Kingdom Keepers V (9781423153429) Read Online Free Page A

the trouble before it happened.
    Wayne climbed awkwardly over the seat, slow and uncoordinated. The fox landed on Finn, its glaring teeth leading the way. The creature was small in his hands, but unruly, strong, and slippery as a snake. It scratched with its feet and snapped its jaws. Finn reacted instinctively to avoid the teeth, hoisting it high overhead. He smashed it onto the floor of the train car. It let out a sickening cry. Finn felt consumed with guilt; he never hurt animals! But he thought back to the monkeys and ravens in Animal Kingdom, the orangutans bearing down on him—sometimes there was no choice but to fight back.
    The fox whimpered and skittered off under the bench. Finn’s guilt got the better of him, freezing him. Then the creature tried to lock its jaws onto his heel, snapping nothing but light. Finn screamed, thinking he’d been bitten, then kicked out and connected with the fox.
    A shudder passed through his legs. Had the fox managed to bite him? No; the sensation was flooding up both legs—the train was gaining speed. One glance confirmed this: a pair of cat ears stuck up from the locomotive’s controls. The cat was running the train.
    Wayne had crawled into the coal-car.
    The train roared ahead faster.
    Working as a team, the fox had been a distraction. The real threat was the cat at the controls. The train cars rocked side to side; the speed increased.
    Finn snatched the fox by the neck, whirled around, and let go. It flew off into the woods as the train sped ahead.
    Finn grinned. But then: a brown blur between the jungle and the last train car. The fox had jumped back on.
    It raised its tiny head, eyes glowing, and, leaping from one bench to the next, raced forward.
    The train was moving at top speed, making it hard to stand. Each time Wayne attempted to get to his feet he was thrown to the opposite side of the coal-car and fell again.
    The train’s wheels lifted off the track. As it passed Space Mountain, it leaned to the outside. Metal twisted and cried out. Finn felt weightless as the inside wheels lifted off the rail and the train car briefly balanced on its outside wheels. It held there—suspended halfway between rolling over and derailing or returning to the track.
    Finn turned toward Wayne, offering his back to the approaching fox. Wayne was planted against the coal-car’s wall, his eyes bugged out, frozen in terror. Finn clambered over the benches, taking them like a hurdler.
    As he reached the coal-car, he looked down and knew what had to be done.
    He slipped between the coal-car and the first passenger car, the train still balanced precariously on only its outside wheels. The fox, teeth dripping drool, deftly jumped from one bench to the next.
    Finn reached down and worked the heavy iron clamp that joined the two train cars together. With one look he understood how the mechanism worked. He pulled a piece of the clamp with all his strength. The tilting train shrieked.
    The wide-eyed fox was a single car back. He could taste Finn’s blood.
    The car connector released. Finn unhooked a safety chain and the cars separated. One foot…three…eight…
    The fox arrived at the end of the car and never hesitated. He sprang…but fell short, missing the coal-car and falling onto the railroad ties. He bounced, tumbled, and then rolled into a ditch. He came to his feet and tried to chase down the train, but he was too slow, no match for a runaway train.
    Finn vaulted over the back of the coal-car, lost his balance, fell, and crawled toward Wayne.
    * * *
    With the release of the passenger cars, the locomotive and coal-car fell back onto the tracks. Finn, still crawling, reached Wayne. “You okay?”
    Wayne nodded vigorously. “The throttle!” he hollered. “We’re going to crash.”
    The train no longer felt anchored to the tracks. It rocked back and forth, first on the wheels to the left, then the right. It sounded like girls