Firewing by Kenneth Oppel

Author:Kenneth Oppel [Oppel, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-4434-1126-4
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2011-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

THE CACTUS

Luna kept looking back over her wing, and even Griffin felt a tug of regret when he saw the treetops of Oasis finally dissolve into the distant gloom. He returned his gaze to the terrible mud-cracked plain stretching endlessly before him. No wonder so few bats wanted to leave for the Tree. You’d have to be pretty determined to launch yourself out over this. Oasis was starting to look very appealing, even if it was filled with freaky trees and bats who tried to strangle the life out of him.

“It’s okay,” he said to Luna, hoping he sounded reassuring. Maybe she didn’t need reassurance. She never had back home. Personally, he wanted plenty of reassurance. He looked at her off his left wingtip and felt better. They were together, so how bad could it be?

Bad, he thought. It could always be bad.

He felt tired and weak, and they’d only been flying a couple of hours, following the deep straight gouge that Frieda had illuminated in her sound map. What amazed him was that, somehow, he was faster than Luna. His wing strokes kept pulling him into the lead. Back home, she used to be an amazing flyer, stronger and faster than him. Now, Griffin was purposely slowing down so she could keep up. He didn’t want her to notice and feel bad. But it also started him worrying. She may slow you down, Frieda had warned him.

“So, we were friends, right?” Luna asked.

“Yeah. You had lots of other friends, too. You were very popular.”

“Really?” She seemed pleased. “Why?”

“You were cheerful and brave and … just a lot of fun to be around.”

“I like what I’m hearing,” she said with a grin. “You can keep talking.”

“Everyone wanted to be your friend. You always had good ideas. Well, exciting ideas, anyway; I wasn’t always sure they were good ideas, because they were obviously reckless and highly dangerous.”

“You’re not making this up?”

“Nope.” She laughed. “So what sort of things did I do?”

“Well, the owl game for starters …” and he told her all about it, and plenty of the other things she’d done back at Tree Haven.

“That sounds like fun,” she said, and suddenly fell silent.

“You okay?” he asked, worried he’d done or said something wrong.

“Just the way you tell it. Like it’s over and done with. And I can’t even remember myself in it.”

“You will.”

“Yeah?” She looked at him with such yearning that he felt his heart clench.

“Absolutely,” he said, hoping he wasn’t lying. “The more we talk about it, the more you’ll think about it. It’ll all come back.”

“That’d be good,” she said with a nod. “If I could remember, it wouldn’t be so bad.”

“I’ll be your memory for now. Anything you want to know, just ask me.”

“The fire,” she said. “How did it happen?”

The sight of her scarred wings still made Griffin wince, and though he tried to avoid looking, he often found his eyes dragged back to them. He’d just promised her … but what was the use of telling the truth? Wouldn’t do a bit of good.

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