Heaven Cent Read Online Free

(high that smarted something awful. “Have you any other remarks to make?” he asked acidly.
    “Me? Of course not,” Marrow said.
    "Well, then, how can I get into the air when everything always goes wrong?''
    “Perhaps if you take off into a headwind, it will be more effective.”
    “But the wind will push me back!”
    “I confess that it seems nonsensical, but I have seen birds do it that way.”
    “Well, okay, but if I crash again, it's your fault!”
    “Naturally,” Marrow agreed without rancor. His blood never got riled, because he had none.
    They walked downwind until they had plenty of runway. Then Dolph changed yet again, oriented, spread his wings, picked up the skeleton, and paused.
    Sure enough, Marrow had a thought. “Yet—”
    This time Dolph waited for the conclusion.
    “—perhaps you should eat first.”
    Eat? He was hungry, but that could wait. He was eager to get on to the Good Magician's castle and get on with the adventure!
    He pumped his wings and jumped into the air. The headwind caught him immediately, giving him excellent lift. There was no question about his ability to fly high now! He was on his way!
    Then he furled his wings somewhat and glided back to ground. He made a pretty good landing, then changed back to boy form. “Why?”
    “Because I understand that flying requires a lot of energy, and energy for living creatures comes from the food they ingest,” Marrow explained.
    Dolph thought about what would happen if he ran out of energy over some deep ocean or where a dragon was lurking nearby. “Okay, I'll eat. Give me my knapsack.”
    “I wonder—”
    Dolph impatiently grabbed the knapsack. He fished out a sandwich, then paused.
    “—whether energy is relative or absolute,” Marrow finished.
    “What are you talking about?”
    “It occurs to me that you have sandwiches for only a few meals. They might go farther if—”
    Dolph opened his mouth to take a huge bite, but paused again, bite untaken. He waited.
    “—you consumed them in smaller size.”
    Dolph thought about that. “You know, when I'm in a big form, like a sphinx, I can eat an awful lot, but I get hungry again the same time even if I turn small. When I'm small, and I eat, then I turn big and I still get hungry in the same time. I never thought about it before.”
    “So if you ate a crumb in ant form, it might last you as long as a whole sandwich in boy form, or a whole carcass in roc form,” Marrow said.
    “I guess so.” Dolph looked at the sandwich. “But if I became an ant, someone might step on me.”
    Marrow picked a bit of bread from the sandwich and held it in his bone-fingered hand. “I will not step on you.”
    And of course he would not; Marrow never hurt anyone. Dolph realized that this was one excellent use of a companion: to protect him when for some reason he was in a vulnerable state. Of course, he would not go so far as to concede that his mother might have had a point about the need for a companion, but certainly there could be an advantage.
    He reached out and took hold of the end of Marrow's bone finger with two of his own flesh fingers. Then he became an ant. Suddenly he was clinging by the hairs of one leg to that huge white bone. But in the small form he weighed so little that it was easy to cling, and indeed, if he fell he would not be hurt. He climbed up to thie top of the finger, then walked along it to the network of bones that was the hand. There perched the crumb. He bit into it, and it was delicious, the ideal ant food.
    Soon he was full, and the crumb was only partly gone. He walked to the end of a finger and jumped off. As he fell he changed back to boy form. He still felt full. “Let's go!” he said. “I'm full of energy now!”
    Marrow gathered up the pack and clothing again, and Dolph turned into the roc again, and picked up the skeleton. He spread his wings.
    “I suspect—” Marrow began.
    Dolph waited. He bad learned to pay attention. His mother would have approved