Hidden Power Read Free Page B

noted, than what she was bringing out of the store with her. Still, with what she still had in her closet back home, and a few minutes each morning, she could make the new clothes last another season, maybe more.
    “Say hello to your father for me,” the old woman said as Aurora opened the door to leave.
    “That reminds me,” Aurora said, turning around with the drawstring bag of clothes slung over her left shoulder. “My father said an old friend of his, Lutheran, moved into the area recently. A craftsman, he was hoping this man might help him build an addition to our barn. Might you have heard of him?”
    The old woman’s eyes lit up. “It just so happens,” said Madame Grimelda, “he was in here not three days ago, bartering a whole bag of fresh-shorn cotton from his Bleaters for a leather tool apron.”
    Aurora was ecstatic. New clothes and Lutheran’s address? Her father would be ecstatic! “Can you tell me where he lives?” she gushed, leaning in for the answer. 
    The old woman wrinkled her nose. “He said he’d bought the old Corinthian farmstead, out past Wandering Woods. Do you recall where that is?”
    Aurora nodded tentatively, not looking forward to the journey. “The one past the Crystal Waterfall?”
    “That’s the one!”

3

    Wandering Woods was a dark and twisted place, with gnarled trees that shut out the daylight and strange, exotic animals that made even stranger sounds as they hid among the dark and gnarled trees. A giant Hooter with four wings watched her from a high branch, yellow eyes gleaming in the sudden darkness.
    Boer was hinky, treading lightly with his six thick hooves as Aurora guided him on by tugging gently on his braided mane. “There boy,” she said, “just a little farther.” 
    But even she blanched at the lie; it was many miles to the Crystal Falls, and all of them through the Wandering Woods. “Trust me,” she added in a wavering voice, “I don’t want to be in here any longer than you do!”
    Soon the path grew too thick for Boer to navigate alone and she reined him in, slipping from his saddle to plant her feet on the soft, misty ground. She slid a long blade from her saddle sheath and cautiously led the nervous steed by the guide rope, hacking away thick, gnarled, thorny branches in advance of their faltering progress.
    A light mist seemed to ooze from the moss covered ground, covering their feet up to the knees and making Aurora tighten the collar of her new school jacket. It was pretty, but stiff and far from warm, a jacket made to look good, not feel good. 
    She cursed herself for making such an unwise choice in clothing, but warmed herself with the thought of impressing Conner Griffith on the first day back to Learning.
    Aurora tucked a strand of raven-black hair behind one ear and narrowed her eyes, wishing she’d thought to bring a lantern. Then again, it was bright daylight above and beyond the forest. It was only inside the sheltering trees and thick, black leaves of the Wandering Wood that night seemed to have fallen, despite the early hour.
    A branch creaked, there, to the left. No, to the right? Aurora held the blade higher as Boer’s nostrils flared with alarm. The four-winged owl hooted, as did several of his neighbors on neighboring branches, big yellow eyes glowing in the dark.
    More leaves rustled in the high, dark brush. It was more than just her imagination playing tricks on her; something was coming. Fast. The leaves rustled, the bushes shook and Aurora let out a little shriek as they parted to reveal a Nayer, an animal about half the size of a Steed and with only four legs.
    Its eyes were big, its gray lips peeled back to reveal big, yellow teeth. It was heading straight for Aurora, trotting along on its little gray legs, barreling right at her.
    “Whoa!” she shouted, waving the blade in front of her to slow the little Nayer’s progress. “Whoa, boy!” The Nayer slowed to a trot, head whipping around as if something might be