Lizard Loopy Read Online Free Page B

(swiftly remembering a common lizard had better camouflage on a tree trunk) and S.W.I.T.C.H.ed himself.
    Danny reached the owl hole in no time at all. Running up the tree had been amazing and much easier than the climbing wall at their summer camp. His long-fingered hands and feet, with their sharp curved claws, had anchored easily into the deep ridges winding through the bark. There were even tasty snacks along the way! Danny tried not to think about what those snacks were. They’d been great . . . he was sure they hadn’t really had wriggling legs. No—they were just seeds which he’d picked up in passing by darting out his quick long tongue. Little, browny seeds. Little moving browny-black seeds with anxious faces . . . Eeeerrm . . .
    But then he reached the lip of the big hole and forgot all about the snacks as his heart sped up with excitement. Whatever it was their Mystery Marble Sender wanted them to find, he was certain it was here.
Where the silent wise one slumbers . . .

    There was a strong smell coming from the hole. A musty, sharp smell that made Danny shiver as he clung to the curved woody lip of the oval entrance to the chamber. His lizard sight was good, and as his golden eyes adjusted to the gloom, he could see that the floor of it was covered with . . . eurgh . . . broken bits of bone and feather in a lumpy porridge of dark gray owl pellets and paler gray owl poo. That was one nasty carpet.
    â€œThe carpet of death!” he muttered to himself, and it seemed as if a horror film-style shriek went off somewhere in the distance.
    The gruesome flooring led around a corner, past a shoulder of ancient rotting wood. There was nothing that looked like a marble sitting on it. The marble must be tucked farther in. He shivered. He really didn’t want to go across the carpet of death and into the inner chamber. But if he didn’t all his efforts would be for nothing. Even if it was just a joke, he still wanted to get that marble.
    He stepped onto the carpet. It crumbled under his front foot, sending up some unpleasant dust and a worse smell. Danny reminded himself he was a dragon (sort of) and put another foot bravely forward.
    â€œDaaaneeeeee!” He froze. That was Josh. But he didn’t sound as if he was down on the woodland floor. He was closer than that. Suddenly another lizard popped up behind him.
    â€œHey! You want to come in with me?” grinned Danny, very relieved. It would be much less scary going around that bit of rotting wood with his brother. He didn’t tell Josh how creeped out he’d been, though.

    â€œNo! No! Danny—stop!” panted Josh, who had run up the tree at top speed.
    â€œWhy? We’re here now. Might as well check it out!” Danny said.
    â€œNo—you don’t understand. And I can’t believe I didn’t tell you this. Look—you’re a lizard!” Josh was looking edgily into the hole past Danny.
    â€œYeah! Great, isn’t it? All those insects I used to be scared of,” beamed Danny. “I can eat ’em! Not that I would, of course . . . I mean . . . eeeyuw!”
    Josh didn’t point out the half an ant stuck to Danny’s upper lip. “Yes, but you’re not off the menu! I told you! Bigger things will eat you . . .”
    â€œYeah—you said. Cats and dogs and foxes . . . but I can’t see any of those showing up here, can you? Not this high up!”
    â€œI didn’t get to the end of the list!”
    â€œWhat? What else is there?” Danny said, but Josh wasn’t looking at him anymore. His almond-shaped black eyes were bulging and shiny and fixed on something behind Danny. On something on the other side of the carpet of death. Something peering out from behind a screen of old trunk wood.
    Something went “Keu-uu-wik!”
    Before he could even scream, the talons closed around Danny—and around Josh too. And Josh knew this time it really was all over.

Josh