Toad Away - Morris Gleitzman [34]
“Bye, Charm,” he whispered. “I'm going to finish our quest.”
Then he went to find Goliath.
Goliath was in the forest, having trouble with his special rescue unit.
“No!” He was yelling at a platoon of ribbon worms.
“You do not march like that. Marching is keeping in step. If you don't keep in step, it's not marching.”
“But we can't keep in step,” said one of the ribbon worms.
“How many times do I have to tell you?” yelled Goliath. “Call me sir. We can't keep in step, sir. Anyway, why can't you keep in step? Give me one good reason.”
“We haven't got feet, sir,” said the ribbon worm.
“This is pathetic!” roared Goliath. “At this rate my cousin's going to be a prisoner for the rest of his life!”
Limpy tapped Goliath on the shoulder.
“Goliath,” he said. “It's OK. I'm free. Now we can get on with our quest.”
Goliath sighed crossly, glaring at the ribbon worms. “Limpy, not now,” he said. “I'm trying to train a rescue unit. Stack me, look at that. Those butterflies haven't got the faintest idea how to crawl through the mud on their bellies.”
“Goliath,” said Limpy. “I'm free.”
“Call yourself a special rescue unit?” Goliath was yelling at the butterflies. “It's pathetic.”
Then Goliath spun round and stared at Limpy, his big warty face lighting up with amazement and delight.
“Limpy,” he croaked. “You're free.”
The ribbon worms and butterflies all applauded.
Limpy gripped Goliath's arm.
“Come on,” he said. “We've wasted enough time. We've got to get back to searching for the ancient secret of friendship with humans.”
Goliath was looking doubtful.
“What about blowing up the bulldozers?” he said.“And the bulldozer drivers’ lunchboxes?”
Limpy took a deep breath. It wouldn't be fair to get cross with Goliath. Not after all the effort he'd put into training his rescue unit.
“There are other humans here,” said Limpy. “In a village. One of them rescued me. The others look pretty friendly too. I think we might be getting closer to the ancient secret.”
Goliath was still looking doubtful.
“We didn't come here for war,” said Limpy. “We came here for peace. Charm lost her life for this quest and that's why we're going to carry on till we succeed. For Charm.”
“All right,” said Goliath, looking sad and a bit ashamed. “But after we've succeeded, we'll do the war.”
Limpy decided the time had come to get cross with Goliath.
Before he could, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Limpy looked up. It was Raoul. There was hurt and anger on Raoul's big face. Limpy decided not to waste time with excuses.
“I'm sorry I escaped,” said Limpy. “And I'm sorry I tried to start a war.”
Raoul's frown got even deeper.
Goliath thrust himself between Limpy and Raoul.
“It wasn't his fault,” said Goliath. “It was me. I rescued him with my highly trained rescue unit. I'm the one you should be crook with.”
Limpy saw Goliath notice Raoul's muscles. Goliath reached out and gave one of them a little tweak. And felt how hard it was.
“Not too crook, but,” he said, shrinking back.
“I'm not just angry with you two,” said Raoul.“I'm angry with Flatface. And with myself for letting him get near you. Two warmongers working together could have been a disaster.”
“Three,” said Goliath indignantly.
“I'm sorry, Raoul,” said Limpy. “I shouldn't have tried to blow up the pipeline. I got carried away, but I'm over it now. Me and Goliath and Charm came here to discover your ancient secret of living in peace with humans, and that's what I want to do.”
Raoul's angry frown turned into a surprised one.
“Our ancient secret?” he said. He thought for a moment. “I don't think we've got an ancient secret. I've never heard of one.”
Limpy stared at Raoul, struggling to take this in.
“The humans in the village,” said Limpy. “They don't kill cane toads, do they? They don't drive over them in vehicles or bash them with cricket bats or blow them up with bike pumps.”
“No,” said Raoul. “I don't think so.”
“Why not?” said Limpy.
“Don't know,” said Raoul. “Never really thought about it. We've always been more concerned about wasps and