The Lightning Catcher by Anne Cameron Page A

automatically when placed on your feet. Shaped like the head of a tennis racket, they help distribute your weight over a wider surface area, preventing you from sinking into the deepest drifts.”
    â€œHe could have told us about those earlier,” Dougal grumbled.
    As they finally reached the end of the frozen wasteland, both Angus and Dougal were extremely pleased to discover it was also the end of the treacherous weather tunnel itself.
    â€œAnyone with faulty earmuffs or leaky coats should report to me now,” Catcher Mint said as a collective sigh of relief swept around the chamber. “Those of you needing rubber boot repair kits should go straight up to the supplies department. The rest of you can take the stairs on your right and down to the kitchens for some well-earned breakfast!”
    Angus and Dougal headed straight for the staircase, before Catcher Mint could decide to send them back through the tunnel again.
    The kitchens themselves were vast, with several fireplaces and two long serving tables set against the far wall, both of which were stacked high with great tureens of porridge, mountains of toast, and a giant pyramid of sausages and bacon. A gaggle of cooks was rolling dough and frying eggs next to the roaring open fires, and a number of impressive pillars shaped like palm trees stretched all the way up to the vaulted ceiling.
    Angus and Dougal found an empty table and peeled off their weatherproof coats with numb fingers, feeling immensely hungry all of a sudden.
    â€œIf that’s what they make us do on our first day here, we’ll be wrestling polar bears with our bare hands by the end of the week,” Dougal predicted, stabbing a mound of juicy sausages with a fork. “I thought we’d be doing a lot more reading—you know, studying the science of weather and that sort of thing.”
    â€œI’m just glad we didn’t have to wrestle the fog yeti with our bare hands,” said Angus, piling his own plate with bacon and feeling that his first morning as a lightning cub had definitely lived up to his expectations.

   6   
    DANKHART

    A ngus discovered the following morning that he’d been assigned to a lightning catcher in the experimental division by the name of Sparks. Two other trainees would work with them: Dougal Dewsnap and Indigo Midnight, the girl who had saved him from a falling coconut. And it was Indigo who stepped forward briskly and knocked on the door to the experimental division to announce their arrival, before Angus and Dougal had even made it across the marbled floor of the Octagon.
    â€œShe’s a bit enthusiastic, isn’t she?” Dougal said, surprised. “Mind you, that could turn out to be a good thing in this place.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Angus asked, hurriedly scraping a stray blob of marmalade off his new tie.
    â€œWell, with any luck, Indigo might volunteer for anything dangerous, and then we might graduate with all our limbs intact. It’s odd, though. I’ve got a feeling I know her from somewhere.” Dougal frowned, staring at Indigo as she hovered by the door. “I recognized her name as soon as I heard it yesterday, I just can’t remember why. . . .”
    At that moment, a harassed-looking lightning catcher answered the door with what appeared to be a tall copper funnel strapped to the top of his head.
    â€œYes, what is it?”
    â€œEr.” Angus faltered, trying hard not to stare at the funnel. “We’re supposed to come and find Catcher Sparks. We’re the new lightning cubs.”
    â€œNames?”
    â€œDougal Dewsnap, Indigo Midnight, and Angus Doomsbury,” said Angus, still feeling self-conscious about his false name and flushing as he said it.
    The lightning catcher’s eyes, however, had fallen on Dougal, and they narrowed instantly with suspicion.
    â€œOh, it’s you again, is it?” he said in a haughty tone.