"Oh, no! No! No!" Shouted Annie.
She raced down the bank, until she reached asandy, clear spot.
"Here! Here!" she called.
The wildebeests followed her with their wild eyes.
Jack watched in disbelief as the swimmers changedtheir course. Slowly, all the wildebeests swam towhere Annie stood. She waved them in like a trafficpolicemanJack grabbed his backpack.
"Annie," he cried, "let's go before we get trampled!""Keep it up," she shouted to the wildbeests as shetook off after Jack.
They ran farther up the river, away from theincoming wildebeests. Finally, they stopped to catchtheir breath. They looked back.
Everything seemed fine. The wildebeests werescrambling safely over the riverbank. Soon theywould graze on the grass prepared by the zebras.
"Good work," Jack said to Annie.
"Thanks," she said. "Okay, now for our riddle...""No, first we've got to get clean," said Jack. "Youlook like you're in a mud suit."High-pitched laughter rang through the air. Itsounded mocking and mean.
Jack and Annie turned around. They saw twospotted brown animals standing in the tall grass.
The creatures had bodies like dogs, but with slopingbacks. They laughed again.
"Ha-ha," said Annie. "You don't look so greatyourself.""What are they?" said Jack. He took out the book.
He tried not to get mud on it as he looked for apicture. When he found it, he read aloud:
On the African plains, the hyena (hi-EE-nuh) is theruling predator after the lion. It makes a sound similarto a high-pitched human laugh.
"What's 'predator' mean?" said Annie.
"It means it catches things and eats them," saidJack.
"Oh," said Annie. "Yuck."The two hyenas laughed again. And they movedcloser to Jack and Annie.
Quietly, Jack read more:
The hyena has a reputation for being a thief and acoward.
"Let's see if they're cowards," whispered Annie.
"Let's try to scare them."The hyenas laughed and moved a little closer.
"How?" Jack asked.
"Act like a monster!" said Annie. "Now!"Jack and Annie made terrible monster faces. Theyput out their hands and rushed at the hyenas.
"AR GGGGHH!" they shouted.
The hyenas yelped and scurried off. "Scaredy-cats!"Annie shouted after them. "Come on," said Jack.
Annie and Jack took off in the other direction. Theyran around a bend in the river.
Jack heard the hyena laughter again. It sounded faraway.
"Good," he said, "they're gone.""Hey, maybe we can wash over there," said Annie.
She pointed to the edge of the forest. There was asmall pond surrounded by tall grass. Zebras weredrinking the water.
"Yeah," said Jack. "If it's safe enough for them todrink..."The zebras ignored them as they walked toward thepond.
When they reached the edge of the water, Jack sethis heavy pack down in the dry grass. He glancedaround. NO lions were in sight. But then he heardsomething.
On the far side of the pond something very big wascoming out of the trees. |