Читать книгу The Hidden Kingdom - Tracey Hecht - Страница 35

THE NOCTURNALS

did it!” he gasped. The sugar glider spat out a mouthful of sand. “I won! I defeated the dirt! I out-quicked the quicksand!”

“But…where did it go?” Tobin asked. He spun in a circle, searching for the swirling sand.

“It dissolved! Disappeared! Vanished!” Bismark exclaimed, poking the earth with his stick.

“No, it didn’t,” said Dawn. She pointed a paw overhead. “Look!”

The quicksand had lifted…and now drifted in the air. For a few moments, the flecks flurried in circles. Then they fluttered away with the breeze.

The trio stared at the flying quicksand in silence.

“Oy!” The armadillo finally opened his eyes and let go of his tree. “Are you three erright?” he asked. He trundled toward the Brigade. “I tried to warn yer—that there’s a quagmire!”

The animal lowered his snout toward the ground to inspect it. “Or at least it was. I tell yer—that there slip-sand stuff keeps hap-nin’ everywhere an armadillo turns… movin’ this way and that. Comin’ and goin’.” He shuddered then pivoted back toward his tree. “The earth—she’s comin’ alive, I tell yer!” he shouted, scurrying away at full-speed. “She’s tryin’ to ________

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