Wabi Read Online Free Page B

immediately that I wanted to see the one who had that voice.
    â€œYoung one, come hhhhhheeeerrre,” it trilled, “into the swaaaammmp. I have something forrrrr you.”
    What could it be? What did it have for me?
    I turned my head way around to see if my great-grandmother was anywhere near so that I could ask her those questions. Then I remembered that I had left her two ridges away, in the valley of many cliffs. If I wanted an answer, I would have to go and see for myself.
    I flew slowly toward that voice as it continued to call. My curiosity was great, yet somehow I knew that something was wrong. There was an edge to that voice that was... what? Hungry? I began to feel suspicious.
    â€œCome a little deeeperrrr, into the swaaaamp. I have something forrrrrrrr you.”
    On I flew, just a little above the ground, following a trail that wound and wove farther into the swamp. If a two-legged young one had been following that voice, that little human being would have been lost long ago.
    â€œHeeerrre, come heeeerrre,” the voice called. And then it stopped.
    The trail ended. I dropped down and landed on a grassy hummock. I was a little ways back from the edge of a deep, dark pool of water. A few bubbles rose to the surface and broke, releasing a very nasty smell. Perhaps a young human being would have walked closer to that water to look into it, entranced by that voice. But not I. Now I knew for sure that something was wrong.
    I had noticed a pile of rocks back around the last bend in the trail. I flew quietly back and picked up two of them. Then I flew back to hover just above the place where the trail ended and the black water began. I dropped my first rock on the trail, then the next, even closer to the water’s edge. The thump of those rocks on the earth sounded like footsteps to my ears—and to the ears of someone else as well.
    â€œARRRRRHHHHH, I HAVE YOU!” A big shape burst up from the water. It rose so high that it almost struck me with its big head as I hovered there. I had to flap my wings and bank quickly to one side to avoid it. But it was not looking up. Its huge yellow eyes stared straight ahead at the bank as its two long-clawed hands struck at the spot where my second rock had fallen, the spot where a young human being would have been standing.
    â€œARHHHHHH?” the creature said, staring at its empty hands. “I don’t have you?”
    I had landed on the top of one of the red willows that grew at the opposite edge of the pool. My perch was four times as high as the creature had leaped, so I was fairly certain I would be safe. I cocked my head to study it. Its body was like that of one of those two-leggeds I had begun to watch all the time in their village below the great waterfall, where they lived in those peculiar nests that they built upside down and on the ground. From the shape of its body, the creature seemed to be a woman.
    But this was not a human woman. It was three times as large as the biggest human I had seen. Its head was like the head of a giant toad. Its mouth was wide enough to swallow a small two-legged person whole. I knew what I was looking at. It was a true monster, one of the terrible non-animal beings that hunt humans.
    My great-grandmother had told me about such creatures. Back when the world was formed, some creatures had come out wrong. Perhaps it was because there was a force in the world that hated good things. So it tried to spoil the beautiful creation the Great Darkness made. It twisted some beings and made them into monsters. There were not as many of them as there were of normal beings, but these monsters were greedy, powerful, and dangerous.
    â€œLuckily,” Great-grandmother added, “they are also stupid.”
    She had told me the names of some of those creatures. It was clear to me which one this was. Mamaskwa. Toad Woman.
    â€œWheeeere did my food go?” Toad Woman said, shaking her head as she looked around.
    I