Krakens and Lies by Tui T. Sutherland

Author:Tui T. Sutherland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

FIFTEEN

“MURDER!” shrieked Scratch. “TOOTHPASTE OF DEATH!”

“He’s not dead!” Zoe cried, feeling her heart burst into overdrive. Logan knelt beside Marco, checking his pulse. “Right? Logan? Tell me he’s not dead!”

“He’s alive,” Logan said, “but what happened? What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know!” Zoe said in a panic.

“MURDEROUS MURDERY TOOTHPASTE! CONSPIRACY OF DOOM!” howled Scratch. He ran in a small circle, flapping his wings frantically. His invisibility glamour was fading parts of his body in and out.

Zoe scrabbled her phone out of her pocket and called her dad.

“Hey, Zoe,” her dad answered. “Just checking out the Reptile House. These repairs are not going to be cheap.”

“Dad,” Zoe cried. “Something’s happened to Marco! We’re up by Scratch and Marco tasted the dragon toothpaste and now he’s collapsed and he’s not moving and I don’t know what to do!”

“I’ll be right there,” her dad said.

“Why so hating of Scratch is the world?” Scratch moaned, throwing himself down on the rocks and covering his head with his talons. “All the tragedies of the universe falling upon head of Scratch. Family exterminated! Accusing-face of honk-bird consumption! And now poison-bedecked toothpaste! Determined on death of Scratch is world!”

“It’s not poison,” Zoe said, trying to calm herself down. “It’s probably just a sedative. A sedative isn’t terrible. Although why would there be a sedative in the toothpaste?”

“Wait,” Logan said. He was trying to roll Marco into a more comfortable position, but he stopped and stared up at the dragon. “Scratch, your family was exterminated?”

“Mother and sister both,” said the dragon with a sigh. “Tragic the life of Scratch.”

“That is really sad,” Logan said, glancing at Zoe. “I didn’t know dragons were exterminated that often.”

“They’re not!” Zoe said, puzzled. “I had no idea, Scratch. I thought SNAPA hardly ever exterminates dragons if they can help it. Two in one family has to be stratospherically rare.”

“Nearly three,” Logan pointed out, nodding at Scratch.

Zoe’s mouth fell open. “There’s no way that’s a coincidence!” she said.

“As intoned Scratch long ago,” said the dragon. “CONSPIRACY.”

Could he be right? Zoe didn’t know what to think. Why would anyone have it out for Scratch? He was dopey, but not a bad dragon. He’d been shipped here from another menagerie five years ago and he’d never gotten in any trouble until this sheep thing.

“We’ll have to look it up. What were their names?” she asked Scratch.

“Sister Scritch, mother Lacewing,” Scratch answered. “Scales now forever resting in the star-time.” He heaved an enormous sigh.

“Here comes help,” Logan said, pointing down the mountain.

Zoe’s dad was sprinting up toward them; some distance behind him, Matthew was leading Captain Fuzzbutt along the path. The mammoth kept stopping to eye the drop below him and Matthew had to keep nudging him forward.

“Dad!” Zoe called.

He stopped to give her a quick hug and then hurried to Marco’s side. “Tell me what happened.”

Zoe explained again about the dragon toothpaste. “Is there something in it?” she asked her dad.

“DEATH, such as for instance?” Scratch suggested.

Her dad cautiously sniffed the tube. “Maybe SNAPA puts a sedative in to make it easier to brush their teeth without upsetting the dragons.

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