Outcast by Michelle Paver

Author:Michelle Paver
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Social Issues, Prehistory, Animals, Demoniac possession, Wolves & Coyotes, Juvenile Fiction, Prehistoric peoples, Fantasy & Magic, General, Horror & Ghost Stories, Historical, Fiction, Values & Virtues, Good and evil
ISBN: 9780606001410
Publisher: Orion Childrens' Books
Published: 2009-11-14T22:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

Torak cowered on his scratchy bed of pine-needles,listening to the World Spirit punishing the trees. He was terrified of the hail, and of whatever had fallen onto the roof. He was terrified of everything: the Lake, the Hidden People, but most of all, the wolves. They were waiting for him in the Forest. Sometimes he glimpsed the big gray one sneaking about just out of stone-shot, waiting to pounce.

Because of the wolves, he hadn't dared go into the Forest. Instead, he eked out an existence on frost-shriveled berries and blackened mushrooms, with the 185 occasional slimy green hopping thing when he could catch one.

The world no longer made sense. The sky screamed at him, and from the trees, little red scuttling things pelted him with wooden fruit. Darts of green lightning shot past, laughing at him, and slithery brown creatures bobbed about in the water, scolding him. While he slept, a monster came and gnawed his shelter, and when he woke up, he saw branches swimming upstream.

Again something thudded onto the roof. This time, it squawked. Torak shut his eyes tight. At last the storm blew over and the hail stopped. Shaking with fear, he grabbed his axe and crawled out.

The ice had flattened undergrowth and ripped off branches; it had covered the beach in hard, translucent pebbles, which crunched under his bare feet. In a patch of crushed bracken, something stirred.

No. Two somethings. A pair of big black birds. Gripping his axe, Torak edged closer. The larger one gave a terrified squawk and flapped, its wings, while the smaller one tucked its head into its shoulders and pretended it wasn't there. Torak saw the wreck of a nest, high-in a tree. The birds must have fallen out, bounced off his shelter and into the bracken. 186

He took a step closer--which sent them into a frenzy of wing-flapping and high-pitched squeaks.

He blinked.Theywere frightened ofhim.

He saw that the corners of their mouths were a crinkly pink, and although the span of their wings was almost as wide as his outstretched arms, all that flapping wasn't achieving anything.

"You can't fly," he said out loud.

That put an end to the flapping. They huddled together and stared up at him, shivering with terror. His belly tightened. So much meat. And as they couldn't fly, it would be easy. To his dismay, he couldn't do it. They reminded him of something. Or someone. He didn't remember what. A rapidquork quork quorksplit the sky, and he dropped to all fours.

High overhead, another big black bird wheeled-- except this one could fly. Alighting on the remains of the nest, it glared down at him. Its head-feathers were fluffed up like ears, its wings spread.

Angrily it snapped off a twig and threw it at him. Then it threw down several of the wooden fruits. Quork quork quork!

"Leave me alone!" he shouted. Greatly daring, he picked up a wooden fruit and threw it back.

The bird hitched itself into the sky and flew away. When he was sure it wasn't coming back, Torak left

187

the young ones on their own and went to forage on the shore.

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