The Monster of Shiversands Cove Read Online Free PDF Page A

excitement.
    That
enormous
creature swimming out there, there were only two people on this boat who could see it.
    The baby.
    And me.
    Â 
    Chapter Six
    Magic Eyes
    Back at Shiversands Cottage, I huddled in the sitting room, struggling to think, struggling to come up with a reason, some kind of explanation. Why –
how
 – was it possible that I could see that enormous creature out there in the sea, and Dad couldn’t?
    It
wasn’t
possible. It just wasn’t.
    I tried and tried but I could
not
come up with one good reason, not one explanation for how that was possible. Only this one . . .
    That the thing out there, the big greeny-grey thing cruising around just outside our cove, was a monster. It had to be. It was an actual, real-life sea monster, some kind of magical creature. And the reason I could see it but Dad couldn’t, was this: because I had magic eyes and Dad didn’t.
    No. It was
not
possible. I did
not
have magic eyes. There was no such thing as magic eyes. But magic eyes were the only explanation. There was no other explanation that made sense, none at all.
    I thought back, back to the journey to Shiversands Cove, with Magnus in his car seat going on and on, telling me all the things Fairy Fenella said about magic eyes. How little kids are born with them, born with magic eyes. Special eyes. How some little kids, the lucky ones, see some kind of magical creature and keep hold of their magic eyes forever and ever.
    But, even supposing Fairy Fenella
was
right about magic eyes, I was
not
one of those kids. I definitely wasn’t. I never saw any magical creatures as a little kid, nothing that would help me keep hold of my magic eyes: no fairies, or elves, or goblins, no dragons, no monsters. Nothing.
    Although . . .
    I stopped and thought.
    I thought right back, to something that happened when I was four years old, a dream I had. At least, I
thought
it was a dream.
    I was in Norway, visiting my Norwegian granny, up in the mountains. It was late, and I was supposed to be tucked up in bed, fast asleep butdays are long and light in Norway in summer, and I couldn’t sleep, not at all. So I knelt on my bed and stared out of the window, up at the mountain.
    And that’s where I saw it.
    It was a monster, crouched on a ledge, high up on the mountain. The monster was far away but I could see it was huge. It was as tall as a giraffe and scaly like a dragon, with short arms, long claws and two giant wings which it started flapping.
    Then, the monster took off. It soared down the mountain, huge wings flapping, flying closer and closer to Granny’s house and to me, staring out of the window.
    The monster saw me. It flew towards my window, and hovered outside.
    I stared out at the monster and the monster stared in at me. It had shiny yellow eyes, a long flicking red tongue and big blobs of dribble trickling out of its snout. I knew it was much too big to get in through the window but I could hear it hissing and I started screaming. I screamed for Mum, I screamed for Dad, and they came running in, just as the monster flew off.
    Mum and Dad both sat with me after that. They sat and held my hands, as I gibbered and whimpered, and told them what I just saw.
    Dad said I was dreaming. He told me again and again that it was all a dream. Mum told me the same thing had happened to her. That she had a dream like that once, when she was as small as me, and, just like me, she was convinced her dream was real, when it wasn’t.
    But suppose Mum and Dad were wrong, suppose I
wasn’t
dreaming? Suppose it was true, was real, and I really
did
see that monster? Then
that
would be why I kept my magic eyes and why I could see
this
monster now.
    So, I huddled there in the sitting room, head spinning. What now? What should I do? Did I need to do anything?
    Maybe not.
    That monster was far out at sea, a long way off. It was nowhere near our cove and there was no reason to think it