Red Moon Rising by K. A. Holt

Author:K. A. Holt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

19

“PITAR!” I YELL. “RO-RI-TA, KWIHUUTSUU!”

Jo is laughing so hard, her snuffle-snickers echo off the rock walls of the small canyon we’re in. “Do not fight the Kwihuutsuu, Tootie,” Jo shouts up at me through her laughter.

“Do not call me Tootie!” I shout back, my hands scrambling over the pink scales of the baby Kwihuutsuu’s neck. She is actually not such a baby anymore. Her wingspan is so wide that if you are standing anywhere within ten hands of her, you would be good to step out of the way when she unfurls her wings or else prepare yourself for a mighty smack in the face. And she is not even full grown, yet.

The Kwihuutsuu streaks up to the sky like a light arrow, and it’s lucky the reins are knotted to one of my hands, otherwise I would have just tumbled to my death. As it is, I am hanging on by one painfully dangling arm as I smack the beast with my other hand and yell things like, “AAACK!” and “Slow down!” and “Whoa!”

“She must understand you is the barka, Tootie,” Jo yells to me. I can barely hear her over the wind and the pounding of my heart.

“Barka?” I yell back, trying to remember the meaning of the word. “Boss, you mean?” I would laugh if my throat weren’t filled with terror-induced bile.

“She must trust in you,” Jo says as the Kwihuutsuu changes course and begins a deadly dive straight into the canyon. “Teach sweet Kwihuu the trust she needs.”

Sweet Kwihuu? Right. Now the strap around my hand is saving my life as I fly behind the beast like a spark at the end of A’akow’s ankle ropes. She flattens out her dive just a bit and I am able to scrabble onto her back, holding on tightly with my knees. She must feel my knees squeezing her because she whips her head around and tries to bite off my left foot, jaws snapping, eyes narrowed.

“Whoa!” I yell, yanking my foot back. “Did you see that, Jo? She’s trying to eat my feet.” We skim over Jo’s head as I yell to her. She waves up at me.

“If you wear the nantolas she not do this thing,” Jo says.

“Naa! ” I shout down at her. “Those are gum ugly shoes, Jo. They are indecent.”

Kwihuu decides to show off now, and twists her body in a full spiral, throwing me through the air like a seed blowing in the wind. I hold tightly to the reins, closing my eyes and wishing for this lesson to end.

“Ho laa! ” Jo yells to me. “You naa pay attention to what Kwihuu telling you. She plays now. You must tell her is learning time.”

How am I supposed to tell this fierce beast it is not playing time? I think of Papa rapping our knuckles with his slate when we didn’t pay attention during lessons. I do not think Kwihuutsuu have knuckles.

“Hey!” I yell at her. “Stop this, you beast! We are to be learning now, you and I.

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