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"That’s excellent," Aaron praised, giving the panther an aard hug "You did it!"
The panther screas were progressing so well, and Aaron’s forced seclusion in the secured palace was now only two days away, he decided to spend the night in the jungle--after all, he didn’t have much time
The next day, he worked on the "attack" command with the panther This one was easier, since the panther see down Aaron fashioned all sorts of fake eneo after, including an ar, Aaron called out "Down!" to et that trick--the most important one And the panther obeyed almost every time It was the "almost" part that caused Aaron to panic He wasn’t sure why he was panicking, since he of course hated all Unwanteds and thought they probably deserved their fate But the girl with the orange eyes that he’d seen in his brother’sisland attacked--she wasn’t an Unwanted He was sure of that He’d have remembered her So maybe she didn’t deserve to die
As ood about the panther running around and rando people He didn’t want to witness that--it was too horrifying He only wanted the panther to attack General Blair, and only if the general double-crossed Aaron and took over Artimé’s mansion
"I knohat I need to do," he said to hi caers with his razor teeth Aaron shook his hand free and stood up "I need to le ht the panther the decoy’s naside the spiders and several other decoys Aaron had un to call the creature, "attack General Blair!"
The panther bounded over to the lineup, hesitated, and grabbed the nearest spider, shaking its viny body in her teeth
Aaron tried again, and again the panther attacked the decoy closest to her Over and over, the panther started out with good intentions, or so Aaron surmised, but the temptation to attack the nearest object won out every time When Aaron moved the General Blair decoy to the front of the pack, Panther attacked him soundly But when Aaron nore the easiest catch
The rock watched with fascination This was no doubt the most entertainiant hunk of ebony from his mouth
"I have an idea," the rock interjected when Aaron collapsed to the ground after hours of failure "Perhaps you should only use the command when the enehed deeply, staring up at the canopy of leaves that held up the sky above hi once more Dirty, exhausted, and dejected, Aaron lay there for several ht"
The rock thought for a moment but decided to say noAaron alone
Aaron struggled to his feet and looked at the decoys, nition Aaron picked up his original spider and petted the vines as if the creature were alive He ether like this He’d never done anything like it before--not in front of anybody, anyway He’d never been caught as a child pretending theNot even Alex knew about that
He drew a hand over the spider’sabout what it would be like to have an animal companion Certainly it would be better than any huood for was advancing one’s self above thee later But an animal was no competition I wonder what it would be like if this spider caht Could he make it happen? He knew he could fix the panther’s tail by attaching a vine and concentrating on it beco creaturebut what about starting with so that was completely not alive? It had to be iht, and pictured the spider rew fuzzy under his fingers Aaron opened his eyes and let out a horrified shout as the spider began le floor and s and ran frightened down the path that led deep into the jungle Soon it had disappeared
"What the--good grief!" he cried He wiped his hands on his pants, trying to get the creepy crawling sensation off the what had just happened And wondering anew just what exactly he was capable of
In the Middle of the Night
It was dark in the jungle when Aaron decided it was tio He hadn’t quite acco the panther to stay down and attack on command, but in a way, he discoveredfro the spider to life, he stumbled back to the tube and pressed the button From the mansion, he quickly continued on to Haluki’s closet, then h the dark house and outside, into the pressing heat There was very little breeze tonight, and Aaron was surprised by how much he missed the cooler air they’d had since the wall came down