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<title>Spellbinder - Chapter 9</title>
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<h1>9</h1><p>The snake lunged, a blur of black. Pure reflex made Jack lift his hands to defend himself.</p>
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<p>Then he disappeared.</p>
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<p>Kerry saw it in a flicker of motion. The snake struck. Its fangs stabbed deep into the ash stave. And Jack simply <em>vanished</em>.</p>
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<p>Venom spurted out, sizzling into the wood like acid and the snake, glistening black, rolled in a tangle of shiny coils, madly shaking its head while its eyes glared, trying to free its fangs from the wood.</p>
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<p>Kerry leapt back as its tail slapped his shin. It was long and thin and thrashing violently.</p>
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<p>"Jack?" He looked about him, darting his eyes back to the writhing serpent that was still trying to dislodge its fangs from the wood.</p>
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<p>"Over here."</p>
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<p>"Where?"</p>
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<p>He saw a movement. Jack was somehow about forty feet away, lowering himself from the branch of a tree, though Kerry had no idea how he had got there. Kerry moved cautiously towards him, eyes alert for any other snakes which might be lying in ambush.</p>
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<p>"Did you see that?"</p>
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<p>"Couldn't keep my eyes off it. What happened to you?</p>
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<p>The snake hissed and twisted.</p>
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<p>"Kill it," Jack said. "There's something badly wrong about this."</p>
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<p>"You're telling me. See the size of it? I thought you didn't get snakes in Ireland."</p>
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<p>Just as he spoke, the thin tail coiled around Kerry's ankle and suddenly the thing was on him, winding itself in loops up his leg. It still shook its head like a terrier with a rat and finally the ash stave broke off and went flying. Kerry's hand clamped just under the head as it drew back to strike again and Jack saw long hinged fangs swing forward.</p>
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<p>Kerry tripped, entangled in the coils, desperately trying to hold those teeth away from his face. The snake lunged again, forcing his arm back and the fangs missed his cheek by a whisker. Kerry's free hand was trying for his sword, but he had fallen on top of it and couldn't reach to grab the hilt.</p>
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<p>Without a pause, Jack pulled a black arrow from his quiver, the last of them from the major's study. He held it like a dagger as he stepped in while Kerry rolled and struggled with the snake and slashed down with all his strength.</p>
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<p>The barb went right between its eyes and pinned its head to a root. Immediately its coils opened and it went into a shuddering spasm, poison drooling from its fangs until after a few moments it went suddenly rigid and stopped moving.</p>
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<p>Kerry got to his feet, drew the sword and with one swipe took the head clean off. The headless body writhed a little more and the venom pattered to the ground, sending up little puffs of vapour.</p>
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<p>Kerry was breathing hard, his face ghostly pale.</p>
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<p>"Nearly had me, Jack," he said. "That was too close. I hate snakes. <em>Really</em> hate them. They give me the heebie-jeebies."</p>
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<p>He checked his blade, wiped it clean on a fern.</p>
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<p>"And anyway, what happened to you? One second you were there, and then you disappeared."</p>
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<p>Jack shook his head. "I don't know. I just jumped back and then I found myself up in that tree. It was all just a blur."</p>
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<p>"Never saw anything move that fast."</p>
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<p>"It sure was. I never even saw it coming."</p>
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<p>"Not the snake, Jack. You. Like greased freaking lightning you were."</p>
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<p>Just as he spoke, dry leaves rustled in a crackly whisper. Kerry's eyes swung groundwards and for a second he saw nothing at all. Then, without warning, he shoved Jack with his free hand, pushing him back two steps.</p>
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<p>A short snake raised its blunt head from the leaf scatter. A black forked tongue flicked out. A yard away, another one uncoiled, perfectly camouflaged. A third oozed out silently from a hollow log.</p>
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<p>In mere seconds, the whole forest floor seemed to come alive with snakes as thick as an arm, dozens of beady eyes fixed on the two boys. They all hissed, a strange sound like venting steam. Kerry shuddered.</p>
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<p>"Jack I think we better…"</p>
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<p>Jack grabbed him by the sleeve and they were running.</p>
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<p>Underfoot, snakes struck at their legs, almost too fast to see.</p>
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<p>But Jack and Kerry were faster still. They moved in a blur, jinking this way and that, sending up a wake of dry leaves. A snake reared up in front of Jack and without thinking he stamped it flat with a satisfying crunch.</p>
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<p>And still they were running, so fast that everything else seemed to go in slow motion, until they were beyond the clearing and into the dense centre of this forest. Finally Jack slowed and came to a halt.</p>
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<p>Kerry swept a hand across his brow. All his nerves seemed to be jittering.</p>
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<p>"Did you get bitten?" Jack asked.</p>
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<p>Kerry shook his head. "I was going a mile a minute. I squashed a couple I think, but none of them got their teeth in."</p>
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<p>He scratched his head. "But I have to tell you, I've never run as fast as that in my life. Being scared makes you go faster."</p>
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<p>"It wasn't being scared," Jack said. He sat on a log, scanning all round first to make sure there were no unpleasant surprises, then raised his foot.</p>
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<p>"It's these boots. I think the little fellow was trying to tell us something. When that big thing came for me, I didn't even think. Next thing I knew, I was up in a tree. I think I must have jumped."</p>
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<p>"That was some jump. Ten feet at least. More, even."</p>
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<p>"And then," Jack continued, "when we made a run for it, I could see all these snakes coming for us, but they looked like they were going slow. And we were going <em>fast.</em>"</p>
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<p>Kerry looked down at his own new boots. "Much better than Oxfam then. I wish I'd had them every time Billy Robbins chased me at school. And when those Scree were after us."</p>
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<p>"Just as well we never took the gold," Jack said, beginning to relax. "It wouldn't have done us any good." He looked around them, trying to work out which direction to go. They'd been heading south, but he wasn't quite sure which way they'd gone when they ran from the snake-glade. Here in the forest, the trunks crowded together like hoary old men, with barely room for the two of them to walk side by side. Above them, the canopy was dense enough to block out the day, making this a real twilight zone.</p>
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<p>"That way," I think, he pointed. Kerry didn't question his sense of direction.</p>
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<p>The forest was even darker here, with only a thin winding trail between the trees, worn by some animals that passed this way. The only sound was the murmur of insects and the slither of things under brown leaves. It was difficult to make out shapes more that twenty feet ahead and the confines gave them both a sense of claustrophobia, as if the trees were closing in on them.</p>
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<p>They moved warily, apprehensive, eyes wide. Kerry had his sword out, just in case.</p>
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<p>After half a mile, Jack knew they were heading in the wrong direction, but the narrow trail wound around trunks and mossy banks, but for the moment, it was the only way to go.</p>
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<p>He stopped and touched Kerry's arm.</p>
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<p>"I heard something."</p>
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<p>Kerry nodded silently.</p>
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<p>The sound was almost below the hearing threshold, more of a sensation than actual sound. Like a deep vibration, somehow as oppressive as the darkwood itself.</p>
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<p>"What is it?"</p>
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<p>"Dunno, but we have to keep moving."</p>
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<p>Jack felt the heartstone squeeze against his chest and immediately his hackles crawled. It was always a warning, as if the heart was a living thing and could sense danger. He had learned, with good reason, to trust it.</p>
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<p>"Something's wrong again."</p>
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<p>"I know that already. We need to get out of here."</p>
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<p>"But we're going in the wrong direction. It's the trees, and the track itself. And those sounds we hear. It's as if we were being led the wrong way." He brushed a cobweb away and the spider at its centre scuttled up its drag-line in a creepy rustle of joints. The web parted with an audible snap.</p>
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<p>And still that low pervasive sound shivered through them.</p>
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<p>"Jack I really think….."</p>
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<p>But Jack had halted, Behind them, the leaves were stirring, moving in little waves as though unseen lurkers came nearer.</p>
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<p>Ahead of them, beyond two grey trunks, a shaft of thin light managed to pierce the thick canopy. Jack saw a stone wall.</p>
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<p>"Maybe it's the edge," he said. "Like Cromwath Blackwood."</p>
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<p>They'd planned to sneak into the Blackwood and then found themselves lost when they were running for their lives on that first night. The night they fell through the gateway and crossed over to a land of legend.</p>
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<p>They passed between the trunks. Jack felt a shudder run through him, though whether is was a tremor in the earth or something inside him, he couldn't quite tell.</p>
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<p>Then they saw it was no boundary wall.</p>
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<p>It was a house. Old and sagging, built from crumbling stones festooned with ivy. A swaybacked roof could have been mildewed thatch, or it could have simply been covered by years of falling leaves and twigs.</p>
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<p>A doorway gaped, pure black in this light. Two slit windows on either side were like blind eyes.</p>
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<p>"Looks like a forester's house," Jack said. "Must be mad to live out here."</p>
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<p>"We could hide in there until morning," Kerry said. "I think it's getting late, and I sure don't want to be wandering around when it gets really dark."</p>
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<p>They walked forward, shoulder to shoulder, snatching glances around them in case a blunt head should strike out and bite.</p>
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<p>"Maybe we could light a fire," Jack said.</p>
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<p>"Hello?" Kerry's voice was swallowed by the forest. "Anybody home?"</p>
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<p>They cautiously made their way across the clearing.</p>
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<p>They were only ten yards from the little stone house when a sudden inexplicable smell of crisp hot bacon made Jack's mouth instantly begin to water. His stomach rumbled involuntarily.</p>
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<p>"Oh, man," Kerry said. "That smells like pure heaven."</p>
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<p>He pulled away from Jack and almost ran towards the doorway. Inside, Jack thought he could make out the flicker of an open fire reflecting on a wall.</p>
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<p>Then, as Kerry approached Jack saw a movement that made his heart lurch.</p>
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<p>The stone doorway gaped wider.</p>
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<p>It was just a small motion, barely perceptible to anyone who wasn't completely alert for any danger. But the heartstone on his chest was pulsing a steady beat, and Jack was totally alert.</p>
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<p>At first he thought he'd imagined it. Kerry was another step closer and Jack saw, this time saw for sure, the door opened wider. Not only that, but the square shape of the uprights and stone lintel were bent out of true. And beside it, on either side, the black window spaces seemed to get narrower.</p>
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<p>From somewhere in his memory, from a nature programme he'd seen, Jack got a picture of a lion in the Serengeti, stretching and yawning wide just before a hunt.</p>
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<p>In that instant, the mouth-watering smell of bacon turned into the foul reek of rotting flesh.</p>
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<p>Without even thinking, Jack snatched at Kerry's hood and dragged him back with such force Kerry landed with a thump on his backside.</p>
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<p>"What in the name…" he started to say, scrambling to his feet, before he too caught the stench emanating from the doorway and he clapped a hand over his mouth, gagging.</p>
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<p>Jack grabbed his arm and pulled him back, eyes fixed on the doorway where the lintel was now no longer flat, but rough and jagged, like a row of mouldering teeth ready to crunch down.</p>
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<p>And something spoke inside his head, deep as the rumble of a far-off waterfall.</p>
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<p>"Come in. <em>Come in!</em>"</p>
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<p>Jack shook his head, still hauling on Kerry who was still bent over and retching in dry heaves.</p>
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<p>"<em>Boyssss. Tasssty boysss</em>."</p>
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<p>The sound in his head felt old and dirty and very, very hungry.</p>
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<p>Jack suddenly remembered what Rune the Cluricaun had told them: old, bad things have woken hungry in the dark places.</p>
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<p>He sensed the awesome hunger in that strange house and he knew the shape was an image put into their minds by whatever bad and old and hungry had awoken here in the depths of the forest.</p>
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<p>Without a pause he pulled Kerry as far from the yawning doorway as he could.</p>
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<p>"Move," he cried. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the windows close to black slits and the gaping maw expand outwards towards them, just as the air about them was sucked back, dragging them both and sending leaves and twigs whipping past them into the depths of the house.</p>
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<p>Jack bent down to minimise the suction of the wind, which felt like a hellish intake of breath and kept moving until he was far enough from it to lessen its force and then they were both moving in step, bolting for the big trees on the edge of the dark glade.</p>
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<p>They barged through, snapping the spiders webs, fending off trailing branches.</p>
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<p>Jack risked a look over his shoulder and saw that the house had changed.</p>
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<p>It no longer looked anything like a house. It was more like a rocky mound in the centre of the clearing, covered with twigs and fallen leaves, slowly subsiding back into the forest floor.</p>
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<p>Whatever it was had disguised itself to lure them inside, and the dreadful hunger Jack had sensed told him that they would never have made it back out again had they stepped beyond that threshold.</p>
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<p>They ran like the wind, scampering like rabbits, zig-zagging between the trunks, Jack's hand still clamped on Kerry's arm to make sure they didn't get separated in their flight.</p>
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<p>Behind them something rumbled like a rock-fall and under their feet the ground flexed and buckled, almost throwing them headlong. A powerful ripple undulated across the forest floor.</p>
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<p>Jack snatched another backward glance and his heart leapt into his throat as if trying to escape.</p>
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<p>The house was completely gone. But at the edge of the clearing, the ground heaved like a bow-wave bearing down on them; a tidal bore of earth and moss thrown up by something big and fast that churned under surface towards them. Roots cracked and rocks exploded into the air.</p>
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<p>The boys ran like greyhounds. Trees blurred past them in their flight whilst behind them, the crashing sound got louder as the un-seen horror gained on them.</p>
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<p>Over a fallen tree, through a watery runnel and up a bank. Still the underground thing bored towards them. They sped between trunks, managing to keep just ahead when they breasted a rise ran down the slope beyond.</p>
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<p>Ahead of them a narrow gully split the forest floor. There was no way to turn, nowhere else to go. They kept running, step for step, hauling for breath, expecting the ground to open any second and for something old and hungry to swallow them whole.</p>
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<p>The gap was only yards away, steep and damp. Dank water moved past jagged rocks twenty feet down.</p>
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<p>Then they were on the edge, with the thunderous approach behind them. </p>
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<p>Without pausing to think, they leapt.</p>
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<p>Jack landed right at the lip of the gully, fingers scrabbling at wet rock and knobbly roots. Kerry slapped into his legs, almost throwing him backwards, but he managed to get his fingers round a root.</p>
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<p>Kerry cried out. Jack saw his arms reach for purchase and then he began to topple back. Instinctively Jack snatched at the sword with one hand while he grabbed Kerry's hood with the other. As he turned, he stabbed the sword deep into the big root and used it as an anchor.</p>
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<p>Kerry cursed, clambered up, using Jack as a ladder, rolled over the lip and then pulled Jack up.</p>
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<p>Both of them turned, expecting the monstrous subterranean thing to come blasting out of the gully wall. Small stones and loose earth shook free and avalanched down to the dark water, but whatever was there, whatever had chased them, went no further.</p>
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<p>"Won't cross water," Jack guessed. "We were dead lucky."</p>
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<p>"I'll never eat bacon again as long as I live," Kerry vowed when he got his breath back "Cross my heart."</p>
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<p>"Rule number one," Jack said. "Get out of these woods and stay out."</p>
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<p>Kerry agreed wholeheartedly with that. They picked themselves up and kept running through the trees until eventually they saw some daylight ahead of them and barged through the thin brush at the edge of the forest and out into the clear.</p>
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<p>Just downslope, a hardpack road wended south, between thick hedgerows. A few moments later they were on their way, thorn-scratched and breathless, but each in one piece.</p>
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<p>And they had walked only half a mile when a snarling beast as big as a pony came crashing out from the hedge, opened its jaws and snatched Kerry into the air.</p>
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<p> </p>
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