Читать книгу The Hidden Kingdom - Tracey Hecht - Страница 38

THE NOCTURNALS

earth they’d been trapped in had to be quicksand, she reasoned. But quicksand is wet, and they were in the middle of a drought. And quicksand wouldn’t whip and thrash and rise up in the air. “None of this makes sense,” Dawn said, her tawny brow furrowed.

“The land is going loco, mes amis!” said the sugar glider. “Totally loony, I tell you!”

The fox gazed at the horizon. It was nearly daybreak. They needed to continue on before the sun rose and the heat became too much to bear. “Let’s go,” she said.

As Dawn led the group through the plains, she replayed the quicksand incident over and over again, hoping to solve the puzzle. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not figure it out.

She looked back at her friends and let out a discouraged sigh. Tobin was now carrying Cora—she had gotten so weak that she could no longer walk. And with the wombat’s weight on his back, the pangolin struggled, as well. Even Bismark had slowed, dragging his feet with each step. They needed something to keep them going—some sign, at least, that they were heading in the right direction.

The fox gazed at the surrounding dry fields and plants. A hill rose here and there along with some bare ________

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