The Prince Who Fell From the Sky by John Claude Bemis Read Free Book Online Page A

Dumpster and snarled through her clenched teeth, “You coming?”
    After a while, the cub relented and walked, although not nearly at the pace Casseomae would have preferred. They foraged as they followed the rising sun. While they saw none of the larger voras, they were never far from viands who weren’t happy to see a Skinless One in their Forest. Squirrels called down angrily from branches overhead. Families of deer watched in confusion as the child passed. Birds fled.
    After a few more times being carried, the child settled into a silent march, staring down at his feet andfollowing the bear. If the cub stopped for more than a moment, a woof from Casseomae had him walking again.
    By midday, they reached a creek with steep banks. Casseomae drank beside Dumpster, while the child squatted on a boulder, fidgeting with something between his shoulder blades.
    “What’s he doing?” Casseomae asked.
    Dumpster watched as the child removed a clear bag from his back. A tube connected back to his arm.
    Casseomae grunted in horror. “He’s pulled his own entrails from his body!”
    With a pop, the child disconnected the tube and dipped the bag into the stream. Bubbles rose to the surface.
    “It’s not entrails, old bear,” Dumpster replied. “It’s a device.”
    “A what?”
    “A device. Like the box for its food. The Old Devils don’t drink from streams or puddles like us. Watch.”
    After a moment the child reattached the tube and slid the bag into the fold on his back. The child put his lips around the tube protruding from his shoulder and took a deep drink.
    Dumpster gave a squeaking laugh. “See! It’s for drinking.”
    The child undid a flap on his leg. Casseomae half-expectedblood to spill, for raw muscle to be exposed, but the interior was the same shimmering blue as the outside. The child took out a package of food, pulled it open, and began eating the lump from the crinkling covering.
    Casseomae felt her muscles relax. The cub was strange, but not so appalling once she understood his ways.
    She followed Dumpster across the creek, but as they looked back, the child remained squatted on the rock.
    Casseomae grunted irritably. “We’ve moved at a toad’s pace all morning.”
    “Well, then pick the pup up again!” Dumpster said.
    “And contend with his racket?” She was tired of it. A mother shouldn’t have to tote her cub. A cub should obey. But she supposed he wasn’t really her cub.
    The child ate the last bite of the food and dropped the package to the ground.
    “Let’s just start walking,” Dumpster said. “He’ll follow us.”
    “I don’t know,” Casseomae said, feeling a knot of unease in her breast.
    “Trust me, he won’t want to get left behind.”
    Dumpster began climbing up the mossy embankment. With a backward glance at the cub, Casseomae ascended after him. About halfway up, she said, “He’s not coming. I’ll have to carry him.”
    Dumpster stopped and rose on his hind legs, sniffing.
    “You’ll have to be a lot taller than that if you want to scare the cub into walking,” Casseomae muttered.
    “Your nose is better than mine, bear. Don’t you smell that?”
    Before Casseomae could catch the scent, she knew instantly she should have trusted her instinct not to leave the cub. A pale gold form slipped silently from the bracken behind the child. The creature slunk forward with the kind of grace and precision that only cats have.
    But this was no mere puss. This was a cougar, and one of the biggest ones Casseomae had ever seen.

CHAPTER TEN
    C asseomae barreled down the embankment. The child sprang up in fright at her sudden approach, slipping on the slimy boulder and toppling into the creek. Casseomae hit the water with a splash and rose up on her hind legs as the cougar struck, his teeth catching the edge of the child’s blue hide, barely missing his neck.
    Casseomae smashed her massive paw against the cougar’s head. The cat tumbled into the creek, howling and throwing up a