The Beast From the East Read Online Free PDF

us!”
    Fleg seemed confused. “Why?” He asked. “They might bite you.”
    “We know!” I screamed. “Help us—please!”
    The snakes flicked their tongues against my cheek. My stomach lurched.
    Fleg grinned. “If they bite you, you could be awarded a Triple Hisser,” he
explained. “Worth sixty points.”
    Points for getting bitten. Some game!
    “Forget the points!” I shrieked. “Get—them—off. Now!”
    Fleg shrugged. “Okay.”
    He stepped up to me. Then he pushed a claw under the snake that was coiled
around my arm. “You need claws to do this right,” he bragged.
    Fleg scratched his claw along the snake’s skin.
    I could feel the snake loosen its grip.
    “They’re ticklish,” Fleg explained. He yanked the snake away and tossed it
into the woods.
    He tickled the other snake, then pulled it from around my leg. Then he turned
to Nat and repeated the same motions, tickling the snakes and prying them loose.
    When Fleg was done, he leaped toward the edge of the woods.
    I struggled to my feet and rubbed my arms and legs. My whole body itched and
tingled. I knew I’d see those snakes in my dreams!
    Fleg stuck his furry head out from behind a tree.
    “You could have tagged me,” he called. “Too bad!”
    He opened his mouth in a gagging laugh. Then he plunged into the woods and
disappeared.
    My mouth dropped open. I stared after him in disbelief.
    “Tag!” Nat cried. “Now I get it. It’s just like tag. The rules are easy,
Ginger.” He turned to face me. “Touch one of the beasts, and you won’t be It
anymore. You won’t be the Beast from the East!”
    Nat took off, running after Fleg.
    “Wait, Nat!” I started after him. I stepped on something hard. I heard a
crunch.
    Another crunch. I glanced down.
    “Nat! Stop!” I screamed. I spotted an orange rock at my feet. I picked it up
and hurled it after Nat. “Hey—stop!”
    I glanced down at my hand. Orange. My fingers had turned orange where they
had grasped the rock.
    The rock smacked into a tree trunk. Nat stopped. Whirled around. “What did
you do that for?” he cried.
    “To stop you,” I answered.
    “Listen, Ginger,” Nat urged. “You have to tag one of the beasts. It’s the
only way to win the game. To stay alive.”
    “I don’t think so,” I said as calmly as I could.
    Nat scowled. “What’s your problem? It’s just like tag.”
    “No,” I said. “This is not just like tag. Not the game that we used to
play.”
    I pointed at the ground.
    Nat stepped closer. He gazed down to where I was pointing.
    He gasped. “What is that?” he asked.

 
 
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    “Bones,” I murmured. “A pile of animal bones.”
    Nat and I stared. The bones gleamed coldly in the sunlight. Picked clean.
    “Notice anything else?” I pointed to the ground beside the bones.
    “What?” Nat frowned.
    “It’s brown,” I said. “The grass under the bones. It’s a square brown patch.”
    Free Lunch.
    Nat swallowed hard.
    “A beast ate it,” he murmured. “Whatever it was.”
    I wrapped my arms around my chest. “This is not like tag, Nat,” I told him
solemnly. I couldn’t take my eyes off the poor animal’s bones. “This game is
deadly.”
    “Only if we lose,” Nat said. “Ginger, we just saw Fleg. He helped us.”
    “So?” I asked.
    “So, we’ll make him help us again.”
    “How can we do that?”
    Nat grinned. “Easy. We’ll trick him. Pretend to need help. Pretend you have
another snake on you or something.”
    “Right,” I replied, rolling my eyes. Like I was really going to let Fleg near
me again.
    Nat grabbed my arm. “It’ll work. You scream for help. Fleg gets close. You
jump out and tag him. Easy.” Nat snapped his fingers.
    I shook my head. “Forget it. I’m going to find the stream again and get out
of here.”
    “Why are you so stubborn?” Nat cried.
    “Because I’m It!” I screamed. “I’m the one they’re going to eat!”
    “I-I know we can win if we try,” Nat stammered.
    I took a few