Read Through the Ice for Free Online Page A

rejuvenating quality to it. His fatigue from the hiking was easing; it was as though Malape were putting her healing hands on his feet. Rame had said that he no longer had magic, but it seemed his whistle did!
    "AAAEEEEEEEE!" came a scream from above their heads.
    Rame stopped his music, grabbed Seth and flung him out of the way. A black furry ball with a gaping mouth and yellowish-brown fangs dropped with a splat to where Seth had been standing.
    "What is that?" Seth cried, instinctively reaching over his shoulder to draw his sword.
    "That is a Hebetudinous, Hebe for short," replied Rame. "They hunt in packs."
    "AAAEEEEEEE!" came another scream from above Seth. This time Seth jumped to the side on his own. Another black furry creature bit the dust next to him.
    "Don't move!" Rame shouted. "The Hebes are only dangerous if you walk or remain standing directly under them when they fall, mouth open, on top of you. They would be more dangerous, except for the fact that they always scream before jumping."
    "Always?" Seth asked nervously. "Don't they realize that this gives them away?"
    "Yes, they are stupid to warn their prey that way. I am not sure why some ground-walking creature doesn't tell them that."
    Seth smiled. He liked Rame's sense of humor, too! Imagine the hairy predators losing out because their prey did not tell them how to improve their attack! This was a conspiracy of silence he would gladly join.
    They moved on, each of them jumping out of the way every time there was a scream above. Seth looked back. It was almost pathetic: about fifteen furry balls were lying face down on the path. "Are they dead?"
    "No, they are tougher than that. They play dead until they are sure that no one is watching them, and then they somehow climb back into their trees. If you thought one was injured or unconscious, and tried to pick it up, it would chomp you, and get you that way."
    That made more sense! If the monster missed, and the prey felt secure and tried to take advantage, the monster would win after all. Probably more chomps were made by that route than by the initial drop. Again he had been too quick to assume foolishness on the part of another creature. That tendency of his could get him into trouble!
    After passing the Hebe herd, they came to a stream which ran under a bridge across their path. Seth was quite thirsty now, and stooped to take a drink.
    "Stop!" yelled Rame. "The stream may be unclean."
    "But there shouldn't be pollution here in this wilderness!" Seth protested. "The water is clear."
    "There can be danger in what looks clean." The faun leaned over the stream and blew into his reed whistle, and a foul note came out. "Indeed it is unclean, I dare say deadly. Walk further; we will eventually run across another stream. There, if it is safe, we shall drink and eat."
    Seth's thirst had dried up. He did not want to learn what this world's poison could do to his body!
    In due course they did come to another stream; this time when Rame blew into his whistle a lovely note issued forth. "We can drink here," the faun said, unnecessarily.
    Seth knelt at the stream's edge, bent forward, and touched his lips to the cool water. Ahh, he thought, as he swallowed the refreshing liquid. He really hadn't had much to drink in the two days of his travel, other than the juice in the fruits he had eaten, and the pure stream water tasted fabulous.
    He looked up—almost fell into the water. Could he believe his eyes? Rame was playing the reed whistle, and fruit was appearing out of the air before him!
    "Magic?" Seth asked, bewildered. "Naturally," Rame responded. "Magic is the driving force on Earth Plane 4."
    "But I thought that the Clan satyrs took away your magic!"
    "That they did! This magic, however, is not mine. It is the magic of the reed whistle. You could perform it also, if you knew how to play."
    That was interesting. Seth made a mental note: if he ever wanted to try doing magic himself, he would have to find a magic whistle,