Toad Heaven - Morris Gleitzman [26]
No wonder I'm so hungry, he thought. I've only eaten one beetle leg all day.
Limpy hopped down to the next rock ledge and picked up a delicious-looking green and black and orange slug.
“I'm very salty,” said the slug. “You probably won't like me.”
Limpy gave the slug a smile for trying to be helpful. He wasn't worried. His eyes had got used to the salt, so he was pretty sure his tummy could.
Limpy sucked another lungful of air through the stem.
Only this time it wasn't air, it was water.
Choking and spluttering and panicking, Limpy realized what must have happened. When he hopped down lower, he must have pulled the top of the stem under the water.
“Palm stem snorkles only work if you keep one end out of the water,” said the slug.
Limpy put the slug back on the rock ledge. He didn't smile at it this time. He was too busy wondering why Goliath and Charm hadn't held on to the stem and stopped him from dragging it under.
Air bubbles, thought Limpy desperately. I need air bubbles.
He looked around, hoping to see some of his old ones hanging around. If he could get them back inside him, they might relieve the pain that was starting in his lungs.
He couldn't see a single bubble.
Just Goliath and Charm, a palm stem in each of their mouths, floating nearby and smiling and waving.
They'd jumped in too.
“No!” said Limpy in despair.
His last air bubble wobbled out of his mouth and drifted away.
Why couldn't they have waited till I got back on the cooler lid? he thought bitterly. I'd have given them a turn.
His lungs were burning. Even as he signaled to Charm and Goliath that he was heading to the surface, he saw Goliath lunge at a blue and yellow fish and then start choking and spluttering in a cloud of bubbles. Goliath's stem must have filled with water too.
Come on, Limpy begged them silently. Follow me.
He kicked his feet and headed for the surface.
As he rose through the water, lungs on fire, a horrible thought hit him. If all three of them were down here, nobody was looking after the cooler lid.
What if it had floated away?
He peered up, trying to see it.
There it was. A dark rectangular shape up above.
That's a relief, thought Limpy.
He didn't actually feel much relief, because his chest was hurting too much.
He felt a bit of anxiety, though, when he got closer to the surface and saw that the dark shape was very big to be a cooler lid.
Too big.
And he definitely felt the huge jolt of fear that stabbed through him when he spotted a movement out of the corner of his eye and turned and saw what was swimming toward him.
It was pink and brown, with blue webbed feet and dark humps on its back and a plastic pipe in its mouth that distorted its face into a leer of hatred.
A human.
Limpy swam for his life.
He didn't get far. His legs were frozen with fear, and his arms weren't working properly either.
Must be because I've run out of air, Limpy thought helplessly, his lungs screaming.
The human glided toward him through the shadowy water, eyes big and scary behind a face mask.
Limpy kept as still as he could, hoping the human would think he was a larger-than-usual speck of plankton.
At least I can't see any weapons, thought Limpy. No tennis racquets, no golf clubs, no folding chairs. Though a whack round the head from those metal tanks on the human's back could be lethal.
The human swam right up to Limpy so their faces were almost touching.
Limpy smiled weakly. It was important to look the part. Plankton were probably pretty happy, even the larger-than-usual ones.
The human stared at him.
Limpy could see a frown behind the face mask.
This is a national park, Limpy reminded the human silently. You're not allowed to kill me here.
The human kept on staring.
Limpy would have held his breath if he'd had any to hold.
Then a shoal of brightly colored food items swam close to the human's head and the human, with a final puzzled glance at Limpy, swam away after them.
Limpy, chest almost bursting, struggled to the