Werewolf versus Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page B

a pool of slime. His ATV’s wheels spun and he skidded to a stop. Up ahead, anEmperor slug the size of a car was munching on the leaves of a tree. The Inspector stepped off his ATV, his shoes squelching in the slug’s slime as he pushed his ATV free.
    Halfway across the moor, Ulf was waiting. He pointed to what looked like a field of boulders and bushes. “Over there’s a herd of tankons,” he said.
    Inspector Black pulled alongside.
    â€œWhere?” he asked. “I can’t see anything.”
    â€œThey camouflage themselves,” Ulf explained. “Look closely.”
    The boulders and bushes were moving.
    Ulf and the Inspector rode on. In other fields there were long-eared jackalopes, unga-bungas, and a duck-billed sphynx. Ahead, the track rose up onto a long metal bridge that ran above twelve high brick-walled pens. These were the meat eaters’ enclosures.
    â€œWe have to watch out in the next bit,” Ulf said.
    Ulf and the Inspector rode up onto the bridge,steering carefully. It had no sides to stop them falling off the edge.
    The bridge clattered as they rode along it. They looked down on either side. Below, meat-eating beasts were growling and grunting, snorting and roaring.
    â€œIt’s not a good idea to get too close, so we feed them from above,” Ulf said.
    A pack of demondogs was gnawing on a pile of bones. They looked up, snarling.
    â€œI hope they’re not hungry now,” Inspector Black said.
    A pigeon flew past, and the Inspector wobbled, nearly riding off the edge of the bridge.
    â€œMind the giranha!” Ulf called as a beast with the body of a giraffe and the head of a piranha stretched its long neck and snapped its jaws. It swallowed the pigeon, feathers and all.
    â€œThat was close!” Ulf said. “It could have eaten your head.”
    They rode along the narrow bridge as carefully as possible, over the gorgon’s enclosure. The gorgon was climbing to the top of a tree, its hair a tangle of writhing serpents. They sped over a swirling black hole that was screeching and sucking in insects, then a feareater with eyes that burned red with fire.
    At the end of the bridge they carefully rode down the other side.
    Inspector Black was trembling.
    Ulf switched his headlight on, lighting the way into the Dark Forest. He weaved between trees, jumping his ATV over tree roots and fallen branches. The Dark Forest was his favorite bit—it was where Tiana lived.
    A stranglasnake dangled from a branch, hissing at the Inspector as he passed underneath. Inspector Black bumped along behind Ulf, glancing around nervously. From the trees came the sounds of forest beasts: hoots and squawks, howls and screeches.
    In the shadows, Ulf could see the sparkles of fairies. “There have always been fairies in the forest,” he explained.
    â€œAnd there always will be,” a little voice said.
    Ulf looked up as Tiana flew from the trees and landed on his handlebars.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” she asked.
    â€œI’m showing Inspector Black around the beast park,” Ulf told her.
    Ulf slowed down and looked back. The Inspector’s hat had caught on a branch and he’d stopped to retrieve it. As the Inspector reached up to grab it, a tree crab pinched him on the nose.
    Ulf and Tiana giggled.
    Then, all of a sudden, the ground shook and they heard a trumpeting roar.
    â€œYou’d better get out of here,” Tiana said, taking off into the air.
    The Inspector was clutching his hat. “What was that noise?” he asked.
    â€œThat’s the biganasty,” Ulf said. “We don’t want to get in its way.”
    Branches crunched and snapped as a beast crashed among the trees behind them. Ulf twisted back the throttle on his ATV.
    â€œCome on, I’ll show you a shortcut,” Tiana said, flying ahead.
    Ulf and the Inspector followed Tiana’s sparkles down a long dark trail. They passed the swamp where the