The Lake of Souls by Darren Shan Read Free Book Online Page A

somehow sent us back into the past. He’d transported us to some far-off world in our own universe. He’d slipped us into an alternate reality. Or this was an illusion, and our bodies were lying in a field in the real world, while Mr. Tiny fed this dream scene into our imaginations.
    “I believed in the … illusion theory at first,” Harkat said, lowering his mask. “But the more I consider it, the less … certain I am. If Mr. Tiny was making this world up, I think … he’d make it more exciting and colorful. It’s quite dull.”
    “It’s early days,” I grunted. “This is probably just to warm us up.”
    “It certainly warmed
you
up,” Harkat grinned, nodding at my tan.
    I returned his smile, then stared up at the sun. “Another three or four hours till nightfall,” I guessed. “It’s a shame neither of us knows more about star systems, or we might be able to tell where we were by the stars.”
    “It’s a bigger shame that we … don’t have weapons,” Harkat noted. He stood and studied the land in front of us again. “How will we defend ourselves against the … panther without weapons?”
    “Something will turn up,” I reassured him. “Mr. Tiny wouldn’t throw us in out of our depth, not this early on — it’d spoil his fun if we perished quickly.”
    “That’s not very comforting,” Harkat said. “The idea that we’re being kept alive … only to die horribly later, for Mr. Tiny’s benefit … doesn’t fill me with joy.”
    “Me neither,” I agreed. “But at least it gives us hope.”
    On that uncertain note, the conversation drew to a close, and after a short rest we filled our meager lizard-skin pouches with water and marched on through the wasteland, which grew more lush — but no less alien — the further we progressed.

CHAPTER SIX
    A WEEK AFTER LEAVING THE DESERT BEHIND , We entered a jungle of thick cactus plants, long snaking vines, and stunted, twisted trees. Very few leaves grew on the trees. Those that did were long and thin, a dull orange color, grouped near the tops of the trees.
    We’d come across traces of animals — droppings, bones, hair — but didn’t see any until we entered the jungle. There we found a curious mix of familiar yet strange creatures. Most of the animals were similar to those of Earth — deer, squirrels, monkeys — but different, usually in size or coloring. Some of the differences weren’t so readily apparent — we captured a squirrel one day, which turned out to have an extra set of sharp teeth when we examined it, and surprisingly long claws.
    We’d picked up dagger-shaped stones during the course of our trek, which we’d sharpened into knives. We now made more weapons out of thick sticks and bones of larger animals. They wouldn’t be much use against a panther, but they helped us frighten off the small yellow monkeys that jumped from trees onto the heads of their victims, blinded them with their claws and teeth, then finished them off as they stumbled around.
    “I never heard of monkeys like that,” I remarked one morning as we watched a group of the simians bring down and devour a huge boar-like animal.
    “Me neither,” Harkat said.
    As we watched, the monkeys paused and sniffed the air suspiciously. One ran to a thick bush and screeched threateningly. There was a deep grunt from within the bush, then a larger monkey — like a baboon, only an odd red color — stepped out and shook a long arm at the others. The yellow monkeys bared their teeth, hissed, and threw twigs and small pebbles at the newcomer, but the baboon ignored them and advanced. The smaller monkeys retreated, leaving the baboon to finish off the boar.
    “I guess size matters,” I muttered wryly, then Harkat and I slipped away and left the baboon to feed in peace.
    The next night, while Harkat slept — his nightmares had stopped since coming to this new world — and I stood guard, there was a loud, fierce roar from somewhere ahead of us. The night was usually