The Boy of the Painted Cave Read Online Free

lush and the berries would be ripe for picking. In another stream he found a bed of freshwater mussels. He lay on his stomach and reached into the icy water and picked some of them out of the mud. With his flint knife he pried them open and ate the soft pink flesh. He was still hungry, but he felt better now and a new lightness welled up within him. Here was food in abundance. He leaned down and tried to catch a lazy suckerfish that was swimming along the muddy bottom of the stream, almost within his grasp.
    Suddenly a hideous shriek echoed through the marshland. Wa-woo-oong-eewoo-oo-wahoo, it went, sending an icy chill racing up Tao’s spine. It came from the far side of the creek. Tao jumped up quickly and stood in frozen silence. He looked across the stream to the clump of dark cedars from where the awful scream had come. If he had never seen an evil spirit before, he thought he was about to see one now.

THREE
    T ao found a narrow spot along the stream and vaulted across. Picking his way carefully, he crept forward, step by step. He had not gone far when the fiendish scream came again. It was followed by a series of long, hissing sounds and sobbing moans.
    For a moment Tao hesitated, uncertain, his heart pounding. Maybe the clan people were right. Maybe there were demons and evil things in this shadowy place after all. If there were, he wondered, did he really want to see them? He waited, trying to make up his mind. Then he shrugged his shoulders and pushed on again, quietly, cautiously, watching each step.
    As he drew closer, the loud, piercing shrieks continued. They filled his ears and echoed through the sodden marshland. It was a strange, violent sound, one that he had never heard before. He moved carefully, pushing his way through the brier thickets and around clumps of ferns that grew higher than his head. At any moment he expected some evil demon to jump out of the underbrush. His heart leaped as the screams came again. They were only a few paces away now, and they came from a thick growth of bracken ferns near the base of a lone oak tree. He moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue and clutched his spear tightly, a knot of fear in the pit of his stomach. He took a deep breath and pushed his way through the alders. Then he stepped into the clearing, ready to come face to face with the evil spirit.
    Instead he saw a demon with wings, an angry eagle-owl sitting on the forest floor, protecting her nest from the little wolf dog. Even for an eagle-owl she was huge, almost as high as Tao’s waist. She loomed over the wolf dog as he crept in to get beneath her wings. She flew up, snapping her beak, slashing at him with her sharp talons. She hissed and screamed, her brownish-red feathers ruffled up in bristling rage. Her glossy black pupils, ringed with orange, glared back at the wolf, daring him to try again. Once more the wolf rushed in to chase her off the nest. But the owl would not be led astray. She hovered over the three white eggs, protecting them from the hungry wolf.
    For a few moments Tao stood aside, watching the battle.
    He liked the eagle-owl’s fierce courage. “If there be demons,” he whispered, “you must be one of them.” Yet he felt sorry for her too, for now she had a second enemy to face. Besides, he was afraid the little wolf dog might get hurt.
    Tao lifted his spear and leaned forward to push her away. She turned on him in savage fury, beating him with her wings, slashing at him with her curved talons. He threw up his arms to protect his face as she flew at him. Again the wolf dog dashed in to draw her off, but the feathered demon refused to be chased away. Now the boy and wolf took turns, taunting her, trying to divert her attention. Each time they came too close, she turned quickly, screaming, slashing, driving them off.
    Soon Tao and the wolf dog were panting heavily as they tried again and again to reach the eggs. But the owl was tiring too; she was slowing down.