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A
Kender Exploring a Cave . . .
Pip ran off
while Keene explored. To his disappointment, there was nothing to see.
No snow monsters, only gray, stony walls. Keene turned to leave. He took
the last bite of his apple, tossed it over his shoulder, then pulled out
a strip of dried venison to munch.
When he
stepped out of the cave, Keene saw Pip and Jirah racing toward him. "Pip
was right," Keene yelled. "There was nothing interesting in there."
Jirah's eyes
widened, her mouth dropped open, and she pointed at him, yelling
something. Her voice was carried by the wind so that Keene couldn't make
out her words.
A warm blast
that smelled like stinky fish buffeted Keene's neck. Bad breath. Worse
than old pirate Black Teeth's breath. Keene was about to tell the owner
of the fishy breath to please be polite and step back, but a cold, wet
something jabbed his neck.
"Didn't your
mother teach you manners?" Keene said as he turned to se a very, very
large white bear. "Hey, Jirah, look! It's an icebear." The bear yawned,
revealing a lot of very, very sharp fangs with bits of apple core
sticking to them. "Are you hungry, fella?'
The icebear
opened its mouth wider, making a loud noise that sounded like
"Bawwwl. Bawwwl." Then it swung its head back and forth in front of
Keene while its wet black nostrils quivered in rapid sniffs.
Keene
wondered if he smelled better to the icebear than the icebear smelled to
him. The icebear slid its eel-like tongue over its extraordinarily large
muzzle. The strip of venison hung limply in Keene's hand. His stomach
soured and he could barely chew the bit of venison in his mouth as he
remembered what Bem had told him. He had said, "Watch out for icebears.
Captain Nine Lives said they will attack anything that crosses their
path, including people."
Keene
noticed the icebear's huge paw came equipped with five dagger-sharp
claws. He knew if he tried to run, the bear would only slap him down.
Keene tightened his grip on the venison, shoved it into the icebear's
mouth, grabbed hold of the icebear's neck, and swung himself upon its
back.
By now,
Icefire, Davyn, and Nearra had caught up to Jirah. They stared in horror
as the icebear twisted and turned and bawled, trying to throw Keene off
its back. Keene clutched the icebear's fur as his backside flew up, then
slammed down. He laughed and whooped and said, "Hey, look at me! I'm
Keene Bearrider." |
