Dreamwater Read Online Free Page B

Spiked One and his friends. You know they are trouble.
    He bit his lip.
    The ground crunched beneath his light steps and wavelets whispered on the sandy shore. Drawing sharp intakes of breath that hurt his chest, he stood on top of a dune and peered around. His eyes flitted over the glassy surface of the water to the dark shapes of bushes and gnarled trees that grew nearby. The moon framed everything in silver.
    No sign of Aima.
    “Shades and shinks.” He jogged down to the shore, eyes darting, checking every hollow and every shadow that could be hiding Aima.
    Nothing.
    A thin scream rang. Jun froze. A moment later he gathered his wits and climbed the next dune. A small bay. He dashed down, spraying sand all around.
    A water lizard stretched there in all its terrible beauty, metallic brown with stripes of bright yellow and red.
    The lizard had someone in its mouth.
    Please let it not be Aima.
    Jun rushed toward the lizard. It paid him no heed as he came on yelling, brandishing a rock he had gathered on his way. It didn’t even move when he threw the stone and struck the beast right over the eye.
    The lizard ground its jaws. Its victim screamed, then fell quiet.
    Jun forgot how to breathe. The lizard blinked its huge yellow eyes, then spun around, blinding Jun with a torrent of wet sand, and dove back into the pond.
    Jun wiped at his eyes and cursed at fading ripples that told where the lizard and his victim had gone. Moisture kept leaking from his eyes.
    Had it been Aima? Was she now gone forever? My fault. I took too long .
    He pressed his lips together and turned to go, a weight on his chest making each breath a struggle.
    A blue glimmer on the sand caught his gaze. He stared in disbelief. It was the sky-blue armor he had fought for and lost. The lizard had eaten the young one, but spat out the armor.
    Not Aima. It hadn’t been Aima.
    Joy filled him, stronger than a fever, and his whole body shook.
    On wobbly legs he walked to the armor and picked it up, turned it this way and that. Its spiral patterns of green and yellow shone in the moonlight, the tiny spikes on the shoulders gleamed like blades.
    Long scratches ran down one side, but it was otherwise intact.
    He had known it was too large for the youngling. His hooks had surely been too small to connect properly.
    He pulled it on. He had known it would fit perfectly, but he could not contain the sigh of pleasure that escaped him as the armor hugged his body. It fell flawlessly around him, like a second skin over his body’s contours, like a caress. His back hooks grappled and secured it into place.
    He threw back his head and released a cry of pure joy. His hands smoothed over the arm sheathes, the relief of lines on the helm. All his. His arms and legs were already taking on the colors and patterns, turning blue.
    A whimper drew his attention away from himself. He walked over to the next dune and stood gaping.
    A great one, a white Spiked One, cowered there.  Jun would know those armor patterns anywhere.
     “Noon Sky White?” Jun’s voice squeaked and he coughed to clear it. “What are you doing—”
    “Is it gone? Is the lizard gone?” Noon Sky White uncurled a little, his arms unlocking from around his knees, allowing a glimpse of his pale face. “You should run, fast, blue one. A lizard attacked our party.”
    Jun’s eyes narrowed. “It’s gone now. What are you doing here so late?”
    Noon Sky White hung his head. “They dared me to walk along the shore. It’s their fault.”
    “You let the young one die.”
    Noon Sky White said nothing, and Jun strode away, anger humming in his chest. Noon Sky White was rumored to have fought a bird and saved a young of his clan once. Now Jun wondered about the truth of it.
    His steps echoed on a stretch of white rock gleaming in the moonlight, and he heard plonking sounds from the surrounding dunes. He turned to see more Shell people rolling down, heads tucked in, armored arms folded tight over knees.
    Cowards