E-Book, Englisch, Band 5, 160 Seiten
Reihe: I Am Wolf
Chisholm I Am Raven
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-80513-129-8
Verlag: Nosy Crow Ltd
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
E-Book, Englisch, Band 5, 160 Seiten
Reihe: I Am Wolf
ISBN: 978-1-80513-129-8
Verlag: Nosy Crow Ltd
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Alastair is a children's author and puzzle creator. As a puzzle creator he wrote quite a lot of books of Sudoku and other puzzles for kids and grown-ups, and as an author he writes picture books and middle-grade fiction. Alastair lives in Edinburgh with his wife (who is lovely), two teenagers (who are lovely but very loud), and a cat named Maudie, who is yowling at him even though there is clearly food in her bowl, look, it's right there, look. His hobbies include writing and playing games on his phone when he should be writing. You can follow him on Twitter @alastair_ch, if you like.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
“Brann! Brann, wake up!”
Brann started and shook her head.
“What?” She peered up to see Fillan standing over her, grinning.
“You were asleep!” he said.
Brann scowled. “I wasn’t,” she muttered. “I was just remembering something.”
“You were so asleep,” gloated Fillan. “You were snoring, and—”
“I wasn’t asleep!” she snapped. She looked around. “Where is everyone?”
“On the ground,” said Fillan cheerfully. Fillan was short, round-faced, with a shock of dirty-blond hair and ruddy sunburnt skin. He liked everyone, and it was hard to stay cross with him. Now he held out a flask of water and Brann took a grateful gulp, then stood and stretched and looked out.
They were on the edge of the Glass Lands, in the southern part of their world. No one knew what had happened here, but some ancient disaster had destroyed everything, poisoning the earth so that even now the only things that could grow were vicious sick-looking thorns. Rusted metal spikes stood like frozen trees, and patches of sand had been fused into dark glass.
Brann and the rest of the Cub crew had crossed it once before. Now they were returning, and it looked as bad as ever. The sun was harsh and Brann shielded her eyes. On the ground, she saw the rest of Cub’s crew, Coll and Rieka, peering at a device in Rieka’s hand.
Brann handed back the flask. “Thanks,” she said. “Sorry I was grumpy.”
Fillan grinned. “That’s OK. Coll’s grumpy too when he wakes up.”
“I wasn’t asleep!” she protested, but Fillan just snorted. Brann shooed him away like an annoying fly and climbed down to join the others.
“How are we doing?” she asked.
Coll nodded to her. “Hey. OK, we think. Just checking the navigation.” He lifted the device. “It’s acting up a bit.”
“The device is fine,” snapped Rieka. “Someone broke the calibration. It works perfectly when not used by idiots.”
Coll glanced at Brann, and she grinned in reply.
There was a time when Coll would have got angry at Rieka’s comments, but in the last few months he’d grown up a lot. He was the tallest of them, with strong wide shoulders and a square face, and heavy black brows that could look fierce. His left arm was missing below his elbow and his left leg ended just below his knee, and he wore prosthetic limbs.
Beside him, Rieka was thin and spiky, her face pulled into a scowl. It was the face she made when she couldn’t believe how stupid everyone else was. That made it pretty much her usual face. But she was a genius, Brann admitted. And she was a Tock, one of the few who knew how to make machines like Cub work.
“You think we can launch from here?” Rieka asked now, looking at Brann. Brann considered, and looked back at Cub, their Construct.
Part machine, part vehicle, part home. Five metres tall, Cub was made of steel, carbon panels, and plastic, all held together and powered by anthryl, the amazing material that gave Constructs their power and shape. His legs were pistons, his shoulders metal joints, his eyes glass. He was supposed to be a wolf, but he looked more like a wolf cub, with a round body and a short wagging tail. Brann thought that might be down to Fillan. Constructs took their shape from their crew’s thoughts. If everyone thought Wolf, like Coll wanted, then Cub would truly be a wolf. But Fillan’s cheery puppy-dog style was infectious, and this was the result.
Coll was originally from Wolf. Brann was from Raven, Fillan from Boar. This was unheard of – crews from different Constructs only ever fought, and never worked with others. But Rieka had persuaded them, somehow. And because of that, Cub wasn’t like other Constructs…
Brann nodded. “Yes, this will be OK.”
Coll looked at the sky. “Let’s do it.”
They climbed aboard and strapped themselves in. Fillan sat next to Brann, with Kevin. Kevin was an Ant Construct. Ants usually lived in colonies with others, but Kevin had become damaged and had latched on to Fillan, following him around like a pet and chirruping happily by rubbing its antennae together – “Chick-chick!” Kevin was small for an Ant, and now it sat on Fillan’s lap.
Brann nodded to him. “You ready?”
Fillan’s eyes gleamed. “Ready!” he said, wrapping his arms tight round Kevin.
“You lead,” said Coll to Brann, and she nodded and focused. She let her thoughts drift down, sinking into the deck, feeling the pistons and motors and cables as if they were part of her. Feeling the Call. And then she was Cub, and as she moved, Cub rumbled forward, picking up speed. And then…
And then Brann remembered a different shape, and a different Construct, and Cub changed. In one shift, his front legs lifted from the ground and spread wide, stretching and finding air currents below him. His barrel body became thinner, his back legs gave a last huge push and then shrank … and Cub flew.
“Whoo-hooo!” shouted Fillan. Brann could feel the others in Cub’s song, all believing the same thing, that Cub, who a few seconds before had been a wolf cub, could now somehow fly like a raven. It was impossible – but it worked.
Cub swooped with his new wings and Brann eased him up, beating the air, lifting, tasting the world with fingertip feathers. Fillan laughed in delight. Cub wheeled, heaved, found an air current, gained altitude, and turned towards the Glass Lands.
The air was stifling and stank of sulphur and rust. The last time they had been here, the crossing had taken days of hard walking, but that was before they’d learned to fly. This time, Cub soared above the ruined lands. Brann and the others concentrated on holding their flying form, scanning below them, and just before sunset Coll pointed.
“Is that them?”
Below them was a tiny black shape crawling carefully over the landscape.
“Yes!” Brann called.
Coll grinned. “Let’s say hello.”
Brann adjusted course and soon they could make out the other Construct clearly – a flat head, large oval body, six legs… And perched on top, two tiny figures staring up at them. Brann brought Cub round in a smooth curve and prepared to land a few metres away.
“Ready?” she called. “Now!”
They touched the ground. In one movement the wings steadied them, then lowered, then became Cub’s front feet again. The back legs stretched, and Cub’s head returned to its original shape. And Cub was a wolf cub again, standing on the ground.
The Cub crew clambered down, and the two figures left their own Construct and walked towards them.
It was a man and a woman. The man’s face was a mass of wrinkles that moved as he smiled, and his hair was thick and white and unruly. Beside him, the woman was tall and as still as iron, wrapped in a brown shawl.
The man was Dolan, the woman was Namir, and the Construct behind them was Beetle.
Dolan waved. “Well met, young ’uns!” he called. “It’s good to see you again!” His eyes drifted to Cub behind them. “And that’s some trick you’ve learned! A flying wolf, eh?” He grinned. “I guess you’ve got a story to tell.”
The last time they’d met the Beetles was on their way south, when they were trying to catch up with Wolf and Dragon. Dragon, a mysteriously powerful and ferocious Construct from the north, had attacked Wolf and Raven. It had destroyed Raven and driven Wolf south, leaving Coll, Fillan and Brann stranded on the ground. But Rieka had shown them how to rebuild Raven into a new Construct, Cub, and together they had chased after Wolf.
Over dinner, the Cub crew told the rest of their story – how they had found Wolf, fought Dragon, and defeated it. And how, on the way, they had learned that they could change Cub – from Wolf shape to Raven shape, and even Boar shape…
“We SMASHED it!” said Fillan. His face glowed as he remembered his moment of glory, where he’d channelled Boar’s strength and head-butted Dragon’s shins. “And it toppled down the cliff, bang, bang, BANG!”
“Blimey!” said Dolan. “And then what?”
“It survived, but it retreated,” said Coll.
They sat round the campfire, eating roasted glass rat from the spit. Dolan was a good audience, gasping and cheering at their adventures. Namir was quieter, but her eyes glittered when Fillan described the battle with Dragon.
“So it...
