1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 169
which contained just a hint of yellow deep inside. One of
the petals below the mouth was longer, arching down
almost to the ground. Motion caught her eye, and she spotted
a small bird hovering among the flowers, flitting from
one to the next to alight on the longest petal, thrusting its
beak into one after another.
“They’re so beautiful,” she said. And there were so many
of them. She wanted to lie down in the flowers and sleep.
But she couldn’t see anything that might be “fire-bug
eyes.” Tally stood, scanning the horizon. Nothing met her
gaze but hills, blinding white with flowers, and the glimmering
river climbing up into the mountains. It all looked
so peaceful, a different world from the one that the flying
machine had shattered last night.
She stepped back on the board and continued, slower
now as she looked carefully for whatever might fit Shay’s
clue, remembering to stick on a sunblock patch as the sun
rose higher.
The river climbed higher into the hills. From up there, Tally
saw bare stretches among the flowers, expanses of dry,
sandy earth. The patchy landscape was a strange sight, like
a beautiful painting that someone had taken sandpaper to.
She got off her board several times to inspect the flowers,
looking for insects or anything else that might match
the words “fire-bug eyes.” But as the day wore on, nothing
made sense.