Rain Forest Rose Read Free Page A

awkward riding a horse at any gait. It would be bad news if Navigator stepped into a hole that deep.
    â€œI’ll watch the ground,” Darby promised.
    â€œYou watch the space between your horses’ ears,”Jonah corrected. “He’ll keep watch of the ground.” Jonah looked over his shoulder as Hoku shied at a swooping yellow bird.
    When Hoku felt his eyes on her, she flattened her ears.
    She pays such close attention, Darby thought. Even a beginner like me should be able to teach her.
    Jonah squinted toward the rain forest ahead. “I wouldn’t let you go out here if I thought there was any danger. Much safer than crossing a street in Pacific Pinnacles.” He pronounced the name of Darby’s hometown in California in a pointed way. “You won’t get run down by some movie star’s limousine.”
    â€œIt’s not that kind of a neighborhood—” Darby began, but Jonah cut her off.
    â€œJust stay back, out of their way, and they’ll leave you be. Don’t let that filly go after one, either.”
    â€œWould a horse chase a pig?” she asked incredulously.
    â€œIt’s in her nature to protect you.”
    â€œI thought you said she hadn’t forgiven me for trying to tame her,” Darby said.
    â€œAll animals are walking contradictions. Horses and humans are born that way. Fierce and gentle. Wild and protective. Not many have the brains to back up their actions.” Jonah studied Hoku. When the filly snorted, one side of Jonah’s black mustache lifted with his smile. “That’s why they need us.”
    â€œI think she knows more about the wild than—”
    â€œNo.” Jonah halted Kona across the path and pointed his index finger at Darby as she stopped Navigator. “You know more, and this is why you’re going out here.” He shook the finger three or four times, then drew a deep breath, and when he talked again, the irritation in his voice had faded.
    â€œRemember I told you about mana ?” Jonah asked.
    Darby remembered when Jonah had made the strong stallion Luna behave for the farrier, just by sheer force of will. Jonah had said that was mana versus mana, but it hadn’t meant much more to her than any of his other Hawaiian teachings. She was interested, of course, but he expected her to keep track of so much.
    Still, Darby nodded.
    â€œWell, there are two kinds of mana. One’s your own power, a strength of spirit you’re born with. The other mana is what you’ve learned from the mouths of others.”
    Jonah let her mull that over for a few seconds before he asked, “Which mana is stronger in you?”
    Self-conscious and not really sure what he wanted from her, Darby shrugged her shoulders up until they almost touched her earlobes. Her mother had once told her she looked like a turtle withdrawing into its shell when she did that. Now, that’s how she felt.
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œThe learning from others—you’re good at that, and you know it,” he said.
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œAnd you’re particular about who you believe. That’s good,” Jonah said, and then he glanced down at her wrist. “But that ancient necklace you found. No one told you it had power, and yet you sensed it.”
    â€œI only wore it as a good-luck charm,” Darby protested.
    â€œAnd once you learned it belonged in the ali’i ’s cave, how did you feel?”
    â€œI wanted to put it back—”
    â€œBecause you felt superstitious? Or you were afraid you’d get in trouble?” Jonah asked her.
    â€œNo! Because it was the right thing to do.”
    â€œThat’s your own mana,” Jonah said, as if it was obvious. “Like the way you bonded with the filly.”
    Darby opened her mouth to remind him, again, that he thought the filly still held a grudge.
    â€œWho does that, Darby? Lies down in the snow with a wild