Doglands Read Online Free PDF

and felt the zing of the buckshots as they missed him. He reached Nessa as the beam shone right on them. He grabbed her by the scruff of her neck with his teeth and bolted, dragging her along, skittering away down that terrible hill.
    BOOM!
    Again the buckshot rushed by his ear but didn’t hit him. Now Dedbone would have to reload again. Furgul felt his pads leave the bones and land on bare rock. The grotesque hill was behind them. He ran faster. His jaws ached, but he didn’t let go of Nessa. The chasm got darker and darker, but his sharp eyes made out the entrance to a tunnel ahead. Furgulaimed for the tunnel. Just as the beam of the flashlight caught up with them, he dashed inside.
    BOOM! BOOM!
    The buckshots pinged and zinged, but Furgul was inside the tube of rock.
    When he was sure that they were safe, he stopped and laid Nessa down. He looked back. The flashlight beam poked around at the tunnel entrance. After a moment it went away. And darkness fell.

C HAPTER T HREE
THE CAVERN
    I n the far distance Furgul heard the faint sound of the truck as it disappeared. Dedbone was gone. He and Nessa were free. But they were stuck in a tunnel, deep underground, with a mountain sitting on top of them.
    Furgul was hungry and thirsty. He was hurting from head to toe from the beating and the biting and the shooting and the fall. He twisted his head back and licked the wounds in his thighs. He tasted his own blood, but the buckshot wounds didn’t seem deep. He’d been lucky. Now he had to try to be clever.
    “Furgul?” said Nessa. “My leg hurts. I can’t walk properly.”
    “Can’t you walk on three legs, Nessa?” asked Furgul.
    “I want Mama. And Eena and Brid.”
    Furgul knew exactly how Nessa felt. But his instinct toldhim that if they felt sorry for themselves, they would never see daylight again. He had to be tough.
    He said, “For the moment all you’ve got is me.”
    “You won’t leave me, Furgul, will you?”
    “No,” said Furgul. “But you’ve got to walk. And you can’t cry.”
    The tunnel was completely dark. Even with his superb eyes he could see nothing. But he wasn’t too worried about that. His sense of smell was even better than his sight, and that would guide him. He sniffed about the tunnel.
    “Come on, Nessa,” he said. “We’ll go and find some water. Then we’ll find the sunlight. Then we’ll find some food and go to sleep.”
    “Oh I’d love a drink of water,” she said.
    “Good girl. Just follow me.”
    They sniffed their way down the tunnel. Even though Nessa had to walk on three legs, she didn’t once cry or complain. After a while they reached a fork in the tunnel.
    “Rest here for a minute,” said Furgul.
    He investigated first one tunnel and then the other. In the second he detected a faint smell of water.
    “We’ll go this way,” he said.
    On and on they went. Furgul soon realized that this tunnel was going downhill. They were going deeper and deeper underground. That worried him. He wanted to be going uphill, toward the sun. He thought about the great big mountainthat must be right above them. The sunlight must be very far away. Should they turn back? He could still smell the water. They needed water more than sunlight. More than anything. Even if they had to go deeper, the water would be worth it.
    Deeper and deeper they went.
    And deeper still.
    His throat became parched and sore. His thirst was terrible. His legs had started to tremble with every step. His nostrils dried up. The water now seemed farther away than ever.
    “Furgul?” said Nessa. Her voice was hoarse and feeble. “I’m sorry, I can’t go on anymore. Let me go to sleep here. You go on by yourself. I’ll be all right.”
    He found her lying down in the dark. Even though his tongue was dry, he licked her face. Poor Nessa. She was the runt of the litter, and she was even more badly injured than he was. She had been so brave to come this far. Furgul felt like crying, but he had no water left in his