. There was no computer so far as he could tell.
    ‘Are there any computer cafés around here?’ he asked during a commercial break.
    ‘No,’ replied Hone. ‘But I can get access to a computer if you like. What do you want to do?’
    ‘Check my emails.’
    ‘That’s easy enough. We’ll go round the corner to the hotel and you can use theirs.’ He stood up. ‘C’mon, and I’ll introduce you.’
    The hotel was less than three minutes away. After a brief discussion with the desk staff, Matt had a user name and password. As he sat down to log on, Hone excused himself, saying he was going to visit Jackson’s mum.
    Matt could tell at a glance that all of the thirteen emails in his inbox were junk. He’d hoped for something from some of his friends back in Dunedin, but it seemed they were too busy enjoying their summer to think of him.
    For a while he played some web games before becoming bored. He moved onto a bit of browsing, typing ‘taniwha’into the search engine. There were hundreds of thousands of sites containing the word taniwha. He