Spirit Animals_Fall of the Beasts_Immortal Guardians by Eliot Schrefer

Author:Eliot Schrefer [Schrefer, Eliot]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, animals, General, Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9780545830003
Google: 1mdzBgAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0545830001
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-08-11T04:00:00+00:00

When the hunters returned, Abeke, Anda, Uraza, and Tellun himself were quietly waiting at the edge of the camp. They watched the dust cloud gradually settle as the hunters brought their horses to a halt.

“Abeke!” Rollan said as he struggled to dismount from his horse, then struggled even harder to extract his foot from the stirrup. “I wish you had been with us. Apparently I’ve already lost all my saddle callouses—ouch—but I used a bow! And I wasn’t half bad. I mean I wasn’t Abeke-level or anything, but …”

Rollan’s eyes widened, and he went pale. Just like Abeke, he, too, dropped to his knees when he realized he was in the presence of Tellun.

The noble elk maintained his serene gaze, but Abeke suspected she saw a wink in his eyes.

Aynar dismounted and approached, arm in arm with a tall, severe-looking man. He had his hair in a long braid, like Anda’s, but his was striped with gray. If his face had ever had any of Anda’s gentleness, it had lost it long ago. Abeke sensed she was seeing the boy’s father.

“I see our guests have met Tellun,” Aynar said. Beside her, Anda’s father watched the elk warily.

“The Great Beasts have returned to Erdas,” Abeke said. “Your son has had a tremendous honor come to him.”

“The type of honor that also destroys all of our tribe’s privacy,” Anda’s father muttered.

Abeke frowned. She remembered her own bonding ceremony, when she’d summoned Uraza—the leopard had brought a deluge of life-giving rain to her parched village. At the time, Abeke had thought she’d become her village’s new Rain Dancer. Her father had responded to that news with surprising skepticism. Though she and her family had worked through their differences, Abeke watched a similar defensiveness settle into Anda’s father’s features. Because of what she’d been through with her own family, though, she understood it: He wanted to believe all of this was impossible, so the tribe’s life could remain the way it had always been.

While the other hunters dismounted, silent with reverence, Aynar inspected Abeke’s wound. “I never would have thought that you’d be standing, much less walking around, by the time we came back. Anda, your skills have improved so much, my son.”

Abeke ran a hand over the bandage on the back of her neck. “I can barely feel any pain. It’s amazing. I hope Anda gets to meet Jhi someday. They could learn a lot from each other.”

“They could gossip in the women’s tent and sip herbal teas together,” Anda’s father said.

Rollan cut him a severe look. “A talented healer can turn the tide of a military campaign far more effectively than even the strongest warrior. I’ve seen it happen.”

Anda’s father shook his head curtly and tightened the strap of his quiver with a savage jerk. “Do not pretend to educate me on battle. You should know your place—maybe children rule in Greenhaven, but not here.”

“There are more important concerns for us to talk about,” Abeke said, stepping between the two. “A man named Zerif is on the loose, hunting down the Great Beasts as they return to the world.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.