Darkwing Read Online Free

perches.
    “Why are you friends with him?” Dusk asked his sister. “He’s not usually so unpleasant.”
    “Not to you, maybe. You don’t think Mom and Dad were tempted to abandon me, do you?”
    “Of course not!”
    “Jib just hates me because he’ll never be leader.”
    “Dusk, you’re never going to be leader.”
    “I could!”
    “Well, I could too. I’d just have to kill off the rest of you first.” Side by side on the branch, the two of them absently set about grooming each other.
    “You are really filthy,” remarked Sylph with interest. “Don’t you ever comb your fur?”
    “Of course I do,” said Dusk indignantly. “Why? What’s in there?”
    “Just a whole colony of mites,” she mumbled, happily eating them off his back.
    “I have been pretty itchy there,” Dusk confessed.
    “I always know I can get a decent meal off you.” Dusk grunted, hoping to find something incriminating in his sister’s fur. But aside from a few spores and a single aphid, Sylph was, as usual, extremely well groomed.
    “Did you really get fifteen?” she asked sweetly.
    “Sylph!”
    “Just making sure.”
    “You just can’t believe I beat you!”
    “Well, it probably won’t happen again,” she said cockily. “Want to race back to the perch?”
    “Not really,” he said. “Afraid you’ll lose?”
    He knew he would lose. In the air he was fast, but on bark, his missing claws and weak legs doomed him to be among theslowest. He hated the climb back up. It was always so discouraging. He took a deep breath of the scented air, and his eyes strayed to the sun-bathed clearing. Insects soared effortlessly in the thermals.
    “I’ll even give you a head start,” Sylph said, “how’s that?”
    “Don’t need one,” he said.
    She looked at him strangely, then gave a laugh. “You really think you can beat me?”
    “I think so,” he replied boldly. “All right, then. See you up there!”
    Sylph darted up the trunk; for a moment Dusk watched her go, envying her agility and speed. Then, after only a moment’s hesitation, he hurled himself off the branch, sails unfurling. “What’re you doing?” he heard Sylph call out to him.
    Chiropters only went down, never up, Dusk thought. But maybe he could change that. Glancing about, he tried to find the thermal he’d encountered earlier. Where was it? “You’re really going to lose now!” Sylph shouted.
    He had no idea if his plan would even work. He’d slipped below the Lower Reach now, and with every second was falling farther. Dusk looked down in alarm. He’d never been so close to the forest floor. He saw something dark shift the undergrowth and disappear. Too risky. He decided to abandon his plan. What a waste. Now he’d have an even longer climb back to the perch.
    As he glided back towards the sequoia, warmth grazed his chest and he was suddenly weightless. He bounced up half a foot before tumbling to one side. Eagerly he circled and slid back into the thermal, this time angling his sails to anchor himself in midair.
    He wobbled but managed to hold on, and with an unexpected surge, the hot air lifted him. He felt it pushing against his sails,wafting past his chin and snout. He could not restrain his whoop of delight as he was propelled upwards. Chiropters
could
go up!
    It might not be flying, but it was the next best thing. Rising higher, he caught sight of Sylph diligently hurrying up the redwood’s trunk. “See you up there!” he called out.
    She turned and stared as he floated past, face blank with confusion.
    “Don’t slow down,” Dusk told her, hoping he’d remember her expression his entire life. “What’re you doing?” she bellowed. “Just riding some hot air.”
    “But … you … you’re cheating!” she wailed in outrage. “How am I cheating?” he asked calmly, all the while rising higher. “You’re not climbing!”
    “Who said anything about climbing? You just said it was a race.”
    “That isn’t fair!” she howled in