Stone Voice Rising by C Lee Tocci

Author:C Lee Tocci [Tocci, C Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780978653071
Publisher: Laurel Canyon Publishing
Published: 2014-06-25T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty Three

Retreat from Tai-Kwee

Dusk was settling on the orchard when Todd woke again. He didn’t feel all that refreshed, but at least the dread of his dream had faded.

Marla was already awake. She sat with her back against the trunk of an orange tree, a small smile on her face, her lips moving faintly in silent conversation. Todd sighed as he rubbed his eyes. Evidently, Ulex was back on line.

The others slept, still recovering from their escape from the Nether Rock.

“Up!” Todd nudged Jeff with his foot who grumbled and rolled over.

Todd sat up and yawned. Stretching his arms above his head, he cracked his fingers against a low hanging branch.

“Ow!” He rubbed his knuckles grouchily and crawled out from their bower.

One by one, they emerged from under the tree. Lilibit wouldn’t rouse so Todd dragged her out by one of her feet. She mumbled sleepily but did not wake, lying on the leaves where Todd left her. Shaking his head, he reached back under the branches to grab her knapsack.

“For the love of crows, Lilibit!” exclaimed Todd. “What have you got in there?”

That woke her. With a swift stab, she snatched her bag from Todd’s grasp.

“Just my stones,” she muttered.

“That’s got to weigh twenty pounds!” Todd cried. “You’ll break your back!”

“They’re not heavy.” She pulled her chin up. “I can carry them.”

Todd watched as Lilibit shouldered her bag as easily as if it was full of tennis balls. Lilibit glared up at him defiantly. Todd just shook his head.

They sat down to a breakfast of oranges and brown bread.

“Ulex says they stopped the invasion, but that many of his people were killed,” Marla told them while peeling an orange.

Marla had been giving them updates from Ulex with tedious regularity.

“Ulex says there were other Overworlders down there during the battle,” she added. “Ulex says...”

“Oh, will you shut up about Ulex already!” Jeff snapped. “If I hear ‘Ulex says’ one more time, I’m gonna vomit!”

Marla glared at Jeff. She looked over at Todd who was suddenly fascinated by the laces on his sneakers. He knew Marla expected him to back her up, but the truth was he agreed with Jeff. He was sick of hearing about Ulex.

They finished their meal in a moody silence, watching the sun set and the horizon turn dark purple. They filled their knapsacks with oranges and then set out, walking between the rows of citrus trees, masked by the overhanging branches and the cloud-obscured moonlight.

They’d been walking less than a hour through the trees when Lilibit started an orange throwing fight with Devon. As expected, Nita immediately rushed to Devon’s defense and it didn’t take more than a few minutes for Donny and Jeff to join in.

Todd shook his head with amazement. He was barely able to keep walking but the others were diving in out of the orange trees, ambushing each other. Since there were no homes in sight, Todd wasn’t worried when Nita released a high-pitched squeal when Jeff beaned her from behind.

When

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.