Toad Away - Morris Gleitzman [29]
“Stop,” said a loud voice. “Stop, for swamp's sake.”
It wasn't the butterfly.
Limpy spun round and got such a shock his mucus started wobbling even though the sun had dried it almost solid.
Cane toads.
A large group of them, hurrying toward him, alarmed expressions on their faces.
Stack me, thought Limpy. Amazon rellies.
The one at the front, who was even bigger than Goliath and a lot more noble-looking, hopped over to the pumping station and peed onto the smoking oil.
“Hey,” said Limpy angrily. “It took us ages to get that started.”
“That's right,” said the butterfly, wincing as it straightened out its wings. “I may never feature in a television nature documentary again.”
Limpy wished Goliath was here instead of in the forest teaching stink beetles how to march. He'd put these dumb rellies in their place.
The big cane toad looked down at Limpy with a stern expression.
“Do you have any idea what would have happened if you'd set that oil alight?” he said.
“Yes,” said Limpy. “I do.”
“You want war with the humans?” said the cane toad, glancing at the other cane toads in disbelief.
“Yes,” said Limpy. “I do.”
“Well, we don't,” said the cane toad. “We've got enough enemies in the forest as it is. Every second living thing around here wants to either eat us, drown us, grow fungus on us, use us as flooring material in a nest, or take our brains out and let their kids play in our skulls. The last thing we want is humans after us as well.”
For a fleeting moment Limpy was tempted to ask the rellies what their secret was for keeping humans off their backs.
Then he remembered he didn't care anymore.
All he cared about was avenging Charm.
“The mongrel humans killed my sister,” said Limpy.
The big cane toad looked at Limpy, his face softening.
“I see,” he said. “I'm sorry.”
The other cane toads looked pretty sympathetic too. For a moment Limpy thought they were going to leave him alone so he could get back to blowing up humans.
No such luck.
“These tragedies happen,” said the big cane toad.
“Some of us have lost loved ones too. Just a few, fortunately. It's a big forest. We stay away from the humans and hope they stay away from us.”
Is that it? thought Limpy bitterly. Is that the ancient wisdom Charm gave her life for? That's pathetic. We could have stayed at home and worked that out for ourselves. Even Goliath could.
“Are you from the other side of the river?” asked the cane toad.
“Australia,” muttered Limpy.
The other cane toads looked puzzled.
“I've heard of Australia,” said the big cane toad.“A bird told me about it. Incredible place. The only things that kill toads there are humans, right?”
Limpy nodded, wishing the whole crowd of them would hop off and squirt bugs or something.
The big cane toad put his arm round Limpy's shoulders.
“I'm Raoul,” he said. “I'd like to hear more about Australia, and you look like you could do with a drink and some moisturizer on those warts. Come back to our swamp. Be our guest.”
It was a kind offer, but Limpy wasn't interested.
As Raoul steered him away from the pipeline toward the forest, Limpy came up with a desperate plan.
Push Raoul over, elbow the other cane toads out of the way, hop back to the pipeline, grab another see-through butterfly, and get the oil alight before they caught up with him.
Limpy took a deep breath, then flung himself at Raoul.
He'd tried to push Goliath over a few times, so he knew it wasn't going to be easy. But Goliath was a floppy sack of wombat guts compared to Raoul, whose muscles felt like steel bridge cables as Limpy bounced off them.
Caught by surprise, Raoul staggered backward.
Limpy turned and started hopping as fast as he could, praying his crook leg wouldn't send him on a curve into the river.
He needn't have worried.
Before he'd done two hops, Limpy felt Raoul's powerful