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CHAPTER TWELVE

WE ROWEDfor ht line (there see us off course), rested for a few hours either side of dawn, then began rowing again, this ti south by the position of the sun By the third day ere bored out of our skulls There was nothing to do on the cale in scenery - dark blue underneath,distracted us for short periods each day, but the fish were plentiful and easy to catch, and soon it was back to the rowing and resting

To keep ourselves a the teeth Harkat had pulled froames we could play with such a s each letter a nue in si of value to bet, so we used the bones of the fish we caught as ga chips, anda rest period, as Harkat was cleaning the teeth - taking his ti incisor, the oneit up and peering through it Putting it to his wide ain, then passed it to ht of the sky, squinting to see better "It’s very s wide at the top to narrow at the tip"

"It’s alh it," Harkat said

"How, and what for?" I asked

"Don’t know," Harkat said "But it’s the only one - like that"

"Maybe an insect did it," I suggested "A parasite which burrows into an ani on the material inside"

Harkat stared at me for a led, "Checkher - than mine," he said "I’m more vulnerable"

Since that was true, I leant forward to exahly, but there was no sign that any had been invaded Harkat checked mine next, but I drew a clean bill of health too We relaxed after that - though we did a lot of prodding and jabbing with our tongues over the next few hours! - and Harkat returned to cleaning the teeth, keeping the tooth with the hole to one side, slightly away froht, as we slept after ether in thesound overhead We bolted out of our sleep and sat up straight, covering our ears to drown out the noise The sound was like nothing I’d heard before, i clean his bed sheets It was accousts of hich set the water rippling and our raft rocking It was a dark night with no break in the clouds, and we couldn’t see asthe noise

"What is it?" I whispered Harkat couldn’t hear my whisper over the noise, so I repeatedour position away to whatever was above

"No idea," Harkat replied, "but there’s so - familiar about it I’ve heard it before - but I can’t re sounds died away as whatever it wasus shaken but unharmed When we discussed it later, we reasoned it ut, I sensed that wasn’t the answer, and by Harkat’s troubled expression and inability to fall back asleep, I was sure he sensed it too

We rowed quicker than usual in the ht before, but gazing up often at the sky Neither of us could explain why the noise had so alar trouble if the creature ca up at the clouds that it wasn’t until early afternoon, during a brief rest period, that we looked ahead and realized ithin sight of land "How far do you think - it is?" Harkat asked