Harry the Poisonous Centipede (7 page)

George made lots of humps along his back with excitement.

When the next night ended, they were put to bed (as we would say – they
didn't have beds like ours, of course; they crawled under damp leaves that Belinda had dragged down the tunnel). George was staying over in Harry's nest. Belinda tucked them in and kissed them. She did this by making sure their leaves were damp and passing her feelers gently over their heads.

“Good bright-time. Sleep till night-time. Mind the ants don't have a bite-time,” she said, to tease them. (That's the nearest I can get to what she said in Centipedish.)

Then she went off to her own rest. Full-grown centipedes go to sleep at the same time as centis. So Harry and George didn't have long to wait.

As soon as all was still, they crept up an up-tunnel. Harry was trembling with excitement. Before long they could see bright light coming down. They were not used to light and they didn't feel comfortable. Centipedes can't close their eyes. So they tilted their heads downwards and felt their way forward with their feelers.

They hadn't reached the tunnel's entrance when they heard that thumping again! It was right overhead!

“It's a Hoo-Min!” crackled George. “Walking on its hairy biter feet!”

But now it was Harry who felt brave.

“Come on! Let's peep at it!”

They crawled the rest of the way up the tunnel towards the light.

As soon as their two little heads poked out of the tunnel, they saw it!

Only they didn't recognise it at first. They were looking for a tree with cat-or-dog feet. And this was something quite different – as you know, because what they saw looked very like you. Only a lot bigger.

Their weak little eyes were almost dazzled by the bright sunlight. But standing just a little way away was a – well, what could they call it? A Thing.

A monster. They had never seen or dreamt of anything half as big, awful and scary.

“Is that one?”

“It must be!”

“It's not – it's not big like I thought!” crackled Harry.

“No!” George crackled back. “It's worse!”

The Hoo-Min came towards their tunnel. They shrank back into it.

The huge feet thumped the ground, which shook and trembled. The two centis cowered down. One foot slammed right down over the hole, shutting out the light. For a second there was darkness. Then the foot lifted and the light shone in again.

The thumping got fainter as the Hoo-Min walked away.

George and Harry cautiously lifted their heads above the ground and watched it go.

“It – it makes the mole-cricket look like an ant!”

“I bet even hairy biters and belly-crawlers are scared of Hoo-Mins!”

Then George said something unbelievable.

“Let's follow it!”

Harry let out a great crackle. “ARE YOU CRAZY?”

“Its eyes must be in that round part at the top. How could it see us? It's so far up from us. Let's just run after it and see what it does!”

And without waiting for Harry, George scurried out of the tunnel and took off on all his forty-two legs, after the Hoo-Min.

You've probably noticed that Harry nearly always did what George did.

But not this time.

After dithering for a bit, he turned and ran back down the tunnel to his home-nest. Belinda was there, of course, fast asleep.

“Mama! Wake up!” crackled Harry.

Belinda shot out from under her leaf.

“What? What is it? Is it a belly-crawler?”

“No, Mama! It's a Hoo-Min!”

If centipedes could turn pale, Belinda would have become a white centipede.

Her front feelers waved so wildly they bumped into each other and twisted together. It was like a person wringing their hands.

“Where?” she breathed at last.

“On – on the no-top world, Mama.”

Belinda untwisted her feelers and seized Harry with her pincers.

“What are you frightening me for? Where else would a Hoo-Min be? We're quite safe down here! Hx, if this is your idea of a joke—”

“But Mama – Grndd is up there too!”

Belinda let Harry go.

Grnddjl – Grndd for short – George – had no mother. It was his own fault for leaving her, but the fact was, he had
no one to look after him. No one but Belinda.

She didn't waste time asking any more questions.

“Come on,” she said, and began racing up the nearest up-tunnel.

Harry raced after her.

Halfway along it, she stopped dead and Harry ran into her rear segment.

Without a crackle, she turned round, ran back, ran along another tunnel, stopped, listened and turned again.

All the time Harry was trying to follow her, bumping into her, having her run over him as she turned, and then running after her again. He couldn't make out what she was doing. But suddenly he heard the thumping overhead again, and he understood.

Belinda was trying to find out exactly where the Hoo-Min was, above them.

Now she ran into another tunnel. Belinda knew the network of tunnels very well. She knew how to get to the surface in the right place – nearest the Hoo-Min.

They poked their heads out of the tunnel. The brightness fell on them. It hurt their eyes. But they put up their feelers and scented the air with them.

Harry sensed the Hoo-Min at once. It had a very strong smell and it put out a lot of heat. Even in the hot sunshine he could feel it in his sensitive feeler-tips. The Hoo-Min was very close to them. So close its shadow fell on them.

“Can you sense Grndd?” Belinda asked.

They were both waving their feelers desperately in all directions.

“Yes! He's over there!” said Harry, pointing both feelers.

“I sense him. I'm going to fetch him.”

“No, Mama! Don't! The Hoo-Min—”

“Stay here! Don't you dare come out till I get back!”

Belinda dashed out of the hole.

She headed straight for George, who was hiding under a bit of stick. He'd followed the Hoo-Min for quite a long way and was now watching it, fascinated.

He didn't see what the Hoo-Min was doing. But Belinda did.

The Hoo-Min was bending and straightening. It was lifting things.

It was lifting
sticks.

Its big feeler was reaching out.
It was reaching for the stick that George was hiding under.

Belinda ran, signalling frantically for George to come to her, but George wasn't noticing anything except the Hoo-Min. It was so big and so close that George couldn't make out what it was doing – until the stick that was covering him was suddenly lifted away.

George was out in the open! The Hoo-Min could see him!

The Hoo-Min straightened up. Its shadow covered everything as it raised its top leg with the stick in its feeler.

The stick it had just picked up came down again. Very hard.

WHACK!
Right on the ground where George was. If centipedes could shriek, Belinda would have shrieked. But after all,
the stick didn't land where George was, but where George
had been
half a second before.