Wish Granted Read Free Page A

will make us stronger, so that when I return... '
    Katherine stops walking and turns to face him with excitement in her eyes. 'When you return...?'
    'Nothing.' Clarence walks a few more steps as though he hasn't noticed her excitement, but she soon catches up with him, her small hands beating on his chest with mock anger.
    'Do not tease me sir. Perhaps I shall send my father for the King of England after all.'
    Clarence laughs and pulls her close for another kiss, and when they are done he finds the courage to say what he had intended all along. 'When I return from my Uncle's expedition, we shall be married, Katherine.'
    Katherine leaps and squeaks and wraps her arms around his neck. 'Can it really be so?'
    'I shall have to ask your father, of course, but when I return from my Uncle's hunt, he will see me with new eyes. You will see that it is true.'
    She smiles a deep smile and holds him for a long time.
    A group of children scurry past, singing a song about the burning bridges of London and giggling at the sight of them holding each other, but Clarence doesn't care. He is in a world of bliss.
    'Does it have to be Africa?' Katherine asks. 'Could your Uncle not forge an expedition to Europe? Somewhere closer, so that you could return in... in a month?'
    'A month! Why it will take longer than a month to reach Africa. Europe would not be the same, my dear. Africa is a wild and distant place full of creatures that you cannot imagine. To journey there is the only way to push ourselves to new limits.'
    'But why?'
    Clarence holds one finger to her lips, requesting her patience. 'I am young, Katherine. My Uncle has provided me with this wonderful opportunity to prove myself. When I return, I will be able to take any position I please. Clarence the explorer and hunter of wild beasts! Who will turn down such stories as I shall possess?'
    Katherine gazes into his eyes but he can see that she still doesn't understand why he has to go.
    'Oh Katherine. Africa is full of beasts you would not believe. Have you not seen the paintings in my Uncle's study? I have to see these creatures for myself. I wish I had the power of a lion, and the speed of a cheetah. I wish I could leap like a gazelle! Oh what it would be to be strong and powerful - to be the mightiest beast of them all.'
    'But Africa is so far away.'
    Clarence shakes his head. 'I am an explorer, Katherine. Had I the chance, I would journey to the Moon itself!' He lifts his silver fox head cane and points it at the matching silver crescent of the Moon.
    'Go if you must,' Katherine says, 'but I wish you had not the mouth to say such things.'
    Clarence gasps. He feels a pain in his chest. He knows at once that something isn't right. The cane vibrates in his hand. He lowers it, watching the fox's smiling face glowing white hot against the night. When he tries to drop the cane, he finds that his fingers refuse to let go. The Moon bulges in the sky above, and his hand rises against his will until the Moon and the fox head shine together with a vehemence that fills his heart with fear. He stumbles forwards into a strange black void that has opened up before him. The summer's warmth vanishes at once, replaced by a bitter cold that leaves no room for comfort. His thin arms contort in agony, rippling with the sprawling muscles of some strange beast. His back bends low, and his knees crunch as the joints reverse to pivot backwards instead of forwards. Clarence cries out in pain and despair. He doesn't know what has happened, but even his voice sounds wrong in the eternal blackness of the void. His words sound like an alien roar that fades as his ears seal over with a thick grey skin. His mouth closes also, and his nose is lost under a rough grey hide like a rhinoceros. Powerful strands of muscle bulge from his once slender neck, and long black talons extend from his grey, swollen fists. Clarence shudders in agony, tumbling onwards through the void, all sounds diminishing until there is nothing