The Unlikely Time Traveller Read Online Free PDF

the horses on their noses. They were getting calmer. Maybe he’d forgotten about me. I hoped so. I needed to get out of here, find Robbie and get us both home. The fuzzy feeling in my head was clearing. The old song had faded. I started to think of all the words I would call Robbie when I found him. Wally! Nit! Nut case! Prat!
    And what had that long-haired guy called me – senseless hare-brain? Ha! It wasn’t me that was senseless. It wasn’t me that was a hare-brain! The more I thought about Robbie, the more annoyed I got. He didn’t know the first thing about time travel. What a reckless fool. He could get us both killed. I thought I was ranting inside my head. Toad. Fool. Moron. But I must have been blabbing. Loudly. “Ninny! Wally! Numpty! Prat! Nutcase idiotic goat!”
    “What kind of play is this?” said the guy. “Running like a clown. Screeching. You are, it is true, a big idioticgoat.” I was behind the yew tree and couldn’t see him, but it sounded like he was heading my way. “You did already make a great commotion this morn. Now you dare return. A senseless hare-brain. It is already pain for me to make the great speech. I rehearse and you spoil it all. You make fear for the old horses. In the name of starlight and sun, what are you doing?”
    He had the weirdest accent. I couldn’t understand everything but he sounded well hacked off. What did he mean about ‘dare return’?
    “Is this some sport?” he went on. “First I was in the stable mixing mash when I thought thunder had struck. Then I was practising the dreaded speech. Fool! Do you want to kill the aged horses? Do you wish to make of me utter fear?”
    What was he going on about? Then I wondered – had Robbie been here, like me? Had Robbie freaked out the horses by suddenly appearing from the past, and now this guy thought I was Robbie again, back to freak them out a second time? I could see how that would annoy him. Not that I could understand his words all that well. He rolled his Rs like a revving motorbike.
    “The horses are old. Sudden movement upsets them. And what is numpty ?”
    I kept quiet. My heart raced so loud I was sure he could hear it.
    The guy peered round the tree and glared at me. “So! Now I set eyes on you.”
    “Hello,” I whispered, gaping at him. He reminded me of a hunter in some film. His cheeks were flushed. His dark eyes flashed. “Sorry,” I muttered, “I didn’t mean… um… I’m sorry.” He was taller than me, but still just a boy. He had his hands on his hips, like he was ready fora fight. He had long dark hair, broad shoulders and a strong jaw, set in that jutting-out, annoyed kind of way. His long hair was braided or in dreadlocks and he had a headband thing on. I just kept staring at him. I didn’t know what to do, or say.
    “And prat ,” he said, with his husky voice. “What is prat? Why do you return? Perhaps you seek work here?”
    I shook my head. I knew it was rude to stare, but I couldn’t help it. He had on this cool-looking onesie thing, with pockets everywhere and a hipster belt with stuff hooked on, knives and rope and metal things like torches. And the band around his head looked like the kind that tennis players wear, except this one was green and had little silvery studs in it. “Also,” he went on, “what is wally ?”
    Words had been pouring out of me, but now I couldn’t speak. I could only gape at this person who was staring at me and still looked pretty upset. But he didn’t look like he was about to punch me. That was a relief. “The horses here are past years of service, but they are not goats, or toads. Perhaps you are ill?”
    I hadn’t moved.
    “Perhaps you did take the contaminated water?” His anger seemed to be cooling off and now he was looking concerned. “You did spoil my practising speech.” I felt embarrassed, cause somebody about the same age as me had just given me a row. I rustled the Mars Bar wrapper in my pocket, thinking maybe this guy had