Mara and Dann Read Online Free PDF

The mud on the other side of the water was a stretch of yellowish light. They were going so slowly, a step and then a stop, while the man poked the water, and then another step and a stop. It seemed to go on and on, and then they were out of the water and on the mud. Close by were some trees. They had had water quite high up their trunks, though usually they were on the edge of a waterhole. They seemed quite fresh and green, and that was because they were here, not far from water, while the trees around Mara’s home were dying, or dead. There were dark blotches on the branches. Birds. They must have been sitting here safely all through the flood.
    Now they were well past the water. Mara felt herself being set down, while the woman’s whole body seemed to lift itself up because of the relief of not having Mara’s weight. And again Mara thought, She must be so tired, and weak too, because I’m not so heavy really.
    They were walking carefully through the dirty and wet tussocks of grass, away from the water. They reached the rise that was as far as they had been able to see from the top of the big hill they had been on and, when they were over it, ahead were trees, quite a lot. So this couldn’t be anywhere near their home – Mara had been thinking wildly, althoughshe knew it couldn’t be true, that perhaps they were going back home. She was trying to remember if she had ever seen so many trees all together. These had their leaves, but as she passed under them she could smell their dryness. These thirsty trees must have been thinking of all that water rushing past, just over the ridge, but they couldn’t get to it.
    The man stumbled and fell because he had tripped over a big white thing. It was a bone. He was on his feet at once, telling Dann, who had taken another tumble and was wailing, ‘Don’t cry, hush, be quiet.’
    Ahead was another river, full of fast water, and the wet had reached all the way up here to the edge of the trees and had pushed away earth from under a bank, making a cave; and in the cave were a lot of white sticks: bones. The man poked his branch into the bones and they came clattering out.
    â€˜Do you realise what we are seeing?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said the woman, and although she was tired she was actually interested.
    â€˜What is it, what is it?’ Mara demanded, tugging at the woman’s hand and then at the man’s.
    â€˜This is where the old animals’ bones piled up, and the water has exposed them – look.’
    Mara saw tusks so long and thick they were like trees; she saw enormous white bones; she saw cages made of bones, but she knew they were ribs. She had never imagined anything could be this big.
    â€˜These are the extinct animals,’ said the man. ‘They died out hundreds of years ago.’
    â€˜Why did they?’
    â€˜It was the last time there was a very bad drought. It lasted for so long all the animals died. The big ones. Twice as big as our animals.’
    â€˜Will this drought be as long as that?’
    â€˜Let’s hope not,’ he said, ‘or we’ll all be extinct too.’ The woman laughed. She actually laughed; but Mara thought it was not funny, it was dreadful. ‘Really we should cover all these bones up again and mark where they are, and when things get better we can come and examine them properly.’
    He believed that things were going to get better, Mara thought.
    â€˜No time now,’ the woman said.
    The man was poking with his branch at the wet earth, and it was falling away and the bones kept tumbling out, clashing and clattering.
    â€˜Why here?’ whispered Mara.
    â€˜Probably another flood like this brought down dead animals and they piled up here. Or perhaps it was a graveyard.’
    â€˜I didn’t know animals had graveyards.’
    â€˜The big animals were very intelligent. Nearly as clever as people.’
    â€˜This is no graveyard,’ said