River of Blue Fire Read Online Free PDF Page B

for.”
    First Man was very frightened, but he came close to the mouth of Yellow Eyes, which had the smell of death
.
    â€œReach into my mouth,” said Yellow Eyes again
.
    First Man stretched his arm deep into the mouth of Yellow Eyes, past the terrible teeth and down the long throat. At last he touched something very hot and cupped his hand around it
.
    â€œTake only a little,” said Yellow Eyes
.
    First Man withdrew his hand. In it was something yellow that bent in the wind but did not blow away, that had no mouth but began to bite his skin even as he held it. First Man looked at Yellow Eyes and saw that he was sniffing the child made of mud, and so First Man began to run, the warm yellow thing held close in his hand
.
    â€œThis is not your child!” screamed Yellow Eyes in anger. “You have tricked me, First Man!”
    Yellow Eyes began to chase him. First Man ran as fast as he could, but heard his enemy coming closer and closer. The warm magic thing was very heavy in his hand and was biting his skin, so First Man threw it away up into the air. It flew into the sky and stuck there, and it covered the world in light. Yellow Eyes screamed again and ran faster, but First Man reached the cave where he lived with First Woman and ran inside. They pushed a stone into the opening so that Yellow Eyes could not get at them
.
    â€œYou have cheated me, and I will not forget,” shouted Yellow Eyes. “And when a true child comes to you, I will take it from you.”
    First Man lay on the floor of the cave, with no strength left in his body. First Woman saw that a little of the warm, bright thing still stuck to his hand. She brushed it off with a stick, and as it began to eat the stick it grew and warmed the whole cave. That was fire
.
    Ever after, First Man’s fingers were not all the same, as with the other Animal People. One finger on each hand was twisted sideways from carrying the hot fire, and that is why all First Man’s and First Woman’s children have hands that are different from the Animal People
.
    The fire that was thrown into the sky became the sun, and when it shines, Yellow Eyes and his people hide from its light because it reminds them of how First Man tricked them. But when it grows small and the world is dark, Yellow Eyes comes out again, and his eye is the moon that stares down as he looks for the child First Man and First Woman promised to him. Every night since the days your fathers’ fathers and their fathers walked in the world, he hunts for the children of First Man and First Woman
.
    Dark Moon’s voice had become very still, a thin whisper that rode above the breathless silence in the cave.
    â€œ
He will hunt for them even when your children’s children and their children walk in the world
.”
    H E could hear a great, slow pounding, the ticking of a titan clock or the footfalls of an approaching giant, but he could see nothing but darkness, could feel nothing but icy wind. He had no hands or body, no way to protect himself from whatever lurked in the black emptiness here on the edge of all things.
    â€œ
Paul
.” The voice in his ear was soft as feathered flight, but his heart thumped as though it had shouted.
    â€œ
Is that you
?” His own voice made no sound outside his head, or he no longer had the ears to hear himself speak.
    Something was beside him in the dark. He could sense it, although he did not know how. He could feel it, a swift-hearted, tenuous presence.
    â€œ
Paul, you must come back to us. You must come back to me
.”
    And as though she had never left his dreams, but had only vanished from his waking mind, he could see her now in memory, could summon up the image of her absurd but beautiful winged form, her sad eyes. She had crouched, trapped in that golden cage, while he had stood helplessly on the other side of the bars. He had left her to that terrible grinding thing, the Old Man.
    â€œ
Who are you
?”
    Her