Read Moon Rising for Free Online Page B

him.”
    “Polite conversation, YAWN,” Kinkajou said with a shrug of her wings. “You should tell everyone he’s a ghost. That would be much more exciting!”
    Not a ghost, but a real NightWing, Moon thought. Maybe he’s the one who can talk in my head. She’d have to ask Starflight for directions later, if she could work up the courage.
    “Are you hungry, Moon?” Kinkajou barreled on. “I might be hungry. We could find the prey center. I haven’t done that yet. Which way to the prey center, Starflight?”
    He touched his desk lightly, as if orienting himself, and then pointed at one of the three corridors that led away from the library.
    “Sora, you want to come?” Kinkajou asked before Moon could think to invite the dragonet herself.
    The MudWing shook her head quickly and buried her nose in her scroll again.
    “All right. See you soon!” Kinkajou called over her shoulder as they left.
    This passageway slanted back down and, Moon thought, out toward the open air. They passed a couple of branches, but Kinkajou barely glanced down them before continuing straight. After a few minutes, Moon caught the scent of living prey up ahead — and the jumble of several voices, both real-world and inside her head. Uh-oh.
    It was even worse than it sounded. The prey center was total chaos, the opposite of the serene, well-ordered library. It was a mammoth cave open to the air on one side, looking out over a mossy, boulder-strewn slope, towering cliffs, and faraway peaks. There was a low wall of rocks built across the bottom of the opening — useless against dragons, of course, but perfect for keeping prey trapped inside. A fast-flowing river swept along the wall opposite the opening, disappearing through an archway into the next cave.
    And there was prey all over the place. Shaggy, bleating sheep blundered helplessly under the dragons’ talons, yelling in panic. Several speckled-brown chickens, quail, and pheasants were racing around the floor, periodically bursting skyward in an explosion of feathers and squawks. In one corner, a fat black bear was squaring off with a dragonet twice its size, growling.
    Worse still, the cave was filled with shouting dragons. Most of them were MudWing, SandWing, and SkyWing dragonets who were gleefully trying to corner the rampaging chickens. They bellowed instructions at one another, yowled when the pheasants dodged them, and shrieked hilariously whenever birds nearly flew up their snouts. At the same time, their minds were all shouting, worrying, planning, reacting, and it felt to Moon like a hundred dragons talking at once.
    Clay, meanwhile, was standing on a tall boulder in the middle of the cave, trying to shout over all the noise.
    “Everyone stop moving!” he bellowed. “Especially you, chickens! CHICKENS, GIVE UP! WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU! THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT! STOP RUNNING AWAY RIGHT NOW!”
    “SQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWK!” the chickens shrilled back.
    Kinkajou spotted a small mountain of fruit piled near the river and darted over to it. Another RainWing dragonet was there, picking through the options, and Kinkajou shouted something cheerful at him.
    Moon hesitated, wishing she could sink right into the mountain and disappear. She was hungry, but it was so loud and horribly overwhelming in here. Maybe she could sneak back to her cave and wait to eat until the middle of the night. Surely it would be quieter then.
    But Kinkajou spotted her as she tried to sidle away. The RainWing flapped her wings wildly, beckoning, and finally Moon had to duck her head and sprint over, hoping not to get hit by any chicken parts on her way.
    “Moon, this is my friend Coconut,” Kinkajou said. Thought he was my friend shimmered through her mind, and Moon had a moment to wonder if Kinkajou did have a dark, bitter side after all, before Kinkajou added blithely, “At least, I thought he was my friend until I got abducted by bad guys for three weeks and he didn’t even notice