Harry the Poisonous Centipede by Lynne Reid Banks Page A

and it’s much easier to keep damp underground.
    If she heard something thumping about on the surface that sounded good to eat, she’d nip along an up-going tunnel, scurry to the thumping thing, whatever it was, and if it wasn’t too big she would bite it with her poisonous pincers and drag it back down the tunnel to share it with Harry.
    Belinda was a very good mother.
    When Harry and her other babies first came out of their eggs, she’d make something like a little basket to keep them in, and tended them carefully until they were old enough to fend for themselves.

    All her other many children had gone off and left her, as young centipedes usuallydo, 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 poisonclaws, who could run faster than anything he’d ever met. What could hurt him?
    â€œLots 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, biggerthan 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.)
    â€œI’ve nearly been killed by a Hoo-Min,” his mother told him in a hushed tone. “Twice.”
    â€œMama!”
    â€œOh 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 onyou. And when you feel that shadow, you have to run like mad!”
    â€œWhy, is it heavy?”
    â€œNo. 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?”
    â€œI dodged!
I zigzagged!
    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!
    â€œAs 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.
    â€œThank 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!”
    â€œAnd that was a Hoo-Min that was chasing you? How do you know?”
    â€œBecause, 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 thecrashing thing was its foot. It only had two, but they were ENORMOUS, Hxzltl!”

    â€œHow big, Mama?”
    â€œAs long as me and then as long as me again! And that’s just its foot!” She stood in front of him,