Harry the Poisonous Centipede Goes to Sea by Lynne Reid Banks Read Free Book Online Page B

Dark-time’s Work
    They were in a garden. But they didn’t know that.
    All they knew was that there was lots of earth here: nice, loose, easy-to-tunnel-in earth. They settled on a place and began to burrow.
    They burrowed all night, taking it in turns. The two at the top of the tunnel cleared away the soil as it came back. When the centeen who was digging got tired, one of the others would go down and continue the work.
    None of them had ever dug a tunnel from scratch before. They’d always used tunnels dug by others, so it was a real challenge.
    At first, George didn’t want Josie to dig.
    “I’ll do your share,” he said gallantly.
    Harry stood by, mouth-parts agape. “Why?” he said.
    “Why what?” asked George snappishly.
    “Why will you do her share?”
    “Because – well – because she’s a centeena.”
    “So what? Can’t centeenas dig?”
    “Of course they can!” said Josie. If centipedes could blush, she’d have been blushing. “I don’t need anyone to dig for me. Thank you just the same.”
    So they dug turn and turn about, and it was soon clear that Josie could indeed dig, and keep on digging longer than either of the others.
    “Of course, she’s younger than us,” George whisperckled as the soil came spraying back up the tunnel from Josie’s energetic digging.
    Harry didn’t say anything. He thought it was silly to offer to do Josie’s share just because she was female, but at the same time wondered if he should have offered. George seemed to know a lot more about females than Harry did. Which was strange, because George had never had a mother of his own to guide him.
    And thinking of that reminded Harry of Belinda.
    He’d thought a lot about her when their journey first began. But he hadn’t had time since they arrived in this strangeplace. Now, as they worked through the dark-time, he thought of the cosy, safe home Belinda had made for him – and for George, when he visited them. He thought of how much Belinda warmhearted him. How she’d risked her life for him several times. How she worried about him…
    What must she be going through now, as dark-time followed dark-time and he didn’t come back?
    And who would look after her when she got too old to hunt?
    What if she got so old she stopped, with no one beside her? It didn’t bear thinking about!
    “Do you think we can ever get home, Grndd?” Harry asked, in a very subdued crackle.
    “I doubt it, Hx,” said George. “I don’t see how we can.”
    “Oh, cheer up!” said Josie, her head coming clear as she backed out of the new tunnel. “We’ll be fine right here. Nothing wrong with this! There are lots of little snacks in the earth here for you meat-feeding lot, and as for me, I can smell plenty of good tree-droppings. We’ll be fine,” she said again in her up-beat way. “Go on, Grndd, your turn to dig.”
    By the time Big-yellow-ball came back, they were safe and damp in their new nest-tunnel. Josie had even crept up to the no-top-world one last time, to bring them each a leaf to sleep under.
    “When we’ve had a good sleep, we must go on digging,” Harry said. “We must have an other-way-out tunnel, in case anything comes down to get us.”
    “Belly-crawlers,” said George gloomily. “There are bound to be belly-crawlers. Smaller than at home, like the ants aresmaller. Easy for them to get down our tunnel. If they do, we’re Dried-Out for sure!”
    Harry felt worried. He wasn’t used to George being a scaredy-feelers, thinking they were Dried-Out every time there was some little problem.
    “Listen, Grndd,” Harry said. “Don’t make out you’re such a poor thing just because you got a bit of a bump. Look at me – I’ve had to cast off three legs and I won’t get them back till the next time I shed my cuticle.”
    “Who said I was a poor thing?” said George. “Not me!”
    “So what’s the matter with you?”
    “Nothing. I’m fine.”
    After a moment, he couldn’t help adding, “Of course,