The Fire Within (The Last Dragon Chro) Read Online Free PDF Page B

back into the ferns. How could he really hope to find out?
    He was still pondering the question some ten minutes later when he stumbled upon a small, stone fountain halfway up a rise called Cobnut Hill. He peered into the glistening, leaf-covered water. Coins of varying size and value were lying against the blue-tiled bottom. David found a penny and flipped it in the air. As it spun, he found himself wishing he knew what he could do to best help Conker. With a
sploop,
the penny hit the surface of the water. It sank with a gentleskating motion. As it settled on the bottom, David heard a faint noise. He looked to the opposite side of the fountain. A keen-eyed squirrel was sitting on the wall.
    Without a moment’s hesitation, it scuttled around the stonework and stopped within a meter of David’s hand.
    “Hello,” said David.
    The squirrel flagged a lively, white-tipped tail. It lifted one foot and twitched its nose. It looked at David as if to say “feed me.” David put a hand in his coat pocket and produced the only item of food he possessed: a small red apple.
    The squirrel scratched its ear with a thumping back foot.
    Then it sat back on its haunches — and
smiled.
    David nearly fell into the fountain in astonishment. Perhaps it was the shape of the squirrel’s mouth, giving the impression of a cheesy grin, but it really did look as if the creature had smiled.
    “It’s you,” said David. “The sandwich robber. I was warned about you.”
    The squirrel, unconcerned by its notoriety, bristled its whiskers and edged a little nearer. It looked hard at the apple and its nose twitched again. It put a long, clawed foot on David’s thigh.
    David crunched softly into the fruit, chewed off a piece and dropped it on the wall.
    The squirrel leaned forward and took it … then promptly spat it into the fountain.
    David frowned like a disappointed parent. “Don’t tell me — you prefer
Granny Smiths?”
    The squirrel chose not to smile at that. It fidgeted, impatiently, left and right, then sat up cautiously and sniffed the air.
    Suddenly, with a chatter of alarm, it was gone.
    “Hey, what’s the matter?” David called.
    The cause of the problem soon became apparent.
    Another squirrel was on the wall. It was big enough to be a baseball on legs. Its tail alone was like a smallfeather boa. With a passing sneer at the visiting human, it scrabbled off the fountain and chased the first squirrel across the path.
    “Hey!” cried David. “Leave him alone.”
    But the smiling squirrel didn’t need any help. It was up a tree and gone before David had time to take another breath. He shrugged and decided to leave them to it. After all, this was probably the sort of tiff that squirrels got into a dozen times a day.
    Sploop.
Just like the penny dropping into the fountain, a sudden realization hit him. What he just witnessed was a basic example of squirrel behavior: When faced with a nasty encounter, flick tail and run away fast. But the speed of the smiling squirrel’s escape, particularly up the tree, was largely due to its remarkable agility, and it couldn’t achieve that without peripheral vision. How would it have managed with one eye closed? Could it have climbed as quickly then? Could it have climbed at all? In short, how would Conker have coped if faced with the threat of a bullyingsquirrel, or marauding cat, or something not yet even imagined?
    Somewhere in the distance a mallard quacked.
    The answer was as sharp and as clear as that call.
    Conker wouldn’t cope. He couldn’t run from danger.
    He was, in effect, a sitting duck.

I NSPIRATION
     
    I t was late afternoon before David returned to Wayward Crescent. The street lamps were flickering to life and a few dead leaves were skating the pavement. Whistling softly, he opened the gate to Liz’s drive. It swung back, not with its usual creak, but with an ear-splitting whine that almost had the tenant jumping into the hedge. He glanced suspiciously at the gate. Either