Harry the Poisonous Centipede. Lynne Reid Banks
gone off and left her, as young centipedes usually do, but Harry stayed. He loved her and she loved him, calling him love-names like “best-in-my-nest” and “pride-of-my-basket”. She was always scared that something might happen to him, so she carefully warned him of any dangers.
Of course he didn’t take much notice. He was a big, strong, armoured centi (that’s a child centipede) with two fine poison-claws, who could run faster than anything he’d ever met. What could hurt him?
“Lots of things,” Belinda said firmly. “There are many things bigger than you Hxzltl. When you’re grown up and go up to the big, open, no-top-world – and you must not do so before – you’ll find you’re not the biggest thing around, by any means – or even the fastest!”
And she told him about flying things that swooped down and grabbed you, and great legless belly-crawlers, bigger than the tunnels the centipedes lived in, and enormous hairy things with huge sharp teeth and hot breath that could run even faster that the fastest centipede.
But the most awful things of all, Belinda told him – the biggest and the most terrifyingly dangerous – were Hoo-Mins. (Of course she pronounced it H-Mns.)
“I’ve nearly been killed by a Hoo-Min,” his mother told him in a hushed tone. “Twice.”
“Mama!”
“Oh yes! Once when I couldn’t find food in the tunnels, I had to go up in the bright-time. All that bright light muddled me, and I got too far from the tunnel entrance. I was running back to it when a black shadow fell on me. Well, you don’t know about shadows because you’ve never been out when big-yellow-ball is shining, but it’s a dark thing that falls on you. And when you feel that shadow, you have to run like mad!”
“Why, is it heavy?”
“No. It doesn’t weigh anything, itself. But behind it there is always something. And this something, this time, was a huge heavy thing that came crashing down. It just missed me! I just ran out in time! And although I ran as fast as I could run, this huge heavy thing kept up with me, and came crashing down again and again!”
Harry shuddered. “What happened, Mama?”
I ran as never before! Suddenly I saw a tree with some leaves lying under it, and I raced for it, and dived under the nearest leaf. But I didn’t stop there. And just as well!
“As I ran under the leaves, hunting for a hole, the crashing thing came down just in front of me! I had to turn and run back into the open. Then I ran in every direction.
“Thank goodness I found a hole and rushed down it just as the Thing came smashing down again. Oh, Hxzltl, you can’t think how nearly you lost your mama that time!”
“And that was a Hoo-Min that was chasing you? How do you know?”
“Because, when I got my breath back and got nice and damp again – as well as nearly getting squashed, I’d nearly Dried Out! – I peeped out of the hole, and saw it, walking away. I realised then that the crashing thing was its foot. It only had two, but they were ENORMOUS, Hxzltl!”
“How big, Mama?”
“As long as me and then as long as me again! And that’s just its foot!” She stood in front of him, waving her feelers in a very solemn way. “And now that you are a big centi, I have something very important and dangerous to show you.”
She led him through their usual tunnels, and then turned off, along one she had often told him never to go down. It sloped downward, deep into the earth, and they followed it until they found themselves in a big kind of cave.
It felt very damp here – extra damp. There was a gleam down below – a pool! Harry got excited.
“Ooh, Mama! Look at that water! Is it like the sea? Can I play Sea-Centipedes?”
Harry had heard many stories about his cousins, who long ago had moved from earth-tunnels to homes by the ocean.
But Belinda shook her head. “No, Hxzltl! This is no place to play! It’s very, very dangerous. Now, come over here, and look up.”
Harry could now see that there was a faint light in the cave. It was coming from a tunnel above their heads that seemed to go straight up.
“What a funny tunnel!” he said. “It’s so straight! And its walls are as shiny as your cuticle, Mama!”
“Yes. No centipede burrowed this one! You can see it’s not made of earth like our regular tunnels. It’s made of some hard shiny stuff. It’s not easy to get a grip on with your feet. But just the same it’s possible to climb it. I know because—” She stopped suddenly. “Only you mustn’t, Hxzltl. Do you hear me? You must not go Up the Up-Pipe.”
“Why not?”
“Because it leads into the Place of Hoo-Mins,” she said in that same hushed voice she had used before, the one that made Harry’s cuticle go cold.
“How do you know, Mama?”
“I would rather not say.”
“Have you been Up the Up-Pipe? Was it the second time you just escaped from a Hoo-Min?”
Belinda turned her head away. A long shudder ran along her back.
“Yes. When I was young and knew nothing of danger. I had no mama to guide me. But you have, pride-of-my basket. So listen: Never, ever, ever, go Up the Up-Pipe. Because if you do, you may never come down again.”
Harry wasn’t stupid. His mother had really frightened him about the Hoo-Mins. He didn’t even want to explore the Up-Pipe.
But the pool underneath it was something else.
Every young centipede learns about its cousins the marine centipedes, and young ones always play at being able to swim in the sea, and hide in the rocky crevices between the high and low tidelines, and live in empty barnacle shells or sea-worm tubes.
Harry couldn’t swim. But he loved water. There wasn’t much rain in the country where he lived, but just occasionally there would be a storm, and rainwater would flow into the tunnels and make puddles. They weren’t very deep and the water soon steeped away, but while they lasted, Harry would paddle in them and pretend to be a marine centipede.
He was pretty sure he would be able to swim if he ever found a puddle deep enough to try.
And now he knew about the pool under the Up-Pipe, he kept thinking about it. He could pretend it was the sea and that he was a fearless marine centipede. Why shouldn’t he learn to swim, if they could? It would be such fun to take his mother to the pool one day, and pretend to fall in to give her a fright, and then show her how he could swim.
So one day, or