The Thieving Collectors of Fine Childrens Books by Adam Perry

Author:Adam Perry [Perry, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yellow Jacket
Published: 2021-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Blumpf!

Oliver crouched as he ran, staying in the shadows along the edge of the forest as he approached the wooden Loosely Rendered Town of the mountain people. The closer he got, the bigger it all seemed—tall and complicated and fraught with danger.

“Wait for me,” Oliver hissed, following Cora and Jack into a small dirt ditch surrounded by felled branches and leaves. From here, they could see the feeding troughs stacked in a line under the grain storage structure. Bugs flew over the dark and slimy water, and brown pigs lay in the mud, little more than smudges of pink at this distance.

They scanned the area for any mountain people, but none were near. Nasty flew high overhead and squawked once to confirm.

“Let’s go,” Jack whispered.

They stood and ran to the animals, hopping over the short fence and tucking themselves into a corner of the pen. To the side, kids played and squealed, and they could hear loud songs and shouts from the tavern high above them.

Oliver’s heart beat in his chest. He closed his eyes to calm himself. When he opened them, everything seemed a bit clearer, and he could now see the knots in the wood and the splatter pattern of mud.

Another single squawk sounded above, quieter this time.

“The storage structure’s empty,” Cora said, wrapping her hands around the ladder and beginning to climb, her black hair whipping her back like the tail of a wolf. “Let’s go.”

Another squawk sounded.

“Stop,” Jack said. “Was that a second squawk?”

“No, I think that was a single squawk again. Your bird is very impatient, Oliver.”

She was halfway to the top now, taking the ladder three rungs at a time.

“Maybe we should wait,” Oliver said. “I think Nasty’s trying to warn us of something.”

“He could be right,” Jack said, but his sister wouldn’t listen.

Cora reached the top of the ladder and pushed her hand against a rectangular trapdoor, crawling through and waving at them to follow.

Jack and Oliver scaled the ladder, moving as fast as they could and pulling themselves up through the trapdoor and into the room. Around the edges of the circular structure were mounds of hay and grain, piled up to the ceiling.

A psst sound came from a small window near the ceiling. Nasty was flapping outside, furiously bobbing his head in the direction of the door and the rope bridge.

“I squawked twice,” he whispered.

“There was a pause between them,” Cora said.

“It was a bit confusing,” Oliver said.

“Oh for heaven’s sake! Look!”

Oliver cracked open the door of the storage structure and saw an enormous person approaching. The rope bridge swayed with the motion, groaning under the weight.

“Someone’s coming,” he whispered.

There was a bang on the door that nearly knocked him over, followed by a confused grunt. Oliver pressed his back hard against the door, bracing for another impact.

“We have to hide,” Jack said. He dove into a pile of grain, sinking down until only a tuft of hair was visible.

Cora tiptoed around the room, looking for something to use as a weapon.

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.