The Story of the Blue Planet Read Online Free PDF Page B

follow me? I don’t need you.”
    Brimir remained silent and looked sadly at Hulda.
    “But we’ll never find our way in this darkness,” he finally said.
    “I’m going to wait until morning,” said Hulda. “I can fly home when the sun comes up.”
    Hulda sat down under a tree and covered herself with a pile of faded leaves. Brimir walked dejectedly to another tree, rubbed together two sticks and lit a little fire with some dry twigs. In the fire’s glow he saw Hulda shivering with cold.
    “Don’t you want to warm yourself by my fire, Hulda?”
    She made no reply.
    And that’s how they sat waiting for daybreak. Hulda shivered and Brimir sat by the fire. The night was unbelievably long. Brimir was starving but no fruit could be found on the trees and there were no animals in sight. Exhausted, he fell asleep.
    When Brimir woke up the sun had still not risen. Nonetheless he felt as if he’d slept long and well. After pondering this for a short while, his face suddenly turned deathly pale.
    “Hulda!”
    “What now ; you jerk!”
    “I don’t think the sun’s going to rise.”
    “Talk about being pessimistic! Of course the sun will rise.”
    “Haven’t you forgotten something, Hulda? We let Jolly-Goodday fix the sun over our island so there’d be everlasting day.”
    “Oh, no,” said Hulda. “And now we’re on the other side of the planet in endless night.”
    “Which means we’ll have to walk all the way home.”
    “Don’t you think Jolly-Goodday will save us? He always saves the day and the kids must be getting worried about us.”
    Brimir and Hulda waited a while longer; they fell asleep and woke up a few times, but it was always to the same darkness and no one came to save them. Their tummies began to rumble in unison.
    “They’ve forgotten us.”
    “Maybe they’ve forgotten you, but not me,” said Hulda sulkily.
    “But it’s always noon on our island, they don’t realize how long we’ve been missing.”
    “They must be on the way. I’m going to wait.”
    “I want to leave right now,” said Brimir.
    “Go then! See if I care.”
    Brimir set off into the forest. Hulda remained seated on her own.
    “Wait a minute, Brimir!”
    “Are you coming with me?”
    “No, I’m going to walk behind you, so the wild animals will eat you first.”
    Brimir didn’t answer her, but Hulda followed right behind him. They got stung by thistles and stumbled over fallen tree trunks.

    In the darkness the trees were like ogres and monsters; their branches were long gnarled hands that stretched out to catch them and keep them in the forest. Sometimes they creaked and cracked as if they could talk:
Creak and crack, crimping Brimir, branches blasted and broke ,
Bleak and black, mangling Brimir, crack, crunch, and croak .
     
    “Oh,” said Brimir, “this is like my worst nightmare.”
    Sometimes the whining of the wind in the trees was like a ghostly groan from the forest.
Wh-o-o hiss Huuuldaaaa, who-o-m we’ll h-o-old ,
Here in the eerie, ho-o-owling co-o-old!
We-e’ll haunt and taunt her, a-a-ll al-o-o-one ,
We’ll h-o-o-ld and h-i-i-ide her, fa-a-r from h-o-ome!
     
    “Brimir!”
    It was Hulda who shouted.
    Brimir came to a halt. “What?”
    “There’s one thing we should do before we go any further,” said Hulda.
    “What’s that?” asked Brimir brusquely.
    “We should try and be friends again, otherwise we’ll never get home.”
    Brimir tried to look at Hulda but could see nothing in the dark. Nothing except a little tear, which glistened in her eye.
    “Yeah, you’re my dearest buddy, let’s be friends again,” said Brimir.
    “Oh, Brimir, and you’re my very best friend. Forgive me for being so nasty to you.”
    Brimir tried to give Hulda a hug but couldn’t; they were so slippery from the Teflon ® wonder stuff.
    The children crept on through the forest. They were still shivering from fear and cold, and their tummies rumbled from hunger, but their hearts were warm with friendship