The boat was long. I swallowed, a lump in my throught. A boat, was that the surprise? I couldn’t spend a night on that! The boat battered; it’s glossy finish was bruised and battered. You could see how many times it had been repaired. Like twenty odd!

We got on one at a time and found our beds. I just collapsed onto the unfolded duvet but it was so soft that you could imagine yourself floating on a lovely fluffy cloud. I opened my eyes, my parents were staring back uncomfortably. Light shone through the metal pothole. I smiled tiredly.

The zesty yellow shone down on the Zoo. Sweat trickled down the workers necks. However there is no time to loose an animal has been found seriously injured in it’s pen. All of them sprinted over like Olympians. Worry spread across the faces like illness: the animal was hardly breathing. On it was a cactus, the sharpest in all land, and a  heavy stripy umbrella. How could an animal do so much damage?

The vet rushed over but by this time the animal had died. The hunt was now on for the culprit.

There it is a smelly old … Zebra.

A short but vital part of the story.
Imagine what it might have been like to be part of the chaos in the city as the Evernight and the Painted carried on relentlessly slaughtering all in their path. All at once it was as if the world took one deep breath and held it as the events in this chapter unfolds.
What would you have posted on your Facebook page later that day? What picture might you have taken on your mobile phone to go on your post?

This is a chapter full of anxiety and doubt. Lara has to make some decisions about what to do and understand the heart of why she must do it.

Write a haiku poem about this episode or create a blackout poem.

Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry.
Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme.

A blackout poem. https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/john-depasquale/blackout-poetry/

I put down my umbrella and slotted it into the stand. Despite my umbrella, I was drenched and glad to be in the gallery. There was an exciting hum, the shabby walls were a pale yellow and the air was slightly musty and smelly.

I walked over to the nearest painting. It was titled Lost and it showed a sorrowful zebra alone in a vast desert. Next to it, was a cactus, its prongs sticking out in an obscure way.

In the background, a herd of zebras were galloping away. I looked curiously at the painting: how it got there.

The old witches wore tatty, crumpled clothes and looked very withered. They had beards that stretched across their faces and skinny lips. All of them had very bony fingers and were called weird creatures. They looked very wild with their ragged clothes on. They liked to bow to people and shout.

What an amazing chapter – full of excitement and suspense. Ross Mackensie really controls his reader.

What are your thoughts about the events in this chapter? How did it make you feel? Did Lara do the right thing? What do the events tell you about how the friendship between the character has changed?

Wearily, the yellow zebra explored for somewhere to hide. Another dazzle of zebras was just miles away. Being yellow and smelly he would most certainly be bullied when the other zebras came.

Skulking under a boulder, he used a dead cactus as a cushion.

Thundering hooves approached rapidly. Magnificently, they trotted by, females carrying miniature umbrellas, males showing off about how fast they could run. A female turned back to look for someone and caught sight of the outcast zebra. Neighing in disbelief, she caught all the other zebras’ attention. Immediately, they all stopped and started to snicker and tease.