Switch! by Karen Prince Page B

and gnarly clamped down on his foot and spun him round and round, dragging him towards the bottom of the pool. Trying to curl up into a tight ball and go with the spin before the crocodile ripped his leg off, he opened his eyes but he couldn’t see anything with the water bubbling around him. He doubled over and groped between his legs for an eyeball to poke his finger into. Feeling his way down the creature’s nose, Ethan frantically moved his fingers backward towards the eyes and was about to dig his thumbs hard in to each squishy eyeball when his shoulder crashed painfully into the bottom of the pool and the crocodile let go abruptly, scattering sand and pebbles.  
    Ethan shook his head in slow motion as he righted himself. Perhaps he was just dizzy, but he could have sworn the amulet drifted purposefully towards him. Trying to ignore his burning lungs, he reached out and snatched it up, taking no care at all to avoid touching the stones. Energy rushed up Ethan’s arm as he gripped it, sending waves of prickly heat reverberating through his body. About to push off from the bottom of the pool, he looked up towards the surface, and froze. The shadow of the crocodile circled slowly above him, choosing its moment...
    It would be seconds before he ran out of breath. His chest was burning, a deafening drumming in his ears. If only he could make it to where he could see Jimoh’s feet dangling in the water. They would help him out of the water, only, his arms and legs wouldn’t move. He didn’t seem to have the strength to propel himself towards them. He felt a massive surge of water pushing him along as he passed out.

6
A Peculiar Forest

    Joe woke up disoriented. His mind hovered for a few moments on the edge of reality. He was not sure if he had drowned or hit his head on the bottom of the pool. Strangely, he didn’t even feel wet. He wondered if that was because he had been lying here long enough to dry out.
    The forest canopy above his head wafted in and out of focus; the gigantic trees, nothing like the ones at Crystal Pools, were such an impossibly dark shade of green they were almost black. He blinked a couple of times, thinking there must be something wrong with his eyesight, but stopped, because that made him dizzy. He guessed Tariro had gone for help but he wondered where everyone else had got to. Someone was beating a drum. Just what he needed. His head wanted to explode.
    Trying to roll over, he felt dread rising as he discovered that he could not move his arms or legs. He must have broken his neck! When he opened his mouth to howl in anguish, all that came out was a weak cough.
    Turning his head to the side slowly and painfully, but with the relief of realising his neck wasn’t broken after all, he squinted in the direction of the noise to see who was beating the drums, and swore he could see not just one, but a whole troop of Tokoloshes.  
    Am I hallucinating? He had heard the fairy stories about the hairy little men that lived in crevices and under riverbanks. They were supposed to be visible only to children. And I’m not a child , he thought.
    One or two of the little creatures yelped as he moved, and bolted in fright towards the edges of the clearing, their scrappy animal-pelt skirts flapping around their knees. A few braver ones crept forward to take a look at him or touch him before running away again in a sort of delighted panic. Closing his eyes wearily, he wondered if the reason he couldn’t move his arms and legs was because they had tied him up, and then he passed out again.  
    The second time Joe awoke, he was startled to find a Tokoloshe face swimming in front of his eyes. Yes, it was definitely a Tokoloshe. The little man perching on his chest gripped Joe’s cheeks in both his hands and stared intently with his little jet black eyes into Joe’s eyes. The long, spiky hairs growing out of his ears twitched while he and Joe considered each other. Joe noticed that, close up, the Tokoloshe