The Hidden Beast Read Free Page A

home with a pile of treasure,” she said, “all your relatives will talk to you plenty.”

2
    I t took them longer than they planned to get ready. First, Adam had no equipment, neither a sleeping bag nor a backpack. Sally borrowed stuff from other friends for him. Then Bryce and Leah went off for a long time, and didn’t return until eleven-thirty. By then Watch was worried they wouldn’t even get close to the Teeth before the sun set.
    â€œIt really is a hard hike,” he said as they climbed in the back of Leah’s white truck. Bryce was sitting up front in the cab with his cousin. Watch continued, “The Teeth are pretty high. You have to hike on an incline for a long time.Plus there isn’t much water up there. Whenever we come to a stream, we should drink and refill our bottles.”
    â€œAre you guys comfortable?” Leah shouted out her window.
    â€œYeah,” Sally said, excited. “We’re ready to rock and roll.”
    Leah started the truck and they headed onto the main road that led out of Spooksville, going north. They were in fact taking the same road Watch had taken when he successfully rescued Cindy from a pterodactyl. But when that road finished this time they’d have to take a dirt road to within twenty miles of the Teeth.
    As the warm wind blew in their faces and they veered away from the ocean and their hometown, Adam spoke quietly so that only the four of them could hear.
    â€œDid you notice how little Leah said at our meeting?” he asked.
    Watch nodded. “Nothing we said seemed to surprise her much.”
    â€œI think she’s just shy,” Sally said.
    Cindy also nodded. “I’m not sure I trust her completely.”
    â€œYou don’t like her because she’s prettier than you,” Sally said.
    Cindy sighed. “Oh brother.”
    â€œIf I was her,” Adam said, “and my own private treasure map had just been decoded, I would have been jumping up and down.”
    â€œMaybe she doesn’t know how to jump,” Sally said.
    â€œMaybe nothing we said was new to her,” Watch answered slowly.
    â€œI don’t understand,” Cindy questioned.
    Adam and Watch glanced up front. “I think we should keep an eye on both of them,” Adam said.
    Sally laughed. “Cindy is already keeping an eye on Bryce. I don’t think she ever takes her eyes off him.”
    Cindy snorted. “Who’s the one who gushes over him all the time?”
    â€œYeah, but he almost got me killed,” Sally said. “And he almost destroyed the world in the process. I have trouble forgiving a guy for that.”
    â€œMoney and treasures bring out the worst in people,” Adam said. “We have to watch our backs.”
    They drove for well over an hour. The bumpydirt road was more of a path for walking than for driving. Eventually they dead-ended at the sheer side of a rocky cliff. They had gone as far as they could on four wheels and piled out of the truck. Adam helped Cindy on with her pack. She groaned at its weight.
    â€œThis thing is heavy,” she complained.
    â€œWait until you’re walking up a steep incline with your lips cracked and bleeding and poisonous snakes biting at your exhausted legs,” Sally said. “Then it will feel ten times as heavy.”
    Watch gestured to the sheer cliff in front of them. “We have to hike around this. At first the way is really hard—rocky and steep. Then it levels off some.”
    Adam tugged on the bill of the cap he had brought to keep the sun off his face. He removed the water bottle from his pack and gulped down a big drink.
    â€œWhere’s the first place we can stop and refill our bottles?” Adam asked Watch.
    â€œAbout four hours from here,” Watch said, once more checking his watches. “We won’t get there until around five. But we can’t stop there, not if we plan to get to the Teeth by