The Swiss Family RobinZOM (Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

foliage around them. “Calm down, girl. We’re going to catch up with them and get through this.”
    Ernest climbed onto Clementine’s back and took her through the trail of destruction left by Francis and his runaway bull. Valiant had scythed a path through the low canopy, which Ernest was more than willing to take advantage of.
    Clementine ran hard, sensing the end of the low ceilinged jungle, and when it finally came, she raised her head up high like an Olympic athlete finishing a race. She picked up the pace and powered along the track, the final corner of the island up ahead. Ernest pulled up alongside Francis, who held onto the rolls of fat at the back of Valiant’s neck, bouncing up and down, barely making contact with the saddle.
    “Hi Ernest!” Francis said.
    “Have you seen any of the others?” Ernest said.
    “No,” Francis said. “I thought they were ahead of us?”
    “It’s really not fair that you’re riding a pair of horns with legs,” Ernest said.
    “You’re just a sore loser,” Francis said.
    “You haven’t won yet,” Ernest said.
    “No, but I will!” Francis said.
    “Pride before the fall,” Ernest said.
    “What?” Francis said.
    “Never mind,” Ernest said.
    “Bet you regret swapping with me now!” Francis said.
    “Not really,” Ernest said. “I don’t really enjoy the taste of dust.”
    “What?” Francis said.
    Ernest burst forward, Clementine’s large feet kicking up a cloud of dust into Francis’s face.
    “See you at the finish line!” Ernest said.
    Ernest leaned in low and turned Clementine off the beach path and across a short stretch of marshland. Clementine sped up and leapt over a fallen tree trunk, and then cut across the corner of the beach. When Ernest pulled back onto the wet sand where Clementine could run at full speed, he looked back and saw that Francis had only just rounded the corner, having been unable to jump, nor punch through, the log.
    “Haha!” Ernest said.
    “Hello there!” a voice from a tree called.
    Jack swung through the trees on vines, leaping from branch to branch with ease. He stopped on a trunk, whispered something to Nips, and waited. Nips climbed down from the tree, ran along a fallen tree trunk and picked up Jack’s flag. Then he began to make his way back.
    “That has got to be against the rules,” Ernest shouted to Jack.
    “We have to go around the track collecting our flags,” Jack said. “There’s nothing in the rules that says we have to be riding our animals.”
    “Where’s Herdy?” Ernest said.
    “She found a pool of water and wouldn’t get out of it!” Jack said.
    “What happened to loyalty?” Ernest said.
    “It’s in a dirty puddle about twenty minutes back,” Jack said. “Ta-ra! See you at the finish line!”
    Clementine continued to run, and within minutes Ernest saw a pair of figures ahead, on the track that ran parallel to his own. Bill and Liz had taken the short route. Their path joined up with Ernest’s about two hundred yards down.
    Ernest didn’t know what had happened for Bill to now be in the lead, but Liz had a halo of shrubbery around her temples and a look of pure murder on her face. A thick white froth covered Lightning’s neck and haunches. Horses were known to run themselves to death. Ernest wasn’t sure if the same was true of zebras.
    The thought of losing made Ernest push Clementine harder, rocking back and forth like a world class jockey, driving the ostrich to take longer strides that ate the road before them. She raised her neck up to its full height, her powerful legs pushing them down the path.
    The two roads converged a dozen yards ahead, and unless Ernest had missed his guess, he and Liz were on a collision course the moment the two paths became one. Liz had to pull onto Ernest’s path like a slip road onto a motorway. Ernest pushed Clementine hard, refusing to yield to Liz.
    Liz turned her head at the last moment, surprise registering on her face. She hadn’t noticed