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Page 57

| Chapter Four |

| THE OUTBACK |

| Twilight had drained out of the western sky, which slowly changed from light orange to deep red, and finally to gray. The trees were filled with the thumping, scrabbling, and chittering of nocturnal creatures. Sugar-gliders with wide, furry airfoils slung between their fore and hind feet parachuted from tree to tree in wobbly swoops. Camouflaged against the fleshy, gray burl of a eucalyptus tree, a koala sprawled sedately, slumbering trustingly in one of the forks of the tree. |

| A campfire beside a serene river close to these trees cast its fluttering light on Sasha as she was sullenly eating from a tin plate of sinewy kangaroo stew and bread. The excitement of the journey had waned with each mile she had traveled along rough track cut by hand through the gum-tree |

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