The Battle Begins by Devon Hughes Page A

clean, and the human who arrived in front of them was a short woman with stringy hair and a hard little line for a mouth.
    â€œSlop!” she announced brightly.
    Castor cocked his head at her, and across the hall, Enza glowered. Neither had the slightest idea what “slop” meant.
    Then, abruptly, Castor heard a loud, grinding sound. He froze, the hackles on his back rising defensively. It sounded like a Crusher Slusher was right in his room!
    He shut his eyes tight, convinced he was about to become squashed doggy. But then he heard snorting.
    â€œYou thoulda theen your fayth!” Enza scoffed at him. “It’s justh a door, you big baby.”
    When he turned, Castor saw she was right. One of the square doors in the back of his room, the second from the left, was wide-open.
    At first, Castor was ecstatic. The one thing in the world he’d wanted was a way out of his prison, and now here was an easy escape, just waiting for him!
    But when the grinding sound started up again and a door in Enza’s own cell opened, Castor saw the shadow pass across her face—the unease beneath her teasing—and he saw his hope for what it was: naïve. The door was open because the humans wanted it open, and wherever it led was where the humans wanted them to go—nowhere good.
    â€œSlop!” the guard repeated, huffing with impatience, and Castor decided that maybe he wasn’t quite so curious about what that word meant anymore. Maybe, he decided, this cold, barren cell suited him just fine.
    As usual, though, he didn’t get to decide.
    The guard took a small gold object out of her pocket. She put it to her lips, puffed out her cheeks, and blew.
    â€œMake it stop!” he howled, pawing at his ears. Though it only lasted a second, the sound was so sharp, so piercing that it sounded like the end of the world.
    After the musical torture, he looked over at Enza for sympathy, only to find that her cell was empty. The giant tiger-bear was gone.
    â€œSlop!” the guard said again.
    â€œNo,” Castor whimpered. She held up the whistle and started to bring it to her lips once more. “I’m going!” he barked, and bounded across his cell in two quick steps.
    He stood at the dark void of the open door and, trembling, Castor tucked his new, tender wings close and stepped across the threshold.

12
    F ROM INSIDE THE DARK, MUSTY TUNNEL, C ASTOR COULD already hear the commotion. He tried not to panic—the tunnel was so narrow that there was no way to go but forward—but even though he steeled himself to face whatever might lie ahead, when Castor emerged into the light, he was still shocked at what he saw.
    The two creatures before him made Enza’s bear body seem like a mini’s. One was almost as tall as the ceiling, with legs that were thicker than the trees in Castor’sdreams. It was hairless, with gray skin stretched like a human’s and stuffed too tight, and instead of a nose, it had eight long, waving arms. This must be the elephant, but its trunk was now different.
    Castor recognized the other beast from its thick-plated armor—it was Rainner, the lizard from the cages that first day—but he’d doubled in size, and with a new spike of a horn jutting out of his face, he wasn’t someone you’d want to make angry. It looked like the other guy had done exactly that.
    â€œFIGHHHHT!” Enza roared beside Castor, as Rainner charged the gray giant. Her feline eyes were dilated with excitement.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Castor barked in alarm. The hair on his back stood up and he assumed a defensive stance—who knew if he’d be next?
    â€œS-s-samken wanted s-s-some breakfast,” a familiar voice answered. “S-s-so did Rainner.”
    Deja, the snake Castor had met before, slithered past him. All he could do was stare—just as shocking as the other animals’ transformations was the fact that Deja hadn’t